HOMS, Syria: Once dubbed the capital of the revolution against Bashar Assad, Homs saw some of the fiercest fighting in Syria’s civil war. Now, displaced people are returning to their neighborhoods, only to find them in ruins.
It was in Homs that rebels first took up arms to fight Assad’s crackdown on protests in 2011.
The military responded by besieging and bombarding rebel areas such as Baba Amr, where US journalist Marie Colvin and French journalist Remi Ochlik were killed in a bombing in 2012.
Since Assad’s ouster, people have started returning to neighborhoods they fled following successive evacuation agreements that saw Assad take back control.
“The house is burned down, there are no windows, no electricity,” said Duaa Turki at her dilapidated home in Khaldiyeh neighborhood.
“We removed the rubble, lay a carpet” and moved in, said the 30-year-old mother of four.
“Despite the destruction, we’re happy to be back. This is our neighborhood and our land.”
Her husband spends his days looking for a job, she said, while they hope humanitarian workers begin distributing aid to help the family survive.
The siege of Homs lasted two years and killed around 2,200 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
During the siege, thousands of civilians and rebels were left with nothing to eat but dried foods and grass.
In May 2014, under an evacuation deal negotiated with the former government, most of those trapped in the siege were evacuated, and two years later, Assad seized the last rebel district of Waer.
“We were besieged... without food or water, under air raids, and barrel bombings,” before being evacuated to the rebel-held north, Turki said.
AFP journalists saw dozens of families returning to Homs from northern Syria, many of them tearful as they stepped out of the buses organized by local activists.
Among them was Adnan Abu Al-Ezz, 50, whose son was wounded by shelling during the siege and who later died because soldiers at a checkpoint barred him from taking him to hospital.
“They refused to let me pass, they were mocking me,” he said with tears in his eyes.
“I knew my house was nearly destroyed, but I came back to the precious soil of Homs,” he said.
While protests and fighting spread across Syria over the course of the 13-year war, Homs’s story of rebellion holds profound symbolism for the demonstrators.
It was there that Abdel Basset Al-Sarout, a football goalkeeper in the national youth team, joined the protests and eventually took up arms.
He became something of a folk hero to many before he joined an Islamist armed group and was eventually killed in fighting.
In 2013, his story became the focus of a documentary by Syrian filmmaker Talal Derki named “The Return to Homs,” which won international accolades.
Homs returnee Abu Al-Moatasim, who remembers Sarout, recounted being detained for joining a protest.
When he saw security personnel approaching in a car, he prayed for “God to drop rocket on us so I die” before reaching the detention center, one of a network dotted around the country that were known for torture.
His father bribed an officer in exchange for his release a few days later, he said.
In Baba Amr, for a time early in the war a bastion of the rebel Free Syrian Army, there was rubble everywhere.
The army recaptured the district in March 2012, following a siege and an intense bombardment campaign.
It was there that Colvin and Ochlik were killed in a bombing of an opposition press center.
In 2019, a US court found Assad’s government culpable in Colvin’s death, ordering a $302.5 million judgment for what it called an “unconscionable” attack that targeted journalists.
Touring the building that housed the press center, Abdel Qader Al-Anjari, 40, said he was an activist helping foreign journalists at that time.
“Here we installed the first Internet router to communicate with the outside world,” he said.
“Marie Colvin was martyred here, targeted by the regime because they did not want (anyone) to document what was happening,” he said.
He described her as a “friend” who defied the “regime blackout imposed on journalists” and others documenting the war.
After leaving Homs, Anjari himself became a rebel fighter, and years later took part in the offensive that ousted Assad on December 8, 2024.
“Words cannot describe what I felt when I reached the outskirts of Homs,” he said.
Now, he has decided to lay down his arms.
“This phase does not call for fighters, it calls for people to build a state,” he said.
Syrians return to Homs, ‘capital of the revolution’
https://arab.news/956fy
Syrians return to Homs, ‘capital of the revolution’
- It was in Homs that rebels first took up arms to fight Assad’s crackdown on protests in 2011
- Since Assad’s ouster, people have started returning to neighborhoods they fled
Israel PM calls security chief ‘liar’, in court filing
- Bar’s dismissal, announced by the government last month but frozen by the country’s top court, triggered mass protests.
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an affidavit before the Supreme Court on Sunday, described as a “liar” the country’s internal security chief, whom the government is trying to fire.
Netanyahu’s response came almost a week after Shin Bet head Ronen Bar himself made a sworn statement to the court. It accused the prime minister of demanding personal loyalty and ordering him to spy on anti-government protesters.
