Kuweires Military Aviation Institute

Kuweires Military Aviation Institute


الكلية الجوية العسكرية في كويرس
Satellite imagery of Kuweires air base
Summary
Airport typeMilitary aviation institute
OwnerSyrian Armed Forces
OperatorSyrian opposition Syrian Interim Government[1]
LocationKuweires Sharqi, Aleppo Governorate
Built1980
Coordinates36°11′13″N 37°34′59″E / 36.18694°N 37.58306°E / 36.18694; 37.58306
Map
Kuweires Air Base is located in Syria
Kuweires Air Base
Kuweires Air Base
Location in Syria
Map
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
10/28 8,300 (est.) 2,500 (est.) Concrete
NASA FIRMS's measure tool shows the runway to be 2.50 km

Kuweires Military Aviation Institute (Arabic: الكلية الجوية العسكرية في كويرس) is an airbase and military aviation institute in Aleppo Governorate, Syria. It is situated some 30 km east of the city of Aleppo,[2] to the northeast of Kuweires Sharqi village, between As-Safira in the West and Dayr Hafir in the East.

The base was constructed with Polish support in the late 1960s as the primary base of the Syrian air force academy.[2] The base is home to the Military Aviation Institute (originally opened in Damascus in 1947) of the Syrian Arab Air Force since 1980. The Military Aviation Institute was renovated between 2017 and 2021. Institute was reopened in 2021.[3]

Siege during the Syrian civil war

See also: Kuweires offensive

Kuweires base, red dashed line = base limits, buildings in black, aircraft shelters in red, defense lines during siege in orange

Kuweires Airbase was defended mostly by cadets when it fell under siege by rebels in 2013. Rebel forces surrounded Kuweiris for more than a year but did not overrun it. As rebel infighting with ISIS intensified, ISIS took control of the siege around late 2013. ISIS besieged the airbase for two years, deploying heavy weapons and armoured vehicles like suicide tank VBIEDs. ISIS negotiators called up officers on the phone and urged them to surrender and shelled the base with leaflets promising safe passage, but no one defected.[4] Twice ISIS breached the perimeter of the airbase, even reaching as far as the hardened aircraft shelters where the defenders lived, but could not capture it.[4]

Colonel Suhayl al-Hasan and his Tiger Forces finally broke the siege on 10 November 2015, as part of the Kuweires offensive. Only 300 of 1,100 soldiers survived the siege.[4][5]

The Syrian government repaired the base immediately after lifting the siege, deploying a squadron of Aero L-39 Albatros fighter-bombers together with a Buk M1 surface-to-air missile system, operated by a combined Russian and Syrian crew, to defend the base.[2]

On 25 July 2024, GUR forces attacked Russian forces at the Kuweires airbase in Syria, destroying an Electronic Warfare station.[6] Later that year, on 30 November, the Syrian National Army secured the airbase during the Operation Dawn of Freedom.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ "More than 200,000 Syrians trapped in Operation "Dawn of Freedom"... Communications cut off in northern Aleppo countryside and fears of massacres against Kurdish citizens" (in Arabic). SOHR. 1 December 2024. Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Cooper, Tom. "Syria's Rebels: Turkey Won, and Lost, the Race to Al Bab". War Is Boring. Retrieved 6 March 2017.[permanent dead link‍]
  3. ^ "After years of absence, Syria's jet training kicks off again". scramble.nl. 3 July 2021. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  4. ^ a b c "Inside the Syria air base that held out against Isis for three years". Independent.co.uk. 3 July 2016.
  5. ^ "Iran sends fighters to Syria, escalating its involvement - US News". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  6. ^ "Ukraine's special forces hit Russian base in Syria - media". ukrinform. 31 July 2024. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  7. ^ "Syrian rebels capture majority of Aleppo as Russia's forces abandon bases". Yahoo. 2024-11-30.