Israel reinforces occupation of Deraa in south Syria
Israel has occupied 600 km of Syrian territory and carried out a massive bombing campaign in the country since Bashar al-Assad's fall
News Desk
JAN 4, 2025
(Photo credit: Menahem Kahana/AFP)
Al-Mayadeen reported on 4 January that the Israeli army brought reinforcements to the Al-Jazeera barracks in the village of Maariyah in the countryside of Deraa, on the Syrian-Jordanian border, in a further sign that Israel plans to expand its occupation of Syrian territory.
Sources speaking with the Lebanese channel said Israeli forces installed high concrete barriers and paved all the roads leading to the barracks. The sources added that the Israeli army has begun conducting armored patrols on the foothills at the base of the strategic Mount Hermon on the Syria-Lebanon border.
Israel has occupied some 600 km of Syrian territory after the government of Bashar al-Assad was toppled on 8 December by militants from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Walla reported that "despite the pressure exerted by European parties on Israel, the political level directed the Israeli army to prepare for a long presence in Syrian territory."
After US and Turkish-backed militants from HTS took control of Damascus, the Israeli air force also began a massive bombing campaign to destroy the military capabilities of the Syrian army, its vital infrastructure, and research centers.
On Saturday, Israel launched airstrikes on military targets near the port city of Latakia in northwestern Syria, the Al-Hadath television channel reported.
Israeli airstrikes targeted military sites south of Aleppo late Thursday, causing massive explosions and fires in the area, North Press Agency (NPA) reported.
The explosions occurred in the Safira area, home to military defense factories and scientific research facilities. The NPA added that videos circulating on social media showed flames and heavy smoke rising from the targeted sites.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) stated that "no fewer than seven large explosions resulted from Israeli airstrikes targeting defense factories and scientific research centers in the Safira area."
The same day, Israeli warplanes also targeted a military airfield in the Al-Suwaida governorate and a base of the former Syrian government army’s 90th tank brigade 20 km south of Damascus.
Al Mayadeen reported on Thursday that Israeli troops have now reached the Al-Mantara Dam in the Quneitra countryside, the largest dam in southern Syria, adding that Israel has seized control of the six most strategic bodies of water in the south.
Israel's recent expansion in Syria has seen invading troops seize precious water sources such as the Al-Wahda Dam on the Yarmouk River Basin and others. Syrian and Israeli sources, as well as Carmel News citing an Iranian source, reported last month that Israel now controls 30 percent of Syria's water supply and 40 percent of Jordan's.
"The occupation's control over the Al-Wahda Dam, which is located on the Jordanian border, is a threat to Jordan because it was the biggest beneficiary of this dam," Al Mayadeen's correspondent said on Thursday.
Dozens killed in fierce SDF-SNA clashes near Syria's Manbij
Militants allied with the de facto government in Damascus and supported by Ankara have continued to attack positions of Washington's Kurdish proxy militia in northeast Syria
News Desk
JAN 3, 2025
(Photo Credit: Bekir Kasım/Anadolu Agency)
Heavy fighting between the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Syrian National Army (SNA) militants backed by Turkiye left at least 62 killed on 3 January, raising the total death toll since the violence erupted in early December to 241.
“Both sides used heavy and medium weapons, as well as drones operated by SDF. The clashes resulted in the destruction of several military vehicles of pro-Turkey factions,” the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Friday.
The battles took place near the city of Manbij and the Tishreen Dam east of Aleppo. According to the SDF, the fighters fighting alongside the SNA include Chechen, Turkestani, and Uzbek nationals.
The SNA is comprised of former fighters from the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Al-Qaeda, and ISIS.
Following the fall of the Syrian government on 7 December and the takeover of Damascus by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Turkiye has ramped up efforts to eliminate the People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria.
The YPG, a Kurdish group that serves as the backbone of the SDF, is accused by Ankara of being the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), labeled a terrorist organization by Turkiye and several other countries.
