Israeli airstrikes shake Beirut moments after Biden says Israel and Hezbollah agreed to ceasefire deal
BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli airstrikes shake Beirut moments after Biden says Israel and Hezbollah agreed to ceasefire deal.
BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli airstrikes shake Beirut moments after Biden says Israel and Hezbollah agreed to ceasefire deal.
Video obtained by Reuters showed people entering the Al-Rawda Presidential Palace, as children ran through the grand, formal rooms and men slid a large trunk across the ornate patterned floor. Video of another palace, the older-style Muhajreen Palace, verified by Reuters, showed groups of men and women walking across a white marble floor and through sets of tall wooden doors. The scenes were reminiscent of the fall of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime in Iraq two decades ago.
BEIRUT (AP) — The fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government Sunday brought to a dramatic close his nearly 14-year struggle to hold onto power as his country fragmented amid a brutal civil war that became a proxy battlefield for regional and international powers.
Israeli leaders are watching events across the border in Syria with trepidation, as 50 years of detente were upended in a matter of hours.
Syria's new rebel leaders are facing the daunting task of healing a divided nation - and the toppling of the Assad regime has not put an end to fighting in the country.
PM Netanyahu said the 1974 disengagement agreement had "collapsed" with the rebel takeover of Syria.
BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian government fell early Sunday in a stunning end to the 50-year rule of the Assad family after a sudden rebel offensive sprinted across government-held territory and entered the capital in 10 days.
An Israeli strike targeted an air defence installation near Syria's Mediterranean Latakia port, Syrian security sources said on Monday. Israel conducted three airstrikes in the Syrian capital a day earlier, against a security complex and a government research centre which it has said in the past was used by Iran to develop missiles, two regional security sources told Reuters on Sunday.
Israel is now more optimistic about a possible hostage deal in Gaza, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Monday, amid reports that Hamas had asked for lists of all hostages still held by militant groups in the Palestinian enclave. He said indirect negotiations were under way about the return of about 100 hostages and that, while it was still too early to be sure, prospects had improved.
The lightning quick collapse of Bashar al-Assad's has left the world taking stock on a new-look Middle East.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The dramatic downfall of Syrian President Bashar Assad presents possible danger, and an opening, for neighboring Israel.
ANKARA (Reuters) -The United States and Turkey reached an agreement to ensure the safe withdrawal of U.S.-backed Kurdish Syrian forces (SDF) from the northern city of Manbij after an advance by Turkey-backed rebels, a Syrian opposition source said on Monday. The Turkey-backed Syrian opposition groups had earlier taken control of Manbij from the SDF, a Turkish security source said, a day after rebels in the southern capital of Damascus declared Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's ouster.
Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly Abu Mohammed al-Golani, has evolved from an al-Qaida affiliate leader to a rebranded figure promoting pluralism as Syria’s insurgency topples Assad. Despite his attempts at moderation, doubts remain about his democratic intentions.View on euronews
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — For Iran’s theocratic government, it keeps getting worse.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is set to take the stand on Tuesday for the first time in his long-running corruption trial under a court order that is likely to force him to juggle between the courtroom and war room for weeks. Israel has been waging war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza for more than a year, during which Netanyahu had been granted a delay for the start of his court appearances. Charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust, Netanyahu will testify three times a week, the court said, despite the Gaza war and possible new threats posed by wider turmoil in the Middle East, including in neighbouring Syria.
Syrian rebels have reportedly taken the key city of Homs and reached the suburbs of the capital Damascus as their lightning offensive threatens to end Bashar al Assad's 24-year rule. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said insurgents are now active in three Damascus suburbs, including Maadamiyah, Jaramana and Daraya - making it the first time they have reached the outskirts of the city since 2018, when government forces recaptured the area after a years-long siege. Meanwhile, Syrian rebel commander Hassan Abdul-Ghani said insurgent forces had now "fully liberated" Syria's central city of Homs - in a strategically important move the cuts off Damascus from coastal military bases.
Israeli troops have seized a demilitarised buffer zone in the Golan Heights in a move that has been criticised by Egypt and Qatar. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his forces had entered the 155-square mile area after a rebel advance ended Syrian President Bashar al Assad's rule on Sunday. The zone was established by a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Syria in 1974.
Four Israeli soldiers who were killed in southern Lebanon were likely killed in an accidental detonation of explosives as they demolished a Hezbollah tunnel laden with weapons, Israel's Army Radio reported on Monday. The Israeli military said that four soldiers fell in combat, without providing further details. Army Radio said that the incident happened on Sunday and that an initial review found that the detonation set off secondary explosions, leading to the collapse of the tunnel while the soldiers were in it.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's foreign minister says it has struck suspected chemical weapons sites and long-range rockets in Syria in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of hostile actors.
After the collapse of the Syrian government that ended the Assad family’s 50-year iron rule, there are concerns about what a ‘power vacuum’ could mean for the country, according Sajjan Gohel, international security director at the Asia-Pacific Foundation. Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/1.7404700.
The red, white, green and black Free Syrian Army flag flew over Damascus on Sunday as thousands of residents lined the main square in bursts of defiant jubilation – after President Bashar al-Assad relinquished his grip on power.