The Shayrat and Tiyas airbase ambush was an armed attack on

Shayrat Airbase Shayrat Airbase is home to the Syrian Air Force 50th Air Brigade located in Homs. It has two runways and around 40 hardened aircraft shelters. Squadrons The brigade consists of three fighter squadrons: * 675th Fighter Squadron ( MIG-23s) * 677 ...

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 by the

Free Syrian Army The Free Syrian Army (FSA) ( ar, الجيش السوري الحر, al-jaysh as-Sūrī al-ḥur) is a loose faction in the Syrian Civil War founded on 29 July 2011 by officers of the Syrian Armed Forces with the goal of bringing down the governm ...

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 Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...

and Palmyra, possibly at the military airfield at . Ten Syrian Air Force 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 D ...

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