Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
The T4 Air Base, also known as Tiyas, was largely destroyed as a result of the March 21 Israeli aerial attack on central Syria, new satellite images show.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said at the time that the attack targeted “remaining strategic military capabilities” of the Assad regime in the T4 and another military airport located near the ancient city of Palmyra in the eastern Homs countryside. Footage released by the military showed only a few of the strikes that hit the two air bases.
The T4 is Syria’s largest air base. It used to host at least four formations of the Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF), the inactive 1st and 5th Squadrons which operated MiG-25PD/PU/RB interceptor and reconnaissance fighter jets, as well as the 827th Squadron that operated Su-22M4 fighter bombers and the 819th Squadron that operated the more capable Su-24MK2 fighter bombers.
Satellite images shared by Obretix, a defense observer on the X social network, on March 23 revealed that the T4 received at least 16 hits.
At least 11 of the air base’s hardened aircraft shelters were destroyed or damaged. The runway and its main taxiway also took damage in at least four different points, which rendered them out of service. The remaining strikes targeted ammunition depots in the heart of the base.
Video footage posted to social media revealed earlier that at least one of the SyAAF’s few remaining Su-24MK2 was destroyed by the strikes.
Unverified reports also said that at least one abandoned Pantsir-S1 short-range air defense system of the Syrian Arab Air Defence Force was hit and destroyed in the T4.
In addition to these heavy material losses, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 12 fighters of Syria’s interim government were wounded in both the T4 and Palmyra air bases.
Following the fall of the Assad regime on December 8, the IDF wiped out most of the SyAAF along with other Syrian advanced military capabilities in an extensive series of strikes dubbed Operation Bashan Arrow. The aerial attack accompanied the Israeli invasion of southern Syria, which saw the IDF taking over the buffer zone adjacent to the occupied Golan Heights.
According to a report by the Long War Journal, Israel destroyed more than a hundred warplanes of the SyAAF in the course of Operation Bashan Arrow, including 60 MiG-23MF/ML/MLD, 30 MiG-29SE/SM/SMT, 10 Su-24MK2 and an entire squadron of Su-22M2/4.
Israeli strikes have very much reduced Syria’s air power to a small fleet of Mi-8/17, Mi-24 and Aérospatiale Gazelle helicopters based in Istamo Helicopter Base in the coastal governorate of Latakia and Mezzeh Air Base near the capital, Damascus.
Some older MiG-21, MiG-23 and L-39 warplanes who survived Operation Bashan Arrow may be in an operation condition. However, with the interim government refusing to return any former SyAAF officers to service, it is highly unlikely that these warplanes will fly again any time soon.
All in all, the IDF’s recent strikes on the remaining assets of the SyAAF, including costly infrastructure like T4 Air Base, indicate that Israel is determined to prevent Syria from rebuilding its aerial capabilities.
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the turkish air force will now have to use syrian civilian airports i suppose.
they won’t do that. no civilians with any brains are going to go to a military target. esp now.
keep up the kylling of the kyllers!
and now wipe out the radical ishlomistst!
the zio regime is sinking steadily into a quagmire of its own making. this will go on for another 20 years, like afghanistan.
because that is how long it took to take the stink of the goat from my mothers cont. it was really full of goat feces and smelly gas coming from her too
interesting with these numbers why did the syrians even need russias little expedition air force to fight al quaida in the first place?
good question. ask that my mothers cont yesterday and what it told me was good and stinked the whole room up like yesterday morning when i ate her downstairs from behind
are you retarded?
zionists are beating a dead horse, these airstrikes against ruins give them no benefit, but i guess since usa is paying for it why not waste us’ taxpayers money.
if by horse beating you talk about my mothers cont you have all the right in uzbeckistan to do that. you pay as you go deeper in her stinkers
… yes, you are retarded
layers wheels within wheels within layers. don’t be superficial simpleton
it is fairly obvious today that israel supported isis/al-qaida to destroy syria entirely, not to enable a “democratic” government to be established.
it was enough obvious the day before yesterday i remember when my mothers cont was there too in the middle of the war zone exploding like chicken poo in the dark but not as smelly from her south pole upwards
the global south, is so weak, that they don’t even bother to defend itself.
you haven’t seen south and the stink from the south of my mother the goats cont that you get what you paid for in the dark
the race war is on.
syria is not part of the global south. where did you come up with such a term? as a term, the global south mainly covers the brics countries. brics, in turn, is the world’s most powerful military power combined. russia+china+india would simply wipe out the rest of the world’s countries in a matter of hours if they wanted to. the nuclear arsenal is significant.
most of the so called global south is in the north . stupid media labels to divide an conquer the weak mind .
we’re kicking the shit out of the sand-apes!!!
amerikunt prefer eat shit
and my mothers cont is full of it too. just go back in and look for your shoes but be careful of the swampy stinkery
your kicking the shit out of yourselves
just like you did in korea, vietnam, iraq, somalia, afghanistan, etc. the us has practically not won anywhere in the long run.
sand ape ? can you post us a picture ?
uncle shlomo pay me 2 shekels to wipe arse.
after he got lucky in my mothers downstairs with the neighbors farm animals
now, that’s a good wrap up for the murdering inbreds. the democratically elected “regime” of syria forked out hard cash over the years to purchase soviet/russian arms by the looks of it. when it came to the crunch though, didn’t help them at all, especially when the interests of the region’s chosenites were at stake. yet to see what happens to these displaced refugees inside this khmeimim base.
in amerikan gay bar my anuz wiped out by several mulattos
ask for my mothers cont and tip her well
jes, jens, jens. aka cleaner upper aka elliot abrams
israel has the right to self-defence! next step: the leveling of all car-washers in damascus.
job weldone
israel is getting ready to steal more syrian land by destroying air force infrastructure so syrians cannot defend themselves. this is how the jewish cowards operate, they do not want victims to fight back and defend themselves
these folks are great at killing women children in tartus, but defending syria from the god killers, well, not so much.
military airports closed to syrian refugees . no un flights to save syrians are to be allowed .