Highway riot contained

November 30, 2013

Jeddah, Nov 30: Security forces arrested 20 Ethiopian rioters on the Makkah-Jeddah Expressway on Friday for throwing stones that damaged 14 cars and injured four Saudis.

An eyewitness said police officers fired shots into the air to disperse the rioters and soon brought the situation under control.

The Ethiopians were apparently rioting because they could not gain entry into the Shumaisi detention center, he said.

“A large number of Ethiopians, who arrived in buses, moved onto the highway and tried to stop speeding cars. However, the highway security patrol closed the expressway at a safe distance from the detention center to prevent the situation from escalating. The troublemakers were confronted and taken into custody," a security source said.

“The rioting started when a group of Ethiopians hurled stones at passing motorists and the security forces. The police opened fire into the air to bring the situation under control,” the eyewitness said. He said the Ethiopians went on the rampage when they could not enter the detention center.

The center only takes in those expatriates arrested by the security forces for violating labor and residence regulations. It does not accept those who surrender voluntarily.

The highway patrol teams diverted oncoming traffic via Bahrah overpass.

The rioters were isolated, arrested and then taken to the detention center.

Maj. Gen. Ali Al-Ghamdi, director of Makkah Police, and Brig. Hassan Al-Shablan, director of the road security special forces, were present to oversee the operation, according to police sources.

Various social networking sites carried a number of postings showing the incident.

Some Ethiopians resorted to similar unruly behavior in front of the center last week, said Col. Badr Al-Saud, director of public relations at the Makkah police department.

Until Wednesday, 38,000 illegal workers were detained at the Shumaisi center, including 25,200 men and 12,800 women and children. Most of them were from Ethiopia and Indonesia, and others from Somalia, Niger and Chad.

The source said 9,870 illegal workers were deported from the center since the launch of the labor correction campaign on Nov. 4.

In another development, 200 Ethiopians are continuing their sit-in protest at the gate of their consulate in Jeddah. They want travel documents to go home.

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Syrian Town erupts after Israeli forces enter Beit Jinn; heavy casualties reported

News Network

November 28,2025

Several Syrians were killed and more than two dozen others injured in Israeli strikes on the outskirts of Damascus, amid intensified incursions by the occupying regime since the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad and the rise of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rule.

Syrian state TV reported that the casualties occurred during an overnight Israeli assault involving helicopters and drones on the town of Beit Jinn in the Damascus countryside. The attack followed an Israeli military unit’s entry into the town, where they were surrounded by local residents, leading to gunfire and direct confrontations.

According to the report, “The occupation army’s helicopters and artillery shelled Beit Jinn, located at the foothills of Mount Hermon, resulting in 13 martyrs and 25 injured civilians.” The broadcaster did not specify the full extent of damage.

Al-Ikhbariyah Syria confirmed that the shelling coincided with Israeli soldiers entering Beit Jinn, while artillery pounded surrounding areas. The broadcaster stated that the escalation began after local residents clashed with an Israeli patrol that had infiltrated the southern town and “kidnapped” three young men.

Following a two-hour exchange of heavy fire, Israeli forces withdrew and repositioned on the hill of Butt al-Warda at the town’s outskirts.

Israeli media acknowledged that six soldiers were wounded in the clashes—three of them seriously—describing the confrontation as a “sudden ambush” that forced the deployment of reserve units and air support to secure an exit route. No further details were provided.

The aggression has fueled renewed displacement from Beit Jinn, with residents fleeing to nearby villages amid increasingly frequent Israeli attacks.

The raid came just a day after Israeli troops carried out another ground incursion into Umm al-Luqas village in Quneitra province. According to SANA, an Israeli unit in four vehicles entered the village, raided several homes, and later withdrew.

Syria condemned the repeated incursions as violations of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement and UN resolutions, urging the international community to enforce compliance and pressure Israel to halt its operations and withdraw fully.

Israel has expanded its attacks across Syrian territory following the collapse of the Assad government last year. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly instructed his forces to push deeper into Syrian territory and seize strategic positions.

Meanwhile, critics say the HTS-led interim government’s inaction and growing normalization gestures toward Israel have emboldened Tel Aviv to intensify its military operations. HTS, formerly linked to al-Qaeda, seized control of Damascus last December, formally ending Assad’s rule.

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