Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
Turkey scouted at least three air bases in central Syria where it could deploy forces as part of a planned joint defense pact with the country’s Islamist-led interim government before Israel hit the sites, Reuters reported on April 4, citing four people familiar with the matter.
A regional intelligence official, Two Syrian military sources and another Syrian source familiar with the matter told the news agency that Turkish military teams visited the T4 and Palmyra air bases in eastern Homs countryside, as well as a military airport in the western countryside of the Hama in recent weeks.
Turkish teams evaluated the state of the runways, hangars and other infrastructure at the bases, the regional intelligence official said.
The T4 and Palmyra were hit by Israeli strikes on March 21 and 25. Later on April 2, a more extensive aerial attack targeted Hama, with some strikes hitting T4.
Another planned visit to T4 and Palmyra on March 25 was cancelled after the Israeli attack, according to the regional intelligence official and the two Syrian military sources.
The intelligence official, who reviewed photographs of the damage, told Reuters that the strikes “destroyed the runway, tower, hangars and the planes that were grounded. It was a tough message that Israel won’t accept the expanded Turkish presence.”
“T4 is totally unusable now,” the news agency quotes a fourth Syrian source, who is close to Turkey.
Following the latest wave of Israeli strikes, unverified reports said that Turkish engineers were among four killed in Hama military airport.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called the air strikes a warning that “we will not allow the security of the State of Israel to be harmed.” Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Ankara of seeking a “Turkish protectorate” in Syria.
A recent report by the Middle East Eye revealed Turkish plans to deploy air defenses and combat drones at the targeted air bases.
Following the release of Reuters’ report, an Israeli official told Hebrew media that the country was ready for a confrontation with Turkey in Syria.
“We are not looking for conflict with Turkey. And we hope they’re not looking for a fight with us,” the Times of Israel quotes the official as saying. “At the same time, we don’t want Turkey establishing itself on our borders.”
“Establishing military bases, naval and air bases under Turkish protection is something we want to prevent,” he added, stressing that “there are red lines” for Ankara.
While Israel and Turkey could reach an understanding on Syria, a wider confrontation between the two remains very likely. The country’s interim government remains the weakest link, unable to say no to Turkey, which helped put it in power, or fight Israel.
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i hope the aliens bomb israel ahead of their landing…
with you there, but debatable. they may be from their own planet.
turkey better adapt their drones and defense systems because they are going to need to reassert themselves lest they be taken for fools, which they are not.
those bastards deserve all they get, i hope the israelis and turks murder each other because they are fighting to control another country syria that doesn’t belong to them.
the fog of war is great . israel will never be happy .
israel dug its own grave by overthrowing assad by israel. the only chance for israel to survive would be if netanyahu built a berlin wall through damascus and then idlib would be the capital of syria, like bonn was the capital of germany.
the greater israel project offers stability only through genocide . they will allow slavery , only when the zios will be the benefactor . remember they’re not happy unless your not happy .
the syrians seem to have the choice between ottomans and jews to be their masters.
poor little israel, eternal bombings, eternal victimhood, eternal imbreeding is in their future. until they cease to exist. 77 years of doing everything wrong. they are today no closer to peace as in 1948
it was a tough message that the rat finks would not accept blah blah blah. of course, ‘unverified reports’ ( lying jewspeak) that turk engineers were murdered. jewspeak gets a lot of credit these days that is downright questionable. jewspeak and yank bloviating. bring on the iranian war and the verbal ocean of shit that will go with it.
planners for removal of assad re fighting.erdogan this is not putin whom you fool around with grain lies and pipeline lies and shoot down russian jets.
hitler blood line netanyahu and offspring of british combine are greedy if he cant own no one will get anything.exactly like france and britain
emergent whites got own white only town orania,sothoes own lesotho.swazis own swaziland.what about khoisan and offspring colords.what bout zululand whom british wipe out in twenty million.
if netanyahu does not cut syria in half, israel will pay dearly for netanyahu’s scheming with killary clinton.
only the uae in us would perhaps defend israel from an attack by jolani and erdogan. in their madness, obama, biden, clinton and netanyahu removed the only obstacle preventing turkey from destroying israel. trump will sell f-35s to turkey so that israel will be destroyed sooner.
better if turkey can and will acquire the syrian airbases where from attacks on the jews in palestine can be conducted to the point where the scum, the jews, are all gone and used as landfill by turkey and iran and the whole lot in the me. most people, the non-jews, in the me hate the jews and wish them 10 feet under pushing up daisies!,
the only way for israeli women and girls not to will sold in the market in ankara is for netanyahu to build a berlin wall in the middle of damascus and across all of syria.
seeing your therapist regularly, i hope