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Syria to End Subsidies for Richest Citizens

A merchant counts Syrian pound notes, bearing a portrait of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, at the Bzourieh market in the center of the Syrian capital Damascus on September 11, 2019. (Getty Images)
A merchant counts Syrian pound notes, bearing a portrait of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, at the Bzourieh market in the center of the Syrian capital Damascus on September 11, 2019. (Getty Images)
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Syria to End Subsidies for Richest Citizens

A merchant counts Syrian pound notes, bearing a portrait of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, at the Bzourieh market in the center of the Syrian capital Damascus on September 11, 2019. (Getty Images)
A merchant counts Syrian pound notes, bearing a portrait of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, at the Bzourieh market in the center of the Syrian capital Damascus on September 11, 2019. (Getty Images)

Syria will lift subsidies on basic goods such as bread and gasoline for around 800,000 of its richest citizens by the end of the year to help ease the burden on state finances, officials said on Wednesday.

The move will affect high-earners working in the private sector who can buy essentials with ration cards at a reduced cost.

“There are segments of society that do not need subsidies... I mean those who have money,” Internal Trade Minister Amro Salem told a press conference.

Amro said removing the subsidies would help the poorest in a country of over 18 million people whose economy has been devastated by a decade-old war, and where salaries and subsidies account for the bulk of state spending.

Syria introduced ration cards to ease chronic shortages.

The government has increased public sector pay sharply as inflation spirals. The economy has shrunk by around 60% since the start of the conflict, according to the World Bank and independent economists.

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Rockets Launched at Iraq’s Ain Al-Asad Airbase, No Casualties, Sources Say 

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meets with Iraq Defense Minister Muhammad Al-Abbasi at the Pentagon in Washington, US, July 23, 2024. (Reuters)
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meets with Iraq Defense Minister Muhammad Al-Abbasi at the Pentagon in Washington, US, July 23, 2024. (Reuters)
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Rockets Launched at Iraq’s Ain Al-Asad Airbase, No Casualties, Sources Say 

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meets with Iraq Defense Minister Muhammad Al-Abbasi at the Pentagon in Washington, US, July 23, 2024. (Reuters)
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meets with Iraq Defense Minister Muhammad Al-Abbasi at the Pentagon in Washington, US, July 23, 2024. (Reuters)

Multiple rockets were launched at Iraq's Ain al-Asad airbase housing US-led forces late on Thursday, US and Iraqi sources said, with no damage or casualties reported.

Two US officials said the base itself had not been struck in the attack.

The attack came two days after a military summit in Washington where Iraqi and US officials discussed winding down the coalition's work a decade after it was formed to fight ISIS as it stormed across Iraq and Syria.

No major announcement was made at the end of the talks, though US and Iraqi sources say an announcement that it will begin to gradually wind down is likely in the coming weeks.

Iran-aligned Iraqi political and military factions have pressured the country's government to quickly draw down the coalition's work and say they want all 2,500 troops deployed by the country's one-time occupier to leave.

Washington and the Iraqi government say they want to transition to a bilateral security relationship that would likely see some troops remain in an advisory role.

US-led forces invaded Iraq in 2003, toppled former leader Saddam Hussein and then withdrew in 2011, only to return in 2014 to fight ISIS at the head of the coalition.

Iran-backed Iraqi armed factions have targeted bases housing US troops in Iraq and Syria dozens of times since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, though there have only been a handful of attacks since February, when a truce took hold.