BEIRUT: An air raid on a village in northeast Syria held by the Daesh group killed at least 10 civilians including three children on Tuesday, a Britain-based monitor said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes on Tal Al-Shair in the northeastern province of Hasakah were carried out by the US-led coalition fighting Daesh in Syria and neighboring Iraq since 2014.
There was no immediate confirmation from the coalition of the strike, the latest in a series of raids to have reportedly caused civilian casualties in the area in past weeks.
Tal Al-Shair lies in a small pocket still held by Daesh fighters near the Iraqi border in the south of Hasakah, where a Kurdish-Arab alliance backed by the coalition has been battling the militants in recent days.
According to the Observatory, a coalition air strike last week killed 11 civilians in the same Daesh-held area, and another 12 lost their lives in coalition raids on June 1.
The coalition told AFP it was carrying out an investigation into the June 1 allegation.
Earlier this month, it admitted to nine more civilians deaths, bringing to 892 the total number of civilians it acknowledges to have killed since it intervened in Iraq and Syria.
Other monitors like the Observatory and Airwars say the toll is much higher.
The Britain-based Observatory, which relies on sources inside Syria, says it determines whose planes carried out strikes according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions involved.
Daesh has lost most of the cross-border caliphate it declared in 2014.
In Syria it was pushed back by separate offensives — one by Russia-backed regime troops and another by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces alliance.
But the militants still hold slithers of eastern Syria and have a presence in the vast Badiya desert running from the center of the country to the border with Iraq.
More than 350,000 people have been killed in Syria’s war since it started in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.
It has since spiralled into a complex conflict involving world powers and foreign militants.
Air strike kills 10 civilians in northeast Syria: monitor
Air strike kills 10 civilians in northeast Syria: monitor
- There was no immediate confirmation from the coalition of the strike
Hezbollah chief says group suffered ‘major’ blow in device blasts
- Nasrallah struck a defiant tone, warning that Israel would receive “just punishment” for the attacks
- Describing the attacks as a possible “act of war,” he said Israel would face “tough retribution and just punishment, where it expects it and where it does not“
BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged Thursday his powerful group had suffered an “unprecedented” blow when thousands of operatives’ communication devices exploded in attacks it blamed on Israel.
Israel has not commented on the attacks that killed 37 people and wounded nearly 3,000 across Lebanon over two days but has said it will widen the scope of its war in Gaza to include the Lebanon front.
Delivering a speech after the attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday, which plunged Lebanon into panic, Nasrallah struck a defiant tone, warning that Israel would receive “just punishment” for the attacks.
Describing the attacks as a possible “act of war,” he said Israel would face “tough retribution and just punishment, where it expects it and where it does not.”
“It could be a war crime or a declaration of war,” he said of the attacks, which he branded a “massacre.”
Nasrallah also vowed to keep up Hezbollah’s fight against Israel until a ceasefire in Gaza is reached.
“The Lebanese front will not stop until the aggression on Gaza stops” despite “all this blood spilt,” he said.
Nasrallah addressed Israeli officials’ promises to return thousands of Israelis displaced by exchanges of fire across the border with Lebanon to their homes.
“You will not be able to return the people of the north to the north,” he said, warning that “no military escalation, no killings, no assassinations and no all-out war can return residents to the border.”
Hezbollah is an ally of Palestinian militant group Hamas, which on October 7 launched an unprecedented attack on Israel that sparked Gaza’s deadliest ever war.
Up until now, the focus of Israel’s firepower had been on Gaza.
But Israel’s northern border with Lebanon has seen exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants almost every day since October.
The violence has killed hundreds of people, mostly fighters, on the Lebanese side, and dozens on the Israeli side.
Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier over Beirut as Nasrallah spoke, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said, with AFP correspondents in Beirut reporting loud booms.
Nasrallah announced the launch of an internal probe into the attacks, which experts and some Israeli media have said bear all the hallmarks of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.
