Foreign

Ousted Assad Loyalists Kill 14 Security Personnel in Ambush

By Web News 200

Syria’s new rebel-led authorities say 14 interior ministry personnel have been killed and 10 injured in an “ambush” by forces loyal to ousted President Bashar al-Assad in the west of the country.

They say the fighting took place near the Mediterranean port of Tartous on Tuesday.

Reports say the security forces were ambushed as they tried to arrest a former officer in connection to his role at the notorious Saydnaya prison, close to the capital Damascus.

Just over two weeks ago, Assad’s presidency fell to rebel forces led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) faction.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said three militants were also killed in the clashes.

The SOHR added that the security forces later brought in reinforcements.

In a separate development, the Syrian authorities imposed an overnight curfew in the central city of Homs, state media reported.

Reports say this followed unrest after a video purportedly showing an attack on an Alawite shrine.

Syria’s interior ministry said it was an old video, dating back to the rebel offensive on Aleppo in late November, and the violence was carried out by unknown groups.

The SOHR said one demonstrator was killed and five wounded in Homs.

Demonstrations were also reported in areas including the cities of Tartous and Latakia, and Assad’s hometown of Qardaha.

Alawites are the minority sect from which the Assad family originates, and to which many of the former regime’s political and military elite belonged.

The HTS-led lightning offensive that started from Syria’s north-east and spread all over the country ended the Assad family’s more than 50-year rule.

Assad and his family were forced to flee to Russia.

HTS has since promised to protect the rights and freedoms of many religious and ethnic minorities in Syria.

HTS is designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, the US, the EU, the UK and others.

On Tuesday, protests broke out in the country over the burning of a Christmas tree, prompting fresh calls for the new authorities to protect minorities.

Foreign

 Kurdish-Led Fighters Push Back Turkish-Backed Syrian Rebels

By Web News 362

Kurdish-led fighters in Syria, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, said Tuesday they have launched a counter-offensive against the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army to take back areas near Syria’s northern border with Turkey.

The Kurdish-led SDF is Washington’s critical ally in Syria, targeting sleeper cells of the extremist Islamic State group scattered across the country’s east.

Since the fall of the totalitarian rule of Bashar Assad earlier this month, clashes have intensified between the U.S.-backed group and the SNA, which captured the key city of Manbij and the areas surrounding it.

The intense weekslong clashes come at a time when Syria, battered by over a decade of war and economic misery, is negotiating its political future following half a century under the Assad dynasty’s rule.

Ruken Jamal, spokesperson of the Women’s Protection Unit, or YPJ, which is under the SDF, told The Associated Press that its fighters are just over 11 kilometres (7 miles) away from the centre of Manbij in their ongoing counter-offensive.

She accused Ankara of trying to weaken the group’s influence in negotiations over Syria’s political future through the SNA,

“Syria is now in a new phase, and discussions are underway about the future of the country,” Jamal said. “Turkey is trying, through its attacks, to distract us with battles and exclude us from the negotiations in Damascus.”

A Britain-based opposition war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says that since the SNA’s offensive in northern Syria against the Kurds started earlier this month, dozens from both sides have been killed.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke on Tuesday with Turkish Minister of National Defense Yaşar Güler, according to Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder.

Ryder said they discussed the ongoing situation in Syria, and Austin emphasized that close and continuous coordination is crucial to a successful effort to counter IS in the country. They also discussed the importance of setting the conditions to enable a more secure and stable Syria.

Ankara sees the SDF as an affiliate of its sworn enemy, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which it classifies as a terrorist organization. Turkish-backed armed groups alongside Turkish jets for years have attacked positions where the SDF are largely present across northern Syria, in a bid to create a buffer zone free from the group along the large shared border.

While the SNA was involved in the lightning insurgency — led by the Islamic group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — that toppled Assad, it has continued its push against the SDF, seen as Syria’s second key actor for its political future.

