TEHRAN — All Iranian workers and volunteers involved in the reconstruction of the Sayyida Zainab Shrine in Damascus have safely left Syria, an Iranian official has said.
Majid Namjou, the deputy head of the Iranian Headquarters for the Development and Reconstruction of Holy Sites, stated on Sunday that all Iranian workers left Damascus for Iran before militant groups advanced toward the Syrian capital.
He emphasized that there are currently no Iranian workers present in the Sayyida Zainab area.
The Syrian government fell early Sunday as armed militants seized Damascus following a lightning offensive that started in the northwest.
Reports said Sunday that President Bashar al-Assad has left the country and gave orders for a peaceful handover of power.
DAMASCUS/JERUSALEM — Three explosions were heard in Syria’s capital Damascus on Sunday, in what are believed to be Israeli airstrikes targeting abandoned military bases, according to local media reports.
The explosions, rocking the Mazzeh neighborhood of the city, are part of a series of strikes that took place across southern Syria.
Voice of the Capital, a local monitoring group, reported simultaneous strikes targeting areas in the countryside of the southern Daraa and Sweida provinces, with the extent of the damage and potential casualties remaining unclear.
Israel’s state-owned Kan TV News reported on Sunday that Israeli warplanes struck weapons storage facilities in southern Syria and near Damascus airport, citing concerns that the rebels or local militias could seize the arms.
“Israel is acting to thwart threats against it and anything that could harm our air superiority,” an Israeli security official was quoted as saying.
Mazzeh is home to air defense batteries and a military airport, a critical facility for the Syrian military near the capital. The air base was targeted in previous Israeli strikes aimed at Iranian-linked facilities or weapons transfers.
These incidents come as Syrian opposition fighters seized Damascus earlier on Sunday, declaring the end of President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.
An Israeli tank near the ceasefire line between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, near Majdal Shams, December 8, 2024. REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad on Sunday as an “historic day” that followed the blows delivered by Israel against Assad’s supporters Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
On a visit to the area near the front line with Syria, he said he had ordered Israeli forces to seize areas in the buffer zone to ensure Israel’s security and said: “We will not allow any hostile force to establish itself on our border”.
The Syrian opposition flag hangs at the Syrian embassy following an occupation of the embassy by Syrians living in Greece, after Syrian rebels announced that they have ousted President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, in Athens, Greece, December 8, 2024. REUTERS
ATHENS — Supporters of the Syrian rebels that ousted President Bashar al-Assad entered the Syrian embassy in Athens on Sunday and hoisted the rebel flag from the rooftop, police and a Reuters reporter said.
Police entered the embassy compound and detained four people, but left the flag flying, said a Reuters reporter at the scene.
Syrian rebels declared Assad’s ouster after seizing control of Damascus on Sunday, forcing him to flee and ending his family’s decades of rule after more than 13 years of civil war.
A small group of people celebrated outside the embassy compound in Athens.
“Our joy is indescribable, 55 years of horrible dictatorship has finally ended and … the dictator escaped and left the people,” said Alompeint Marouf, 59.
Greek media reported that protesters also tore down Assad’s portrait in the embassy but a senior Greek police official could not confirm this.
Sunset is seen behind the presidential palace in Damascus, Syria April 14, 2018. REUTERS
Groups of Syrians strolled through the palaces of President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday following his ouster, wandering from room to room, posing for photographs, and with some taking items of furniture or ornaments.
Video obtained by Reuters showed people entering the Al-Rawda Presidential Palace, as children ran through the grand rooms and men slid a large trunk across the ornate floor.
Several men carried smart chairs over their shoulders. In a storeroom, cupboards had been ransacked and objects strewn across the floor.
Video of another palace, the Muhajreen Palace, verified by Reuters, showed groups of men and women walking across a white marble floor and through tall wooden doors. A man carried a vase in his hand, and a large cabinet stood empty with its doors ajar.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Sunday, forcing Assad to flee and ending his family’s decades of rule after more than 13 years of civil war in a seismic moment for the Middle East.
