Iran Guards Deploy Aircraft Detecting Radar in Western Syria

An air force intelligence checkpoint in Qarfa town, in Daraa, after it was completely evacuated. (Ahrar Houran Gathering)
An air force intelligence checkpoint in Qarfa town, in Daraa, after it was completely evacuated. (Ahrar Houran Gathering)
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Iran Guards Deploy Aircraft Detecting Radar in Western Syria

An air force intelligence checkpoint in Qarfa town, in Daraa, after it was completely evacuated. (Ahrar Houran Gathering)
An air force intelligence checkpoint in Qarfa town, in Daraa, after it was completely evacuated. (Ahrar Houran Gathering)

Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps factions set aircraft-detecting radar in Syria’s al-Mazare area, around al-Mayadeen city in the eastern sector of the Deir Ezzor countryside.

According to sources from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Iranian military experts have monitored the process of fixing and operating the radar.

The area is strategically vital for its geographic altitude that overlooks al-Mayadeen city and regions held by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and coalition forces east of the Euphrates River.

Two weeks ago, the IRGC’s Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas militia withdrew from its military position near the al-Shibli area on the outskirts of al-Mayadeen. Lebanese Hezbollah fighters were deployed in their place.

Prior, the IRGC had transported a number of weapons and ammunition from their caches in the al-Mazare area to houses in residential neighborhoods in the city, raising fears among the locals that they would be used as human shields.

Meanwhile, the central committees in the southern Daraa region reached a new agreement, after meeting with the Russian-delegated officer, Assad Allah, to cease military operations in the Daraa al-Balad neighborhood and the governorate’s countryside.

The regime forces had closed all roads in Jasim city, in the northern countryside of Daraa, coinciding with the arrival of military reinforcements of about 200 soldiers to al-Mohs hill west of the city, according to the Ahrar Houran Gathering.

The Russian forces and the Central Committee in Houran reached an agreement on Saturday to displace 132 wanted persons to northern Syria. However, several of the included people refused to leave Daraa to any other area, according to informed sources.

Local sources in Daraa said the regime forces insisted on displacing several opposition fighters to stop the military campaign.

The opposition website Ahrar Houran Gathering stated that the regime’s security committee gave the central committee until Sunday morning to respond to this condition.

The agreement also includes the entry of Eighth Brigade forces of the Fifth Corps, supervised by the Russian troops, to several locations in Daraa.



Syrian Returns from Lebanon to Start under UN-backed Plan

FILE PHOTO: A Syrian refugee walks near tents, at an informal settlement, in Al-Marj, in Bekaa, Lebanon April 5, 2023. REUTERS/Emilie Madi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Syrian refugee walks near tents, at an informal settlement, in Al-Marj, in Bekaa, Lebanon April 5, 2023. REUTERS/Emilie Madi/File Photo
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Syrian Returns from Lebanon to Start under UN-backed Plan

FILE PHOTO: A Syrian refugee walks near tents, at an informal settlement, in Al-Marj, in Bekaa, Lebanon April 5, 2023. REUTERS/Emilie Madi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Syrian refugee walks near tents, at an informal settlement, in Al-Marj, in Bekaa, Lebanon April 5, 2023. REUTERS/Emilie Madi/File Photo

Thousands of Syrian refugees are set to return from Lebanon this week under the first, UN-backed plan providing financial incentives, after Syria's new rulers said all citizens were welcome home despite deep war damage and security concerns.

Returning Syrians will be provided with $100 each in Lebanon and $400 per family upon arrival in Syria, Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Haneen Sayed said. Transport is also covered and fees have been waived by border authorities, she said.

"I think it's a good and important start. We have discussed and are coordinating this with our Syrian counterparts and I think the numbers will increase in the coming weeks," Sayed told Reuters. A Syrian interior ministry spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

More than 6 million Syrians fled as refugees after conflict broke out in Syria in 2011, with most heading to Türkiye, Lebanon and Jordan. Lebanon has the highest concentration of refugees per capita in the world, hosting about 1.5 million Syrians among a population of about 4 million Lebanese.

Some 11,000 have registered to return from Lebanon in the first week, and the government targets between 200,000 and 400,000 returns this year under the plan, Sayed said.

The Lebanese government is focused on informal tented settlements in the country, where some 200,000 refugees live, she added, and may provide Syrian breadwinners who stay in Lebanon with work permits for sectors such as agriculture and construction if their families return to Syria.

UN agencies previously viewed Syria as unsafe for large-scale returns due to uncertainty over security and persecution by the government of Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled in December.

That has changed.

Since taking over, the new Syrian government has said all Syrians are welcome home. A UN survey from earlier this year showed nearly 30% of refugees living in Middle Eastern countries wanted to go back, up from 2% when Assad was in power.

"While the situation in Syria continues to rapidly evolve, (UN refugee agency) UNHCR considers the current context a positive opportunity for larger numbers of Syrian refugees to return home, or to begin considering return in a realistic and durable way," Ivo Freijsen, UNHCR Representative in Lebanon, told Reuters.

As of the end of June 2025, UNHCR estimated that over 628,000 Syrians had crossed back to Syria via neighboring countries since 8 December 2024, including 191,000 via Lebanon.