Syrians back to famed Palmyra ruins scarred by Daesh

Syrians back to famed Palmyra ruins scarred by Daesh
Youths smoke shisha by the Great Colonnad at the ancient ruins of Palmyra in central Syria, Feb. 7, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 10 February 2025
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Syrians back to famed Palmyra ruins scarred by Daesh

Syrians back to famed Palmyra ruins scarred by Daesh
  • Palmyra attracted more than 150,000 tourists a year before civil war broke out in 2011
  • The ancient city was home to some of the best-preserved classical monuments in the Middle East before the destructive 13-year war

PALMYRA: Syrians are once again picnicking and smoking shisha amid the ruins of ancient Palmyra, once desecrated by Daesh militants but still awe-inspiring, and open to the public following the overthrow of president Bashar Assad.
The city’s renowned ruins, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were twice overrun by the Daesh group, which proceeded to destroy many of the most famed structures.
Although they were driven out, the Syrian government and its allies, including Russia and Iran, then set up military bases nearby, effectively barring public access.
Open to the public once more, Yasser Al-Mahmoud, 54, was among dozens of formerly displaced Syrians rediscovering the beloved landmarks that still bear scars of war.
“We used to come here every Friday, before” the war, Mahmoud said, pouring hot tea into glass cups placed atop a massive column’s stone base.
“Now we’re back and we can reconnect with our memories,” he said, standing near his wife and children.
“People are so happy,” he said.
Spread out across the ruins, families were carrying bags of food and making tea, while young people smoked shisha.
“We really missed the ruins. We haven’t been here since 2015,” when Daesh group first invaded the area before being forced out for good in 2017.
Mahmoud said he wanted to reopen his stall selling trinkets and jewelry once visitors returned to Palmyra — which attracted more than 150,000 tourists a year before civil war broke out in 2011.
Nearby, two huge columns forming a squared arch stood amid a sea of rubble — all that remained of the Temple of Bel after Daesh militants detonated explosives inside it.
Pearl of the Desert
Known to Syrians as the “Pearl of the Desert,” Palmyra was home to some of the best-preserved classical monuments in the Middle East before Syria’s 13-year war.
But Daesh launched a campaign of destruction after capturing Palmyra, using its ancient theater as a venue for public executions and murdering its 82-year-old former antiquities chief.
The militants blew up the shrine of Baal Shamin, destroyed the Temple of Bel, dynamited the Arch of Triumph, looted the museum and defaced statues and sarcophagi.
While Daesh is gone, danger still looms over Palmyra.
The director general of antiquities and museums in Syria, Nazir Awad, told AFP he was concerned about illegal excavation.
There are guards, he said, “but I don’t think they can do their work to the fullest extent, because of random and barbaric excavations across very wide areas.”
People looking for ancient artefacts to loot are using heavy machinery and metal detectors that are “destructive,” adding that the digging was “destroying layers of archaeological sites, leaving nothing behind.”
A military zone
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Assad’s allies established “military sites and positions” in Palmyra and its archaeological sites, even taking up residence in its hotels.
In a sign of their presence, Israeli air strikes in November on the modern city killed 106 Tehran-backed fighters, according to the British-based monitor with a network of sources in Syria.
Former rebel fighter Khaldun Al-Rubaa, 32, said Palmyra had been turned “from an archaeological site into a military zone” that was off-limits to visitors.
He worked at Palmyra’s ancient sites from childhood, giving tourists camel rides and, like many Palmyra residents, tourism was his main source of income, he said.
Now that Assad-allied armed groups and foreign armies have left, Rubaa has returned home, hoping to trade his arms for a camel.
He held a picture on his phone of him as a young boy riding his camel, killed in the fighting, with the Arch of Triumph in the background.
“Palmyra and the ruins have been through horrors. The site has seen IS, Iran, the Russians, all of the militias you could think of,” he said.
Yet he is among the lucky ones able to settle back home.
After 12 years of displacement Khaled Al-Sheleel, 57, said he has yet to return to his house, destroyed in an Israeli strike.
He now works as a taxi driver, mostly carrying residents wishing to visit or return home.
“We have no homes, we cannot return,” he said.
But “despite the destruction, I was overjoyed, I knelt on the ground and cried tears of joy when I returned” for the first time.


