Men stand guard on the side of the truck carrying humanitarian aid as it drives on the main Salah al-Din road in the Nuseirat refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip on December 7, 2024. (AFP/File)
CAIRO — At least eight Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a group of Palestinians tasked with securing aid trucks into the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said.
Medics said at least 30 people were wounded and with several in critical condition, they feared the death toll may rise. The strike took place in western area of Rafah City, in the south of the enclave, medics and residents said.
Armed gangs have repeatedly hijacked aid trucks shortly after they roll into the enclave, prompting the Islamist Hamas group to form a task-force to confront them. The Hamas-led forces have killed over two dozen members of the gangs in recent months, according to Hamas sources and medics.
Hamas said Israeli military strikes have killed at least 700 police tasked with securing aid trucks into Gaza since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023.
The leader of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham Abu Mohammed Al-Golani. (AFP)
DAMASCUS — The leader of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham confirmed on Wednesday that the militants did not receive any international support to confront former President Bashar Assad’s government.
HTS’ leader Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, now using his real name Ahmed Al-Sharaa, said that the weapons they fought the Assad government with were manufactured locally, according to Al Arabiya news channel.
He added: “The Syrian people are exhausted from years of conflict, and the country will not witness another war.”
Those responsible for killing Syrians, and security and army officers in the former administration involved in torturing will be held accountable by the Military Operations Department, said Al-Sharaa.
He said in a statement: “We will pursue the war criminals and demand them from the countries to which they fled so that they may receive their just punishment.”
The leader confirmed that “a list containing the names of the most senior people involved will be announced.”
He added that “rewards will also be offered to anyone who provides information about senior army and security officers involved in war crimes.”
Al-Sharaa said that the military leadership is “committed to tolerance for those whose hands are not stained with the blood of the Syrian people,” adding that it granted amnesty to those in compulsory service.
TUNIS — The Tunisian General Directorate of National Security on Wednesday announced the arrest of two individuals involved in drug trafficking in the southeastern province of Sfax.
According to a statement posted on the agency’s Facebook page, security units in Sfax intercepted the suspects in a private car where cannabis was discovered.
“A total of 290 narcotic pills, 16 pieces of cannabis of varying sizes, along with a sharp instrument, were seized in the house of one of the arrested,” it said.
The statement did not provide further details on the timing of the operation.
PRAGUE — The Czech Republic will continue protecting Slovakia’s airspace in 2025, according to a declaration signed on Wednesday by the defense ministers of the two countries.
Under the agreement, the Czech Republic will provide fighter aircraft and crews, ready to respond promptly to any airspace violations in Slovakia. Slovakia, in turn, will provide support such as refueling services, air navigation, and asset protection if needed, the Czech Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The Czech Republic has been involved in safeguarding Slovak skies alongside Poland since September 2022, following Slovakia’s decision to retire its MiG-29 fighter aircraft earlier than planned. In July 2023, Hungary joined the joint effort to protect Slovak airspace, formalized in a Visegrad Group (V4) declaration, which is valid until the end of 2024, according to the statement.
The V4 comprises the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia.
The declaration also affirms Slovakia’s willingness to reciprocate by helping protect Czech airspace in the future if necessary, the ministry added.
TALLINN — The Estonian Parliament, Riigikogu, approved the 2025 state budget on Wednesday, setting revenues at 17.7 billion euros (18.5 billion U.S. dollars) and expenditures at 18.2 billion euros (19.1 billion U.S. dollars).
The budget passed its third reading with 56 members voting in favor and 29 against.
In 2025, revenues are projected to increase by 0.9 billion euros (0.94 billion U.S. dollars) or 5.2 percent compared to 2024, while expenditures are expected to rise by 0.6 billion euros (0.63 billion U.S. dollars) or 3.5 percent. The budget allocates 1.9 billion euros (2 billion U.S. dollars) for investments and investment support.
Defense spending is set to account for 3.3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). Planned investments include initiatives in the defense industry, information technology, Rail Baltica construction, road infrastructure, building renovations, and renewable energy adoption.
KABUL — The Afghan caretaker government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has welcomed the decision of the Russian State Duma (lower house of the parliament) toward removing the Taliban from the list of terrorist groups.
