BEIRUT: The US-led anti-militant coalition hit back Sunday at reports its air strikes on a Daesh group holdout in eastern Syria had killed civilians, appearing to accuse regime forces of targeting the area.
The militant Daesh group overran large swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq in 2014, declaring a “caliphate” in territory it controlled, but has since lost most of it to various offensives.
In war-torn Syria, multiple offensives have now whittled down territory Daesh once controlled to a small pocket in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor on the Iraqi border.
A Kurdish-led alliance backed by the coalition is battling to expel Daesh from that holdout on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, while Russian-backed regime forces have been fighting the militants west of the river.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said coalition strikes on Saturday killed 43 people, including 36 family members of Daesh fighters in the village of Abu Al-Husn in the militant pocket.
But the coalition denied that its air raids there had killed any non-combatants.
The US envoy for the coalition, Brett McGurk, on Sunday appeared to blame regime forces stationed “across the river” for bombarding the area.
“Reports of civilian casualties attributed to coalition strikes are false. All other forces should cease uncoordinated fires from across the river immediately,” he said on Twitter.
In a statement late Saturday, the coalition reported 19 coalition strikes on Daesh targets “free of civilian presence” between late Friday and Saturday afternoon in the militant enclave, which includes the town of Hajjin.
But the coalition “detected a total of ten additional strikes in the same area of Hajjin that did not originate from the coalition or partner forces,” it added.
It called “on all other actors to cease uncoordinated fires across the Euphrates.”
The Observatory said regime forces and Daesh fighters exchanged fire across the river on Saturday, but pro-government shelling did not hit Abu Al-Husn.
The Britain-based war monitor says it obtains its information from sources inside Syria, and determines who carries out air strikes according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions involved.
The US-led international coalition has consistently denied reports by the Observatory in recent weeks that its air raids have killed civilians.
It says it investigates allegations of civilian casualties thoroughly.
Syria’s war has killed more than 360,000 people since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
Since 2014, the US-led coalition has acknowledged direct responsibility for over 1,100 civilian deaths in Syria and Iraq, but rights groups put the number much higher.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who are backed by the coalition, launched an assault to seize the eastern pocket around Hajjin from Daesh in September.
The SDF assault was slowed by a fierce militant fightback, and then briefly put on hold to protest Turkish shelling of Kurdish militia positions in northern Syria.
An SDF commander Saturday said his forces were advancing cautiously due to “fields of land mines, trenches, tunnels and barricades set up by IS,” referring to another acronym for Daesh.
On another front, regime forces on Saturday regained control from Daesh of a volcanic plateau in the south of the country after weeks of fighting.
Pro-government fighters took over Tulul Al-Safa between the provinces of Damascus and Sweida “after IS fighters withdrew from it and headed east into the Badia desert,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
State news agency SANA reported regime forces had made “a great advance in Tulul Al-Safa” and were combing the area for any remaining militants.
Government forces had been fighting Daesh in Tulul Al-Safa since a deadly militant attack against the country’s Druze minority in Sweida province on July 25.
In the deadliest attack against the Druze in the seven-year war, Daesh killed more than 260 people, most of them civilians, in suicide bombings, shootings, and stabbings.
Saturday’s victory in Tulul Al-Safa leaves Daesh contained in the Deir Ezzor pocket, although it also has a presence in the vast Badia desert stretching across the country to the Iraqi border.
After pushing back the militants from parts of northeastern Syria, analysts say the SDF is also likely to oust Daesh eventually from its eastern holdout.
“IS does not have great chances to remain in control of the pocket of Hajjin,” said Julien Theron of the Paris Institute of Political Studies.
The coalition-SDF alliance “has already shown a great efficiency against IS-held territory in the recent past,” he said.
Coalition hits back over reported civilian deaths in east Syria
Coalition hits back over reported civilian deaths in east Syria
- 43 people were killed in the strikes launched by the coalition
- The US-led coalition has consistently denied reports by the Observatory in recent days
US general urges repatriation of foreign Daesh fighters in meeting with Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria
- 9,000 Daesh detainees from over 50 different countries remain in SDF guarded detention facilities in Syria, CENTCOM said
- Supported by the US, the SDF spearheaded the military campaign that ousted Daesh jihadists from Syria in 2019
BEIRUT: US Central Command said its chief met with Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria and urged the repatriation of foreign Daesh fighters, as Kurds battle Turkiye-backed groups in the region.
General Michael Kurilla met US military commanders and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Thursday “to get an assessment” of efforts to defeat Daesh and prevent its regional resurgence, as well as “the evolving situation in Syria,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
The United States and other Western countries as well as Syria’s neighbors have emphasized the need for the country’s new rulers to combat “terrorism and extremism.”
