Category: English

MANILA — The Kanlaon volcano in central Philippines erupted on Monday, spewing a column of ash and gas into the sky, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.

An explosive eruption occurred at the summit vent of the Kanlaon Volcano on Monday afternoon, the institute said in an alert-level bulletin.

“The eruption produced a voluminous plume that rapidly rose to 3,000 meters above the vent and drifted west-southwest,” it read.

The bulletin added that the activity means a “magmatic eruption has begun that may progress to further explosive eruptions.”

The institute raised the alert level to three on a scale of five.

It also advised villagers within a 6-km radius of the volcano’s summit to evacuate, saying that the public “must be prepared for additional evacuation if activity warrants.”

The Kanlaon Volcano, which straddles the provinces of Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental on the island of Negros, is one of the country’s most active volcanoes, which erupted in June.

XINHUA

TEHRAN — Media sources have reported the entry of Israeli occupation forces into the Quneitra region in southern Syria in violation of the Arab country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

With regard to Jabal el-Sheikh, the Israeli Army Radio confirmed the regime’s decision, giving a green light to its forces to occupy the mountainous terrain and establish a buffer zone there. “The Israeli army will have execution power in the buffer zone along the Syrian border.”

The Israeli army took control of Jabal al-Sheikh without any resistance in the past hour (late Sunday), said the Zionist newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth

Separately, the Zionist military issued a statement ordering residents of five Syrian towns in the area not to leave their homes until further notice.

The Israeli Army Radio also claimed, citing a source, that the establishment of a buffer zone is a temporary arrangement due to concerns about the threat of militants in the wake of theior takeover of the Arab country.

The Zionist regime, which had occupied Syria’s Golan Heights for decades, has now extended its seize over the territory in Syrian-controlled areas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered his forces to grab a buffer zone in the Golan Heights established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement with Syria, after a lightning advance by Syrian armed opposition groups.

We are closely monitoring developments in Syria and will take any necessary action to protect our (occupied) areas, Netanyahu said in a speech while visiting the area between Syria and occupied Palestine on Sunday.

These statements followed hours after militants took control of Damascus.

IRNA cited several news agencies and published images on Sunday, suggesting that the Israeli infiltration into Syria for the first time since 1974, with military vehicles and personnel entering the southern regions of the country.

The infiltration reported at the same time the regime’s cabinet agreed to the occupation of Syria’s Jabal el-Sheikh region and the establishment of a buffer zone in this area.

Some media reports indicated that the Zionists had penetrated some 14 kilometers deep into the Syrian territory.

Media sources also published images of the infiltration by the Israeli army into Quneitra.

IRNA

BEIRUT, Lebanon — At least 26 combattants were killed Sunday as Turkish-backed Syrian fighters launched an offensive on the northern Manbij area, days after seizing a Kurdish-held enclave.
The pro-Turkiye fighters had already retaken the Kurdish-held Tal Rifaat enclave last week, days after rebels swooped into government-held areas, snatching key cities before reaching Damascus on Sunday.

“Pro-Turkish factions… seized large districts of Manbij city in the eastern Aleppo countryside, after violent clashes with the Manbij Military Council,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.

The Council is affiliated with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that act as a de facto army for the Kurdish administration that controls swathes of Syria’s northeast.

“The clashes killed nine pro-Turkish fighters and at least 17 Manbij Military Council” combattants, said the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

AN-AFP

CAIRO — Rescue teams in Egypt’s Asyut province recovered the bodies of four people on Sunday after a minibus carrying 14 passengers plunged into a canal in the Dayrout district.

Search efforts are ongoing for the remaining missing passengers, while divers and water police are currently involved in the operation, state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported.

Egypt has a high rate of traffic accidents. According to the official statistics agency CAPMAS, road accidents in the country claimed 5,861 lives in 2023.

XINHUA

DAMASCUS — Israeli warplanes carried out multiple strikes on Sunday against the former Syrian government’s military and security sites in and around Damascus, as well as targets in the southwestern province of Quneitra, according to local reports and observers.

