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Turkey’s intelligence agency has attacked a convoy of trucks allegedly carrying missiles, heavy weapons and ammunition that were abandoned by the Syrian government and reportedly seized by Syrian Kurdish militias, Turkish security officials said Tuesday.
The officials said 12 trucks, two tanks and two ammunition depots were “destroyed” in aerial strikes in the city of Qamishli, near the border with Turkey in northeast Syria, the Associated Press reports. The officials provided the information on condition of anonymity in line with Turkish regulations. They did not say when the attack occurred.
The officials said the intelligence agency detected that weapons left by the Syrian government forces were being moved to warehouses belonging to the Syrian Kurdish People’s Defense Units, or YPG. Turkey views the group as a terrorist organisation because of its links to the banned Kurdish militants that have led a decades-long insurgency in Turkey.
According to the officials, the group was allegedly planning to use the equipment and supplies against Turkish security forces.
The mother of Tal al-Mallouhi has spoken to AFP about her “indescribable” joy after her the release of the Syrian blogger 15 years after she was swept away into deposed president Bashar al-Assad’s notorious prison system at the age of 19.
Mallouhi, now 33, wrote poetry and social commentary before she was detained in December 2009, just over a year before pro-democracy protests broke out across Syria.
In 2011, she was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of working with the CIA – accusations her family insists are false. Her sentencing drew international condemnation at the time. Authorities never released her after her sentence elapsed.
She was freed last week along with thousands of others during the 11-day lightning offensive led by Islamist rebels, who seized key cities before reaching Damascus and forcing Assad to flee.
“I was overwhelmed with an indescribable feeling, a great joy” after holding her daughter for the first time after she was freed, her mother Ahd al-Mallouhi told AFP.
But after more than a decade in Assad’s notorious prison system, her daughter, like many others newly released, needs time just “to realise she got out, she’s OK now and that the fear and terror is gone”, she said.
At the core of the system of rule that Assad inherited from his father, Hafez, was a brutal complex of prisons and detention centres used to eliminate dissent by jailing those suspected of stepping out of the ruling Ba’ath party’s line.
“I used to see her for half an hour during visits, and our every word was watched,” she said.
She said the family needed time to heal, “to talk with each other again and open up”.
Yet despite the challenges, she said she had faith the country was now headed towards better days.
Israeli airstrike kills at least seven Palestinians at Nuseirat camp in central Gaza – report
At least seven Palestinians were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat camp in the central part of the Gaza Strip, medics told Reuters early on Wednesday.
And in Beit Hanoun town in northern Gaza, medics said an Israeli airstrike killed and wounded several people. Rescue workers said several people were trapped under the rubble of a house.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the two attacks reported by Palestinian medics.
Israeli forces have been operating in Beit Hanoun, the nearby town of Beit Lahiya and the Jabalia refugee camp since 5 October, fighting Hamas militants waging attacks from those areas and preventing them from regrouping.
The Biden administration has urged the rebel group that led the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad not to assume automatic leadership of the country but instead run an inclusive process to form a transitional government, Reuters reports, citing two US officials and a congressional aide briefed on the first US contacts with the group.
The communications with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group formerly allied with al-Qaida and designated a terrorist organisation by the US, are being conducted in coordination with Washington’s Middle East allies, including Turkey. The administration is also in touch with president-elect Donald Trump’s team about the matter, one of the officials said.
The discussions, which have taken place over the last several days, are part of a larger effort by Washington to coordinate with various groups inside Syria as it tries to navigate the chaotic aftermath of the sudden collapse of the Assad regime on Sunday.
Updated
Syrian democratic forces commander says ceasefire agreed with rebels in Manbij
The US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Syria’s Turkey-backed rebels reached a ceasefire agreement in the northern city of Manbij through US mediation “to ensure the safety and security of civilians,” SDF commander Mazloum Abdi said early on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
“The fighters of the Manbij Military Council, who have been resisting the attacks since November 27, will withdraw from the area as soon as possible,” Abdi added.
Summary of the day
It’s just after 2am in Damascus and Moscow, and 1am in Beirut, Tel Aviv and Gaza City. Here’s what we’ve been following today:
Israel says it has carried out more than 350 airstrikes targeting weapons stockpiles and strategic infrastructure in Syria over the past 48 hours. The IDF said the air force conducted the crewed aircraft missile strikes on Syrian military targets including weapons production sites in the cities of Damascus, Homs, Tartus, Latakia and Palmyra. It said 130 strikes were “during ground operations” and aimed at weapons depots, military structures, launchers and firing positions.
The world “has nothing to fear” from the new Syrian regime, the leader of rebel group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) has told Sky News in what the network says are his first comments to a western media outlet since his organization toppled Bashar al-Assad on Sunday. Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, attempted to reassure foreign nations in his remarks and promised Syria “will be rebuilt”.
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow is “providing sanctuary” for deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, having transported him to Moscow on Sunday “in the most secure way possible”. “He is secured, and it shows that Russia acts as required in such an extraordinary situation,” he told NBC News.
Two US warships escorting three merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden successfully repelled a drone and missile attack by Houthi rebels early Tuesday, according to the US Central Command (Centcom). “US navy destroyers USS Stockdale (DDG 106) and USS O’Kane (DDG 77) successfully defeated a range of Houthi-launched weapons while transiting the Gulf of Aden, Dec 9-10,” it said in a statement posted to social media.
The insurgent group that overthrew Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria claims to have wrested control of the eastern city of Deir el-Zour after intense battles with the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), AP reported. A member of the Islamic group Hayat al-Tahrir Sham (HTS) said in a recorded video that the group would sweep neighborhoods to secure the city. The nearby city of Boukamal had also fallen to HTS, the person said, adding that Raqqa and Hasakah were subsequent targets.
The US has asked Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group to help locate and free missing American journalist Austin Tice, a state department official told reporters on Tuesday. The release of photojournalist Tice, who was abducted and imprisoned by Bashar al-Assad’s regime in 2012, is a top priority of the Biden administration in the aftermath of the dictator’s overthrow, Matthew Miller, a state department spokesperson, said at a Tuesday briefing, Reuters reported.
Outgoing US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has called for an “inclusive” political process in Syria, saying the US would eventually recognise a new government if it renounces terrorism, destroys chemical weapons stocks and protects the rights of minorities and women. “The Syrian people will decide the future of Syria. All nations should pledge to support an inclusive and transparent process and refrain from external interference,” Blinken said in a statement.
The UN would consider taking the Syrian rebel group that toppled the regime of Bashar al-Assad off its designated terrorist list if it passes the key test of forming a truly inclusive transitional government, according to a senior official at the world body. Geir Pedersen, UN special envoy for Syria, held out the prospect of removing Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from the organisation’s list of proscribed terrorist groups. But he said the group could not seek to govern Syria in the way that it had governed Idlib, the northern province where it was based and from where it led the military breakout that resulted in the sudden collapse of the Assad regime.
Updated
Syrian rebels make further advances
The insurgent group that overthrew Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria claims to have wrested control of the eastern city of Deir el-Zour after intense battles with the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), AP reported.
A member of the Islamic group Hayat al-Tahrir Sham (HTS) said in a recorded video that the group would sweep neighborhoods to secure the city. The nearby city of Boukamal had also fallen to HTS, the person said, adding that Raqqa and Hasakah were subsequent targets.
