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52 Syrians Killed, 50 Seriously Injured in a Fuel Tank Explosion in Afrin, 7 Killed in Israeli Missile Attack on a Damascus Outskirt

April 30, 2020 

Editor's Note:

The following news stories are just examples of the daily horrors of war in Syria. Readers can find more detailed daily news stories at the sources below as well as many other sources in the internet. 

Explosion of a fuel truck in Afrin, April 28, 2020	A Syrian regime forces check point in Dar'a, file, April 30, 2020

Site of the explosion of a fuel truck in Afrin, April 28, 2020 sohr	Site of Israeli missile attack on outskirts of Damascus, Syria, April 27, 2020

Afrin carnage: death toll jumps to 52 persons, amid condemnation by opposition parties and organizations against Turkish authorities

 SOHR, 29/04/2020  

Syrian Observatory activists have documented a spike in death toll of people who perished in the terrorist blast which hit Afrin city yesterday. 11 children and 12 rebels among 52 persons were killed in the explosion of a truck carrying fuel a few meters away from the governor’s residence in Raju street in Afrin city.

The death toll is expected to rise as 50 persons have sustained various injures and burns.

Meanwhile, several Syrian opposition parties and organizations, some of which are loyal to Turkey, have condemned the explosion blaming the Turkish authorities, as this is the bloodiest explosion ever and the first of its kind in Afrin, in particular after capturing the canton by Turkish forces and their proxies.

On the other hand, the identity of a large number of fatalities has yet to be known. The fatalities included charred and mutilated bodies, in addition to 11 children under the age of eighteen, all are residents of Afrin and displaced from different Syrian provinces.

SOHR source have reported earlier that Turkish intelligence issued a decision closing all entrances of the Turkish-controlled city of Afrin in north-western countryside of Aleppo, from today, Wednesday, until further notice. This decision comes as a precaution following the deadly explosion that took place in the city yesterday, leaving over 100 casualties.

Regime rockets pound positions in southern Idlib as ceasefire enters its 56th day

 SOHR, 30/04/2020  

SOHR sources say that regime forces fired several rockets this morning, targeting Kansafra, Al-Bara and Quqafin in the southern countryside of Idlib. No casualties have been reporte.

Otherwise, tense calm is prevailing throughout the “de-escalation zone” on the 56th consecutive day of new ceasefire in the area.

Yesterday, SOHR sources reported that that regime forces fired several rockets on Kafr Ammah, Kafr Taal in the western countryside of Aleppo, Al-Fatera, Kansafra and Afes town in the southern and eastern countryside of Idlib.

Unknown assailants attack regime checkpoint in eastern Dar'a

 SOHR, 30/04/2020  

Dar'a Province – Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: reliable sources have informed the Syrian Observatory that unknown gunmen opened fire with heavy machineguns on regime checkpoint on the eastern outskirts of Al-Sahwah town in the eastern countryside of Daraa in the early hours of Thursday morning.

No casualties have been reported yet.

Since the beginning of security chaos in Dar'a in early June 2019, Syrian Observatory activists have documented more than 427 attacks and assassination attempts by gunfire and detonations of IEDs, motorcycle-bombs and car-bombs. These attacks and assassinations claimed the lives of 265 persons, and they are as follows:

59 civilians, including six women and four children

138 regime soldiers, loyalists and collaborators with regime security services

45 fighters of the faction who struck “reconciliation and settlements” deals with the regime and became in the ranks of regime’s security branches, including former commanders

17 Syrian militiamen affiliated to the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian forces

Six members of the so-called 5th Corps which was established by Russia.

With International Coalition air support, SDF storms village in northern rural Dair Ez-Zoar

 SOHR, 30/04/2020  

Deir ez-Zor province – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights:

SOHR activists say that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by International Coalition air support, carried out a raid in the village of Ghriba Sharqiya near the town of Al-Sour in northern countryside of Deir al-Zour. Meanwhile, the campaign continued until late Wednesday night.

Dair Ez-Zoar countryside is a breeding ground for Islamic State members’ activities where killings and assassinations against SDF members are taking place.

On April 28, SDF, backed by international coalition helicopters, carried out a raid in the town of Jadida al-Akidat in eastern countryside of Dair Ez-Zoar, during which they arrested an ex-regime soldier specialist in clearing mines and was helping the residents to clear mines in the area. 

On April 27, SDF arrested a member of the regime’s “al-Baath Brigades” in the village of Jadid Bakara in eastern countryside of Dair Ez-Zoar. 

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Israeli strikes on Syria

Israel carried out air strikes on villages close to the Syrian capital Damascus earlier this week, raising questions about its true targets

SOHR, from Al-Ahram weekly, 29/04/2020  

 In defiance of UN appeals for a freeze on armed conflicts in the Middle East while the world fights the Covid-19 pandemic, Israel staged a pre-dawn attack on a suburb of Damascus on Monday (April 27, 2020). It did not comment on the strikes, which caused several casualties.

Israeli missiles struck the “homes of residents in the villages of Al-Adliya and Al-Hujeira on the outskirts of Damascus, killing seven,” Syrian state news reported on Monday. The Syrian authorities gave no details of the locations that were hit, the possible causes of the strikes, or why they had targeted civilians in a couple of tiny villages so close to the capital.

