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Fresh Syria Protests Call for Accountability for Assad-Era Loyalists

A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)
A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)
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Fresh Syria Protests Call for Accountability for Assad-Era Loyalists

A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)
A large Syrian flag flutters above Tishreen Park in Damascus, June 4, 2025. (AFP)

Dozens of Syrians protested in Damascus overnight into Wednesday demanding accountability for supporters of ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad, the latest such demonstrations in a country still recovering after years of civil war.

Syria's new authorities have repeatedly vowed to provide justice and accountability for Assad-era atrocities, and have regularly announced the arrest of former military and security figures, launching trials for some while warning against acts of "revenge".

Video footage posted on social media and confirmed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor appeared to show dozens of people protesting in the capital's Mazzeh 86 neighborhood.

A protest also erupted in front of a nearby mosque before security forces restored order.

An AFP photographer saw a similar demonstration on Monday night on the outskirts of the capital.

"Assad's shabiha forced us to leave in green buses" for tented displacement camps in the country's north, said protester Abdel-Rahman al-Qadri, 38, a former opposition fighter.

He was referring to militiamen who helped crush dissent under Assad, and to evacuation deals imposed on some opposition-held areas during Syria's civil war, which erupted in 2011 and ended with the longtime ruler's 2024 ouster.

"We deserve the houses they live in, we deserve the positions and public sector jobs," said Qadri, who is unemployed.

Neighborhoods considered strongholds of the former authorities in the major cities of Aleppo and Idlib have seen similar protests in recent days, with participants calling for so-called "regime remnants" and "shabiha" to be put on trial.

Local residents there said some protests have involved vandalism of private property, raising tensions and fears of vigilante justice.

On Monday, interior ministry spokesperson Noureddine al-Baba said authorities were committed to bringing perpetrators of Assad-era crimes to justice through legal avenues, but "the state categorically rejects turning the demand for accountability into an act of revenge".

Last week, President Ahmed al-Sharaa warned that "it is important not to use transitional justice as a pretext for revenge".

Lawyer Aref al-Shaal said on social media that authorities were "caught between street pressure demanding accountability immediately, and efforts to control the issue and to fight the 'shabiha' through an established legal framework that prevents a slippage towards chaos".

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Arab World

Al-Zaidi: Iraq Eyes Europe as It Seeks to Diversify Oil Exports

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, right, and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi attend a press conference in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP)
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, right, and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi attend a press conference in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP)
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Al-Zaidi: Iraq Eyes Europe as It Seeks to Diversify Oil Exports

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, right, and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi attend a press conference in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP)
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, right, and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi attend a press conference in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP)

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said on Tuesday that he discussed selling oil to Europe during visits to France and Germany, as Baghdad seeks to diversify its export routes and reduce its reliance on the Strait of Hormuz.

During a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin, al-Zaidi said: "We want to expand and diversify our export routes".

He added that "Iraq cannot remain hostage to a single corridor" as recent events have demonstrated, referring to the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blockaded by Iran during the Middle East war.

Al-Zaidi said that he had discussed oil exports to Europe with Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, whom he met in Paris on Monday.

Crude oil sales account for nearly 90 percent of Iraq's revenue but its exports have been hurt by the outbreak of the Middle East war between Iran and the United States.

Before the war began in February, Iraq produced around four million barrels per day, and exported an average of 3.4 million bpd, mostly via Hormuz.

Most of its oil exports go to East Asia, with China and India its largest buyers.

Due to the disruption, Iraq began exporting crude using tanker trucks through Syria, as well as through a pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, although these routes can handle only a fraction of its usual sea-bound trade.

Al-Zaidi said that Baghdad could "double its oil exports through the Mediterranean" to supply markets in Europe and the United States.

Al-Zaidi, who hopes to increase Iraq's oil production to 10 million barrels per day, said that "a large share, or nearly half, can go to European countries and the West".

He said that Iraq and Germany were expected to reach "an understanding on the export of crude oil" while Baghdad would purchase German technology and equipment.

Merz said that the main focus for Iraqi-German cooperation is the economy.

"Many German companies are now active in Iraq. They are developing new solutions, for example for energy supply," he said, adding that "the best example is an agreement on Iraq's electricity supply, which we will sign today".

Merz also expressed his concerns after Yemen's Houthis cemented their control over the Bab al-Mandeb waterway at the entrance to the Red Sea.

"This further exacerbates the situation on the energy markets, and also affects Germany," he said.

Arab World

Lebanon Prosecutor Requests Charges for Ex-President Aoun Over Beirut Port Blast

Lebanon's then President Michel Aoun is pictured at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon April 7, 2021. (Dalati Nohra/Handout via Reuters)
Lebanon's then President Michel Aoun is pictured at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon April 7, 2021. (Dalati Nohra/Handout via Reuters)
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Lebanon Prosecutor Requests Charges for Ex-President Aoun Over Beirut Port Blast

Lebanon's then President Michel Aoun is pictured at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon April 7, 2021. (Dalati Nohra/Handout via Reuters)
Lebanon's then President Michel Aoun is pictured at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon April 7, 2021. (Dalati Nohra/Handout via Reuters)

A Lebanese prosecutor on Tuesday requested that former president Michel Aoun be indicted over the 2020 Beirut port blast that killed more than 200 people, a judicial official told AFP. 

