Syria

28 Aug 2020; MEMO: The Russian Chief of the General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, yesterday blamed the US army for the armoured vehicles collision that injured seven American soldiers in northeastern Syria on Tuesday.

DAMASCUS, Aug 24 (NNN-SANA) – The Syrian Airlines, on Sunday brought back home 150 Syrians, who were stranded in Qatar, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 150 Syrians arrived in the capital Damascus, where they were checked for high temperatures, before being transported to a hotel near the airport, for the COVID-19 testing.

The Syrian interior ministry urged Syrians abroad, who want to return home, to contact the Syrian embassies in their areas and register their names.

20 Aug 2020; MEMO: Turkey has sent military reinforcements into the Idlib governorate in northern Syria, following escalation by the Syrian regime of President Bashar Al-Assad and Russia in the region.

According to media reports, the Turkish army reinforcements entered through the Kafrlossin border crossing, north of Idlib, and included tanks and heavy artillery in addition to various military vehicles.

17 Aug 2020; MEMO: Two US helicopters today attacked a Syrian army checkpoint in northeastern Syria near the Kurdish-held city of Qamishli, killing one soldier and injuring two others, Reuters reported state media saying.

The incident happened shortly after a US patrol was prevented from passing by an army checkpoint in the area, state media said.

15 Aug 2020; MEMO: Russia has suspended its participation in patrols with Turkey along the strategic M4 highway in Syria’s Idlib province.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said yesterday: “Joint Russian-Turkish patrols on the Idlib highway have been stopped due to continued provocations of militants in the region.”

DAMASCUS, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian ground forces shelled rebel-held areas in the countryside of Idlib and Aleppo provinces in northern Syria on Friday, a war monitor reported.

The Syrian forces pounded the vicinity of the town of Bara in Idlib countryside by heavy artillery, and targeted the villages of Kafr-Ama and al-Qasar in the western countryside of Aleppo, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

DAMASCUS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian Foreign Ministry on Sunday condemned a deal signed recently between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and a U.S. oil company to modernize the oil industry in areas controlled by the U.S.-backed SDF in northeastern Syria, the state news agency SANA reported.

01 Aug 2020; MEMO: Syria’s “inconsequential” presidential elections slated for next year “must be ignored,” a DC-based think tank said Friday, Anadolu Agency reported.

Writing in a blog post on the Atlantic Council’s website, Jomana Qaddour and Danny al-Baaj argued “there is little way to stabilize Syria so long as” Bashar al-Assad remains in power, accusing his “security state” of continuing “to terrorize Syrians inside the country and refugees attempting to return home.”

DAMASCUS, July 30 (NNN-SANA) – Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, and the visiting Russian’s special envoy to Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, discussed the upcoming meeting of the Syrian constitutional committee.

Assad and Lavrentiev agreed that the committee, which will hold its meeting next month, should carry out its work without any external pressures.

In June, UN Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said, he intends to convene a new session of the Syrian constitutional committee at the end of Aug.

26 July 2020; MEMO: The Israeli military on Friday said its helicopters struck Syrian army targets in response to mortars fired toward the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Reuters reports.

“A number of targets were struck, including SAF observation posts and intelligence collection systems located in SAF bases,” the military said in a statement, referring to the Syrian Armed Forces.