No US policy change on Syria after Trump-Putin talks: Mattis

US Defense Secretary James Mattis gestures during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington. (REUTERS/File Photo)
Updated 28 July 2018
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No US policy change on Syria after Trump-Putin talks: Mattis

  • Syrian opposition’s chief negotiator Nasr Al-Hariri calls for a renewal of UN-brokered peace talks, saying the war is not yet lost
  • Hariri took aim at the international community for having allowed regime ally Russia to determine the course of the war

WASHINGTON/QUNEITRA, SYRIA: No policy changes came out of last week’s summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday, adding he had also not been given new direction on Syria.

“I have talked immediately after the Helsinki summit — both the (White House) chief of staff and the national security adviser, called me,” Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon. “There have been no policy changes that have come out of it.” 

The Syrian opposition’s chief negotiator, Nasr Al-Hariri, called for a renewal of UN-brokered peace talks while acknowledging “significant military losses” by rebel forces.

The fighters have “not lost the war” ravaging his country since 2011, the head of the Syrian Negotiation Commission insisted, playing down the likelihood of an all-out regime assault on the last major opposition bastion of Idlib in northwestern Syria.

Hariri took aim at the international community for having allowed regime ally Russia to determine the course of the war since its 2015 military intervention.

“By international consensus, military and non-military support for the opposition has been stopped, as well as political support to a great extent,” he said in  Riyadh.

Separately, dozens of Syrian pro-regime fighters and civilians on Friday celebrated their return to the abandoned town of Quneitra close to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights after opposition fighters quit the area.

Fighters from Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham had held Quneitra city and the adjacent frontier with a UN-controlled buffer zone, which has remained sealed for decades. The fighters were bussed out of the area last week to Idlib, after rejecting a Russia-brokered deal to hand over territory to the regime.

 

 


Strike on Gaza polio vaccine center wounds four children: WHO

Updated 9 sec ago
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Strike on Gaza polio vaccine center wounds four children: WHO

GENEVA: The World Health Organization (WHO) said six people including four children were hurt Saturday in a strike on a polio vaccination center in northern Gaza.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a message on X, that the UN agency had received “an extremely concerning report” that the center “was struck today while parents were bringing their children to the life-saving polio vaccination” drive.
Without naming who carried out the strike, he said the Sheikh Radwan primary health care center was “in an area where a humanitarian pause was agreed to allow vaccination to proceed.”
“Six people, including four children, were injured,” he added.
The Israeli military has been pounding northern Gaza in recent weeks as part of its campaign to crush the Hamas militant movement in retaliation for the militants’ attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023.
The WHO launched a needed second round of child polio vaccinations in northern Gaza on Saturday after Israeli bombing halted the drive.
The vaccination drive began on September 1 with a successful first round, after the besieged Palestinian territory confirmed its first case of polio in 25 years.
“A WHO team was at the site just before” Saturday’s strike, Ghebreyesus said.
“This attack, during humanitarian pause, jeopardizes the sanctity of health protection for children and may deter parents from bringing their children for vaccination,” he added.
“These vital humanitarian-area-specific pauses must be absolutely respected,” he said, calling for a ceasefire in the territory.
The WHO says some 119,000 children in the north are awaiting a second dose, while 452,000 have been vaccinated in central and southern Gaza.
Typically spread through sewage and contaminated water, poliovirus is highly infectious.
It can cause deformities and paralysis, and is potentially fatal, mainly affecting children under the age of five.
Hamas’s 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed 43,314 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry which the UN considers reliable.

Israeli commando unit abducts Lebanese maritime student

Updated 48 min 35 sec ago
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Israeli commando unit abducts Lebanese maritime student

  • According to a Lebanese military source and based on shared CCTV footage, the operation involved 20 to 25 commandos

BEIRUT: A Lebanese maritime student was abducted in Batroun, northern Lebanon, by Israeli commandos, authorities said on Saturday

Axios news portal reported that “the abductee was taken to be questioned on Hezbollah’s naval activities,” citing an Israeli official.

Leaked information identified the abductee as Imad Amhaz, a student at the Maritime Sciences and Technology Institute in Batroun, who was in his parents’ house at the time of the incident.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency said an “unidentified military force carried out a sea landing on the shore of Batroun, went with all its weapons and equipment to a chalet near the beach, and kidnapped a Lebanese man.”

According to a Lebanese military source and based on shared CCTV footage, the operation involved 20 to 25 commandos.

