Syria says it has recovered a Syrian Air Force Ilyushin transport aircraft that had been parked at Benina International Airport in Benghazi, crediting eastern Libya’s military command for the handover. The announcement on 12 November 2026 closes, at least officially, the case of an Il-76 that open-source researchers had tracked flying from Damascus to Benghazi days before Bashar al-Assad’s government fell in December 2024.
What Damascus announced
Syria’s Defence Ministry said it had “recovered an aircraft belonging to the Syrian Air Force that was parked at Benina airport in Benghazi”, according to statements carried by the state news agency SANA and reported by Anadolu Agency and Syria TV. The ministry said the recovery followed work by the Syrian Air Force command in coordination with the Foreign Ministry and “the relevant Libyan authorities”.
The Foreign Ministry’s media department described the step as the result of close coordination and follow-up with the Air Force command. It thanked Lt. Gen. Saddam Khalifa Haftar, deputy commander-in-chief of the eastern-based Libyan armed forces, the Benina airport administration and other Libyan bodies, and said the move “reflects the depth of the fraternal relations” between the two countries, Libyan outlet Al Wasat reported.
Neither ministry gave the aircraft’s registration in its written statement, explained why it had been in Benghazi, or said when it would land in Syria, Anadolu noted. No separate statement from Haftar’s command was available at the time of writing.
Which aircraft is it?
Official SANA photographs from Damascus published the same day show an Il-76 carrying the registration YK-ATD, according to Clash Report and Libyan outlet Jarayid. Researchers at the Eekad open-source platform said they tracked an aircraft arriving from Benghazi near Damascus on the afternoon of 12 November and assessed it as YK-ATD.
That matches an Eekad investigation published on 31 August 2026 on the fate of Syria’s state-owned Il-76 cargo fleet. Its findings, based on flight-tracking data and satellite imagery:
- YK-ATD left Damascus for Benina on 4 December 2024, four days before the Assad government collapsed.
- The aircraft then reappeared on tracking data in January 2025, flying from the Benghazi area to Sabha in southern Libya and back north, and was logged around Benina several times in late January and early February 2025.
- Satellite imagery of 16 February 2025 showed an aircraft consistent with the Il-76 parked on the military side of Benina, at a spot that had been empty before 4 December 2024.
- Of the other two airframes Eekad examined, YK-ATA was last tracked landing at Russia’s Hmeimim air base on 8 December 2024, and YK-ATB had shown no recorded activity since early 2024.
Syrian officials have not confirmed Eekad’s account of the aircraft’s movements, and they have not said what, if anything, it carried to Libya. Syria TV also noted that the ministries’ statements alone did not prove the recovered aircraft was the same one; the published photographs of YK-ATD in Damascus are what link the two.
Why it matters for Libya
Benina, east of Benghazi, is both the city’s civil airport and a key air hub for the forces led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, whose son Saddam is now his deputy. The aircraft’s return is the clearest practical sign so far of working ties between Syria’s post-Assad government and the eastern Libyan command, which had been close to Damascus under Assad.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani met Saddam Haftar in Benghazi on 11 October, when the two sides discussed joint security files, a planned Syrian consulate in the city and Syrians missing in Libya, Anadolu reported. The official readout of that meeting did not mention the aircraft.
For the eastern command, the handover fits a pattern of Saddam Haftar taking on a larger external role, from talks on unifying Libya’s rival armed forces in Ankara to a strategic cooperation protocol with Niger signed in Benghazi. Libya still has two separate military structures, and Damascus addressed its thanks to the eastern command rather than to the Tripoli-based government.
What is still unknown
- Why the aircraft flew to Benghazi in December 2024, and who ordered the flight.
- Whether it carried cargo or passengers on that flight or on its later flights inside Libya.
- Its technical condition after almost two years largely parked at Benina.
- Whether the return was part of a wider arrangement between Damascus and Haftar’s command.
The Il-76 is a four-engined, Soviet-designed heavy transport. For Syria’s rebuilding armed forces, getting back one of the few state-owned airframes of this class has practical value as well as symbolic weight.
Sources
- Syrian Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Foreign Affairs statements to SANA, 12 November 2026, as reported by Anadolu Agency (Arabic) and Syria TV
- Al Wasat (Libya), “Syrian Foreign Ministry announces the recovery of an aircraft that had been parked at Benghazi’s Benina Airport”, 13 November 2026
- Jarayid, “Syria Recovers Cargo Jet”, 12 November 2026
- Clash Report, report on the recovery citing SANA photographs and Eekad tracking, 12 November 2026
- Eekad, investigation into the Syrian state Il-76 cargo fleet (Arabic), 31 August 2026