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Executive Summary for July 3rd

We review key developments in Syria, including car bomb attacks in Damascus, alleged use of chlorine gas in the Damascus suburbs and UNHCR saying that nearly half a million displaced Syrians have returned home.

Published on July 3, 2017 Read time Approx. 3 minutes

Car Bomb Hits Damascus

At least 20 people were killed and dozens more were injured by a car bomb in the Bab Touma area near the Old City in Damascus on Sunday, the Syrian foreign ministry said, according to Reuters.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that among those killed in the bombing, around seven were members of pro-government security forces and at least two were civilians. The three attackers also died. The Foreign Ministry also issued a statement to the U.N. secretary general and the head of the security council saying that the wounded included dozens of women and children.

For many in the Syrian capital, Sunday was the first day back to work after the Eid al-Fitr holiday, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. This is the first such bombing Damascus has experienced since March, when it suffered a succession of jihadist suicide attacks.

According to local authorities, the car was one of three carrying explosives in the area, but security forces found and were able to destroy the other two before they reached their intended targets and detonated.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Alleged Chlorine Gas Attack in Damascus Suburbs

The Syrian army denied rebel claims that it used chlorine gas against fighters of the opposition faction Failaq al-Rahman in a battle on Saturday in the eastern Damascus suburbs, Reuters reported.

The rebel group said that following an attack in the Ain Tarma suburb, in the Eastern Ghouta region, more than 30 people suffered symptoms of suffocation. Government forces are in an ongoing battle to take back the Eastern Ghouta region from insurgents.

According to the state-run news outlet SANA, General Command of the Army and Armed Forces said these claims are false and baseless news, adding that the Syrian army “has not used any chemical weapons in the past, and will not use them at any time.”

Chlorine is not banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, but when weaponized and used in high concentrations it can be lethal. Chlorine gas has been the “most common” substance used in chemical attacks in Syria since 2013, Ole Solvang, deputy director for emergencies at Human Rights Watch, recently told Syria Deeply.

Nearly 500,000 Displaced Syrians Have Returned Home: UNHCR

The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said that nearly half a million displaced Syrians have returned to their homes since the beginning of 2017, Reuters reported.

Among those who have returned were 440,000 internally displaced people and more than 31,000 from neighbouring countries. Most are returning to Aleppo, Damascus, Hama and Homs, many of them to check on their families and properties.

Roughly 6.3 million Syrians are still internally displaced throughout Syria and another 5 million refugees remain outside the country. UNHCR recently carried out a survey which revealed that more than 80 percent of Syrian refugees would like to return home; however, only 6 percent thought that this would be realistic in the “near future,” according to UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic.

Mahecic added that “conditions for refugees to return in safety and dignity are not yet in place in Syria.”

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