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Syria Direct: News Update 10-30-2013

* The Syrian Arab Red Crescent coordinated an evacuation of […]


30 October 2013

NewsUpdateOct2013

* The Syrian Arab Red Crescent coordinated an evacuation of citizens of the besieged neighborhood of Moadimiya on Tuesday, where citizens have been surviving on olives and whatever else they can forage from the ground. “Men exited earlier from Mouadimia are now being received at shelters by the Syrian Red Crescent, trying to secure dinner for the late arrivals,” the organization posted on their Twitter account Tuesday evening, a day after an opposition spokesperson in Moadimiya expressed concern that many evacuees would be beaten or detained by Assad forces.

* The Syrian air force has dropped explosives on the village of al-Safira, reports the pro-opposition al-Safira Media Center, continuing three weeks of bombardment on the strategic town on the alternate Khanasir-Aleppo road into Syria’s largest city. Regime shelling is also continuing in Al Waar, reports Sham News Network. Last week, regime forces blockaded the Homs district, home to 400,000 displaced Syrians.

AlSafira

A video posted online Wednesday captures destruction from regime bombardment in al-Safira.

* A presidential decree issued Tuesday relieved Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil of his duties, reports official Syrian news agency SANA. The decree listed “Jamil’s absence from his work’s headquarters, without previous permission, his failure to perform the duties entrusted to him as an economic deputy despite the conditions plaguing the country, in addition to his actions and meetings outside of the nation without government coordination,” as reasons for his dismissal, referencing recent meetings between Jamil and American diplomats.

* Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued a “general amnesty” Tuesday for men who had failed to complete their mandatory military service and deserters from military service under the condition they surrender within a certain period, reports official news agency SANA. The amnesty does not include those who left military service in order to join opposition ranks.

* An unidentified assassin killed Al Arabiya journalist Mohammed Saeed in the town of Haritan in outer Aleppo, using a pistol with a silencer, the Syrian National Coalition said in a statement Tuesday. Saeed’s murder accompanies dozens of assassinations of Syrian and foreign journalists in recent months, as opposition extremist groups, primarily the Islamic State in Iraq and al Sham, have faced accusations of deliberately intimidating journalists.

 

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