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SOHR: ISIS Attacks Iranian Militias in Syria's Badia

An ISIS poster in the central Syrian town of Sukhnah is adorned with the flags of pro-government fighters after the Syrian government took control of the area (AFP)
An ISIS poster in the central Syrian town of Sukhnah is adorned with the flags of pro-government fighters after the Syrian government took control of the area (AFP)
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SOHR: ISIS Attacks Iranian Militias in Syria's Badia

An ISIS poster in the central Syrian town of Sukhnah is adorned with the flags of pro-government fighters after the Syrian government took control of the area (AFP)
An ISIS poster in the central Syrian town of Sukhnah is adorned with the flags of pro-government fighters after the Syrian government took control of the area (AFP)

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported a number of ISIS sudden attacks on posts of Iranian-backed militias and regime forces in the surrounding areas of Arak oil field in east Homs desert.

The attack was followed by clashes between the two sides, amid reports of casualties.

ISIS cells targeted a guard post of al-Qura Guards, militias backed by Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), on the bank of Euphrates river in al-Asharah city in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, killing four Syrian militiamen and injuring others.

Earlier, a bomb planted by unknown gunmen believed to be of ISIS cells, exploded in the car carrying militiamen, near Wadha village of Maskanah town in the eastern countryside of Aleppo, according to the Observatory.

As a result, four Iranian-backed militiamen were killed, and two others injured.

ISIS also killed eight regime-backed militiamen in surprise attacks on their posts and checkpoints in different areas in the Syrian desert. In response, Russian jets executed tens of airstrikes on ISIS positions, leaving casualties.

Since March 2019, SOHR documented various ISIS attacks, bombings, and ambushes which resulted in the deaths of at least 1,339 regime soldiers and loyalists of various nationalities, including two Russians, and 145 Iranian-backed militiamen of non-Syrian nationalities.

Also, four civilians working in gas fields, 11 shepherds, and four other people were killed in ISIS attacks during the same period, according to the war monitor.

About 754 ISIS members were also killed in exchanged attacks and bombardment since March 2019.

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Arab World

Former Syrian Colonel Unfit for Trial in Landmark UK Crimes Against Humanity Murder Case

Prosecutors said al-Salem was part of a Syrian Air Force Intelligence group that suppressed demonstrations in the Damascus suburb of Jobar when the government carried out a bloody crackdown during the 2011 uprising against former President Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian leadership. (AFP)
Prosecutors said al-Salem was part of a Syrian Air Force Intelligence group that suppressed demonstrations in the Damascus suburb of Jobar when the government carried out a bloody crackdown during the 2011 uprising against former President Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian leadership. (AFP)
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Former Syrian Colonel Unfit for Trial in Landmark UK Crimes Against Humanity Murder Case

Prosecutors said al-Salem was part of a Syrian Air Force Intelligence group that suppressed demonstrations in the Damascus suburb of Jobar when the government carried out a bloody crackdown during the 2011 uprising against former President Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian leadership. (AFP)
Prosecutors said al-Salem was part of a Syrian Air Force Intelligence group that suppressed demonstrations in the Damascus suburb of Jobar when the government carried out a bloody crackdown during the 2011 uprising against former President Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian leadership. (AFP)

A former Syrian air force colonel is unfit to stand trial in a landmark British case charging him with three counts of murder as crimes against humanity for attacks on civilians in 2011, a judge said Friday.

Not guilty pleas were entered on behalf of Salem al-Salem, 58, in the Central Criminal Court after prosecutors accepted medical findings that his rare neurological condition was too advanced for him to enter a plea or face trial.

Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said al-Salem will face a trial of facts next year on murder and torture allegations but he won't be required to appear in court. The trial will determine whether he committed the acts but cannot result in a conviction because of his condition.

Al-Salem is the first person in the UK charged with murder as a crime against humanity under the International Criminal Court Act of 2001. UK law allows British prosecutors to bring charges for some international offenses, including crimes against humanity and torture, regardless of where they were committed.

Prosecutors said al-Salem was part of a Syrian Air Force Intelligence group that suppressed demonstrations in the Damascus suburb of Jobar when the government carried out a bloody crackdown during the 2011 uprising against former President Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian leadership.

Al-Salem “was tasked with quelling civilian protests against the regime and the defendant ordered officers under his command to shoot protesters and he himself shot protesters,” prosecutor Emilie Pottle said at a previous hearing. “The murders were part of a widespread and systemic attack against the civilian population.”

Al-Salem, who appeared by a video link with an oxygen mask over his face, has a progressive and fatal motor neuron disease that has left him paralyzed in all four limbs with cognitive impairment and limited ability to communicate, prosecutor Tom Little said.

“The motor neuron disease is now advanced. In addition, there is associated depression, apathy and cognitive impairment as well as severely restricted speech,” Little said in reading out one doctor's report. “The defendant is monosyllabic and only really understandable to close family.”

He is charged with murder in the deaths of Omar Al-Homsi, Nizar Fayoumi-AlKhatib and Talhat Dalal in April and July 2011. He faces a count of conduct ancillary to murder in the death of Mohammed Salim Zahrak Balik.

Al-Salem is also charged with torturing three other people as part of his official duties. Prosecutors said he was present and participated in interrogations when detainees were beaten, shocked and hung by handcuffs from a ceiling.

