The siege of
Menagh Air Base (also spelled ''Menegh'', ''Mannagh'', or ''Minakh'') was an armed confrontation between 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 ...
and aligned
Islamist rebel groups on one hand, and the
Syrian Armed Forces on the other.
Background
After months of conflict and failure on the part of the rebels to overthrow
Bashar al-Assad
Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...
's government, some rebels began to switch tactics to targeting government-held military bases. The Menagh Air Base had been a crucial military base used by
Syrian military aircraft to bomb rebel forces in the north of the country, particularly in
Aleppo
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city.
Siege
2012
The first major rebel assault against the base came in the weeks following the start of the
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 ...
. Rebel fighters from 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 ...
and affiliated groups launched an attack against the air base on 2 August 2012 using a combination of small arms,
rocket-propelled grenades, and five
tank
A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...
s they captured during the
Battle of Anadan
The Battle of Anadan ( ar, معركة عندان) was a ten-hour-long armed confrontation between the rebels of the Free Syrian Army and soldiers of the Syrian Army that occurred when FSA forces attempted to overrun a large army checkpoint in t ...
. The base was used by Syrian Air Force helicopters and jet aircraft to bombard rebel positions, and seizing it was seen as vital to the rebels in their advances across northern Syria.
The initial rebel attack on the base in early August was fought off by government troops entrenched inside the air base's perimeter, though rebel commanders said they would continue the siege and capture the base.
Heavy fighting broke out on the night of 27 December and continued "all night", as rebels once again assaulted the besieged base. MiG warplanes bombed rebel positions on the outskirt of the base in an effort to alleviate some of the pressure on the defenders.
2013
By January 2013, the base still held out against the rebels, despite being besieged on all sides. The remaining defenders were receiving supplies of weapons and food, as well as medical evacuations by helicopter; however, these flights became increasingly risky for pilots as rebel forces gained access to heavy weaponry and fired upon government helicopters. At this point the rebels estimated roughly 300 soldiers remained defending the air base. Soldiers who defected from the base reported that food supplies were a major issue and that soldiers were given rations of dry rice and wheat and told to "make what they can from it". Self-inflicted injuries were also reported as soldiers attempted to get away from the fighting.
[ C. J. Chivers, '']New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', 30 January 2013
The Battle for Syria's Minakh Air Base
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On 8 February, the Syrian Air Force
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* Six-Day War
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bombed parts of the base after rebels stormed it, which forced the rebel fighters to retreat.
A rebel attack was once again repulsed by government troops on 28 April, though rebels did manage to overrun some parts of the base before being forced to withdraw.
On 5 May 2013, as the siege of the base continued and government soldiers still refused to surrender, rebels launched their biggest offensive against the base to date, overrunning several Army positions and moving deep inside the base and capturing a tank, although they came under heavy aerial attack by the Syrian air force. Rebels claimed that a group of pilots defected and assassinated the base's commanding officer. The defecting pilots told rebels that around 200 soldiers remained in the base, garrisoned in the headquarters building supported by a handful of tanks. Many soldiers resorted to sleeping under tanks, fearing a rebel assault.[ C. J. Chivers, '']New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', 15 May 2013
Battlefield Update: The Fight for Isolated Government Outposts in Northern Syria
/ref>
On 9 May 2013, it was reported that, although they managed to capture parts of the Menagh Air Base, rebel forces were forced to retreat from the base due to heavy air strikes.
On 28 May 2013, rebel sources reported that the government conducted a successful airborne resupply mission to the Menagh after several thousand FSA and jihadist
Jihadism is a neologism which is used in reference to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam."Compare: Appearing earlier in the Pakistani and Indian media, Wes ...
rebels moved west to launch an attack on Kurdish fighters of the People's Protection Units
The People's Defense Units (YPG), (YPG) ; ar, وحدات حماية الشعب, Waḥdāt Ḥimāyat aš-Šaʽb) also called People's Protection Units, is a mainly-Kurdish militia in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democra ...
(YPG) in the Afrin region, bringing critical military and logistical supplies to the air base. The Kurdish Front Brigade also withdrew its participation in the siege in order to join forces with the YPG to repel the attack on Afrin.[
On 7 June 2013, rebel forces attacked the air base and fired tank shells at its command building, but were once again repelled. Rebel forces launched another assault on 10 June, and by the next day had managed to secure the control tower after heavy fighting. Government forces responded by shelling rebel held parts of the base. On 17 June, rebels clashed with pro-government fighters from Nubbul and Zahra who were headed for Menagh in an effort to reinforce the soldiers left in the base.
On 23 June 2013 the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that rebels had detonated a large ]car bomb
A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles.
Car bombs can be roughly divided ...
in the government-held area of Menagh, which killed 12 soldiers and destroying many buildings within the airport. The explosion was reportedly followed by missile fire on army positions.Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to:
People
* Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer
* Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian
* Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and m ...
, 23 June 2013
Syrian Rebels’ Car Bomb Explodes Inside Aleppo Airbase
/ref>
Final assault
After ten months of siege warfare, the different rebels groups at Menagh finally decided to coordinate in order to launch a large-scale assault on the base and capture it. Several insurgent militias taking part in this coordinated effort were actually hostile toward each other (for example, 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 ...
had clashed with ISIL as late as July 2013); nevertheless, they put their differences mostly aside for the final attack on Menagh Air Base. The rebels prepared their assault against the base with a three-day long bombardment using artillery, mortars, and machineguns. The attack was carried out on 5 August 2013, led by Abu Omar al-Shishani
Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili ( ka, თარხან ბათირაშვილი; 11 January 1986 – 10 July 2016), known by his '' nom de guerre'' Abu Omar al-Shishani ( ar, أَبُو عُمَرَ ٱلشِّيشَانِيِّ, ...
, a chief commander of the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
(ISIL).Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
, 6 August 2013, ww.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323420604578652250872942058 Islamists Seize Airbase Near Aleppo/ref> By this point, 70BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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government soldiers had remained, holding out in a small section of the complex.
The attack started when two foreign suicide bombers from ISIL's
armored personnel carrier right up to the airport's command center and blew themselves up, destroying the building and killing or scattering the defenders. Despite this, the surviving soldiers continued to offer heavy resistance, as ISIL along with FSA and Islamist forces stormed the base from three sides. By the morning of the next day, however, rebel forces had full control of the airport. In course of the final battle, 32 government soldiers and at least 19 rebels were killed.