Caretaker Minister of Public Works and Transportation Ali Hamieh said that “the sea is under supervision, and we are waiting for the outcome of the investigations.”

Hamieh added that the Lebanese government will contact UNIFIL to know whether the operation was carried out in cooperation with the UN peacekeeping force.

A UNIFIL spokesperson said the force “has not been involved in facilitating any kidnapping or other violation of Lebanese sovereignty. Disinformation and false rumors are irresponsible and put peacekeepers at risk.”

An Israeli official told Axios that “the Israeli Navy SEALs captured Imad Amhaz — a senior member of Hezbollah’s naval force — in an operation in northern Lebanon.”

Lebanon accused Israel of carrying out the operation and violating Lebanese territorial waters, despite the presence of a UNIFIL maritime task force.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said one person was killed and 15 others were wounded on Saturday in an Israeli strike on Hezbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold.

The ministry announcement came as the official National News Agency said the “Israeli enemy launched a raid near Karout Mall ... in the southern suburbs of Beirut.”

A residential building was hit near the Galerie Semaan crossroads in Beirut’s southern suburb — an area struck for the first time.

Elsewhere, Israeli planes raided several buildings and apartments near the Imam Hussein Complex in Tyre, destroying them completely and injuring civilians.

Raids also targeted a house in Tebnine, near the governmental hospital, killing two people, severely injuring others, and significantly damaging the hospital and nearby buildings.

In Bekaa, the raids carried out by the Israeli military on Baalbek and its surroundings in the last 48 hours damaged the Roman wall outside the Temple of Baalbek, near the Gouraud Barracks, causing about 30 meters of the wall to collapse and severely damaging the historical monument.

Israel’s Channel 13 reported that “around 180 missiles have been launched from Lebanon toward the Galilee, Haifa and Acre since Saturday morning.”

Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee claimed on X that Israel eliminated Mueen Moussa Ezzeddin, the commander of the coastal sector of Hezbollah, and Hassan Majid Dhiab, the artillery commander in the area, who was responsible for the launches toward the outskirts of Haifa on Thursday. He accused both of being “responsible for firing over 400 rocket shells toward Israeli territory over the past month.”

Adraee reported that “over the past 24 hours, (Israeli forces) targeted anti-tank missile launch sites, terrorists, military buildings, weapons depots, and Hezbollah command centers deep in and south of Lebanon.”

Israeli reconnaissance aircraft consistently operated in Lebanese airspace, particularly over Beirut, the southern suburbs, the southern region, Bekaa, and extending to the north.

The Israeli military reiterated its warnings to displaced individuals against returning to their homes.

The death toll resulting from Israeli attacks on Lebanon reached 2,897 with 13,150 injured as of Friday.

Additional raids targeted once again the Al-Qaa to Jousieh border crossing, which connects Lebanon to Syria, putting it completely out of service.

The crossing is among six legal crossings that connect Lebanon to Syria, and leads to the Al-Qusayr district in western Homs on the Syrian side.

The crossing had been previously put out of service about a week ago, when Israeli raids targeted it from the Syrian side, killing four members of the Syrian military intelligence.

Israel claims that it is bombing border crossings “because Hezbollah is using them to transport weapons from Syria to Lebanon.”

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, “Israeli targets included most illegal land crossings to prevent the entry of supplies to Lebanon.

“There is ongoing Israeli aerial surveillance of crossings and the border area closely.”

The observatory said that since Sep. 26, “Israel has targeted the Syrian-Lebanese border with 31 raids, destroying many sites, putting several legal and illegal crossings out of service, and killing 28 people, including four Hezbollah members and four Syrians working with the militant party.”

It noted that “the Israeli raids put the main Masnaah-Jdeidet Yabous crossing between both countries out of service, as it was targeted twice,” adding that “the crossing is currently limited to pedestrians.”

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said the group targeted “the city of Safed and the Glilot base associated with Military Intelligence Unit 8200 in the outskirts of Tel Aviv, as well as the settlements of Dalton, Be’er Ya’akov, Sha’al, Yesud HaMa’ala, Bar Yohai (Safsaf), and the Kiryot area north of Haifa.”

Hezbollah announced that it launched “an aerial assault with a fleet of attack drones on the Palmachim Airbase, south of Tel Aviv.”

Additionally, it targeted “the Zevulon military industries base north of Haifa with qualitative missile salvo twice in a row, and it conducted an aerial attack with a squadron of attack drones on the Shraga base north of the city of Acre.”

