First Aid Convoy Enters North Syria Since Earthquake

 Aid trucks at the Bab al-Hawa crossing before entering Syria (Reuters)
Aid trucks at the Bab al-Hawa crossing before entering Syria (Reuters)
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First Aid Convoy Enters North Syria Since Earthquake

 Aid trucks at the Bab al-Hawa crossing before entering Syria (Reuters)
Aid trucks at the Bab al-Hawa crossing before entering Syria (Reuters)

An aid convoy reached northwestern Syria Thursday, the first since the devastating earthquake that has killed thousands, according to an official at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing between Türkiye and Syria.

“The first UN aid convoy entered on Thursday, four days after the earthquake,” said Mazen Alloush, media officer at the crossing.

Alloush noted the delivery had been expected before Monday's quake, but said: “It could be considered an initial response from the United Nations, and it should be followed, as we were promised, with bigger convoys to help our people.”

An AFP correspondent saw Thursday six trucks passing through the crossing from Türkiye, carrying tents and hygiene products.

UN aid reaches Syrian opposition-held areas through the Bab al-Hawa crossing – the only humanitarian aid corridor agreed by the UN Security Council resolution in 2014 to allow aid to cross on the Turkish-Syrian border.

But the road leading to the crossing was damaged by the earthquake, temporarily disrupting operations, a UN spokesman said on Tuesday.

UN special envoy Geir Pedersen said Thursday in Geneva that the UN had been “assured Thursday that it would be able to get through the first assistance.”

On Wednesday, the UN's resident Syria coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih warned that the UN has some stocks in the area -- enough to feed 100,000 people for one week.

The devastating earthquake had affected five Syrian governorates. Since Monday, relief teams have been busy searching for survivors under the rubble amid a shortage of rescue equipment.

Benlamlih said the destruction in Aleppo, Homs, Lattakia and other provinces “is huge.”

“But we know also that the destruction in the northwest is huge and we need to get there to assess,” he affirmed.

In government-held provinces, planes carrying aid have landed in the past two days in the airports of Damascus, Aleppo and Latakia.



Germany Hands Syrian Doctor Life for Torturing Assad Critics

Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)
Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)
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Germany Hands Syrian Doctor Life for Torturing Assad Critics

Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)
Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)

A Syrian doctor who had practiced in Germany was sentenced to life in prison by a German court on Monday for crimes against humanity and war crimes after he was found guilty of torturing dissidents in Syria.

The 40-year-old, identified only as Alaa M. in accordance with German privacy laws, was found guilty of killing two people and torturing another eight during his time working in Syria as a doctor at a military hospital and detention center in Homs in 2011 and 2012.

The court said his crimes were part of a systematic attack against people protesting against then-President Bashar al-Assad that precipitated the country's civil war.

Assad was toppled in December. His government denied it tortured prisoners.

Alaa M. arrived in Germany in 2015, after fleeing to Germany among a large influx of Syrian refugees, and became one of roughly 10,000 Syrian medics who helped ease acute staff shortages in the country's healthcare system.

He was arrested in June 2020, and was handed a life sentence without parole, the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt said in a statement.

The defendant had pleaded not guilty, saying he was the target of a conspiracy.

German prosecutors have used universal jurisdiction laws that allow them to seek trials for suspects in crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.

They have targeted several former Syrian officials in similar cases in recent years.

The plaintiffs were supported by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.

ECCHR lawyer Patrick Kroker called Monday's ruling "a further step towards a comprehensive reckoning with Assad's crimes".

Judges found that the doctor caused "considerable physical suffering" as a result of the torture inflicted on his victims, which included serious beatings, mistreating wounds and inflicting serious injury to the genitals of two prisoners, one of whom was a teenage boy.

Two patients died after he gave them lethal medication, the court statement said.

Monday's ruling can be appealed.