Israeli strikes kill 42 in Syria’s Aleppo province

Update Israeli strikes kill 42 in Syria’s Aleppo province
This picture taken on February 19, 2020, shows the first plane to arrive at Aleppo's airport since the war forced its closure in 2012. (AFP/File photo)
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Updated 29 March 2024
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Israeli strikes kill 42 in Syria’s Aleppo province

Israeli strikes kill 42 in Syria’s Aleppo province
  • Strikes have increased since Israel’s war with Hamas began on October 7
  • Israel targeted ‘a rockets depot belonging to Lebanon’s Hezbollah’ close to Aleppo airport

BEIRUT: A war monitor said Israeli air strikes Friday on Syria’s Aleppo province killed at least 42 including 36 Syrian soldiers, the deadliest toll for the army since the Israel-Hamas war began.

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria since civil war there broke out in 2011, targeting army positions as well as Iran-backed forces including Hezbollah, an ally of Damascus and Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The strikes have increased since Israel’s war with Hamas began on October 7, and Friday’s was the second such attack in 24 hours.

“Israeli strikes” targeted “a rockets depot belonging to Lebanon’s Hezbollah” close to Aleppo airport, said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of sources inside Syria.

It reported “42 killed, including six from Lebanon’s Hezbollah group” and “36 soldiers,” the highest Syrian army toll in Israeli strikes since the Israel-Hamas war began.

State news agency SANA, quoting a military source, reported that “at approximately 1:45 am, the Israeli enemy launched an air attack from the direction of Athriya, southeast of Aleppo,” adding that “civilians and military personnel” were killed and wounded.

Contacted by AFP from Jerusalem, the Israeli military said it would “not comment on reports in the foreign media.”

The Observatory also reported strikes targeting “defense factories” controlled by pro-Iran groups elsewhere in Aleppo province.

The attack came just hours after a reported Israeli strike in the Damascus countryside.

Syrian state media said “two civilians” were killed in an “Israeli air attack that targeted a residential building” on Thursday, also reporting material damage.

The Observatory said the Sayyida Zeinab area, a stronghold of pro-Iran armed groups including Hezbollah south of the capital, was targeted.

Israeli raids in Syria also seek to cut off Hezbollah supply routes to neighboring Lebanon.

The Israel-Hamas war began with the Gaza-based Palestinian militants’ unprecedented attacks that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,623 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there.

Israel has exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon since the Gaza war began, sparking fears of a major regional conflagration.

In Lebanon, cross-border fire since October has killed at least 346 people, mostly Hezbollah fighters, but also including at least 68 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people in southern Lebanon and in northern Israel, where the military says 10 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed.

Hezbollah has fought alongside ally Damascus in Syria’s civil war since at least 2013, and continues to operate in the country.

The Syrian government’s brutal suppression of a 2011 uprising triggered a conflict that has killed more than half a million people and drawn in foreign armies and jihadists.

On Tuesday, strikes on eastern Syria’s Deir Ezzor province killed 19 people, mostly pro-Iran fighters including two advisers from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the Observatory said.

The World Health Organization reported one of its workers was killed in the strikes, which the Observatory blamed on Israel, after initially not saying who carried them out.

A US defense official said the United States “did not conduct any airstrikes” at the time.

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria, but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in Syria.

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Syria army says lost control of key central city of Hama

Syria army says lost control of key central city of Hama
Updated 5 sec ago
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Syria army says lost control of key central city of Hama

Syria army says lost control of key central city of Hama
BEIRUT: Syria’s army acknowledged Thursday it had lost control of the strategic central city of Hama for the first time since war broke out in 2011, amid a lighting militant offensive.
“Over the past few hours, with the intensification of confrontations between our soldiers and terrorist groups... these groups were able to breach a number of axes in the city and entered it,” a statement from the army said, adding that “military units stationed there have redeployed” outside the city.

