AQRABA, Syria — Standing some 40 feet from the charred remains of the Syrian air force helicopter, Ahmad Abu Leyl, a young rebel fighter, cocked his ear, listening for the characteristic buzzing of an Israeli drone overhead.
“I don’t want to get closer,” he said. “They might hit this place again if they see we’re near.”
Then he climbed on his motorcycle, gunned the engine and sped away.
It had been a difficult night for Abu Leyl and the small detachment of rebel fighters tasked with protecting the Aqraba military air base just three miles southeast of the edge of the capital, Damascus. They had arrived here early Monday, a day after the Syrian army crumbled — along with the brutally repressive government of Bashar Assad — and the rebels swept into power.
Israel attacks Syrian military arsenals at Aqrabah military airbase
All was calm at first, with Abu Leyl and his fellow rebels doing little more than stopping the occasional trespasser from looting the abandoned barracks and officer’s quarters. Then early Tuesday morning, a series of explosions turned the base’s last functional helicopters — a pair of Soviet-era Mi-8s — into blazing husks.
It was part of a massive, multiday airstrike campaign by Israel that saw its air force and navy hit more than 350 targets across the country since Saturday, destroying an estimated 70% of Syria’s strategic military capabilities, according to the Israeli military.
Syria now searches for a new identity, as Damascus residents face a future without President Bashar Assad.
“There were so many blasts we didn’t sleep,” said Abu Leyl, who gave a nom de guerre because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Only one forlorn-looking Mi-8 remained on the tarmac, but Abu Leyl dismissed it.
“It doesn’t even work,” he said. “I guess that’s why they didn’t bother bombing it.”
Israel is doing everything it can to prevent Syria’s new leaders — Islamists who trace their roots to Al Qaeda but say they have moderated their views — from inheriting the old government’s considerable arsenal. The Israeli military said it targeted Syrian antiaircraft batteries, missile depots, manufacturing facilities, drones, helicopters, fighter jets, tanks, hangars, radars and 15 naval vessels.
The attacks come as Israeli ground forces pushed into the buffer zone separating the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria.
The troops now occupy the Syrian side of Mt. Hermon, a strategic site that affords whoever holds it a view of Damascus. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military was creating “a defensive sterile zone” but did not elaborate on what that meant.
“From here, I warn the rebel leaders in Syria: Those who follow Assad’s path will end like Assad,” he said.
The rebels who toppled Syrian dictator Bashar Assad trace their roots to Al Qaeda and Islamic State. They say they’ve changed.
The moves sparked a wave of opprobrium from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which accused Israel of attacking Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Geir Pedersen, the United Nations special envoy to Syria, also decried Israel’s actions, saying they needed to stop.
The Biden administration, which has done little over the last year to constrain Israel’s military actions in the region, said it hoped the incursions into the Golan Heights were temporary.
“Israel has said that these actions are temporary to defend its borders — these are not permanent actions,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, pointing to the abandonment of border positions by the Syrian army that has left a vacuum.
“And so ultimately, what we want to see is lasting stability between ... Israel and Syria,” he said.
He called on “all sides” to uphold a disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that followed the 1973 Yom Kippur War and that the U.N. says Israel is now violating.
Israel’s attacks are also aimed at preventing Iran from preserving a foothold in Syria.
Under Assad, Syria was part of Iran’s “axis of resistance,” a network of regional governments and paramilitary factions Tehran wielded against the U.S. and Israel. Syria’s territory was used as a logistical passageway for the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which has been at war with Israel since October 2023.
The relationship went both ways, with Hezbollah fighters serving as shock troops that bolstered Assad’s flagging army — an intervention the group justified as protecting Shiite minorities and shrines in Syria from Islamist and jihadi factions in the opposition.
In his first term as president, Trump managed to impose his will on the Middle East. That will be harder this time.
In the last few weeks, Israel has repeatedly hit border crossings between Syria and Lebanon that it said were being used to smuggle weapons for Hezbollah’s arsenal.
Israel’s recent airstrikes have also had an effect on the group’s presence in Syria, pushing many of its leaders and cadres to flee back to Lebanon.
“Hezbollah? They all went home,” said Rabie, a 39-year-old resident near Sayeda Zainab, a Shiite shrine south of Damascus, who gave only his first name. “We woke up this morning and none of them are around.”
In a statement Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel wanted to have “relations” with Syria’s new government.
“But if this regime allows Iran to reestablish itself in Syria, or allows the transfer of Iranian weapons, or weapons of any kind, to Hezbollah, or attacks us — we will respond forcefully and we will exact a heavy price,” he said.
Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington contributed to this report.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
