[4] Taftanaz was mentioned in an inscription on the Temple of Karnak as one of the places conquered by Thutmose III during the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt in the 15th-century BCE.

[5] Residents of Taftanaz participated in several successive demonstrations protesting the Syrian government starting from April 2011, the beginning of the uprising.

[7] Although residents claim that the presence of anti-government fighters was small, rebels from the general area were responsible for several attacks on army checkpoints resulting in the destruction of around nine tanks and the deaths of a number of soldiers.

Residents also claim the army assault was meant to stymie protests in the surrounding villages by making an example of Taftanaz which largely joined the uprising early on.

[10] After two months of assault, in which the Al-Nusra Front is said to have played a key role, on 11 January 2013, the airbase fell into rebel hands.