Menagh Military Air Base (or Minnigh airport, Minakh Air Base) ( ar, قَاعِدَة مَطَار مِنِّغ, Qāʿidat Maṭār Minniḡ) is a

Syrian Air Force ) , mascot = , anniversaries = 16 October , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = * 1948 Arab-Israeli War * Six-Day War * Yom Kippur War * ...

installation located south of

Azaz Azaz ( ar, أَعْزَاز, ʾAʿzāz) is a city in northwest Syria, roughly north-northwest of Aleppo. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Azaz had a population of 31,623 in the 2004 census.

Aleppo Governorate Aleppo Governorate ( ar, محافظة حلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥalab'' / ) is one of the fourteen governorates of Syria. It is the most populous governorate in Syria with a population of more than 4,867,000 (2011 Est.), almost 23% of t ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

near the village of Manaq. Menagh Air Base was home to the 4th Flying Training Squadron, equipped with

MBB 223 Flamingo The MBB 223 Flamingo was a light aircraft developed in West Germany in the 1960s in response to a competition for a standard trainer for the country's aeroclubs. Designed by SIAT, it was a conventional low-wing monoplane with fixed tricycle unde ...

trainer aircraft and

Mil Mi-8 The Mil Mi-8 (russian: Ми-8, NATO reporting name: Hip) is a medium twin-turbine helicopter, originally designed by the Soviet Union in the 1960s and introduced into the Soviet Air Force in 1968. It is now produced by Russia. In addition to ...

helicopters.

Syrian Civil War

The air base became a major target of the armed

opposition Opposition may refer to: Arts and media * ''Opposition'' (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars * The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band * '' The Opposition with Jordan Klepper'', a late-night television series on Com ...

in the Syrian Civil War's Battle of Aleppo. The air base was under siege by opposition forces from August 2012 until it fell to the rebels and Islamists (including

ISIL An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

, the

Northern Storm Brigade The Northern Storm Brigade ( ar, لواء عاصفة الشمال, ''Liwā’ ’Āṣifat ash-Shamāl''), also known as the Northern Hurricane Brigade is a Syrian rebel group formed in 2011 and based in Azaz in northwestern Syria, near the borde ...

and Tawhid Brigades) on 6 August 2013. It subsequently fell under control of the

Al Nusra Front Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra ( ar, جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام, Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahl ish-Sham lit. ''Front of the Supporters of the People of Syria/the Levant''), known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ( ar, جبهة فتح ال ...

. On 10 February 2016, the

Syrian Democratic Forces , war = the Syrian Civil War , image = Flag of Syrian Democratic Forces.svgborder , caption = Flag , active = 10 October 2015 – present , ideology = DemocracyDecentralizationSecularism ...

from nearby Afrin captured the airbase, aided by Russian airstrikes.

References

{{Portal bar, Asia, Aviation Syrian Air Force bases Military installations of Syria

Syrian Civil War

See also

References