BEIRUT: At least ten people were killed in shelling on the Syrian town of Douma, northeast of the capital Damascus, yesterday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog said.
“Ten citizens were killed, a child and nine men... in the town of Douma as a result of shelling by regime forces,” the group said in a statement, after earlier reporting air raids on the town.
Nearby, in the town of Moadamiyet Al-Sham, the group reported air raids and tank fire, as well as shelling of the Barzeh district of the capital, which has been under fire for three straight days.
According to the Observatory, the area saw some of the worst fighting in more than two years between regime and rebel forces on Friday.
The area in the northeast of the capital is a residential neighborhood and has been divided in two, with one side held by the regime and the other by rebel forces.
Elsewhere, regime forces carried out air raids against parts of Damascus and Aleppo province and strikes were also reported in western Latakia and southern Daraa.
On Friday, at least 127 people were killed in violence throughout the country, according to a toll from the Observatory, which relies on a vast network of activists and medical staff inside Syria.
10 die in shelling outside Damascus
10 die in shelling outside Damascus
Algeria inaugurates strategic railway to giant Sahara mine
- The mine is expected to produce 4 million tons per year during the initial phase, with production projected to triple to 12 million tons per year by 2030
- The project is financed by the Algerian state and partly built by a Chinese consortium
ALGEIRS: Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Sunday inaugurated a nearly 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) desert railway to transport iron ore from a giant mine, a project he called one of the biggest in the country’s history.
The line will bring iron ore from the Gara Djebilet deposit in the south to the city of Bechar located 950 kilometers north, to be taken to a steel production plant near Oran further north.
The project is financed by the Algerian state and partly built by a Chinese consortium.
During the inauguration, Tebboune described it as “one of the largest strategic projects in the history of independent Algeria.”
This project aims to increase Algeria’s iron ore extraction capacity, as the country aspires to become one of Africa’s leading steel producers.
The iron ore deposit is also seen as a key driver of Algeria’s economic diversification as it seeks to reduce its reliance on hydrocarbons, according to experts.
President Tebboune attended an inauguration ceremony in Bechar, welcoming the first passenger train from Tindouf in southern Algeria and sending toward the north a first charge of iron ore, according to footage broadcast on national television.
The mine is expected to produce 4 million tons per year during the initial phase, with production projected to triple to 12 million tons per year by 2030, according to estimates by the state-owned Feraal Group, which manages the site.
It is then expected to reach 50 million tons per year in the long term, it said.
The start of operations at the mine will allow Algeria to drastically reduce its iron ore imports and save $1.2 billion per year, according to Algerian media.