Syria’s worst violence in months reopens wounds of the civil war

Syria’s worst violence in months reopens wounds of the civil war
Updated 34 sec ago
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Syria’s worst violence in months reopens wounds of the civil war

Syria’s worst violence in months reopens wounds of the civil war
  • In their ambush, the pro-Assad Alawite gunmen overwhelmed government security forces and later took control of Qardaha, Assad’s hometown, as Damascus scrambled to bring in reinforcements

DAMASCUS: An ambush on a Syrian security patrol by gunmen loyal to ousted leader Bashar Assad escalated into clashes that a war monitor estimates have killed more than 1,000 people over four days.
The attack Thursday near the port city of Latakia reopened the wounds of the country’s 13-year civil war and sparked the worst violence Syria has seen since December, when insurgents led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS, overthrew Assad.
The counteroffensive against the Assad loyalists in the largely Alawite coastal region brought havoc to several cities and towns. Rights groups reported dozens of revenge killings resulting from Sunni militants targeting the minority Islamic sect, regardless of whether they were involved in the insurgency.
Here’s a look at the latest violence in the war-wracked country:
What started the violence?
Tensions have been on the rise since Assad’s downfall following sectarian attacks against Alawites, who ruled Syria for over 50 years under the Assad dynasty. The assaults continued despite promises from Syria’s interim president that the country’s new leaders will carve out a political future for Syria that includes and represents all its communities.
In their ambush, the pro-Assad Alawite gunmen overwhelmed government security forces and later took control of Qardaha, Assad’s hometown, as Damascus scrambled to bring in reinforcements.
Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Hassan Abdel-Ghani said Sunday that security forces have restored control of the region and will continue pursuing leaders of the galvanized insurgency.
But despite authorities calling for an end to the sectarian incitement, the clashes turned deadly, and many civilians were killed.
Who are the dead?
Most of the dead are apparently members of the Alawite community, who live largely in the country’s coastal province, including in the cities of Latakia and Tartous. Rights groups estimate that hundreds of civilians were killed.
The Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shia Islam, and it once formed the core constituency of Assad’s government in the Sunni-majority country.
Opponents of Assad saw Syria under the family’s rule as granting privileges to the Alawite community. As the civil war intensified, militant groups emerged across the country and treated Alawites as affiliates of Assad and his key military allies, Russia and Iran.
Syria’s new interim government is under Sunni Islamist rule. Interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, a former HTS leader, has promised that the country will transition to a system that includes Syria’s mosaic of religious and ethnic groups under fair elections, but skeptics question whether that will actually happen.
Little is currently known about the Alawite insurgency, which is composed of remnants of Assad’s web of military and intelligence branches, and who their foreign backers might be.
Why were the Alawites targeted?
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 745 civilians killed, mostly in shootings. In addition, 125 members of government security forces and 148 militants with armed groups affiliated with Assad were killed. Electricity and drinking water were cut off in large areas around Latakia, the group added.
Meanwhile, the Syria Campaign and the Syrian Network for Human Rights, which both advocated against Assad after the civil war began in 2011, said Saturday that both security forces and pro-Assad gunmen were “carrying out mass executions and systematic killings.”
The SNHR estimated that 100 members of the government’s security forces were killed Thursday, while 125 of an estimated 140 civilians were slain over the weekend in “suspected revenge killings.”
The Associated Press could not verify those numbers, and conflicting death figures during attacks in Syria over the years have not been uncommon. Two residents in the coastal region said that many homes from Alawite families were looted and set on fire. They spoke from their hideouts on condition of anonymity, fearing for their lives.
Damascus blamed “individual actions” for the widespread violence against civilians and said government security forces were responding to the gunmen loyal to the former government.
Can Damascus restore calm after the clashes?
Damascus has struggled to reconcile with skeptics of its Islamist government, as well as with Kurdish-led authorities in the northeast and the Druze minority in the south. Al-Sharaa has lobbied to convince the United States and Europe to lift sanctions to pave the way for economic recovery to pull millions of Syrians out of poverty and make the country viable again.
Washington and Europe are concerned that lifting sanctions before Syria transitions into an inclusive political system could pave the way for another chapter of autocratic rule.
Al-Sharaa appealed to Syrians and the international community in an address over the weekend, calling for accountability for anyone who harms civilians and mistreats prisoners. Such human rights violations were rampant under Assad. Al-Sharra also formed a committee composed mostly of judges to investigate the violence.
In a statement issued Sunday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Syrian authorities to “hold the perpetrators of these massacres” accountable. Rubio said the US “stands with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities.”