On Monday, the SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami said its forces pushed back the Turkish-backed rebels from areas near the Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates River, a key source of hydroelectric power. He said the SDF also destroyed a tank belonging to the rebels southeast of Manbij.

The British-based war monitor said on Tuesday that the Kurdish-led group, following overnight fighting, has reclaimed four villages in the areas near the strategic dam.

Turkish jets also pounded the strategic border town of Kobani in recent days.

During Syria’s uprising-turned-conflict, the Kurds carved out an enclave of autonomous rule across northeastern Syria, never fully allying entirely with Assad in Damascus nor the rebels trying to overthrow him.

Even with the Assad family out of the picture, it appears that Ankara’s position won’t change, with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s landmark visit to Syria maintaining a strong position on the Kurdish-led group in his meeting with HTS’s de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa.

“It has turned the region into a cauldron of terror with PKK members and far-left groups who have come from Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Europe,” Fidan said in a news conference after the meeting. “The international community is turning a blind eye to this lawlessness because of the wardenship it provides (against IS).”

With the ongoing fighting, SDF Commander Mazloum Abdi has expressed concern about a strong IS resurgence due to the power vacuum in Syria and the ongoing fighting, which has left the Kurdish-led group unable to carry out its attacks and raids on the extremists’ scattered sleeper cells.

Tens of thousands of children, family members, and supporters of IS militants are still held in large detention centers in northeastern Syria, in areas under SDF control.

AP/Simeon Ugbodovon

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Foreign

Assad, Family Arrive Russia after Ouster, Granted Asylum

By Web News 241

Syria’s ousted president Bashar al-Assad and his family are in Moscow, a Kremlin source told Russian news agencies, hours after he fled the country as Islamist-led rebels entered Damascus.

The announcement comes as Russia, a key Assad ally, called for an emergency meeting of the UN security council on the fast-changing situation on the ground in the war-torn country.

“Assad and members of his family have arrived in Moscow,” the source told the TASS and Ria Novosti news agencies. “Russia granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds,” he added.

Asked whether Assad was confirmed to be in Moscow, a Western official said they believed that was likely the case and had no reason to doubt Moscow’s claim.

The Kremlin source also said the rebels who ousted Assad in a lightning offensive “guaranteed the security of Russian army bases and diplomatic institutions on Syria’s territory”.

Russia, Assad’s biggest backer along with Iran, holds a naval base in Tartus and a military airfield in Khmeimim.

Moscow’s forces became militarily involved in the Syrian conflict in 2015, providing support for Assad’s forces to crush the opposition in the bloody civil war.

“Russia has always been in favour of a political solution to the Syrian crisis. Our starting point is the need to resume negotiations under the auspices of the UN,” the Kremlin source added.

A Russian representative to the United Nations announced that Moscow had requested an emergency closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council on the situation in Syria for Monday afternoon.

“The consequences (of the events in Syria) for this country and the whole region have not yet been measured,” the official said on Telegram.

Vanguard/Simeon Ugbodovon

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Foreign

Russia Air strike Kills 9 in Syria

By Web News 611

The UN has expressed deep concern about an escalation of hostilities in north-western Syria after at least 11 people were reportedly killed in Russian air strikes on rebel held Idlib province.

Nine were killed when warplanes dropped bombs next to a market outside Jisr al-Shughour on Sunday, rescuers said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported that it was the deadliest Russian attack this year.

Another two people were killed in an air strike near Idlib city, it said.

There was no immediate comment from the Russian military, whose air campaign in support of the Syrian government has been crucial in turning the tide of the 12-year civil war in its favour.

But the Syrian defence ministry said its troops had co-operated with the Russian air force in an operation that targeted “terrorist headquarters and warehouses” in Idlib and “eliminated dozens of terrorists”.

The strikes were retaliation for attacks that had killed civilians in government-held Hama and Latakia provinces, it added.

The Syrian Observatory said a total of six civilians had been killed in drone and artillery attacks by jihadist and rebel groups since Wednesday.