Assad, who had not spoken in public since the sudden rebel advance a week ago, flew out of Damascus for an unknown destination earlier on Sunday, two senior army officers told Reuters, as rebels said they had entered the capital with no sign of army deployments.
GAZA — Five civilians were killed on Sunday evening in an Israeli bombardment targeting a group of civilians north of Rafah city in the southern war-torn Gaza Strip.
GAZA — Israeli occupation forces committed four massacres against families in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, resulting in the killing of at least 44 Palestinians and the injury of 74 others, according to medical reports.
JAKARTA — One person was killed, another went missing, and 49 others survived after a passenger ship sank in the waters off Indonesia’s East Java province on Sunday, a top rescuer said.
The wooden ship, Kapal Layar Motor Fajar Lorena, went down at about 1:10 p.m. Jakarta time in the waters of Situbondo regency after departing from a seaport in Sumenep regency. The ship was heading to a seaport in Situbondo regency. Both regencies are located in East Java province, according to Muhamad Hariyadi, head of the provincial search and rescue office.
“One person has died, another is missing, and 49 others survived the incident,” he told Xinhua, citing the ship’s manifest, which listed 51 people on board.
The evacuation involved about 50 personnel from a joint rescue team, and the search for the missing person is ongoing, he added. Hariyadi said extreme weather conditions were blamed for the incident.
“This happened because of poor weather conditions; the waves were big,” he said.
Indonesia’s meteorology, climatology, and geophysics agency has warned of extreme weather conditions, including huge waves and heavy rains that pose risks to maritime travel.
MOSCOW — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has left the country and decided to resign as President of Syria, instructing for a peaceful transfer of power, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said Sunday it had deployed forces to a demilitarized buffer zone in southwest Syria abutting the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights after Damascus fell to militant forces.
Israel had already said the day before, as the Islamist-led militants swiftly advanced across Syria, that its soldiers had entered the UN-patrolled buffer zone to assist peacekeepers in repelling an attack.
On Sunday, the army announced a troop deployment there, citing “the possible entry of armed individuals into the buffer zone.”
“Following the recent events in Syria… the IDF (army) has deployed forces in the buffer zone and in several other places necessary for its defense, to ensure the safety of the communities of the Golan Heights and the citizens of Israel,” a military statement said.
Israeli forces “will continue to operate as long as necessary in order to preserve the buffer zone and defend Israel,” it added.
The statement stressed that the Israeli military “is not interfering with the internal events in Syria.”
Since the militant coalition, led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, began its renewed offensive against the forces of President Bashar Assad on November 27, Syrian government forces have left positions near the Israeli-held Golan, according to a war monitor.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Saturday that army forces had withdrawn from positions in Quneitra province, which includes part of the Golan Heights.
Most of the plateau has been occupied since 1967 by Israel, which later annexed it in a move not recognized by most of the international community.
In 1974 the buffer zone was established, separating the Israeli-held and Syrian territories, with UN peacekeepers stationed there since.
A UN Peacekeeping spokesperson said on Saturday that UNDOF personnel had observed “unidentified armed individuals in the area of separation, including approximately 20 who went into one of the mission’s positions in the northern part of the area of separation.”
The Israeli army said it was “assisting the UN forces in repelling the attack.”
The UN spokesperson said that “peacekeepers continue to carry out their mandated activities on the Golan.”
On Sunday, Lebanese media outlets reported an Israeli strike on Quneitra targeting an arms depot. The Israeli military declined to comment.
In a separate statement, the Israeli military said schools in the northern Golan Heights, in an area covering four Druze towns, would move to online teaching, also declaring a “closed military zone” in agricultural lands in the area.
Early in Syria’s war, which began in 2011 following the repression of anti-government protests, militant forces and jihadist groups had taken over parts of Quneitra province.
In August 2014, Islamist militants attacked UNDOF and took more than 40 Fijian peacekeepers hostage, holding them captive for almost two weeks.
TEHRAN — An Israeli media outlet has reported that the Israeli regime maintains direct contact with various armed groups in Syria, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that led an offensive ultimately resulting in the seizure of the capital Damascus early on Sunday.
