Syrian officials seize arms, ammunition in Hama

Syrian authorities have confiscated a large cache of weapons and ammunition and have raided an explosive manufacturing workshop in the western city of Hama. The Syrian officials intercepted the weapons, some of which made by Israel, while chasing armed terrorist groups in the al-Hamidiyah neighborhood in the city on Wednesday, the official SANA news agency reported. The weapons confiscated included assault rifles, pump-action shotguns, machineguns, RPG launchers, as well as offensive and defensive grenades. The authorities also recovered private and state-owned vehicles, which the terrorists had stolen towards criminal purposes. In the same neighborhood, the Syrian forces raided a house, which was used by terrorists as a workshop to manufacture explosives. Also on Wednesday, the Syrian Army cleared the eastern city of Dayr al-Zawr of armed groups after heavy clashes with terrorists operating in the area near the Iraqi border. In recent days, terrorist groups fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have repeatedly called on the countries supporting chaos in Syria, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to send in more weapons, saying that they are losing the battle to government over lack of guns and ammunition. Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011. The violence has claimed the lives of hundreds of people, including many security forces. Damascus blames ‘outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups’ for the unrest, asserting that it is being orchestrated from abroad. The West and the Syrian opposition, however, accuse the government of killing protesters.