Separately, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 218 people were killed in three days of fighting between Turkish-backed forces and the SDF in Manbij, a city 280 miles (450km) north east of Damascus, AFP said.
Reuters reported Monday that the US and Turkey reached an agreement for the safe withdrawal of SDF fighters from Manjib. Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan praised what he said was a clearing out of “terrorists” from the city, which the SDF captured three days earlier.
Updated
US warships repel Gulf of Aden missile attack
Two US warships escorting three merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden successfully repelled a drone and missile attack by Houthi rebels early Tuesday, according to a social media post by US Central Command (Centcom).
“US navy destroyers USS Stockdale (DDG 106) and USS O’Kane (DDG 77) successfully defeated a range of Houthi-launched weapons while transiting the Gulf of Aden, Dec 9-10,” the post said.
CENTCOM Forces Defeat Houthi Attacks on U.S. Navy and U.S.-Flagged Ships in the Gulf of Aden.
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) December 10, 2024
U.S. Navy destroyers USS Stockdale (DDG 106) and USS O’Kane (DDG 77) successfully defeated a range of Houthi-launched weapons while transiting the Gulf of Aden, Dec. 9 – 10.
The… pic.twitter.com/Jz4AtqBuEL
“The destroyers successfully engaged and defeated multiple one-way attack uncrewed aerial systems and one anti-ship cruise missile, ensuring the safety of the ships and their personnel, as well as civilian vessels and their crews.”
A statement from the Yemen-based Houthi rebels said they had targeted the five ships. Attacks on merchant shipping have become increasingly common since Israeli launched military action in Gaza in response to the Hamas terrorist attacks of 7 October 2023.
The media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders has said deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad must face trial for the murders and mistreatment of scores of journalists.
In a statement, Jonathan Dagher, the group’s Middle East desk chief, also said the situation in Syria remained perilous for journalists after the seizure of power by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamic rebel group accused of killing six journalists and abducting at least eight others between 2012 and 2019:
With more than 180 journalists killed and executed by the regime and its allies since 2011, and with the imprisonment and torture of reporters in his prisons, Bashar al-Assad made Syria one of the worst countries in the world for media professionals.
We demand that Assad be prosecuted for his crimes. Justice, long overdue, must finally be served for all victims of his abuses.
US asks Hayat Tahrir al-Sham to help locate American journalist Austin Tice
The US has asked Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group to help locate and free missing American journalist Austin Tice, a state department official told reporters on Tuesday.
The release of photojournalist Tice, who was abducted and imprisoned by Bashar al-Assad’s regime in 2012, is a top priority of the Biden administration in the aftermath of the dictator’s overthrow, Matthew Miller, a state department spokesperson, said at a Tuesday briefing, Reuters reported.
Miller said that message had been sent via intermediaries to HTS, the faction that led the rebel operation that unseated Assad and which the US considers a terror group.
“In all of our communications with parties that we know talk to HTS, we have sent very clearly the message that as they move through Syria liberating prisons, our top priority is the return of Austin Tice,” he said.
“We want anyone who’s operating on the ground in Syria to be on the lookout for him, and if they do find him, to return to him to us safely as soon as possible.”
On Sunday, Biden told reporters at the White House: “We think we can get him back”, while acknowledging he had “no direct evidence” of the status of Tice, a journalist from Houston, Texas, whose work has appeared in newspapers including the Washington Post.
Updated
The Guardian’s Ruth Michaelson reports on the death in the notorious Sednaya prison of Mazen al-Hamada, a Syrian human rights activist whose torture and suffering became a symbol of the Assad regime:
When he spoke to lawmakers and in lecture theatres around the world, Mazen al-Hamada’s face told the story of brutal torture by Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The discovery of the Syrian activist’s body inside the notorious Sednaya prison on the outskirts of Damascus brought the news that he never lived to see its downfall.
Hamada’s sunken eyes and haunted face, his tears as he described the depth of horrors he experienced, made him a symbol of the crimes the Assad regime committed against those who spoke out against it.
Hamada was detained and tortured alongside tens of thousands of people after the 2011 uprising against Assad’s rule.
“Mazen had endured torture so cruel, so unimaginable, that his retellings carried an almost otherworldly weight. When he spoke, it was as if he stared into the face of death itself, pleading with the angel of mortality for just a little more time,” wrote Hamada’s friend, the photographer and director Sakir Khader.
He “became one of the most important witnesses against Assad’s regime”, he said.
Read the full story:
Updated
IDF claims hundreds of strikes in Syria over last 48 hours
The latest update from the Israeli military says it has carried out more than 350 airstrikes targeting weapons stockpiles and strategic infrastructure in Syria over the past 48 hours.
In a statement posted to X, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said the air force conducted the crewed aircraft missile strikes on Syrian military targets including weapons production sites in the cities of Damascus, Homs, Tartus, Latakia and Palmyra.
⭕ In 48 hours, the IDF struck most of the strategic weapons stockpiles in Syria to prevent them from falling into the hands of terrorist elements. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻:
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 10, 2024
⚓ Naval Operations: Israeli Navy missile ships struck 2 Syrian Navy facilities… pic.twitter.com/6N1fz7BiMF
The targets included airfields, anti-aircraft batteries, drones, aircraft and tanks.
The IDF said 130 strikes were “during ground operations” and aimed at weapons depots, military structures, launchers and firing positions.
Israeli defense minster Israel Katz said earlier Tuesday that the Syrian navy fleet was wiped out in overnight strikes, and that Israeli ground troops were “establishing themselves” in the buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Updated
Hezbollah leaders have expressed their displeasure at Israel’s military action in Syria, rejecting what the group calls an “occupation” by the country it has itself been fighting in Lebanon.
“We hope to see Syria stabilize... and take a firm stand against Israeli occupation, while preventing foreign interference in its affairs,” the Iran-backed armed group said in a statement, reported by AFP.
The Israeli military said Tuesday it had struck most of the strategic weapons stockpiles in Syria in the last 48 hours, and that missile ships struck two Syrian navy facilities. It has also sent troops into Syria from the demilitarized buffer zone adjoining the country.
Israel says it is trying to stop weapons from the ousted Assad regime falling into the hands of Islamic extremists.
With little more than a month to go until Joe Biden leaves office, the outgoing US president is making a final concerted push for a ceasefire in the 14-month-old Israel-Hamas war.
He is sending more senior aides to the Middle East in the next few weeks, a White House official said Tuesday, reported by Reuters.
Jon Finer, the US deputy national security advisor, told the news agency there was “increased energy” towards a ceasefire after this month’s deal between Israel and Hezbollah:
There is a momentum in that process; that momentum increased when we and our partners achieved a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Finer did not specify which officials were going to the region or what progress they have made. Israel, the Gaza militant group Hamas, and a number of third parties have been involved in negotiations.
Biden’s team is in touch with incoming president Donald Trump on regional issues, Finer said, including efforts to secure the release of the American journalist Austin Tice, kidnapped in Syria more than a decade ago.
