Kategori: NEWS

DAMASCUS — The leader of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham confirmed on Wednesday that the militants did not receive any international support to confront former President Bashar Assad’s government.

HTS’ leader Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, now using his real name Ahmed Al-Sharaa, said that the weapons they fought the Assad government with were manufactured locally, according to Al Arabiya news channel.

He added: “The Syrian people are exhausted from years of conflict, and the country will not witness another war.”

Those responsible for killing Syrians, and security and army officers in the former administration involved in torturing will be held accountable by the Military Operations Department, said Al-Sharaa.

He said in a statement: “We will pursue the war criminals and demand them from the countries to which they fled so that they may receive their just punishment.”

The leader confirmed that “a list containing the names of the most senior people involved will be announced.”

He added that “rewards will also be offered to anyone who provides information about senior army and security officers involved in war crimes.”

Al-Sharaa said that the military leadership is “committed to tolerance for those whose hands are not stained with the blood of the Syrian people,” adding that it granted amnesty to those in compulsory service.

AN

KATHMANDU — A local government and other stakeholders in the Mount Qomolangma region of Nepal have decided to forbid commercial flights of helicopters in the region starting from Jan. 1 next year, a local government official said on Wednesday.

The decision was made a day earlier on the grounds that such flights affect local economic activities and disturb wildlife, said Mingma Chhiri Sherpa, chairperson of Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality.

“We’re sending letters regarding the decision to the helicopter operators, trekking and travel agencies and tourism enterprises,” he told Xinhua.

He explained that due to a rising number of helicopter flights, tourists have stayed less time in recent years.

Trekking routes in the region are world famous and thousands of foreigners visit there for trekking every year.

“Noises caused by helicopter flights have also disturbed wildlife at the Sagarmatha National Park,” Sherpa said, noting that helicopters mobilized for rescue efforts would not be affected by the latest decision.

“But such a rescue operation will be allowed only after a local hospital makes a recommendation,” he added.

XINHUA

TEHRAN — Syria’s Baath party has announced that it is suspending work indefinitely, days after the fall of the government of President Bshar al-Assad and the takeover of the country by armed opposition groups.

According to IRNA, citing the Russian Sputnik news agency, the Baath Party of former Syrian presidents, which has been active for more than 60 years in the Arab country.

It also announced that it has handed over its weapons to the Ministry of Interior of the new and transitional government.

The party’s central leadership has decided to “suspend party work and activity in all its forms … until further notice,” said a statement published on the party’s newspaper website.

The Baath Party, which ruled Syria since 1963, promoted a personality cult around the Assad family since 1969.

IRNA

KABUL — Afghanistan’s Acting Minister for Refugees and Repatriation Khalil Rahman Haqqani was killed in a blast inside the ministry’s headquarter, an official at the Ministry of Interior confirmed to Xinhua on Wednesday.

XINHUA

DAMASCUS — Fighters have gained full control of the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zour following the reported withdrawal of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to areas east of the Euphrates River, according to statements from a local commander and a war monitor.

Hassan Abdel Ghani, a commander of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), said that their fighters now hold all of Deir al-Zour city and continue to advance in rural areas.

“Our combatants are pressing forward in the suburbs, having secured the city center along with both western and eastern countrysides,” the commander said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday the SDF had pulled out of Deir al-Zour and the nearby city of Al-Bukamal, returning to areas east of the Euphrates River.

The SDF had taken control of Deir al-Zour earlier following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government.

The Kurdish forces, previously seen as a dominant force in parts of northeastern Syria, appear to have ceded ground as militant groups, led by the HTS, stake their claims on strategic territories and key population centers.

XINHUA

CAIRO — Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 26 people overnight and into Wednesday, including one that hit a home where displaced people were sheltering in the isolated north, killing 19, according to Palestinian medical officials.

That strike occurred in the northern town of Beit Lahiya near the border with Israel, according to the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, which received the bodies. Hospital records show that a family of eight were among those killed, including four children, their parents and two grandparents.

Another strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least seven people, according to the Awda Hospital. Records show the dead included two children, their parents and three relatives.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has been waging a renewed offensive against Hamas militants in northern Gaza since early October. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and accuses militants of hiding among them, putting their lives in danger.

The army said militants in central Gaza fired four projectiles into Israel on Wednesday, two of which were intercepted. The other two fell in open areas, and there were no reports of casualties.

AN-AP

The death toll from a Russian missile strike that destroyed a clinic in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday has risen to six, while four more people remain under the rubble, the regional governor and emergency services said on Wednesday.

An additional 22 people were injured, governor Ivan Fedorov said on his Telegram messaging channel.

“All emergency services of the city are working at the scene,” he said.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service of Ukraine said its rescuers were able to pull out two women overnight from underneath the ruins of the building.

Photos posted on the emergency’s Telegram messaging channel showed rescuers and machinery working in piles of rubble from a collapsed building at night.

Russia regularly carries out airstrikes on Zaporizhzhia and the surrounding region. Last Friday, an attack on the city killed 10 people and wounded more than 20.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in their attacks, saying the aim of the strikes is to undermine infrastructure key to each other’s war efforts.

President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Ukraine’s allies on Tuesday to provide 10-12 more Patriot air defense systems that he said would fully protect the country’s skies.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has consistently asked its allies to supply more advanced air-defense systems.

AN-REUTERS

SEOUL — South Korean police officers had confronted security service agents for over three hours to raid the office of President Yoon Suk-yeol, multiple media outlets said Wednesday citing the police.

A group of police investigators attempted to raid the presidential office in central Seoul from 11:50 a.m. local time (0250 GMT), but security service agents blocked them from getting in for security reasons.

Earlier in the day, the police launched a raid on the National Police Agency, the Seoul Metropolitan Police and the National Assembly Police Guards, as well as the presidential office.

The police investigated insurrection and other charges over Yoon’s martial law declaration on the night of Dec. 3, rescinded by the National Assembly hours later.

President Yoon reportedly was not staying at the presidential office building.

XINHUA

KHARTOUM — At least 65 civilians were killed on Tuesday in an artillery attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Omdurman city, north of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, according to Khartoum State government.

XINHUA

GAZA – An Israeli airstrike Tuesday evening killed seven Palestinians and injured others in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, according to local sources.

They said that Israeli fighter jets targeted a house belonging to the Khalifa family in the refugee camp, claiming the lives of seven people and injuring others.

They added that Israeli fighter jets bombed a six-storey building belonging to the Kasba family in Gaza city neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan.

WAFA, Dec 10, 2024