Washington’s Allies Control Syria’s Most Important Gas Field

 Smoke rises from buildings in the area of Bughayliyah, on the northern outskirts of Deir ez-Zor on Sept. 13, as Syrian forces advance during their ongoing battle against ISIS. George Ourfalian/AFP
Smoke rises from buildings in the area of Bughayliyah, on the northern outskirts of Deir ez-Zor on Sept. 13, as Syrian forces advance during their ongoing battle against ISIS. George Ourfalian/AFP
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Washington’s Allies Control Syria’s Most Important Gas Field

 Smoke rises from buildings in the area of Bughayliyah, on the northern outskirts of Deir ez-Zor on Sept. 13, as Syrian forces advance during their ongoing battle against ISIS. George Ourfalian/AFP
Smoke rises from buildings in the area of Bughayliyah, on the northern outskirts of Deir ez-Zor on Sept. 13, as Syrian forces advance during their ongoing battle against ISIS. George Ourfalian/AFP

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Deir Ezzor Military Council announced on Saturday that it seized the Conoco Gas Plant in the Deir Ezzor countryside after kicking out ISIS militants.

Before the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, the Conoco field was one of the most important processing plants in the country and was used to supply cooking gas canisters for household use, with a capacity of 13 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, according to The Syria Report, an economic digest.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the news and said the SDF managed to fully control the gas field of Conoco, the largest in Syria.

In Deir Ezzor, the last stronghold of ISIS in the country, there are two separate offensives launched against the terrorist organization: The first is led by the Syrian regime and its Russian ally and the second by the SDF, a Kurdish-Arabic alliance backed by the Coalition warplanes.

Meanwhile, in France, the presidential palace said in a statement that President Emmanuel Macron had "learned with great sadness" of the death of a soldier from the 13th regiment of paratroopers who were killed in combat in the Levant.

In Idlib, the Observatory reported more casualties due to the heavy airstrikes that targeted the area of Tel Mardikh in the eastern countryside of the province, where at least 22 militants were killed in airstrikes carried by warplanes believed to be Russian on a headquarter of al-Sham Corps in Tel Mardikh near Saraqeb.

It said the death toll is expected to increase due to the presence of injured people in serious conditions, while reliable sources asserted to the SOHR that tens of fighters are still missing under the rubble caused by the destruction of headquarters of Corps.



Thousands Said Trapped in Jabalia Camp as Israel Escalates Attacks in Northern Gaza

A boy watches a smoke plume rise while standing in the balcony of the Rafei school, being used as a displacement shelter, in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on October 9, 2024 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A boy watches a smoke plume rise while standing in the balcony of the Rafei school, being used as a displacement shelter, in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on October 9, 2024 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Thousands Said Trapped in Jabalia Camp as Israel Escalates Attacks in Northern Gaza

A boy watches a smoke plume rise while standing in the balcony of the Rafei school, being used as a displacement shelter, in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on October 9, 2024 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A boy watches a smoke plume rise while standing in the balcony of the Rafei school, being used as a displacement shelter, in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on October 9, 2024 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Thousands of people are trapped in Gaza's Jabalia camp as Israeli forces attack the area, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) said on Friday, a week after Israel began an offensive it says is aimed at stopping Hamas regrouping.

Israeli military strikes killed at least 34 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Friday, with nearly half of the fatalities occurring in Jabalia, the northern district which is the largest of Gaza's historic refugee camps.

"Nobody is allowed to get in or out; anyone who tries is getting shot," MSF project coordinator Sarah Vuylsteke said on X.

Five MSF staff were trapped in Jabalia, she said.

"I don't know what to do; at any moment we could die. People are starving. I am afraid to stay, and I am also afraid to leave," she quoted Haydar, an MSF driver, as saying.

At least 15 of the fatalities in Jabalia since dawn were due to Israeli strikes targeting various areas, including a school sheltering displaced individuals, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said, citing medical sources.

Gaza's Civil Defense said dozens were wounded by Israeli quadcopter fire at the same school.

The Israeli military has sent troops into the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya as well as Jabalia. Hamas has said it will continue to defend itself against Israeli attacks, while Israel maintains that its operations are essential for national security and to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

Palestinian health officials have reported at least 130 deaths in the operation so far, while the military has told residents to evacuate areas where the UN estimates over 400,000 people are trapped.

United Nations officials expressed concern that the ongoing Israeli offensive and evacuation orders in northern Gaza could disrupt the second phase of its polio vaccination campaign set to begin next week.

Healthcare officials have reported that dozens of facilities in Gaza are under evacuation orders from the Israeli military, complicating humanitarian efforts amid the ongoing conflict.

Aid groups carried out an initial round of vaccinations last month after a baby was partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus in August, in the first such case in the territory in 25 years.