AQRABA, Syria — Ahmad Abu Leyl, a young rebel fighter, stood about 12 meters from the charred remains of the Syrian Air Force helicopter, listening to the distinctive buzz of an Israeli drone overhead.
“I don’t want to come any closer,” he said. “They might attack this place again if they see we're close.”
Then he got on his motorcycle, revved the engine and sped away.
It was a difficult night for Abu Leyl and the small detachment of rebel fighters tasked with protecting the Aqraba military air base, just five kilometers southeast of the edge of the capital Damascus. They arrived here early Monday, a day after the Syrian army – along with the brutally repressive government of Bashar al-Assad – collapsed and the rebels came to power.
Israel attacks Syrian military arsenals at Aqrabah military airfield
At first all was quiet, with Abu Leyl and his fellow rebels doing little more than preventing the occasional intruder from looting the abandoned barracks and officers' quarters. Then early Tuesday morning, a series of explosions reduced the base's last operational helicopters – a pair of Soviet-era Mi-8s – to burning husks.
It was part of a massive, multi-day airstrike campaign by Israel in which its air force and navy have struck more than 350 targets across the country since Saturday, destroying an estimated 70% of Syria's strategic military capabilities, according to the Israeli military.
“There were so many explosions that we couldn't sleep,” said Abu Leyl, who gave a nom de guerre because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Only an abandoned-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 in its power 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 struck Syrian anti-aircraft batteries, missile depots, manufacturing facilities, drones, helicopters, fighter jets, tanks, hangars, radars and 15 naval ships.
Rebel forces captured the Mengh air base and the town of Tel Rifaat in the Aleppo area on December 1, 2024, after clashes with the Syrian Democratic Forces and Syrian government forces.
(Rami Alsayed/Getty Images)
The attacks come as Israeli ground forces advance into the buffer zone separating the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria.
The troops now occupy the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, a strategic location that offers a view of Damascus to anyone who holds it. Speaking to reporters on 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: whoever follows Assad's path will end up like Assad,” he said.
The moves sparked a wave of outrage 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 for Syria, also condemned Israel's actions and said they must stop.
The Biden administration, which has done little to curb Israel's military actions in the region over the past year, said it hoped the incursions into the Golan Heights would be temporary.
“Israel has said that these measures are temporary in nature to defend its borders – they are not permanent measures,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, citing the Syrian army’s abandonment of border positions, which creates a vacuum left behind.
“And ultimately we want to see lasting stability between … Israel and Syria,” he said.
A Syrian opposition fighter tears up a painting depicting ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad and his late father Hafez Assad at Aleppo International Airport on December 2, 2024.
(Ghaith Alsayed/Associated Press)
He called on “all sides” to honor a disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that followed the 1973 Yom Kippur War and which the UN says Israel is now violating.
Israel's attacks are also aimed at preventing Iran from gaining a foothold in Syria.
Under Assad, Syria was part of Iran's “Axis of Resistance,” a network of regional governments and paramilitary factions that pitted Tehran against the United States and Israel. The Syrian territory served as a logistics passage for the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which has been at war with Israel since October 2023.
The relationship went both ways: Hezbollah fighters acted as shock troops that bolstered Assad's weakening army – an intervention the group justified as protecting Shiite minorities and shrines in Syria from Islamist and jihadist factions in the opposition.
In recent weeks there have been repeated Israeli attacks on border crossings between Syria and Lebanon, which were allegedly used to smuggle weapons for Hezbollah's arsenal.
Israel's recent airstrikes have also impacted the group's presence in Syria, forcing many of its leaders and cadres to flee back to Lebanon.
Israeli soldiers stand next to a vehicle near the so-called Alpha Line, which separates the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights from Syria, on Dec. 10, 2024.
(Matias Delacroix/Associated Press)
“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 there.”
In a statement on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel wanted to “maintain relations” with the new Syrian government.
“But if this regime allows Iran to re-establish 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 exact a heavy price,” he said.
Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington contributed to this report.