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Eight US troops injured in Syria drone attack last week, Pentagon says

Eight US troops injured in Syria drone attack last week, Pentagon says
Eight US service members were injured in a drone attack on a base in Syria last week, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, its first report of specific casualty figures in the incident. (AFP/File)
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Updated 13 August 2024
Reuters
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Eight US troops injured in Syria drone attack last week, Pentagon says

Eight US troops injured in Syria drone attack last week, Pentagon says
  • Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder told reporters on Tuesday that three personnel had already returned to duty
  • The eight troops were treated for traumatic brain injury and smoke inhalation
Updated 13 August 2024
Reuters
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WASHINGTON: Eight US service members were injured in a drone attack on a base in Syria last week, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, its first report of specific casualty figures in the incident.
Reuters first reported that several US and coalition personnel were wounded in a drone attack on Friday at Rumalyn Landing Zone, which hosts troops from the US and other countries in the US-led coalition.
Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder told reporters on Tuesday that three personnel had already returned to duty. The eight troops were treated for traumatic brain injury and smoke inhalation.
The US says its 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in neighboring Iraq are advising and assisting local forces trying to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large swaths of both countries but was later pushed back.
Ryder added that the US believed that the attack was carried out by Iran-backed forces, but the Pentagon was working to determine which one.

Topics: Syria US troops drone attacks Pentagon

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Western governments open talks with Syria’s new leaders

Western governments open talks with Syria’s new leaders
Updated 5 min 22 sec ago
Reuters
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Western governments open talks with Syria’s new leaders

Western governments open talks with Syria’s new leaders
  • Germany is coordinating closely with international partners, including France, the US, Britain, and Arab states, as Syria enters a new political phase
  • United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher also expressed optimism after meeting with Syria’s new leaders
Updated 5 min 22 sec ago
Reuters

BERLIN: Germany, France, and other Western nations are engaging in talks with representatives of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) in Damascus, following the Islamist group’s role in the recent overthrow of Syria’s Bashar Assad. Germany’s foreign ministry confirmed on Tuesday that its diplomats would meet HTS-appointed interim government officials, joining efforts by the United States and Britain to establish contact with Syria’s new leadership.

The German talks will focus on Syria’s transitional process and the protection of minorities, a foreign ministry spokesperson said. “The possibilities of establishing a diplomatic presence in Damascus are also being explored,” the spokesperson added, while underscoring that Germany continues to monitor HTS closely due to its origins in Al-Qaeda ideology.

“So far, they have acted prudently,” the spokesperson noted, referring to the group that led Assad’s ouster earlier this month, bringing an end to Syria’s 13-year civil war.

France has also moved to reestablish its presence in Syria. Visiting French special envoy for Syria, Jean-Francois Guillaume, said his country was committed to supporting Syrians during the transitional period.

“France is ready to stand with Syrians during this transition, which we hope will be peaceful,” Guillaume told journalists. He added that his delegation was in Damascus to “make contact with the de facto authorities.” An AFP journalist reported seeing the French flag raised at the embassy entrance for the first time since its closure in 2012.

The end of the conflict has reignited debate in Germany over asylum policies, particularly as the country took in nearly one million Syrian refugees during the war. For now, asylum procedures for Syrians are paused pending a reassessment of conditions in their homeland.

Germany is coordinating closely with international partners, including France, the US, Britain, and Arab states, as Syria enters a new political phase.

The Italian Prime Minister also welcomed the fall of the Assad regime, describing it as good news and expressing readiness to engage with Syria's new leadership. While acknowledging that initial signs from the new Syrian government are encouraging, the Prime Minister emphasized the need for caution moving forward.

United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher also expressed optimism after meeting with Syria’s new leaders in Damascus, including HTS leader Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, who now uses his real name, Ahmed Al-Sharaa.

“I’m encouraged,” Fletcher said on X, adding that there is “a basis for an ambitious scale-up of vital humanitarian support.” He described the current moment as a “cautious hope for Syria.”

Topics: Fall of Assad

Israeli airstrikes kill 14 Palestinians in Gaza, tanks push south

Israeli airstrikes kill 14 Palestinians in Gaza, tanks push south
Updated 17 December 2024
Reuters
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Israeli airstrikes kill 14 Palestinians in Gaza, tanks push south

Israeli airstrikes kill 14 Palestinians in Gaza, tanks push south
Updated 17 December 2024
Reuters

CAIRO: Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 14 Palestinians on Tuesday, at least 10 of them in one house in Gaza City, medics said as tanks pushed deeper toward the western area of Rafah in the south.
Medics said the Israeli airstrike on the house in the Daraj suburb of Gaza City destroyed the building and damaged nearby houses. Four other people were killed in two separate airstrikes in the city and the town of Beit Lahiya north of the enclave said medics, medics added.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, Israeli tanks pushed deeper toward the western area of Mawasi, known as a humanitarian-designated area, residents said.
Heavy fire from tanks rolling into the area forced dozens of families sheltering there to flee northwards toward Khan Younis.
The war began when the Palestinian militant group Hamas stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel then launched an air and land offensive that has killed more than 45,000 people, mostly civilians, according to authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
The campaign has displaced nearly the entire population and left much of the enclave in ruins.

