CHICAGO: There are “many more” regime prisons in Syria than previously believed, a high-level delegation of US diplomats said on Friday as they searched for missing Americans in the country.

In the first official visit to Syria by American officials in 12 years, the delegation met on Friday with members of the country’s interim leadership both to urge the formation of an inclusive government and to locate US citizens who disappeared during the conflict.

Western countries have sought to establish connections with senior figures in the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham militant group that led the offensive which forced President Bashar Assad from power this month.

Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, who led the US delegation, told journalists, including Arab News, that the delegates attended a commemorative event for “the tens of thousands of Syrians and non-Syrians alike who were detained, tortured, forcibly disappeared or are missing, and who brutally perished at the hands of the former regime.”

Among the missing Americans are freelance journalist Austin Tice, who was kidnapped in 2012, and Majid Kamalmaz, a psychotherapist from Texas who disappeared in 2017 and is thought to have died.

Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, who is part of the delegation, said the number of prisons in which detainees were tortured and killed by the Assad regime is much higher than suspected.

“We thought there’d be maybe 10 or 20,” he said. “It’s probably more like 40; it might even be more. They’re in little clusters at times. Sometimes they’re in the far outreaches of Damascus.

“Over 12 years, we’ve been able to pinpoint about six facilities that we believe have a high possibility of having had Austin Tice at one point or another. Now, over the last probably 11 or 12 days, we’ve received additional information based on the changing conditions, which leads us to add maybe one or two or three more facilities to that initial number of six.”

Carstens said the US has limited resources available in Syria and will focus on six of the prisons in an attempt to determine Tice’s fate. But he said the search would eventually expand to cover all 40 prison locations.

“We’re going to be like bulldogs on this,” he said. “We’re not going to stop until we find the information that we need to conclude what has happened to Austin, where he is, and to return him home to his family.”

He said the FBI cannot be present on the ground in Syria for an extended period of time to search for missing Americans “right now,” but suggested this might change in the future. Meanwhile, the US continues to work with “partners,” including nongovernmental organizations and the news media in Syria, he added.

Leaf confirmed the delegation met Ahmad Al-Sharaa, the commander of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, an Islamist group that was once aligned with Al-Qaeda and is still designated as a terrorist organization by Washington. She said she told Al-Sharaa the US would not pursue the $10 million reward for his capture, and hoped the group will be able to help locate Tice and other missing Americans.

The delegation received “positive messages” from the Syrian representatives they met during their short visit, Leaf said. America is committed to helping the Syrian people overcome “over five decades of the most horrifying repression,” she added.

“We will be looking for progress on these principles and actions, not just words,” she said. “I also communicated the importance of inclusion and broad consultation during this time of transition.

“We fully support a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process that results in an inclusive and representative government which respects the rights of all Syrians, including women and Syria's diverse ethnic and religious communities.”

Leaf said the US would be able to help with humanitarian assistance and work with Syrians to “seize this historic opportunity.”

She added: “We also discussed the critical need to ensure terrorist groups cannot pose a threat inside of Syria or externally, including to the US and our partners in the region. Ahmad Al-Sharaa committed to this.”

Bringing Assad to justice for his crimes, particularly those carried out during the civil war, which started in 2011, remains a priority for the US government, Leaf said.

“Syrians desperately want that,” she added.

She called on the international community to offer technical expertise and other support to help document Assad’s crimes, including evidence from the graves and mass graves that have been uncovered since his downfall on Dec. 8.

JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said Saturday it had failed to intercept a “projectile” launched from Yemen that landed near Tel Aviv, with the national medical service saying 14 people were lightly wounded.

“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in central Israel, one projectile launched from Yemen was identified and unsuccessful interception attempts were made,” the Israeli military said on its Telegram channel.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the missile attack in central Israel on Saturday, in a statement the Houthis said they had “targeted a military target of the Israeli enemy in the occupied area of” Tel Aviv using a ballistic missile. Israeli rescuers earlier reported 16 wounded in the attack.

Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have repeatedly launched missile attacks against Israel since the war in Gaza began more than a year ago, most of which have been intercepted.

In return, Israel has struck multiple targets in Yemen — including ports and energy facilities in areas controlled by the Houthis.

“A short time ago, reports were received of a weapon falling in one of the settlements within the Tel Aviv district,” Israeli police said Saturday.

According to Israeli media, the projectile fell in the town of Bnei Brak, east of Tel Aviv.

Israel’s emergency medical service said 14 people had been injured.

“Additional teams are treating several people on-site who were injured while heading to protected areas, as well as those suffering from anxiety,” a spokesman said.

The Houthi rebels say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians and last week pledged to continue operations “until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege is lifted.”

On December 9, a drone claimed by Houthis exploded on the top floor of a residential building in the central Israel city of Yavne, causing no casualties.

In July, a Houthi drone attack in Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian, prompting retaliatory strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.

The Houthis have also regularly targeted shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, leading to retaliatory strikes on Houthi targets by US and sometimes British forces.

The rebels said Thursday that Israeli air strikes that day killed nine people, after the group fired a missile toward Israel, badly damaging a school.

While Israel has previously hit targets in Yemen, Thursday’s were the first against the rebel-held capital Sanaa.

“The Israeli enemy targeted ports in Hodeida and power stations in Sanaa, and the Israeli aggression resulted in the martyrdom of nine civilian martyrs,” rebel leader Abdul Malik Al-Houthi said in a lengthy speech broadcast by the rebels’ Al-Masira TV.

Israel said it struck the targets in Yemen after intercepting a missile fired from the country, a strike the rebels subsequently claimed.

Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said they had fired ballistic missiles at “two specific and sensitive military targets... in the occupied Yaffa area,” referring to the Jaffa region near Tel Aviv.