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Russia, Syrian Regime Hunt ISIS Cells in As Suwayda Desert

A photo published by the “As Suwayda 24” website, of a previous combing operation in the Syrian Badia
A photo published by the “As Suwayda 24” website, of a previous combing operation in the Syrian Badia
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Russia, Syrian Regime Hunt ISIS Cells in As Suwayda Desert

A photo published by the “As Suwayda 24” website, of a previous combing operation in the Syrian Badia
A photo published by the “As Suwayda 24” website, of a previous combing operation in the Syrian Badia

Russian helicopters and Syrian regime drones combed Syrian airspace eight kilometers away from the war-torn nation’s borders with Jordan, reported local sources from the southwestern province of As Suwayda.

Combing operations kickstarted last Saturday against ISIS cells present in the Syrian Badia. Missions went beyond reconnaissance to bombing several locations. The explosions of bombing raids were heard in As Suwayda.

Moreover, caves in the southern parts of the Syrian Badia were raided as well. The caves are believed to be used as hideouts by ISIS militants.

Areas raided include Abu Sharehouh and Tal Sayyar. Helicopters also flew over the eastern side of Isna village in As Suwayda.

They also conducted a sweep in the As Suwayda desert, using machine guns.

Villagers residing in the eastern countryside of As Suwayda watched military helicopters fly at a low altitude over the provincial capital, also called As Suwayda.

The aircrafts were also accompanied by Russian drones.

“Syrian regime military units conducted raids and combing operations in some areas in the As Suwayda desert during the past two days, with the backing of Russian air forces,” Rayan Maarouf, a managing editor at the As Suwayda 24 network, told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“The combing operations began from several axes in the Suwayda desert,” he revealed.

According to military sources, the combing operations in the eastern and southeastern As Suwayda Badia come as a continuation of the military operations in eastern Syria to pursue ISIS terror cells.

The push in As Suwayda comes after military units have cornered ISIS cells in the desert of Homs.

There are fears that ISIS elements would flee towards other areas in the Badia.

“Ultimately, these operations seek to secure the region after a recent resurgence of suspicious movements from elements affiliated with ISIS,” a military source said.

“Combing operations will continue for several days, and will include all parts of the As Suwayda desert,” they added.

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In Besieged Sudan’s El-Fasher, Neighbors Improvise First Aid for Wounded

FILE - A Sudanese evacuee carries her son as they leave the USNS Brunswick at Jeddah Port, Saudi Arabia, May 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
FILE - A Sudanese evacuee carries her son as they leave the USNS Brunswick at Jeddah Port, Saudi Arabia, May 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
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In Besieged Sudan’s El-Fasher, Neighbors Improvise First Aid for Wounded

FILE - A Sudanese evacuee carries her son as they leave the USNS Brunswick at Jeddah Port, Saudi Arabia, May 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
FILE - A Sudanese evacuee carries her son as they leave the USNS Brunswick at Jeddah Port, Saudi Arabia, May 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)

For a week, eight-year-old Mohamed has suffered the pain of shrapnel stuck in his arm. But he is one of the lucky ones in Sudan’s western city El-Fasher, which is under paramilitary attack.
“One of our neighbors used to be a nurse. She helped us stop the bleeding,” Mohamed’s father, Issa Said, 27, told AFP via satellite connection under a total communications blackout.
Like an estimated one million more people trapped in the city under a year-long siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Said cannot get to a hospital for emergency care.
With only the most meagre supplies remaining in El-Fasher, his family is among those whose only medical help has come from neighbors and family members who improvise.

In its quest to seize the North Darfur state capital — the only major Darfur city it has not conquered during two years of war with Sudan’s army — the RSF has launched attack after attack, which have been repelled by army and allied forces.

Even if people were to brave the streets, the Saudi Hospital is the only partially functioning one now, according to a medical source there, and even that has come under repeated attack.
Mohamed, an aid coordinator who fled to El-Fasher after getting shot in the thigh during an RSF attack days ago on the nearby famine-hit Zamzam displacement camp, estimates hundreds of injured civilians are trapped in the city.
According to aid sources, hundreds of thousands have fled Zamzam for the city, which is already on the brink of mass starvation according to a UN-backed assessment.
Yet the people of El-Fasher have “opened their homes to the wounded,” Mohamed told AFP, requesting to be identified by his first name for safety.
“If you have the money, you send someone to buy clean gauze or painkillers if they can find any, but you have to make do with what you have,” said Mohamed, whose leg wound meant he had to be carried the 15 kilometers from Zamzam to the city, a journey that took hours.

In crowded living rooms and kitchens, civilians with barely any medical training cobble together emergency first aid, using household items and local medicinal plants to treat burns, gunshot wounds and shrapnel injuries.
Another victim, Mohamed Abakar, 29, said he was fetching water for his family when a bullet pierced his leg.
The limb immediately broke underneath him, and a neighbor dragged him into his home, fashioning him a splint out of a few pieces of wood and cloth.
“Even if it heals my broken leg, the bullet is still inside,” Abakar told AFP, also by satellite link.

By Monday, the RSF’s recent attacks on El-Fasher and surrounding displacement camps had killed more than 400 people, according to the UN.
At least 825,000 children are trapped in “hell on Earth” in the city and its environs, the UN children’s agency UNICEF has warned.
The people of El-Fasher have suffered a year of RSF siege in a city the Sudanese military has also bombed from the air.
Residents have taken to hiding from the shelling in makeshift bunkers, which are often just hastily dug holes topped with bags of sand.

But not everyone makes it in time.

On Wednesday, a shell broke through Hanaa Hamad’s home, shrapnel tearing apart her husband’s abdomen before they could scramble to safety.
“A neighbor and I treated him as best we could. We disinfected the wound with table salt and we managed to stop the bleeding,” the 34-year-old mother of four told AFP.

But by morning, he had succumbed to his injuries, too severe for his wife and neighbor to handle.