SDF forces remain in control of large chunks of northeastern Syria and part of Deir Ezzor governorate, in particular, the eastern bank of the Euphrates River. The Kurdish militia, created with the support of the US in 2015, has helped Washington retain control of Syria's oil and wheat-rich regions since 2017.
As the situation continues to deteriorate near the Syria-Turkish border, the US army this week deployed heavy reinforcements to the Kurdish-majority city of Kobani (Ayn al-Arab), with local reports claiming Washington is set to build a new military base in the region.
However, on Thursday, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh denied the reports. "I'm not tracking that that is accurate," Singh told journalists.
Despite clashes raging for more than 20 days, Singh recently claimed that a US-brokered SNA-SDF ceasefire east of Aleppo was “holding.”
Syria Psyop Theater: Inside the Sednaya Jihad Incubator
Posted by Internationalist 360° on January 4, 2025
Dan Cohen
An aerial photo shows people gathering at the Sednaya prison in Damascus on Dec. 9, 2024.
Omar Haj Kadour/AFP via Getty Images
How Western media distorted Syria’s prisons to normalize the Al-Qaeda takeover and the Gaza genocide. Part one of a two-part series.
Since the Syria crisis began in 2011, a loose coalition of Western propaganda organs, intelligence-linked NGOs, and billionaire-funded human rights organizations have collaborated to produce a selective and highly distorted narrative of events, using evidence-free claims to portray former president Bashar Al-Assad as a genocidal dictator who imprisoned, mass murdered, buried, and cremated hundreds of thousands of innocent victims while downplaying and omitting the armed opposition’s atrocious human rights record, including by ISIS and Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate), which now rules much of Syria.
This is the latest chapter in a nearly 15 year foreign-sponsored dirty war that has been characterized not only by displacement, destruction, and death, but by one of the most deceptive propaganda campaigns in history to rebrand Al-Qaeda as a benevolent force in Syria.
Following the Syrian government’s collapse, media outlets seized on Sednaya prison, located outside of Damascus. Sednaya is one of ten prisons which held not only non-violent political prisoners and innocents caught up in the highly corrupt Syrian security apparatus’ lumbering bureaucracy, but also militants loyal to the Islamic state, HTS, and an ever-shifting alliance of Islamist armed groups.
Prior to 2011, Sednaya prison had served as a de facto incubator for what would become Syria’s most violent terrorist groups, including Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra.
In 2004 and 2005, around 700 Syrian jihadists, who had returned after battling U.S. forces in Iraq, were captured and imprisoned in Sednaya. In 2008, the prisons inmates rioted, taking hostage numerous officials and guards before security forces killed nine prisoners. They later killed the prison’s warden.
When the Syrian crisis broke out in 2011, Western human rights groups pressured the Assad government to grant them amnesty. It complied, releasing what The New York Times later described them as “Saydnaya Prison’s most radical long-term prisoners, Islamists who would later lead rebel groups”. Assad’s acceding to these demands did not satiate the foreign-backed opposition, which sought nothing less than regime change.
“We were told by brothers with lots of experience [in jihad], who had spent a lot of time in Sednaya, that upon our release we should sit and not work,” Abu Othman recalled about the 2011 amnesty. “Just sit and wait.”
Within weeks, Abu Othman and hundreds of other militants released from Sednaya had mobilized to begin a violent campaign, targeting civilians and state security personnel alike to overthrow the government.
“Many of today’s Ahrar al-Sham leaders belong to the ‘Sednaya generation’ of Islamists who spent the latter part of the 2000s in Sednaya Prison,” noted Carnegie Endowment analyst Aron Lund in 2014.
Among those imprisoned were:
-Amr ‘Abu Atheer’ al-Absi, the Islamic state’s top kidnapper and recruiter of European jihadists.
-Zahran Alloush, who commanded Jaysh al-Islam, was accused of kidnapping Syrian human rights lawyer Razan Zaitouneh, and was one of Syria’s most dangerous terrorists until his death in 2015.
-Abu Khaled al-Suri, co-founder of Ahrar al-Sham.
–Hassan Al Aboud, co-founder Ahrar al Sham and Islamic state member.
-Al Aboud’s brother, Abu Shadi.
