UN sends emergency food aid for one million Lebanese

UN sends emergency food aid for one million Lebanese
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Displaced families receive water and food after fleeing the overnight Israeli strikes, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in southern Beirut, in Lebanon September 28, 2024. (Reuters)
UN sends emergency food aid for one million Lebanese
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A man carries bottles of water as displaced families receive water and food after fleeing the overnight Israeli strikes, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in southern Beirut, in Lebanon September 28, 2024. (Reuters)
UN sends emergency food aid for one million Lebanese
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A child holds food as displaced families receive water and food next to Mohammad Al-Amin mosque after spending the night at Beirut's central Martyrs' Square fleeing the overnight Israeli strikes, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in southern Beirut, in Lebanon September 28, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 29 September 2024
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UN sends emergency food aid for one million Lebanese

UN sends emergency food aid for one million Lebanese

ROME: The World Food Programme on Sunday said it had launched an emergency operation to provide meals for one million people affected by the escalating conflict in Lebanon.
“A further acceleration of the conflict this weekend underscored the need for an immediate humanitarian response,” the Rome-based agency said in a statement, announcing that it was distributing ready-to-eat food rations, bread, hot meals and food parcels to shelters across the country.
Israel on Sunday said that it was carrying out new air strikes on dozens of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, two days after killing the Iran-backed group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in bombing raids outside Beirut.
His killing marked a sharp escalation in nearly a year of tit-for-tat cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah since the latter’s Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The bombing in Lebanon is “compounding the fragility of a population burdened by accumulated crises,” the WFP said.
“In just a few days, WFP assistance has reached thousands of newly displaced people,” the program’s country director for Lebanon, Matthew Hollingworth, said in the statement.
“As the crisis deepens, we are preparing to assist up to one million people through a mix of cash and food support,” he added, calling on the international community to mobilize $105 million to fund the operation through to the end of the year.
“Lebanon is at a breaking point and cannot endure another war,” said WFP regional director Corinne Fleischer.


Israel strikes Sana'a airport - Haaretz newspaper reports, citing Israeli official

Israel strikes Sana'a airport - Haaretz newspaper reports, citing Israeli official
Updated 16 sec ago
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Israel strikes Sana'a airport - Haaretz newspaper reports, citing Israeli official

Israel strikes Sana'a airport - Haaretz newspaper reports, citing Israeli official

Syria authorities say torched 1 million captagon pills

Syria authorities say torched 1 million captagon pills
Updated 26 min 19 sec ago
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Syria authorities say torched 1 million captagon pills

Syria authorities say torched 1 million captagon pills

DAMASCUS: Syria’s new authorities torched a large stockpile of drugs on Wednesday, two security officials told AFP, including one million pills of captagon, whose industrial-scale production flourished under ousted president Bashar Assad.
Captagon is a banned amphetamine-like stimulant that became Syria’s largest export during the country’s more than 13-year civil war, effectively turning it into a narco state under Assad.
“We found a large quantity of captagon, around one million pills,” said a balaclava-wearing member of the security forces, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Osama, and whose khaki uniform bore a “public security” patch.
An AFP journalist saw forces pour fuel over and set fire to a cache of cannabis, the painkiller tramadol, and around 50 bags of pink and yellow captagon pills in a security compound formerly belonging to Assad’s forces in the capital’s Kafr Sousa district.
Captagon has flooded the black market across the region in recent years, with oil-rich Saudi Arabia a major destination.
“The security forces of the new government discovered a drug warehouse as they were inspecting the security quarter,” said another member of the security forces, who identified himself as Hamza.
Authorities destroyed the stocks of alcohol, cannabis, captagon and hashish in order to “protect Syrian society” and “cut off smuggling routes used by Assad family businesses,” he added.
Syria’s new Islamist rulers have yet to spell out their policy on alcohol, which has long been widely available in the country.

Since an Islamist-led rebel alliance toppled Assad on December 8 after a lightning offensive, Syria’s new authorities have said massive quantities of captagon have been found in former government sites around the country, including security branches.
AFP journalists in Syria have seen fighters from Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) set fire to what they said were stashes of captagon found at facilities once operated by Assad’s forces.
Security force member Hamza confirmed Wednesday that “this is not the first initiative of its kind — the security services, in a number of locations, have found other warehouses... and drug manufacturing sites and destroyed them in the appropriate manner.”
Maher Assad, a military commander and the brother of Bashar Assad, is widely accused of being the power behind the lucrative captagon trade.
Experts believe Syria’s former leader used the threat of drug-fueled unrest to put pressure on Arab governments.
A Saudi delegation met Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, a source close to the government told AFP, to discuss the “Syria situation and captagon.”
Jordan in recent years has also cracked down on the smuggling of weapons and drugs including captagon along its 375-kilometer (230-mile) border with Syria.


Jordan says 18,000 Syrians returned home since Assad’s fall

Jordan says 18,000 Syrians returned home since Assad’s fall
Updated 48 min 43 sec ago
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Jordan says 18,000 Syrians returned home since Assad’s fall

Jordan says 18,000 Syrians returned home since Assad’s fall

AMMAN: About 18,000 Syrians have crossed into their country from Jordan since the government of Bashar Assad was toppled earlier this month, Jordanian authorities said on Thursday.
Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya told state TV channel Al-Mamlaka that “around 18,000 Syrians have returned to their country between the fall of the regime of Bashar Assad on December 8, 2024 until Thursday.”
He said the returnees included 2,300 refugees registered with the United Nations.
Amman says it has hosted about 1.3 million Syrians who fled their country since civil war broke out in 2011, with 650,000 formally registered with the United Nations.


Lebanon hopes for neighborly relations in first message to new Syria government

Lebanon hopes for neighborly relations in first message to new Syria government
Updated 26 December 2024
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Lebanon hopes for neighborly relations in first message to new Syria government

Lebanon hopes for neighborly relations in first message to new Syria government
  • Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria’s ousted President Bashar Assad through years of war
  • Syria’s new Islamist de-facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders

DUBAI: Lebanon said on Thursday it was looking forward to having the best neighborly relations with Syria, in its first official message to the new administration in Damascus.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib passed the message to his Syrian counterpart, Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani, in a phone call, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said on X.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria’s ousted President Bashar Assad through years of war, before bringing its fighters back to Lebanon over the last year to fight in a bruising war with Israel – a redeployment which weakened Syrian government lines.
Under Assad, Hezbollah used Syria to bring in weapons and other military equipment from Iran, through Iraq and Syria and into Lebanon. But on Dec. 6, anti-Assad fighters seized the border with Iraq and cut off that route, and two days later, Islamist militants captured the capital Damascus.
Syria’s new Islamist de-facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders after toppling Assad.


Iraqi intelligence chief discusses border security with new Syrian administration

Iraqi intelligence chief discusses border security with new Syrian administration
Updated 26 December 2024
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Iraqi intelligence chief discusses border security with new Syrian administration

Iraqi intelligence chief discusses border security with new Syrian administration

BAGHDAD: An Iraqi delegation met with Syria’s new rulers in Damascus on Thursday, an Iraqi government spokesman said, the latest diplomatic outreach more than two weeks after the fall of Bashar Assad’s rule.
The delegation, led by Iraqi intelligence chief Hamid Al-Shatri, “met with the new Syrian administration,” government spokesman Bassem Al-Awadi told state media, adding that the parties discussed “the developments in the Syrian arena, and security and stability needs on the two countries’ shared border.”