Blast kills dozens of regime fighters at Syria airbase

A blast of unclear origin killed at least 31 regime and allied fighters at a military airport in central Syria on Saturday, a war monitor said.

MENA

1 min read

The New Arab & agencies

03 August, 2019

The Shayrat airbase is one of the regime's most significant installations in the country. [Getty]

A munitions blast killed 31 regime and allied fighters at a military airport in central Syria on Saturday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, increasing an earlier toll.

State news agency SANA reported earlier that a "technical fault during the transport of expired ammunition" had killed an unspecified number of victims at the Shayrat airbase in Homs province.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, which is based in Britain and relies on a network of sources on the ground, said it was still unclear what had caused the deadly explosion at the Shayrat airbase in Homs province.

The Shayrat airbase is one of the regime's most significant installations in the centre of the country.

Iranian fighters - who support the regime in Syria's ongoing civil war - are based there, according to the Observatory.

In 2017, US airstrikes hit the base in response to a suspected sarin gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun in northwest Syria that killed more than 80 people.

According to the Pentagon, US intelligence had established that the base was the launchpad for the alleged chemical attack.

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