–Ahmed Abu Issa, founder of Suqour al-Sham, which carried out joint suicide bomb attacks with Jabhat al-Nusra. Among the attackers was American citizen Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha.
–Abu Othman, long time al-Qaeda and Jabhat al-Nusra member.
When Al-Jolani was dispatched by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi from Iraq to establish an Islamic State branch in Syria, he made contact with the former Sednaya prisoners and began to form Jabhat al-Nusra, the group that, 13 years and two name changes later, would collapse the Syrian state.
Faux humanitarian concerns
While there is no doubt that Sednaya housed many violent criminals and terrorists, others were imprisoned on dubious charges by elements exploiting the long-standing Emergency Law and corruption in order to settle political and personal scores.
However, Sednaya’s violent Islamist prisoners were erased by human rights groups that published sensationalist and evidence-free reports, often prioritizing a preconceived political agenda over factual accuracy.
Amnesty International published a report in 2019 titled Human Slaughterhouse, alleging that tens of thousands of Syrians were executed in mass hangings at Sednaya and other prisons. However, the report contained no evidence, instead saying it “estimates that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were extrajudicially executed at Saydnaya between September 2011 and December 2015” – what it calls “extermination.” The bodies, it alleged, were buried in a small cemetery named Najha and a mass grave in Qatana.
The authors relied only on interviews conducted outside of Syria, mostly in southern Turkey, where the foreign-sponsored Syrian opposition based its operations.
Many of the interviews were furnished to Amnesty International by NGOs funded by Wwestern governments and billionaires, including SNHR and the Commission for International Justice and Accountability.
As Kit Klarenberg reported for Uncaptured Media, CIJA is an organization created by NATO state contractors at the outset of the Syrian conflict that paid huge sums to have “evidence” of Syrian government crimes smuggled out of Al-Qaeda and ISIS-controlled territory, but was found by the European Anti-Fraud Office to have engaged in “submission of false documents, irregular invoicing, and profiteering.” Nonetheless, his conviction was hailed as a “step towards justice” against the Assad government.
Despite the exaggerated claims about Sednaya, President Bashar Al-Assad in 2022 granted amnesty to 60 prisoners, including some who had been convicted on terrorism charges, excluding those whose actions led to death.
Prison break
A handwritten list of Sednaya’s prisoners has circulated on social media, apparently taken when HTS freed their comrades. Social media users posted a digital version too, with many comments from users searching for their family members.
Among the escapees, according to the list, were Saleh Mazen Bekdash And Omar Maddhi Asaad, who had car-bombed in 2013 an elderly Kurdish communist whose car was adorned with former president Hafez Al-Assad’s photo. Uncaptured Media is withholding the murdered man’s identity in order to protect his surviving family members, who remain in Syria.
Whitewashing the black flag
As HTS militants flung Sednaya’s doors open, a disinformation campaign was rolled out in the Western press and on social media. This propaganda amounted to a whitewashed, highly exaggerated, and outright deceptive campaign, similar to the Israeli government’s propaganda offensive to distort the nature of Hamas’ October 7 attack, which served to justify the ongoing genocide and motivate the soldiers carrying it out. This time, the narrative painted a simplistic, black and white picture, where anyone inside Syrian government prisons was an innocent victim of “dictator” Bashar al-Assad.
What the New York Times in 2015 called the “infamous jail near Damascus where the government warehoused those it considered Sunni extremists,” became in 2024 “a symbol of human rights abuses under his rule.” The Times documented in 2022 how Islamic state fighters had attacked prisons in order to free their fellow militants in both Syrian government and Kurdish-held territory, but now those Islamist militants were heralded as “rebel fighters” and “conquering rebels” who were merely searching for their family members.
While media outlets were careful to de-emphasize the radical and violent nature of some of the inmates, a CBS News report from an eastern Syria prison containing ISIS fighters, including many foreigners, noted that prison guards have been careful to not allow the inmates to find out that the Syrian government was toppled because it could be “dangerous” – suggesting they would be inspired by the former al-Qaeda affiliate’s takeover of Syria.