Updated
HTS leader says world 'has nothing to fear' from new Syrian regime
The world “has nothing to fear” from the new Syrian regime, the leader of rebel group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) has told Sky News in what the network says are his first comments to a western media outlet since his organization toppled Bashar al-Assad on Sunday.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, attempted to reassure foreign nations in his remarks, Sky said, and he promised Syria “will be rebuilt”:
Their fears are unnecessary, God willing. The fear was from the presence of the [Assad] regime. The country is moving towards development and reconstruction. It’s going towards stability.
People are exhausted from war. So the country isn’t ready for another one and it’s not going to get into another one.
The source of our fears was from the Iranian militias, Hezbollah and the regime which committed the massacres we are seeing today. So their removal is the solution for Syria. The current situation won’t allow for a return to panic.
Updated
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who appeared in court in Tel Aviv on Tuesday facing corruption charges, has found time to post to X a short video threatening Syria’s new leaders if they engage Iran.
אם המשטר החדש בסוריה יאפשר לאיראן לחזור להתבסס, או יאפשר העברת נשק לחיזבאללה - נגיב בעוצמה ונגבה ממנו מחיר כבד pic.twitter.com/VUFf5xUQ3i
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) December 10, 2024
“If the new regime in Syria allows Iran to re-establish itself, or allows the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah, we will respond strongly and exact a heavy price from it,” Netanyahu said, in a Google translation from the post’s original Hebrew.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister has been talking with NBC News, telling the network in an interview billed as exclusive that his country is providing sanctuary for Bashar al-Assad having transported him to Moscow on Sunday “in the most secure way possible”.
The admission from Sergei Ryabkov is the first time a Russian official has confirmed the former Syrian leader’s presence in the country, NBC said. Ryabkov said:
He is secured, and it shows that Russia acts as required in such an extraordinary situation.
I have no idea what is going on with him right now. [It] would be very wrong for me to elaborate on what happened and how it was resolved.
Ryabkov said Russia would continue to support Assad, and would refuse to hand him over to the international criminal court (ICC) to be tried for human rights abuses if asked.
“Russia is not a party to the convention that established the ICC,” Ryabkov said.
Updated
Israeli military says it has struck most of Syria's strategic weapons stockpiles
The Israeli military said it had struck most of the strategic weapons stockpiles in Syria in the last 48 hours, and that Israeli naval missile ships had struck two Syrian navy facilities. Israel has been striking several areas across Syria, claiming it is trying to stop weapons from the ousted Assad regime falling into the hands of Islamic extremists.
The UK-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Israel has carried out more than 300 airstrikes across the country since Bashar al-Assad was overthrown on Sunday.
Updated
Geneva Abdul is a reporter and feature writer for the Guardian
The UK government on Tuesday defended its decision to carve-out components of F-35 fighter jets from its suspension of some export licenses to Israel, despite a previous admission of a “clear risk“ that the components might be used to commit or facilitate a violation of international humanitarian law (IHL).
On Tuesday, UK arms exports to Israel came under scrutiny by the business and trade select committee, after a September decision by the Labour government to suspend 30 of 350 existing arms licenses excluding all UK components for the F-35 fighter jet programme.
“Nobody can fail to be moved by the horrific pictures we see on our television screens,” defence minister, Lord Coaker, told the committee.
“The programme that the F-35 is part of which delivers peace and security in many parts of the world and defends our freedom and we have to make those judgements and they’re tough judgements to make.”
The government made its September decision based on evidence concerning the treatment of Palestinian prisoners and restrictions on the supply of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
However, it hasn’t reached a definitive conclusion on allegations regarding Israel’s conduct of hostilities in the ongoing conflict that has killed more than 44,000 people in Gaza and destroyed much of the territory’s infrastructure.
According to court documents, in the government’s previous assessment of Israel’s record of compliance with IHL, it was unable to reach a decision in 411 of 413 incidents considered, which campaigners have called “unprecedented”.
“We have to have concrete evidence that IHL is being violated and it is a reality that deaths and destruction do not automatically equate to IHL violation,” said the foreign office’s director for defence and international security, Stephen Lillie.
Ministers said it was possible for F-35 components contributed by the UK - such as ejector seats and batteries - to be tracked by the US, where they are sent. The committee also questioned whether information from reconnaissance flights over Gaza in recent months is used to assess IHL violations.
Coaker said the purpose of the RAF flights was to look for hostages and see if they could be found. He added: “We’re not ignoring it, but we’re not using it for that purpose.”
The government said it is currently undergoing its ninth legal assessment by the UK foreign office of whether Israel is in breach of IHL. Licenses for arms exports to Israel are due to be debated in Parliament on Monday.
The Lebanese army has said it had fired warning shots after gunmen crossed the border from Syria, approached an army border post and fired shots in the air.
The army said the warning shots forced the gunmen to return to Syria, Reuters reports. We will give you more on this developing story as we get it.
There are legitimate concerns about the risks of sectarian violence in Syria and a resurgence of extremism in the country, the EU’s new foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said.
“It is very, very early to tell whether this goes to the right direction,” the former Estonian prime minister said, adding that “the first signals are good, but we are not rushing into any kind of arrangements yet, if we don’t have certainty”.
EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the rapidly developing situation in Syria when they meet in Brussels on 16 December.
Kallas said the fall of the brutal Assad regime, which was backed militarily by Iran and Russia, represented a blow for Moscow and Tehran.
“For Putin and the Iranian regime, the fall of Assad is a huge blow for both,” she said.
Syria’s interim prime minister, Mohammed al-Bashir, who has been running the Idlib province, says he’s been meeting with members of the transitional government. In an interview with Al Jazeera, he said:
We invited members from the old government and some directors from the administration in Idlib and its surrounding areas in order to facilitate all the necessary works for the next two months until we have a constitutional system to be able to serve the Syrian people.
Today, we had other meetings to restart the institutions to be able to serve our people in Syria.
Al-Bashir served as the head of the rebel administration’s self-styled “Salvation government” since January and previously held the role of its “development minister”.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis targeted three supply ships and two American destroyers accompanying them in the Gulf of Aden, a military spokesperson for the Houthis has said.
The Houthis have repeatedly targeted commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November 2023, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians affected by Israel’s war on Gaza, which, according to the health ministry, has seen at least 44,758 Palestinian people killed by Israeli forces since last October.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the newswires:
US says it will recognise Syrian government that renounces terrorism and protects minority rights
Outgoing US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has called for an “inclusive” political process in Syria, saying the US would eventually recognise a new government if it renounces terrorism, destroys chemical weapons stocks and protects the rights of minorities and women.
“The Syrian people will decide the future of Syria. All nations should pledge to support an inclusive and transparent process and refrain from external interference,” Blinken said in a statement.
“The United States will recognize and fully support a future Syria government that results from this process,” Blinken said.
Blinken said that the future government of Syria should be “credible, inclusive and non-sectarian” after Islamist rebels toppled strongman Bashar al-Assad, a member of the Alawite minority who led a secular dictatorship.
He said the new government must “uphold clear commitments to fully respect the rights of minorities” and allow the flow of humanitarian assistance (the rebels earlier named Syria’s new interim prime minister as Mohammed al-Bashir).
He also said the US wants the next government to “prevent Syria from being used as a base for terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbours, and ensure that any chemical or biological weapons stockpiles are secured and safely destroyed”.
US President Joe Biden has said American forces will remain in northeast Syria, where they support the Kurdish-led Syrian Defence Forces against Isil. About 900 US troops are currently in the northeast of the country.
