Russia has quit a United Nations arrangement that aimed to protect hospitals and humanitarian aid deliveries in Syria from being hit by the warring parties, according to a UN note to aid groups seen on Thursday.

The Russian move comes after an internal UN inquiry in April found it was “highly probable” that the Syrian regime or its allies carried out attacks on three healthcare facilities, a school and a refuge for children in northwest Syria last year.

Iraqi security forces raided a headquarters belonging to an Iran-backed militia south of Baghdad late on Thursday, seized rockets and detained three leaders of the group at the site, two Iraqi government officials said.

The officials said the militia group targeted was Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group that U.S. officials have accused of firing rockets at bases hosting U.S. troops and other facilities in Iraq. Kataib Hezbollah is also among the Iranian-backed militias backing Assad in Syria.

The continuing investigative and monitoring operations to track war criminals carried out by Zaman al-Wasl have revealed that one of the most prominent and corrupt regime operatives in Salmiya in Hama governorate, identified as Hussein Abu Habla, who was involved in numerous crimes against humanity is now a resident in the Belgian capital, Brussels, and seems set to receive Belgian citizenship.

The political bodies representing ten Syrian governorates have formed a collective union, called the ‘Union of Political Authorities for the Syrian Governorates’, with the head of the new body telling Syria Call reporting that it will work to achieve the objectives of the Syrian revolution.

The United Arab Emirates has been found to be training Syrian military intelligence officers and providing aid to the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad, reveals a report by the French-language site Orient XXI.

Gunmen affiliated with the Russian-linked Palestinian ‘Al-Quds Brigade’ militia on Monday carried out an attack on an Assad regime Military Intelligence Division checkpoint south of Deir el-Zour, killing and wounding a number of regime personnel.

Call Syria reported that the militiamen attacked the Hreibsha checkpoint on the Damascus-Deir Al-Zour highway after military intelligence personnel stationed there stopped an ambulance carrying Al-Quds Brigade personnel who had been wounded earlier in a landmine explosion in the southern rural area of Deir el-Zour countryside.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians searching for their relatives have stepped up their efforts after the US adopted the Caesar Act, new legislation imposing sanctions on the Syrian regime for war crimes.

Families, who had long given up on ever finding their relatives, can click on web links to see photos of some of the thousands of people killed in regime prisons, in a desperate attempt to confirm the death of their loved ones.