Hezbollah source says contact ‘lost’ with top figure Safieddine

Hezbollah source says contact ‘lost’ with top figure Safieddine
A high-level Hezbollah source said on Saturday that contact with Hashem Safieddine, widely touted as potentially the group's next leader, had been lost following Israeli strikes this week. (X/@warintel4u)
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Updated 05 October 2024
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Hezbollah source says contact ‘lost’ with top figure Safieddine

Hezbollah source says contact ‘lost’ with top figure Safieddine
  • “Contact with Sayyed Safieddine has been lost since the violent strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs” early on Friday, the official told AFP
  • “We don’t know if he was at the targeted site, or who may have been there with him“

BEIRUT: A high-level Hezbollah source said on Saturday that contact with Hashem Safieddine, widely touted as potentially the group’s next leader, had been lost following Israeli strikes this week.
Responding to the AFP report, the group said in a statement that there were “no Hezbollah sources and our viewpoint is issued in official statements.” It did not confirm or deny whether contact with Safieddine was lost.
“Contact with Sayyed Safieddine has been lost since the violent strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs” early on Friday, the official told AFP.
“We don’t know if he was at the targeted site, or who may have been there with him,” he added.
A second source close to Hezbollah also confirmed that communication had been cut off with Safieddine and that his whereabouts were unknown.
Hezbollah “is trying to reach the underground headquarters that were targeted, but every single time Israel starts striking again to impede rescue efforts,” he said.
Safieddine “was with Hezbollah’s head of intelligence,” known as Hajj Murtada, when the strikes took place, he said.
Both sources requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Early on Friday, a source close to Hezbollah said Israel had conducted 11 consecutive strikes on the group’s south Beirut stronghold, in one of the most powerful raids since Israel intensified its campaign of bombardment last week.
AFP footage showed giant balls of flame and thick smoke rising from the site that was attacked.
Israel’s military said it had hit “targets belonging to Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut.”
The attack came a week after the Israeli military said it killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in air strikes on the group’s headquarters in south Beirut.


How Syria rebels’ stars aligned for Assad’s ouster

How Syria rebels’ stars aligned for Assad’s ouster
Updated 09 December 2024
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How Syria rebels’ stars aligned for Assad’s ouster

How Syria rebels’ stars aligned for Assad’s ouster
  • Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, speaking in Doha on Sunday, said Erdogan’s effort in recent months to reach out to Assad failed and Turkiye “knew something was coming”

ISTANBUL/DAMASCUS: After 13 years of civil war, Syria’s opposition militias sensed an opportunity to loosen President Bashar Assad’s grip on power when, about six months ago, they communicated to Turkiye plans for a major offensive and felt they had received its tacit approval, two sources with knowledge of the planning said. Launched barely two weeks ago, the operation’s speedy success in achieving its initial goal — seizing Syria’s second city, Aleppo — took almost everybody by surprise. From there, in a little more than a week, the rebel alliance reached Damascus and on Sunday put an end to five decades of Assad family rule. The lightning advance relied on an almost perfect alignment of stars for the forces opposed to Assad: his army was demoralized and exhausted; his main allies, Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, were severely weakened by conflict with Israel; and his other key military supporter, Russia, was distracted and losing interest.
There was no way the rebels could go ahead without first notifying Turkiye, which has been a main backer of the Syrian opposition from the war’s earliest days, said the sources, a diplomat in the region and a member of the Syrian opposition.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Rebels told Turkiye about attack plan six months ago

