Two fighter jets came close to an Iranian passenger plane over Syrian airspace

Beirut, Lebanon: Two fighter jets came close to an Iranian passenger plane over Syrian airspace, causing the pilot to change altitude quickly to avoid collision and injuring several passengers, the official IRIB news agency reported on Thursday, July 23.

The agency initially said a single Israeli jet had come near the plane but later quoted the pilot as saying there were two jets that identified themselves as American. The incident is likely to ramp up tensions between longtime foes Iran and the United States.

The pilot of the passenger plane contacted the jet pilots to warn them to keep a safe distance and they identified themselves as American, IRIB reported.

Video posted by the agency showed a single jet from the window of the plane and comments from a passenger who had blood on his face. The Iranian plane, belonging to Mahan Air, was heading from Tehran to Beirut and landed safely in Beirut, an airport source told Reuters. An Israeli military spokesman had no immediate comment and there was no immediate comment from the U.S. military.

The incident is being investigated and Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said the necessary legal and political action would be taken, according to the Foreign Ministry website.

Israel and the United States have long accused Mahan Air of ferrying weapons for Iranian-linked guerrillas in Syria and elsewhere.

The United States imposed sanctions on Mahan Air in 2011, saying it provided financial and other support to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. Tensions have spiked between Tehran and Washington since 2018, when U.S. President Donald Trump exited Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with six powers and reimposed sanctions that have battered Iran's economy.

One passenger described how his head had hit the roof of the plane during the change in altitude and video showed an elderly passenger sprawled on the floor. All of the passengers left the plane, some with minor injuries, the head of the Beirut airport told Reuters.The plane arrived back in Tehran in the early hours of Friday, July 24 morning, the Fars news agency reported.

Syrians vote for new parliament amid coronavirus, economic woes

The parliamentary elections in Syria kicked off on Sunday, the third elections of its kind during the more than nine-year-long war, as the country's epidemic situation and the economy both continue to deteriorate. 

A total of 7,277 polling stations opened across the government-controlled areas on Sunday as voters are having the chance to vote for the 1,656 candidates for the 250-seat parliament. Both the president and his wife were seen wearing masks and casting their ballots at a polling center in the Ministry of Presidential Affairs.

The Syrian government now controls around 70 percent of the Syrian territory while ultra-radical rebels control the Idlib Province in northwestern Syria and the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) control areas in northeastern Syria.

The elections, originally scheduled for April 13, were postponed twice due to the coronavirus pandemic. All polling stations have adopted protection measures and restrictions as required to prevent the spread of the epidemic.

The Syria crisis has been lasting for over nine years. Due to many factors including the war, the epidemic and external sanctions, the economy of the country has been in freefall over the past few months with the pound losing value, making the price of basic commodities now un-affordable to many Syrians.

"We have a lot of problems due to the war and our living conditions are very hard in addition to very pressing health conditions now. So we demand better living conditions and this is what Syrians really care about," said Imad Sarhan, a voter.

"The timing for the elections is important. Tough and unilateral sanctions are imposed on Syria by some countries, but Syria has never succumbed to them. The elections are held on time and this is a constitutional right that reflects what Syrians want," said Imad Sara, Information Minister of Syria.

In accordance with the Syrian Constitution, the parliamentary elections are held every four years, with the last held on April 13, 2020 when the Arab Socialist Baʽath Party won most votes.

Syrian air defences intercept 'hostile targets' over Damascus

Damascus, Syria: Syrian air defences on Monday, july 20  intercepted a new Israeli "aggression" above the capital Damascus, state media said, in the latest wave of attacks that Western intelligence sources have said were Israeli strikes on Iranian-backed targets in Syria.

State television said Israeli missiles had flown over the Syrian Golan Heights where they conducted raids around the capital and live footage showed blasts across the skies of the capital. The bases in eastern, central and southern Syria which Israel had hit in recent months are believed to have a strong presence of Iranian-backed militias, according to intelligence sources and military defectors familiar with the locations.

Syria never publicly acknowledges that the strikes target Iranian assets in a country where Tehran's military presence has covered most government-controlled areas. Western intelligence sources say Israel's strikes on Syria are part of a shadow war approved by Washington and part of the anti-Iran policy that has undermined in the last two years Iran's extensive military power without triggering a major increase in hostilities.

Israel has acknowledged conducting many raids inside Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011. Israeli defence officials have said in recent months Israel would step up its campaign against Iran in Syria where, with the help of its proxy militias, Tehran has expanded its presence.

Syria Terrorist Blast: seven dead, 85 wounded in car bomb attack in Azaz

Azaz, Syria: A car bomb attack in northwestern Syria's Azaz region killed seven people and wounded 85 others, a local hospital in Syria and Turkish state media said on Sunday. The injured civilians, some of whom are in critical conditions, have been transported across the Turkish border, and hospitalized in the city of Kilis, the report said.

The incident took place in the village of Siccu, across the border from Turkey's southern province of Kilis, Turkey's Anadolu agency said. It said 15 of the wounded had been taken to a hospital on the Turkish side of the border and that some were in critical condition. Azaz has been under the control of rebels backed by Turkey since Ankara's first incursion into Syria in 2016, in an operation that aimed to drive away Islamic State militants and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia from its border with Syria. Ankara regards the U.S.-backed YPG as a terrorist organisation. The operation ended in 2017.

The deadly attack took place as Syrians voted to elect a new parliament, including, for the first time in years, in former rebel bastions. More than 7,400 polling stations opened at 7:30 a.m. local time (0430 GMT) on Sunday, including in former militant strongholds of Eastern Ghouta, east of central Damascus, and the southern countryside of the northwestern Idlib province.

President Bashar al-Assad's Baath party and his allies are expected to win most of the parliament's 250 seats in the third such polls to be held in Syria ever since foreign-sponsored militancy broke out in March 2011. The two previous polls were staged in May 2012 and April 2016 respectively. In the last legislative elections in 2016, turnout stood at 57.56 percent.