BEIRUT: A string of suicide blasts and raids claimed by the Daesh group killed more than 150 people in southern Syria on Wednesday, in one of the militants’ deadliest ever assaults in the country.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attacks hit several areas of the largely government-held southern province of Sweida, where Daesh retains a presence in a northeastern desert region.
They came almost a week into a deadly Russia-backed regime campaign to oust Daesh fighters from a holdout in a neighboring province of the country’s south.
Daesh claimed responsibility for the violence, saying “soldiers of the caliphate” attacked Syrian government positions and security outposts in Sweida city, then detonated their explosive belts.
The Britain-based Observatory said three suicide attackers set off booby-trapped belts in Sweida city, as other blasts hit villages to the north and east. A fourth suicide explosion hit the city later.
“IS fighters then stormed villages in the province’s northeast and killed residents in their homes,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
The suicide blasts and raids killed 156 people including 62 civilians, the Observatory said.
The remaining 94 dead were pro-regime fighters, most of whom where residents who had picked up weapons to defend their villages, it said.
Sweida, whose residents are mostly from the Druze minority, has been relatively insulated from the war that has ravaged the rest of the country since 2011.
“It’s the bloodiest death toll in Sweida province since the start of the war” in 2011 and one of the deadliest ever in Syria, Abdel Rahman said.
The violence also left 30 IS fighters dead, including the suicide attackers.
The militants captured at least three of the seven villages they targeted but clashes were ongoing Wednesday, the Observatory said.
State media confirmed the attacks had killed and wounded people in Sweida city and villages to the north and east, but did not give a specific toll.
SANA published images of the attack’s aftermath in Sweida city, showing the remains of a victim sprawled on a staircase near a damaged wall.
Abandoned shoes lay in the middle of the road among fruit that had spilled out of cartons.
The UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Syria Ali Al-Zaatari condemned the “terrorist bombing in Sweida city today,” saying all civilians should be protected.
And the Russian foreign ministry said the Daesh attacks “confirm the need for energetic and coordinated efforts by the international community to eradicate this universal evil from Syrian territory.”
State television said the army was targeting Daesh in the province’s east.
Despite pro-government forces ousting the group from urban centers in eastern Syria last year, surprise Daesh raids in recent months have killed dozens of regime and allied fighters.
The militants still hold some territory in Syria’s south, including in Sweida and another isolated but larger patch in neighboring Daraa province, to the west.
That pocket is held by Jaish Khaled bin Al-Walid, a jihadist faction whose 1,000 fighters have pledged allegiance to Daesh.
After ousting non-militant rebels from most of the country’s south, President Bashar Assad’s troops and his Russian allies are now closing in on the Daesh pocket in Daraa province.
SANA said the Daesh attacks on neighboring Sweida were an attempt to relieve pressure “on militant remnants facing their inevitable end in the western Daraa countryside.”
More than 150 dead in Daesh attacks on southern Syria
More than 150 dead in Daesh attacks on southern Syria
- The attacks hit several areas of the largely government-held southern province of Sweida
- Daesh claimed responsibility for the violence, saying “soldiers of the caliphate” attacked Syrian government positions
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai to visit native Pakistan for girls’ summit
- Nobel peace prize laureate Malala Yousafzai will attend a summit on girls’ education hosted by her native Pakistan, where she was nearly killed by militants as a schoolgirl
ISLAMABAD: Nobel peace prize laureate Malala Yousafzai will attend a summit on girls’ education hosted by her native Pakistan, where she was nearly killed by militants as a schoolgirl.
Yousafzai was evacuated from the country in 2012 after being shot by the Pakistan Taliban, who were enraged by her activism, and she has returned to the country only a handful of times since.
“I am excited to join Muslim leaders from around the world for a critical conference on girls’ education,” she said Friday in a post on X.
“On Sunday, I will speak about protecting rights for all girls to go to school, and why leaders must hold the Taliban accountable for their crimes against Afghan women & girls.”
A spokesperson for her Malala Fund charity confirmed she will attend the summit in person.
The two-day summit will be held in the capital Islamabad on Saturday and Sunday, focusing on girls’ education in Muslim communities.
