Syria

DAMASCUS, May 11 (NNN-SANA) – An explosive device went off, in the Turkish-held city of al-Bab, in northern Syria on Sunday, a war monitor reported.

The explosion rocked the Centre Roundabout in al-Bab, in the northeastern countryside of Aleppo, killing one and wounding five civilians, including children, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Al-Bab is controlled by the Turkish forces and Turkey-backed rebels.

The observatory has previously reported a state of lawlessness, in areas controlled by Turkey and Turkey-backed rebels in northern Syria.

DAMASCUS, May 9 (NNN-SANA) – Mosques in Syria reopened on Friday, for the first time since Mar, as part of the government’s plan, to ease the measures against the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the mosques were opened for the Friday prayers only, not for Muslims’ five prayers per day.

Workers in masks and overalls stood at the gates of mosques and measured the temperature of the worshippers, who also have to observe social distancing inside the mosques ahead of the prayers.

8 May 2020; MEMO: On Thursday, the Syrian authorities announced the postponement of parliamentary elections scheduled for this month for the second time, within the framework of a series of precautionary measures taken by the government to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

6 May 2020; MEMO: Libyan National Army leader Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad have been accused of conducting illegal drug smuggling operations by Libya’s Interior Minister Fathi Baghasha.

In a social media post yesterday, Baghasha alleged that, “Haftar’s Army Investment Commission has been in collaboration with [the] Assad regime for some time, and trying to open an air and sea corridor through Libya, so as to gain illegal financial benefits.”

5 May 2020; MEMO: Unidentified gunmen yesterday kidnapped and assassinated nine members of the Syrian security forces in the Al-Mzairib district in Daraa, a military source told RT news agency.

Well-informed sources said the attack was carried out by Muhammad Qasim Al-Subaihi, known as Abu Tariq, who was accompanied by a large group of gunmen, who stormed the Daraa Police Command, kidnapped the nine policemen and took them to Al- Subaihi’s house where they shot them.

DAMASCUS, May 5 (NNN-SANA) – The U.S. forces, on Monday, moved a number of Daesh prisoners from Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah, to Iraq.

Six vehicles of the U.S. forces entered Syria from Iraq, earlier on Monday, and headed for the city of Shaddadi in Hasakah countryside, where they took the Daesh prisoners and went back to Iraq, said the report.

On Apr 27, the U.S. forces took Daesh prisoners from Shaddadi to Iraq, and “recycling” those militants to use them in other battlegrounds.

TASS, May 5: Syrian air defense systems have repelled a missile attack of Israel in the northern province of Aleppo, SANA news agency reported on Monday.

According to the agency, the strikes were aimed at military storage facilities near the town of al-Safira situated to the north-east of Aleppo (360 km away from Damascus).

4 May 2020; MEMO: The Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) expects that Russia, Turkey and Iran will reach a consensus to remove the head of the Syrian regime, Bashar Al-Assad, and establish a ceasefire in exchange for forming a transitional government that includes the opposition, members of the regime and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

DAMASCUS, May 4 (NNN-SANA) – A convoy of 30 Turkish military vehicles entered Syria’s northern Idlib province on Sunday, a war monitor reported.

The military convoy carried logistic and military gears, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UK-based watchdog group said, 2,980 Turkish military gears entered Idlib since Mar 5, when Russia and Turkey established a cease-fire deal in Idlib, between the rebels and the Syrian army.

29 April 2020; MEMO: More than 216,000 displaced Syrians moved back to the war-torn governorates of Idlib and Aleppo in the north of Syria since the announcement of a Turkish-Russian ceasefire on 6 March, Anadolu Agency reported yesterday.

According to an activist involved in the coordination of the return of the displaced in the north of Syrian, Anadolu said that more than a million Syrians fled Idlib and its surroundings due to the regime’s attack on the area in November.