Jamraya جمرايا
Village
Jamraya
Coordinates: 33°33′36″N 36°13′01″E / 33.56°N 36.217°E / 33.56; 36.217
Country	Syria
Governorate	Rif Dimashq
District	Qudsaya
Subdistrict	Qudsaya
Population  (2004 census)[1]
• Total	1,156
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)

Jamraya or Jemraya (Arabic: جمرايا) is a village in the Qudsaya District of Rif Dimashq (Damascus Countryside) in southern Syria. It lies 3 miles (5 km)^[2] to the northwest of the Syrian capital of Damascus city, beyond Mount Qasioun, and is now an outlying suburb of greater Damascus.^[3][4] It is between al-Hamah and Qudsaya town to the south, and Ashrafiyat al-Wadi to the north. It is about 10 miles (15 km) from the Lebanese border.^[5] According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 1,156 in the 2004 census.^[1]

Military facilities

A military research facility of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center is located in Jamraya; weapons are developed and stored here, and the site has been accused of developing chemical weapons.^[4][6][7] The highly secretive military facility was established in the 1980s, when Syria was a Soviet ally.^[8]

A parking lot at the research center was the site of a January 31, 2013 Israeli airstrike on missiles parked there. Another Israeli attack on May 5, 2013 destroyed buildings located in a chicken farm a mile from the research center.^[9] An Israeli airstrike on January 12, 2019 damaged a suspected Iranian target in a Syrian military base 1.5 km west of the research center.^[10]

References