In the course of the brutal Syrian civil war, the US had repeatedly said that Assad lost credibility but stopped short of agitating for his downfall as it also viewed Islamist rebels with suspicion.
Updated
UN may remove Syrian rebel group HTS from terror list if conditions met
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor
The UN would consider taking the Syrian rebel group that toppled the regime of Bashar al-Assad off its designated terrorist list if it passes the key test of forming a truly inclusive transitional government, according to a senior official at the world body.
Geir Pedersen, UN special envoy for Syria, held out the prospect of removing Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from the organisation’s list of proscribed terrorist groups. But he said the group could not seek to govern Syria in the way that it had governed Idlib, the northern province where it was based and from where it led the military breakout that resulted in the sudden collapse of the Assad regime.
At a briefing in Geneva, Pedersen also said Syria remained at a crossroads and that the situation was extremely fluid.
Addressing the issue of the future terrorist status of HTS, he said it was undeniable that UN resolution 2254 designated the precursor to HTS – the al-Nusra Front – as a terrorist organisation. “It is a complicating factor for all of us”, he said.
“We have to be honest and look at the facts. It has been nine years since that resolution was adopted and the reality so far is that HTS and other armed groups have been sending good messages to the Syrian people of unity and inclusiveness. In Hama and Aleppo there have been reassuring things on the ground.”
You can read the full story here:
IDF troops are 'operating beyond the demilitarised buffer zone in the Golan Heights'
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said its troops are operating beyond the demilitarised buffer zone in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a rocky plateau about 60km (40 miles) south-west of Damascus that Israel unilaterally annexed it in 1981.
As a reminder, the buffer zone between Syria and the Golan Heights was demilitarised in 1974 in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur war, which started when Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel. UN peacekeepers have patrolled the demilitarised buffer zone since 1974.
Israeli military spokesperson Lt Col Nadav Shoshani said on Tuesday that Israeli troops were in the buffer zone and “a few additional points” in the vicinity, the first apparent official Israeli acknowledgement that they had moved beyond it.
Shoshani was quoted by Reuters as saying:
We are not involved in what’s happening in Syria internally, we are not a side in this conflict and we do not have any interest other than protecting our borders and the security of our citizens.
The IDF has denied, however, that its forces were “advancing on Damascus”, as was reported by some media outlets earlier.
Updated
Summary of the day so far...
The rebel leader who helped bring down Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Mohammed al-Bashir, has been appointed as Syria’s interim prime minister. He used a televised address to say he will stay in the post until 1 March 2025 to lead the transition government.
Israeli forces destroyed the Syrian military fleet on Monday night, defence minister Israel Katz said earlier today. He said Israeli forces were establishing themselves in the buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and said he had ordered a “sterile defensive zone” to be created in southern Syria. Katz claimed this was to prevent any terrorist threat to Israel.
Israel denied that its forces had penetrated Syrian territory beyond the buffer zone with the Golan Heights, after Syrian sources told Reuters that the incursion had extended to within 25 km (15 miles) of Damascus, the Syrian capital.
The UN’s special envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, cautioned Israel that its airstrikes and ground invasion into Syrian territory need to stop, and said its actions are in violation of the 1974 agreement between Israel and Syria.
Several Middle eastern countries – including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt - in accusing Israel of exploiting the situation in Syria.
The rebel leader now running much of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, has offered rewards for senior army and intelligence officers involved in war crimes, as the Assad regime’s fall brought hopes of justice for the many atrocities committed during the dictatorship. It comes after rebel fighters discovered 40 bodies in a hospital morgue that showed signs of torture.
Reuters has been told by two sources that Syria’s rebel command has ordered its fighters to withdraw from cities and ordered the deployment of police units and internal security forces affiliated with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant faction in the rebel alliance which toppled the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Benjamin Netanyahu has begun giving evidence in a court in Tel Aviv in his long-running corruption trial, becoming the first sitting Israeli prime minister to take the stand as a criminal defendant.
Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip reportedly killed at least 34 Palestinian people overnight and on Tuesday.
Some European countries – including Germany, the UK and Austria – have put asylum applications from Syrians on hold until further notice.
Britain, France and Germany have urged Iran to “immediately halt its nuclear escalation” after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported Tehran had sharply stepped up uranium enrichment activity.
Updated
Mohammed al-Bashir: Who is Syria's new interim prime minister?
Members of the Syrian government under ousted President Bashar Assad will gradually transfer power to a new transitional cabinet headed by Mohammed al-Bashir (see post at 13.16).
The outgoing government met with al-Bashir for the first time since Assad fled Damascus over the weekend. But who exactly is the rebel leader who helped topple Assad’s regime?
Bashir was born in 1983 in Jabal al-Zawiya in Idlib province, an area mostly run in recent years by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions with less influence.
He studied electrical and electronic engineering at Aleppo university, and Islamic and civil law at Idlib university, according to his biography, and once worked for Syria’s state gas company.
He had served as the head of the rebel administration’s self-styled “Salvation Government” since January, and previously held the role of its “development minister”.
The “Salvation government”, with its own ministries, departments, judicial and security authorities, was set up in Idlib in 2017 to assist people in the rebel-held area cut off from government services.
It has since begun rolling out assistance in Aleppo, the first major city to fall from government hands after the rebels began a lightning November 27 offensive, capturing swathes of territory and taking the capital on Sunday, toppling Assad.
Al-Bashir, an engineering graduate in his early 40s, will now temporarily lead the national government in very uncertain times.
In London, the UK government has issued a readout of a meeting in Nicosia between UK prime minister Keir Starmer and president of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides.
In it, it said the pair “discussed the importance of transforming the hope offered by the end of Assad’s brutal regime into a long term, political solution for peace” in Syria.
Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported that six people have been killed by Israeli strikes on Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent over the news wires from across the region.
According to UNHCR figures, the following countries have taken in the most refugees from Syria during the regime of the deposed Bashar al-Assad:
Turkey – 3.1 million
Lebanon – 774,000
Germany – 717,000
Jordan – 628,000
Iraq – 286,000
Egypt – 156,500
Austria – 98,000
Sweden – 87,000
Netherlands – 65,500
Greece – 51,000
Our video team have put together this report of Benjamin Netanyahu’s appearance in court in Tel Aviv today.
Israel claims it destroyed Syria's military fleet, says it will set up 'sterile defensive zone' in Syria
Israeli forces destroyed the Syrian military fleet in an operation on Monday night as part of a broad campaign to eliminate strategic threats to Israel, defence minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday, during a visit to a naval base in Haifa.
“The IDF (military) has been operating in Syria in recent days to strike and destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the State of Israel. The navy operated last night to destroy the Syrian fleet with great success,” Katz said.
Reuters reports that in a statement he said Israeli forces were establishing themselves in the buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and said he had ordered a “sterile defensive zone” to be created in southern Syria, without a permanent Israeli presence, to prevent any terrorist threat to Israel.
Updated
Syrian rebel command orders fighters to withdraw from cities – report
Reuters has been told by two sources that Syria’s rebel command has ordered its fighters to withdraw from cities and ordered the deployment of police units and internal security forces affiliated with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant faction in the rebel alliance which toppled the regime of Bashar al-Assad. We have not been able to verify this information.
