Syria airbase blast toll tops 30 regime fighters: Monitor

A munitions blast killed more than 3o 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 Shayrat airbase is one of the regime’s most significant installations in the center of the country.

In 2017, US air strikes 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 launch pad for the alleged chemical attack.