Syria group: Russia expanding major Syrian airport

BEIRUT — Russian forces are expanding the tarmac of a major airport in Syria’s coastal province of Latakia, a stronghold of President Bashar Assad and his minority sect, a prominent Syrian monitoring group said Sunday.

The report comes amid rising concern among U.S. officials of increased Russian military activity in Syria. President Barack Obama cast the buildup as an effort to prop up the country’s embattled leader, warning Moscow against doubling down on Assad.

Russia, a longtime backer of Syria’s government, denies it’s trying to bolster Assad and says its increased military activity is part of the international effort to defeat the Islamic State group which has wreaked havoc in Syria and Iraq. On Sunday, the Russian foreign minister called for the international community to include the Syrian government in efforts to fight IS.

A former Lebanese general with knowledge of the Syrian military told The Associated Press last week that there are plans to build a military base in the coastal town of Jableh, about 15 miles south of Latakia city, where the airport currently under development is located. Israeli officials also say the aim appears to be a military base.

The airport, known by its old name Hemeimeem, already houses a military base and has come under shelling from advancing militants in the countryside.

After the Damascus airport, it’s the most important functioning government-controlled airport in Syria. Officially named the Basel al-Assad International airport, after the president’s brother who died in a car accident in 1994, it has one terminal, according to the Syrian Civil Aviation Authority website. The tarmac is currently 3,000 yards long and 49 yards wide.

The head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdurrahman, said witnesses, including officials inside the airport, reported that the tarmac was being expanded, apparently to allow for larger planes.

“It could mean there will be more supplies or that they want to turn it into an international airport,” Abdurrahman said.

Witnesses told the Observatory no Syrian military or civilian officials are allowed near the tarmac. Abdurrahman said there are other plans to develop another rural airport east of Latakia city.

The Observatory relies on a network of activists on the ground to report on the Syrian civil war, now in its fifth year. More than 250,000 people have been killed and nearly half of Syria’s pre-war population of 23 million has been displaced from their homes. About 4 million of them are refugees in neighboring countries.

In an interview with Russian state television aired Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said it was “absurd” for the West to exclude the Syrian armed forces from the fight against the Islamic State group.

He also criticized the West for saying it would welcome a contribution from Russia or any other country only if it did not strengthen Assad’s position. Lavrov noted that Australia was expected to join Britain and France in bombing Syria.

“Sometimes I wonder, maybe they all want Russia, too, to announce that it will carry out strikes on the terrorists in Syria, without asking the president of this country,” he said.

Assad has suffered a string of battlefields losses, costing him control of two major provinces in the country’s north, and various other areas including airports and strategic towns that fell to Sunni Islamist groups and IS fighters.

The Alawite sect, from which Assad and his family descend, makes up about 13 percent of Syria’s pre-war population. It has historically been centered in towns and villages of Syria’s mountainous coast that make up the provinces of Latakia and Tartous. If the regime falls, that heartland could become a refuge for the community — and even for Assad himself — from which to fight for survival against a Sunni rebel insurgency.

Also Sunday, one of the most powerful Islamic groups fighting Assad’s forces, Ahrar al-Sham, announced that it chose a new leader. The group said in a statement posted on social media that Mohannad al-Masri, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Yahia al-Hamawi, was elected by consensus.

Al-Hamawi replaces Hashim al-Sheikh, who led the group for a year after its senior leadership was killed in a bombing last year.

Ahrar al-Sham was part of a coalition of rebels including al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria that seized the northern Idlib province from government forces. But the group’s leadership has recently tried to distance itself from al-Qaida ideology, portraying itself in an op-ed published in the Washington Post as a moderate Islamist group.

Al-Hamawi, born in 1981, is a civil engineer by training who studied at a university in Latakia. He served time in Damascus’ main prison until 2011, when the Syrian uprising began, according to Syria expert Aron Lund in an article published on the Syria Comment blog.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett will welcome new CEO in June

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Search underway to find missing Everett child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday morning at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive.

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.