Syria accuses Israel of striking military air base

Syria accused Israel of striking a disused military air base in the country's northwest on Tuesday, with a Syria war monitor saying the attack came after a visit to the site by a Turkish delegation.

Israel has been carrying out incursions into Syrian territory since the December 2024 overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, including sending troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights since 1974.

It has also hit key military sites including several airfields, according to a Syria war monitor.

"Israeli occupation aircraft early this morning targeted the runway... with eight strikes," Syrian state television quoted an unidentified military source as saying.

It added that "the attack resulted in material damage to the airport's infrastructure, without causing casualties".

The facility has been out of service since 2012 and is currently protected by Syrian defence ministry forces, a security source told AFP, without immediately reporting casualties.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, the strikes came after "a visit by a Turkish military delegation to the airfield in recent days as part of efforts to reactivate it".

Turkey is a key ally of the new authorities.

No side has claimed the strikes on the airfield.

The Israeli military said "no comment" in response to an AFP inquiry about the strikes.

A US-led international coalition against the Islamic State group has previously carried out strikes on senior jihadist figures in the northwest.

Syria is now part of the coalition.

- 'Violations' -

Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on Syria since the fall of Assad and Israeli officials have said they intend to keep forces in a "security zone" in southern Syria, where they seek a broader demilitarised zone.

Damascus has repeatedly condemned incursions in the country's south.

During a joint press conference with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Damascus last month, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa called for an "active French role" to halt Israeli escalations in his country.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani also last month condemned "the continuation of Israeli military actions" and warned that "the unlawful occupation of our land beyond the 1974 line is a direct threat to the security of the region".

He demanded an "immediate and unconditional withdrawal".

But last week Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said that his country planned to keep troops in Syria.

Israel captured most of the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and later annexed the areas under its control, in a move not recognised by most of the international community.

The incursions have been condemned by the United Nations chief as "violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity".

Despite tensions between the neighbours, Israel and Syria's new authorities have held several rounds of direct talks and have agreed to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in June denied that his country sought to intervene militarily in Lebanon where Israel and Hezbollah are at war, after US President Donald Trump suggested Damascus could get involved.

Hezbollah fought alongside longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in the country's civil war, making Sharaa and the new authorities who toppled the former leader in 2024 deeply hostile to the group.

Syria's war shattered the country's infrastructure and pushed millions of people to flee internally and abroad.