Category: English

DAMASCUS — The Syrian military has sent significant reinforcements to Hama, aiming to strengthen front-line defenses as rebel factions advance in central Syria. Meanwhile, Aleppo faces a deepening humanitarian crisis following its capture by rebel forces, according to reports from state media and activists.

The Syrian Ministry of Defense announced Tuesday that additional troops have been deployed to the northern countryside of Hama, a critical battleground between government forces and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an al-Qaida-linked group, and its allies. The militants, who seized Aleppo last week, have intensified their offensive toward Hama in west-central Syria, escalating the conflict.

Pro-government broadcaster Sham FM denied reports that HTS forces had entered Hama, stating that clashes were ongoing 8 km northeast of the city. The broadcaster added that reinforcements continued to pour into the area to repel the rebel advance.

However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, reported that HTS and allied factions were advancing from multiple directions, tightening their grip on the city.

It also noted that Russian and Syrian airstrikes targeted rebel positions across Hama, southeastern Aleppo, and the Badia desert.

In Deir el-Zour province, eastern Syria, heavy fighting erupted between government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by the U.S.-led coalition.

According to the Observatory, U.S. warplanes conducted airstrikes near a military air base in Deir al-Zour, killing six soldiers from the Syrian army’s elite Republican Guard.

Despite intense clashes and coalition airstrikes, the SDF has made only limited gains in capturing strategic villages, the Observatory said.

In Aleppo, the humanitarian situation has reached a critical point. Essential services and infrastructure have collapsed since the province fell to rebel forces on Friday.

Thousands of displaced residents from the predominantly Shiite towns of Nubl and Zahraa remain stranded in al-Safira, facing freezing temperatures and insufficient shelter.

Sham FM reported that approximately 2,000 individuals are trapped without safe corridors to escape rebel-controlled areas. Key hospitals, including Zahi Azraq, al-Razi, and Ibn Rushd, have been severely damaged or rendered non-operational.

“Medical staff are doing their utmost to respond to emergencies despite equipment shortages,” a source told Sham FM. Dozens of injured civilians remain stranded in Aleppo, unable to access secure evacuation routes.

Adding to the turmoil, residents have reported home invasions by unidentified armed groups looting valuables under the pretext of inspections. Civil society organizations have urged residents to secure their homes and avoid interactions with armed factions. Communication blackouts and the shutdown of financial services have further paralyzed the city.

Humanitarian agencies are racing against time to address shortages of food, medical supplies, and necessities. Efforts to restore water and electricity intermittently and distribute bread have provided some relief, but the overall situation remains dire.

“The situation in Aleppo requires urgent intervention by the United Nations to avert a humanitarian catastrophe,” the Observatory stated, calling for global attention to the escalating conflicts in Deir el-Zour and Hama. It warned that the continued fighting could lead to further destabilization as rival factions vie for strategic territories.

XINHUA

BEIRUT — Israel on Tuesday launched an airstrike on the southern Lebanese town of Shebaa, killing one person, in what Lebanese media described as a violation of a newly-reached ceasefire with Hezbollah.

The Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) reported that a missile fired by an Israeli drone killed a shepherd named Jamal Mohammad Saab. The NNA also said Israeli forces conducted heavy explosions in the area between the village of Mhaibib and the Wadi Saluki district and carried out drone strikes near Deir Siryan, a municipality in Marjeyoun, and the village of Beit Lif, all located in southern Lebanon.

An Israeli Merkava tank reportedly crossed from the Tal Nahas area into the Deir Mimas-Burj al-Moulouk-Kfarkela triangle, stopping approximately 200 meters from a Lebanese army checkpoint in the village of Burj al-Muluk, according to the NNA.

In response to escalating tensions, the Lebanese army deployed additional soldiers to the city of Tyre and surrounding areas as part of a broader redeployment effort in southern Lebanon, particularly in border villages, the NNA said. The Lebanese Defense Ministry also announced a call for new recruits to join combat units in the armed forces.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israel warned it would expand its military operations to include targets linked to the Lebanese state if the ceasefire with Hezbollah collapses. The warning came after Hezbollah launched two mortars into a disputed border area on Monday, accusing Israel of repeated violations of the truce. Israel retaliated with airstrikes on more than 20 locations across Lebanon.

The ceasefire, which took effect on Nov. 27, was intended to halt cross-border violence between Hezbollah and Israel that erupted on Oct. 8. However, tensions remain high, with both sides accusing each other of breaching the fragile agreement.

XINHUA

NEW YORK — An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 jolted 13 km ESE of Pagudpud, Philippines at 18:54:45 GMT on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 70.0 km, was initially determined to be at 18.50 degrees north latitude and 120.90 degrees east longitude.

XINHUA

BEIRUT — Top Lebanese officials have urged Washington and Paris to press Israel to uphold a ceasefire, after dozens of military operations on Lebanese soil that Beirut has deemed violations, two senior Lebanese political sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

Deadly Israeli strikes on south Lebanon and Hezbollah rocket launches on an Israeli military post on Monday have put a US-brokered ceasefire between the two in an increasingly fragile position less than a week after it came into effect.

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, a close Hezbollah ally who negotiated the deal on behalf of Lebanon, spoke to officials at the White House and French presidency late Monday and expressed concern about the state of the ceasefire, the sources said.

