Strikes on Northwest Syria Kill 1 Person, Cause Wide Damage

Blood is seen on a hospital floor in Atareb, a town in rural western Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, March 22, 2021. Artillery shells fired from government areas killed at least five civilians and wounded medical staff when they landad in front of the hospital. (Ghaith Alsayed/Associated Press)
Blood is seen on a hospital floor in Atareb, a town in rural western Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, March 22, 2021. Artillery shells fired from government areas killed at least five civilians and wounded medical staff when they landad in front of the hospital. (Ghaith Alsayed/Associated Press)
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Strikes on Northwest Syria Kill 1 Person, Cause Wide Damage

Blood is seen on a hospital floor in Atareb, a town in rural western Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, March 22, 2021. Artillery shells fired from government areas killed at least five civilians and wounded medical staff when they landad in front of the hospital. (Ghaith Alsayed/Associated Press)
Blood is seen on a hospital floor in Atareb, a town in rural western Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, March 22, 2021. Artillery shells fired from government areas killed at least five civilians and wounded medical staff when they landad in front of the hospital. (Ghaith Alsayed/Associated Press)

Airstrikes on several locations in northwest Syria near the border with Turkey have killed at least one person and set afire several trucks used to distribute aid, opposition activists and a paramedic group said Monday.

The late Sunday attacks angered Turkey, which had asked Russia to secure an immediate end to the strikes, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said, adding that Turkish troops had been placed on alert.

Turkey and Russia support rival parties in Syria’s 10-year conflict. The countries reached a deal last March that stopped a Russian-backed government offensive on the northwestern Idlib province, the last major opposition stronghold in war-torn Syria.

Opposition activists claimed that Russian warplanes carried out the attacks near the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey late Sunday, hours after regime artillery shelling hit a major hospital in a opposition-controlled town in northwestern Syria.

Six patients, including a child, were killed. Medical staff were wounded, forcing the facility to shut its doors, The Associated Press reported.

The Bab al-Hawa border crossing is a main point from which aid is brought to opposition-held parts of northwest Syria.

Idlib-based journalist Salwa Abdul-Rahman said one of the strikes hit an area near the town of Sarmada, setting afire trucks used by aid workers to distribute assistance.

“The targeted locations were civilian with no military presence,” she said.

One person was killed in the strikes, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, and the opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense, also known as White Helmets.

The civil defense said that in addition to the trucks, the strikes targeted a cement factory. The truck fires were put under control hours later.

An AP video from the area showed about a dozen trucks on fire as civil defense members sprayed them with water.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry blamed Syrian regime forces for the attack, saying it left several people wounded.



Lebanon Bans Dealing with Hezbollah Financial Entity

A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon April 4, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon April 4, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
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Lebanon Bans Dealing with Hezbollah Financial Entity

A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon April 4, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
A view shows Lebanon's Central Bank building in Beirut, Lebanon April 4, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo

Lebanon's central bank has banned banks and brokerages from dealing with a Hezbollah-affiliated financial institution, according to a circular, a sign of the group's diminished sway over state affairs since its devastating war with Israel.

Keeping up military pressure on the Iran-backed group, Israel on Tuesday launched some of its heaviest airstrikes since a ceasefire in November, saying it hit training camps and weapons depots in east Lebanon. A security source in Lebanon said 12 people were killed, five of them Hezbollah fighters, Reuters reported.

Hezbollah has faced mounting pressures since the war, including financial ones.

In the circular, dated July 14 and reviewed by Reuters, Banque du Liban prohibited all licensed financial institutions in Lebanon from dealing directly or indirectly with unlicensed entities and listed Hezbollah's Al-Qard Al-Hassan as an example.

The US Department of Treasury imposed sanctions on Al-Qard Al-Hassan in 2007, saying Hezbollah used it as a cover to manage "financial activities and gain access to the international financial system".

Bolstered by its powerful arsenal, Hezbollah had long exercised decisive influence over Lebanese state affairs, but it was unable to impose its will in the formation of a post-war government in February.

Al-Qard Al-Hassan, founded in 1983, describes itself as a charitable organisation which provides loans to people according to Islamic principles that forbid interest. Israel struck some of its branches during its war with Hezbollah last year.

Operating as a not-for-profit organisation under a licence granted by the Lebanese government, it has more than 30 branches, mostly in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.

SHADOW ECONOMY

A Lebanese official said the central bank move had been in the works for months, and reflected US pressure on Lebanon to take action against Hezbollah's financial wing.

Nassib Ghobril, chief economist at Byblos Bank, said Lebanese banks were already careful to avoid dealing with Al-Qard Al-Hassan because it is under US sanctions.

"The important point is that finally the authorities are addressing the shadow economy in Lebanon, which is the real problem," he said, adding that authorities had long failed to address its "toxic effects".

In June, the European Commission included Lebanon in an updated list of high-risk jurisdictions presenting strategic deficiencies in their national anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism.

Last year, global financial crime watchdog FATF placed Lebanon on its "grey list" of countries under special scrutiny.