Supported by Washington, the SDF spearheaded the military campaign that ousted Daesh (also known as IS) group jihadists from Syria in 2019 and controls dozens of prisons and camps where thousands of militants and their suspected relatives, including foreigners, are held.
SDF chief Mazloum Abdi said in a statement that he met Kurilla “recently” for a meeting that “was crucial for assessing Syria’s current situation and joint operations” against Daesh.
The SDF “reaffirmed the importance of strengthening partnerships and the critical role of the US in achieving a permanent ceasefire in Northeast Syria and ensuring security and stability across the entire country,” he added.
CENTCOM, which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, said Kurilla visited the Al-Hol camp which, together with a smaller facility, houses more than 40,000 people, many of them with ties to Daesh.
It added that “without international repatriation, rehabilitation, and reintegration efforts,” such camps “risk creating the next generation” of Islamic State members.
An additional 9,000 Daesh detainees “from over 50 different countries remain in over a dozen SDF guarded detention facilities in Syria,” CENTCOM said.
Neighbouring Turkiye, a key backer of Islamist-led rebels who ousted longtime Syrian ruler Bashar Assad last month, sees the main component of the SDF, the YPG People’s Protection Units, as affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Both Turkiye and the United States consider the PKK a “terrorist” group. It has waged a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil.
Turkiye has been threatening to launch a military operation against the SDF, prompting US-led diplomatic efforts to avert a major confrontation even as fighting continues.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Friday that battles between the SDF and Turkiye-backed fighters in the Manbij region and near a strategic dam had killed 401 people since December 12, most of them combatants.
Turkiye has offered Syria’s new leadership operational support in the fight against jihadist groups, and even offered to help run prisons holding IS fighters.
Earlier this month, the SDF said it held talks with Syria’s new authorities and expressed support for Syrian “unity.”
During a visit to Ankara this week, Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani said Syria would never allow its territory to be used as a staging ground for threats against Turkiye.
Syria would “work on removing these threats,” he said, referring to the SDF, the de-facto army of the semi-autonomous Kurdish-led administration that controls swathes of northeastern Syria.
On Thursday in Iraq, Abdi met Masoud Barzani, who heads the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region, a statement from Barzani’s office said.
It noted the need for Syria’s Kurds “to reach understandings and agreements with the new authorities.”
The United States maintains troops in northern Syria as part of an anti-jihadist coalition.
Daughter of one of the oldest Israeli hostages hopes for answers in ceasefire deal
- Israel has killed more than 46,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry
LONDON: Sharone Lifschitz is well aware that the odds are against her 84-year-old father. As one of the oldest hostages taken by Hamas, Oded Lifshitz would be among the first to be released under a ceasefire deal expected to begin Sunday.
But after 469 days of captivity in Gaza, she can only hope he survived.
“We have learned so much about trauma, about losing loved ones,’’ the London-based artist said. “I have to say that we are prepared.’’
About 100 hostages remain unaccounted for in Gaza, including 62 who are believed to be alive. Family and friends are still waiting to learn who survived and about their conditions.
Lifschitz’s ordeal began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants stormed kibbutz Nir Oz, a place where her parents had created their own little kingdom, complete with a cactus garden that was her father’s pride. The militants took a quarter of the community’s 400 residents hostage that day, including her parents.
“My father was shot in the hand and was lying at the edge of his kingdom,’’ said Lifschitz, 53. “That’s when my mom saw him last, and she was taken over on a motorbike and then the terrorists burned the house down. They put gas into the house, and it burned and it burned and it burned until everything they ever owned, everything, was ashes.’’
Oded Lifshitz, who spells his name slightly differently than his daughter, wasn’t spared, even though he spent his life fighting for Arab rights.
Throughout a long career in journalism, Oded campaigned for the recognition of Palestinian rights and peace between Arabs and Jews. In retirement, he drove to the Erez border crossing on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip once a week to ferry Palestinians to medical appointments in Israel as part of a group called On the Way to Recovery.
Oded is most proud of his work on behalf of the traditionally nomadic Bedouin people of the Negev Desert, his daughter said, describing a case that went to Israel’s High Court and resulted in the return of some of their land.
That deep-seated hope for co-existence was evident when the militants released Lifschitz’s mother, Yocheved, on Oct. 23, 2023. Just before leaving Gaza, Yocheved turned to her captors and said “shalom,’’ the Hebrew word for peace.
Yocheved later described her experience as hell, saying she was beaten with sticks and held in a spider’s web of tunnels with as many as 25 other hostages. But she also said her guards provided medicine to those who needed it and gave the hostages pita bread with cheese and cucumber to eat.
