Syria

24 July 2020; MEMO: The Syrian regime of President Bashar Al-Assad has imposed a fee of $100 on anyone travelling out of the country to be tested for Covid-19. The charge is intended to boost the regime’s acquisition of hard cash in dollars.

22 July 2020; MEMO: Syria’s ruling Baath Party has won a majority in the country’s parliamentary election according to the result declared yesterday. The win for President Bashar Al-Assad was seen widely as unsurprising and expected through the questionable election process held over the weekend.

DAMASCUS, July 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Five Iran-backed fighters were killed in an Israeli missile strike south of the Syrian capital, a Britain-based war monitor said.

The missile attack on Monday night hit weapons depots and military positions belonging to Syrian government forces and Iran-backed militia fighters south of Damascus, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The attack wounded at least seven Syrian troops, according to the official SANA news agency, which said the missiles were launched by warplanes over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

AL HASAKAH /Syria/, July 20. /TASS/: Russian and Turkish troops have carried out a joint patrol mission in Syria’s Al Hasakah province in accordance with a memorandum adopted by the presidents of Russia and Turkey, officer from the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Sides in Syria Alexander Kazakov told reporters.

"Another Russian-Turkish patrol has taken place in accordance with the 2019 memorandum. Five settlements were inspected, the patrol’s route was 55 kilometers long," Kazakov said.

20 July 2020; MEMO: Syria held a parliamentary election on Sunday, gripped by a collapsing economy and new US sanctions after President Bashar al-Assad clawed back control of most of the country.

Reuters reported people voting across Assad-held territory at more than 7,000 polling stations, including for the first time in former rebel bastions that the army has recaptured over the last two years.

DAMASCUS, July 18 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and another wounded in an explosion in Syrian capital Damascus on Saturday evening, state news agency SANA reported.

The explosion was caused by two explosive devices that went off in the Nahr Aisha area in Damascus.

The bombings happened as the country is bracing for parliamentary elections due on Sunday.

The capital has remained relatively calm since the army dislodged rebels from the eastern countryside of Damascus in 2018.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrians headed to polling stations in government-held parts of the war-torn country on Sunday to elect a new parliament amid strict health measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The vote is the third to take place in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011. It has killed more than 400,000, displaced half the country’s population and sent more than five million as refugees mostly into neighboring countries.

DAMASCUS, July 16 (NNN-SANA) – A total of nine militiamen of the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces were wounded on Wednesday, in an explosion in a weapon depot in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah.

Five security troops and four fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were wounded, in the weapon depot’s explosion in the Mesherfeh neighbourhood on the western outskirts of Hasakah, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based group said, the massive explosion caused damage outside the vicinity of the weapon depot that belongs to the SDF.

TADMOR/Syria/, July 14. /TASS/: Three militants of Maghawir al-Thawra group detained by the Syrian military in the outskirts of Tadmor, near Palmyra, had been trained to spy by US instructors, one of neutralized extremists Abdallah al-Mishuat said.

DAMASCUS, July 11 (NNN-SANA) – The rebels in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, shot down a Russian reconnaissance drone amid intense battles on Friday, a war monitor reported.

The rebels of the National Front group, targeted a Russian reconnaissance drone with anti-aircraft missiles, southeast of Idlib, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UK-based watchdog group said, the rebels fired at Syrian military positions, in areas in the southern countryside of Idlib, amid intense battles with the Syrian army in that part of the country.