 


OIC welcomes Syria’s reinstatement as member state

OIC welcomes Syria’s reinstatement as member state
Updated 30 min 35 sec ago
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OIC welcomes Syria’s reinstatement as member state

OIC welcomes Syria’s reinstatement as member state
  • Decision was approved during extraordinary session of the OIC Council of FMs, held in Jeddah

JEDDAH: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha on Sunday welcomed the reinstatement of the Syrian Arab Republic’s membership in the bloc, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

He called it a historic decision that reaffirmed the organization’s support for the Syrian people during a critical period in the country’s history, SPA added.

The decision was approved during the 20th Extraordinary Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers, held at the OIC General Secretariat in Jeddah on Friday.

The meeting primarily focused on addressing the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people and calls for their displacement from their land.

Taha emphasized that Syria’s reinstatement was aimed at facilitating a peaceful and secure political transition that restores the country’s institutions, territorial integrity, and standing among nations.

He also reiterated the General Secretariat’s commitment to working closely with Syria in support of the OIC’s objectives and strengthening joint Islamic action.

Syria was suspended from the OIC in 2012 following the outbreak of a brutal civil war, with member states citing concerns over human rights violations and the conflict’s impact on regional stability.

Its return marks a significant diplomatic shift, reflecting renewed engagement between Damascus and regional actors.

The OIC, comprising 57 member states, has long played a role in addressing issues of mutual concern across the Muslim world, including conflict resolution and humanitarian support.


Shelling kills 7 in Sudan city retaken by army

Shelling kills 7 in Sudan city retaken by army
Updated 40 min 36 sec ago
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Shelling kills 7 in Sudan city retaken by army

Shelling kills 7 in Sudan city retaken by army
  • El-Obeid, the state capital of North Kordofan, comes under intense RSF bombardment

PORT SUDAN: Paramilitary shelling on Sunday on a strategic city in Sudan’s south, where the army broke a prolonged siege last month, killed seven civilians and wounded nearly two dozen others, a medical source said.

El-Obeid, the state capital of North Kordofan, came under attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, at war with the army since April 2023, said the source at the city’s main hospital and several witnesses.
Witnesses reported intense bombardment by the RSF on Sunday, with one shell striking a public transport bus carrying passengers, on the third consecutive day of attacks from the north and east.

FASTFACT

Cholera was officially declared an outbreak on Aug. 12 last year by Sudan’s Health Ministry after a new wave of cases was reported starting July 22.

The hospital source said that the shelling killed seven people and wounded 23 others, all civilians.
Last month, the army broke a nearly two-year RSF siege on El-Obeid, which sits at a crucial crossroads connecting the capital Khartoum to the country’s western region of Darfur.
The RSF has captured nearly all of Darfur while the army controls the country’s north and east and recently won back large swathes of Khartoum and central Sudan.
The war, pitting army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against his former deputy, RSF commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, has claimed tens of thousands of lives, uprooted over 12 million, and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
An international aid group, meanwhile, said nearly 100 people died of cholera in two weeks since the waterborne disease outbreak began in Sudan’s White Nile State,
Doctors Without Borders — also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF — said that 2,700 people had contracted the disease since Feb. 20, including 92 people who died.
Of the admitted cholera patients who died, 18 were children, including five children who were no older than 5, and five others who were no older than 9, said Marta Cazarola, MSF emergency coordinator for Sudan.
The Rapid Support Forces group launched intense attacks last month in the White Nile State that killed hundreds of civilians, including infants.
The Sudanese military announced at the time that it made advances there, cutting crucial supply routes to the RSF.
During the RSF attacks in the state on Feb. 16, the group fired a projectile that hit the Rabak power plant, causing a mass power outage and triggering the latest wave of cholera, according to MSF.
Subsequently, people in the area had to rely mainly on water obtained from donkey carts because water pumps were no longer operational.
“Attacks on critical infrastructure have long-term detrimental effects on the health of vulnerable communities,” said Marta Cazorla, MSF emergency coordinator for Sudan.
The cholera outbreak in the state peaked between Feb. 20-24, when patients and their families rushed to Kosti Teaching Hospital, overwhelming the facility beyond its capacity, according to MSF.
Most patients were severely dehydrated. MSF provided 25 tonnes of logistical items such as beds and tents to Kosti to help absorb more cholera patients.
Cazarola said that numbers in the cholera treatment center were declining and at low levels until this latest outbreak.
The White Nile State Health Ministry responded to the outbreak by providing the community access to clean water and banning the use of donkey carts to transport water.
Health officials also administered a vaccination campaign when the outbreak began.
Cholera was officially declared an outbreak on Aug. 12 last year by Sudan’s Health Ministry after a new wave of cases was reported starting July 22.