The Israeli news outlet Walla stated on Sunday that Israel engages both directly and indirectly with multiple groups in Syria, including the HTS.
The report added that Israel, at this stage, aims to ensure that armed factions do not approach the border between Syria and the occupied territories.
Israeli media outlets also reported that the Israeli army has deployed Brigade 98, along with paratroopers and commandos, to the Syrian border.
Earlier reports said that tanks belonging to the Israeli army crossed the occupied Golan Heights border fence and entered Syrian territory.
They added that Israeli forces, accompanied by tanks, have moved extensively into the Quneitra region in southern Syria.
The Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad fell early on Sunday after HTS-led armed groups captured the Arab country’s capital Damascus.
TEHRAN — The Iranian Embassy complex in the Syrian capital has reportedly been raided by some armed elements following the fall of the government of Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.
Al-Araby Television Network on Sunday released footage showing damage caused to the building and property of the Iranian embassy in the capital Damascus.
The video shows individuals entering the Iranian Embassy to loot and vandalize.
The incident came after the Syrian army command notified officers in a statement that President Bashar al-Assad’s government has fallen as armed groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entered the capital Damascus.
The army command issued the statement early on Sunday following reports of the armed groups’ entrance in Damascus and Assad’s departure from the city.
Reuters, citing two army officers, said that Assad had earlier on Sunday flown out of Damascus for an unknown destination before the groups reached the city.
Meanwhile, Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi al-Jalali said he was ready to hand over the administration of the Arab country to a transitional government.
DAMASCUS — The Iranian embassy in central Damascus was stormed by armed militants following the opposition’s capture of the Syrian capital, Al-Arabiya TV reported Sunday.
According to the Dubai-based broadcaster, the attackers forced their way into the embassy compound after a series of swift advances by rebel fighters who earlier claimed control of key government facilities in the city.
It remained unclear which faction was responsible for the attack.
The reported incident comes amid fast-paced developments in Damascus, where rebel groups have issued statements declaring the end of President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Smoke rises as people gather in Damascus, after Syrian rebels said on Sunday that they have ended Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year authoritarian rule, in their first announcement on state television following a lightning offensive that took the world by surprise, Syria December 8, 2024. REUTERS
The sudden collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s rule over Syria marks the culmination of a nearly 14-year rebellion and a key moment in a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced half the population and drew in outside powers. This is how it unfolded:
* 2011 – The first protests against Assad quickly spread across the country, and are met by security forces with a wave of arrests and shootings.
Some protesters take up guns and military units defect as the uprising becomes an armed revolt that will gain support from Western and Arab countries and Turkey.
* 2012 – A bombing in Damascus is the first by al Qaeda’s new Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, which gains in power and starts crushing groups with a nationalist ideology.
World powers meet in Geneva and agree on the need for a political transition, but their divisions on how to achieve it will foil years of U.N.-sponsored peace efforts.
Assad turns his air force on opposition strongholds, as rebels gain ground and the war escalates with massacres on both sides.
* 2013 – Lebanon’s Hezbollah helps Assad to victory at Qusayr, halting rebel momentum and showing the Iran-backed group’s growing role in the conflict.
Washington has declared chemical weapons use a red line, but a gas attack on rebel-held eastern Ghouta near Damascus kills scores of civilians without triggering a U.S. military response.
* 2014 – Islamic State group suddenly seizes Raqqa in the northeast and swathes more territory in Syria and Iraq.
Rebels in the Old City of Homs surrender, agreeing to move to an outer suburb – their first big defeat in a major urban area and a precursor to future “evacuation” deals.
Washington builds an anti-Islamic State coalition and starts air strikes, helping Kurdish forces turn the jihadist tide but creating friction with its ally Turkey.
* 2015 – With better cooperation and more arms from abroad, rebel groups gain more ground and seize northwestern Idlib, but Islamist militants are taking a bigger role.
Russia joins the war on Assad’s side with air strikes that turn the conflict against the rebels for years to come.
