1. The United Nations counterterrorism chief urged countries to repatriate the 27,000 children stranded in a huge camp in northeastern Syria, many of them sons and daughters of ISIS fighters who once controlled large swathes of Iraq and Syria, Al-Jazeera reported. Vladimir Voronkov told an informal meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday that “the horrific situation of the children in al-Hol Camp is one of the most pressing issues in the world today.”
2. At least five people were killed and scores wounded Saturday when a car bomb detonated in the northern Syrian town of Afrin, the Turkish defense ministry and local civil defense said. According to Reuters, the bomb attack took place in an industrial site at the center of the town and wounded 22 people. The ministry blamed the attack on the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia. There was no immediate comment from the YPG. The local civil defense said the death toll due to the bomb stood at six, including children.
3. The United States extended the temporary legal residency status Friday for nearly 7,000 people from Syria because of the country’s civil war, AP reported. Temporary status allows foreign citizens to stay in the US if they lack another form of legal residency and come from a country that meets certain criteria that makes it dangerous to return. The renewal order also allows about 1,800 additional new applicants to the program.
4. The Syrian government’s Iranian-backed militia known as the National Defense Forces (NDF) and the Autonomous Administration’s Internal Security Forces (Asayish) engaged in clashes in northeastern Syria’s Hassakeh on Sunday, resulting in an unknown number of injuries and the death of one member of the Syrian regime forces. Security sources from the Asayish in the city told North Press that a firefight took place between the two groups in the vicinity of the security complex (where regime government and security institutions are located) after pro-regime demonstrators attempted to march towards an Asayish checkpoint.
5. President Bashar al-Assad issued on Sunday law No. 1 for 2021 that grants the General Establishment of Housing an annual loan of no more than 5 billion Syrian pounds to carry out housing projects for state employees, SANA reported.
