Syrian activists: Airstrikes hit hospital in rebel village

This picture taken on August 21, 2019 shows the damaged interior of an operating room following a reported air strike on a makeshift clinic in the area of Tallmannis in Syria's northern Idlib province. (AFP)
Updated 21 August 2019
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Syrian activists: Airstrikes hit hospital in rebel village

  • There was no immediate word on casualties from the airstrike on the Rahma hospital
  • Ten of thousands of people have fled to Syria’s border with Turkey in the last few days

DUBAI: Airstrikes hit a hospital in a rebel-held village in northwestern Syria, knocking it out of service early on Wednesday, opposition activists said as government forces pressed their offensive on the last major rebel stronghold in the war-torn country.
There was no immediate word on casualties from the airstrike on the Rahma hospital in Tel Mannas, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Thiqa news agency, an activist collective.
The Observatory said the hospital was struck four times but that it had been evacuated hours earlier.
Earlier this month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres authorized an investigation into attacks on health facilities and schools in the rebel-held enclave, following a petition from Security Council members.
Wednesday’s airstrike was one of several to hit Idlib province, home to some 3 million people and the area where government forces have been on the offensive for months.
The violence came a day after the main insurgent group in Idlib pulled out of Khan Sheikhoun, a key rebel town, as government forces advanced in the area slowly, clearing land mines and explosives.
The withdrawal of Al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham from Khan Sheikhoun is a blow to the opposition. Syrian government forces have been on the offensive in Idlib and northern parts of Hama province since April 30, which have killed more than 2,000 people, including hundreds of civilians.
Ten of thousands of people have fled to Syria’s border with Turkey in the last few days, residents, rights groups and opposition sources said on Wednesday.
They left Maarat Al-Numan, a city in Idlib province that has been a sanctuary for families fleeing former rebel areas, as a Russian-led push has come close to capturing the strategic town of Khan Sheikhoun further south.
“The flow of cars and vehicles leaving is not stopping,” said Abdullah Younis from the city. Rescuers there said around 60,000 people had fled in the last four days alone.
On Tuesday, Russian and Syrian jets intensified their bombing of scattered villages and towns around Maarat Al-Numan, with the Al-Rahma hospital in the area struck, residents said.
“There were 15 raids on Jarjanaz in less than five minutes,” Abdul Rahman al Halabi told Reuters from the area.
On Wednesday, government forces captured the Teraei Hill, east of the town of Khan Sheikhoun. Syrian government forces are trying to capture more ground to meet troops marching from the west in order to lay siege on rebel-held towns and villages in the central province of Hama, according to the Observatory.
Activists also reported fighting in the rebel-held areas in the Jabal Al-Akrad region in the coastal province of Latkia.
State media, broadcasting from the outskirts of Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday, said government forces were battling militants but had extended their advance and seized a highway running through the town.
Capturing Khan Sheikhoun would be an important gain for Moscow and its ally into the northwestern region, where Moscow has helped President Bashar Assad turn the tide against insurgents in the eight year conflict since stepping up its intervention in 2015.
Russia has thrown its weight behind the campaign, conducting thousands of raids and strikes on rebel-held northern Hama and southern Idlib in what Western military experts and opposition figures say is a “scorched earth strategy.”
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov acknowledged on Tuesday that Russia had military personnel on the ground in Idlib province, the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.
The Russian military has previously downplayed its direct role in the advance, where it used mercenaries and special forces as well as directing battles, according to Western intelligence sources.
The fall of Khan Sheikhoun ends rebel control over neighboring northern Hama province, where a leading rebel group, Jaish Al-Izza, had been until now defending the three major towns of Latamneh, Kfr Zita and Morek.
The latest Russian-backed advance since a cease-fire broke down over two weeks ago has been aided by thousands of new reinforcements including Iranian-backed militias who had been absent from earlier battles.
Rebels said a Turkish patrol on Wednesday moved from one of a dozen military posts established in the area under agreements reached with Russia in what they said was a message by Ankara that it won’t succumb to Syrian government pressure to pull out.
A suspected Syrian army strike on Monday hit a Turkish military convoy heading to an observation post near Khan Sheikhoun. Damascus denounced what it said was a Turkish attempt to save routed rebels.
The Turkish presence in northwestern Syria and extensive covert military aid it has extended to some Ankara-backed rebel factions had complicated the campaign to seize the last rebel bastion, both Syrian military experts and rebels say.
A senior Turkish security official told Reuters talks were going on with Russia over the fate of convoy that was en route to an outpost near the frontline and that it had not moved since the strike but there was no question “it would be abandoned.”
After months of stalemate Russia has increased the intensity of raids in the last 10 days, transforming the situation on the ground. Hundreds of civilians have been killed and at least 400,000 people displaced, according to medics and NGOs and the United Nations.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights,(SNHR), which monitors casualties and briefs various UN agencies, said 196 children were among the 843 civilians killed in the Russian and Syrian raids since the campaign began last April.
“The bombing has escalated this week and this makes it likely they will win since they are absolving themselves from the rules of war by indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas and use of internationally banned weapons,” Fadel Abdul Ghany, chairman of SNHR, told Reuters.
Moscow and Damascus, who deny indiscriminate bombing of civilians areas or targeting hospitals, say they are fighting extremist militants drawn from across the world.