Zelensky and Austin use their final meeting to press Trump to keep supporting Ukraine
- Austin warned that to cease military support now “will only invite more aggression, chaos and war”
- President-elect Donald Trump’s pronouncements about pushing for a quick end to the war and his kinship with Putin have triggered concern among allies
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin used their final meeting Thursday to press the incoming Trump administration not to give up on Kyiv’s fight, with Austin warning that to cease military support now “will only invite more aggression, chaos and war.”
“We’ve come such a long way that it would honestly be crazy to drop the ball now and not keep building on the defense coalitions we’ve created,” Zelensky said. “No matter what’s going on in the world, everyone wants to feel sure that their country will not just be erased off the map.”
President-elect Donald Trump’s pronouncements about pushing for a quick end to the war, his kinship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and uncertainty over whether he will support further military aid to Ukraine have triggered concern among allies.
The Biden administration has worked to provide Ukraine with as much military support as it can, including approving a new $500 million package of weapons and relaxing restrictions on missile strikes into Russia, with the aim of putting Ukraine in the strongest position possible for any future negotiations to end the war.
Austin doubled down on Zelensky’s appeal, saying “no responsible leader will let Putin have his way.”
And while Austin acknowledged he has no idea what Trump will do, he said the international leaders gathered Thursday at Ramstein Air Base talked about the need to continue the mission.
The leaders were attending a gathering of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a consortium of about 50 partner nations that Austin brought together months after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 to coordinate weapons support.
“I’m leaving this contact group not with a farewell but with a challenge. The coalition to support Ukraine must not flinch. It must not falter. And it must not fail,” Austin said during his final press conference. “Ukraine’s survival is on the line. But so is all of our security.”
Some discussed what they would do if the US backed away from its support for Kyiv, if the contact group would assume a new shape under one of its major European contributors, such as Germany. Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said his country and several other European nations are discussing options.
Austin said the continuation of the group is essential, calling it “the arsenal of Ukrainian democracy” and “the most consequential global coalition in more than 30 years.”
President Joe Biden was to have his final face-to-face meeting with Zelensky in the coming days in Rome, but he canceled the trip because of the devastating fires in California.
Pistorius said he intends to travel to the US shortly after Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration to meet his new counterpart to discuss the issue.
“It’s clear a new chapter starts for Europe and the entire world just 11 days from now,” and it will require even more cooperation, Zelensky said.
Ukraine has launched a second offensive in Russia’s Kursk region and is facing a barrage of long-range missiles and ongoing advances from Russia as both sides seek to put themselves in the strongest negotiating position possible before Trump takes office.
Zelensky called the Kursk offensive “one of our biggest wins,” which has cost Russia and North Korea, which sent soldiers to help Russia, thousands of troops. Zelensky said the offensive resulted in North Korea suffering 4,000 casualties, but US estimates put the number lower at about 1,200.
Zelensky said Ukraine will continue to need air defense systems and munitions to defend against Russia’s missile attacks.
The latest US aid package includes missiles for air defense and for fighter jets, sustainment equipment for F-16s, armored bridging systems and small arms and ammunition.
The weapons are funded through presidential drawdown authority, meaning they can be pulled directly from US stockpiles, and the Pentagon is pushing to get them into Ukraine before the end of the month.
Unless there is another aid package approved, the Biden administration will leave about $3.85 billion in congressionally authorized funding for any future arms shipments to Ukraine. It will be up to Trump to decide whether or not to spend it.
“If Putin swallows Ukraine, his appetite will only grow,” Austin told the contact group leaders. “If tyrants learn that aggression pays, we will only invite even more aggression, chaos, and war.”
In the months since Trump’s election victory, Europeans have grappled with what that change will mean in terms of their fight to keep Russia from further advancing, and whether the post-World War II Western alliance will hold.
In recent days, Trump has threatened to take Greenland, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark — a NATO member — by military means if necessary. Such action would upend all norms of the historic NATO alliance and possibly require members to come to the defense of Denmark.
Austin declined to comment on Trump’s threat, but Pistorius called it “diplomatically astonishing.”
