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Battlefield Lebanon

Hezbollah calls for US action, not words, as Trump reclaims White House

Update Hezbollah calls for US action, not words, as Trump reclaims White House
This picture taken during a media tour organised by Hezbollah press office on November 5, 2024, shows Hezbollah flags placed on the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted earlier last week Beirut's southern suburbs al-Jamous neighbourhood. (File/AFP)
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Updated 07 November 2024
Reuters
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Hezbollah calls for US action, not words, as Trump reclaims White House

Hezbollah calls for US action, not words, as Trump reclaims White House
  • “It might be a change in the party who is in power, but when it comes to Israel, they have more or less the same policy,” Moussawi told Reuters
  • “We want to see actions, we want to see decisions taken”
Updated 07 November 2024
Reuters
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BEIRUT: Hezbollah welcomes any effort to stop the war in Lebanon but does not pin its hopes for a ceasefire on a particular US administration, Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim Al-Moussawi said on Thursday when asked about Donald Trump’s election victory.
“It might be a change in the party who is in power, but when it comes to Israel, they have more or less the same policy,” Moussawi told Reuters.
“We want to see actions, we want to see decisions taken,” he said. Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have exchanged fire for more than a year, in parallel with the Gaza war, but fighting has escalated since late September, with Israeli troops intensifying bombing of Lebanon’s south and east and making ground incursions into border villages.
Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and military assets, while avoiding civilians. Hezbollah and Lebanese officials point to the rising death toll, with more than 3,000 killed, and widespread destruction in the country as evidence that Israel is targeting civilians. US diplomatic efforts to halt fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which included a 60-day ceasefire proposal, faltered last week ahead of the US election on Tuesday in which former President Donald Trump recaptured the White House.
Moussawi acknowledged the heavy toll of Israeli attacks that have blown apart thousands of buildings, mostly in Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim-dominated south and east and Beirut’s southern suburbs, but said the group’s military capabilities remained strong.
“Our hearts are broken — we are losing very dear lives. This feeling that cannot be punished or brought to international justice is a result of USsupport which renders them immune to accountability,” he said.
“America is a full partner in what’s happening because they can exercise influence to stop this destruction.”
Massad Boulos, a Lebanese-American billionaire who is the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter, Tiffany, said he would be in charge of negotiating with the Lebanese side to reach an agreement to end the war, Lebanese broadcaster Al Jadeed quoted him as saying this week.
He also said that Trump was aiming to end the war before he took office in January, Al Jadeed reported. Reuters could not immediately reach Boulos.
The Israeli government celebrated Trump’s return to power, saying he was a leader who would support them “unconditionally.”
STRIKE AT ARMY CHECKPOINT
Overnight on Wednesday, Israel carried out a series of strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs, including at least one strike just tens of meters from Beirut airport’s runways.
Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamiye said the airport was functioning normally on Thursday.

Topics: Battlefield Lebanon Hezbollah Donald Trumnp Israel Ibrahim al-Moussawi

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Syria state media says air defenses shoot down two ‘enemy’ drones over Damascus

Updated 20 sec ago
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Syria state media says air defenses shoot down two ‘enemy’ drones over Damascus

Syria state media says air defenses shoot down two ‘enemy’ drones over Damascus
Updated 20 sec ago
“Our air defenses confronted enemy drone aircraft in the skies over Damascus,” the statement said

DAMASCUS: Syrian air defenses shot down two “enemy” drones over Damascus on Thursday, state news agency SANA reported, citing a military source.
“A short time ago, our air defenses confronted enemy drone aircraft in the skies over Damascus,” the statement from the military source said, adding that “two aircraft were shot down, without any human or material losses.”

’Can’t leave them to it’: ex-child soldier urges help for Sudan kids

’Can’t leave them to it’: ex-child soldier urges help for Sudan kids
Updated 7 min 22 sec ago
AFP
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’Can’t leave them to it’: ex-child soldier urges help for Sudan kids

’Can’t leave them to it’: ex-child soldier urges help for Sudan kids
  • The United Nations warned earlier this year that “an entire generation could be destroyed,” with millions facing disease and malnutrition
  • During a visit this week to the eastern city of Port Sudan, UNICEF goodwill ambassador Ishmael Beah met with displaced children and families
Updated 7 min 22 sec ago
AFP

NAIROBI: A former child soldier has urged the world to do more to help children devastated by Sudan’s brutal civil war, telling AFP on Thursday that “we can’t just leave them to it.”
Since April 2023, the conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands, and displaced almost 11 million — among them five million children.
The United Nations warned earlier this year that “an entire generation could be destroyed,” with millions facing disease and malnutrition.
During a visit this week to the eastern city of Port Sudan, UNICEF goodwill ambassador Ishmael Beah — who was himself forcibly recruited into a Sierra Leone militia aged just 13 — met with displaced children and families.
“This collapse has really devastated a lot of their lives,” he told AFP in Nairobi shortly after the visit.
“It’s been difficult to constantly see what I experienced so many years ago is still happening to people.”
Beah described the plight of one woman he met, whose cousin and his wife were shot and killed after trying to defend themselves, leaving their child an orphan.
“So she took that child and basically ran with that child,” he said, describing it as just one case of remarkable resilience that he encountered.
“There are a lot of stories of rape and people being killed and constant bombardment, and people just running,” he added.
“It’s that restlessness and constant travel, the walking, and particularly for the girls, also then encountering checkpoints,” he said.
“There is a lot of rape.”
Beah said he had expected people’s spirits to be broken, but that was not what he found.
He said many of the young people he met were tough and, armed with the Internet, keen to share their own stories with the world.
“The message that all of them repeated over and over again was: ‘Can the world please help to end the war?’
“’We don’t care how they do it, but let it stop.’“