Sirens sounded in 20 towns in northern Israel following a missile barrage from southern Lebanon.

The Israeli military announced that it “detected 15 missile launches from southern Lebanon and successfully intercepted the majority of them.”

Meanwhile, Israeli media reported “explosions heard in Acre, Nahariya, the Haifa Bay, and several towns in Galilee.”

The Israeli Air Force said it was “pursuing several drones that breached the airspace from Lebanon.”

Israeli media reported that the “David’s Sling system was activated to intercept missiles launched from Lebanon toward the Tel Aviv area.”

Hezbollah rockets targeted a building in the Arab town of Al-Tira, located approximately 25 km northeast of Tel Aviv, resulting in injuries to 19 individuals on Friday night.


Lebanon says one dead, 15 wounded in Israel strike on south Beirut

Updated 51 min 44 sec ago
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Lebanon says one dead, 15 wounded in Israel strike on south Beirut

  • The strike was not preceded by an Israeli evacuation warning

BEIRUT: Lebanon's health ministry said one person was killed and 15 others were wounded Saturday in an Israeli strike on Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold, which has been hard hit by the Israel-Hezbollah war.
The ministry announcement came as the official National News Agency said the "Israeli enemy launched a raid near Karout Mall... in the southern suburbs of Beirut".
The strike was not preceded by an Israeli evacuation warning.
According to an AFP photographer, the strike targeted an abandoned building, which includes a car dealership on the ground floor.
The area was cordoned of by the army and security forces.
Beirut's southern suburbs have been heavily bombed by Israel since its war with Hezbollah erupted in September.
The war has killed more than 1,900 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally based on figures from Lebanon's health ministry.


Archaeologists unearth an ancient Middle Kingdom Egyptian tomb in Luxor

Updated 02 November 2024
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Archaeologists unearth an ancient Middle Kingdom Egyptian tomb in Luxor

  • Some items such as jewelry in women’s burials were found intact, including a finely crafted necklace with 30 amethyst beads

CAIRO: Archaeologists from Egypt and the United States unearthed an ancient tomb with 11 sealed burials near the famed city of Luxor, Egyptian authorities said.
Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Ministry said in a statement Friday the tomb, which dates back to the Middle Kingdom (1938 B.C.-1630 B.C.), was found in the South Asasif necropolis, next to the Temple of Hatshepsut on the Nile’s West Bank in Luxor.
The joint Egyptian-American mission excavating the necropolis found coffins for men, women and children, suggesting that it was a family tomb used for generations during the 12th Dynasty and the beginning of the 13th Dynasty, said Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt.
He said ancient floods destroyed most of the burials’ wooden coffins and linen wrappings.
However, some items such as jewelry in women’s burials were found intact, including a finely crafted necklace with 30 amethyst beads and two cylindrical agate beads framing a hippo-head amulet, according to the statement.
Catherine Blakeney, chief American archaeologist with the mission, said they found two copper mirrors, one with a lotus-shaped handle, and the second with a unique design of Hathor, goddess of the sky, women, fertility and love in ancient Egypt.
The discovery came as Egypt has doubled efforts to attract more tourists, a significant source of foreign currency for the cash-strapped North African country. Tourism, which depends heavily on Egypt’s rich Pharaonic artifacts, suffered a long downturn after the political turmoil and violence that followed a 2011 uprising.
Last month, the Grand Egyptian Museum, a mega project near the famed Giza Pyramids, opened 12 halls exhibiting Pharaonic artifacts for visitors as a trial ahead of the yet-unannounced official opening.


Israel army says intercepted three drones over Red Sea

Updated 02 November 2024
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Israel army says intercepted three drones over Red Sea

  • Iraqi pro-Iran groups say carried out drone attack on Israel’s Eilat

Jerusalem: The Israeli military said on Saturday it had intercepted three drones launched from the east over the Red Sea, without specifying where they came from.
“A short while ago, three UAVs that were launched from the east were intercepted over the Red Sea.... the UAVs were intercepted prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” the military said in a statement.

Iraqi pro-Iran groups say carried out drone attack

A coalition of pro-Iran groups in Iraq said it carried out four drone attacks on the Israeli resort of Eilat on Saturday, after Israel said it intercepted three drones approaching from the east.
In a statement, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq it was behind the attacks on what it called “four vital targets” in the resort on Israel’s Red Sea coast, all conducted within one hour.