kayhan.ir

News ID: 57480
Publish Date : 16 September 2018 - 21:37

Zionist Jets Attack Damascus on Day of Election

DAMASCUS (Dispatches) -- Syrians cast their ballots Sunday in the first local elections since 2011, when a foreign-backed militancy erupted to oust the government of President Bashar Assad.
Seven years since the last vote, the conflict has killed more than 360,000 people, forced millions more to flee, and left the economy in tatters as terrorists have trickled as many as 80 countries to wreak havoc.
Now, Syrian troops are back in control of more than two-thirds of the country after a string of victories, most recently around Damascus and in southern Syria.
Polling booths opened at 7:00 a.m. across government-held parts of the country and were open for 12 hours, with a potential five-hour extension depending on turnout, reported state news agency SANA.
It said more than 40,000 candidates would compete for 18,478 seats on local administrative councils.
In Damascus, election posters mostly featuring incumbents were plastered across public squares, including in the Old City.
Muhammad Kabbadi, a 42-year-old government employee, cast his ballot in the Bab Sharqi district of the capital for a candidate from his neighborhood.
"I know exactly who I am going to vote for – he's young, active and his victory will bring good things to residents of this area," said Kabbadi.
Syrian state television broadcast footage of voters around Damascus and in the coastal cities of Tartus and Latakia. They dropped their ballots into plastic boxes as election officials looked on.
The channel also showed images of voting in Dayr al-Zawr, the eastern city recaptured in full last year by Syrian troops after fierce battles against Daesh terrorists.
The voting comes as Syrian troops prepare to retake Idlib, the last major terrorist bastion outside the government control.
The number of seats has slightly increased from the roughly 17,000 available posts in the last elections, as smaller villages have been promoted to fully fledged municipalities.
Council members serve four-year terms at the municipal level and are mostly responsible for service provision and other administrative matters.
Those elected in this round are expected to have more responsibilities than their predecessors, particularly linked to reconstruction and urban development.
Syria last held local elections in December 2011, just nine months into the conflict.
It held parliamentary elections in 2016 and a presidential vote in 2014 that renewed Assad's tenure for another seven years.
Ahead of the Sunday elections, an Israeli missile attack targeted the Syrian capital’s airport, activating air defenses, which shot down a number of the projectiles, SANA reported.
"Our air defenses responded to an Israeli missile attack on Damascus international airport and shot down a number of hostile missiles,” a military source said, quoted by SANA.
The agency posted footage and images of the air defenses being activated. In a video, a small, bright explosion is seen in the night sky, with city lights in the distance.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor which is sympathic to militants, said late Saturday’s strikes hit a weapons depot outside the airport.
"The missiles, suspected to be Israeli, destroyed an arms warehouse near the Damascus international airport,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
The occupying regime of Israel has repeatedly attacked Syria, especially whenever the army has been making advances against terrorists.
Earlier this month, the Zionist regime acknowledged having carried out more than 200 strikes in Syria over the past 18 months.
The last reported Israeli strikes on Syria took place on Sept. 4, when Syrian state media said the military’s air defenses downed several missiles in the coastal province of Tartus and in central Hama.
The Observatory said those raids and said they killed three Syrian soldiers.
Zionist PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday Israel was taking action to stop its foes from acquiring sophisticated arms.
"Israel is constantly working to prevent our enemies from arming themselves with advanced weaponry," Netanyahu's office quoted him as saying at the start of his cabinet's weekly meeting.
Netanyahu was speaking two days before the anniversary of the outbreak of the Yom Kippur war.
The 1973 conflict started with a surprise attack by Egypt and Syria that caused severe losses to the Zionists.
"Forty-five years ago, intelligence erred by holding to a mistaken assessment regarding the war intentions of Egypt and Syria," he said.
Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979, but the Zionist regime and Syria are still officially in a state of war.