Mezzeh Air Base (; also spelled ''Mazzeh'') was an

air base An airbase (stylised air base in American English), sometimes referred to as a military airbase, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base, is an aerodrome or airport used as a mi ...

of the former

Syrian Air Force The Syrian Air Force () is the air force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It was established in 1948, and first saw action in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Under Ba'athist Syria until December 8, 2024, it was known as the Syrian Arab Air Forc ...

located in

Mezzeh Mezzeh (, also transcribed as al-Mazzah, el-Mazze, etc.) is a municipality in Damascus, Syria, due west of Kafr Sousa. It lies to the southwest of central Damascus, along the Mazzeh highway (also known as Fayez Mansour). It started gaining imp ...

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

, Syria, south-west of the old centre of Damascus. It had one runway of length, at elevation .globalsecurity.or
Syrian Airfields
/ref> In mid-2013 the airbase was described by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

as "an important strategic installation

hich Ij () is a village in Golabar Rural District of the Central District in Ijrud County, Zanjan province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq ...

plays a significant role in distributing the government's military supplies."

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

reported in mid-2013 that it was "used by Syria's elite

Republican Guard A republican guard, sometimes called a national guard, is a state organization of a country (often a republic, hence the name ''Republican'') which typically serves to protect the head of state and the government, and thus is often synonymous wit ...

Special Forces Special forces or special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

and Air Force Intelligence, ndalso serves as a private airport for the

Assad family The Assad family ruled Syria from 1971, when Hafez al-Assad became president under the Ba'ath Party following the 1970 coup, until Bashar al-Assad was ousted on 8 December 2024. Bashar succeeded his father, Hafez al-Assad, after Hafez's deat ...

, 16 June 2013
Explosion hits military airport in Damascus: activists
/ref> It also said that during the Syrian civil war the base was "used to fire rockets and artillery at rebellious Sunni Muslim neighbourhoods on the edge of the capital." Mezzeh Air Base was also used by the Syrian regime as a jail to imprison opponents during the Syrian civil war. Various inquiries and investigations reported that acts of torture and possible war crimes were committed in the jails of Mezzeh Air Base. NASA FIRMS 2024-11-24 Mezzeh 2

On December 8, 2024, shortly after Damascus fell, it was targeted by Israel airstrikes, most likely to prevent the appropriation of strategic weapons by Syrian rebels, destroying it.

History

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the Mazzeh airfield was a military base for the

Vichy French Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against G ...

air force, which also permitted Germany to use its bases. On 19 May 1941, British aircraft attacked the airfield, destroying some modern

Potez 63 The Potez 630 and its derivatives were a family of twin-engined, multirole aircraft developed for the French Air Force in the late 1930s. The design was a contemporary of the British Bristol Blenheim (which was larger and designed purely as a ...

aircraft as well some older

Potez 25 Potez 25 (also written as Potez XXV) was a French twin-seat, single-engine sesquiplane designed during the 1920s. A light multi-purpose Strike fighter, fighter-bomber, it was designed as a line aircraft and used in a variety of roles, including F ...

biplanes. After Syrian independence in 1946, Mazzeh became a base for the

. "By the end of 1957 the SAF had two operational

MiG-17 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (; NATO reporting name: Fresco) is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 was license-built in China as the Shenyang J-5 an ...

squadrons defending the capital from their base at al-Mezze near Damascus." In 1966 it became also the Defense Companies headquarters.

Attacks

The airbase was subject to an attack that was blamed on

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

by Syrian authorities on January 13, 2017. , before destruction, satellite imagery showed the runway 06/24 to be 2.80 km.

References

{{Portal bar, Asia, Aviation Syrian Air Force bases Prisons in Syria Defunct prisons Torture in Syria Military prisons

History

Attacks

See also

References