Topics: War on Gaza

Israeli defence minister says Israel will have freedom of action in Gaza after defeating Hamas

Israeli defence minister says Israel will have freedom of action in Gaza after defeating Hamas
Updated 16 min 48 sec ago
Reuters
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Israeli defence minister says Israel will have freedom of action in Gaza after defeating Hamas

Israeli defence minister says Israel will have freedom of action in Gaza after defeating Hamas
Updated 16 min 48 sec ago
Reuters

DUBAI: Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Monday Israel will have security control over Gaza with full freedom of action after defeating Hamas in the enclave.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said on Tuesday that two soldiers were killed during combat in southern Gaza.

Topics: War on Gaza Israel Hamas Gaza strip Palestinians

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At least 100,000 bodies in Syrian mass grave, US advocacy group head says

At least 100,000 bodies in Syrian mass grave, US advocacy group head says
Updated 17 December 2024
Reuters
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At least 100,000 bodies in Syrian mass grave, US advocacy group head says

At least 100,000 bodies in Syrian mass grave, US advocacy group head says
  • Assad and his father Hafez, who preceded him as president and died in 2000, are accused by Syrians, rights groups and other governments of widespread extrajudicial killings, including mass executions within the country’s notorious prison system
Updated 17 December 2024
Reuters

WASHINGTON: The head of a US-based Syrian advocacy organization on Monday said that a mass grave outside of Damascus contained the bodies of at least 100,000 people killed by the former government of ousted President Bashar Assad.
Mouaz Moustafa, speaking to Reuters in a telephone interview from Damascus, said the site at al Qutayfah, 25 miles (40 km) north of the Syrian capital, was one of five mass graves that he had identified over the years.
“One hundred thousand is the most conservative estimate” of the number of bodies buried at the site, said Moustafa, head of the Syrian Emergency Task Force. “It’s a very, very extremely almost unfairly conservative estimate.”
Moustafa said that he is sure there are more mass graves than the five sites, and that along with Syrians victims included US and British citizens and other foreigners.
Reuters was unable to confirm Moustafa’s allegations.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are estimated to have been killed since 2011, when Assad’s crackdown on protests against his rule grew into a full-scale civil war.
Assad and his father Hafez, who preceded him as president and died in 2000, are accused by Syrians, rights groups and other governments of widespread extrajudicial killings, including mass executions within the country’s notorious prison system.
Assad repeatedly denied that his government committed human rights violations and painted his detractors as extremists.
Syria’s UN Ambassador Koussay Aldahhak did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He assumed the role in January — while Assad was still in power — but told reporters last week that he was awaiting instructions from the new authorities and would “keep defending and working for the Syrian people.”
Moustafa arrived in Syria after Assad flew to Russia and his government collapsed in the face of a lightning offensive by rebels that ended his family’s more than 50 years of iron-fisted rule.
He spoke to Reuters after he was interviewed at the site in al Qutayfah by Britain’s Channel 4 News for a report on the alleged mass grave there.
He said the intelligence branch of the Syrian air force was “in charge of bodies going from military hospitals, where bodies were collected after they’d been tortured to death, to different intelligence branches, and then they would be sent to a mass grave location.”
Corpses also were transported to sites by the Damascus municipal funeral office whose personnel helped unload them from refrigerated tractor-trailers, he said.
“We were able to talk to the people who worked on these mass graves that had on their own escaped Syria or that we helped to escape,” said Moustafa.
His group has spoken to bulldozer drivers compelled to dig graves and “many times on orders, squished the bodies down to fit them in and then cover them with dirt,” he said.
Moustafa expressed concern that graves sites were unsecured and said they needed to be preserved to safeguard evidence for investigations.

 

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria US Russia Turkiye

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Syria’s Golani says rebel factions to be ‘disbanded’, calls for lifting sanctions

Syria’s Golani says rebel factions to be ‘disbanded’, calls for lifting sanctions
Updated 17 December 2024
AFP
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Syria’s Golani says rebel factions to be ‘disbanded’, calls for lifting sanctions

Syria’s Golani says rebel factions to be ‘disbanded’, calls for lifting sanctions
  • “Syria must remain united, and there must be a social contract between the state and all religions to guarantee social justice,” said Jolani
Updated 17 December 2024
AFP

DAMASCUS: The leader of the Islamist group that toppled Bashar Assad said Monday that armed factions in war-torn Syria would be “disbanded” and their fighters placed under the defense ministry, and called for sanctions to be lifted so refugees can return.
Syrian president Assad was toppled by a lightning 11-day rebel offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group (HTS), whose fighters and allies swept down from northwest Syria and entered the capital on December 8.
HTS leader Abu Mohammed Al-Golani said Monday on the group’s Telegram channel that all the rebel factions “would “be disbanded and the fighters trained to join the ranks of the defense ministry.”
“All will be subject to the law,” said Golani, who now uses his real name, Ahmed Al-Sharaa.
He also emphasized the need for unity in a country home to different ethnic minority groups and religions, while speaking to members of the Druze community — a branch of Shiite Islam making up about 3 percent of Syria’s pre-war population.
“Syria must remain united,” he said. “There must be a social contract between the state and all religions to guarantee social justice.”
Several countries and organizations have welcomed Assad’s fall but said they were waiting to see how the new authorities would treat minorities in the country.
During a second meeting with a delegation of British diplomats, the HTS leader also spoke “of the importance of restoring relations” with London.
He stressed the need to end “all sanctions imposed on Syria so that Syrian refugees can return to their country,” according to remarks reported on his group’s Telegram channel.
HTS is rooted in Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda and proscribed as a terrorist organization by many Western governments, though it has sought to moderate its rhetoric.
Since the toppling of Assad, it has insisted that the rights of all Syrians will be protected.
 

 

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria Abu Mohammed al-Jolani

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