RSS
Syrian Military and Rebels Battle Around Hama
Displaced children who fled the Aleppo countryside, stand at the back of a truck in Tabqa, Syria, Dec. 4, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Orhan Qereman
Syrian rebels battled government forces and allied militia on Wednesday in villages north and east of Hama, a major city whose capture would pile pressure on President Bashar al-Assad.
The rebels have staged their biggest advance in years over the past week, seizing Aleppo — Syria’s biggest city before the war — in a lightning assault that has upended long stable frontlines and further destabilized a region already ablaze from war in Gaza.
On Wednesday, as the insurgents mounted fresh assaults around the outskirts of Hama, the most powerful rebel commander was shown on video touring Aleppo’s ancient citadel, historically a potent symbol of rule over northern Syria.
Abu Mohammed al-Golani, head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which was formerly an al Qaeda affiliate, was shown marching out of the citadel’s medieval gateway amid cheering supporters and escorted by masked fighters waving opposition flags.
It was a symbolic moment at a site where government forces had hung portraits of Assad when they captured the city in 2016 after a long siege, a major turning point in the war.
The loss of Aleppo last week has stunned Assad and his Iranian and Russian allies, with rebels rapidly taking a swathe of countryside around the city and pushing on to the outskirts of Hama on the road to Damascus.
UN Syria envoy Geir Pedersen warned the Security Council on Tuesday that the situation was “extremely fluid and dangerous,” adding that Syria faced danger of “further division, deterioration, and destruction.”
Syria’s civil war killed hundreds of thousands of people, sent many millions fleeing across borders, and drew in regional and global powers after erupting in 2011 in a rebellion against Assad.
Syrian state media and rebels said there was fighting on Wednesday around al-Uwayr and neighboring villages after pro-government forces had pushed back an assault overnight on Jabal Zain al-Abidin, just north of Hama.
Fighting in Uwayr would indicate rebels were advancing into areas of countryside on the eastern flank of Hama, which is one of Syria’s most important cities and has stayed in government hands throughout the conflict.
ALLIES
Moscow and Tehran, distracted by conflicts in Ukraine and elsewhere in the Middle East, have scrambled to get more support to Assad, with Russia intensifying air strikes and Iran-backed Iraqi and Afghan militia groups heading to front lines.
Moscow and Tehran have been allies of the Assad dynasty for decades and Syria remains important to both. Assad represents an important link in the network of Shi’ite groups Iran backs across the region. Russia operates a Mediterranean naval port at Tartous and has an air base at Hmeimim near Latakia.
Russian air power and Iran’s network of regional militias were vital to Damascus clawing back most of the country from 2015-20 after losing swathes of territory to rebels in the war’s early years.
Rebels and Syrian military sources both cited a combination of air strikes and the arrival of reinforcements as crucial in staving off an insurgent approach into northern Hama late on Tuesday.
Iran said on Tuesday it would consider sending forces if asked, and Russia said it would strongly support efforts to “counter terrorist groups and restore constitutional order.”
Meanwhile Assad has started a new conscription push, announcing a 50 percent increase in military pay and setting up checkpoints in Damascus and eastern Deir al-Zor signing up young men to join the army, residents said.
Syrian state media reported further arrivals of reinforcements to Hama on Wednesday.
REBELS
Golani’s appearance in Aleppo underscores the growing sway of HTS, long the most powerful faction in northwest Syria, regarded not only by Damascus and its allies but also by Western countries as a terrorist group.
HTS was originally called the Nusra Front as the main al Qaeda franchise in Syria before cutting formal ties with the global jihadist network in 2016.
The insurgents’ rapid advance over the past week has brought them new territory that they may struggle to govern, with food and fuel shortages already reported in Aleppo.
It has also led to the capture of several Syrian military bases and rebel sources said fleeing government forces had abandoned significant amounts of weapons and equipment, now in insurgent hands.
HTS fights alongside more mainstream rebel factions that are backed by Turkey.
Ankara also supports the Syrian National Army, a separate rebel grouping that holds a strip of territory along the border. It wants to keep Kurdish groups in Syria away from the frontier and to create a haven for Syrian refugees now living in Turkey.
The United States, which still has a small contingent of troops on the ground after intervening to help defeat Islamic State from 2014-2017, supports an alliance led by Syria’s main Kurdish armed group.
The post Syrian Military and Rebels Battle Around Hama first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
The post Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.