DAMASCUS: At least 18 soldiers were killed and 20 wounded on Thursday when an explosive device detonated on a military bus in the Damascus countryside, local outlet Sham FM said.
It represents one of the deadliest attacks in months against Syrian government troops not on an active front line. Bus attacks in particular have been on the rise, including in the Damascus countryside.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday’s attack and no comment from Syrian authorities.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor that counts casualties and covers military developments in the 11-year-old conflict, said that 17 soldiers were killed in the blast.
A decade of conflict in Syria has killed hundreds of thousands of people and left the country fractured. Syrian government troops have managed to recapture much of the territory they had lost to opposition fighters.
Security incidents have been on the rise around Damascus and other parts of Syria controlled by the government.
Deadly bus attack kills 18 Syrian soldiers in Damascus countryside
https://arab.news/n5smk
Deadly bus attack kills 18 Syrian soldiers in Damascus countryside
- One of the deadliest attacks in months against Syrian government troops not on an active front line
- Bus attacks in particular have been on the rise, including in the Damascus countryside
Two Tunisia columnists handed over three years in prison
- Mourad Zeghidi and Borhen Bsaies have already been in detention for almost two years
- They were due to be released in January 2025 but have remained in custody on charges of money laundering
TUNIS: Two prominent Tunisian columnists were sentenced on Thursday to three and a half years in prison each for money laundering and tax evasion, according to a relative and local media.
The two men, Mourad Zeghidi and Borhen Bsaies, have already been in detention for almost two years for statements considered critical of President Kais Saied’s government, made on radio, television programs and social media.
They were due to be released in January 2025 but have remained in custody on charges of money laundering and tax evasion.
“Three and a half years for Mourad and Borhen,” Zeghidi’s sister, Meriem Zeghidi Adda, wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
Since Saied’s power grab, which granted him sweeping powers on July 25, 2021, local and international NGOs have denounced a regression of rights and freedoms in Tunisia.
Dozens of opposition figures and civil society activists are being prosecuted under a presidential decree officially aimed at combatting “fake news” but subject to a very broad interpretation denounced by human rights defenders.
Others, including opposition leaders, have been sentenced to heavy prison terms in a mega-trial of “conspiracy against state security.”
In 2025, Tunisia fell 11 places in media watchdog Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) World Press Freedom Index, dropping from 118th to 129th out of 180 countries.