• Operation helped by Assad’s weakened allies and demoralized army

• Hezbollah’s withdrawal from Syria aided rebels, impacting Iranian influence

• Turkiye emerges as strong player in Syria

Turkiye has troops on the ground in northwest Syria, and provides support to some of the rebels who were intending to take part, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) — though it considers the main faction in the alliance, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), to be a terror group. The rebels’ bold plan was the brainchild of HTS and its leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, the diplomat said.
Because of his former ties to Al-Qaeda, Golani is designated as a terrorist by Washington, Europe and Turkiye. However, over the past decade, HTS, previously known as the Nusra Front, has tried to moderate its image, while running a quasi-state centered on Idlib, where, experts say, it levied taxes on commercial activities and the population.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s government, which struck a deal with Russia in 2020 to de-escalate fighting in northwestern Syria, has long opposed such a major rebel offensive, fearing it would lead to a new wave of refugees crossing its border.
However, the rebels sensed a stiffening of Ankara’s stance toward Assad earlier this year, the sources said, after he rebuffed repeated overtures from Erdogan aimed at advancing a political solution to the military stalemate, which has left Syria divided between the regime and a patchwork of rebel groups with an array of foreign backers.
The Syrian opposition source said the rebels had shown Turkiye details of the planning, after Ankara’s attempts to engage Assad had failed.
The message was: “That other path hasn’t worked for years — so try ours. You don’t have to do anything, just don’t intervene.” Reuters was unable to determine the exact nature of the communications. Hadi Al-Bahra, head of the internationally-recognized Syrian opposition abroad, told Reuters last week that HTS and SNA had had “limited” planning together ahead of the operation and agreed to “achieve cooperation and not clash with each other.” He added that Turkiye’s military saw what the armed groups were doing and discussing.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, speaking in Doha on Sunday, said Erdogan’s effort in recent months to reach out to Assad failed and Turkiye “knew something was coming.”
However, Turkiye’s deputy minister for foreign affairs, Nuh Yilmaz, told a conference on Middle Eastern affairs in Bahrain on Sunday that Ankara was not behind the offensive, and did not provide its consent, saying it was concerned about instability.
Turkiye’s foreign and defense ministries did not respond directly to Reuters questions about an HTS-Ankara understanding about the Aleppo operation. In reply to questions about Turkiye’s awareness of battlefield preparations, a Turkish official told Reuters that the HTS “does not receive orders or direction from us (and) does not coordinate its operations with us either.”
The official said that “in that sense” it would not be correct to say that the operation in Aleppo was carried out with Turkiye’s approval or green light. Turkish intelligence agency MIT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reuters was unable to reach a representative for HTS.

VULNERABLE
The rebels struck when Assad was at his most vulnerable.
Distracted by wars elsewhere, his military allies Russia, Iran, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah failed to mobilize the kind of decisive firepower that had propped him up for years.
Syria’s weak armed forces were unable to resist. A regime source told Reuters that tanks and planes were left with no fuel because of corruption and looting — an illustration of just how hollowed out the Syrian state had become.
Over the past two years morale had severely eroded in the army, said the source, who requested anonymity because of fear of retribution.
Aron Lund, a fellow at Century International, a Middle-East focused think-tank, said the HTS-led coalition was stronger and more coherent than any previous rebel force during the war, “and a lot of that is Abu Mohammed Al-Golani’s doing.” But, he said, the regime’s weakness was the deciding factor.
“After they lost Aleppo like that, regime forces never recovered and the more the rebels advanced, the weaker Assad’s army got,” he said.
The pace of the rebel advances, with Hama being captured on Dec. 5 and Homs falling on or around Sunday at the same time government forces lost Damascus, exceeded expectations.
“There was a window of opportunity but no one expected the regime to crumble this fast. Everyone expected some fight,” said Bassam Al-Kuwatli, president of the Syrian Liberal Party, a small opposition group, who is based outside Syria.
A US official said on condition of anonymity that while Washington had been aware of Turkiye’s overall support for the rebels, it was not informed of any tacit Turkish approval for the Aleppo offensive. The White House National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Turkiye’s role.
US President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday said that Russia’s abandonment of Assad led to his downfall, adding that Moscow never should have protected him in the first place and then lost interest because of a war in Ukraine that never should have started.
Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday noted his country’s role in weakening Hezbollah, which sources told Reuters withdrew its remaining troops from Syria on Saturday.

