DAMASCUS/BEIRUT/ABU DHABI: Regime forces rained shells on rebel positions in northwestern Latakia province yesterday, pounding for the eighth straight day the town of Al-Haffe as they prepared to storm it, monitors said.
Pro-Syrian regime villagers yesterday prevented United Nations observers from reaching Al-Haffe where there are fears that a new massacre might be carried out, a watchdog said.
"Residents of the pro-regime village of As-Sheer blocked the road and prevented the UN observer team from reaching Al-Haffe," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said people "lay down on the road blocking access to the vehicles of the observers," who then began looking for another route into the town, in the northwestern province of Latakia.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said troops also pounded a neighborhood of the eastern city of Deir Ezzor with mortar fire yesterday, killing 10 civilians including a young girl, while five other civilians were killed in attacks on the central city of Homs.
"Regime forces are sending reinforcements and preparing an attack," on Al-Haffe, Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP.
Abdel Rahman said that hundreds of rebel Free Syrian Army fighters are active in the area. According to the Britain-based Observatory troops used heavy artillery and helicopter gunships in their attacks on Al-Haffe.
On Monday, activists told AFP they feared a massacre would be committed if regime troops managed to enter the restive town.
Al-Haffe is considered strategic because of its proximity to Qardaha, President Bashar Assad’s hometown.
Syrian troops also stepped up attacks yesterday on the central city of Homs and its suburbs, pounding rebel positions, the Observatory said, adding that at least five civilians were killed. “The situation is horrific, murderous," an activist in Homs who identified himself as Abu Bilal told AFP via Skype.
Abu Bilal said 400 civilians — including women and children — were trapped in a school in the Jourat Al-Shiah neighborhood.
"There are no fighters there, but still it's being shelled," he said.
"We're scared of a big massacre. We've never seen so much shelling before," he said. Earlier the Observatory said 10 civilians were killed yesterday when Syrian forces pounded a neighborhood of the eastern city of Deir Ezzor. The attack, which targeted the city's Al-Jbaible neighborhood, came a day after 12 people, including three children, were killed in a car bomb blast in Deir Ezzor's Al-Joura neighborhood, the watchdog said.
The United Arab Emirates yesterday renewed calls for its citizens to avoid travel to Lebanon and Syria.
The UAE "once again calls on its citizens not to travel to Lebanon and Syria at this time, except under conditions of extreme urgency," the foreign ministry said, the official WAM news agency reported.
Syria rains shells on Al-Haffe
Syria rains shells on Al-Haffe
US military transfers first 150 Daesh detainees from Syria to Iraq
- Transfer follows Syrian government forces taking control of Al-Hol camp from SDF
- US Central Command says up to 7,000 detainees could be transferred to Iraqi-controlled facilities
AL-HOL, Syria: The US military said Wednesday it has started transferring detainees from the Daesh group being held in northeastern Syria to secure facilities in Iraq.
The move came after Syrian government forces took control of a sprawling camp, housing thousands of mostly women and children, from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, which withdrew as part of a ceasefire. Troops on Monday seized a prison in the northeastern town of Shaddadeh, where some Daesh detainees escaped and many were recaptured, state media reported.
The Kurdish-led SDF still controls more than a dozen detention facilities holding around 9,000 Daesh members.
US Central Command said the first transfer involved 150 Daesh members, who were taken from Syria’s northeastern province of Hassakah to “secure locations” in Iraq. The statement said that up to 7,000 detainees could be transferred to Iraqi-controlled facilities.
“Facilitating the orderly and secure transfer of Daesh detainees is critical to preventing a breakout that would pose a direct threat to the United States and regional security,” said Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander. He said the transfer was in coordination with regional partners, including Iraq.
US troops and their partner forces detained more than 300 Daesh operatives in Syria and killed over 20 last year, the US military said. An ambush last month by Daesh militants killed two US soldiers and one American civilian interpreter in Syria.
An Iraqi intelligence general told The Associated Press that an agreement was reached with the US to transfer 7,000 detainees from Syria to Iraq. He said that Iraqi authorities received the first batch of 144 detainees Wednesday night, after which they will be transferred in stages by aircraft to Iraqi prisons.
The general, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the Daesh members who will be transferred to Iraq are of different nationalities. He said they include around 240 Tunisians, in addition to others from countries including Tajikistan and Kazakhstan and some Syrians.
“They will be interrogated and then put on trial. All of them are commanders in Daesh and are considered highly dangerous,” the general said. He added that in previous years, 3,194 Iraqi detainees and 47 French citizens have been transferred to Iraq.
Regional threat
The Daesh group was defeated in Iraq in 2017, and in Syria two years later, but the group’s sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in both countries. The SDF played a major role in defeating Daesh.
Tom Barrack, the US envoy to Syria, said in a statement on Tuesday that the SDF’s role as the primary anti-Daesh force “has largely expired, as Damascus is now both willing and positioned to take over security responsibilities.”
He added that the “recent developments show the US actively facilitating this transition, rather than prolonging a separate SDF role.”
Syria’s Foreign Ministry welcomed the transfer of detainees, calling it “an important step to strengthen security and stability.”
Earlier on Wednesday, a convoy of armored vehicles with government forces moved into the Al-Hol camp following two weeks of clashes with the SDF, which appeared closer to merging into the Syrian military, in accordance with government demands.
At its peak in 2019, some 73,000 people were living at Al-Hol. Their number has since declined with some countries repatriating their citizens.
The camp is still home to some 24,000, most of them women and children. They include about 14,500 Syrians and nearly 3,000 Iraqis. Some 6,500 others, many of them loyal Daesh supporters who came from around the world to join the extremist group, are separately held in a highly secured section of the camp.
The Syrian government and the SDF announced a new four-day truce on late Tuesday after a previous ceasefire broke down.
