UPDATE: According to local sources, a major part of the airbase was destroyed in explosions. The reason is still unknown.
On May 18, more than five large explosions rocked the Hama airbase, west of the city of Hama, the Syrian pro-government Hama News Network reported. The source revelaed that several ammo depots in the airbase had exploded for unknown reasons.
Some Syrian pro-government sources said that poorly stored ammunition in Hama airbase had exploded as result of a heat wave that’s hitting central Syria. Other sources claimed that a poorly controlled explosion of dozens of IEDs, captured from militants, led to the explosion of all the ammo depots in the airbase.
Local observers didn’t rule out the possibility of an Israeli airstrike, especially that Israel had targeted similar ammo depots in the eastern Hama countryside on April 29. Another possibility is that Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) or the Free Syrian Army (FSA) targeted Hama airbase with grad rockets, as they do on a regular basis.
The Syrian state TV confirmed that several explosions occurred in Hama airbase. However, no further information was provided.
