Siege of Menagh Air Base

The Siege of Menagh Air Base (also spelled Menegh, Mannagh, or Minakh) was an armed confrontation between the Free Syrian Army 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'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 suppress rebel forces in the north of the country, particularly in Aleppo city.

2012
The first major rebel assault against the base came in the weeks following the start of the Battle of Aleppo. Rebel fighters from the Free Syrian Army and affiliated groups launched an attack against the air base on 2 August 2012 using a combination of small arms, RPGs, and five tanks they captured during the Battle of Anadan. The base had been used by government helicopters and jet aircraft to bombard rebel positions, and seizing it was seen as vital to securing victory 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 "liberate" 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.

On 8 February, the Syrian Air Force bombed parts of the base after rebels stormed it, forcing 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. At least 15 rebels were killed during the assault.

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.

On 9 May 2013, it was reported that, although they managed to capture parts of the Menagh military airport, rebel forces were forced to retreat from the air 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 rebels moved west to launch an attack on Kurdish fighters of the Popular Protection Units (YPG) in the Afrin region, bringing critical military and logistical supplies to the air base. The YPG is the armed wing of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which has fought against both rebels and government troops in Kurdish-populated areas of Syria.

On 7 June 2013, rebel forces attacked the air base, firing 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 SOHR reported that rebels had detonated a large car-bomb in the government-held area of Menagh, killing 12 soldiers and destroying many buildings within the airport. The explosion was reportedly followed by missile fire on army positions.

Final assault
On 5 August 2013, a final rebel assault, led by the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) group, was launched. By this point, 70 –120  government soldiers had remained, holding out in a small section of the complex. The attack started when two foreign suicide bombers, one of them a Saudi, drove an armored personnel carrier right up to the airport's command center and blew themselves up, destroying the building and killing or scattering the defenders. Scattered fighting continued, however, by the morning of the next day, rebel forces had full control of the airport. During the final battle, 32 government soldiers and at least 19 rebels were killed. On the morning of the final attack, 10 soldiers defected to the rebels and claimed to had attempted but failed to kill the base commander, who was later captured as he attempted to retreat with his men.

About 70 soldiers, who managed to retreat from the base during the battle, surrendered themselves (and two tanks) the next day to Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) forces in the town of Afrin, about 15 kilometers north of the airbase.