Arrests Made over Drug Smuggling Near Syrian-Jordanian Border

A targeted water purification facility in Khirbet Al-Shaham Village, western Daraa countryside. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
A targeted water purification facility in Khirbet Al-Shaham Village, western Daraa countryside. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
TT
20

Arrests Made over Drug Smuggling Near Syrian-Jordanian Border

A targeted water purification facility in Khirbet Al-Shaham Village, western Daraa countryside. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
A targeted water purification facility in Khirbet Al-Shaham Village, western Daraa countryside. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Local forces connected to the military security apparatus in Syria’s southern Daraa Governorate raided early on Sunday the village of Khirbet Al-Shaham.

Authorities successfully apprehended two individuals suspected of engaging in drug trafficking and smuggling.

According to local sources in the western Daraa countryside, a military convoy comprising several armored vehicles and armed personnel carried out the raid on Al-Salam Compound in the village.

Abdullah Al-Khaldi, the brother of local factional group leader Ahmed Al-Khaldi, who was previously detained, was apprehended. Abdullah is accused of drug smuggling and collaborating with Hezbollah.

In addition, forces carried out raids on houses near the water desalination plant and arrested a suspect named Fawaz Al-Khaldi, who is accused of drug trafficking and smuggling in the area. The plant was the recent target of an attack.

Multiple reports have indicated the presence of a drug production facility operated by a local faction led by Ahmed Al-Khaldi in Khirbet Al-Shaham, which lies near the Jordanian-Syrian border.

This faction was formed after the 2018 reconciliation agreement and is affiliated with the Security Office of the Fourth Division, which sought to attract and recruit various former opposition factions in the western region of Daraa when settlements were being struck.

Over time, this faction has become involved in the illicit trade and smuggling of drugs.

On May 8, warplanes targeted a water purification facility located near Khirbet Al-Shaham.

A house belonging to drug dealer Merhi Al-Ramathan was targeted in the village of Al-Shaab in the eastern countryside of Sweida.

These areas are located close to the Syrian-Jordanian border.

According to political and intelligence sources cited by Reuters, the first airstrike targeted a Captagon laboratory in Daraa, while the second hit the village of Al-Shaab. Al-Ramathan was killed in the raid.



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
TT
20

UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”