The Shayrat and Tiyas airbase ambush was an armed attack on Shayrat Airbase and the

Tiyas Military Airbase The Tiyas Military Airbase, also known as the T-4 Air base, is a Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) base located in the Homs Governorate, north of Tiyas, and west of the ancient city of Palmyra, Syria. The Tiyas Military Airbase is the largest airbas ...

in the

Homs Governorate Homs Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة حمص / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥimṣ'') is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in central Syria. Its area differs in various sources, from to . It is thus geographic ...

by the Free Syrian Army on 25 November 2011, during the Syrian Civil War. As the Syrian government had banned foreign journalists from entering the country, the exact location of the attack is unknown, although it was believed to have been at a

military airbase An air base (sometimes referred to as a military air base, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base) is an aerodrome used as a military base by a military force for the operation ...

in Homs Governorate between Homs and

Palmyra Palmyra (; Palmyrene: () ''Tadmor''; ar, تَدْمُر ''Tadmur'') is an ancient city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early secon ...

, possibly at the military airfield at . Ten

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

personnel were killed.

The attack

On the morning of 25 November 2011, members of the Free Syrian Army, composed mostly of regular Syrian army defectors, attacked a bus which was carrying pilots and other air force personnel. ''Scramble.nl'' indicated that possible locations of the attack were the

Shayrat Shayrat ( ar, الشعيرات, ash-Shuʿayrāt, also spelled Sha'irat) is a village in central Syria, administratively part of the Homs Governorate, located southeast of Homs on the western fringes of the Syrian Desert. Nearby localities include ...

and

Tiyas Tiyas ( ar, التياس, also known as al-Safa ar, الصفا) is a village in central Syria, administratively part of the Homs Governorate, east of Homs. It is situated in the Syrian Desert, and the closest localities are Tadmur (Palmyra) to the ...

airbases. Ten Syrian Air Force personnel were killed, including "six elite military pilots", one technical officer and three other base personnel. The Syrian military confirmed that the ambush had taken place. A spokesman on state television said that "an armed terrorist group undertook an evil assassination plot that martyred six pilots, a technical officer and three other personnel on an air force base between Homs and Palmyra." The spokesman vowed revenge and claimed the attack was proof of foreign involvement in the uprising. The Free Syrian Army claimed seven military pilots were killed in the ambush.

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Military operations of the Syrian civil war in 2011 Homs Governorate in the Syrian civil war November 2011 events in Syria Ambushes