Lifschitz said she wonders every day about her father’s treatment and how he is faring.
“I am the last one to put words into his mouth, but I can tell you that he spent a lifetime believing that another alternative is possible for Zionism, for socialism,” she said.
Hamas militants killed about 1,200 Israelis and took 251 hostages during the Oct. 7 attack. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched air and ground attacks on Gaza that have killed more than 46,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The ceasefire proposal calls for 33 hostages to be released over the next six weeks, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. The remainder, including the bodies of the dead, are to be released in a second phase that is still under negotiation. Hamas has said it will not release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
The contours of the agreement are strikingly similar to those negotiated by the administration of outgoing US President Joe Biden in May. But Israel rejected that deal.
That outraged the families of many of the captives, especially after hostages continued to die.
The families have pushed hard for their loved ones’ release, leading a series of protests to force the Israeli government to live up to its promise to bring the hostages home. They have also crisscrossed the globe, meeting with presidents, prime ministers and even the pope to keep the hostages at the center of negotiations.
“So many people were killed that should have been alive if they did not sabotage this deal,” Lifschitz said. “I hope that they know they will have to live with that for the rest of their life, and we will remind them. We will remind them of ... the suffering of both sides their action brought about.”
But even as she describes the anguish of the past 15 months, Lifschitz says she hopes the pain experienced by people on both sides of the conflict will breed compassion among both Israelis and Palestinians.
“We are about to receive our loved ones after so long where we were unable to love and care for them.’’ She said. “There’s so much trauma. I think people have to have a little softness toward it all, just feel it a bit in their hearts.
“I think feeling the pain of others is the start of building something better.’’
And if her father doesn’t come back? Then what?
“We will know,’’ she said. “We will know.’’
Israel prepares for hostages’ return with scant knowledge of their condition
- The war that followed the attack has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and militants but say women and children make up more than half of those killed
TEL AVIV, Israel: Israel is preparing for the return of the hostages from Gaza with the expectation that many are likely to have severe, life-threatening complications after more than a year in captivity in Gaza.
While it’s impossible to know the exact conditions in which hostages have been held, the Health Ministry and the Hostages Family Forum, which represents families of the hostages, are preparing for several different scenarios based on information gathered from hostages previously released or rescued.
Hamas militants kidnapped about 250 people during a cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that also left 1,200 people dead. About 100 hostages are still being held, though Israel believes a third of them are no longer alive.
The war that followed the attack has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and militants but say women and children make up more than half of those killed.
Hagai Levine, who heads the health team at the Hostages Families Forum, said he expects the hostages to return with cardiovascular and respiratory issues due to lack of ventilation in the tunnels. Among multiple other afflictions Levine expects are vitamin deficiencies, starvation, dramatic weight loss, vision problems due to a lack of sunlight, broken bones, cognitive impairment and mental health trauma.
As a result, doctors are expecting the hostages will require longer and more complex medical and mental health interventions than did those who returned after the last ceasefire in November 2023, said Dr. Einat Yehene, a psychologist at the Hostages Families Forum who oversees the captives’ rehabilitation.
Complex medical challenges
Doctors are keenly aware of the challenges they face in treating the surviving hostages. One of them is “refeeding syndrome,” when exposure to certain foods or too much food can lead to profound health complications and even death in those with prolonged vitamin and nutritional deficiencies, said Dr. Hagar Mizrahi, head of the Ministry of Health’s medical directorate.
The Red Cross team that will transfer the hostages from Gaza to Egypt and the small Israeli military medical team that will meet the hostages at the border as they cross into Israel have strict guidelines for what the hostages can eat in their first few hours, Mizrahi said.
Six hospitals are preparing to receive hostages, including two in the south, closer to Gaza, that will treat those with acute medical issues, health ministry officials said.
Yehene said the public should not expect joyful reunions like those seen following the last ceasefire, when released hostages ran through hospital halls into the ecstatic embraces of their loved ones.
“Given the physical and emotional conditions, we expect emotional withdrawal symptoms, such as maybe exhaustion, fatigue — and some will probably need assistance with their mobility,” she said.
Medical officials are also prepared for the possibility that returning hostages will need speech therapy, especially if they have been kept in isolation, Yehene noted. She said some might be so traumatized or in shock from the transfer to Israel that they will be unable to speak at all.
To minimize the hostages’ trauma and allow them to acclimate to their new reality, officials will try to limit the number of people who interact with them and have made accommodations to lessen their sensory stimulation, such as stripping down the hospital rooms and changing the lighting.