The prosecutor at Lebanon's Court of Cassation asked the judge overseeing the case, Tarek Bitar, to "press charges against (former) president Aoun," said the official, requesting anonymity. 

The official added that charges were being sought against Aoun because he "had prior knowledge of the presence of ammonium nitrate at the port and its danger, without taking the necessary measures" or referring it to the country's Higher Defense Council. 

The massive explosion on August 4, 2020 killed more than 220 people, injured more than 6,500 and laid waste to swathes of the capital. 

Lebanese authorities have said the explosion was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer had been stored haphazardly for years, despite repeated warnings to senior officials. 

Nobody has been punished for the blast despite public anger and families of the blast victims demanding justice in a country long plagued by official impunity. 

In March, a judicial official told AFP that judge Bitar had completed his probe. 

He referred the case to the public prosecutor who was to study it, and prosecutor Mohammad Saab submitted his review on Tuesday, the official said. 

The review specified the responsibility of more than 70 defendants, including current and former politicians, security and military officials, and civil servants, some of whom were previously charged by Bitar. 

The charges remain up to Bitar, who could issue them in the coming weeks. 

The case had been bogged down by political and legal wrangling since 2023, after Iran-backed Hezbollah led a campaign demanding Bitar's removal and dozens of lawsuits also sought to remove him from the case. 

However, Bitar resumed his investigations last year as Lebanon's balance of power shifted. 

President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam took office following a 2023-2024 war between Israel and Hezbollah, which weakened the Lebanese armed group. 

Since then, several legal impediments to Bitar's work have also been removed, including the lifting of a travel ban against him. 

Arab World

Alarmed Yemenis Flee South as Houthis Keep Up Attacks

Salma Mohammed, 60, a displaced Yemeni woman, sits inside her tent at the Al-Firdaws camp in Ras Imran, just outside Aden, Yemen, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026. (AP)
Salma Mohammed, 60, a displaced Yemeni woman, sits inside her tent at the Al-Firdaws camp in Ras Imran, just outside Aden, Yemen, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026. (AP)
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Alarmed Yemenis Flee South as Houthis Keep Up Attacks

Salma Mohammed, 60, a displaced Yemeni woman, sits inside her tent at the Al-Firdaws camp in Ras Imran, just outside Aden, Yemen, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026. (AP)
Salma Mohammed, 60, a displaced Yemeni woman, sits inside her tent at the Al-Firdaws camp in Ras Imran, just outside Aden, Yemen, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026. (AP)

After a drone strike sent shrapnel flying into his wife's chest, killing her, Muhammad Aiyash and his three children fled with no belongings to a new makeshift camp for the displaced in the southern Yemeni city of Aden, the interim capital.

Panic has spread as Yemen's Houthis captured territories along the country's Red Sea coast that has enabled the Iran-aligned militants to seize another part of the country and tighten their grip over the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, one of the world's most important shipping routes for goods and commodities, including oil.

"By God, we do not possess even a single grain of flour. We have no mattresses and no clothes," said Aiyash, who is in his 60s and left his home behind in the ancient port city of Mokha in ‌a desperate search ‌for shelter in Yemen's latest crisis.

The UN refugee agency said on Tuesday ‌that ⁠more than 100,000 people ⁠had been internally displaced by the renewed conflict in Yemen, and that thousands more have fled by sea to Djibouti.

In the latest round of fighting, the Houthis have extended their control from the northern, most populous areas of Yemen, to cities and towns and islands in the west.

They have also opened a new area of combat in the Iran war, increasing pressure on ⁠global energy markets following the earlier effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The ‌Houthis have also stepped up attacks on Saudi Arabia.

'THE WAR CAME SUDDENLY'

At the Aden camp, families ‌sat beside tents, tending sheep and trying to assemble rudimentary shelters. Children stayed close to their parents as ‌adults carried belongings.

One displaced man, Tawfiq al-Kharij, showed a shrapnel injury to his leg as he sat with relatives outside a tent. He said he escaped with nothing but the clothes he was wearing.

"We were living peacefully in God's care, then the war came suddenly,” Kharij said. "Some died, and others survived."

UNHCR said on Tuesday that humanitarian access ‌remained "a major challenge".

"Insecurity, damaged roads, telecommunications disruptions and movement restrictions are affecting operations," the agency said in a statement.

Khadija Kudaf and her children had to walk for ⁠three days to get to ⁠Aden, a port city. "We didn't even bring the children's clothes," she said.

Yemenis are all too familiar with suffering.

The Arab world's most impoverished country has been mired in conflict since the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014, leading to a civil war that led to one of the world's biggest humanitarian crises.

A UN-brokered truce in 2022 largely halted major fighting, despite expiring six months later, but efforts to turn it into a lasting political settlement have stalled as regional tensions have intensified.

In Taiz province, northwest of Aden, another newly erected camp has begun to receive people fleeing fighting. Women and children carried water in jerrycans at the camp, while others washed clothes and gathered around tents.

A displaced woman there, Taghreed Salem, said families were struggling to find basic supplies.

“We arrived fleeing from the war, from the shells, from the missiles, from the aircraft that strike,” Salem said. “We came as newly displaced people. We want water, we want anything from them,” she said.