Syria

30 Mar 2021; MEMO: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Tuesday that traders profiting from the collapse of the Syrian pound, which hit an all-time low this month, would be punished.

The fall of the currency, which has rebounded somewhat since hitting 4,000 to the US dollar, has driven up inflation. Syrians have struggled to afford food and power.

28 Mar 2021; MEMO: The Syrian regime is 'rationing' fuel as shipments are delayed due to the blockage of Egypt's Suez, The New Arab reported.

The large container ship Ever Given has been jammed diagonally between across the Suez Canal since Tuesday, blocking off both lanes of traffic, and throwing around 12% of world trade into chaos.

This incident has caused delays to imports of oil to Syria, with the country still waiting on a shipment due to arrive last Friday.

25 Mar 2021; MEMO: According to local Syrian sources, soldiers affiliated with Bashar Al-Assad's regime have fled to join the militia of retired Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar in Libya due to the regime's failure to pay their salaries.

DAMASCUS, March 25 (NNN-Xinhua) — The Syrian Health Ministry announced here on Wednesday it will provide 75 tons of oxygen to Lebanon for COVID-19 patients.

The announcement came during a joint press conference held by Syrian Health Minister Hasan al-Ghabbash and his Lebanese counterpart Hamad Hasan in Syrian capital Damascus.

The oxygen will be delivered in three batches starting Wednesday, and it won’t affect Syria’s stock of oxygen, according to Hasan.

23 Mar 2021; MEMO: The US sharply condemned Monday a wave of Russian and Syrian regime airstrikes over the weekend that targeted a hospital and killed several civilians, Anadolu Agency reports.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the coordinates of al-Atareb Surgical Hospital had previously been shared with a UN entity intended to prevent attacks on civilian infrastructure.

(AP) --- The Biden administration is mulling over America’s role in Syria’s ongoing conflict as the U.S. tries to break away from Middle East wars, but Vladimir Putin’s top diplomat already has been busy on the ground, trying to win support for a Syria approach that could establish Russia as a broker of security and power in the region.

20 Mar 2021; MEMO: Syrian Oil Minister Bassam Toma'a has revealed that around 90 per cent of Syrian oil is under the control of US forces, Aram News Network reported on Friday.

"The Americans and their followers are acting like pirates as they are targeting the Syrian oil wealth and oil supplies," the Syrian regime minister asserted.

16 Mar 2021; MEMO: A four-year-old Canadian girl has flown home after spending two years in a detention camp in northeast Syria leaving behind her mother who travelled there to marry a Daesh fighter and was not allowed to return.

Her mother is one of 12,000 women and children from 60 countries detained in camps for families of people suspected of being Daesh members.

16 Mar 2021; MEMO: At least 21 soldiers loyal to the Bashar-al-Assad regime in Syria were killed in an armed attack in the country's southwestern Daraa province on Tuesday, Anadolu Agency reported a local source as saying.

Former members of the Syrian opposition attacked with light weapons a military convoy from the 4th Division near the Muzayrib town, said the source on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

DAMASCUS, March 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The overall death toll for Syria’s civil war has reached 388,652 since it began a decade ago this month, a war monitor said on Sunday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the figures includes almost 117,388 civilians, among them more than 22,000 children.

Attacks by the Syrian regime and allied militia forces accounted for the majority of civilian deaths, said the Britain-based monitor which relies on sources inside Syria for its reports.