The Russian State Duma on Tuesday approved a bill in the first of three required readings to remove the Taliban, the current ruler of Afghanistan, from the list of prohibited groups, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan welcomes the decision of the Russian Federation’s parliament to approve a proposal aimed at removing the ‘Taliban Movement’, previously referred to as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, from the list of prohibited organizations in Russia,” spokesman for the ministry Abdul Qahar Balkhi said in a statement posted on his X account on Wednesday evening.
“This step represents a great development and is meant to remove the obstacles in enhancing bilateral relations between Afghanistan and the Russian Federation,” the statement added.
Similarly, Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Afghan caretaker government, told local media that the decision was a significant step in promoting bilateral ties between Afghanistan and Russia.
KATHMANDU — A local government and other stakeholders in the Mount Qomolangma region of Nepal have decided to forbid commercial flights of helicopters in the region starting from Jan. 1 next year, a local government official said on Wednesday.
The decision was made a day earlier on the grounds that such flights affect local economic activities and disturb wildlife, said Mingma Chhiri Sherpa, chairperson of Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality.
“We’re sending letters regarding the decision to the helicopter operators, trekking and travel agencies and tourism enterprises,” he told Xinhua.
He explained that due to a rising number of helicopter flights, tourists have stayed less time in recent years.
Trekking routes in the region are world famous and thousands of foreigners visit there for trekking every year.
“Noises caused by helicopter flights have also disturbed wildlife at the Sagarmatha National Park,” Sherpa said, noting that helicopters mobilized for rescue efforts would not be affected by the latest decision.
“But such a rescue operation will be allowed only after a local hospital makes a recommendation,” he added.
Russia on Wednesday vowed retribution against Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of firing Western-supplied missiles on a military airfield in its southern Rostov region. (AFP/File)
MOSCOW — Russia on Wednesday vowed retribution against Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of firing Western-supplied missiles on a military airfield in its southern Rostov region.
President Vladimir Putin has previously threatened to launch a hypersonic ballistic missile at the center of Kyiv if Ukraine did not halt its attacks on Russian territory using US-supplied ATACMS missiles.
And one US official said Wednesday that Russia might soon target Ukraine with another of its new Oreshnik missiles.
Hours after Ukraine’s overnight attack, Russia claimed its troops had recaptured territory in its western Kursk region, where Ukraine occupies swathes of territory.
And Putin told Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban that Kyiv’s “destructive” approach made a peace deal impossible.
Kyiv has been on edge since Russia fired its nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile at the city of Dnipro last month in a major escalation of the nearly three-year conflict.
Putin called that retaliation for Kyiv firing US ATACMS and British Storm Shadow long-range missiles against targets on Russian territory.
In the latest attack, Russia’s defense ministry said Wednesday that Ukraine fired six ATACMS missiles at a military airfield in Taganrog, a port city in the southern Rostov region.
“Two of the missiles were shot down by the combat crew of the Pantsir air defense system, while the others were deflected by electronic warfare equipment,” the ministry added.
It said no military personnel were hurt but that falling shrapnel “slightly damaged” military vehicles and buildings nearby.
“This attack by Western long-range weapons will not go unanswered and appropriate measures will be taken,” it added.
And one US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday: “Russia has signalled its intent to launch another experimental Oreshnik missile at Ukraine, potentially in the coming days.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had earlier hailed “tangible blows against Russian targets last night,” which he said would help bring peace closer.
In a post on Telegram he said Ukraine had hit “military facilities on the territory of Russia, as well as facilities of the fuel and energy complex, which is working for aggression against our state and people.”
Ukraine’s general staff earlier claimed it had hit an oil depot in Russia’s Bryansk border region, also in an overnight strike.
Videos purportedly taken in the Bryansk region showed a distant fireball illuminating the night sky over an urban area, while air raid sirens could be heard in footage from the southern Rostov region.
Both sides have ramped up aerial attacks in recent weeks, seeking to boost their positions on the battlefield ahead as ceasefire talks build ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump coming to power next month.
Ukrainian officials said Wednesday the death toll from a Russian missile strike on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia a day earlier had climbed to nine.
