Category: English

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

GAZA — Five civilians were killed on Sunday evening in an Israeli bombardment targeting a group of civilians north of Rafah city in the southern war-torn Gaza Strip.

WAFA

GAZA — Israeli occupation forces committed four massacres against families in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, resulting in the killing of at least 44 Palestinians and the injury of 74 others, according to medical reports.

WAFA

JAKARTA — One person was killed, another went missing, and 49 others survived after a passenger ship sank in the waters off Indonesia’s East Java province on Sunday, a top rescuer said.

The wooden ship, Kapal Layar Motor Fajar Lorena, went down at about 1:10 p.m. Jakarta time in the waters of Situbondo regency after departing from a seaport in Sumenep regency. The ship was heading to a seaport in Situbondo regency. Both regencies are located in East Java province, according to Muhamad Hariyadi, head of the provincial search and rescue office.

“One person has died, another is missing, and 49 others survived the incident,” he told Xinhua, citing the ship’s manifest, which listed 51 people on board.

The evacuation involved about 50 personnel from a joint rescue team, and the search for the missing person is ongoing, he added. Hariyadi said extreme weather conditions were blamed for the incident.

“This happened because of poor weather conditions; the waves were big,” he said.

Indonesia’s meteorology, climatology, and geophysics agency has warned of extreme weather conditions, including huge waves and heavy rains that pose risks to maritime travel.

XINHUA

MOSCOW — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has left the country and decided to resign as President of Syria, instructing for a peaceful transfer of power, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

XINHUA