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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)
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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. 

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Israeli Military Says Commandos Raided Missile Plant in Syria in September

People inspect a damaged area in the aftermath of what Syrian state media reported was an Israeli strike in Masyaf, Hama province, Syria September 9, 2024. (Reuters)
People inspect a damaged area in the aftermath of what Syrian state media reported was an Israeli strike in Masyaf, Hama province, Syria September 9, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Military Says Commandos Raided Missile Plant in Syria in September

People inspect a damaged area in the aftermath of what Syrian state media reported was an Israeli strike in Masyaf, Hama province, Syria September 9, 2024. (Reuters)
People inspect a damaged area in the aftermath of what Syrian state media reported was an Israeli strike in Masyaf, Hama province, Syria September 9, 2024. (Reuters)

Israel's military said on Thursday its special forces had raided an underground missile production site in Syria in September that it said was primed to produce hundreds of precision missiles for use against Israel by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

The complex near Masyaf, close to the Mediterranean coast, was "the flagship of Iranian manufacturing efforts in our region", Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told a briefing with reporters.

"This facility was designed to manufacture hundreds of strategic missiles per year from start to finish, for Hezbollah to use in their aerial attacks on Israel."

He said the plant, dug into a mountainside, had been under observation by Israel since construction began in 2017 and was on the point of being able to manufacture precision-guided missiles, some with a range of up to 300 km (190 miles).

"This ability was becoming active, so we're talking about an immediate threat," he said.

Details of the Sept. 8 raid have been reported in Israeli media but Shoshani said this was the first confirmation by the military, which rarely comments on special forces operations.

At the time, Syrian state media said at least 16 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the west of the country.

Shoshani said the nighttime raid was "one of the more complex operations the IDF has done in recent years". Accompanied by airstrikes, it involved dozens of aircraft and around 100 helicopter-borne troops, he said.

"At the end of the raid, the troops dismantled the facility, including the machines and the manufacturing equipment, themselves," he said.

The military released footage showing Israeli troops boarding and dismounting from helicopters and moving through what appears to be a concrete-lined tunnel and industrial site, where they examine documents.

Other footage showed senior commanders at a control center, apparently as the operation proceeds.

Israeli officials have accused the former Syrian government of president Bahar al-Assad of helping the Lebanese-based Hezbollah movement receive arms from Iran and say they are determined to stop the flow of weapons into Lebanon.

As Assad's government crumbled towards the end of last year, Israel launched a series of strikes against Syrian military infrastructure and weapons manufacturing sites to prevent them falling into the hands of enemies.