Topics: Sudan Unrest child soldiers UNICEF

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Israel army spokesman regrets remarks on bill linked to ex-Netanyahu aide

Israel army spokesman regrets remarks on bill linked to ex-Netanyahu aide
Updated 27 min 55 sec ago
AFP
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Israel army spokesman regrets remarks on bill linked to ex-Netanyahu aide

Israel army spokesman regrets remarks on bill linked to ex-Netanyahu aide
  • Hagari said the legal amendment considered by lawmakers was “dangerous for the army and the country’s security“
  • Hagari was swiftly reprimanded by Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi, and apologized in a message on social media site X
Updated 27 min 55 sec ago
AFP

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military’s chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, has apologized for publicly criticizing a bill that would protect soldiers who disclose classified information to the prime minister.
Hagari, in a press conference on Wednesday, said the legal amendment considered by lawmakers was “dangerous for the army and the country’s security.”
The bill, which passed a preliminary reading in Israel’s parliament, aims to prevent the prosecution of soldiers or defense officials who disclose classified documents to the prime minister or the defense minister even if they do so without authorization.
Lawmakers and media outlets have dubbed it “Feldstein law,” after Eli Feldstein, a former aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has been charged with harming state security by transferring classified information.
The bill was drawn up in response to a domestic scandal over the alleged leaking of confidential material to foreign media to benefit Netanyahu, over which Feldstein has been charged.
Hagari said the bill was “very dangerous because it could allow any subordinate member of the IDF (Israeli military) to steal intelligence on their own initiative.”
The spokesman, who hardly ever comments on domestic politics, added that the bill would “endanger people’s lives and the lives of soldiers.”
Hagari was swiftly reprimanded by Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi, and apologized in a message on social media site X.
“In my statement this evening in response to questions, I expressed myself in a manner that exceeded my authority as the spokesman for the army, and I have been reprimanded for that by the chief of staff,” he said.
“The State of Israel is a democratic country and the IDF is subordinate to the political leadership.”
Netanyahu welcomed Hagari’s reprimand, saying in a statement late Wednesday that “in a democratic country, the army must not intervene in political affairs and certainly not criticize legislation.”
Hagari has become a familiar face to many Israelis with his frequent televised press briefings since the October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian group Hamas triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
He was previously reprimanded by the government in June after referring to the idea that Hamas could be eliminated in Gaza as “smoke and mirrors” in a televised interview.

Topics: War on Gaza Daniel Hagari Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

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Syrian army withdraws from Hama after insurgent breakthrough

Syrian army withdraws from Hama after insurgent breakthrough
Updated 54 min 28 sec ago
AP
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Syrian army withdraws from Hama after insurgent breakthrough

Syrian army withdraws from Hama after insurgent breakthrough
Updated 54 min 28 sec ago
AP

BEIRUT: The Syrian army has withdrawn from the central city of Hama after insurgents broke through its defenses, the military said Thursday, in another setback for President Bashar Assad.
The announcement came hours after opposition fighters said they had entered the city and were marching toward the center.
The Syrian army said it redeployed from Hama and took positions outside the city to protect the lives of civilians.
The capture of Hama, Syria’s fourth largest city, is another blow for Assad days after insurgents captured much of the northern city of Aleppo, the country’s largest city.
On Thursday morning, Syrian insurgents said they entered Hama after three days of intense clashes with government forces on its outskirts, part of an ongoing offensive.
The Syrian army said in a statement later that a number of troops were killed after resisting the insurgents for days. It accused the attackers of relying on suicide attacks to break through the defenses of the city.
Hama is one of the few cities that remained under full government control during Syria’s conflict, which broke out in March 2011 following a popular uprising. Its capture would be a major setback for President Bashar Assad.
The offensive is being led by the jihadi group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham as well as an umbrella group of Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army. Their sudden capture of the northern city of Aleppo, an ancient business hub, was a stunning prize for Assad’s opponents and reignited the conflict which had been largely stalemated for the past few years.
The next target of the insurgents is likely to be the central city of Homs, the country’s third largest. Homs is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Hama.
Aleppo’s takeover marked the first opposition attack on the city since 2016, when a brutal Russian air campaign retook it for Assad after rebel forces had initially seized it. Intervention by Russia, Iran and Iranian-allied Hezbollah and other militant groups has allowed Assad to remain in power.
The latest flare-up in Syria’s long civil war comes as Assad’s main regional and international backers are preoccupied with their own wars.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the renewed fighting, which began with the surprise opposition offensive Nov. 27.
The insurgents claimed on their Military Operations Department channel on the Telegram app Thursday that they have entered Hama and are marching toward its center.
“Our forces are taking positions inside the city of Hama,” the channel quoted a local commander identified as Maj. Hassan Abdul-Ghani as saying.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said fierce battles were fought inside Hama.
“If Hama falls, it means that the beginning of the regime’s fall has started,” the Observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, told The Associated Press before the city’s capture.
Hama is a major intersection point in Syria that links that country’s center with the north as well the east and the west. It is about 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of the capital, Damascus, Assad’s seat of power. Hama province also borders the coastal province of Latakia, a main base of popular support for Assad.
The city’s name is known for the 1982 massacre of Hama, one of the most notorious in the modern Middle East, when security forces under Assad’s late father, Hafez Assad, killed thousands to crush a Muslim Brotherhood uprising.

Topics: Syria

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

Iraq PM denies wiretapping allegations as ‘lie of the century’
Updated 05 December 2024
AFP
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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
Updated 05 December 2024
AFP

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.

Topics: Iraq

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