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The United States-backed Syrian Free Army (SFA) said on May 17 that it had taken over a strategic air base located in the heart of Syria.
“Our teams continue to work at Al-Seen Airport to secure it and protect it from sabotage. We will work day and night to protect civilians and prevent ISIS from seizing weapons,” the group said in a post to the X social network.
Al-Seen is located approximately 140 kilometers southwest of the ancient city of Palmyra and 90 kilometers northeast of the capital, Damascus. It contains 36 hardened aircraft shelters and two runways, one three kilometers long and the other two and a half kilometers long.
The air base, one of the largest in the country, was home to multiple squadrons of the former Syrian Arab Air Force, including ones which operated upgraded Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets.
The SFA shared several photos from Al-Seen, two showing its fighters guarding the air base main gate and the central headquarters, and the others showing ammunition being collected.
Click to see full-size image.
Click to see full-size image.
Click to see full-size image.
Prior to the fall of the Assad regime last December, the operations of the SFA were limited to the eastern Syrian area of al-Tanf, which borders both Iraq and Jordan. The U.S. military maintains a large garrison with some 200 troops there. At the time, the group itself was estimated to have around 600 fighters.
The SFA is currently led by Salem Turki al-Antri, a Syrian military officer who defected and joined the rebels in the early years of the war in Syria.
During the fall of the Assad Regime, al-Antri led the SFA fighters in an offensive from al-Tanf towards Palmyra. After defeating government forces there, the group both assisted in the Homs city offensive and routed the government to Damascus, in a battle that resulted in the fall of the city to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, which installed the current Interim Government.
The SFA later expanded its influence to Palmyra and the nearby town of al-Sukhnah, with reports suggesting that the group grew to some 3,000 fighters.
Al-Antri met with Syrian Minister of Defense Murhaf Abu Qasra early in January, where they discussed the unification of rebel groups and “shared security challenges”.
Later in the month, the commander led a delegation of the SFA to a conference declaring the victory of the Syrian Revolution. However, he still retained his forces and did not announce its dissolution like other groups. The current status of the relationship between the SFA and the Islamist-led government remains unclear.
Approximately 2,000 U.S. troops were stationed in Syria as of last December, up from the roughly 900 troops in the country before the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel and the subsequent surge of attacks by Iran-backed armed factions on U.S. forces in the Middle East.
Last April, the Pentagon announced that the U.S. was going to consolidate and reduce its forces in Syria, maintaining fewer than one thousand troops under the command of the anti-ISIS coalition. It said at the time that the consolidation will reposition remaining troops to “select locations” in the country.
The announcement came after U.S. forces and fighters from the SFA were reportedly spotted at Al-Dumayr Air Base, which is located some 35 kilometers to the northeast of Damascus and just under 12 kilometers to the east of the strategic M5 highway leading to the capital. The SFA would later deny taking over the air base.
Now, the confirmed deployment of U.S.-backed fighters in Al-Seen Air Base came just days after Syria’s Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa met with U.S. President Donlad Trump in the Saudi capital, Riyah. During the meeting, Trump announced that the U.S. will be ending sanctions against the war-torn country. He also called on Sahraa to join U.S. efforts against terrorism and make peace with Israel.
All in all, the U.S. military deployment in Syria appears to be far from being over. In fact, the Trump administration is likely working to legitimize its presence in the country in the long term, similar to what it did in Iraq after returning to fight ISIS in 2014.
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