Disagreement over priority to protect phosphate convoys | Clashes between NDF and “Liwaa Al-Quds” leave several members injured

SOHR sources have reported clashes between a group of the National Defence Forces and another of the Palestinian “Liwaa Al-Quds,” following disagreements over the priority of protecting trucks transporting phosphate on the road between Palmyra and Damascus, near Khunayfis mine in eastern Homs.

 

According to SOHR sources, NDF members were escorting a group of trucks carrying phosphate brought from Al-Sawwanah site, before members of “Liwaa Al-Quds” gathered at the gate of Khunayfis site and asked NDF members to return to their positions, as they would escort the convoy to its destination. NDF refused to comply to “Liwaa Al-Quds” members’ demands, where the disagreement evolved to clashes which left several members on both sides injured.

 

In May, SOHR activists reported that Russian forces established an observation post at the peak of a mountain overlooking a phosphate mines in Khunayfis area in Homs desert, where Russian forces prepared the area that contains communication tower, via besieging the site with barbed wires, digging a trench around it and reinforcing the guard system at the main gate.

 

This is a strategic site because of its high location, where it overlooks large spaces all the way to Al-Alyaniyah village and its surrounding areas in east Homs desert.

 

On April 11, the regime-backed Military Construction Institution established airfields in Al-Sawana phosphate field eastern of Homs, by orders of the Russian forces in Hamimim base.

 

According to reliable SOHR sources, the Military Construction Institution started operating nearly a month ago, establishing two airfields over a 5-kilometer area.

 

Russian forces had brought Syrian militias to the site of operation on March.