EU’s Borrell says Lebanon attacks aimed to ‘spread terror’
- “The indiscriminate method used is unacceptable due to the inevitable and heavy collateral damages among civilians,” Borrell said
- At least 37 people were killed and more than 3,000 wounded
BEIRUT: The EU foreign policy chief condemned attacks which targeted mobile communication devices used by Hezbollah this week, saying whoever was behind them aimed “to spread terror in Lebanon,” a statement from the EU’s Beirut delegation said on Thursday.
“The indiscriminate method used is unacceptable due to the inevitable and heavy collateral damages among civilians, and the broader consequences for the entire population, including fear and terror, and the collapse of hospitals,” Josep Borrell said.
At least 37 people were killed and more than 3,000 wounded when first pagers, then walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploded in two waves of attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Lebanon and Hezbollah say Israel carried out the attack. Israel has not claimed responsibility.
Hezbollah, a heavily armed group backed by Iran, and Israel have been trading fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border for almost a year in a conflict triggered by the Gaza war.
Hezbollah attacks Israel with drones as fears of a widening war mount
- Hezbollah said early Thursday it had targeted three military positions in northern Israel near the border, two of them with drones
- The Israeli military said the drones crashed near communities
BEIRUT: Hezbollah fired a new barrage into northern Israel on Thursday, continuing its drumbeat of exchanges with the Israeli military as fears of a greater war rise.
Hundreds of electronic devices used by Hezbollah exploded in Lebanon earlier this week, killing at least 37 people and wounding some 3,000 others.
The device explosions appeared to be the culmination of a monthslong operation by Israel to target as many Hezbollah members as possible all at once. Over two days, pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah detonated, wounding and even crippling some fighters, but also maiming civilians connected to the group’s social branches and killing at least two children.
It was unclear how the attack fit into warnings by Israeli leaders in recent weeks that they could launch a stepped-up military operation against Hezbollah, Lebanon’s strongest armed force.
The Israeli government has called it a war aim to end the Iranian-backed group’s cross-border fire in order to allow tens of thousands of Israelis to return to homes near the border.
Speaking to Israeli troops on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, “We are at the start of a new phase in the war — it requires courage, determination and perseverance.” He made no mention of the exploding devices but praised the work of Israel’s army and security agencies, saying “the results are very impressive.”
Gallant said that after months of fighting Hamas in Gaza, “the center of gravity is shifting to the north by diverting resources and forces.”
Hezbollah said early Thursday it had targeted three military positions in northern Israel near the border, two of them with drones. The Israeli military said the drones crashed near communities. Hospitals reported they treated at least eight patients lightly or moderately injured. The military said early Thursday it had struck several militant sites in southern Lebanon overnight.
The volley of strikes was a signal by Hezbollah that it would continue its near daily fire, which it says is a show of support for Hamas. Israel’s 11-month-old war with Hamas in Gaza began after its militants led the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Israel has responded to Hezbollah’s fire with strikes in southern Lebanon, and has struck senior figures from the group in the capital Beirut. The exchanges have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents on each side of the border.
Israel and Hezbollah have repeatedly pulled back from an all-out war under heavy pressure from the United States, France and other countries.
But in their recent warnings, Israeli leaders have said they are determined to change the status quo dramatically.
Israel began moving more troops to its border with Lebanon on Wednesday as a precautionary measure, Israeli officials said. Israel’s army chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said plans have been drawn up for additional action against Hezbollah, though media reported the government has not yet decided whether to launch a major offensive in Lebanon.
Lebanon is still reeling from the deadly device attacks of Tuesday and Wednesday.
The explosions have rattled anxious Lebanese fearing a full-scale war. The Lebanese Army said it has been locating and detonating suspicious pagers and communication devices, while the country’s civil aviation authorities banned pagers and walkie-talkies on all airplanes departing from Beirut’s international airport until further notice.
