Israeli denies its forces have gone past Syria buffer zone , as airstrikes hit Syrian bases

Israeli denies its forces have gone past Syria buffer zone , as airstrikes hit Syrian bases
Israeli soldiers operate in a location given as Southern Syria, in this screengrab from a video obtained by Reuters on December 9, 2024.
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Updated 10 December 2024
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Israeli denies its forces have gone past Syria buffer zone , as airstrikes hit Syrian bases

Israeli denies its forces have gone past Syria buffer zone , as airstrikes hit Syrian bases
  • Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported around 250 Israeli air strikes
  • Israeli airstrikes pounded Syrian military targets overnight, sources say

DAMASCUS/NEW YORK: Israel denied on Tuesday that its forces had penetrated into Syrian territory beyond the buffer zone with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, after Syrian sources said the incursion had extended to within 25 km of the capital Damascus.
Israeli troops moved into the buffer zone established following the 1973 Middle East war as the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad collapsed at the weekend in the face of rebel forces advancing from the north.
Israel’s move, accompanied by a series of heavy airstrikes, saw special forces seize abandoned outposts on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, a strategic point that overlooks the Syrian capital in what Israeli officials called a
limited and temporary measure to ensure the security of their borders.
Israel’s military operation into Syria comes two days after the lightning overthrow of President Bashar Assad by a rebel alliance left Syrians, regional countries and world powers nervous about what comes next.
A Syrian security source said Israeli troops reached Qatana, which is 10 km into Syrian territory east of a demilitarised zone separating Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria.
Israel has said it will not become involved in conflict in Syria and that its seizure of the buffer zone was a defensive move.
Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have condemned the incursion. Saudi Arabia said the move would “ruin Syria’s chances of restoring security.”
Regional security sources and officers within the now fallen Syrian army said heavy Israeli airstrikes continued against military installations and air bases across Syria overnight, destroying dozens of helicopters and jets, as well as Republican Guard assets in and around Damascus.
The rough tally of 200 raids had left nothing of the Syrian army’s assets, they said.
Israel said its airstrikes would carry on for days but told the UN Security Council that it was not intervening in Syria’s conflict. It said it had taken “limited and temporary measures” solely to protect its security.
The United Nations Security Council met behind closed doors late on Monday, and diplomats said they were still in shock at how quickly Assad’s overthrow unfolded over 12 days, after a 13-year civil war that was locked in stalemate for years.
“Everyone was taken by surprise, everyone, including the members of the council. So we have to wait and see and watch ... and evaluate how the situation will develop,” Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters after the body met.
Russia played a major role in supporting Assad’s government and helping it fight the rebels. The Syrian leader fled Damascus for Moscow on Sunday, ending more than 50 years of brutal rule by his family.
With the mood in Damascus still celebratory, Assad’s prime minister, Mohammed Jalali, on Monday agreed to hand power to the rebel-led Salvation Government, an administration based in rebel-held territory in northwest Syria.

