Syria Steps up Fuel Rationing as Shortages Hit Mobile Network 

People shop for fruits and vegetables, as poor access to safe water fuels cholera outbreak in Syria, in Damascus, Syria November 8, 2022. (Reuters)
People shop for fruits and vegetables, as poor access to safe water fuels cholera outbreak in Syria, in Damascus, Syria November 8, 2022. (Reuters)
TT
20

Syria Steps up Fuel Rationing as Shortages Hit Mobile Network 

People shop for fruits and vegetables, as poor access to safe water fuels cholera outbreak in Syria, in Damascus, Syria November 8, 2022. (Reuters)
People shop for fruits and vegetables, as poor access to safe water fuels cholera outbreak in Syria, in Damascus, Syria November 8, 2022. (Reuters)

Syria announced cuts on Tuesday to the amount of fuel it provides to government workers to help cope with shortages that have led a number of mobile phone towers to go offline. 

Prime Minister Hussein Arnous ordered a 40% reduction in the amount of fuel provided to government workers and restrictions on official travel for non-urgent purposes, according to a statement. 

Public transport was exempted, said the statement, which blamed shortages on delays in shipments and US sanctions. 

Subsidized fuel is already hard to come by in Syria, with people often waiting weeks for notifications to receive less than a full tank of gas. Those who can buy non-subsidized fuel must brave long queues at petrol pumps. 

Fractured by a more than decade of conflict that has frozen on most fronts, Syria's economic crisis is exacting an increasingly heavy toll that the United Nations says has left more people than ever in need of humanitarian aid. 

The once-productive Syrian economy, already hit by extensive damage to infrastructure and industries during the war, has plunged further since 2019, when contagion from neighboring Lebanon's financial crisis led the Syrian pound to collapse. 



Iraq's Kataib Hezbollah Warns US Against Intervening in Israel-Iran Conflict

 Protesters hold Iranian flags during a protest against Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, at a bridge leading to the fortified Green Zone where the US embassy is located in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP)
Protesters hold Iranian flags during a protest against Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, at a bridge leading to the fortified Green Zone where the US embassy is located in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP)
TT
20

Iraq's Kataib Hezbollah Warns US Against Intervening in Israel-Iran Conflict

 Protesters hold Iranian flags during a protest against Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, at a bridge leading to the fortified Green Zone where the US embassy is located in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP)
Protesters hold Iranian flags during a protest against Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, at a bridge leading to the fortified Green Zone where the US embassy is located in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP)

Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah warned on Sunday it would resume attacks on US troops in the region if the United States intervenes in the conflict between Israel and Iran.

"We are closely monitoring the movements of the American enemy's army in the region," Kataib Hezbollah Secretary-General Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi said in a statement. "If America intervenes in the war, we will act directly against its interests and bases spread across the region without hesitation."

Founded in the aftermath of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, Kataib Hezbollah is one of the elite Iraqi armed factions closest to Iran. The group, a key pillar of Iran's network of regional proxy forces, has claimed responsibility for dozens of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and US forces in both Iraq and Syria.

Early last year, Kataib Hezbollah announced the suspension of all its military operations against US troops in the region in response to efforts by the Iraqi government.

Kataib Hezbollah is part of a coalition of Iran-aligned groups known collectively as the "Axis of Resistance" — an umbrella of hardline Shiite armed factions that have claimed more than 150 attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria since the onset of the Gaza war about 20 months ago.

Iraq, a rare ally of both Washington and Tehran, is striving to avoid upsetting its fragile stability while focusing on rebuilding after years of conflict.