 


Iran, Russia, China to hold joint military exercises

Iran, Russia, China to hold joint military exercises
Updated 09 March 2025
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Iran, Russia, China to hold joint military exercises

Iran, Russia, China to hold joint military exercises
  • “Warships and combat and support vessels of the Chinese and Russian naval forces, as well as the warships of Iran’s naval forces of the army and the Revolutionary Guards,” are expected to participate, according to Tasnim

TEHRAN: The navies of Iran, Russia and China will hold military drills off the coast of Iran this week in a bid to boost cooperation, Iranian media reported on Sunday.
The three countries have held similar exercises in the region in recent years. The drills “will begin on Tuesday in the port of Chabahar,” located in southeast Iran on the Gulf of Oman, the Tasnim news agency said, without specifying their duration.
“Warships and combat and support vessels of the Chinese and Russian naval forces, as well as the warships of Iran’s naval forces of the army and the Revolutionary Guards,” are expected to participate, according to Tasnim.

FASTFACT

The drills will begin on Tuesday in the port of Chabahar, located in southeast Iran on the Gulf of Oman.

The exercises will take place “in the northern Indian Ocean” and aim to “strengthen security in the region and expand multilateral cooperation between participating countries,” Tasnim said.
China will deploy “a destroyer and a supply ship,” Beijing’s Defense Ministry said on the WeChat social media network.
In February, the Iranian army conducted drills in the same area to “strengthen defense capabilities against any threat.”
Azerbaijan, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Sri Lanka are among the countries that will attend as observers.

 


PKK, affiliated groups urged to disarm soon

Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (AP)
Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (AP)
Updated 57 min 47 sec ago
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PKK, affiliated groups urged to disarm soon

Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (AP)
  • Bahceli is considered the key sponsor of the talks between Ankara and the PKK, after he offered a surprise peace gesture if Ocalan rejected violence

ANKARA: A key ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that all “affiliated groups” of the Kurdish militant group PKK must disarm as well, as part of a historic ceasefire deal with Ankara.
Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, last month called on his group to disband and end more than four decades of armed struggle against Turkiye.
But Ankara also wants all PKK fighters disarmed wherever they are, notably those in the Syrian Democratic Forces — the bulk of which is made up of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG.
The SDF leadership welcomed Ocalan’s call on Feb. 27 to disband but said it did not apply to its forces.
“The PKK terrorist organization and its affiliated groups must immediately and without preconditions lay down their weapons,” said Devlet Bahceli, head of the hard-line nationalist MHP party.
Bahceli is considered the key sponsor of the talks between Ankara and the PKK, after he offered a surprise peace gesture if Ocalan rejected violence.
“The fact that the YPG and other similar terrorist groups claim to be exempt from this call ... is completely contradictory to the leadership of the organization,” Bahceli said in a statement.
The PKK announced a ceasefire after the call by Ocalan, who has been imprisoned for the past 26 years, saying that “none of our forces will carry out any armed operation unless they are attacked.”
Since 2016, Turkiye has carried out three major military operations in northern Syria targeting PKK militants, which it sees as a strategic threat along its southern border.
The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkiye, the US, and the EU, has waged an insurgency since 1984.
Its original aim was to carve out a homeland for Kurds, who make up about 20 percent of Turkiye’s 85 million people.
Since Ocalan was jailed in 1999, there have been various attempts to end the bloodshed, which has cost more than 40,000 lives.
SDF commander Mazloum Abdi said on Sunday that the president of the Syrian Arab Republic must hold the perpetrators of communal violence in coastal areas to account.
Abdi said in written comments to Reuters that Ahmed Al-Sharaa must intervene to halt “massacres.”
Turkey’s Defence Ministry declined to comment on Abdi’s remarks.
Abdi called on Sharaa to “reconsider the method of forming the new Syrian army and the behavior of the armed factions,” saying some of them were exploiting their role in the army “to create sectarian conflicts and settle internal scores.”