Here are some lines about the HTS from our explainer looking at who holds power in Syria now the Assad regime has fallen:
The group has its origins in al-Qaida and Islamic State, and was formally founded in 2017 after breaking with both.
HTS has since governed 2 million people in Idlib province, and evolved a more pragmatic ideology, many analysts say.
Concerns remain about its extremist roots and the presence of veteran jihadist fighters among its forces.
Updated
Saudi Arabia has condemned Israel’s incursion into a buffer zone in Syria and a wave of Israeli airstrikes launched after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad. Turkey issued a similar statement earlier (see post at 12.22 for more details)
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said:
The assaults carried out by the Israeli occupation government, including the seizure of the buffer zone in the Golan Heights, and the targeting of Syrian territory confirm Israel’s continued violation of the principles of international law and its determination to sabotage Syria’s chances of restoring its security, stability and territorial integrity.
Saudi Arabia has been in talks with the US in recent years over normalizing relations with Israel in exchange for an American defence pact, American assistance in establishing a civilian nuclear program and a pathway to the establishment of a Palestinian state. But the kingdom has also repeatedly condemned Israel’s war on Gaza.
Updated
Britain, France and Germany urge Iran to 'halt its nuclear escalation'
Britain, France and Germany have urged Iran to “immediately halt its nuclear escalation” after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported Tehran had sharply stepped up uranium enrichment activity.
“We, the governments of France, Germany and the United Kingdom, condemn Iran’s latest steps ... to expand its nuclear programme,” the three countries said in a joint statement, adding that they “strongly urge Iran to reverse these steps, and to immediately halt its nuclear escalation”.
Iran has revamped an enrichment plant at Fordo, south of Tehran, according to an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report seen by the Agence France-Presse news agency.
The changes would “significantly increase the rate of production of uranium enriched up to 60 percent”, the IAEA said - on its way to the 90% needed to make a nuclear weapon.
Iran admits it has been withdrawing its cooperation from the IAEA inspectorate since the 2018 decision by Donald Trump to pull the US out of the agreement. Iran had signed up to the original deal in 2015 monitoring its nuclear programme in return for the west lifting economic sanctions.
Updated
Spain will keep processing asylum requests from Syrian nationals as usual, the country’s foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, has said.
Some European countries, including Germany and France, have suspended
the processing of applications by Syrians, despite uncertainty about what lies ahead for Syria. Austria signalled yesterday it would soon deport refugees back to Syria.
In London, a Home Office spokesperson said it had “temporarily paused decisions on Syrian asylum claims whilst we assess the current situation”.
Albares said there was no need to change Spain’s approach for now since the number of applications received by Spain was smaller, comparatively (in the first 11 months of the year, 1,393 Syrians sought asylum in Spain). The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has told Al Jazeera that 131,574 Syrians across Europe are waiting for a response on their asylum applications.
Updated
Mohammed al-Bashir appointed interim prime minister of Syria – reports
The rebel leader who helped bring down Bashar al-Assad’s regime has been appointed as Syria’s interim prime minister, according to reports, which we have not yet been able to independently verify. Mohammed al-Bashir used a televised address to say he will stay in the post until 1 March 2025 to lead the transition government.
Al-Bashir headed the rebel-led Salvation government – which had already been governing parts of northwestern Syria and Idlib – before the lightning offensive over the last two weeks. The Salvation government is linked to Islamist group Hayat Tahrir-al Shams, which led the overthrow of al-Assad’s regime in Syria after 13 years of civil war.
Updated
As we have been reporting, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been giving evidence in a court in Tel Aviv in his long-running corruption trial.
Netanyahu says he works 17 to 18 hours a day and that he is engulfed in meetings, especially during the past year, with Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.
The Israeli leader has denied charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases.
Updated
Israel denies it has advanced into Syria beyond a buffer zone with occupied Golan Heights
On Sunday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli troops had temporarily seized control of a demilitarized buffer zone in the occupied Golan Heights, a rocky plateau about 60km (40 miles) south-west of Damascus. Israel advanced into the Golan Heights gradually in the years following the 1948 war Arab-Israeli war, and occupied it entirely in the 1967 war.
As the Assad regime fell over the weekend, Netanyahu said a 50-year-old “separation of forces agreement” between Syria and Israel had collapsed as “the Syrian army abandoned its positions” because of the rebel takeover of the country. “We will not allow any hostile force to establish itself on our border,” he said.
Reuters reported earlier today that an Israeli military incursion into southern Syria had reached about 25 km (16 miles) southwest of the capital. Three security sources said on Tuesday the Israelis had advanced beyond the demilitarised zone. One Syrian source said they had reached the town of Qatana, several km (miles) to the east of the zone and just a short drive from Damascus airport.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has denied reports that Israeli tanks are advancing towards Damascus.
As we mentioned in an earlier post, Turkey’s foreign ministry has strongly condemned the Israeli military’s incursion into the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights.
In a statement, the ministry said:
We strongly condemn Israel’s violation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement by entering the Israeli-Syria zone and its continuing advance in to Syrian territory.
In this sensitive period, when the possibility of achieving the peace and stability that the Syrian people have been longing for for many years, Israel is once again displaying its occupying mentality.
We resolutely reiterate our support for Syria’s sovereignty, political unity and territorial integrity.
Updated
There have been widespread reports of Israeli airstrikes on Syrian territory since the dramatic fall of the Assad regime. Israel is claiming that it is acting to prevent weapons falling “into the hands of extremists”.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said yesterday that “Israeli warplanes” had struck “the Barzeh scientific research centre” and naval vessels/army warehouses in and around the Latakia military port.
The US was among the western countries that had struck the research facility in Barzeh in 2018, saying then that it was related to Syria’s “chemical weapons infrastructure”.
A journalist from the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency is now reporting that three blocks of buildings that made up the research centre have been completely destroyed. Here is some of the AFP report:
Hundreds of documents were scattered on the ground, some on fire, as a strong smell of explosives lingered in the air.
An employee who worked at the centre for 25 years and came to inspect the damage said that “the buildings destroyed were not military”.
“The military centres were destroyed in the past, and the current research was civilian,” he added, requesting anonymity.
A “second scientific research centre”, based in Jamraya near Damascus, was also hit by strikes Monday night and “totally destroyed”, he said.
Updated
Netanyahu says in court the charges against him are 'an ocean of absurdness'
In his court appearance this morning, Israel’s prime minister has described the charges against him as “an ocean of absurdness”.
Speaking in Tel Aviv, Benjamin Netanyahu said “I have waited eight years for this moment, to say the truth as I remember it, which is important for justice. But I am also a prime minister. I am leading the country through a seven-front war. And I think the two can be done in parallel.”
Netanyahu has been given dispensation by the court to take urgent breaks and receive notes during proceedings, as he is the sitting prime minister and running a war.
He claimed he did not care about favourable media coverage of him, arguing “the reality is the exact opposite. I am not focused on my future, but on the future of the state of Israel.
Netanyahu claimed his family had faced “attacks, slander and lies on a scale that few public figures have likely experienced … it is doubtful there are any other similar cases in the world.”
Netanyahu is charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases. The 75-year-old is accused of accepting tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of cigars and champagne from a billionaire Hollywood producer in exchange for assisting him with personal and business interests.
