{"id":260065,"date":"2026-08-22T11:02:04","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T11:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/260065\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T11:02:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T11:02:04","slug":"israel-struck-syrian-base-despite-being-told-no-turkish-troops-barrack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/260065\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel struck Syrian base despite being told no Turkish troops: Barrack"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON
\n\"Israel<\/p>\n

Israel<\/a>\u2019s unannounced airstrike on a Syrian airbase near T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s border created a serious risk of military miscalculation between the two countries, U.S. Ambassador to T\u00fcrkiye and special envoy for Syria<\/a> Tom Barrack has said.<\/p>\n

In an interview with PBS NewsHour on Aug. 21, Barrack said Israeli aircraft approached to within about 80 kilometers of T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s border without Ankara receiving advance notice.<\/p>\n

He said Israel had told Washington and Damascus for the preceding five days that it was concerned T\u00fcrkiye might place military personnel or equipment at Abu al-Duhur airbase in northwestern Syria.<\/p>\n

Washington consulted its intelligence agencies, while Syrian officials told Mossad that no Turkish troops, convoy or weapons were at the facility and that no hostile activity was underway, according to Barrack.<\/p>\n

The sides expected the dialogue to continue, but Israel struck the base<\/a> on Aug. 18, damaging its runways.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe attack was unannounced,\u201d Barrack said, adding that \u201cavoiding kinetic interaction or surprises is the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a separate Reuters interview after the strike<\/a>, Barrack said T\u00fcrkiye saw aircraft flying north toward its territory and could \u201creasonably have prepared its own response.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully, calm heads were able to prevent the situation from deteriorating further,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Barrack said Washington understood Israel\u2019s security concerns but had seen no hostile or aggressive move by T\u00fcrkiye or Syria.<\/p>\n

He urged Israel to address its concerns through direct or back-channel talks with Ankara instead of unilateral military action.<\/p>\n

Israel acknowledged the strike after Barrack described it as an \u201cunnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation was intended to prevent a Turkish troop deployment and accused Syria of nearing a breach of what Israel described as a security status quo.<\/p>\n

Both Ankara and Damascus have denied plans to establish a Turkish base or permanent military presence at Abu al-Duhur.<\/p>\n

T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s Defense Ministry said no Turkish military delegation was at the base before or during the attack.<\/p>\n

It also said Ankara would continue supporting Syria\u2019s efforts to rebuild its infrastructure and military capacity under the principle of \u201cone state, one army.\u201d<\/p>\n

T\u00fcrkiye and Syria signed a memorandum on joint military training and consultancy on Aug. 13, 2025.<\/p>\n

Turkish officials have said its implementation covers training, consultancy, technical assistance and reciprocal visits aimed at strengthening Syria\u2019s defense capacity.<\/p>\n

T\u00fcrkiye says its assistance is provided at the request of the Syrian government and is intended to reinforce the country\u2019s unity, territorial integrity and ability to combat terrorism.<\/p>\n

Rhetoric between T\u00fcrkiye and Israel intensified on Aug. 21 after Netanyahu\u2019s office directed accusations to President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan.<\/p>\n

T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s Communications Directorate rejected the remarks as lacking \u201chistorical facts and political seriousness\u201d and accused the Israeli government of portraying T\u00fcrkiye as a threat for electoral gain.<\/p>\n

Barrack said much of the hostile rhetoric was political and noted that Israel was in an election cycle.<\/p>\n

He called for lower tensions and a return to dialogue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON Israel\u2019s unannounced airstrike on a Syrian airbase near T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s border created a serious risk of military miscalculation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[30],"tags":[5288,37,680,95],"class_list":["post-260065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-syria","tag-base","tag-israel","tag-strike","tag-syria"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117138826798607565","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}