Bar’s dismissal, announced by the government last month but frozen by the country’s top court, triggered mass protests.
The unprecedented move to fire the head of the Shin Bet security agency has been contested by the attorney general and the opposition, which appealed Bar’s firing to the Supreme Court.
“The accusation according to which I allegedly demanded action against innocent civilians, or against a non-violent and legitimate protest during the protests of 2023, is an absolute lie,” Netanyahu said in his court statement.
In his own affidavit, Bar had said “it was clear” that in the event of a potential constitutional crisis, Netanyahu would expect Bar to obey the prime minister and not the courts.
Netanyahu countered: “There is no proof supporting these remarks.”
Bar had also denied accusations by Netanyahu and his associates that the Shin Bet had failed to warn in time about Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
“Nothing was hidden” on that night from the security apparatus or the prime minister, Bar said.
Netanyahu countered before the court that Bar “did not accomplish his mission” that night.
“He did not wake up the prime minister. He did not wake up the minister of defense. He did not wake up the soldiers of the army,” or others before the attack, Netanyahu alleged.
The prime minister’s 23-page document said Bar “failed in his role as chief of Shin Bet and lost the confidence of the entire Israeli government as far as his ability to continue to manage the organization.”
Netanyahu’s office had already made similar public comments immediately after Bar filed his affidavit.
An April 8 Supreme Court hearing on the government’s plans to fire Bar ruled that he “will continue to perform his duties until a later decision.”
Syria rejects Kurds’ call for decentralization
- The new authorities in Syria, who replaced the overthrown Bashar Assad in December, have repeatedly rejected the idea of Kurdish autonomy
- Most of Syria’s oil and gas fields are in areas administered by the Kurdish authorities
DAMASCUS: The Syrian presidency rejected on Sunday a Kurdish call for a decentralized state, warning against attempts at separatism or federalism by the minority group.
“We reject clearly any attempt to impose a separatist reality or to create separate entities under the cover of federalism... without a national consensus,” the presidency said in a statement in which it also condemned “the recent activities and declarations” of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that “call for federalism.”
“The unity of Syria, of its territories and its people is a red line,” the statement said.
The declaration came a day after a conference of Syrian Kurdish parties adopted a joint vision of a “decentralized democratic state.”
The new authorities in Syria, who replaced the overthrown Bashar Assad in December, have repeatedly rejected the idea of Kurdish autonomy.
The US-backed Kurds control large areas of northeastern Syria, much of which they took over in the process of defeating jihadists of the Daesh group between 2015 and 2019.
They have enjoyed de facto autonomy since early in the civil war which broke out in 2011, but the new authorities have insisted on a unitary state.
In March, Syria’s interim president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, and the SDF chief Mazloum Abdi, signed an agreement to integrate Kurdish institutions into the Syrian state.
Abdi told the conference on Saturday that “my message to all Syrian constituents and the Damascus government is that the conference does not aim, as some say, at division.”
Instead it aimed “for the unity of Syria,” he insisted.
“We support all Syrian components receiving their rights in the constitution to be able to build a decentralized democratic Syria that embraces everyone,” Abdi said.
Most of Syria’s oil and gas fields are in areas administered by the Kurdish authorities. These may prove a crucial resource for Syria’s new authorities as they seek to rebuild the war-devastated country.
Death toll from Iran port blast hits 40 as fire blazes
- The explosion ripped through the port as Iranian and US delegations were meeting in Oman for high-level talks on Tehran’s nuclear program
- While Iranian authorities appear to be treating the blast as an accident, it also comes against the backdrop of years of shadow war with Israel
TEHRAN: Iran’s president visited the scene of a massive port blast that killed at least 40 people and injured more than 1,000, as a fire still blazed on Sunday more than 24 hours after the explosion.
The blast occurred on Saturday at Shahid Rajaee Port in southern Iran, near the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of world oil output passes.
With choking smoke and air pollution spreading throughout the area, all schools and offices in Bandar Abbas, the nearby capital of Hormozgan province, were ordered closed to allow authorities to focus on the emergency effort, state television said.
The health ministry urged residents to avoid going outside “until further notice” and to use protective masks.
Arriving in Bandar Abbas, President Masoud Pezeshkian expressed his appreciation to first responders, adding “we have come to see first-hand if there is anything or any issue that the government can follow up on.”
“We will try to take care of the families who lost their loved ones, and we will definitely take care of the dear people who got injured,” he said.
A photo released by Pezeshkian’s office later showed him at the bedside of a man hurt in the blast.
Pezeshkian earlier ordered an investigation into the cause of the explosion.