In response to questions about those claims, Netanyahu said “It is a complete lie. From time to time I indulge in a cigar ... [but] I hate champagne.”
He said the charges were not just absurd, but a disgrace. The trial continues.
Israeli strikes across Gaza Strip kill at least 34 Palestinians
Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 34 Palestinians overnight and on Tuesday, Reuters reports medics in the territory have said.
An Israeli airstrike killed at least 25 people in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces have operated since October, and injured dozens of others in a multi-floored building.
The Palestinian civil emergency service said most of those killed were from the same family, including women and children.
Another airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least seven people, while at least two people were killed in Rafah in the south.
In a statement, Israel’s military said it has “eliminated ten terrorists” who took part in an attack on Monday which led to the deaths of three Israeli soldiers in northern Gaza.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that what it describes as “a wide-scale arrest campaign” has taken place in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since last night, with at least 40 Palestinians arrested by Israeli security forces.
Wafa reports that the number of arrests made by Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank since the 7 October 2023 attack now exceeds 12,000.
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has spoken to Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, and told the alliance’s leader that Turkey “will continue to do its utmost to help build a unified and terrorism-free Syria.”
In a statement about the call from Erdoğan’s office, it claimed Turkey has always “supported the preservation of Syria’s territorial integrity and stability since the very first day of the civil war.”
Turkey has had a long-running conflict with Kurdish separatists based in the north of Syria who Turkey considers to be terrorists.
Qatar: 'unacceptable' that Israel seeks to exploit situation in Syria
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson has said it is “unacceptable” that Israel is seeking to take advantage of the situation in Syria, and added that Israel has violated Syria’s sovereignty.
Saying that there should be no foreign interference in Syria, the spokesperson added that all channels of communication are open with Qatar for all parties in Syria for dialogue about the future, and that the region is witnessing historic days.
There is, the spokesperson said, a ray of hope for the Syrian people.
Reuters reports that the foreign ministry of Turkey has also strongly condemned Israel’s ground invasion into Syrian territory, which it launched from the Golan Heights which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Israel’s military has denied that its troops have moved inside Syria beyond the buffer zone next to the Golan Heights. The UN’s special envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, has said Israel is in breach of the Israel-Syria disengagement agreement from 1974.
Here are some of the latest images sent over the news wires from Syria.
The UN has announced that Najat Rushdie, the deputy special envoy for Syria, is convening a humanitarian task force to co-ordinate responses to the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.
Geir Pedersen, the UN special envoy to Syria, has said that while the situation in the country remains “fluid” it may be premature for refugees to be repatriated.
Speaking at a media briefing in Geneva, he said that many Syrians hope to go home, but the situation in the country remains challenging.
Separately a UN spokesperson said that humanitarian needs in Syria are growing, and that a large-scale response is needed.
Several European states, including Austria, Greece, the UK and Croatia have already announced that they have stopped processing asylum applications from Syrian refugees.
UN special envoy to Syria tells Israel it must stop airstrikes and ground invasion of Syria
The UN’s special envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, has cautioned Israel that its airstrikes and ground invasion into Syrian territory need to stop, and said its actions are in violation of the 1974 agreement between Israel and Syria.
Speaking at a media briefing in Geneva, the Norwegian said:
I am not in contact with the Israelis. But of course, the United Nations in New York, they are. And you know, the peacekeepers on the Golan Heights are, of course, in daily contact with with Israelis. And the message from New York is the same. What we are seeing is a violation of the disengagement agreement from 1974, so we will obviously, with our colleagues in New York, follow this extremely closely in the hours and days ahead.
Israel has claimed it is taking “limited and temporary measures” to ensure its security. Troops have entered Syria from the area of the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and unilaterally annexed in 1981.
On Tuesday Israel denied reports that its troops had come within 25km of Damascus. Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, said “the reports circulating in the media about the alleged advancement of Israeli tanks towards Damascus are false.”
He claimed Israeli troops are stationed within a buffer zone between the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights and Syria. Israel’s military had previously said troops would enter the buffer zone “and several other places necessary for its defence.”
Overnight Israel carried out a series of airstrikes on the Syrian capital. Associated Press reports that the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israel has carried out more than 300 airstrikes across the country since Bashar al-Assad was overthrown.
Israeli media has reported that the IDF is “systematically destroying” what is left of Assad’s military.
Associated Press reports that in a statement on Tuesday Saudi Arabia condemned Israel’s actions, saying:
The assaults carried out by the Israeli occupation government, including the seizure of the buffer zone in the Golan Heights, and the targeting of Syrian territory confirm Israel’s continued violation of the principles of international law and its determination to sabotage Syria’s chances of restoring its security, stability and territorial integrity.
A UN spokesperson in Geneva has told the media that the international body has seen an increase in press freedom in Syria in the last few days, and urged for journalists to be protected.
Speaking at a briefing, the spokesperson said:
We want to note that we have observed an increase in media freedom in many areas of Syria in recent days. We acknowledge this development, and we urge all parties to respect media freedom and workers and journalists, emphasising that they are civilians who must be protected.
Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in court to give evidence in his corruption trial
Peter Beaumont reports for the Guardian from Jerusalem
Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived in court in Tel Aviv to give evidence in his long-running corruption trial, becoming the first sitting Israeli prime minister to take the stand as a criminal defendant.
The rightwing populist politician, who is also wanted under an international warrant issued by the ICC for alleged war crimes in Gaza, has long tried to avoid this day, despite insisting on Monday night in a taped video address that he welcomed the opportunity to give evidence.
His appearance in a small, stuffy and crowded courtroom follows last-minute efforts by his political allies in the Knesset to put off the court date, citing clashes over voting, as well as the invocation of the “security situation” in Israel.
Wearing a blue suit and white shirt, with a flag of Israel on one lapel and the yellow ribbon symbol of Israel’s hostages in Gaza on the other, Netanyahu appeared serious and somewhat haggard, shaking hands with the ministers and MPs who had come to support him as he arrived.
In his opening speech, his defence attorney, Amit Hadad, criticised the indictment against his client, saying: “The Israeli police did not investigate a crime, but a person.”
Netanyahu is charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases. The 75-year-old denies wrongdoing, saying the charges are a witch-hunt orchestrated by a hostile media and a biased legal system out to topple his lengthy rule.
Read more of Peter Beaumont’s report here: Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in court to give evidence in his corruption trial
Austria’s chancellor Karl Nehammer has posted to social media to say that his country would assist those who wanted to return to Syria, saying “The fall of the Assad regime is changing the overall situation in Syria. The country now needs its citizens. We will support everyone who wants to return to their homeland.”
Yesterday Austria was one of the first countries in Europe to say it was suspending the processing of asylum claims from Syrians.
In the UK, a Home Office minister has said the country has “suspended” asylum application processing for Syrians until “until we can see what emerges from the current situation.”
Speaking to the media this morning, PA Media reports Angela Eagle said:
We have suspended our consideration of the current asylum claims – about 6,500 – until we can see what emerges from the current situation.
If people wish to go home we’d certainly like to facilitate that, but I think it’s too early to say what will emerge from the events that have happened in the last few days.
One of the main reasons why people were fleeing and claiming asylum was to get away from the Assad regime. Because things are so fluid we need to wait a little bit before we try to recommence asylum decisions in a territory where things are changing so rapidly.
