Cyprus Seeks Help With Influx of Syrian Refugees from Lebanon
Cyprus indicated it’s capacity to take in refugees was reaching its limit in an appeal for action from the European Union on Wednesday; in the first three months of 2024, more than two thousand refugees arrived on the island, as compared to only seventy-eight over the same period in 2023, while over six hundred Syrian refugees arrived from Lebanon in the past week alone (Middle East Monitor)
Iran Accuses Israel of Killing Commanders in Syria Strike
Iran accused Israel of an attack on its embassy compound in Damascus, Syria, vowing revenge and sparking fears that the ongoing regional conflict is expanding (FT)
At least seven Iranian military personnel and six Syrian nationals were killed in the strike, which destroyed the consulate building, Iranian state media reported; three of those reported killed were senior Iranian commanders (Bloomberg)
Israel did not immediately comment on the attack but has stepped up strikes on Iran-backed militants in Syria since the start of its war with Hamas; this would be Israel’s first attack that has directly hit an Iranian diplomatic facility (Reuters)
Following the attack, Iran summoned the Swiss envoy who represents U.S. diplomatic interests in Iran (CNN)
Washington had no involvement or advanced knowledge of the strike, a National Security Council spokesperson said (NYT)
Dozens Reported Killed in Israeli Air Strikes in Syria
Israeli air strikes in northern Syria today killed at least thirty-eight people, including five fighters from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, three unnamed security sources told Reuters; Israel did not immediately comment on the strikes, which appeared to be its most deadly in Syria in months (Reuters)
Israel has recently targeted sites linked to Iran’s allies in Syria (BBC)
War Monitor: Iranian Commander Killed in Strikes in Syria
An Iranian military commander was among thirteen people killed in air strikes in eastern Syria overnight, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said; there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks (AFP)
United States Gave Syria’s Transitional Government List of Conditions for Sanctions to Be Partially Removed
The conditions include the destruction of any chemical weapons, cooperation on counterterrorism, and a pledge that foreign fighters will not have senior government roles, multiple sources said; Syria’s government did not comment, and a State Department spokesperson said the agency does not “discuss our private diplomatic conversations publicly” (Reuters)
Eleven Killed in Suspected Islamic State Attack in Syria
An attack by the Islamic State killed at least eleven people hunting desert truffles in northern Syria, a war monitor said, in the latest incident of its kind (Voice of America)
There have been at least two other attacks on truffle hunters of the same nature in March 2024 alone, killing at least thirty-four other people (BBC).
UN Appeals for $4 Billion in Aid as Syrian Humanitarian Crisis Deepens
A UN humanitarian official appealed for more than $4 billion in life-saving aid for more than ten million Syrians, saying that the country’s largely forgotten crisis remains “one of the most deadly to civilians in the world” (Washington Post). Adam Abdelmoula, resident coordinator in Syria for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, made the appeal days after Syria marked the thirteenth anniversary of the conflict that has killed nearly a half million people and left large parts of the country destroyed (ABC News).
Syria Nuclear Probe Reactivated after UN Watchdog Meets al-Assad
A stalled investigation into an alleged clandestine military-nuclear facility in Syria was renewed this week, signaling that President Bashar al-Assad may be ready to resolve questions about a site bombed by Israel almost two decades ago (Al Arabiya)
The International Atomic Energy Agency began investigating the Deir al-Zour site in eastern Syria in 2007, weeks after Israeli forces destroyed it in a midnight raid; subsequent years of war and official stonewalling delayed the probe until Tuesday when the IAEA’s Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi met al-Assad in Damascus (Bloomberg).
Israeli Strikes Target Hezbollah Inside Syria
Israel launched missiles at several military targets outside Damascus on Tuesday, Syria’s defense ministry said, in what sources said were stepped-up strikes on fortifications of Lebanon’s Hezbollah (Reuters)
Two Syrian military sources familiar with the strikes said Israel targeted a Hezbollah ammunition depot near the city of Yabroud in the Qalamoun Mountains, northeast of the Syrian capital (Jerusalem Post)
Israel Strikes Several Sites in Syria, Damascus Says
Israeli airstrikes hit several sites in southern Syria early Sunday, wounding a soldier, Syrian state media reported (Newsday)
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israeli strikes also hit two military sites in the Qalamoun mountains northeast of Damascus, an area where the Lebanese group Hezbollah has operations (ABC News)
The observatory said the strikes represented the twenty-fourth time Israel has struck inside Syria since the beginning of 2024; they have killed forty-three fighters with various groups and nine civilians (AP).
