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 the ...

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 ( ar, منق, also spelled Manaq or Manq) is a town near Azaz 16 km North of Aleppo in northwestern Aleppo Governorate of northern Syria. Administratively part of Nahiya Azaz, Manaq had a population of 2,128 in the 2004 census. Nearby ...

. 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 t ...

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 Comed ...

in the Syrian Civil War's

Battle of Aleppo A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

. 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 The al-Tawhid Brigade ( ar-at, لواء التوحيد, Liwa al-Tawhid, lit=Brigade of monothiesim), named after Tawhid, the "oneness of God," but often mistranslated as Unity Brigade, was an armed Islamist insurgent group involved in the Syria ...

) 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