Hollowed out
The main rebel commander Ahmed Al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, met with Jalali and Vice President Faisal Mekdad to discuss the transitional government, a source familiar with the discussions told Reuters. Jalali said the handover could take days to carry out.
Al Jazeera television reported the transitional authority would be headed by Mohamed Al-Bashir, who has headed the Salvation Government.
The steamroller advance of the militia alliance headed by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), a former Al-Qaeda affiliate, was a generational turning point for the Middle East.
The civil war that began in 2011 killed hundreds of thousands, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble, countryside depopulated and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
But the rebel alliance has not communicated plans for Syria’s future, and there is no template for such a transition in the fractious region.
Oil prices rose more than 1 percent on Monday, partly on concerns that instability in Syria, which is not a major oil producer, could raise regional tensions, analysts said. “This is an incredible moment for the Syrian people,” Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood said in New York. “We’re really focused right now on trying to see where the situation goes. Can there be a governing authority in Syria that respects the rights and dignities of the Syrian population?“
The US was seeking ways to engage with Syrian rebel groups and is reaching out to partners in the region such as Turkiye to start informal diplomacy, Washington said.
Qatari diplomats spoke with HTS on Monday, an official briefed on the developments told Reuters, as regional states race to open contact with the group.
There were tentative signs of a return to order. Syria’s banks will reopen on Tuesday, and the oil ministry called on all employees in the sector to head to work on Tuesday, adding that protection would be provided to ensure their safety.
Reuters reporters saw four mini-buses arriving at the Central Bank of Syria, with employees disembarking and walking into the building for their first day of work since Assad’s fall.
“It’s a new shift, it’s a new day, a new year, a new life,” said Sumayra Al-Mukli.
Golani has vowed to rebuild Syria, and HTS has spent years trying to soften its image to reassure foreign nations and minority groups within Syria.
But fears of reprisals remained. HTS said it will not hesitate to hold security and army officers involved in torturing the Syrian people accountable, describing them as criminals and murderers.
“We will release a list that includes the names of the most senior officials involved in the torturing of the Syrian people,” Golani said in a statement. “Rewards will be offered to those who will provide information about senior army and security officers involved in war crimes.”
HTS is designated as a terrorist organization by many states and the UN, and its governing credentials are uncertain.
“Syrians are looking forward to establishing a state of freedom, equality, rule of law, democracy, and we will join efforts to rebuild our country, to rebuild what was destroyed, and to rebuild the future, better future of Syria,” Syria’s UN Ambassador Koussay Aldahhak told reporters.


Palestinian president meets British FM in Ramallah

Palestinian president meets British FM in Ramallah
Updated 3 sec ago
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Palestinian president meets British FM in Ramallah

Palestinian president meets British FM in Ramallah
  • Mahmoud Abbas briefed David Lammy on Israeli aggression in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem

LONDON: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas received British Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Monday at the Palestinian Authority’s headquarters in Ramallah.

Abbas discussed with Lammy the need to implement UN Security Council Resolution 2735, which calls for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the coastal enclave.

He highlighted the UK’s backing for the efforts to gain international recognition of the State of Palestine and its full membership in the UN, as part of the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He briefed Lammy on the latest Israeli aggressions in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, the WAFA news agency reported.


Lebanon president, US general discuss Hezbollah-Israel truce

Lebanon’s new President Joseph Aoun (L) receives Lt. Gen. Michael Kurilla (2nd-R), commander of the US Central Command.
Lebanon’s new President Joseph Aoun (L) receives Lt. Gen. Michael Kurilla (2nd-R), commander of the US Central Command.
Updated 6 min 3 sec ago
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Lebanon president, US general discuss Hezbollah-Israel truce

Lebanon’s new President Joseph Aoun (L) receives Lt. Gen. Michael Kurilla (2nd-R), commander of the US Central Command.
  • Kurilla and Aoun spoke about “the situation in the south and the stages of implementing the Israeli withdrawal from the south,” the presidency said

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s president and a top US general discussed on Monday the implementation of a fragile truce between Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel in the south of the country, the presidency said.
President Joseph Aoun and the head of US Central Command, General Michael Kurilla, met as a January 26 deadline to fully implement the terms of the ceasefire approached.
Kurilla and Aoun spoke about “the situation in the south and the stages of implementing the Israeli withdrawal from the south,” the presidency said.
Under the November 27 ceasefire accord, the Lebanese army has 60 days to deploy alongside UN peacekeepers in the south of Lebanon as the Israeli army withdraws.
At the same time, Hezbollah is required to pull its forces north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure it has in the country’s south.
A committee composed of Israeli, Lebanese, French and US delegates, alongside a representative from the UN peacekeeping force, has been tasked with monitoring the implementation of the deal.
Former army chief Aoun was elected head of state on Thursday by lawmakers — a vote that followed the weakening of Hamas in the war — ending a more than two-year deadlock during which the position was vacant.
Aoun and Kurilla also discussed “ways to activate cooperation between the Lebanese and American armies,” the presidency said.
The United States has been a key financial backer of the Lebanese armed forces, especially since the country’s economy collapsed in 2019.
Meanwhile, Israel carried out air strikes in east and south Lebanon on Sunday, with the Israeli military saying it struck Hezbollah targets including smuggling routes along the border with Syria.
Israeli strikes in south Lebanon on Friday killed five people, according to the Lebanese health ministry, with the Israeli military saying it targeted a Hezbollah weapons truck.


