Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki says he will alter his country’s security strategy after a wave of attacks killed scores of people across the country on May 20.
Maliki said his government is about to “make changes in the high and middle positions of those responsible for security, and security strategy.”
Syrian troops celebrate as they take control of the village of Haydariyah, some seven kilometers outside the rebel-held town of Qusayr
The Syrian military, backed by Hezbollah, pounded the rebel-held town of Qusayr on Sunday, killing at least 13 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“After two days of calm, planes bombed the town of Qusayr in the early hours of the morning,” the watchdog’s director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
At least 13 people, including rebels, were killed in these raids and in artillery and mortar fire by the army.
“It seems that this is preparation for a major operation,” he said.
According to reports, there’s been a new clash between the Syrian rebels and the pro government Syrian army in the flashpoint of the northern city of Aleppo around a prison. The prison is holding around 4,000 inmates. Activists have revealed that, using air raids and tank shells government forces have counter-attacked the rebels.
Syrian rebels including the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front have counter-attacked east of Damascus to retake a town that served as a conduit for arms from Jordan into the capital before it was seized by government forces last month, rebel sources said.
The rebels’ struggle to end four decades of Assad family rule has been complicated in part by internal divisions along ideological and political lines, as well as a shortage of heavy weaponry that could decisively turn the tide of conflict.
