DAMASCUS: Militants attacked a civilian bus in eastern Syria on Thursday, killing three people and wounding 21, Syrian state TV reported.
The TV said the bus was attacked near a village in a desert area of the province of Deir Ezzor, which borders Iraq. It did not say whether the bus was attacked with machine gun fire, a missile or a roadside bomb.
The report gave no further details and there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Large parts of Deir Ezzor were once controlled by the extremist Daesh group, which in 2014 proclaimed a so-called “caliphate” in a third of both Iraq and Syria.
In the past, Syrian authorities have blamed such attacks on Daesh and its sleeper cells, which have been active in eastern and central Syria, despite Daesh militants losing areas they once controlled in 2019.
Militant attack on bus kills 3, wounds 21 in eastern Syria
https://arab.news/4w6j8
Militant attack on bus kills 3, wounds 21 in eastern Syria
- The bus was attacked near a village in a desert area of the province of Deir el-Zour
- There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack
US resumes food aid to Somalia
- The United States on Thursday announced the resumption of food distribution in Somalia, weeks after the destruction of a US-funded World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse at Mogadishu’s port
NAIROBI: The United States on Thursday announced the resumption of food distribution in Somalia, weeks after the destruction of a US-funded World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse at Mogadishu’s port.
In early January, Washington suspended aid to Somalia over reports of theft and government interference, saying Somali officials had “illegally seized 76 metric tons of donor-funded food aid meant for vulnerable Somalis.”
US officials then warned any future aid would depend on the Somali government taking accountability, a stance Mogadishu countered by saying the warehouse demolition was part of the port’s “expansion and repurposing works.”
On Wednesday, however, the Somali government said “all WFP commodities affected by port expansion have been returned.”
In a statement Somalia said it “takes full responsibility” and has “provided the World Food Program with a larger and more suitable warehouse within the Mogadishu port area.”
The US State Department said in a post on X that: “We will resume WFP food distribution while continuing to review our broader assistance posture in Somalia.”
“The Trump Administration maintains a firm zero tolerance policy for waste, theft, or diversion of US resources,” it said.
US president Donald Trump has slashed aid over the past year globally.
Somalis in the United States have also become a particular target for the administration in recent weeks, targeted in immigration raids.
They have also been accused of large-scale public benefit fraud in Minnesota, which has the largest Somali community in the country with around 80,000 members.
