Drafted — not technically validated
Record revision 1 · A small Syrian Air Force base in Aleppo Governorate, held in turn by rebels, the Islamic State, the army and the SDF.
A real-world airfield as described in public sources, and how sim maps represent it. Units, facilities and names change; each is dated where the sources allow, and the charts are not for navigation. Use current official publications for flight planning.
Location and identity
- Location
- Near Al Mahdum, Aleppo Governorate, northern Syria [2]
- Country or territory
- Syria
- Coordinates
- 36.0967° N, 37.9365° E [2]
- Elevation
- 1,145 ft (349 m) [2]
- Identifiers
- OS62
- Other names
- al-Jarrah [1]
- Opened
- no opening date is given in the sources consulted
- Theatre
- Middle East
Role and operators
- Status
- Active · No current operator
- Roles today
- None documented in the sources consulted
- Operators
- Syrian Air Force · Syria, air force · until 2024 [1]
Units
Permanently based units belong to the airfield; rotational and temporarily deployed units are there for a period or an operation. Dates are when the sources place each unit there; "as of" is when a source described it as current.
Earlier
A Syrian Air Defence Force unit [1]
- Service
- Syria, air force
- Basing
- Not stated in the sources
- When
- Jan 2023 – 2024
Runways and facilities
The sources do not date these figures. Facilities not listed here are not documented in the sources cited, which does not mean the airfield lacks them.
| Runway | Length | Width | Surface |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10/28 [2] | 10,180 ft (3,103 m) | 130 ft (40 m) | asphalt |
- Arresting gear
- None documented in the sources cited
- Navaids
- None documented in the sources cited
Figure 1 — Airfield map of Jirah Air Base (to scale)
- Runway
- Taxiway
- Apron
Runways, taxiways, aprons and buildings mapped at the airfield, which OpenStreetMap gives no boundary, true north up, drawn from OpenStreetMap data retrieved 2026-10-28. Widths come from the map data or, where it gives none, a typical 45 m runway and 18 m taxiway. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the ODbL 1.0. Community-mapped, not an official aerodrome chart, and not for navigation.
Sim maps
Represented in: DCS: Syria
DCS: Syria DCS World · Present day
Represented as “Jirah” · checked 2026-10-28 [3]
Only the maps marked represented or confirmed absent have been checked. Any other map may or may not represent this airfield.
Other maps in Middle East, not yet checked for this airfield, which may lie outside them: DCS: Persian Gulf, DCS: Sinai, DCS: Iraq, DCS: Iraq North, Falcon BMS: Israel.
Role today
Jirah, sometimes spelled al-Jarrah, is a small Syrian Air Force base. [1] The Syrian Democratic Forces took it when the Syrian army collapsed in the 2024 offensive, and withdrew east of the Euphrates on 17 January 2026 during an offensive by the transitional government’s forces. [1] Its use since then is not described in the sources consulted.
History
Opposition fighters of Ahrar al-Sham and the Free Syrian Army surrounded the base in mid-January 2013 and captured it on 12 February. [1] The Islamic State held it from January 2014 until the Syrian army retook it on 12 May 2017, in the Maskanah Plains offensive, securing it fully by 29 May. [1] It reopened in January 2023, with a Syrian air defence unit stationed there. [1]
The airfield
One asphalt runway, 10/28, listed at 10,180 ft by 130 ft. [2]
Sources
- Jirah Air Base. Wikipedia (secondary source). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jirah_Air_Base (accessed 2026-10-28). A short article: its captures from 2013 to 2026.
- Airport and runway data, OS62. OurAirports open data (public domain, community-maintained). https://davidmegginson.github.io/ourairports-data/airports.csv (accessed 2026-10-28). Rows for OS62 Jirah Air Base in airports.csv and runways.csv: position, nearest town, region, elevation and runway 10/28.
- dcs-world-schema reference data: Syria airbases (Jirah.json). dcs-world-schema, open-source data extracted by running DCS World 2.9.30.28536. https://github.com/YoloWingPixie/dcs-world-schema/blob/c3091e6c08fb8167e26145d0e33c10e4140c6fe7/dcs-world-reference/latest/airbases/Syria/Jirah.json (accessed 2026-10-28). With its beacon and navaid files, as tabled on the DCS: Syria map page.
Wikipedia articles are secondary sources and can change; they are cited with the date they were read. FAA airport data and diagrams are official but are reissued every 28 or 56 days; each is cited with the edition read. pydcs mirrors the DCS terrain data at the commit linked.