Angry hostage families harangue Israeli hard-liner Smotrich

Supporters of hostages kidnapped during the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest during a Finance Committee meeting.
Supporters of hostages kidnapped during the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest during a Finance Committee meeting.
Updated 32 min 17 sec ago
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Angry hostage families harangue Israeli hard-liner Smotrich

Supporters of hostages kidnapped during the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest during a Finance Committee meeting.
  • Smotrich described the deal taking shape as “a catastrophe” for Israel’s security
  • He said Israel should keep up its campaign in Gaza until the complete surrender of Hamas

JERUSALEM: Angry members of some of the families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza harangued Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday over his opposition to a deal being negotiated in Qatar to halt the fighting and bring their relatives home.
Smotrich described the deal taking shape as “a catastrophe” for Israel’s security and said Israel should keep up its campaign in Gaza until the complete surrender of Hamas, the militant group that ran the enclave before the war.
Dozens of members of the hostage families, many carrying photographs of the missing, squeezed into a committee room in the Israeli parliament where a meeting of the finance committee was held to examine the 2025 budget.
Some furious, some crying and pleading, they attacked Smotrich in an emotionally charged encounter that lasted for more than an hour, accusing him of abandoning the 98 Israeli and foreign hostages still left in Gaza.
“These kidnapped people can be returned,” Ofir Angrest, whose brother Matan was taken hostage during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
“The conditions are ripe, it’s time for a deal, the Prime Minister said it. How can you, the Minister of Finance, oppose the return of all these abductees?“
Smotrich, leader of one of the hard-line nationalist religious parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition, has been among the loudest opponents of a deal which he described as a “surrender” to Hamas.
Qatar, which is brokering the talks alongside Egypt and the United States, said it had given a draft agreement to both Israel and Hamas following a “breakthrough” overnight.
Yechiel Yehud, whose daughter Arbel was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz and whose son Dolev was killed, reminded Smotrich that he had visited their home in the kibbutz.
“I know your heart is in the right place, but you are required to do more than that,” he said.


Power outages in Sudan after drone attack on major dam

Power outages in Sudan after drone attack on major dam
Updated 50 min 24 sec ago
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Power outages in Sudan after drone attack on major dam

Power outages in Sudan after drone attack on major dam

PORT SUDAN: The seat of Sudan’s army-aligned government was without power on Monday, AFP correspondents said, after a drone attack blamed on paramilitaries hit a major hydroelectric dam in the war-torn country’s north.
The Sudanese army, at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023, said in a statement that the attack on Merowe Dam was part of a “systematic campaign” against military sites but also targeting “vital” infrastructure.
AFP journalists in Port Sudan on the Red Sea, where the army-aligned government and the United Nations have been based since the war’s early days, said widespread power outages have persisted since early Monday.
The army said that Merowe Dam and its power station, located about 350 kilometers (220 miles) north of the capital Khartoum and serving Port Sudan and other areas, were hit by “a number of suicide drones.”
“Some losses were incurred, which will be repaired,” the army statement said.
Online footage, which AFP could not independently verify, showed fires engulfing the dam’s electrical infrastructure.
The RSF did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
Since the early morning attack, local media said that the army-controlled cities of Atbara, Dongola and Omdurman — across the Nile from Khartoum — have also been hit by power outages.
In November last year, the army accused the RSF of targeting Merowe with 16 drones, though no casualties or significant damage were reported at the time.
The dam is one of Sudan’s biggest sources of hydroelectric power.
Merowe city, in Sudan’s Northern State, is also home to a major military airport.
The latest attack came two days after the army recaptured Wad Madani, the capital of the central state of Al-Jazira, after more than a year of paramilitary control.
In addition to decimating Sudan’s already fragile infrastructure, the war has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million and pushed many Sudanese to the brink of famine.


