Syria Direct: News Update: 11-25-2013

* Heavy fighting in the Qalamoun region on the national highway between Homs and Damascus has cut the Syrian capital from its oil refineries in Homs and the north-western province of Tartous, leading to heavy traffic at the capital’s gas stations, Al Watan reported on Monday. “We have only received two batches [of fuel], which is not enough to meet today’s needs,” a station owner told Al Watan, which reported many taxis and private vehicles have ceased to operate. Official news agency SANA reported Sunday that armed opposition groups had again shelled the oil refinery in Homs, which was attacked in late October.

 Photo Courtesy of syriaalyom

* The Free Syrian Army destroyed two army tanks and captured another on Monday as it seized Syrian army checkpoints in the farms outside the village of Rima, next to Yabroud in the Qalamoun region, near the national highway, a spokesperson from the local media center told Syria Direct. Meanwhile, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported Monday the Syrian army had “eliminated armed terrorist groups in Deir Attiyeh and dismantled dozens of explosive devices planted by them on the roads to and inside Nabak and Deir Attiyeh, while army units continue to comb the neighborhood of Qara.”

* A high-level Jordanian government source announced Sunday that Jordan would reject Syrians who arrive in the Kingdom from nations other than Syria and return them to the countries from which they came, reported the Syrian television station al-Ghad. The policy would mean that Syrians who have fled to nations such as Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt, which, like Jordan, are hosting hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, could not relocate to Jordan.

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