Syrian Army Attacks Rebel-Held Southeast Desert
The Syrian army, supported by Iranian-backed troops and Russian air power, attacked Bedouin villages in southeast Syria controlled by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) on Monday, according to Reuters.
Rebel fighters said pro-government troops launched attacks on eight villages, including Tal Asfar and Tlul al-Shuhaib, in an effort to consolidate power in the sparsely populated desert area east of the government-controlled city of Sweida, extending to the Iraqi border.
“This is the biggest attack by the regime and on the villages of eastern Sweida. They have used all types of weapons from aerial bombing to artillery and an unprecedented ground offensive,” Mohammad Adnan, spokesman for the rebel group Jaish Ahrar al-Ashaer, told Reuters.
“In the years when Daesh controlled these area, the army never clashed with them,” Adnan added, referring to the so-called Islamic State.
Free Syrian Army (FSA)-linked rebels seized the area from ISIS militants in March. Recently, clashes between the Syrian army and FSA fighters in the southeast have increased as the army ramps up efforts to capture areas near the Iraqi and Jordanian borders.
The recent U.S.-Russian brokered cease-fire does not include the southeast region in Syria. Despite reports of sporadic violence since Sunday, the cease-fire has held in the affected southern provinces of Daraa, Sweida and Quneitra.
Skirmishes Break Out Between Kurdish and Turkish Forces North of Aleppo
Clashes broke out between Syrian Kurdish fighters and the Turkish army after Turkish forces launched attacks on Kurdish-held towns northwest of Aleppo on Monday, according to U.K.-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Rojhat Ro, spokesman for the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia in the Afrin region, told Reuters that YPG fighters retaliated after the Turkish army and their Syrian rebel allies bombarded Tal Rifaat, Sheikh Issa and other towns in northwest Syria with “artillery and rocket launchers.”
Two people were killed and seven injured in the attack, he added.
Turkey considers the YPG to be the Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is classified as a terrorist group under Turkish law.
Syrian Conflict Has Cost Syria $226 Billion, Says World Bank
A World Bank report published Monday estimates that the six-year conflict has cost the Syrian economy $226 billion, around four times its GDP in 2010.
“The war in Syria is tearing apart the social and economic fabric of the country,” World Bank vice president for the Middle East and North Africa Hafez Ghanem said in a statement. Fighting has caused extensive damage to infrastructure, the health sector and other systems in the country.
“The number of casualties is devastating, but the war is also destroying the institutions and systems that societies need to function, and repairing them will be a greater challenge than rebuilding infrastructure – a challenge that will only grow as the war continues,” he added.
Almost half of the medical and education facilities and one-third of the housing stock have been either damaged or destroyed.
The report estimated a loss of around 538,000 jobs annually in 2011–14, with around 9 million Syrians of working age – more than three out of four people – unemployed and not enrolled in any form of school or vocational training.
“The long-term consequences of this inactivity will be a collective loss of human capital leading to a shortage of skills in Syria,” it warned.
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