It was not only the prisoners’ character that became a key piece of propaganda, but their numbers too. In 2009, Human Rights Watch estimated that Sednaya held 1,500 inmates. However, amid the chaos, absurd and evidence-free claims that 100,000 to 150,000 prisoners were held in Sednaya prison spread like wildfire.
HTS close symbolic church in Syrian Christian town sparking fear and controversy
CIA MI6 Mossad MIT terrorism is changing the face of Syria through violence, intimidation and ethnic cleansing
vanessa beeley
Jan 6
The beautiful symbolic replica of Hagia Sophia in Al Sqeilbiyyeh is boarded up by HTS terrorist gangs.
The Hagia Sophia Church in the northern Hama Syrian Christian town of Al Sqeilbiyyeh (also spelled As Suqalibiyah) has been closed by the terrrorist gangs affiliated with the HTS Junta regime in Damascus.
The move comes after armed gangs set fire to the Christmas tree in the centre of Al Sqeilbiyyeh during Christmas celebrations. During the December attacks on Christian communities the same gangs had also entered the church and desecrated the icons, holy scriptures and stunning murals.
Video of the terrorist destruction inside Hagia Sophia church: (Video at link.)
According to one Syrian X account:
The closure was carried out using cement and without any prior announcement or official clarification, while local accounts indicate that verbal threats were directed at those in charge of the church by a security official affiliated with the so-called "Military Operations Administration" in the area.
Soon the Hagia Sophia bell tower and bell will rise above Sqeilbiyyeh to ring out the message that an ignorant, fanatical murderer [Erdogan] will never be able to erase divine wisdom and that Syria will remain, forever, the cradle of Christianity and civilization, regardless of those who would see it destroyed.
Nabel Alabdalla, Syrian citizen. 28th July 2020
The history of the resurrection of Hagia Sophia in Al Sqeilbiyyeh
The building of the Hagia Sophia Church in Al Sqeilbiyyeh. Photo: Vanessa Beeley
3rd February 2021: Yesterday I visited the Syrian Christian town of Al Sqeilbiyyeh, one of the most fertile areas of Syria that was besieged for 7 years by the US Coalition- backed armed gangs. During that time the terrorist groups targeted schools, residential areas, infrastructure with missiles, nowhere was safe. The closest terrorist encampment was only 500m away in Qalaat Al Madiq. Invasion was an ever present danger.
In 2021 people were seen taking selfies on the hills that previously faced the Nusra Front (Al Qaeda) checkpoints and headquarters that regularly rained rockets and mortars down on the civilians of Al Sqeilbiyyeh:
On the 12th of May, 2019, Jaish Al Izza — an armed affiliate of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) — an Al Qaeda rebrand that controls the majority of Idlib province and Northern Hama — targeted the Syrian Christian town of As Suqaylabiyah, situated on the border of terrorist-held areas.
The attacks came just after the Syrian Arab Army liberation of Qalaat Al Madiq, a town only 500 meters from As Suqaylabiyah. The civilians of As Suqaylabiyah had seen this advance by the SAA as a victory — many of the attacks on their town had emanated from Qalaat Al Madiq, a Nusra Front stronghold intermittently populated by other extremist groups, among them Jaish Al Islam, which was evacuated from Douma in April 2018, and Jaish Al Izza, the HTS/Nusra affiliate.
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Families grieving the loss of children killed in As Suqaylabiyah, May 12, 2019. Photo | Gaith Al Abdullah
Four children — Bashar Nemeh, Jessica Karajian, Suhair Adnan and Engi Faisal Razouk — along with an adult woman, Hala Mkashkash, were murdered in the horrifying attack on As Suqaylabiyah, their young lives wiped out by Grad missiles almost certainly supplied to the extremist groups by the U.S or its allies.
Hagia Sophia and Erdogan
When Erdogan threatened the history and existence of Christianity in the region through his support of terrorists and extremists in Syria and his erosion of Christian heritage in Turkey – the commander of the Sqeilbiyyeh National Defence Forces, Nabel Alabdalla, decided to take action against Erdogan’s neo-ottoman ambitions.