(With AP and Reuters)


Gaza rescuers say eight dead in Israel strike on school building

Updated 5 sec ago
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Gaza rescuers say eight dead in Israel strike on school building

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal confirmed eight people, including two children and two women, were killed by Israeli shelling on the Halwa school
The Israeli military, in a statement, acknowledged it conducted a strike on the facility

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency said an Israeli air strike on a school-turned-shelter on Saturday killed eight people, including two children, while the Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants.
Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal confirmed eight people, including two children and two women, were killed by Israeli shelling on the Halwa school in the northern Gaza city of Jabalia.
Bassal said the strike wounded 30 people, including 19 children, and that the Halwa school housed “thousands of displaced people.”
The Israeli military, in a statement, acknowledged it conducted a strike on the facility.
It said the air force “conducted a precise strike on terrorists in a command-and-control center” that had previously served as the Halwa school in Jabaliya.
It said it targeted the premises because “the school had been used by Hamas terrorists to plan and execute attacks.”
The attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for more than 14 months.
A strike on the United Nations-run Al-Jawni school in central Gaza on September 11 drew international outcry after the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said six of its staff were among the 18 reported dead.
The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter — a charge denied by the Palestinian militant group.
At least 46,537 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry. The United Nations has acknowledged these figures as reliable.
The October 7 attack that triggered it resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.

Sudan army says entered key RSF-held Al-Jazira state capital

Updated 25 min 39 sec ago
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Sudan army says entered key RSF-held Al-Jazira state capital

  • The armed forces “congratulated” the Sudanese people in a statement on “our forces entering the city of Wad Madani this morning“
  • A video the army shared on social media showed fighters claiming to be inside Wad Madani

PORT SUDAN: The Sudanese military and allied armed groups launched an offensive Saturday on key Al-Jazira state capital Wad Madani, entering the city after more than a year of paramilitary control, the army said.
The armed forces “congratulated” the Sudanese people in a statement on “our forces entering the city of Wad Madani this morning.”
Sudan’s army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries have been at war since April 2023, leading to what the UN calls the world’s worst displacement crisis and declarations of famine in parts of the northeast African country.
A video the army shared on social media showed fighters claiming to be inside Wad Madani, after an army source told AFP they had “stormed the city’s eastern entrance.”
The footage appeared to be shot on the western side of Hantoub Bridge in northern Wad Madani, which has been under RSF control since December 2023.
The office of army-allied government spokesman and Information Minister Khalid Al-Aiser said the army had “liberated” the city.
With a months-long communications blackout in place, AFP was not able to independently verify the situation on the ground.
“The army and allied fighters have spread out around us across the city’s streets,” one eyewitness told AFP from his home in central Wad Madani, requesting anonymity for his safety.
Eyewitnesses in army-controlled cities across Sudan reported dozens taking to the streets celebrating the army offensive.
In the early months of the war between the army and the RSF, more than half a million people had sought shelter in Al-Jazira, before a lightning offensive by paramilitary forces displaced upwards of 300,000 in December 2023, according to the United Nations.
Most have been repeatedly displaced since, as the feared paramilitaries — which the United States this week said have “committed genocide” — moved further and further south.
The war has killed tens of thousands and uprooted more than 12 million overall, more than three million of whom have fled across borders.