Eagle also said that security services were on alert for British citizens returning from Syria who may have been part of Islamist militant groups there. She said:
Rest assured that the intelligence services are keeping a very close eye on what’s going on and we’re in contact with all of our allies to see how this pans out.
Clearly any potential return of jihadists is a matter of great concern, which is why we’ll be keeping a very very close eye on how this situation develops in the coming days and weeks.
The UK Home Office is the equivalent of an interior ministry.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that the death toll from an Israeli strike overnight on Beit Hanoun in the north of the Gaza Strip has risen to at least 25.
It reports “more than 25 citizens, including children and women, were killed and dozens were injured, most of them seriously” in the strike.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived in court in Tel Aviv for today’s hearing in his trial on corruption charges.
Netanyahu is the first sitting prime minister of Israel to face a criminal trial. Israel’s longest-serving leader is alleged to have accepted hundreds of thousands of pounds in luxury gifts from billionaire friends and traded valuable favours with Israeli media and telecoms moguls for favourable news coverage. He faces charges of bribery, fraud and breach of public trust in three separate cases.
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and claimed he is the victim of a politically motivated witch-hunt. He has pleaded not guilty.
William Christou reports for the Guardian from Syria
Israel carried out overnight strikes in Damascus, shaking windows across the capital city as it targeted any assets or advanced weaponry that could be seized by rebels after they toppled the Assad regime. An Israeli drone’s buzz could be heard in Damascus into the late hours of the night preceding the airstrikes.
Earlier in the day, residents in Kanaker, south of Damascus, said they heard Israeli strikes on the outskirts of the village, as Israeli tanks reached 25km south-west of Damascus. “They are trying to create a belt of fire [a buffer zone] between the two countries,” one resident said. A Guardian correspondent saw two black smoke plumes rising from beyond Ommayad Square in Damascus, a result of apparent Israeli strikes, late on Monday afternoon.
Israeli media reported officials saying they did not plan to operate beyond the borders of the buffer zone that existed between Syria and Israel – though tanks had already crossed beyond it.
In the capital city, residents were waiting for life to return back to normal. Internet service had gone out in many parts of Damascus, as telecom operators ran out of diesel. Data was in short supply as the country’s banking system was still frozen, paralysing the entire economy.
The fate of the country’s currency, which still bore the emblem and two stars of the Assad regime, was unknown. In restaurants and stores, people hadn’t agreed on a stable exchange rate.
Despite the uncertainty of the country’s fate, people were eager to move forward. Bassel, who runs a clothing shop in the old market of Damascus, said he was going to re-open his store today. “We will return, re-open and everything will hopefully be better,” he said. A state of cautious calm prevailed over the city, with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters deployed throughout, particularly in front of public institutions.
Outside Damascus, life had already come roaring back. Residents of Douma, a suburb of Damascus made infamous after Assad’s forces carried out chemical attacks on it in 2013 and 2018, hung banners welcoming residents returning from north Syria after years of displacement. Unlike in the capital city, storefronts were open and people lined up outside of shawarma restaurants, doling out sandwiches to rejoicing families in the destroyed cityscape.
Updated
Israel denies reports that its tanks have reached Qatana in Syria, close to Damascus
Israel has denied reports that its tanks have reached Qatana, which is 10km (six miles) into Syrian territory, east of the demilitarised zone separating the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria, and on the approach to Damascus.
Reuters, citing Syrian security sources, said Israeli troops had reached Qatana, and that Israel’s military had declined to comment. Sky News in the UK reports that the IDF had denied the claims to it. Qatana is about 25 km (16 miles) south-west of Syria’s capital.
On Monday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel for almost 60 years, will remain part of Israel “for eternity”. The strategically valuable territory provides a vantage point over Israel, Lebanon and Syria.
Netanyahu said control of the high ground “ensures our security and sovereignty”, after he had ordered troops to move into a UN-patrolled buffer zone separating Israeli-controlled territory from Syria.
Regional security sources and officers within the fallen Syrian army told Reuters heavy Israeli airstrikes continued against military installations and airbases 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.
The first western journalist to gain access to Sednaya prison was the Guardian’s William Christou, and he spoke to Archie Bland for this morning’s First Edition newsletter. He told Bland:
I didn’t know exactly what to expect. But it looked medieval. There were cages, and I saw a prosthetic leg lying on the floor, tiny cramped cells, holes knocked into the walls where prisoners had been crammed, and dirty blankets.
It was really a surreal place to be in. It looked like it was designed to make you feel like you didn’t exist: all the walls were painted white, everything looked the same.
We tried to get out for an hour. We got stuck going in circles, because everything looked the same. So I can only imagine, if you’re there for decades, that your grip on reality must be gone.
You can read more of Christou’s conversation with Bland here: Tuesday briefing – What happened when the doors of Syria’s most notorious prison were finally opened
A small demonstration is being held in Tel Aviv outside the court where later today Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to give testimony in his criminal corruption trial.
Jeremy Sharon reports for the Times of Israel:
Protesters accuse Netanyahu of refusing to reach a hostage deal for political purposes, and of continuing the war to advance the cause of his ultranationalist political allies who wish to build Jewish settlements in Gaza.
Inside the courthouse, a plethora of media outlets, including foreign press, have set up broadcast stations ahead of the unprecedented spectacle of a sitting prime minister taking the witness stand in his own criminal trial.
There is also a demonstration in support of Netanyahu.
Far-right interior security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has also arrived at the court.
In a statement, Israel’s military has shared the findings of an investigation into why a drone believed to have been launched from Yemen was able to make it to Yavne on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, where it struck a building.
It said the drone “was initially identified as a suspicious aerial target” but it was “adjacent to additional aircrafts that were not classified as hostile.”
The statement continued:
A helicopter and defence systems were prepared to intercept the aircraft. The aircraft was not intercepted due to the possibility that it was a civilian aircraft as well as due to the lack of continuous surveillance. Moreover, it was determined that the failure to activate sirens was an error that occurred due to the fact that the aircraft was not classified as hostile.
Reunited families celebrate as Syrian rebels return home
William Christou is reporting for the Guardian from eastern Ghouta, Syria.
This time, the doors of the Syrian state broadcaster were held open for Mohammed Abu al-Zaid.
The rebel commander strode into the building, camo-clad and with a pistol on his hip, and greeted the channel’s staff. The warm welcome was a far cry from his entrance on Sunday morning, when he stormed the building and announced live on air that Bashar al-Assad’s regime had officially fallen.
“I hadn’t planned it; I decided in the moments before that I would do it,” Zaid, a commander of the Southern Operations Room, said on Monday, sitting in the anchor seat of the state broadcaster’s studio.
Behind him was the three-starred flag of the Syrian opposition, which he had put in place of the old Assad government flag.
He recounted the tale to his uncle, Abu Bilal, a rebel fighter who had returned to Damascus from the northern front just a few hours before.
“You know, we didn’t have that much time to watch the news, we’ve been a bit busy,” Bilal said as he watched a video of his nephew announcing the fall of the 54-year long Assad regime on his phone.
Bilal was one of thousands of fighters and displaced people who returned to Damascus and its countryside on Monday, having finished fighting on the frontlines against the Syrian army in Homs, central Syria, two days earlier.