Arab World

Mourners in Damascus Bury Cafe Blast Victims as Officials Promise Justice

Mourners carry the coffin of Fathi Muhammad Saeed Qabbani, who was killed Tuesday when an explosive device detonated in a cafe near Damascus' main courthouse complex, during his funeral in the Al-Midan neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, Friday, July 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
Mourners carry the coffin of Fathi Muhammad Saeed Qabbani, who was killed Tuesday when an explosive device detonated in a cafe near Damascus' main courthouse complex, during his funeral in the Al-Midan neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, Friday, July 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
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Mourners in Damascus Bury Cafe Blast Victims as Officials Promise Justice

Mourners carry the coffin of Fathi Muhammad Saeed Qabbani, who was killed Tuesday when an explosive device detonated in a cafe near Damascus' main courthouse complex, during his funeral in the Al-Midan neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, Friday, July 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
Mourners carry the coffin of Fathi Muhammad Saeed Qabbani, who was killed Tuesday when an explosive device detonated in a cafe near Damascus' main courthouse complex, during his funeral in the Al-Midan neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, Friday, July 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Mourners filed through Damascus on Friday, a day after an explosive device set off in a cafe in the Syrian capital killed 10 people.

The funeral procession in the normally bustling Midan neighborhood carried the coffins of three of the victims. Another 21 were wounded in the explosion at a popular cafe near the capital's main judicial complex, which was often frequented by lawyers.

Syria's Health Ministry raised the death toll Friday from nine to 10. Officials have promised to arrest those behind the attack, but no updates were announced in the investigation. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Bahaa Qabbani said his brother, Fathi Qabbani, a married father of one son, worked at a shop near the site of the explosion and was passing by the cafe at the moment of the blast. He was killed, The AP news reported.

Qabbani called the perpetrators of the attack “a group of terrorists who are against the homeland,” and called on security forces to “take hold of the country with an iron fist."

Although there is so far no indication who carried out the attack, many were quick to blame loyalists of former President Bashar Assad, who was ousted in an insurgent offensive in December 2024. During the funeral procession, some mourners chanted, “The people want remnants of the former regime to be executed.”

Also Friday, Syria's state-run news agency SANA reported that three members of security forces were wounded in an attack on a checkpoint at the entrance to the Damascus suburb of Jaramana. It said that a man on a motorcycle threw two hand grenades at the checkpoint guards and tried to throw a third one, but it exploded in his hand, killing him.

Another person was arrested in connection with the attack, SANA reported.

Since overthrowing the Assad dynasty, Syria’s new rulers have struggled to exert control across the country and to check extremist groups.

Deadly attacks blamed on the ISIS group have targeted religious minorities, including a suicide attack on a church in a Damascus suburb and a bomb set off in a mosque in a predominantly Alawite area in the city of Homs.

Arab World

Israel Military Says Struck Hezbollah Positions in South Lebanon

Relatives of missing victims weep, as they gather at the site of destroyed buildings that were hit in an Israeli airstrike in Qannarit village, southern Lebanon, Saturday, June 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Relatives of missing victims weep, as they gather at the site of destroyed buildings that were hit in an Israeli airstrike in Qannarit village, southern Lebanon, Saturday, June 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
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Israel Military Says Struck Hezbollah Positions in South Lebanon

Relatives of missing victims weep, as they gather at the site of destroyed buildings that were hit in an Israeli airstrike in Qannarit village, southern Lebanon, Saturday, June 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Relatives of missing victims weep, as they gather at the site of destroyed buildings that were hit in an Israeli airstrike in Qannarit village, southern Lebanon, Saturday, June 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Israel's military said Friday it had struck several Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon a day earlier in response to attacks on its troops in the area.

Israel and Lebanon signed a US-sponsored framework agreement last week to pave the way for peace between the two countries and disarm Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Israeli officials have repeatedly ruled out withdrawing troops from southern Lebanon, maintaining that any withdrawal would happen only after Hezbollah has been disarmed across Lebanon.

"The -army- struck approximately 10 Hezbollah infrastructure sites and a truck used to transfer weapons in southern Lebanon," the military said in a statement.

The sites were in the areas of the south Lebanon towns of Bint Jbeil, Beit Yahoun, Kounine, and Baraachit, and "were used by Hezbollah to advance attacks against -Israeli- soldiers operating in the Security Zone," the army said, AFP reported.

The military said the strikes on the infrastructure sites were carried out following attacks on its soldiers inside the Israeli-declared "security zone", which stretches about 10 kilometres (six miles) deep inside Lebanese territory along the border.

The military said the strike on the truck carrying weapons near the area was carried out to remove a threat to the soldiers.

The Lebanese state-run news agency reported three Israeli strikes Thursday night, near the town of Baraachit in the Bint Jbeil area, and in Nabatiyeh Al-Fawqa.

The agency also reported two injuries in a strike on the town of Seddiqine near Tyre.

Netanyahu visited troops in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, vowing that his country's forces would stay in the area as long as Iran-backed Hezbollah remained a threat.

The deal between Israel and Lebanon makes any Israeli withdrawal from occupied Lebanese land conditional on Beirut disarming Hezbollah, starting with "pilot zones" that the Lebanese military will take over.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel, triggering Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion.

Israeli attacks since the start of the war have killed about 4,300 people, according to Lebanese official figures.

In the same period, the Israeli military has reported 38 soldiers and one civilian contractor killed.