In the Syrian capital, air raids targeted the security compound district near former army headquarters, intelligence offices, and customs buildings, igniting fires and sending thick plumes of smoke into the air, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Earlier in the day, Israeli jets struck storage facilities once used by the now-defunct Fourth Division near a research center outside Damascus, as well as another old military site in Syria’s eastern mountain range bordering Lebanon.

The al-Mezzeh Military Airport in Damascus and the outskirts of Beitima village in western rural Damascus were also targeted, producing a series of loud explosions.

Additional strikes hit previously held military positions near Quneitra and empty observation posts in the Jabal al-Sheikh area, where Israeli ground forces reportedly advanced to secure those abandoned outposts.

The rapid succession of strikes highlights Israel’s efforts to consolidate control over key strategic points and preemptively neutralize any remaining military infrastructure linked to the former Syrian leadership, possibly preventing its use by the opposition factions currently in control.

These incidents come as Syrian opposition fighters seized Damascus earlier on Sunday, declaring the end of President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.

XINHUA

GAZA — At least 10 Palestinians were killed on Sunday in an Israeli drone attack on a gathering in central Gaza City, said the Palestinian civil defense in the Gaza Strip.

Civil defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said in a press statement that the victims include children and women.

The Israeli army has not commented on this incident yet.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Sunday that its troops recently completed a targeted operation to dismantle underground militant infrastructure in the Jabalia area in the northern Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said in a press statement that its members destroyed an Israeli armored personnel carrier and a tank on Saturday in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.

The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has risen to 44,708, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Sunday.

XINHUA

TEHRAN — Bashar al-Assad, the president of the fallen government in Syria, has arrived in the Russian capital Moscow.

Russia’s TASS news agency, citing a Kremlin official, said on Sunday that Assad and his family are in Moscow where they have been granted asylum.

Assad’s government fell earlier in the day after armed groups, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entered the capital Damascus and took control of the city.

That happened less than two weeks after the groups launched an offensive from their stronghold in the western province of Idlib, advancing towards other areas of Syria.

They first took control of the second largest city Aleppo within several days, and then the major cities of Hama and Homs before reaching Damascus.

IRNA, Dec 8, 2024

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad on Sunday as an “historic day” that followed the blows delivered by Israel against Assad’s supporters Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

On a visit to the area near the front line with Syria, he said he had ordered Israeli forces to seize areas in the buffer zone to ensure Israel’s security and said: “We will not allow any hostile force to establish itself on our border”.

REUTERS

ATHENS — Supporters of the Syrian rebels that ousted President Bashar al-Assad entered the Syrian embassy in Athens on Sunday and hoisted the rebel flag from the rooftop, police and a Reuters reporter said.

Police entered the embassy compound and detained four people, but left the flag flying, said a Reuters reporter at the scene.

Syrian rebels declared Assad’s ouster after seizing control of Damascus on Sunday, forcing him to flee and ending his family’s decades of rule after more than 13 years of civil war.

A small group of people celebrated outside the embassy compound in Athens.

“Our joy is indescribable, 55 years of horrible dictatorship has finally ended and … the dictator escaped and left the people,” said Alompeint Marouf, 59.

Greek media reported that protesters also tore down Assad’s portrait in the embassy but a senior Greek police official could not confirm this.

REUTERS

Groups of Syrians strolled through the palaces of President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday following his ouster, wandering from room to room, posing for photographs, and with some taking items of furniture or ornaments.

Video obtained by Reuters showed people entering the Al-Rawda Presidential Palace, as children ran through the grand rooms and men slid a large trunk across the ornate floor.

Several men carried smart chairs over their shoulders. In a storeroom, cupboards had been ransacked and objects strewn across the floor.

Video of another palace, the Muhajreen Palace, verified by Reuters, showed groups of men and women walking across a white marble floor and through tall wooden doors. A man carried a vase in his hand, and a large cabinet stood empty with its doors ajar.

Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Sunday, forcing Assad to flee and ending his family’s decades of rule after more than 13 years of civil war in a seismic moment for the Middle East.

Assad, who had not spoken in public since the sudden rebel advance a week ago, flew out of Damascus for an unknown destination earlier on Sunday, two senior army officers told Reuters, as rebels said they had entered the capital with no sign of army deployments.

REUTERS