Iraq PM denies wiretapping allegations as ‘lie of the century’

Iraq PM denies wiretapping allegations as ‘lie of the century’
Updated 15 min 12 sec ago
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Iraq PM denies wiretapping allegations as ‘lie of the century’

Iraq PM denies wiretapping allegations as ‘lie of the century’
  • Corruption scandals frequently grip Iraq, with smear and disinformation campaigns often used to settle political scores

BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani on Thursday denied allegations that members of his office were responsible for wiretapping the phones of MPs and other politicians — accusations that have sparked months of uproar.
Corruption scandals frequently grip Iraq, with smear and disinformation campaigns often used to settle political scores.
Sudani said the accusations were levelled at the government “in an immoral manner,” adding the allegations “are baseless and I can say with absolute certainty that it is the lie of the century.”
He was publicly addressing the allegations for the first time, in remarks reported by the state news agency INA.
The accusations first emerged in August, and subsequent reports by Iraqi and Arab media outlets suggested that among the victims of the alleged wiretapping were powerful members of the political class.
In particular, they pointed to members of the Coordination Framework, a pro-Iran Shiite parliamentary bloc that brought Sudani to power.
Iraq’s judiciary has opened an investigation into the accusations, but has not publicly commented on them or revealed who is implicated.
The only individual named in the case is Mohamed Al-Jouhi, a former official in Sudani’s office.
The first official to publicly comment on the accusations was MP Mustafa Sanad, who alleged in August that he himself had been a victim of the wiretapping and said a network had been arrested, including officers and officials, notably Jouhi.
And in September, former speaker of parliament Mohammed Al-Halbussi also claimed in a televised interview that his movements have been subject to “surveillance.”
In September, the Supreme Council of the Judiciary denounced “the inaccuracy of information” circulating in the media over an investigation into the “Mohamed Al-Jouhi network.”
It described as “false” reports “circulating in the media and on social media regarding attempts to eavesdrop on the president” of the council, Faiq Zidan.


Syria families reunite after years as militants take Aleppo

Syria families reunite after years as militants take Aleppo
Updated 05 December 2024
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Syria families reunite after years as militants take Aleppo

Syria families reunite after years as militants take Aleppo
  • The fall of Syria’s second city, Aleppo, to Islamist-led militants has brought flight and displacement for some, but for others like Bahria Bakkur, it has led to long-awaited reunions

ALEPPO:The fall of Syria’s second city, Aleppo, to Islamist-led militants has brought flight and displacement for some, but for others like Bahria Bakkur, it has led to long-awaited reunions.
After almost a decade apart, 43-year-old Bakkur was finally able to embrace her son, separated when government forces reclaimed control of their city.
The Islamist-led militants’ lightning assault on Aleppo has revived a war that had been mostly dormant for years.
The fighting in northern Syria since last week has killed hundreds and heightened concerns for civilians, but for Bakkur, it meant being with her son again.
“I wasn’t expecting this to happen. I thought I would die before getting to see him,” said Bakkur, tears in her eyes.
She last saw her son Mohammed Jomaa, now 25 years old and a father of four, in 2016, when Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces retook Aleppo’s eastern districts after a brutal siege.
Jomaa was one of tens of thousands who had fled the city earlier in the war, only to return in recent days.
“It’s an indescribable joy,” he said. “I still can’t believe I’m back in Aleppo.”


Since leaving Aleppo, Jomaa spent several years in rebel-held Afrin, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from his family home.
“We knew that we couldn’t stay in Aleppo because we were labelled ‘terrorists’. We were trapped and had to leave Aleppo,” said Jomaa, donning a military vest and a traditional red-and-white keffiyeh scarf.
His mother said she was “counting the minutes and the hours until I see him.”
“Praise God, I’ve seen him. It’s like the entire world is smiling at me.”
In some parts of the city, the streets are quiet and residents are anxious, fearing the situation could deteriorate.
The United Nations said on Wednesday that 115,000 people had been “newly displaced across Idlib and northern Aleppo” by the fighting.
UN envoy Geir Pedersen said that the latest “developments have provoked different reactions among the Syrian people — a grave threat for some, a signal of hope for others,” urging the protection of civilians.
For Jomaa, the joy of reuniting with his family was incomplete.
He said his father was detained by regime forces after they had regained control of Aleppo in 2016, and since then, “we don’t know anything about him.”
“I only wish my dad would come back.”
Just outside the house, relatives and neighbors came to greet Jomaa upon his return, though the conversation quickly turned to the latest news from the battlefield.


Ahmed Orabi, 35, has also returned home to Aleppo, reunited with his young daughter.
Seven years ago, they fled to Idlib province, where many people were displaced to from elsewhere in Syria.
But escalating air raids had again forced Orabi’s wife to seek safety, returning to her family in Aleppo along with their daughter, Acil.
Orabi, an opposition media activist, did not want to stay far from his family and hometown for so long, but could not return so long as Aleppo was under Assad’s control.
“Coming back was like a dream,” he said.
“When the battles started, I didn’t wait. I wanted to see my daughter... I decided to go to her.”
Though “the road wasn’t completely clear,” Orabi said he made it to the neighborhood where his daughter lived.
“I called out her name” and “once I saw her, it was such a beautiful moment,” he said.
He regrets the years spent apart, but is now trying to make up for lost time.
“I didn’t know how being a father felt like — I couldn’t hug her in my arms and kiss her.”
With the family back together in Aleppo, Orabi took his daughter to a public park where they can play and create memories together.
“As a father, these are the happiest moments,” he said.


