Car Bomb Kills at Least Six Jordanian Soldiers
A car bomb exploded on Tuesday near the Syrian border with Jordan, opposite a Syrian refugee camp, killing at least six Jordanian soldiers.
The explosion, which Jordanian officials called a “terrorist attack,” took place in the al-Rukban district, a desert area on the border between the two countries. The death toll is expected to rise as many wounded remain in critical condition.
“Six soldiers have been martyred and 14 others were wounded in the terrorist attack,” a Jordanian official told Agence France-Presse.
The attack was part of a larger-scale operation involving several explosive-laden vehicles, some of which were later destroyed by Jordanian forces, according to the BBC.
U.N. Aid Reaches Six Besieged Areas
The United Nations was able to access and deliver aid to six besieged and hard-to-reach areas in rural Damascus on Monday.
Humanitarian convoys reached Ein Tarma, Hamouria, Hazeh, Beit Sawa and Eftreis, the majority of which have not received any supplies since April, according to Agence France-Presse.
The aid deliveries are part of a larger campaign for the U.N. to gain access to 18 of Syria’s besieged areas. Erbin and Zamalka, two of the areas on the list that have yet to be accessed, have not received humanitarian aid since 2012, AFP reported.
“The U.N. continues to call for unconditional, unimpeded and sustained access to the millions of people in besieged and hard-to-reach locations across Syria,” U.N. deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said.
Last week, a humanitarian aid convoy entered the opposition-held al-Houla area in Homs province, the first delivery of its kind since March. The previous week, a food aid convoy was able to enter Daraya, a suburb in Damascus, for the first time since it was besieged in 2012.
But the delivery in Daraya was met with almost instant bombing from the Syrian government, making it nearly impossible to distributed the much-needed supplies. The attack in Daraya, and subsequent aerial bombardments over the last week, have raised the question of whether or not aid deliveries will be closely followed by similar actions by the Syrian government, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“If there is a pattern of coincidence with approvals and shelling, then that should be addressed,” Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. envoy to Syria, said last week.
ISIS Forces Syrian Army to Pull Away From Raqqa
The Islamic State group launched a series of attacks on forces aligned with the Syrian government on Monday, forcing them to pull back from the militants’ de facto capital of Raqqa.
Government forces have retreated and are stationed around 25 miles (40km) from the al-Tabqa air base, west of Raqqa. Some 40 Syrian army soldiers and fighters with pro-government militia Suqour al-Sahara were killed in the attack, according to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Forces aligned with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian army have been advancing on al-Tabqa for the past 15 days. So far, some 96 pro-government fighters and 126 ISIS militants have been killed in the operation, including 21 ISIS militants who died during the latest assault, according to the Observatory.
Over the weekend, Syrian and Russian warplanes ramped up airstrikes on al-Tabqa, and their forces on the ground were able to advance to within 12 miles (20km) of the al-Tabqa air base, which ISIS has controlled since August 2014, the Associated Press reported.
In the past two days, ISIS has also been preparing for the government’s imminent assault on Raqqa. All internet cafes in the de facto capital were closed and some 300 heavily armed militants were reported to be crossing into Raqqa, according to the Observatory.
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