A Syrian man reacts as water floods tents at a camp for the internally displaced near the town of Kafr Lusin in the rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib, by the border with Turkey, on Jan. 19, 2021. (AFP)
Charity: We are forced to choose between using tents for housing or education
Updated 02 February 2021
Charlie Peters
LONDON: A week of heavy flooding in northwest Syria has destroyed some 120 schools and swept away tents in refugee camps.
Over 21,000 children and more than 980 education personnel have been affected by the floods, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which said its current assessment falls short of the total damage caused because many areas remain inaccessible.
With more than 2 million children of school age in northwest Syria — roughly half of them internally displaced due to the war — the education system in the region is severely strained.
“The most basic thing needed in northwest Syria is the political will to help children recover from the conflict,” Amjad Yamin, the advocacy and campaigns director for Save the Children, told Arab News.
“There’s the easy way of funding education more — which is distinctly underfunded, with 75 percent of what’s being requested not being met — but there’s also a need to put funding toward infrastructure. There just aren’t enough buildings in northwest Syria for the people there,” he said.
“We’re regularly left trying to make a choice between moving families living in buildings into tents so they can host schools, or hosting schools in tents, neither of which is a solution. Unless there’s some serious investment in infrastructure, we’re going to continue to see the same cycle every winter,” he added.
“More humanitarian access is needed in northwest Syria. Four million people rely on it, but the UN Security Council only allows one border crossing for humanitarian aid. We need to remove these restrictions — which are blocking a lot of what charities can do — and we need to improve funding for access to services.”
Heavy rains in the Afrin province of northwest Syria have swept away dozens of tents in recent days.
Mark Cutts, the UN deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria, said last week: “I am deeply concerned about the devastating impact that the recent floods have had on displaced people living in camps in northwest Syria.”
He added: “Just last year, 1 million people in this area were displaced by fighting. Many of them are still living under olive trees on roadsides, as there are simply not enough camps for all these people. The international response has not matched the scale of the crisis.”
US military launches strikes in Syria against Daesh fighters after American deaths
“This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says
President Trump earlier pledged “very serious retaliation” but stressed that Syria was fighting alongside US troops
Updated 20 December 2025
AP
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration launched military strikes Friday in Syria to “eliminate” Daesh group fighters and weapons sites in retaliation for an ambush attack that killed two US troops and an American interpreter almost a week ago.
A US official described it as “a large-scale” strike that hit 70 targets in areas across central Syria that had Daesh (also known as Islamic State or IS) infrastructure and weapons. Another US official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations, said more strikes should be expected.
The attack was conducted using F-15 Eagle jets, A-10 Thunderbolt ground attack aircraft and AH-64 Apache helicopters, the officials said. F-16 fighter jets from Jordan and HIMARS rocket artillery also were used, one official said.
“This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance. The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media.
CENTCOM forces launched fighter jets, attack helicopters and other assets to conduct the large-scale strike. pic.twitter.com/3szSo2u5rm
President Donald Trump had pledged “very serious retaliation” after the shooting in the Syrian desert, for which he blamed Daesh. The troops were among hundreds of US troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the terrorist group.
Trump in a social media post said the strikes were targeting Daesh “strongholds.” He reiterated his support for Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who he said was “fully in support” of the US effort to target the militant group.
Trump also offered an all-caps threat, warning the group against attacking US personnel again.
“All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned — YOU WILL BE HIT HARDER THAN YOU HAVE EVER BEEN HIT BEFORE IF YOU, IN ANY WAY, ATTACK OR THREATEN THE USA.,” the president added.
The attack was a major test for the warming ties between the United States and Syria since the ouster of autocratic leader Bashar Assad a year ago. Trump has stressed that Syria was fighting alongside US troops and said Al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack,” which came as the US military is expanding its cooperation with Syrian security forces.
Syria’s foreign ministry in a statement on X following the launch of US strikes said that last week’s attack “underscores the urgent necessity of strengthening international cooperation to combat terrorism in all its forms” and that Syria is committed “to fighting Daesh and ensuring that it has no safe havens on Syrian territory and will continue to intensify military operations against it wherever it poses a threat.”
The Syrian Arab Republic reiterates its steadfast commitment to fighting ISIS and ensuring that it has no safe havens on Syrian territory, and will continue to intensify military operations against it wherever it poses a threat.
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— وزارة الخارجية والمغتربين السورية (@syrianmofaex) December 19, 2025
Daesh has not claimed responsibility for the attack on the US service members, but the group has claimed responsibility for two attacks on Syrian security forces since, one of which killed four Syrian soldiers in Idlib province. The group in its statements described Al-Sharaa’s government and army as “apostates.” While Al-Sharaa once led a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda, he has had a long-running enmity with Daesh.
Syrian state television reported that the US strikes hit targets in rural areas of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa provinces and in the Jabal Al-Amour area near Palmyra. It said they targeted “weapons storage sites and headquarters used by Daesh as launching points for its operations in the region.”
Trump this week met privately with the families of the slain Americans at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before he joined top military officials and other dignitaries on the tarmac for the dignified transfer, a solemn and largely silent ritual honoring US service members killed in action.
President Donald Trump, from left, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Air Force Gen. Dan Caine attend a casualty return ceremony at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, on Dec. 17, 2025,of soldiers who were killed in an attack in Syria last week. (AP)
The guardsmen killed in Syria last Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, according to the US Army. Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, a US civilian working as an interpreter, was also killed.
The shooting nearly a week ago near the historic city of Palmyra also wounded three other US troops as well as members of Syria’s security forces, and the gunman was killed. The assailant had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base security guard two months ago and recently was reassigned because of suspicions that he might be affiliated with Daesh, Interior Ministry spokesperson Nour Al-Din Al-Baba has said.
The man stormed a meeting between US and Syrian security officials who were having lunch together and opened fire after clashing with Syrian guards.
When asked for further information, the Pentagon referred AP to Hegseth’s social media post.