Amnesty says Israel carrying out ‘genocide’ in Gaza

Amnesty says Israel carrying out ‘genocide’ in Gaza
Updated 05 December 2024
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Amnesty says Israel carrying out ‘genocide’ in Gaza

Amnesty says Israel carrying out ‘genocide’ in Gaza
  • Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as subhuman group unworthy of human rights, says Amnesty 
  • Rights group releases 300-page report featuring satellite images showing devastation in Gaza, ground reports

THE HAGUE: Amnesty International on Thursday accused Israel of “committing genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza since the start of the war last year, saying a new report was a “wake-up call” for the international community.
The London-based rights organization said its findings were based on “dehumanizing and genocidal statements by Israeli government and military officials,” satellite images documenting devastation, fieldwork and ground reports from Gazans.
“Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them,” Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard said in a statement.
“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now,” she added.
The Palestinian group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack inside southern Israel on October 7, 2023, triggering a deadly Israeli military offensive as Israeli officials vowed to crush the militants.
Israel has repeatedly and forcefully denied allegations of genocide, accusing Hamas of using the Palestinian people as human shields.
“There is absolutely no doubt that Israel has military objectives. But the existence of military objectives does not negate the possibility of a genocidal intent,” Callamard told AFP at a press conference in The Hague.
The 300-page report points to incidents where there “was no Hamas presence or any other military objectives.”
It cites 15 air strikes in Gaza between October 7, 2023 and April 20, which killed 334 civilians including 141 children, for which the group found “no evidence that any of these strikes were directed at a military objective.”
In addition to tens of thousands of deaths and physical and psychological trauma, the report also points to the conditions on the ground, where it said Palestinians are subjected to “malnutrition, hunger and diseases” and exposed to a “slow, calculated death.”
“States that transfer arms to Israel violate their obligations to prevent genocide under the convention and are at risk of becoming complicit,” Callamard added during the press conference.
Since the start of the war, at least 44,532 people have been killed in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.
Amnesty International has also announced that it will publish a report on the crimes committed by Hamas during the October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.
Hamas also seized 251 hostages during the attack, some of whom were already dead. Of those, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli army says are dead.


Amnesty says Israel carrying out ‘genocide’ in Gaza

Amnesty says Israel carrying out ‘genocide’ in Gaza
Updated 05 December 2024
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Amnesty says Israel carrying out ‘genocide’ in Gaza

Amnesty says Israel carrying out ‘genocide’ in Gaza

THE HAGUE: Amnesty International on Thursday accused Israel of “committing genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza since the start of the war last year, saying a new report was a “wake-up call” for the international community.
The London-based rights organization said its findings were based on “dehumanizing and genocidal statements by Israeli government and military officials,” satellite images documenting devastation, fieldwork and ground reports from Gazans.
“Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them,” Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard said in a statement.
“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now,” she added.
The Palestinian group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack inside southern Israel on October 7, 2023, triggering a deadly Israeli military offensive as Israeli officials vowed to crush the militants.
Israel has repeatedly and forcefully denied allegations of genocide, accusing Hamas of using the Palestinian people as human shields.
“There is absolutely no doubt that Israel has military objectives. But the existence of military objectives does not negate the possibility of a genocidal intent,” Callamard told AFP at a press conference in The Hague.
The 300-page report points to incidents where there “was no Hamas presence or any other military objectives.”
It cites 15 air strikes in Gaza between October 7, 2023 and April 20, which killed 334 civilians including 141 children, for which the group found “no evidence that any of these strikes were directed at a military objective.”
In addition to tens of thousands of deaths and physical and psychological trauma, the report also points to the conditions on the ground, where it said Palestinians are subjected to “malnutrition, hunger and diseases” and exposed to a “slow, calculated death.”
“States that transfer arms to Israel violate their obligations to prevent genocide under the convention and are at risk of becoming complicit,” Callamard added during the press conference.
Since the start of the war, at least 44,532 people have been killed in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.
Amnesty International has also announced that it will publish a report on the crimes committed by Hamas during the October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.
Hamas also seized 251 hostages during the attack, some of whom were already dead. Of those, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli army says are dead.