Syria appoints some foreign Islamist fighters to its military, sources say

Members of the security forces of the newly formed Syrian government take part in an operation as they detain, what they say militias of the ousted president Bashar Assad in Adra, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 30, 2024. (AP)
Members of the security forces of the newly formed Syrian government take part in an operation as they detain, what they say militias of the ousted president Bashar Assad in Adra, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 30, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 31 December 2024
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Syria appoints some foreign Islamist fighters to its military, sources say

Syria appoints some foreign Islamist fighters to its military, sources say
  • Thousands of foreigners joined Syria’s rebels early in the 13-year civil war to fight against the rule of Bashar Assad and the Iran-backed Shiite militias who supported him, giving the conflict a sectarian overtone

DAMASCUS: Syria’s new rulers have installed some foreign fighters including Uyghurs, a Jordanian and a Turk in the country’s armed forces as Damascus tries to shape a patchwork of rebel groups into a professional military, two Syrian sources said.
The move to give official roles, including senior ones, to several militants may alarm some foreign governments and Syrian citizens fearful about the new administration’s intentions, despite its pledges not to export Islamic revolution and to rule with tolerance toward Syria’s large minority groups.
A Syrian government spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment on the thinking behind the appointments.
The sources said that out of a total of almost 50 military roles announced by the Defense Ministry on Sunday, at least six had gone to foreigners.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the nationalities of the individuals appointed.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Some foreign rebel leaders given senior military roles in Syria

• Move is ‘token of recognition’ of war role, source says

• HTS leader Sharaa purged some foreign fighters, now offers others citizenship

• China labels TIP a terrorist group, concerned about Uyghur militants

Thousands of Sunni Muslim foreigners joined Syria’s rebels early in the 13-year civil war to fight against the rule of Bashar Assad and the Iran-backed Shiite militias who supported him, giving the conflict a sectarian overtone.
Some foreign fighters formed their own armed groups while others joined established formations such as Daesh as it rampaged across Iraq and Syria, briefly declaring a so-called caliphate before being routed by US and Iran-backed forces.
Other groups of foreign militants joined HTS, which disavowed previous links to Al-Qaeda and Daesh and fought bloody battles against them before going on to spearhead the lightning advance that toppled Assad on Dec. 8.
Ahmed Al-Sharaa, the HTS-leader-turned de facto ruler of Syria, has purged dozens of foreign jihadi fighters as part of a campaign to Syrianize and moderate his group.
In remarks broadcast on Sunday, Sharaa said the new Syria “cannot be run by the mentality of groups and militias.”
Syria’s new rulers, drawn mainly from HTS, have indicated that foreign fighters and their families may be given Syrian citizenship and be allowed to stay in the country because of their contributions to the fight against Assad.
The Defense Ministry on Sunday announced 49 appointments to the army that included leaders of key Syrian armed factions.
Among them were several foreign fighters, three given the rank of brigadier-general and at least three others the rank of colonel, a Syrian military source said.

’TOKEN OF RECOGNITION’
“This is a small token of recognition for the sacrifices Islamist militants gave to our struggle for freedom from Assad’s oppression,” an HTS source told Reuters.
Chinese Uyghur militant Abdulaziz Dawood Khudaberdi, also known as Zahid and the commander of the separatist Turkistan Islamic Party’s (TIP) forces in Syria, was appointed a brigadier-general, a TIP statement said and the Syrian military source confirmed.
Two other Uyghur fighters, Mawlan Tarsoun Abdussamad and Abdulsalam Yasin Ahmad, were given the rank of colonel, said the TIP statement published on its website, congratulating them and the Uyghur community on the appointments.
All the names appear in Sunday’s Defense Ministry announcement, though the nationalities are not included.
The TIP is thought to have hundreds of fighters in Syria and aims to establish a Daesh in parts of China and central Asia, where there is a large Uyghur Muslim population.
Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority that numbers around 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang, including the mass use of forced labor in camps. Beijing denies any abuses.
There was no immediate comment from the Chinese foreign ministry.
China labels the TIP a terrorist organization responsible for plots to attack overseas Chinese targets. Beijing has said TIP “gravely threatens” China’s interests and security overseas and that combating the group was China’s “core concern” in its counter-terrorism effort.
Turkish citizen Omar Mohammed Jaftashi and Jordanian citizen Abdul Rahman Hussein Al-Khatib were also made brigadier-generals, the Syrian military source and the HTS source said.
Abdul Jashari, an ethnically Albanian fighter also known as Abu Qatada Al-Albani, was appointed colonel, the military source said.
Jashari head the Albanian militant group Xhemati Alban and was designated a militant by the US Treasury in 2016.
Egyptian Alaa Mohammed Abdel-Baqi was also given a military rank, the source said.
Egypt’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 


Trump backs ‘hard stance’ on Gaza, says he does not know what Israel will do

Trump backs ‘hard stance’ on Gaza, says he does not know what Israel will do
Updated 15 February 2025
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Trump backs ‘hard stance’ on Gaza, says he does not know what Israel will do

Trump backs ‘hard stance’ on Gaza, says he does not know what Israel will do
  • Trump has proposed US takeover of Gaza amid fragile ceasefire
  • UN distressed by condition of released hostages and detainees

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Friday advocated taking a “hard stance” on Gaza, the Palestinian enclave for which he has proposed a US takeover and where a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants is in place.