Franco-Algerian influencer to stand trial in March

Updated 11 January 2025
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Franco-Algerian influencer to stand trial in March

  • A diplomatic row between France and Algeria has flared up over the arrests of several Algerian social media influencers accused of inciting violence
  • Sofia Benlemmane, a Franco-Algerian woman in her fifties, was arrested on Thursday

LYON: A Franco-Algerian influencer, arrested as part of an investigation into online hate videos, appeared before French prosecutors on Saturday and will stand trial in March, authorities said.
A diplomatic row between France and Algeria has flared up over the arrests of several Algerian social media influencers accused of inciting violence.
Sofia Benlemmane, a Franco-Algerian woman in her fifties, was arrested on Thursday.
Followed on TikTok and Facebook by more than 300,000 people, she is accused of spreading hate messages and threats against Internet users and against opponents of the Algerian authorities, as well as insulting statements about France.
She was ordered to appear before a criminal court on March 18, the public prosecutor’s office said.
She is being prosecuted for a series of offenses including incitement to commit a crime, death threats and “public insult based on origin, ethnicity, nation, race or religion.”
The blogger had insulted a woman during a live broadcast in September, shouting “I hope you get killed, I hope they kill you.”
Her lawyer Frederic Lalliard argued that Benlemmane had committed no criminal offense, even though her comments “may irritate or shock.”
Benlemmane, a former football player, made headlines in 2001 when she was given a seven-month suspended prison sentence for entering the Stade de France pitch outside Paris with an Algerian flag during a France-Algeria friendly match.
Although she was firmly opposed to the government in Algiers in the past, her views have since changed and she now supports the current authorities in Algeria.
Several other Algerian influencers have been the target of legal proceedings in France for hate speech.
Former prime minister Gabriel Attal said that France should cancel a 1968 accord with Algeria that gives Algerians special rights to live and work in France because of the dispute over what he called “preachers of hate.”
Algeria won independence from France in 1962 after a seven-year war.


Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says 32 killed in 48 hours

Updated 11 January 2025
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Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says 32 killed in 48 hours

  • The ministry said at least 109,571 people have been wounded in more than 15 months of war
  • The ministry of health added 499 deaths to its death toll on Saturday

JERUSALEM: The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Saturday that 32 people were killed in the Palestinian territory over the past 48 hours, taking the overall death toll to 46,537.
The ministry said at least 109,571 people have been wounded in more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas, triggered by the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack.
The ministry of health added 499 deaths to its death toll on Saturday, specifying they have now completed the data and confirmed identities on files whose information was incomplete.
A source in the ministry’s data collection department told AFP that all the 499 additional deaths were from the past several months.
The number of dead in Gaza has become a matter of bitter debate since Israel launched its military campaign against Hamas in response to the Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented attack last year.
Israeli authorities have repeatedly questioned the credibility of the Gaza health ministry’s figures.
But a study published Friday by British medical journal The Lancet estimated that the death toll in Gaza during the first nine months of the Israel-Hamas war was around 40 percent higher than recorded by the health ministry.
The new peer-reviewed study used data from the ministry, an online survey and social media obituaries, but only counted deaths from traumatic injuries. It did not include those from a lack of health care or food, or the thousands of missing believed to be buried under rubble.
The UN considers the Gaza health ministry’s numbers to be reliable.


Lebanon’s new president says to visit Saudi Arabia on first official trip

Updated 11 January 2025
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Lebanon’s new president says to visit Saudi Arabia on first official trip

  • Lebanese leader tells crown prince that ‘Saudi Arabia would be the first destination in his visits abroad’

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s newly-elected president, Joseph Aoun, will visit Saudi Arabia following an invitation from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to a statement posted on the Lebanese presidency’s X account on Saturday.

Prince Mohammed has congratulated Aoun, during a phone call, on his election and conveyed to him the congratulations of Saudi King Salman.

The Crown Prince also expressed his sincere congratulations and hopes for success to Aoun and the people of Lebanon, with wishes for further progress and prosperity.

Aoun told the crown prince that “Saudi Arabia would be the first destination in his visits abroad,” it said, after the Saudi prince called to congratulate him on taking office on Thursday following a two-year vacancy in the position.

The statement did not specify a date for the visit.

Aoun, 61, was elected as the country’s 14th president by parliamentarians during a second round of voting on Thursday, breaking a 26-month deadlock over the position.

In his speech after taking his oath of office before parliament, he said that the country was entering a new phase.

The Mediterranean country has been without a president since the term of Michel Aoun – not related – ended in October 2022, with tensions between the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and its opponents scuppering a dozen previous votes.