Fifteen civilians and four fighters had been killed in Russian air strikes and government artillery attacks over the same period, it added.

The White Helmets, whose first responders operate in opposition-held areas, said most of those killed near Jisr al-Shughour were workers and farmers at a vegetable market that was next to the site targeted in the Russian strike.

Mohammed said he had been loading tomatoes and aubergines onto vehicles at the market when a bomb exploded.

“I looked over and saw my neighbour screaming next to me. I carried him [to safety],” he told AFP news agency. “Some of the [vehicle] owners were injured and others were killed.”

The White Helmets said children were among the wounded and that the death toll might rise because several people were in a critical condition.

“Attacks on civilians in Syria continue unabated and unresolved, leaving Syrians trapped in a never-ending cycle of tragedy and despair,” it warned.

More than half a million people have been killed in the conflict that erupted after President Bashar al-Assad cracked down violently on peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011.

Idlib is the last remaining opposition stronghold and is home to 2.9 million displaced people, many of whom are living in dire conditions in camps.

In March 2020, Russia and Turkey brokered a ceasefire to halt a push by the government to retake Idlib. That led to an extended lull in violence, but sporadic clashes, air strikes and shelling continue.

BBC/Adebukola Aluko

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Foreign

Boat Mishap Leaves 61 Dead in Syria Coast

By Web News 409

Lebanon’s transport minister says bodies of 61 migrants have been found after the boat they were travelling in sank off Syria’s coast.

Twenty survivors are being treated in a hospital in the Syrian city of Tartus.

Officials said Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian nationals including women and children were believed to be among the 120-150 people who were on board when the boat sank on Thursday.

It is not clear what caused the accident, however, a rescue attempt is ongoing.

Officials added that the vessel had departed from Minyeh, a city near the Lebanese port city of Tripoli.

The boat is believed to have been heading to Europe when it sank.

Sitting on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, Tartus, where survivors have been transported, is located about 30 miles (50 km) north of the Lebanese port city of Tripoli.

The situation is having a severe impact on the country’s migrant population, many of whom are choosing to flee elsewhere, including to Europe.

Earlier this month, six persons, including children, were killed when a boat carrying migrants from Lebanon to Europe sank off the coast of Turkey. The country’s coast guard said 73 migrants from four boats had been rescued.

Bbc/Adebukola Aluko

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Foreign

Humanitarian Help: UN Seeks $10bn For Syria

By Web News 683

The United Nations (UN) is expected to call on international donors to pledge up to 10 billion Dollars on Tuesday to help Syrians fleeing a decade of civil war in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the event, the fifth annual conference to keep Syria’s refugees from starvation, the UN will argue that the need for humanitarian support has never been so great.

The conference is being hosted by the European Union (EU), and will seek some 4.2 billion Dollars for people inside Syria as well as 5.8 billion Dollars for refugees and their hosts in the Middle East.

“It has been ten years of despair and disaster for Syrians,” said UN aid chief Mark Lowcock. “Now plummeting living conditions, economic decline and COVID-19 result in more hunger, malnutrition and disease. There is less fighting, but no peace dividend,” Mr. Lowcock said in a statement.

Fighting between Syrian government forces and rebels has subsided since a deal a year ago ended a Russian-led bombing campaign that had displaced over a million people. However, Russian air strikes, along with Iranian and Syrian-backed militaries, continue to attack rebel outposts.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to address the conference on Tuesday. While marking a decade of conflict on March 10, Mr. Guterres had described Syria as a “living nightmare”, where about half the children have never lived a day without war and 60 percent of Syrians are at risk of going hungry.

In a separate statement on Tuesday, the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement called on international donors to help rebuild the country, particularly to repair critical health, water and electricity services.

A recent reuter’s report says around 24 million people in Syria need basic aid, a rise of four million over the past year and the highest number yet since a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters by President Bashar al-Assad in 2011 resulted in civil war.

Frcn, Abuja