And Russia’s army said it had recaptured two villages in the western Kursk region, where Kyiv has been waging a cross-border offensive since August.
Hungary’s Orban, who met Trump in Florida earlier this week, held a call with Putin on Wednesday to discuss the Ukraine conflict, drawing scorn from Kyiv.
During the call — which was requested by Orban — Putin said that Ukraine had adopted a “destructive” position that ruled out any agreement between Moscow and Kyiv.
The Kremlin said Orban had “expressed interest in assisting the joint search for political-diplomatic paths to resolve the crisis.”
Zelensky blasted Orban for talking to the Kremlin leader, saying it risked undermining European unity against Russia.
“No one should boost (their) personal image at the expense of unity, everyone should focus on shared success. Unity in Europe has always been key to achieving it,” Zelensky said in a post on X.
In this handout photograph taken and released on Dec. 11, 2024 by La Moncloa, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez meets with Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid. (AFP)
MADRID — Syria’s territorial integrity must be preserved following Bashar Assad’s ouster in an Islamist-led militant offensive, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Wednesday during talks in Madrid with his Lebanese counterpart.
During his meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Sanchez “stressed the need for a peaceful and stable Syria, for the benefit of the Syrian people and all countries in the region, especially Lebanon,” the Spanish government said in a statement after the closed-door meeting.
“He also called for an orderly political transition for the Syrian people while maintaining the territorial integrity of the country and avoiding further escalation in the region,” it added.
Sanchez and Mikati also discussed the situation in Lebanon, where Israel and Hezbollah reached a fragile ceasefire agreement at the end of November after two months of all-out war.
The priority is for this agreement to become a “permanent ceasefire” and “pave the way for the full application” of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which stipulates that southern Lebanon must be free of arms that do not belong to the Lebanese state, the Spanish government statement said.
Adopted in August 2006, the resolution was key to ending the month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 and paving the way for long-term stability along the border.
“We confirm Lebanon’s commitment” to this resolution, Mikati wrote on social network X, stressing the need for Israel to “respect the ceasefire decision and withdraw from the cities of southern Lebanon.”
BEIRUT — Three people were killed and a fourth was injured on Wednesday in Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon, according to a source from the Lebanese Red Cross.
The source, who requires anonymity, told Xinhua that a Red Cross team transported the body of Amin Khsheish, one of the victims, from the town of Khiam to Marjeyoun Governmental Hospital.
According to the source, a unit from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon found Khsheish’s body near his house in the northern outskirts of the southern Lebanese border town of Khiam.
Another team from the Lebanese Red Cross transported a body and an injured person near the village of Aainata to the Bint Jbeil Governmental Hospital in southern Lebanon, the source added.
The source also noted that the body of a citizen named Hamza Badah was retrieved from inside a civilian car that was raided by an Israeli drone in the village of Beit Lif. The body was transferred to a hospital in the city of Tyre.
The latest incidents come amid the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, which took effect on Nov. 27.
The ceasefire, brokered by the United States and France, aims to halt nearly 14 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Under the agreement, Israel will withdraw from Lebanese territory within 60 days, the Lebanese army will be deployed on the Lebanese-Israeli border, and Hezbollah will retreat to north of the Litani River.
Israeli soldiers work after returning from Lebanon, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, near Kiryat Shmona and Israel’s border with Lebanon in northern Israel, Dec.11, 2024. (Reuters)
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli strike in the south killed one person on Wednesday, amid a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah after two months of all-out war.
“An Israeli enemy drone strike on the town of Ainata killed one person and wounded another,” the health ministry said in a statement.
Rebel fighters stand with the flag of the revolution on the burnt gravesite of Syria’s late president Hafez Assad at his mausoleum in the family’s ancestral village of Qardaha in the western Latakia province on December 11, 2024, after it was stormed by opposition factions. (AFP)
QARDAHA, Syria — The tomb of ousted Syrian president Bashar Assad’s father Hafez was torched in his hometown of Qardaha, AFP footage taken Wednesday showed, with militants in fatigues and young men watching it burn.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor told AFP the militants had set fire to the mausoleum, located in the Latakia heartland of Assad’s Alawite community.
AFP footage showed parts of the mausoleum ablaze and damaged, with the tomb of Hafez torched and destroyed.