For years, the nearly 4.5 million people – many of them displaced – living in northwest Syria had been unable to see their family in government-held territory.
Fighters came half a dozen at a time, loaded in the back of lorries. The fighters’ journey south were accompanied by cars racing alongside them, honking and waving the Syrian revolutionary flag.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that seven Palestinians have been killed and “a number of wounded” after an Israeli strike on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Reuters has a quick snap that Israel’s ground invasion into Syria has now reached about 25km (15 miles) south-west of Damascus.
Reporting for Al Jazeera from Damascus, Resul Serdar Atas writes that “the repeated Israeli attacks in and around Damascus and other regions create a huge challenge for the opposition in Syria to preserve the state apparatus and secure a smooth transition.”
Yesterday, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, claimed in a letter to the international body that Israel’s actions were “limited and temporary measures” and that “Israel is not intervening in the ongoing conflict between Syrian armed groups.”
Iran has described Israel’s invasion into Syrian territory, launched from the Golan Heights which Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and unilaterally annexed in 1981, as a “violation”.
White Helmets end search operations at Sednaya prison
The Syrian Civil Defense has ended its search for possible remaining detainees at the infamous Sednaya prison, adding that it had not uncovered any “evidence of undiscovered secret cells or basements”.
In a statement, the group also known as the White Helmets said:
Specialized teams from The White Helmets conducted a thorough search of all sections, facilities, basements, courtyards, and surrounding areas of the prison. These operations were carried out with the assistance of individuals familiar with the prison and its layout. However, no evidence of undiscovered secret cells or basements was found.
The operation involved five teams, including two K9 (trained police dog) units. The teams inspected all entrances, exits, ventilation shafts, sewage systems, water pipes, electrical wiring, and surveillance camera cables. Despite these extensive efforts, no hidden or sealed areas were identified.
The group said it “shared the profound disappointment of the families of the thousands who remain missing and whose fates remain unknown”, while urging social media users to be mindful of the widespread misinformation and rumors circulating about prisons and detainees.
Raed al-Saleh – the director of Syria’s Civil Defence organisation, known as the White Helmets – earlier said on Monday that the prison was “hell” for those detained in it.
“[Sednaya] doesn’t give the impression that it is a prison. It is a human slaughterhouse where human beings are being slaughtered and tortured,” Saleh told Al Jazeera.
Syria’s new leader has two identities – but which one will take the country forward?
On Sunday morning, a bearded 42-year-old man wearing a plain green military uniform walked into the Umayyad mosque in Damascus and addressed a small crowd, the Syrian nation, the region and the world.
With the mosque’s glittering decorations providing a backdrop, Ahmed al-Sharaa described the fall of the house of Assad as “a victory for the Islamic nation” and called for reflection and prayer.
“I left this land over 20 years ago, and my heart longed for this moment,” he said. “Sit quietly my brothers and remember God almighty.”
For most of the last two decades, the de facto ruler of much of Syria has not used his real name at all. Ahmed al-Sharaa, who grew up in a progressive household in a prosperous neighbourhood of Damascus and studied medicine, entirely disappeared. In his place was Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, a nom de guerre formulated according to the convention of jihadi militants seeking new identities redolent of historic Muslim glory and offering the shield of anonymity.
So it was Jolani who fought US soldiers in Iraq alongside jihadi insurgents between 2003 and 2006, and was then incarcerated there for five years in detention camps. It was Jolani too who returned to Syria in 2011 to play important roles in the campaigns of both the Islamic State (IS) and then al-Qaida.
It was Jolani who took over the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and from 2017 imposed his rule on 2 million people in the north-western Syrian enclave of Idlib. Last month, it was Jolani who launched a rebel coalition dominated by HTS on its blistering 12-day campaign that ended in Damascus on Sunday.
The question now is which man will rule Syria: Jolani, who is designated as a terrorist by the US, UK and others and has a $10m price on his head, or Sharaa, who has gone out of his way over recent years to signal that his organisation will not attack the west?
Iran says Israeli incursion into Golan buffer zone is ‘violation’ of law
Iran has condemned Israel’s incursion into a UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights on the border with Syria as a “violation” of the law, AFP reports.
“This aggression is a flagrant violation of the United Nations charter,” foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said in a statement published Monday night.
Over the weekend, Benjamin Netanyahu ordered troops to move into the UN-patrolled buffer zone and attacked what it said were regime weapons depots with airstrikes, as the shock victory of Syrian rebels over Bashar al-Assad reshapes the region’s frontlines.
Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem, the Israeli prime minister said the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel for almost 60 years, will remain part of Israel “for eternity”, amid growing criticism of an Israeli takeover of a previously demilitarised buffer zone in Syrian-controlled territory.
Updated
Syrian rebel leader to publish list of Assad regime officials responsible for ‘torture’
Syria’s rebel leader has said he will publish a list of former senior officials “involved in torturing the Syrian people” and vowed to pursue “war criminals” and hold them accountable.
“We will offer rewards to anyone who provides information about senior army and security officers involved in war crimes,” rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, now using his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, said in a statement on Telegram.
The leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group began discussions with the ousted government on transferring power on Monday, a day after his opposition alliance dramatically unseated President Bashar al-Assad following decades of brutal rule. Prime minister Mohammed al-Jalali told al-Arabiya television he had agreed to hand over power to the rebel “salvation government”.
Rebel fighters said they had found about 40 bodies bearing signs of torture inside a hospital morgue near Damascus on Monday, stuffed into body bags with numbers and sometimes names written on them, AFP reported.
“We will not hesitate to hold accountable the criminals, murderers, security and army officers involved in torturing the Syrian people,” Sharaa said in the Tuesday statement, adding they “will pursue war criminals and ask for their hand over from the countries to which they fled”.
In other recent developments:
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said on Tuesday that Israel had “destroyed the most important military sites in Syria” with about 250 airstrikes since the fall of president Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The strikes had targeted airports and warehouses, aircraft squadrons, radars, military signal stations, and multiple weapons and ammunition depots over the past 48 hours, it said. Israel said its actions were “limited and temporary measures” to protect its citizens.
The UN security council appears united on the need to preserve Syria’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity, the US and Russia said after a closed emergency meeting. The 15-member council will work on a joint statement on Syria in the coming days, they said.
The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, has ended its search for possible remaining detainees at the infamous Sednaya prison, adding that it had not uncovered any “evidence of undiscovered secret cells or basements”.
Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel for almost 60 years, will remain part of Israel “for eternity”, amid growing criticism of an Israeli takeover of a previously demilitarised buffer zone in Syrian-controlled territory.
Diplomats from Qatar spoke with the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as regional states raced to open contact with the group that toppled Assad and position themselves favourably. The country will talk again on Tuesday with Mohamed al-Bashir, an HTS leader appointed to lead Syria’s transitional administration, Reuters reported.
The recovery of the American journalist Austin Tice held hostage in Syria was a “top priority” of the Biden administration, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told ABC’s Good Morning America.
Israel is now more optimistic about a possible hostage deal in Gaza, its foreign minister Gideon Saar said, amid reports that Hamas had asked for lists of all hostages still held by militant groups in the Palestinian territory.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin personally approved the decision to grant Bashar al-Assad asylum in Russia. Peskov said it was “premature” to discuss the future of Russia’s military presence inside Syria.
Updated
