Source: Press TV
Western sanctions on Syria are seriously impacting the treatment of children with cancer, say local and World Health Organization (WHO) officials.

“The impact of economic sanctions imposed on Syria heavily affected the procurement of some specific medicine, including anti-cancer medicines,” said the WHO representative in Syria, Elizabeth Hoff.

Syria has been under an array of sanctions imposed by the US and the European Union, which claim they have included exemptions for medicines and other humanitarian supplies for Syria, rejecting criticisms of sanctions.

“Such measures are not aimed at the civilian population,” an EU spokeswoman said. “EU sanctions do not apply to key sectors of the Syrian economy such as food and medicine.”

However, the sanctions are affecting trade in pharmaceuticals due to restrictions on financial transactions and business with the Syrian government.

The sanctions are preventing many international pharmaceutical companies from dealing with the Syrian authorities as well as hindering foreign banks’ handling of payments for imported drugs, Hoff said.

The WHO official added that in addition to cancer medication, there were critical shortages of insulin, anesthetics, specific antibiotics needed for intensive care, serums, intravenous fluids and other blood products and vaccines.

Meanwhile, the head of the Damascus hospital, Maher Haddad, also blamed sanctions for the lack of much-needed medication.

“Most of the cancer medicines are imported. Pharmex (the company that buys drugs for hospitals across Syria) used to import the stock of medicines that public hospitals need. But it has not been able to do so largely because of the economic sanctions, I believe,” he said.

This comes as six years of foreign-backed militancy has heavily affected the Syrian health service, once one of the best in the Middle East.

The WHO says only 44 percent of hospitals are now fully functioning across Syria and more than a quarter are not working at all as a result of the war.

Source: SANA
Damascus – President Bashar al-Assad and his wife received on Thursday tens of women and children who were released after they had been abducted from their villages in Lattakia countryside by terrorist groups for more than three and a half years.

“We have waited for this moment for long time… since three and a half years… everyday, the people have been asking for you, and the State, with all its institutions, have been searching for you, the target of each soldier and each martyr was your return,” President al-Assad said during the reception.

The President added “In spite of all suffering you have encountered, we want you to return to your normal life with your families, villages and country… we want you to be an example in steadfastness, challenge and patriotism, and you are so.”

President al-Assad went on to say “We will be with you and we will not abandon you… what has passed, has passed, we all believe in God, because believing in God, Home and people is the thing that makes you steadfast, stand with each other in that crisis which you have passed through.”

For her part, Mrs. Asma al-Assad affirmed that the strength of will, embodied by the abducted, women with their children during the years of abduction, should continue through rebuilding their life and trying to compensate the children for what they lost of education and life.

The freed women said that in spite of the inhuman conditions and difficult days they have passed through while abducted, their confidence in the state and its institutions hasn’t been shaken since the first day of their abduction, showing determination to overcome difficulties.

By Alexander Mercouris
Source: The Duran
Syrian army regains control of formerly Al-Qaeda controlled valley vital for the supply of fresh water to Damascus.
The Jihadi interruption of the water supply to Damascus – which has gone on virtually unreported in the Western media for 44 days – is set to end, with the Syrian army finally gaining control of the water springs in Wadi Barada which provide water to Syria’s capital.

Al-Masdar’s report confirming the capture of the springs contains this sardonic comment about the Al-Qaeda led Jihadis who have surrendered to the Syrian army in Wadi Barada

With the Syrian Army in control of Wadi Barada, the remaining jihadist rebels will be transferred to the Idlib Governorate, where they will be reacquainted with their comrades.

The ironic last words refer to the fierce fighting currently going on between Jihadi groups in Idlib province.

Events since the Syrian army’s capture of eastern Aleppo highlight its continuing problems.

The Syrian army has been obliged to send reinforcements to repel ISIS offensives in Deir Ezzor and Palmyra regions, and to repel an attempt by ISIS to cut the Khanasser road, which connects Aleppo to the heartland areas under the Syrian government’s control in central and southern Syria.

At the same time the Syrian army has to find troops to protect Aleppo itself, whilst carrying out an advance towards the strategic ISIS held town of Al-Bab to the north of Aleppo.

The Syrian army also needs to contain a large and dangerous concentration of Al-Qaeda fighters in northern Hama province, whilst maintaining pressure on the Al-Qaeda’s main bastion, which is Idlib province.

Lastly, it has been forced to commit troops to clearing the countryside around Damascus, including taking control of Wadi Barada in order to restore the water supply to Damascus, whilst maintaining security in Damascus itself and in the various town and cities under the government’s control.

So many operations on so many widely dispersed fronts stretches the Syrian army’s limited resources, and puts intense strain on its soldiers, even despite the fact that they must now feel that they have the momentum of victory behind them.

Quite simply the Syrian army cannot be overwhelmingly strong everywhere at the same time, which is why it occasionally has to retreat, and why its advances – unlike those of its opponents when they occur – have to be incremental.

This point was recently made by – of all people -the director of Russia’s Hermitage Museum (whose museum is responsible for the restoration of Palmyra), who has explained ISIS’s recapture of Palmyra by the delay in launching the offensive to capture eastern Aleppo, which meant that there were insufficient numbers of high quality Syrian troops available in and around Palmyra to defend the town. This is of course essentially the same point the Russian military has also made.

Criticisms of the various ceasefires in Syria that the Russians broker (including the present one), which sometimes explain them in terms of divisions within the Russian government, in my opinion fail to accord sufficient weight to this factor.

Precisely because the Syrian army’s resources are both limited and so highly extended, it is the Syrian army not its opponents which benefits most from the ceasefires, which give it the time and space it needs to rest and resupply, and to concentrate its otherwise over-stretched forces in those places where fighting continues to take place.