GAZA FALLOUT
Sources familiar with Hezbollah deployments said the Iran-backed group, which propped up Assad early in the war, had already withdrawn many of its elite fighters from Syria over the last year to support the group as it waged hostilities with Israel — a conflict that spilled over from the Gaza war. Israel dealt Hezbollah heavy blows, particularly after launching an offensive in September, killing the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah and many of its commanders and fighters. The rebel offensive in Syria began the same day as a ceasefire came into effect in the Lebanon conflict on Nov. 27. The sources familiar with Hezbollah said it did not want to engage in big battles in Syria as the group focused on starting a long road to recovery from the heavy blows.
For the rebel alliance, the withdrawal of Hezbollah presented a valuable opportunity. “We just wanted a fair fight between us and the regime,” the Syrian opposition source said.
Assad’s fall marks a major blow to Iranian influence in the Middle East, coming so swiftly after the killing of Nasrallah and the damage done by Israel to Hezbollah.
Turkiye, on the other hand, now appears to be Syria’s most powerful external player, with troops on the ground and access to the rebel leaders.
In addition to securing the return of Syrian refugees, Turkiye’s objectives include curbing the power of Syrian Kurdish groups that control wide areas of northeast Syria and are backed by the United States. Ankara deems them to be terrorists.
As part of the initial offensive, the Turkiye-backed SNA seized swathes of territory, including the city of Tel Refaat, from US-backed Kurdish forces. On Sunday, a Turkish security source said the rebels entered the northern city of Manbij after pushing the Kurds back again.
“Turkiye is the biggest outside winner here. Erdogan turned out to be on the right — or at least winning — side of history here because his proxies in Syria won the day,” said Birol Baskan, Turkiye-based political scientist and former non-resident scholar at Middle East Institute.

 


Monitor says Israel hit arms depots in Syria’s east

Monitor says Israel hit arms depots in Syria’s east
Updated 09 December 2024
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Monitor says Israel hit arms depots in Syria’s east

Monitor says Israel hit arms depots in Syria’s east

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Israel launched strikes on weapons depots in the country’s east on Sunday, a war monitor said, after rebels toppled Bashar Assad’s government earlier Sunday.
“Israel has conducted air strikes on weapon depots and positions that belonged to the defunct regime and Iran-backed groups in the eastern Deir Ezzor province,” Rami Abdel Rahman who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP. He reported “increased Israeli strikes” on such targets since President Bashar Assad fled the country as rebels seized the capital.
 

 


Sudan rescuers say 28 killed in shelling of Khartoum fuel station

A truck waits outside a closed petrol station of the Nile Petroleum Corporation in Juba, South Sudan. (AP file photo)
A truck waits outside a closed petrol station of the Nile Petroleum Corporation in Juba, South Sudan. (AP file photo)
Updated 09 December 2024
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Sudan rescuers say 28 killed in shelling of Khartoum fuel station

A truck waits outside a closed petrol station of the Nile Petroleum Corporation in Juba, South Sudan. (AP file photo)
  • The government, loyal to Burhan, is based in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, where the army has retained control

PORT SUDAN, Sudan: A Sudanese network of volunteer rescuers said that 28 civilians were killed Sunday when a fuel station in an area of Khartoum under paramilitary control came under shelling.
The Sudanese army, which has been fighting the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023, has been advancing toward the capital in recent weeks, in a bid to regain control of Khartoum.
On Sunday, a fuel station in RSF-held southern Khartoum was hit by shelling, said the South Belt Emergency Response Room.
The youth-led volunteer group said “28 people were confirmed dead” and “the number of injured reached 37, including 29 burns cases” and some shrapnel injuries.
Early in the war, which has pitted army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against the forces of his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the paramilitaries had largely pushed the army out of Khartoum.
The government, loyal to Burhan, is based in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, where the army has retained control.
The war has killed tens of thousands of civilians and displaced over 11 million, creating what the United Nations has described as the world’s largest displacement crisis.
In late November, the Sudanese army said it had retaken the Sennar state capital, Sinja, south of Khartoum, five months after paramilitaries had seized it.
Sinja is a strategic area as it lies on a key road linking army-controlled areas of eastern and central Sudan.
The RSF meanwhile has taken control of nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur, rampaged through the agricultural heartland of central Sudan and pushed into the army-controlled southeast.
 

