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‘Arrow of Bashan’: Israel Destroys Most of Syria’s Strategic Weapons
Israeli soldiers operate in a location given as southern Syria, in this screengrab from a video obtained by Reuters on Dec. 9, 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
JNS.org — Israel struck most of Syria’s strategic weapons arsenal since the ouster of President Bashar Assad, the IDF announced on Tuesday night, preventing them from falling into the hands of Islamic terrorists.
The military confirmed earlier reports that the Israeli Air Force conducted more than 350 aerial strikes, with hundreds of hours of flight time logged over Syrian airspace. The targets included anti-aircraft batteries, Syrian Air Force airfields, and dozens of weapons production sites in Damascus, Homs, Tartus, Latakia, and Palmyra.
Strategic weapons were neutralized, including Scud tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, surface-to-sea, surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles, drones, fighter jets, attack helicopters, radar systems, tanks, and hangars.
The IDF has named the large-scale operation “Arrow of Bashan.”
On Monday night, Israeli Navy missile ships attacked two Syrian Navy facilities simultaneously: Al-Bayda Port and Latakia Port, where 15 Syrian naval vessels were docked.
During the maritime operation, dozens of sea-to-sea missiles with ranges of 80 to 190 kilometers (50 to 120 miles) and carrying heavy explosive payloads were destroyed.
In addition, the IDF Northern Command’s Fire Control Center conducted airstrikes against 130 enemy assets in Syria, including weapons depots, military structures, launchers, and firing positions.
The hundreds of strikes marked the heaviest air campaign against Syria since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
It is believed that the Syrian Air Force could be destroyed in its entirety “within a few days,” Ynet noted, which would substantially reduce the threat posed to the Jewish state by the incoming Syrian government.
The last time Israel destroyed an entire air force was in 1967, when the Egyptian Air Force was wiped out in the first hours of the Six-Day War.
Assad fled Damascus on Sunday as a coalition of rebel groups stormed the capital, ending his family’s five-decade rule.
“The tyrant Bashar Assad has been overthrown,” a rebel spokesperson declared in a statement carried on state television on Sunday morning.
Defense Minister Israel Katz warned on Tuesday that any entity threatening Israel’s security would face dire consequences.
Speaking at a naval base in Haifa, Katz revealed that Israeli forces had destroyed Syria’s navy.
“The IDF has acted in recent days to attack and destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the State of Israel,” Katz said, cautioning rebels that “whoever follows in Assad’s footsteps will end up like Assad did.” He emphasized Israel’s resolve to prevent any “extremist Islamic terror entity” from operating against it.
Katz also announced the establishment of a temporary demilitarized zone beyond the buffer zone Israel has taken over in the border area. This “sterile defensive zone” in southern Syria aims to prevent terrorist threats.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned during a meeting at the headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces in Tel Aviv on Tuesday that if the new Syrian jihadist regime befriends Iran, Israel will take decisive action against it.
“If this regime allows Iran to regain its foothold in Syria, or allows the transfer of Iranian weapons or any other weapons to Hezbollah, or attacks us, we will respond forcefully and we will exact a heavy price from it,” Netanyahu said. “What happened to the previous regime will happen to this regime as well.”
Israel has no intention of interfering in Syria’s internal affairs, the prime minister said, but would take action it deemed necessary for its security.
In this context, he said he had authorized the Israeli Air Force to bomb “strategic military capabilities left by the Syrian army so that they would not fall into the hands of the jihadists.”
The post ‘Arrow of Bashan’: Israel Destroys Most of Syria’s Strategic Weapons first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.