Israel did not warn Washington before it struck an air base in northern Syria, the US has claimed.
Israeli troops launched air strikes against the Abu al-Duhur air base, around 185 miles from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, this week.
Tom Barrack, Washington’s special envoy to Syria and a close ally of Donald Trump, said the US was not told of the strike despite fears of an escalation with Turkey, a Nato ally.
Mr Barrack, who also serves as ambassador to Turkey, warned that Israel may have been “baiting the Turks” into a military confrontation with its attack.
It marks the latest point of tension in the relationship between the US and Israel, which has been strained by the Iran war, now close to its sixth month.
Tom Barrack, Washington’s special envoy to Syria and the US ambassador to Turkey, said the US was not told of the strike – Umit Bektas/REUTERS
Mr Barrack suggested Israel may have acquired flawed intelligence that Turkey was seeking to move military assets to Abu al-Duhur air base on Tuesday.
“We know that was not the case,” Mr Barrack told Mario Afwal, a podcast host.
“What they didn’t do is tell us or Turkey” about the plan to bomb the headquarters, Mr Barrack said. The attack is said to have caused damage but not resulted in any casualties.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office claimed the base was attacked because Syria was “on the verge of breaching” an agreement not to allow the deployment of Turkish troops.
Israel Katz, the Israeli defence minister, claimed that senior members of the Syrian government had been alerted. He did not explicitly say the US had been warned of the strike, but that the “relevant authorities” received “intelligence reports”.
A Turkish delegation had visited the air base, in the north-western province of Idlib, a day before the air strike to review reconstruction work, Syrian officials said – Omar Albam/AP
While Israel normally provides the US advance warning of strikes where its forces or interests could be affected, US officials previously said they were not informed of an attack on Hamas leaders in Doha in September, or a strike targeting Hezbollah in November.
Mr Trump also claimed he was unaware of an Israeli strike on Iran’s South Pars gas field in March, although that was later contradicted by US officials.
A Turkish delegation had visited the air base, in the north-western province of Idlib, a day before the air strike to review reconstruction work, Syrian officials told the Associated Press.
Israel had raised concerns about Turkish military activity at the air base days before the attack, but the US concluded that it was “not happening”, Mr Barrack said.
“The unintended consequence of a mistake could be really consequential,” he warned.
Outlining how close Israel and Turkey had come to direct confrontation, he said: “When they [the Turkish military] see these jets coming towards the border and they don’t know what the purpose, direction or intention is, they start to say ‘We’re going to have to scramble our own’.”
This was a “dangerous game” considering Ankara shot down a Russian jet near the Turkish-Syrian border in 2015, Mr Barrack warned.
The strike could also have been the result of “miscommunication” between the top levels of the Israeli government, or a “well-received pre-election concept”, he said.
Mr Barrack appeared to be suggesting that Mr Netanyahu, trying to cling to power, may have engineered the strike to curry favour with voters in Israel.
On Aug 9, the Israeli prime minister rejected Mr Trump’s peace deal in Gaza, suggesting it would turn the enclave into “Hamastan“.
The runways at the the Abu al-Duhur air base were left unusable after the Israeli strikes this week – Pleiades Neo © Airbus DS 2026/via REUTERS
Commentators suggested he was wary of withdrawing from the enclave for the damage it would do to his standing among voters, and was prepared to risk a breach with the president.
Mr Netanyahu has also defied Mr Trump in Lebanon, which Israel has continued bombing despite the US president seeking to mediate a ceasefire and telling him he was “prohibited” from doing so.
The Israeli prime minister is facing a strong challenge in the general election in October from Gadi Eisenkot, a former top general.
Turkey has been supporting Syria’s effort to rebuild its armed forces, and signed a military cooperation agreement last year.
Israel, which carried out hundreds of air strikes around Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in late 2024, remains suspicious of Damascus, which is led by former Islamist insurgents.
It continues to occupy a US-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria it seized following the fall of Assad.