The vast elevated structure atop a hill has an intricate architectural design with several arches, its exterior embellished with ornamentation etched in stone.
Syrians visiting the gravesite of Syria’s late leader Hafez Assad on November 16, 2011. (SANA/AFP)
It also houses the tombs of other Assad family members, including Bashar’s brother Bassel, who was being groomed to inherit power before he was killed in a road accident in 1994.
On Sunday, a lightning offensive by militants seized key cities before reaching Damascus and forcing Assad to flee, ending more than 50 years of his family’s rule.
MOSCOW — Russia said on Wednesday that relations with the United States were so confrontational that Russian citizens should not travel to the United States, Canada and some EU countries because they were at risk of being “hunted” down by US authorities.
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said that relations with the United States were teetering on the verge of rupture.
“In the context of the increasing confrontation in Russian-American relations, which are teetering on the verge of rupture due to the fault of Washington, trips to the United States of America privately or out of official necessity are fraught with serious risks,” Zakharova told a news briefing.
“We urge you to continue to refrain from trips to the United States of America and its allied satellite states, including, first of all, Canada and, with a few exceptions, European Union countries, during these holidays,” she said.
Russian and US diplomats say the relationship between the two countries is worse than at any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis due to disagreements over the Ukraine war.
Relations reached crisis point last month over Ukraine’s use of US and British missiles to strike Russian territory and Russia lowered its nuclear threshold. Both Moscow and Washington accuse each other of detaining citizens on trumped-up charges that have no foundation.
A man walks on a picture of President Bashar Assad, after rebels seized the capital and ousted him, in Damascus, Syria December 11, 2024. (REUTERS)
MOSCOW — Israeli action in Syria violates a 1974 treaty between Israel and Syria that ended the Yom Kippur war, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, calling Israeli air strikes on Syria a matter for serious concern.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that his country aims to impose a “sterile defense zone” in southern Syria as the Israeli military said a wave of its air strikes had destroyed the bulk of Syria’s strategic weapons stockpiles.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing Israel’s actions did not serve to stabilize the situation in Syria and called on it to show restraint.
The Kremlin on Wednesday played down the damage to Russian influence in the Middle East from the fall of Syrian ally Bashar Assad, saying that its focus was Ukraine and that Moscow was in contact with the new rulers of Syria.
When Russia intervened in the Syrian Civil War in 2015, it helped tip the balance in Assad’s favor, so his fall from power dealt a serious setback to both Russia, which is fighting a major land war in Ukraine, and to Iran, which is battling US-backed Israel across the Middle East.
“You know, of course, that we are in contact with those who are currently in control of the situation in Syria,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Asked how much the fall of Assad had weakened Russia’s influence in the region, Peskov said that Moscow maintained contacts with all countries in the region and would continue to do so.
Moscow’s priority, Peskov said, was the war in Ukraine, which President Vladimir Putin calls a “special military operation.”
“The special military operation is the absolute priority for our country: we must ensure the interests of our security, the interests of our Russian people, and we shall do so,” Peskov said.
Moscow has supported Syria since the early days of the Cold War, recognizing its independence in 1944 as Damascus sought to throw off French colonial rule. The West saw Syria as a Soviet satellite.
TEHRAN – A prominent Syrian microbiologist, Zahra Hemsiya, has been assassinated at her home in Damascus.
Zahra Hemsiya, a prominent Syrian scientist in the field of microbiology, was assassinated by unknown people inside her house.
This news has not been confirmed or denied by official sources.
Referring to the assassination of another chemist in Damascus yesterday, news sources described the targeting of scientists and the scientific community as worrying.
On Tuesday, local sources in Damascus city said that Dr. Hamdi Ismail Nadi, a Syrian organic chemist, was assassinated in the Syrian capital.
Dr. Hamdi Ismail Nadi, who used to specialize in advanced chemistry and pharmaceuticals, was found dead at his home in the Syrian capital on Tuesday.
Local accounts and various reports have described, as “mysterious” the circumstances surrounding the death of Nadi, who used to be known as a principal figure in his field with noteworthy contributions to both local and international chemical research.
The news has sent shockwaves throughout the local and international scientific and academic community.
