Bombing Rocks Syrian Regime Stronghold of Latakia

A car passes on a street in Latakia, Syria. (AP file photo)
A car passes on a street in Latakia, Syria. (AP file photo)
TT

Bombing Rocks Syrian Regime Stronghold of Latakia

A car passes on a street in Latakia, Syria. (AP file photo)
A car passes on a street in Latakia, Syria. (AP file photo)

At least one person was killed Tuesday in a car bombing in the Syrian regime's coastal stronghold of Latakia, reported state news agency SANA.

SANA cited the head of the Latakia health department as saying a "terrorist explosion" had killed one civilian and wounded 14.

SANA earlier said the person killed was the driver of the vehicle, a Suzuki minivan, that blew up in the Sahat al-Hamam district.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the blast was caused by an explosive device hidden inside the car or near it.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that the driver was not a suicide attacker.

Most of those wounded were hit by shrapnel, the director of the city's Tishrin hospital, Louay Naddaf, told state television.

Authorities found a second explosive device in the same place and defused it just before it was due to blow up, SANA said.

The city, the capital of Latakia province located on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, has largely escaped the violence that has devastated other regions of Syria since the conflict began in 2011.

But the province has been targeted by "sporadic strikes" by opposition factions or extremists, according to the Observatory.

The region abuts the last major area outside of the regime's control and which includes much of Idlib province as well as adjacent parts of Hama and Aleppo provinces.



Lebanon Returns 70 Officers and Soldiers to Syria, Security Official Says

A member of the security forces of the newly formed Syrian government inspects vehicles at a security checkpoint on the Syrian border with Lebanon, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP)
A member of the security forces of the newly formed Syrian government inspects vehicles at a security checkpoint on the Syrian border with Lebanon, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP)
TT

Lebanon Returns 70 Officers and Soldiers to Syria, Security Official Says

A member of the security forces of the newly formed Syrian government inspects vehicles at a security checkpoint on the Syrian border with Lebanon, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP)
A member of the security forces of the newly formed Syrian government inspects vehicles at a security checkpoint on the Syrian border with Lebanon, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP)

Lebanon expelled around 70 Syrian officers and soldiers on Saturday, returning them to Syria after they crossed into the country illegally via informal routes, a Lebanese security official and a war monitor said.

Many senior Syrian officials and people close to the former ruling family of Bashar al-Assad fled the country to neighboring Lebanon after Assad's regime was toppled on Dec 8.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a London-based organization with sources in Syria, and the Lebanese security official said Syrian military personnel of various ranks had been sent back via Lebanon's northern Arida crossing.

SOHR and the security official said the returnees were detained by Syria's new ruling authorities after crossing the border.

The new administration has been undertaking a major security crackdown in recent days on what they say are "remnants" of the Assad regime.

Several of the cities and towns concerned, including in Homs and Tartous provinces, are near the porous border with Lebanon.

The Lebanese security official said the Syrian officers and soldiers were found in a truck in the northern coastal city of Jbeil after an inspection by local officials.

Lebanese and Syrian government officials did not immediately respond to written requests for comment on the incident.

Reuters reported on Friday that Rifaat al-Assad, an uncle of Assad charged in Switzerland with war crimes over the bloody suppression of a revolt in 1982, had flown out of Beirut recently, as had "many members" of the Assad family.

Earlier this month, Lebanese caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said top Assad adviser Bouthaina Shaaban had flown out of Beirut after entering Lebanon legally.

In an interview with Al Arabiya, Mawlawi said other Syrian officials had entered Lebanon illegally and were being pursued.