# Syria Admits Turkish Officers Visited the Bombed Base, and Calls It Training > Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani confirmed the visit Israel struck over but denied any deployment, as Netanyahu says he told Erdogan directly not to try it. - Source: Israel Today - Canonical URL: https://israeltoday.news/article/syria-fm-confirms-turkish-officers-abu-duhur-visit - Author: Amir Doron - Section: Security - Published: 2026-08-20T09:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-20T09:00:00.000Z - Tags: Syria, Turkey, Airstrikes --- Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani confirmed that Turkish military officers had visited the Abu Duhur airbase that Israel struck on Tuesday, but said there was no Turkish military build up there. He described the visit as part of ongoing military cooperation between Damascus and Ankara, covering training and an exchange of expertise, and denied it amounted to the deployment Israel says it was trying to prevent. The admission narrows the gap between the two accounts without closing it. Israel struck the base after saying Syria was on the verge of letting Turkish forces deploy there, a claim Turkey had called invented. Officers visiting for training and forces deploying to a base are different things, and which one Abu Duhur was becoming is the question the strike was meant to settle before it happened rather than after. Netanyahu said Israel had warned Turkey against military activity in Syria beforehand, in a single word he quoted himself using: don't. Defense Minister Israel Katz went further, warning President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against what he called dangerous adventures in Syria, and saying Israel will not allow any entity to threaten its security. Contact between Israel and Syria has not stopped despite the strike. Mossad chief Roman Gofman spoke by phone with al-Shaibani on 14 August, days before the strike, and the two countries maintain an intelligence sharing mechanism alongside direct talks. A base hit by one and explained by the other is now part of that same channel, not outside it. --- Originally published by Israel Today. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://israeltoday.news/article/syria-fm-confirms-turkish-officers-abu-duhur-visit.