The Syrian war is a gruelling war of attrition. The Syrian army’s limited resources mean it cannot be otherwise. Ceasefires are an inseparable part of the sort of war the Syrian army has to fight. They key point is that it is winning it.

Source: SANA
By M. al-Frieh/H. Said/Mazen
Damascus Countryside/Idleb, SANA – Six civilians were killed and two others were injured due to terrorist attacks in Damascus Countryside and Idleb on Thursday.

Terrorist shelling attack kills 6 civilians in Harasta near Damascus

Six civilians were killed due to a terrorist rocket attack on Harasta suburb in Damascus Countryside.

A source at Damascus Countryside Police Command told SANA reporter that the attack, which included several rocket shells, was launched by terrorists of the so-called “Jaish al-Islam” who are positioned in Eatsern Ghoutaby, adding that another person was injured due to the selling.

Colonel Sama’an killed in a terrorist attack on al-Faihaa Sports city in Damascus

Meanwhile, Director of al-Jaish football team, Colonel Nazih Sama’an was killed in a terrorist attack on al-Faihaa Sports city in Damascus.

A police source told SANA that terrorists of Jaish al-Islam targeted al-Faihaa sports city and al-Adawi Street with two rocket shells, killing the colonel and injuring player Ali Maryameh.

Eight persons injured in Aleppo

ِA police source told SANA that terrorist organizations targeted with a rocket shell residential neighborhood of al-Masharka in Aleppo, injuring a woman and a child.

Later, the source added that 6 other persons were injured in a rocket shell launched by terrorists on a building in Baghdad station neighborhood in Aleppo.

Terrorist sniper shootings on locals in Idleb’s al-Fouaa injure one person

In the same context, another person was also injured when terrorist groups affiliated to Jabhat al-Nusra opened sniper rifle fire on the locals’ houses in the terrorist-besieged al-Fouaa town in the northern countryside of Idleb province.

Local sources told SANA that the sniper shootings came from Binnesh town, confirming that one person was injured in the attack.

Source: FarsNews
Over 1,000 militants in Mo’adhamiyeh in Southwestern Damascus officially ended fight against the Syrian government on Wednesday.

“Introductory steps have been taken for Over 1,000 militants to surrender to the government forces or evacuate the town of Mo’adhamiyeh today,” the sources said.

“While, government authorities in Mo’adhamiyeh said they are ready to go on with implementation of their agreement with the militants, those militants who do not want to join the peace agreement will be relocated to militant-held parts of Idlib,” they added.

“650-750 militants have registered their names to leave Mo’adhamiyeh and move to Idlib. At least 400 militants have laid down arms and have settled their files to remain in Mo’adhamiyeh,” the sources went on to say.

Informed sources in Western Ghouta said on Tuesday that preliminary steps were taken for the evacuation of the rebels from al-Mo’adhamiyeh, adding that the militants would be relocated to the militant-held parts of Idlib in the next few days.

“The reconciliation process in Damascus in on the right track, and those militants who do not want to surrender to the Syrian authorities will leave al-Mo’adhamiyeh alongside their family members,” the sources said.

“And those who lay down arms and turn in to Syrian government will be pardoned and their legal cases will be resolved immediately. In the meantime, state bodies will launch their activities in the town,” they added.

Source: SANA
The Syrian Army and armed forces units, backed by the army air-force, on Sunday continued operations against the Takfiri terrorist organizations in different areas across the country, inflicting heavy losses upon them in the arms and personnel.

Hama

Army units, in cooperation with the supporting forces, re-established full control over Maardes town in the northern countryside of Hama, a military source announced on Sunday.

The source pointed out that a number of terrorists were killed and their weapons and ammunition were destroyed.

The source added that the members of army’s engineering units are working on dismantling the explosive devices that were planted earlier by terrorists before they were killed or fled away towards the farms and orchards north of the town.

Aleppo

29 terrorists from the so-called “Jaish al-Fateh” were killed in an operation carried out by an army unit against their gatherings and positions to the northeast of Aleppo northern province.

The military source told SANA that an army unit carried out concentrated bombardments against gatherings and positions of the terrorist organizations on the axis of al-Majbal, Breej and Masaken Ibraheem Hananou to the northeast of Aleppo City.

The source added that 29 terrorists were killed in the operation and more than 37 others were injured including one of their field commanders, in addition to destroying an amount of arms and ammunition that was in their possession.

Daraa

An army unit targeted fortified positions of two terrorist groups northwest of the Customs’ old building and in al-Nazihin Camp in Daraa al-Balad area in Daraa city, leaving many of their members dead or injured.

Damascus Countryside

Army units killed a number of terrorists and destroy vehicles, some of which equipped with machine guns, as they fire artillery shells on their gatherings in Khan al-Sheeh farms, al-Husseiniyeh, al-Khazrajiyeh and Harfa-Beit Jinn intersection and on others’ vehicles’ movements in al-Tibeh, Zakiyeh and al-Waara in Damascus Countryside.

Quneitra

An army unit clashed with a terrorist group that was attempting to infiltrate and attack one of the military points in al-Naqar al-Gharb site in the area surrounding al-Amal Farms to the south of Mashati Hadar in Quneitra, according to SANA reporter.

The reporter said that the clash ended by eliminating all the members of the terrorist group and destroying their weapons and ammunition.

The reporter added that the army directed concentrated strikes on a terrorist group that was bulldozing agricultural lands and families’ properties to set up fortifications to the southeast of al-Tilal al-Humr to the east of Hadar village, killing the group’s members.