Neither the French presidency nor the foreign ministry were immediately available to comment.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot spoke to his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar on Monday, saying both sides should adhere to the ceasefire.

US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters on Monday that the ceasefire “is holding” and that the US had “anticipated that there might be violations.”

The truce came into effect on Nov. 27 and prohibits Israel from conducting offensive military operations in Lebanon while requiring Lebanon to prevent armed groups, including Hezbollah, from launching attacks on Israel. It gives Israeli troops 60 days to withdraw from south Lebanon.

A monitoring mechanism chaired by the United States is tasked with monitoring, verifying and helping enforce the truce, but it has yet to begin work.

Berri on Monday urged it to “urgently” ensure Israel halts its breaches, saying Beirut had logged at least 54 Israeli violations of the ceasefire so far.

Israel says its continued military activity in Lebanon is aimed at enforcing the ceasefire and does not violate its obligations under the truce.

Mikati on Monday met in Beirut with US General Jasper Jeffers, who will chair the monitoring committee, and stressed the need for Israeli troops to swiftly withdraw.

Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that France’s representative to the committee, General Guillaume Ponchin, will arrive in Beirut on Wednesday and that the committee would hold its first meeting on Thursday.

“There is an urgency to finalize the mechanism, otherwise it will be too late,” the source said, referring to Israel’s gradual intensification of strikes despite the truce.

Miller said the monitoring mechanism would begin its work “in the coming days.”

At least 12 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Monday, Lebanese authorities said, in the deadliest day since the ceasefire came into effect.

They included six people in the southern town of Hariss and another four people in the southern town of Taloussa, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

AN-REUTERS

BANGKOK — Thousands of people have been displaced by torrential floodwaters that slammed into southern Thailand, where the death toll has risen to 25, officials said on Tuesday.

Flooding since November 22 has affected more than 660,000 homes in the kingdom’s south, the country’s disaster agency said on its Facebook page.

Suwas Bin-Uma, a chicken farm owner in Songkhla province, told state broadcaster Thai PBS that the floods had wiped out his entire flock of more than 10,000 chickens.

“I’ve lost at least three million baht ($87,000),” he said.

More than 22,000 people have been displaced from their homes due to flooding in Pattani, Narathiwat, Songkhla and Yala provinces, the Thai government’s public relations department said on Monday.

Footage on social media showed residents in Songkhla province stacking up sandbags in front of their homes on Monday in an attempt to block the swelling floodwater.

The head of a village in Yala province, Abdullah Abu, told local media that flooding in his area had reached up to seven meters (23 feet).

People were receiving one meal a day from a rescue team, he told Channel 7.

In neighboring Malaysia’s Kelantan state, AFP images showed houses surrounded by inundated land and residents scooping water out of their homes.

Heavy monsoon rains lash Southeast Asia every year, but human-made climate change is causing more intense weather patterns that can make destructive floods more likely.

Climate change is causing typhoons to form closer to the coast, intensify faster and stay longer over land, according to a study published in July.

Thailand’s weather agency forecast more heavy rain for the south until December 5.

On Tuesday, the Thai cabinet approved a 9,000 baht payment per family to support those affected.

Thailand’s northern provinces were hit by heavy floods in early September as Typhoon Yagi swept in from the South China Sea over Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.

The storm triggered flooding and landslides across the region and killed hundreds.

One Thai district reported its heaviest inundation in 80 years while the UN’s World Food Programme said the floods wrought by Yagi in Myanmar were the worst in the country’s recent history.

AN-AFP

PHNOM PENH — A Cambodian court has sentenced 13 pregnant Filipino women to four years in jail for acting as surrogate mothers, in the latest crackdown on the outlawed practice.

The 13 were among 24 foreign women detained by Cambodian police in Kandal province in September and charged with attempted cross-border human trafficking, according to a statement from the Kandal court.

Following a trial, the court on Monday sentenced the 13 to “four years in prison,” although two years of the sentence would be suspended, the statement said.

The court said it had strong evidence showing that the 13 “have the intention… to have babies to sell to a third person in exchange for money, which is an act of human trafficking.”

The court statement did not give details on what would happen to the babies of the 13 when they were born.

A Cambodian woman, who cooked meals for the Filipino women, was also jailed for two months and one day for being an accomplice, the court said.

Seven other Filipino and four Vietnamese women, who were not pregnant, have been deported from Cambodia, Chou Bun Eng, vice-chair of Cambodia’s National Committee for Counter Trafficking, told AFP on Tuesday.

In 2016, Cambodia issued a snap ban on commercial surrogacy after neighboring Thailand pulled the plug on the trade the previous year — putting an abrupt end to a thriving industry for hopeful parents, many from Australia and the United States.

But demand for commercial surrogacy remains high after China eased its one-child policy and agencies in Cambodia continue to offer the service.

Sources in the kingdom have previously told AFP that couples — mostly from China — are willing to pay between $40,000 to $100,000 to surrogacy agents to find a Cambodian woman who can carry their child.

In 2018, an Australian nurse who ran a surrogacy clinic was jailed for 18 months in Cambodia.

Dozens of Cambodian women paid to carry babies for Chinese clients were also arrested in recent years but they were released on bail after agreeing to keep the children.

AN-AFP