Aftermath of US missile strikes on Shayrat airbase in central Syria, April 7, 2017

Explosions at an airbase in central Syria have killed at least 28 Assad regime troops.

Saturday’s blasts were at the Shayrat Airbase in central Syria, from where the regime has carried out conventional and chemical attacks through Syria’s 101-month conflict.

A “military source at the airbase” told a pro-Assad blog that the explosions were of an ammunition depot, which overheated because of high temperature.

State news agency SANA blamed a “technical fault during the transport of expired ammunition”.

The military source said that several high-ranking officers are among the dead, and many more troops were wounded.

A warplane from Shayrat carried out the April 2017 sarin attack on Khan Sheikhoun, in Idlib Province in northwest Syria, which killed about 90 people and injured hundreds. A week later, a US missile barrage damaged the base, and the Assad regime has not used sarin since then on Syria’s civilians.