Syrian armed forces on alert in anticipation of foreign strikes

Syrian armed forces and their allies are on alert across the country and have evacuated some of their military posts in anticipation of possible foreign strikes, a monitoring group and activists reported Tuesday.

The Syrian army is “on full alert in all its military airports, large military bases located in the capital
Damascus and its outskirts, in Homs [and] the coastal areas of Latakia and Tartous,” Rami Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told dpa.

Activists in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour said Syrian armed forces and their allies had been seen
evacuating the main military checkpoints.

The moves come after U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday condemned as “heinous” and “atrocious” an alleged chemical attack on Douma, in Eastern Ghouta, and said that his administration would respond the next two days.

“We are studying that situation extremely closely … and will be making some major decisions over the next 24 to 48 hours,” Trump told a cabinet meeting in Washington.

Saturday’s alleged chemical attack on Douma, the last remaining rebel-held pocket near the Syrian capital Damascus, killed at least 70 people, including children. Syria has denied that any such attack took place.

On Monday, unidentified warplanes carried out a strike on Syria’s T-4 military base in Homs province, killing at least 14 members of the Syrian military and its allies.

Russia and Syria have blamed Israel for the attack, while Israel has refused to comment.

Lebanon said it will file a complaint to the United Nations Security Council after its airspace was allegedly used to attack targets in neighbouring Syria on Monday, state media reported.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants condemns the raids against the Syrian Arab Republic and affirms its previous positions that Lebanese airspace should not be used to attack Syria,” the Lebanese National News Agency quoted the ministry as saying.

The Lebanese army said the warplanes that violated its airspace flew over the sea to the west of the Lebanese coastal town of Jounieh and then over the east of the ancient city of Baalbeck, in eastern Lebanon.

The report made no mention of Israel, but the Lebanese army on Monday said that four Israeli warplanes had breached the country’s airspace.

Meanwhile, some 3,627 militants along with their families have left the city of Douma in eastern Ghouta through the al-Wafideen crossing over the past 24 hours, Tass quoted the Russian Defense Ministry as saying on Tuesday.

The statement said that the evacuees were taken by 70 buses to the north of the Aleppo Governorate.

Rami Abdel Rahman told dpa that there are between 8,000 to 9,000 fighters inside Douma in Eastern Ghouta.

Under the Russian-brokered deal, thousands of fighters from Jaish al-Islam can safely leave the town for an
opposition-held area in northern Syria.

The accord will tighten the government’s grip on Eastern Ghouta, a former opposition enclave, which has been the target of a sustained campaign by the Syrian military since Feb. 18.

Should the government recapture the whole area – as now looks likely – it would deal the harshest blow to the
rebels since December 2016, when President Bashar al-Assad’s forces regained full control of the northern city of Aleppo following a Russian-backed campaign.