Eight Members of Pro-Iran Militia Killed in Syria’s Mayadeen

A staff member sets up the Iranian flag atop a new consular annex to Iran's embassy in Damascus on its inauguration day on April 8, 2024. (AFP)
A staff member sets up the Iranian flag atop a new consular annex to Iran's embassy in Damascus on its inauguration day on April 8, 2024. (AFP)
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Eight Members of Pro-Iran Militia Killed in Syria’s Mayadeen

A staff member sets up the Iranian flag atop a new consular annex to Iran's embassy in Damascus on its inauguration day on April 8, 2024. (AFP)
A staff member sets up the Iranian flag atop a new consular annex to Iran's embassy in Damascus on its inauguration day on April 8, 2024. (AFP)

Eight members of a pro-Iran militia were killed by unknown assailants in Syria’s al-Mayadeen city in the Deir Ezzor region.

The assailants attacked the headquarters of the “Syrian Revolutionary Guards” militia that is affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, butchering their victims with knives.

Security and military forces in the region went on high alert in wake of the attack, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

This was the second attack of its kind in less than 48 hours in Deir Ezzor, the so-called “capital of Iranian militias in Syria.”

Earlier, three Syrian members of the Revolutionary Guards were killed by unknown gunmen in an attack on their military position on the outskirts al-Mayadeen.

Naher Media said the victims were killed by ISIS.

A man in his 50s was killed by a stray bullet fired by mourners during the funeral of the three victims, who hail from the predominantly Shiite town of Hatla.

The town is one of seven located east of the Euphrates River in Deir Ezzor where extremists have thrived.

In 2013, a massacre was committed in the area against mostly Shiite gunmen. Around 60 people were killed.



Sudan’s Ruling Council Reshuffles Cabinet amid Brutal Conflict

A damaged building in Omdurman, Sudan, 01 November 2024 (issued 04 November 2024). (EPA)
A damaged building in Omdurman, Sudan, 01 November 2024 (issued 04 November 2024). (EPA)
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Sudan’s Ruling Council Reshuffles Cabinet amid Brutal Conflict

A damaged building in Omdurman, Sudan, 01 November 2024 (issued 04 November 2024). (EPA)
A damaged building in Omdurman, Sudan, 01 November 2024 (issued 04 November 2024). (EPA)

Sudan's army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, at war with paramilitaries, has announced a cabinet reshuffle that replaces four ministers including those for foreign affairs and the media.

The late Sunday announcement comes with the northeast African country gripped by the world's worst displacement crisis, threatened by famine and desperate for aid, according to the UN.

In a post on its official Facebook page, Sudan's ruling sovereignty council said Burhan had approved replacement of the ministers of foreign affairs, the media, religious affairs and trade.

The civil war that began in April 2023 pits Burhan's military against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries under the command of his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

Since then, the army-aligned Sudanese government has been operating from the eastern city of Port Sudan, which has largely remained shielded from the violence.

But the Sudanese state "is completely absent from the scene" in all sectors, economist Haitham Fathy told AFP earlier this year.

The council did not disclose reasons behind the reshuffle but it coincides with rising violence in al-Gezira, south of the capital Khartoum, and North Darfur in Sudan's far west bordering Chad.

On Friday the spokesman for United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said he condemned attacks by the RSF on Gezira, after the United States made a similar call over the violence against civilians.

Among the key government changes, Ambassador Ali Youssef al-Sharif, a retired diplomat who previously served as Sudan's ambassador to China and South Africa, was appointed foreign minister.

He replaces Hussein Awad Ali who had held the role for seven months.

Journalist and TV presenter Khalid Ali Aleisir, based in London, was named minister of culture and media.

The reshuffle also saw Omar Banfir assigned to the trade ministry and Omar Bakhit appointed to the ministry of religious affairs.

Over the past two weeks, the RSF increased attacks on civilians in Gezira following the army's announcement that an RSF commander had defected.

According to an AFP tally based on medical and activist sources, at least 200 people were killed in Gezira last month alone. The UN reports that the violence has forced around 120,000 people from their homes.

In total, Sudan hosts more than 11 million displaced people, while another 3.1 million are now sheltering beyond its borders, according to the International Organization for Migration.