 


26 killed as Syrian Turkish-backed groups attack Kurdish-held area in north

Turkish-backed Syrian fighters gather with their vehicles at a position near the northern Syrian town of Manbij. (AFP file photo
Turkish-backed Syrian fighters gather with their vehicles at a position near the northern Syrian town of Manbij. (AFP file photo
Updated 09 December 2024
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26 killed as Syrian Turkish-backed groups attack Kurdish-held area in north

Turkish-backed Syrian fighters gather with their vehicles at a position near the northern Syrian town of Manbij. (AFP file photo
  • The Ankara-backed factions said they had “taken control of the city of Manbij in the eastern countryside of Aleppo after fierce battles,” in a statement on their Telegram channel

BEIRUT, Lebanon: At least 26 combattants were killed Sunday as Turkish-backed Syrian fighters launched an offensive on the northern Manbij area, days after seizing a Kurdish-held enclave.
The pro-Turkiye fighters had already retaken the Kurdish-held Tal Rifaat enclave last week, days after  rebels swooped into government-held areas, snatching key cities before reaching Damascus on Sunday.
“Pro-Turkish factions... seized large districts of Manbij city in the eastern Aleppo countryside, after violent clashes with the Manbij Military Council,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.
The Council is affiliated with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that act as a de facto army for the Kurdish administration that controls swathes of Syria’s northeast.
“The clashes killed nine pro-Turkish fighters and at least 17 Manbij Military Council” combattants, said the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.
The US-backed SDF also reported “fierce clashes,” saying the military councils in Manbij and in Al-Bab were “dealing qualitative blows” to Turkish-backed fighters.
The Ankara-backed factions said they had “taken control of the city of Manbij in the eastern countryside of Aleppo after fierce battles,” in a statement on their Telegram channel.
The groups posted videos of the fighters declaring control over Manbij, said to be from inside the area.
AFP could not independently verify the videos.
Earlier Sunday, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi hailed “historic” moments with the fall of the “authoritarian regime” of President Bashar Assad.
 

 


Director of key north Gaza hospital says power outage threatens patients

Director of key north Gaza hospital says power outage threatens patients
Updated 09 December 2024
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Director of key north Gaza hospital says power outage threatens patients

Director of key north Gaza hospital says power outage threatens patients
  • “The outage of electricity and water persists, and we urgently appeal to the international community for assistance,” he said

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: The director of northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital said on Sunday the lives of more than 100 patients were in danger after electricity, oxygen and water supplies were cut.
Hossam Abu Safiyeh said recent Israeli shelling and bombing had severely damaged the hospital and cut the water and electricity supply to parts of it.
“The outage of electricity and water persists, and we urgently appeal to the international community for assistance,” he said.
“The situation is extremely dangerous. We have patients in the intensive care unit and others awaiting surgeries. Access to the operating rooms is only possible after restoring electricity and oxygen supply.”

Hossam Abu Safiyeh. (Supplied)

Safiyeh said the hospital currently had 112 wounded patients, including six in intensive care and 14 children.
Continued shelling near the hospital was “preventing us from conducting repairs,” he said.
Israel on Friday said it was operating around the facility but had not fired directly on the hospital.
Kamal Adwan is located in Beit Lahia, a city at the center of an intense Israeli military operation aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping in northern Gaza.
The hospital is one of the last operational medical facilities in the north of the territory.
The World Health Organization’s representative in the Palestinian territories, Rik Peeperkorn, said on Friday the hospital was operating at a “minimum” level.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s surprise October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 44,708 people, mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry which the UN considers reliable.