| Dear Readers,Welcome to the weekly Syria Deeply newsletter. We’ve rounded up the most important stories and developments about Syria and the Syrians in order to bring you valuable news and analysis. But first, here is a brief overview of what happened this week:
In Syria this week, world powers pushed a series of temporary local cease-fires into place amid renewed diplomatic efforts to revive the nationwide truce.A 48-hour cease-fire arranged by the U.S. and Russia went into effect early Wednesday morning in the divided city of Aleppo, after nearly two weeks of heavy government airstrikes and rebel shelling that killed at least 300 people – mostly civilians. And although the length and the start date of the truce was unclear, it seemed to have initially reduced levels of violence in the area.But late Thursday evening, a camp for internally displaced civilians in an area of northern Idlib controlled by the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Nusra Front was directly hit by at least two airstrikes, killing 28 civilians – including women and children – and wounding some 50 others.Fighting raged on Thursday and Friday in Aleppo’s southern countryside between pro-government forces and al-Qaida affiliated rebels, leaving more than 70 militants dead.After 24 hours of clashes, al-Nusra Front and allied Islamists fighting under the banner of Jaish al-Fatah (the Army of Conquest) seized the strategic village of Khan Touman, just six miles southwest of Aleppo city.Earlier in the week, temporary local truces were announced in Damascus and in the coastal province of Latakia, a “freeze” that quickly fell apart in areas around the capital after the deal was allowed to expire. Shortly after the freeze ended on Thursday morning, 22 government airstrikes hit the town of Deir al-Asafir in the besieged rebel stronghold of Eastern Ghouta.In other news, inmates in the government-run Hama prison – most of whom are political prisoners – have been rioting since Monday in protest of mistreatment, in demand of “basic rights,” and in opposition of a transfer of prisoners to the Sednaya prison just outside of Damascus, where organizations like Human Rights Watch have reported the practices of torture and political killings to be commonplace.The Hama prison is now completely surrounded by pro-government forces, leaving the inmates inside where they’ve allegedly taken several guards captive, including the head of the prison.The nearby Ajnad al-Sham rebel group, a Damascus-based alliance of several Islamist rebel groups, said it was ready to shell government militias in towns surrounding the prison in response to the mistreatment of inmates. Ajnad al-Sham said the inmates were demanding “basic rights,” including the right to trial.In a statement released on Monday night, the rebel group claimed the government had threatened to “storm the prison and execute all the prisoners without a trial.And in eastern Hama province, militants fighting with ISIS seized the region’s largest gas field on Thursday from government control, killing nearly 30 pro-government fighters and seizing heavy weaponry.Weekly Highlights: |
