BEIRUT: The Daesh group attacked several government-held villages in central Syria on Thursday, capturing at least one of them in violence that left dozens of people dead, including three members of the same family.
The attack in the central Hama province targeted villages, raising fears that the extremists might massacre them, as they have in other minority communities in Syria and Iraq.
The villages are located near the highway that links the capital, Damascus, to the northern city of Aleppo, but state media said traffic was not affected by the clashes.
Government forces are on the offensive against the extremists in other parts of Syria, mostly in the northern province of Aleppo and the central Homs region. US-backed and Kurdish-led forces are meanwhile marching toward the extremists’ de-facto capital of Raqqa, in northern Syria.
Syria’s state news agency SANA said troops and pro-government gunmen repelled the Daesh attack on villages in Hama province, adding that the militants also tried to attack the Damascus-Aleppo highway but were repelled there as well.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Daesh captured several army positions as well as the village of Aqareb Al-Safi, killing 19 troops and 12 civilians. It said troops launched a counteroffensive under the cover of airstrikes.
The Observatory said the 31 killed include a man and his two sons slain in the village of Mabouja, adding that others are believed to have been killed as well.
The Daesh-linked Aamaq news agency said the group captured Aqareb Al-Safi and Mabouja. It identified residents as members of President Bashar Assad’s Alawite sect. Daesh has massacred thousands of Shiites and other opponents in Syria and Iraq, often boasting about the killings and circulating photos and videos of them online.
“Dozens of people are missing but it is not clear if they were kidnapped by Daesh,” said the Observatory’s chief Rami Abdurrahman. He said Daesh deployed snipers on roofs of some buildings in Aqareb Al-Safi.
State TV said two people were wounded in IS shelling on the nearby town of Salamiyeh.
Daesh attacks Syrian state-held areas, 31 killed
Daesh attacks Syrian state-held areas, 31 killed
UN force says Israeli tank fired near peacekeepers in Lebanon
- Under the November 2024 truce, Israel was to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon, but it has kept them in five areas it deems strategic and carries out regular strikes on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites and operatives
BEIRUT: The UN Interim Force in Lebanon said an Israeli tank fired near its peacekeepers on Monday, and warned that such attacks were becoming “disturbingly common.”
UNIFIL has repeatedly reported Israeli fire near or toward its personnel in recent months, and less than two weeks ago, said gunfire from an Israeli position hit close to peacekeepers twice.
“UNIFIL peacekeepers observed two Merkava tanks move” from an Israeli army position inside Lebanese territory “further into Lebanon” on Monday, the force said in a statement.
UNIFIL has acted as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon for decades, and recently has been working with Lebanon’s army to support a year-old ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Under the November 2024 truce, Israel was to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon, but it has kept them in five areas it deems strategic and carries out regular strikes on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites and operatives.
“The peacekeepers requested through liaison channels that the tanks stop their activity,” the statement said.
Later, “one of the tanks fired three shells from its main gun, with two impacts approximately 150 meters away from the peacekeepers,” UNIFIL said, adding that “as the peacekeepers moved away for safety, they were continuously tracked with a laser from the tanks.”
The statement reported no casualties but noted UNIFIL had informed the Israeli army of its activities in the area in advance.
“Attacks like these on identifiable peacekeepers ... are becoming disturbingly common,” the statement said, urging a stop to such incidents.
It called them “a serious violation” of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and forms the basis of the current truce.
Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, Beirut has committed to disarming Hezbollah, and last week, Lebanon’s army said it had finished doing so in the area near the border.
UNIFIL’s final mandate ends this year, and the force is to leave Lebanon in 2027.
