Government Targets Rebel-Held Areas in Hama Province
At least 17 people were reportedly killed in overnight airstrikes on Hama province, part of a government counterattack on areas recently captured by rebels, Reuters reported.
The government air force killed tens of “terrorists,” Syrian state TV said, in airstrikes targeting territories in Hama province that lie just east of the coastal mountains. The area is predominantly populated by Christian and Alawite sects.
Airstrikes targeted the road between rebel-held Idlib province and the town of al-Latamanah according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Opposition forces launched an offensive in the area earlier this week, with the extremist group Jund al-Aqsa fighting alongside factions from the armed opposition known as the Free Syrian Army.
Turkey Will Send Aid Convoys to Jarabulus Following Intervention
Turkey said it will be delivering aid to Jarabulus, the Syrian border town in which the Turks intervened last week, Reuters reported.
AFAD, the Turkish disaster management agency, said it would send convoys to the town. Last week, Syrian rebels backed by Turkish tanks and ground forces pushed out so-called Islamic State (ISIS) militants from Jarabulus, the militants’ last border stronghold.
“The priority is transporting basic food supplies … The agency plans to deliver flour and restore bakeries in the city,” an AFAD statement said.
ISIS militants took all of the supplies with them as they fled, residents told Reuters, leaving the town’s residents in need of bread and drinking water.
Last week, Turkey, a NATO member, sent tanks over the border into Syria in an operation named “Euphrates Shield,” with the aim of pushing out both Islamic State militants and People’s Protection Units (YPG) forces from the Turkish border.
The YPG is the main Kurdish militia in Syria and a key U.S. ally in the fight against ISIS. However, Turkey sees the YPG as an extension of its own Kurdish insurgency, the PKK, and views Kurdish expansion in Syria as a threat.
Syrian Ministry of Tourism Promotes Syria as a Vacation Getaway
The Syrian Ministry of Tourism is marketing the war-torn country’s coastal province as a vacation getaway, according to the Telegraph.
Now in the sixth year of a conflict that has displaced roughly 50 percent of the population and left nearly half a million people dead, the Syrian government is promoting Tartus, a province on Syria’s coast, as the place to go for a beach holiday.
Titled “Syria Always Beatiful (sic),” the promotional video features footage of the city’s beaches and resorts, packed with people swimming and lounging. It does not make any mention of the ongoing conflict raging nearby.
Tartus lies 62 miles (100km) away from the war-torn province of Homs, where government air forces are reportedly striking civilians in the al-Waer neighborhood with incendiary weapons, including napalm. Videos from the rebel neighbourhood, which is under government siege, show first responders treating burn victims with mud, due to lack of access to medical supplies.
Tartus itself was struck by several ISIS bombing attacks in May that killed nearly 150 people and wounded 200 others. Tartus province is also home to military bases belonging to Russia, a key ally of the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
Tourism in Syria has taken a nosedive since the conflict began in 2011. Tourism made up 14 percent of Syria’s economy in 2010, with the country boasting six World Heritage Sites. Five of the sites have been destroyed in the conflict according to UNESCO.
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