Observers have likened the incident to the aftermath of the United States invasion of neighboring Iraq in 2003, which witnessed widespread deadly targeting of Iraqi elites.
Sara Sharif was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking after what prosecutors say was a campaign of “serious and repeated violence.” (Surrey Police)
LONDON – The father and stepmother of Sara Sharif, a 10-year-old girl who was found dead in her home in Britain, were on Wednesday convicted of her murder after a trial which heard harrowing details of her treatment before her killing.
Sharif was found dead in August 2023 at her home in Woking, a town southwest of London, after what prosecutors say was a campaign of “serious and repeated violence.”
The family fled to Pakistan immediately after Sara Sharif was killed, before they were arrested in September 2023 at London’s Gatwick airport after flying from Dubai.
Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones told jurors at the start of the trial that Sara had suffered a litany of injuries, including burns, broken bones and bite marks.
Sara’s father Urfan Sharif, 43, and his wife Beinash Batool, 30, stood trial at London’s Old Bailey court charged with her murder, which they denied.
The jury convicted Urfan Sharif and Batool of Sara’s murder.
Sara’s uncle Faisal Malik, 29, was found not guilty of murder but guilty of causing or allowing Sara’s death.
Sharif and Batool will be sentenced on Dec. 17.
Emlyn Jones told jurors at the start of the trial that Urfan Sharif had called police and said: “It wasn’t my intention to kill her, but I beat her up too much.”
Sharif gave evidence and initially denied responsibility for Sara’s death. He accepted slapping Sara to discipline her, but denied beating her in a regular or sustained way.
But Urfan Sharif, under questioning from Batool’s lawyer Caroline Carberry, later said he took “full responsibility” for his daughter’s death.
Lawyers for Batool, who did not give evidence, said Urfan Sharif was violent and controlling and that she was scared of him.
KABUL — Afghanistan’s Acting Minister for Refugees and Repatriation Khalil Rahman Haqqani was killed in a blast inside the ministry’s headquarter, an official at the Ministry of Interior confirmed to Xinhua on Wednesday.
MOSCOW — Russian law enforcement has dismantled three fraudulent local “call center” offices and detained several managers and employees, Russia’s Federal Security Service said in a statement Wednesday.
The centers were part of an international crime network linked to fugitive leader Egor Burkin, head of the “Khimprom” criminal organization, the agency said in a statement.
Call center employees, under the guise of investment activities, defrauded tens of thousands of victims in over 20 countries, resulting in losses amounting to tens of millions of U.S. dollars, said the statement.
Searches conducted at various offices and residences have uncovered large quantities of computers and communication devices, it said, adding that investigations are ongoing.
MONTEVIDEO — Uruguay’s 2023 national census counted 3,499,451 inhabitants, 2.5 percentage points higher than the 2011 one, the National Statistics Institute (INE) reported on Tuesday.
Despite the growth, the number of children per woman fell from 1.8 to 1.7, according to the census. And there were 31,385 births registered in the country and 34,678 deaths last year.
“We are with a negative population growth, unless immigration compensates, or we are already losing population,” INE director Diego Aboal said, adding that Uruguay reported “a drop of 18,000 births” in the last eight years.
According to the census, the number of foreign residents settling in Uruguay has grown by 4 percent since 2011.
Montevideo, the capital city, is still the most populous city with a population of 1,302,954, or 37 percent of Uruguay’s total.
DAMASCUS — Fighters have gained full control of the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zour following the reported withdrawal of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to areas east of the Euphrates River, according to statements from a local commander and a war monitor.
Hassan Abdel Ghani, a commander of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), said that their fighters now hold all of Deir al-Zour city and continue to advance in rural areas.
“Our combatants are pressing forward in the suburbs, having secured the city center along with both western and eastern countrysides,” the commander said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday the SDF had pulled out of Deir al-Zour and the nearby city of Al-Bukamal, returning to areas east of the Euphrates River.
The SDF had taken control of Deir al-Zour earlier following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government.
The Kurdish forces, previously seen as a dominant force in parts of northeastern Syria, appear to have ceded ground as militant groups, led by the HTS, stake their claims on strategic territories and key population centers.