Trump had said this week that Hamas should release all Israeli hostages in Gaza by Saturday midday or “let hell break out.”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow (Saturday) at 12’o clock. If it was up to me, I would take a very hard stance but I can’t tell you what Israel is going to do,” Trump told reporters on Friday.

A ceasefire went into effect just before Trump returned to the presidency on January 20.Some Israeli hostages have been released by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners have been released by Israel since then.

The UN human rights office has described images of both emaciated Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees released as distressing, saying they reflected the dire conditions in which they were held.

Trump on Friday reiterated his concerns about the appearances of released Israeli hostages without commenting on the state of the Palestinians.

Israel’s military assault on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians since October 2023, according to the Gaza health ministry, and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies.

The assault internally displaced nearly Gaza’s entire population and caused a hunger crisis.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Trump has faced international condemnation for his proposal to take over Gaza and permanently displace Palestinians there. Rights experts and the United Nations have called it a proposal for ethnic cleansing.


Top commander with UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon is injured by protesters

Top commander with UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon is injured by protesters
Updated 15 February 2025
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Top commander with UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon is injured by protesters

Top commander with UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon is injured by protesters
  • “We are shocked by this outrageous attack on peacekeepers who have been serving to restore security and stability to south Lebanon during a difficult time,” it said
  • The Lebanese army intervened to disperse the protesters

BEIRUT: The outgoing deputy commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon was injured Friday when protesters attacked a convoy taking peacekeepers to the Beirut airport, the force known as UNIFIL said in a statement.
“We are shocked by this outrageous attack on peacekeepers who have been serving to restore security and stability to south Lebanon during a difficult time,” it said.
The Lebanese army intervened to disperse the protesters. The army said in a statement that acting commander Maj. Gen. Hassan Odeh had contacted UNIFIL and promised to “work to arrest the citizens who attacked its members and bring them to justice.”
Demonstrators have been blocking the road to the airport and other roads in the capital to protest a decision by Lebanese authorities to revoke permission for a passenger plane from Iran to fly to Beirut on Thursday, leaving dozens of Lebanese passengers stranded.
The decision to ban the Iranian plane came after the Israeli army issued a statement claiming that Iran was smuggling cash to the militant group Hezbollah via civilian flights.
Lebanon’s civil aviation agency said Thursday that “additional security measures” meant some flights were temporarily rescheduled until Feb. 18 — the same day as a deadline for Israel and Hezbollah to fully implement their ceasefire agreement, including a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon.


Syria receives local currency printed in Russia before Assad’s fall

A view of the Syrian central bank, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 12, 2025. (REUTERS)
A view of the Syrian central bank, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 12, 2025. (REUTERS)
Updated 14 February 2025
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Syria receives local currency printed in Russia before Assad’s fall

A view of the Syrian central bank, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 12, 2025. (REUTERS)
  • Syria has been facing a liquidity crunch since Assad’s ouster, with Syria’s new central bank governor, Maysaa Sabreen, saying in January that she wanted to avoid printing Syrian pounds to guard against a surge in inflation

DAMASCUS: Syria’s central bank said a batch of Syrian currency had arrived at Damascus airport from Russia, where banknotes were printed under the rule of toppled President Bashar Assad, Syria’s state news agency SANA reported on Friday.
The central bank did not specify the amount of currency that had arrived, but a source with knowledge of the matter said it was in the “hundreds of billions of Syrian pounds,” equivalent to tens of millions of US dollars.
The source said the cash had been printed in Russia under Assad’s rule but had not been shipped to Syria by the time he was toppled in early December 2024.
Syria’s new leadership ordered the Russian company printing the currency to stop after Assad fled to Moscow, the source said, without providing details on what prompted Friday’s delivery of the previously printed cash.

BACKGROUND

A source said the cash had been printed in Russia under Bashar Assad’s rule but had not been shipped to Syria by the time he was toppled in early December 2024.