The attack was likely to severely disrupt Hezbollah’s internal communication as it scrambles to determine safe means to talk to each other. Hezbollah announced the death of five combatants Thursday, but didn’t specify if they were killed in the explosions or on the front lines.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was scheduled to speak later Thursday as the group vowed to retaliate against Israel.
The blasts went off wherever the holders of the pagers or walkie-talkies happened to be in multiple parts of Beirut and eastern and southern Lebanon — in homes and cars, grocery stores and cafes and on the street, even at a funeral for some killed in the bombings, often with family and other bystanders nearby.
Many suffered gaping wounds on their legs, abdomens and faces or were maimed in the hand. Tuesday’s pager blasts killed 12 people, including two children, and wounded some 2,300 others. The following day’s explosion killed 25 and wounded more than 600, Health Minister Firas Abiad said, giving updated figures.
Abiad told reporters that Wednesday’s injuries were more severe than the previous day as walkie-talkies that exploded were bigger than the pagers. He praised Lebanon’s hospitals, saying they had managed to deal with the flood of wounded within hours. “It was an indiscriminate attack. It was a war crime,” he said.
Israel media say new Gaza deal mooted to free hostages, give Sinwar safe passage
- The proposal would also call for the release of Palestinian prisoners and a new governance system in Gaza, though no details were provided
- Hostage envoy Gal Hirsch “presented the plan to the Americans, who were expected to pass it on to unspecified Arab officials“
JERUSALEM: Israeli media reported on Thursday that Israel has proposed a new deal that would see hostages released from Gaza in exchange for safe passage for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and the cessation of fighting.
Public broadcaster Kan reported that the proposal would also call for the release of Palestinian prisoners and a new governance system in Gaza, though no details were provided.
The Times of Israel said an Israeli official had confirmed that hostage envoy Gal Hirsch “presented the plan to the Americans, who were expected to pass it on to unspecified Arab officials.”
Asked about the reports by AFP at a press conference on Thursday, government spokesman David Mencer did not specifically address them, instead referring to previous statements calling for the international community to pressure Hamas to make concessions to reach a deal.
“Whoever wants to assist in the effort to release our hostages needs to pressure the murderous Sinwar and not the prime minister of the State of Israel,” he said.
The October 7 attacks that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Out of 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,272 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations has acknowledged the figures as reliable.
Israeli media reported on Thursday that Israel has proposed a new deal that would see hostages released from Gaza in exchange for safe passage for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and the cessation of fighting. (AFP/File)
Turkiye reviews security of communication devices after Lebanon blasts, official says
- The blasts appeared to throw Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful proxy in the Middle East, into disarray
- “… measures are reviewed and new measures are being developed as part of the lessons learned following each development,” the official said
ANKARA: Turkiye is reviewing its measures to secure the communication devices used by its armed forces after the deadly blasts in Lebanon, a Turkish defense ministry official said on Thursday.
Hand-held radios used by armed group Hezbollah detonated on Wednesday across Lebanon’s south in the country’s deadliest day since cross-border fighting erupted between the group and Israel nearly a year ago, stoking tensions after similar explosions of the militants’ pagers the day before.
The blasts appeared to throw Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful proxy in the Middle East, into disarray, and occurred alongside Israel’s 11-month-old war against Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza and heightened fears of an escalation and regional war.
The Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Turkiye’s military exclusively used domestically-produced equipment but Ankara had additional control mechanisms in place if a third party is involved in procurement or production of devices.
“Whether in the operations we carry out, the ongoing war in Ukraine, and as with the Lebanon example, measures are reviewed and new measures are being developed as part of the lessons learned following each development,” the official said.
“In the context of this incident, we as the Defense Ministry are carrying out the necessary examinations,” the person added, without providing further detail.
In Tuesday’s explosions, sources said Israeli spies remotely detonated explosives they planted in a Hezbollah order of 5,000 pagers before they entered the country.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told state-owned Anadolu news agency that establishing an independent agency for cyber-security specifically was on the government’s agenda, and that President Tayyip Erdogan saw this as a necessity.