“Alliances are alliances, to stay alliances. Regardless of who is governing countries,” Pistorius said. “I’m quite optimistic that remarks like that won’t really influence US politics after the 20th of January.”
Globally, countries including the US have ramped up weapons production as the Ukraine war exposed that all of those stockpiles were woefully unprepared for a major conventional land war.
The US has provided about $66 billion of the total aid since February 2022 and has been able to deliver most of that total — between 80 percent and 90 percent — already to Ukraine.
Far from Hollywood’s wealth, Los Angeles fire survivors feel forgotten
- Altadena residents fear unequal resource allocation post-fire
- Concerns over insurance payouts and gentrification rise
ALTADENA: In the close-knit Los Angeles suburb of Altadena, where rows of neat bungalows once nestled in the shadow of the San Gabriel mountains, smoldering ruins and the skeletal frames of burnt out cars now lie.
While the fires that have devastated celebrity neighborhoods near Malibu have caught the world’s attention, a similar size blaze in Eaton Canyon, north of Los Angeles, has ravaged Altadena, a racially and economically diverse community.
Black and Latino families have lived in Altadena for generations and the suburb is also popular with younger artists and engineers working at the nearby NASA rocket lab, who were attracted by the small town vibe and access to nature.
Many residents told Reuters they were concerned that government resources would be channeled toward high-profile areas popular with A-Listers, while insurance companies might shortchange less affluent households that don’t have the financial means to contest fire claims.
“They’re not going to give you the value of your house ... if they do you really have to fight for it,” said Kay Young, 63, her eyes welling up with tears as she stared at a sprawl of smoking rubble, the remnants of a home that has been in her family for generations.
Inez Moore, 40, whose family home in Altadena was destroyed by the fire, said communities like theirs would likely suffer financially more than wealthier suburbs because many people don’t have the resources or experience to navigate complex bureaucratic systems.
“You’re going to have some folks who are not going to get as much as they deserve, and some folks who may get more than actually they need,” said Moore, a lecturer at California State University.
Moore, Young and several other residents told Reuters they didn’t see any fire engines in Altadena in the early hours of Wednesday when they fled flames engulfing their community, fueling a resentment that their neighborhood wasn’t a priority.
“We didn’t get help here. I don’t know where everybody was,” said Jocelyn Tavares, 32, as her sister and daughter dug through the smoking debris of a life upended — a child’s bicycle half-melted, a solitary cup miraculously spared from the flames.
Los Angeles County Fire Department did not respond to a request for comment about the residents’ complaints.
REBUILD
Since breaking out on Tuesday night, the Eaton Fire has killed at least five people and grown to 13,690 acres as of Thursday night, consuming much of the northern half of Altadena, an unincorporated community of some 40,000 people.
As late as 1960, Altadena was almost entirely white. As new highways built in urban renewal projects tore apart Los Angeles neighborhoods, African American families began buying homes in what remained for decades a relatively affordable community.
Residents told Reuters they paid around $50,000 for a three-bedroom home in Altadena in the 1970s. The same house would cost more than $1 million today.
By 1990, nearly 40 percent of residents were Black. Today, about 18 percent are Black, 49 percent white and 27 percent are Hispanic or Latino, according to the US Census Bureau.
Altadena residents voiced concerns that the area may become more gentrified if families who have lived here for generations could not secure insurance payouts to cover the cost to rebuild a home that they bought cheap decades ago.
Despite the widespread wreckage, many locals were upbeat about the community rising from the ashes, sharing tales of narrow escapes and memories of decades spent growing up together with neighbors who were now sharing in the disaster.
“There are rows of us that went to school together,” said Young, gesturing to a vast stretch of scorched foundations.
Michael McCarthy, 68, a clerk in the City of Los Angeles, said his home was saved by a neighbor who risked his life by staying behind after everyone else had fled, using a hose to spray water on their roofs.
“I know this community will rebuild, everybody knows everybody here, everybody loves everybody,” said McCarthy, who is due to retire this year.
“Well, I got a new job now, and that’s putting all this back together and do what I can for the neighborhood.”
