Car Bomb Kills Six in Homs
AFP reports that another car bomb has killed six people in the central city of Homs. The blast occurred in Akrameh, a majority Alawite area of the city.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least six people were killed in the attack and nine wounded, though Syrian state media had the toll at three in what it called a “terrorist car bomb attack.”
Elsewhere in Syria, the wire reports that Assad planes launched 25 air strikes on the area of Mleiha, southeast of Damascus, “a key rebel bastion that the regime has struggled for weeks to recapture.”
The president’s troops, backed by fighters from Lebanese Hezbollah, also fired surface-to-surface missiles at Jabhat al-Nusra and other rebels stationed in Mleiha.
The battle for the town has been ongoing since late spring; it is of strategic value for both sides, located near the airport road in the rebel stronghold of eastern Ghouta.
More Than 1 Million Syrian Refugees Are Now in Turkey
The Guardian reports that the Turkish deputy prime minister has said there are now more than 1 million Syrian refugees in Turkey.
“There are more than 20 refugee camps in Turkey near the roughly 500-mile border with Syria housing more than 220,000 people. But the bulk of people who have crossed the border are living in Turkish cities, mostly in the provinces of Hatay, Gaziantep and Sanliurfa,” the Guardian says. “They have taken advantage of the ‘open border’ policy maintained by Turkey, a staunch opponent of the regime in Damascus, towards Syrian refugees.”
Syrian refugees have been pouring into Turkey since April 2011. Since then, the country has struggled to cope with the increasing numbers of Syrians crossing the border. On June 1, the U.N. said there were 760,000 registered Syrian refugees in Turkey. There are also more than a million in Lebanon, and 600,000 in Jordan. Iraq and Egypt have also taken in significant numbers.
France Discusses Military Options for Syria, Iraq
The AP reports that French President Francoise Hollande held an emergency meeting Thursday to discuss possible military options for Syria and Iraq, following last week’s sudden advance by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
In a statement, Hollande said he was “reinforcing cooperation with its international and European partners to bring a coordinated and effective response to the terrorist threat. The war that [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] is pursuing against his own people promotes the creation of a zone between Syria and Iraq that is open to terrorists.”
The statement didn’t elaborate on what the response could be. A French diplomatic official said earlier Thursday that France has not been asked for military help in Iraq at this stage but was considering its options. But the official did say any international military action in Iraq should be part of a broader plan that includes Sunnis and Kurds.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that the White House is beginning to consider the conflicts in Syria and Iraq as a single challenge, possibly requiring intervention.
“At a National Security Council meeting this week, President Obama and his senior advisers reviewed the consequences of possible air strikes in Iraq, a bolder push to train Syria’s moderate rebel factions, and various political initiatives to break down the sectarian divisions that have stirred Iraq’s Sunni Muslims against the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki,” the paper writes.
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