However, according to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the strikes targeted locations belonging to Iranian, Hizbullah, Syrian and other militias in areas south and southwest of Damascus. Seven people were killed in the pre-dawn raids, four Iranian soldiers and three civilians, including a child, the London-based Observatory reported.

Israel has increased its strikes in Syria in recent years, primarily targeting Syrian army mid-range missile manufacturing facilities and Iranian and Hizbullah forces. On 20 April, an Israeli airstrike killed nine fighters from pro-regime and Iranian forces in the vicinity of Palmyra in central Syria.

“The Israeli raids certainly targeted Iranian Revolutionary Guard locations near Damascus,” SOHR director Rami Abdel-Rahman told Al-Ahram Weekly. “Several sites belonging to Tehran’s militias were destroyed south of Damascus and four fighters were killed.”

Despite Damascus’s repeated protests, Israel insists that it will continue to fight what it describes as Iran’s attempts to embed itself militarily in Syria by sending advanced weaponry to Hizbullah.

The loud explosions that awoke residents of Damascus on Monday morning came from areas just south of the capital where there are numerous facilities belonging to Iranian and Hizbullah forces and allied groups of Syrian and other nationalities. The areas are almost totally controlled by the Iranians and Lebanese Hizbullah.

According to Syrian opposition forces, one of the Israeli strikes targeted a meeting attended by Iranian and Syrian individuals among whom were several Iranian military commanders.

The Israeli air force has carried out hundreds of air and missile strikes in Syria since the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011. For the most part, it has targeted camps, logistics facilities, personnel and other military targets belonging to Hizbullah and Iran. It has also struck Syrian military targets such as the Syrian Defence Ministry’s scientific research centre, which is responsible for Damascus’s missile development programme. Israel rarely claims responsibility for its attacks.

The Israeli strike on Monday morning came a week after a brief visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif to Damascus on 20 April. The visit, in which Zarif met with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, surprised observers as it occurred while Iran, like the rest of the world, has been struggling to fight the spread of the Covid-19.

It appears that the visit was a response to criticisms levelled against Al-Assad in the Russian press and was therefore a means to demonstrate Iran’s continued support for the Damascus regime.

Immediately after the visit, the three Astana Process partners of Russia, Iran and Turkey held a teleconference at the foreign-minister level to discuss developments on the ground in Idlib and east of the Euphrates in Syria, the political process, humanitarian situation and the return of refugees.

The teleconference, convened at Tehran’s request, produced little apart from affirming that Iran is still a key player in Syria.

Just as Iran is worried by a surge in Russian media attacks against the regime in Damascus, Moscow is also worried by the threat Iran poses to Russian aims in Syria. Israel is concerned about the threat the Iranian presence in Syria poses to its national security.

Iran clearly has every intention of remaining in Syria, and it will certainly be expecting payback from the regime after the support Tehran has given it since 2011 despite mounting pressures in the form of US sanctions and Israeli strikes.

Thus far, such pressures have not been sufficient to compel Iran to withdraw militarily from Syria or relinquish its influence there. Tehran will continue to manoeuvre in ways to ensure it remains a key player in Syria, and it has escalated its actions towards this end since being sidelined from last year’s Russian-Turkish de-escalation agreement in Idlib.

Iran feels it is in its interests to obstruct Russian efforts to promote a political settlement in Syria because it fears that this would pave the way to future arrangements that would exclude Iran.

The US and Israel have long made it clear that they want Iran out of Syria, and increasingly the rest of the international community has been moving more firmly in this direction as well. For this reason, Iran will continue to nettle Israel from Syrian territory and Israel will continue to stage strikes into Syria, at least until international efforts succeed in achieving a comprehensive and lasting political solution to the Syrian crisis.

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Israel bombs Iran-backed forces near Syrian capital

The attack, launched from over Lebanese airspace, killed both fighters and civilians.

Al-Monitor, Apr 27, 2020

Israeli jets hit Iran-backed targets outside the Syrian capital of Damascus today, killing fighters and civilians, according to multiple reports.

The airstrikes hit militias supported by Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah south of Damascus, killing at least four fighters and destroying some of their offices. Three civilians also died, according to the pro-Syrian opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Syrian state news agency SANA reported that Syrian air defense systems were activated during the attack and that Israeli missiles were responsible for three deaths and four injuries.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the civilians died when missile fragments hit their homes. It could not conclude whether the fragments came from Israeli missiles or Syrian air defense systems.

Both the observatory and the Syrian state press said that Israeli jets fired the missiles while over Lebanon.

The airstrike is Israel’s fourth in Syria in April. Israel has acknowledged airstrikes targeting Iranian forces and shipments to Hezbollah in Syria in the past, but has not commented on this one. Israel has recently been concerned that Hezbollah is trying to produce precision-guided missiles, according to the Associated Press.

Hezbollah and Iran are fighting alongside the Syrian government in the Syrian civil war. Iran supports many militias in the country and provides Hezbollah with financial, military and ideological support. Israel, which has a longstanding conflict with Iran and Hezbollah, has repeatedly struck Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria over the course of the war. Israel used a drone to bomb a Hezbollah vehicle on the Syria-Lebanon border April 15 and has at times supported some Syrian rebel groups fighting Iran’s ally, the Syrian government.

Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/04/israel-bombs-iranian-targets-syria.html#ixzz6L7JYAoiy

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