UN: Syria Experiencing “Largest Escalation of Violence Since 2020”
A new UN report has warned that in the last six months violence across Syria has been at its worst since 2020 (The New Arab)
The report, released by the UN Syria Commission of Inquiry on Monday, details how violence has proliferated across the country, including an uptick in clashes between armed groups, as well as internal repression by the Assad regime against political activity (OHCHR)
Switzerland to Try Syria’s Rifaat al-Assad for War Crimes
Swiss federal prosecutors have referred Syria’s ex-Vice President Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of the country’s current president, for trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed more than four decades ago (Al Jazeera). The attorney general’s office said on Tuesday the eighty-six-year-old was accused of the crimes in February 1982 while serving as commander of the defense brigades that carried out an attack in the Syrian city of Hama during a conflict between the military and the opposition; security forces killed thousands to crush a Muslim Brotherhood uprising in the central city that year (AP).
Purge in Northwest Syria Highlights Discontent with HTS’ Grip on Power
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a powerful militant group that grew out of Syria’s al-Qaeda branch that largely controls Idlib province and parts of the Aleppo countryside, is conducting a security campaign in northwest Syria, detaining dozens of people and accusing them of treason and espionage (Middle East Eye)
Frustrated and paranoid Syrians held protests in HTS-held towns and villages, including Binnish, Marea, Killi, and al-Atarib, chanting against the group’s policies and calling for the overthrow of HTS leader Abu Mohamed al-Jolani, the freedom of prisoners, and an end to the group’s grip on people (Voice of America)
IRGC Member and Two Others Killed in Attack in Syria
A member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Reza Zarei, and two other people have been killed in a suspected Israeli attack in the port city of Baniyas in Syria, according to Iran’s state news agency IRNA (Al Jazeera). Meanwhile, Syrian regime forces shot and killed one protester and injured another in Sweida, a Druze-majority governorate in southern Syria (DW)
This is the first recorded death since economic protests gripped Sweida last year and quickly turned into protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (Al Jazeera).
Islamic State Kills Nine Soldiers at Syrian Military Barracks
Islamic State (IS) militants claimed responsibility for the attack near the town of Al-Sukhna in central Syria during which they also set fire to the building and seized weapons left behind by escaping soldiers (AP)
Air Strikes Hit Syrian City of Homs, Reportedly Killing at Least Eight
A United Kingdom-based war monitor said that two people from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and at least six civilians were killed in the strikes; the Syrian military blamed Israel for the strikes, but Israel did not immediately comment (AP)
Iran-Backed Iraqi Militia Claims Responsibility For Attack on Syria Base
The attack on a Syrian base killed six U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters (CBS)
Despite the recent attacks between U.S. and Iranian-backed forces, the United States “will not escalate the conflict,” an unnamed senior State Department official told reporters traveling with Blinken (WaPo)
U.S. Carries Out Retaliatory Strikes on Iran-Backed Groups in Syria
U.S. forces conducted dozens of air strikes on targets in Syria in what National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan described as “the beginning of our response” to the killing of U.S. troops in Jordan last month (NYT)
Sullivan told CNN that Iran-backed militia attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria are “distinct but related” to those on shipping in the Red Sea; while top U.S. officials “are not looking to take the United States to war,” he said, they aim to respond to the attacks “with force and clarity” (CNN)
Reuters: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Pull Senior Officers From Syria
Iranian forces in Syria decided to scale back their deployment after a series of Israeli strikes on their positions, five unnamed sources told Reuters; while Iran says it has no intentions to leave Syria entirely, the decision indicates how the escalating war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas is affecting the broader region (Reuters)
Iran: Israeli Strike Killed Five IRGC Members in Damascus
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed an Israeli air raid killed five of its military advisors in a residential building in Damascus; Al Jazeera reported the target was an IRGC intelligence unit (UN)
Iran Blames Israel For Killing Senior Officer
Sayyed Razi Mousavi was killed in Syria; Iran’s president said Israel would pay a price for the officer’s death, Tehran’s state media reported (Bloomberg)
Syrian Strikes Kill Six Civilians in Last Rebel Stronghold
Government forces reportedly fired thirty-five missiles into industrial and residential areas in and around the city of Idlib in northern Syria (AFP)
Meanwhile, an Israeli drone strike in Syria killed three Hezbollah militia members (Reuters)
U.S. Welcomes ICJ Ruling on Torture in Syria
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), in its first proceeding on Syria’s civil war, ordered President Bashar al-Assad’s government to stop acts of torture and to preserve all evidence of torture (Rudaw)
World Court Orders Syria to Prevent Torture
The International Court of Justice ordered the Syrian government to “take all measures within its powers” to prevent torture and preserve evidence of possible torture as accusations against the Bashar al-Assad regime continue to move through the court; the move is intended to protect potential victims as the case is expected to take several years (AP)
U.S. Strikes Iran-Backed Targets in Syria
The United States struck positions in eastern Syria for the third time in three weeks in response to near-daily attacks on U.S. forces in Iran and Syria since October 17 (NYT)