Israel’s Ministry of Social Welfare has also planned temporary housing solutions if hostages feel unable to return directly from the hospital to their home.
“The hostages don’t owe you anything”
Experts are pleading with the news media and the public to give the hostages and their families privacy, despite intense interest in their plight.
“The first days back are really holy, when a person finally gets to meet with their family, and everyone else needs to take a step back,” said Ofrit Shapira, a psychoanalyst who heads a group of health professionals treating freed hostages, their families, and survivors of the Oct. 7 attack. Hospital wings housing the hostages are expected to be “sterilized,” closed to all but direct family and doctors, to keep the public and news outlets away, medical officials have said.
“It doesn’t matter how much we care about them; they’re their own people, they’re not ‘ours,’” Shapira added. She noted that asking the hostages direct questions about their experiences can force them to relive their trauma. She said it’s best to allow them to release information at their own pace.
“Our curiosity is really not important compared with what the hostages need,” she said. “It doesn’t matter how much you volunteered or were active in this fight; they don’t owe you anything.”
Support for the families
Some of the previously freed hostages and their families have volunteered to help counsel those now going through the same process, Levine said. He noted the strength of the bonds created between the relatives of the hostages, and between the released hostages, who have become like “psychological families” helping each other adapt and heal, he said.
Many released hostages are neglecting their own rehabilitation because they are so wrapped up in the fight to bring the others home, Levine said.
A big priority is also to provide support for the families of hostages who did not survive.
Israel has confirmed the deaths of at least a third of the approximately 90 remaining captives. But Hamas has not confirmed the status of the 33 who are expected to be freed in the first stage of the ceasefire. Some might no longer be alive.
“This moment of the releases is an emotional and psychological trigger for something they were supposed to experience, and they never will experience, because this deal took too long,” Yehene said.
Morocco denies links to alleged spy arrested in Germany
- German prosecutors said he had acted along with another Moroccan identified as Mohamed A, who was found guilty of espionage in 2023 and handed a suspended sentence of one year and nine months
RABAT: Moroccan authorities denied on Friday that they had any connection with a national detained in Germany on suspicion of spying on supporters of a protest group, an official told AFP.
The man, identified as Youssef El A., was arrested at Frankfurt airport on Wednesday and faces charges of “having worked for a Moroccan secret service” by spying on members of Al-Hirak Al-Shaabi (the Popular Movement) in Germany.
A Moroccan security source speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP he was a “radical activist” with a “hostile stance against the kingdom.”
The man “has no ties to Moroccan intelligence services and has never collected information for them,” the source said.
Instead, the source described him as “one of the most radical Hirak activists operating in Europe,” with links to a separatist group in the Rif region of northern Morocco.
German prosecutors said he had acted along with another Moroccan identified as Mohamed A, who was found guilty of espionage in 2023 and handed a suspended sentence of one year and nine months.
Mohamed A. reportedly received airline tickets for personal travel in exchange for information collected for Moroccan intelligence on supporters of the protest movement.
Youssef El A. had been detained in Spain on December 1, 2024 in response to an EU arrest warrant and was later extradited to Germany.
A judge ordered him remanded in custody on Thursday.
The Hirak movement emerged in the Rif region in 2016 following anger over the death of a fishmonger crushed by a bin lorry as he tried to recover swordfish seized by police.
It sparked protests demanding development projects for the long-marginalized region, which led to dozens of arrests.
Lebanese boy chokes to death at school attempting viral TikTok ‘one-bite challenge’
- 12-year old dies trying to eat croissant in a single bite, inspired by online videos of people eating various types of food in one go
- He attempted the challenge at Jannat Al-Atfal School
BEIRUT: A Lebanese schoolboy choked to death at school while attempting a food challenge that has gone viral on video-hosting platform TikTok.
Lebanese media reported on Friday that 12-year-old Joe Skaff died as he tried to eat a croissant in a single bite. He was said to have been inspired by the online “one-bite challenge” in which people post videos of themselves cramming various foods into their mouths to eat them in one go.
He attempted the challenge at Jannat Al-Atfal School in Keserwan, north of Beirut but began to choke on the pastry and was unable to breathe.
The school said: “With hearts filled with grief and sorrow, we mourn the death of our dear son and sixth-grader Joe Skaff. Today, during the first break, Joe was exposed to a sudden tragic accident where he suffocated while eating.”
Teachers and a licensed school nurse tried to help the youngster and clear the blockage before an ambulance arrived to take him to hospital but “attempts to save him were unsuccessful.”
The school added: “Joe was a special child with a bright personality and great kindness, and he was loved by his peers and all members of our school community.”
