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Five Members of Polisario Front Killed in Moroccan Raid

A view of Algerian and Moroccan flags along the closed border with Morocco, in the town of Marsa Ben M'Hid, Algeria, Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. (AP)
A view of Algerian and Moroccan flags along the closed border with Morocco, in the town of Marsa Ben M'Hid, Algeria, Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. (AP)
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Five Members of Polisario Front Killed in Moroccan Raid

A view of Algerian and Moroccan flags along the closed border with Morocco, in the town of Marsa Ben M'Hid, Algeria, Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. (AP)
A view of Algerian and Moroccan flags along the closed border with Morocco, in the town of Marsa Ben M'Hid, Algeria, Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. (AP)

The Polisario Front announced Friday the death of one of its most prominent leaders, along with four of his comrades, in the Mahbas area near Tindouf in eastern Morocco.

The head of the sixth military region, Abba Ali Hamudi, a member of the Polisario national secretariat, was killed along with four other fighters on September 1, announced the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic”, which proclaimed unilaterally by the Polisario Front in 1976.

The statement did not mention the details of the incident, but AFP reported that they were attacked by a Moroccan drone.

This comes at a time when the Sahara buffer zone is occasionally witnessing attacks by armed groups from the Polisario against the Moroccan Armed Forces in a violation of a 1991 ceasefire.

Morocco didn’t deny or confirm targeting an armed group in the buffer zone in Western Sahara.

The Sahrawi presidency declared three days of national mourning beginning on Saturday.

Hamudi was elected a member of the national secretariat during the sixteenth conference of the Front and joined the army in 1975, assuming leadership tasks.

He rose through the ranks to command the Sixth Military Region.

The Front added that Hamudi participated in several military operations and was wounded several times, noting that he underwent multiple military trainings in Syria, Libya, and Algeria.

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Syria's New Foreign Minister to Appear at the UN in His First US Visit

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, left, and Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi attend a round table meeting at the 9th international conference in support of Syria at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, left, and Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi attend a round table meeting at the 9th international conference in support of Syria at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
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Syria's New Foreign Minister to Appear at the UN in His First US Visit

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, left, and Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi attend a round table meeting at the 9th international conference in support of Syria at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, left, and Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi attend a round table meeting at the 9th international conference in support of Syria at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani was set to raise his country’s new flag at the United Nations headquarters in New York Friday and to attend a UN Security Council briefing, the first public appearance by a high-ranking Syrian government official in the United States since the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a lightning opposition offensive in December.

The three-starred flag that had previously been used by opposition groups has replaced the two-starred flag of the Assad era as the country's official emblem, the Associated Press said.

The new authorities in Damascus have been courting Washington in hopes of receiving relief from harsh sanctions that were imposed by the US and its allies in the wake of Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011 that spiraled into a civil war.

A delegation of Syrian officials traveled to the United States this week to attend World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington and UN meetings in New York. It was unclear if Trump administration officials would meet with al-Shibani during the visit.

The Trump administration has yet to officially recognize the current Syrian government, led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, who led the offensive that toppled Assad. Washington has also so far left the sanctions in place, although it has provided temporary relief to some restrictions. The opposition group al-Sharaa led, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, remains a US-designated terrorist organization.

Two Republican members of the US Congress, Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana and Rep. Cory Mills of Florida, arrived in Damascus last week on an unofficial visit organized by a Syrian-American nonprofit and met with al-Sharaa and other government officials.

Mills told The Associated Press before meeting with al-Sharaa that “ultimately, it’s going to be the president’s decision” to lift sanctions or not, although he said that “Congress can advise.”

Mills later told Bloomberg News that he had discussed the US conditions for sanctions relief with al-Sharaa, including ensuring the destruction of chemical weapons left over from the Assad era, coordinating on counter-terrorism, making a plan to deal with foreign militants who fought alongside the armed opposition to Assad, and providing assurances to Israel that Syria would not pose a threat.

He also said that al-Sharaa had said Syria could normalize relations with Israel “under the right conditions,” without specifying what those conditions are.

Other Western countries have warmed up to the new Syrian authorities more quickly. The British government on Thursday lifted sanctions against a dozen Syrian entities, including government departments and media outlets, and the European Union has begun to roll back its sanctions.