Celebrations in Sudan’s Wad Madani as army takes over strategic city

Celebrations in Sudan’s Wad Madani as army takes over strategic city
Updated 13 January 2025
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Celebrations in Sudan’s Wad Madani as army takes over strategic city

Celebrations in Sudan’s Wad Madani as army takes over strategic city
  • More than 12 million displaced in nearly two years of war
  • Army’s recapture of Wad Madani boosts morale, squeezes RSF
  • RSF denies accusations of abuses in El Gezira

WAD MADANI: Civilians and soldiers celebrated in Wad Madani, the capital of Sudan’s El Gezira state, after it was recaptured by the Sudanese army from the paramilitary Rapid Support Services, marking a possible turning point in a devastating near two-year civil war.
“We are so happy, we can’t express ourselves,” said one woman on Sunday, as soldiers shot into the air and people cheered on the streets. “A whole year we have been squeezed, we haven’t been able to breathe.”
The war began in the capital Khartoum in April 2023 over the integration of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Services (RSF). It has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, pushing more than 12 million people out of their homes, and plunging half of the population into hunger.
The RSF’s occupation of El Gezira turned the fertile state into one at risk of famine. Its tight-knit villages were emptied out by violent raids as fields lay fallow or were set on fire, residents and eyewitnesses have said.
The RSF denies the accusations and says it is fighting rogue actors who are committing abuses.
The army’s ability to regain full control of the state would be pivotal in its attempts to choke the RSF’s supply lines to Khartoum and the army-controlled eastern half of the country. The RSF still controls most of the capital.

MORALE BOOST
“The SAF’s capture of Wad Madani boosts its own morale and puts large RSF contingents at risk of encirclement in the area,” said Jalel Harchaoui, an associate fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute.
“It also frees the SAF to intensify pressure on Khartoum before potentially shifting its focus westward,” he said, while warning that the RSF could launch a counteroffensive on Al-Fashir, the army’s last remaining holdout in the western Darfur region.
“This is a big victory that we thank God for, but we are not stopping, we are going swiftly, we are in a hurry, and God-willing soon every inch of Sudan will be cleansed,” General Shams el-Din Kabbashi, deputy leader of the armed forces, told troops and civilians in Madani.
The bodies of RSF soldiers could be seen on the road and bridge leading into the city, but eyewitnesses reported few clashes inside Madani.
The relatively swift takeover comes after weeks of advances by the army in surrounding villages, newly equipped in recent months with fresh armaments and new recruits to allied forces.

HELPED BY DEFECTORS

The Joint Forces, a collection of former rebel groups, as well as Sudan Shield, led by RSF defector Abuagla Keikal, participated in the assault.
The RSF chose to withdraw after being overwhelmed in the lead-up to the takeover, sources in the paramilitary said. They added that its soldiers were exhausted by airstrikes and by dwindling stocks of ammunition and supplies.
They withdrew northwards toward other towns in the state and Khartoum, eyewitnesses said, chased by army airstrikes.
Fiercer fighting could be expected as the RSF fights to maintain control of Khartoum, where the army has made gains, the RSF sources said.
Many of the paramilitary’s fighters come from militias and tribal groups outside of Gezira and had little will to fight for the country’s center, the RSF sources added.
Residents said there had been extensive looting.
“If we have just 1000 pounds ($0.40) they tell us to hand it over. They exhausted and humiliated us,” said lawyer Ahmed Abdelqadir, who along with other women and children cheered for the SAF soldiers as they drove through the town.
The paramilitary soldiers who roamed through the town raided homes and killed the residents if they didn’t find anything, she said.
“They left us with nothing.”