Syria has been facing a liquidity crunch since Assad’s ouster, with Syria’s new central bank governor, Maysaa Sabreen, saying in January that she wanted to avoid printing Syrian pounds to guard against a surge in inflation.
Syria’s pound has strengthened on the black market since the new leadership took over, helped by an influx of Syrians from abroad and an end to strict controls on trade in foreign currencies.
It traded 9,850 pounds to the US dollar on Thursday, according to exchange houses closed on Friday.
According to statements by the central bank, the official foreign exchange rate has stayed around 13,000 pounds to the US dollar.
But that has sparked concerns about liquidity in Syrian pounds.
The central bank only has foreign exchange reserves of around $200 million in cash, sources said, a considerable drop from the $18.5 billion that the International Monetary Fund estimated Syria had in 2010, a year before civil war erupted.
Russia is hoping to retain the use of naval and air bases in Syria under its new leaders.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin held a phone call with Syria’s President Ahmad Al-Sharaa on Wednesday, the first call between the two leaders since Assad’s ouster.
The Syrian presidency said Putin had invited Syria’s new foreign minister to visit Moscow.

 


Gazans return to ruined homes and severe water shortage

Gazans return to ruined homes and severe water shortage
Updated 14 February 2025
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Gazans return to ruined homes and severe water shortage

Gazans return to ruined homes and severe water shortage
  • Wells, pumps destroyed during the war
  • Israel claims it has repaired some damage

BEIT LAHIYA: A ceasefire has enabled some Gazans to go back to their ruined homes without fear of Israeli airstrikes, but they have returned to a severe water crisis.

“We returned here and found no pumps, no wells. We did not find buildings or houses,” said 50-year-old farmer Bassel Rajab, a resident of the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
“We came and set up tents to shelter in, but there is no water. We don’t have water. We are suffering.”
Drinking, cooking, and washing are a luxury in Gaza, 16 months after the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Rajab said he sometimes walks 16 km, hoping to shower in Gaza City. Some Palestinians have dug wells in areas near the sea or rely on salty tap water from Gaza’s only aquifer, contaminated with seawater and sewage.
The Palestinian Water Authority estimates it will cost $2.7 billion to repair the water and sanitation sectors. Palestinians were already facing a severe water crisis as well as shortages of food, fuel,  and medicine before the wells were destroyed in the war.
The Palestinian Water Authority said in a statement on its website that 208 out of 306 wells had been knocked out of service during the war, and a further 39 were partially out of service.
“There is a big shortage as the occupation (Israel) is preventing the entrance (into Gaza) of drills, excavators, machines, equipment, and generators that are needed to operate wells and to dig them,” said Beit Lahiya Mayor Alaa Al-Attar.
Attar said small companies were trying to fix the wells but had minimal equipment.
He added: “We are trying to establish new wells to mitigate the severity of the water crisis at this stage.”
COGAT, the branch of the Israeli military that manages humanitarian activities, has said it has coordinated water line repairs with international organizations, including one to the northern Gaza Strip.
The Hamas-Israel ceasefire has been in force since Jan. 19.
Gazans hoping to one day rebuild are squeezed by shortages of water, food, medicines, and fuel in Gaza, which was grappling with poverty and high unemployment even before the war erupted.
Youssef Kallab, 35, says he has to carry heavy water containers to the roof of his home using a rope. The municipality supplies water every three days.
“We do not have the strength to carry it up and down the stairs. We have children, we have elderly. They all want water,” Kallab said as he lifted water containers.
Twelve-year-old Mohammed Al-Khatib says he has to drag a cart for 3-4 km to get water.
Mohammed Nassar, a 47-year-old Palestinian supermarket owner, said he has to walk for miles to fill buckets from a water pipe despite health problems and cartilage damage.
“We turn a blind eye to the pain because we have to,” he said.

 


Tunisian startup takes on e-waste challenge

Tunisian startup takes on e-waste challenge
Updated 14 February 2025
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Tunisian startup takes on e-waste challenge

Tunisian startup takes on e-waste challenge
  • The aim is to have “an environmental and social impact, but also an economic gain,” Cheriha said, adding that refurbished products can be up to 60 percent cheaper in a country where the average monthly salary is around 1,000 dinars ($310)

TUNIS: Engineer turned social entrepreneur Sabri Cheriha hunches over a washing machine at a small depot in a suburb of Tunisia’s capital, the unassuming home of a startup he launched to tackle the country’s mounting electronic waste problem.
Cheriha said there were about 8 million household appliances and 9 million cell phones in use across Tunisia, but once these devices break down or are replaced, “there’s no service to dispose of them properly.”
WeFix, the startup that won him a second-place regional social entrepreneur award last year, stands out by offering an “all-in-one service,” providing collection, repairs, and recycling to reduce e-waste.
The aim is to have “an environmental and social impact, but also an economic gain,” Cheriha said, adding that refurbished products can be up to 60 percent cheaper in a country where the average monthly salary is around 1,000 dinars ($310).
The startup “avoided” 20 tonnes of waste in 2023 and 80 tonnes last year, according to its founder, who anticipates handling another 120 tonnes this year.
“When we talk about ‘avoided waste,’ we’re also considering the resources needed to manufacture a single washing machine — 50 or 60 kg of finished product require over a tonne of raw materials,” he explained.