* 2016 – Alarmed by Kurdish advances on the border, Turkey launches an incursion with allied rebels, making a new zone of Turkish control.
The Syrian army and its allies defeat rebels in Aleppo, seen at the time as Assad’s biggest victory of the war.
The Nusra Front splits from al Qaeda and starts trying to present itself in a moderate light, adopting a series of new names and eventually settling on Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
* 2017 – Israel acknowledges air strikes against Hezbollah in Syria, aiming to degrade the growing strength of Iran and its allies.
U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led forces defeat Islamic State in Raqqa. That offensive, and a rival one by the Syrian army, drive the jihadist group from nearly all its land.
* 2018 – The Syrian army recaptures eastern Ghouta, before quickly retaking the other insurgent enclaves in central Syria, and then the rebels’ southern bastion of Deraa.
* 2019 – Islamic State loses its last scrap of territory in Syria. The U.S. decides to keep some troops in the country to prevent attacks on its Kurdish allies.
* 2020 – Russia backs a government offensive that ends with a ceasefire with Turkey that freezes most front lines. Assad holds most territory and all main cities, appearing deeply entrenched. Rebels hold the northwest. A Turkey-backed force holds a border strip. Kurdish-led forces control the northeast.
* 2023 – The Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 triggers fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, ultimately reducing the group’s presence in Syria and fatally undermining Assad.
* 2024 – Rebels launch a new assault on Aleppo. With Assad’s allies focused elsewhere his army quickly collapses. Eight days after the fall of Aleppo the rebels have taken most major cities and enter Damascus, driving Assad from power.
DAMASCUS — In a stunning development Sunday, opposition forces in Syria took over state television channels to announce what they described as the fall of Damascus and the end of President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
A man in military fatigues, flanked by armed fighters, read the statement on air, calling it “Statement No. 1.” He claimed that rebel units captured Damascus.
THE HAGUE — Dutch authorities have confirmed the recovery of five bodies from the rubble of an apartment building that partially collapsed following a powerful explosion on Saturday morning.
Search efforts for additional victims are ongoing, with emergency services warning earlier that the death toll could rise to around 20.
“The reality is that the chances of survival for them are slim. We are preparing for the worst-case scenario,” Mayor Jan van Zanen told a press conference.
Two individuals rescued earlier in the day are in critical condition, the mayor said.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on X that he was shocked by images of the damaged apartment building.
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima also expressed their sympathy on X, saying “We sympathize with all those who have been personally affected or who fear for the fate of their loved ones.”
The incident occurred on Tarwekamp Street in the northeastern Mariahoeve district of The Hague. Images from the scene show that the facades of several apartments have been swept away. The building includes shops on the ground floor and two residential floors above.
The cause of the explosion remains under investigation. Police said that a car was seen speeding away from the scene shortly after the explosion. Authorities are urging witnesses to come forward.
DAMASCUS — Opposition activists said the rebel fighters entered the Syrian capital of Damascus at dawn Sunday, according to the Britain-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The monitor said hundreds of government soldiers were ordered to withdraw from Damascus International Airport, and were seen removing their military uniforms and donning civilian clothing.
Multiple media outlets have reported that Syrian President Bashar Assad has left the country, citing rebel forces. The Syrian presidency said Saturday Assad was still performing his constitutional duties in the capital.
Xinhua reporters in Damascus witnessed intense gunshots reverberating through the streets with heavy traffic caused by cars departing the capital.
Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi Jalali said in a speech published on Facebook shortly after the rebels’ claim of entering Damascus that he was ready to “cooperate” with any leadership chosen by the people and urged citizens against vandalizing public facilities.
JINAN — Nine people have been missing in a fire that broke out at a refrigerated warehouse under construction in east China’s Shandong Province on Saturday afternoon, authorities said.
The fire occurred around 1 p.m. at the warehouse owned by a local company called Lanrun in the city of Rongcheng as the insulation materials caught fire.
The fire has been brought under control and rescue efforts are in full swing, according to rescuers at the site.