Djokovic claims he was ‘poisoned’ before 2022 Australian Open deportation
- Novak Djokovic has claimed that he was “poisoned” by lead and mercury in his food while he was briefly held in Melbourne in 2022 before being deported on the eve of the Australian Open
MELBOURNE: Novak Djokovic has claimed that he was “poisoned” by lead and mercury in his food while he was briefly held in Melbourne in 2022 before being deported on the eve of the Australian Open.
The former world number one had his visa canceled and was eventually kicked out of the country over his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid.
He was held in a detention hotel as he fought a fruitless legal battle to remain.
“I had some health issues. And I realized that in that hotel in Melbourne I was fed some food that poisoned me,” the 37-year-old Djokovic told GQ magazine in a lengthy interview published Thursday.
“I had some discoveries when I came back to Serbia. I never told this to anybody publicly, but discoveries that I had a really high level of heavy metal. I had lead, a very high level of lead and mercury.”
When asked if he believed his food was contaminated, the Serb replied: “That’s the only way.”
Djokovic refused to elaborate on Friday in Melbourne when asked if he had any evidence that his high heavy metal blood levels were linked to the food he was given.
But he did not back down from the poisoning allegations.
“The GQ article came out yesterday ... I’ve done that interview many months ago,” Djokovic said as he was preparing for a tilt at an 11th Australian Open title and 25th Grand Slam crown.
“I would appreciate not talking more in detail about that because I’d like to focus on the tennis and why I am here.
“If you want to see what I’ve said and get more info on that, you can always revert to the article.”
A spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Home Affairs said it could not comment on individual cases “for privacy reasons.”
But the government says a lease agreement with the Park Hotel where he was held provides for freshly cooked, individually portioned lunches and dinners for detainees.
All catering staff have undertaken food safety certifications, it says.
And, as of December 31, 2021, the hotel had been providing samples of the food provided to detainees at each meal to the contractor responsible for detention services.
Australia says detainees had access to a variety of food and drink that was nutritious, culturally appropriate and satisfied specific medical or dietary requirements.
They were also offered breakfast items such as bread, cereal, noodles, tea and coffee at any time of the day or night.
Djokovic insisted that he does not hold “any grudge over the Australian people” despite the 2022 controversy. A year later, he returned to Melbourne where he swept to the title.
“A lot of Australian people that I meet in Australia the last few years or elsewhere in the world, have come up to me, apologizing to me for the treatment I received because they were embarrassed by their own government at that point,” he said in the GQ article.
“And I think the government’s changed, and they reinstated my visa, and I was very grateful for that.
“I actually love being there, and I think my results are a testament to my sensation of playing tennis and just being in that country.”
However, he added: “Never met the people that deported me from that country a few years ago. I don’t have a desire to meet with them. If I do one day, that’s fine as well. I’m happy to shake hands and move on.”
Coldplay lights up chilly Abu Dhabi with visual and auditory spectacle
- Band began 4-day UAE concert series on Thursday
- Show is part of their Music of the Spheres World Tour
DUBAI: Grammy Award-winning band Coldplay lit up a chilly Abu Dhabi with a visual and auditory spectacle on Thursday at Zayed Sports City Stadium, for the first of their four-day concert series that is a part of their Music of the Spheres World Tour.
The setlist featured crowd favorites including “All the Love,” “Yellow,” “Hymn for the Weekend,” “Paradise,” “The Scientist,” “Clocks,” and “A Sky Full of Stars.”
Adoring fans wore glowing wristbands that pulsed in sync with the music. There were bursts of confetti, large illuminated planets suspended throughout the stadium, and balloons floating across the crowd.
Coldplay engaged with the audience, including having a couple reveal their baby’s gender, drawing cheers from the crowd.
Frontman Chris Martin charmed the audience further by speaking in Arabic. “Assalamu alaikum, wa masa’ al khair. Shukran jazeelan,” he said, translating to “Peace to you, and good evening. Thank you very much.”
Before Coldplay’s set, Chilean-Palestinian singer Elyanna warmed up the crowd with a captivating performance, singing hits including “Ganeni” and “Mama Eh.”
Later, she joined Coldplay on stage to perform their collaborative track, “We Pray.”
The concert ended with a breathtaking fireworks display.
Coldplay will perform in the UAE capital on Jan. 11, 12 and 14.