The Russian embassy said Moscow was sending multiple “aircraft carrying specialists” to help fight the blaze. According to Russia’s ministry of emergency situations, one of the aircraft is a dedicated firefighting plane.
The New York Times quoted a person with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss security matters, as saying that what exploded was sodium perchlorate — a major ingredient in solid fuel for missiles.
Defense ministry spokesman Reza Talaei-Nik later told state TV that “there has been no imported or exported cargo for military fuel or military use in the area.”
The port’s customs office said in a statement carried by state television that the explosion probably resulted from a fire that broke out at the hazardous and chemical materials storage depot.
A regional emergency official said several containers had exploded.
“For the moment, 40 people have lost their lives as a result of injuries caused by the explosion,” Hormozgan provincial official Mohammad Ashouri told state television.
The ISNA news agency, citing the provincial judiciary, gave the number of injured as 1,242.
Red Crescent chief Pirhossein Koolivand said some of the injured were airlifted for treatment in the capital Tehran.
Aerial photos released by the Iranian presidency showed black smoke rising from the disaster zone on Sunday and drifting toward the sea.
“The fire is under control but still not out,” a state TV correspondent reported.
Also at the scene on Sunday, Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni said “the situation has stabilized in the main areas” of the facility, Iran’s largest commercial port, and workers had resumed loading containers and customs clearance.
Another official on site, Minister of Roads and Urban Development Farzaneh Sadegh, said only one zone of the port was impacted.
An image from Iran’s Tasnim news agency on Sunday showed a helicopter dropping water on the disaster zone.
Others showed firefighters working among toppled and blackened cargo containers, and carrying out the body of a victim.
The authorities have closed off roads leading to the site, and footage from the area has been limited to Iranian media outlets.
Beijing’s foreign ministry said in a statement to AFP on Sunday that three injured Chinese nationals were in a “stable” condition.
The United Arab Emirates expressed “solidarity with Iran” over the explosion and Saudi Arabia sent condolences, as did Pakistan, India, Turkiye and the United Nations as well as Russia.
The Tehran-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah also offered condolences, saying Iran, with its “faith and solid will, can overcome this tragic accident.”
In the first reaction from a major European country, the German embassy in Tehran said on Instagram: “Bandar Abbas, we grieve with you.”
Authorities declared a day of national mourning on Monday, and three days of mourning in Hormozgan province from Sunday.
The blast occurred as Iranian and US delegations were meeting in Oman for high-level talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, with both sides reporting progress.
While Iranian authorities so far appear to be treating the blast as an accident, it also comes against the backdrop of years of shadow war with regional foe Israel.
According to the Washington Post, Israel launched a cyberattack targeting the Shahid Rajaee Port in 2020.
Jordanian government spokesperson says country remains firmly supportive of Palestine
- Mohammad Momani affirms that Jordan backs self-determination of Palestinians
- Remarks made during seminar commemorating 105th anniversary of martyrdom of Kaid Al-Mefleh Obeidat
LONDON: Minister of Communication Mohammad Momani has said that Jordan’s commitment to “defending” Palestinian rights in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza “remains firm.”
Momani, who is also the spokesperson for the Jordanian government, said that the country supported the right of Palestinians to self-determination, and the establishment of an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
His remarks were made on Saturday during a seminar commemorating the 105th anniversary of the martyrdom of Kaid Al-Mefleh Obeidat. He is remembered as a national hero after being the first Jordanian to lose his life in resisting Zionist groups during the British mandate in Palestine in 1920.
Momani said: “Supporting the Palestinian cause should not come at the expense of Jordan’s national stability but should be expressed through unity behind the Hashemite leadership, the Arab army, and the security agencies.”
He added that “Obeidat’s martyrdom … highlights Jordan’s long-standing sacrifices for Arab unity and freedom,” the Jordan News Agency reported.
Momani said that Jordan’s support resulted from its religious, moral, and humanitarian obligations and that a Palestinian state was vital to Jordan’s national interests, according to Petra.
He said that King Abdullah II and Crown Prince Hussein continued “to champion the Palestinian cause, maintaining Jordan as a bastion of steadfastness amid regional upheavals.”
Qatari emir, Turkish FM discuss Syria, Gaza in Doha
- Hakan Fidan meets Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani at Lusail Palace
LONDON: Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani received the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan at Lusail Palace in Doha on Sunday.
During the meeting, the two leaders discussed significant regional and international developments, especially those concerning Gaza, the Palestinian territories, and Syria.
Sheikh Tamim and Fidan reviewed strategic relations between Doha and Ankara, as well as ways to strengthen and develop ties, the Qatar News Agency reported.