Taken from a former article:
Formerly a museum celebrating regional religious co-existence and secular cultures, it has recently been converted into a mosque by Turkish president, Recip Erdogan. Erdogan in his eagerness to return to the pre- Sevres Treaty (1923) borders and to reinstate the Ottoman Empire, is uprooting Christian identity in Turkey.
In addition to Aya Sophia, Erdogan has reconverted the historic Chora church, one of the most famous Istanbul Byzantine buildings, into a Mosque, one month after Aya Sophia opened for Friday prayer.
Previously, the St. Georgios Greek Orthodox Church, which was restored and transformed into a cultural centre by the Nilüfer Municipality in Bursa, was taken from the municipality and transferred to an Islamic Foundation. The historical building, which was neglected for 7 years, was destroyed recently.
“..known as the “Hagia Sophia of Bursa” since it was used both as a church and a mosque in the past, to future generations, organized various cultural events in the historical building. “ ~ Paul Antonopoulos
This is from the Conversation in 2020:
Ever since the reversion of Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, the Muslim call to prayer has been resounding from its minarets.
Originally built as a Christian Orthodox church and serving that purpose for centuries, Hagia Sophia was transformed into a mosque by the Ottomans upon their conquest of Constantinople in 1453.
In 1934, it was declared a museum by the secularist Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
As of June 24 of this year, Hagia Sophia’s icons of the Virgin Mary and infant Christ are covered by fabric curtains as the edifice yet again changes functions.
This time around, rather than maintain Hagia Sophia as a monument of coexistence, the Turkish government’s actions have sharpened an already tense ideological divide between pious and secular Turks, and between Muslims and Christians worldwide.
When Erdogan converted the historic Hagia Sophia temple into a mosque, Nabel began his project to rebuild a downsized replica of Hagia Sophia in Sqeilbiyyeh. Nabel’s vision is that the Sqeilbiyyeh Hagia Sophia will be a place of rememberance of all the martyrs who have sacrificed their lives to defend Syria, including the Russian heroes who fought alongside their brothers in the Syrian Arab Army to liberate this holy land from the sectarian invaders and proxy forces of the West.
I wrote back in 2019:
It is a beautiful thing to see this miracle take shape. It is a miracle because in the midst of all the turmoil in this world, here is someone who is laying the seeds of resistance for the future and leading by example, honouring steadfastness, resilience, justice and hope in a land that has been battered and besieged for ten long years. The building of this symbol of faith in the midst of a world that has fogotten what it is to believe in something better for Humanity, is a gift, not only to Syria but to the world. It is not about religion, it is about peace and honour and dignity.
This is a short video I put together of the photos I took during the construction phase:
Alabdalla reacted the minute that Erdogan declared his intent to convert Aya Sophia in July 2020. Alabdalla undertook to finance the initiative himself while making a statement that explained his vision. Excerpts below:
“Hagia Sophia was originally built as a church and was not a temple for any other religion prior to that. It was a symbol of Christianity for thousands of years before the Ottoman occupied it by force and because he is a barbarian extremist, he converted it to a mosque – the opposite to what Al-Farouk (Omar bin Al-Khattab) did in Jerusalem.”
“Our Russian friends heard about this initiative from the media, so they mentioned the project to the Duma and this is evidence of their opposition to Erdogan’s actions. However, the church will be built only with hands from Sqeilbiyyeh and with Syrian stone, on my land and I will finance the project personally – just as our ancestors preserved our heritage and our land, so we shall do the same.“
Hagia Sophia foundation stone ceremony. Photo: Vanessa Beeley
On the 5th September 2020, the day that Deir Ezzor was liberated from a three year ISIS occupation in 2017, the foundation stone of the new Aya Sophia was laid in an olive-tree lined field in Al Sqeilbiyyeh. This Syrian Christian town was besieged for seven years by the Erdogan-controlled and midwived terrorist groups in northern Hama and Idlib, part of the US Coalition proxy forces that have invaded Syria since 2011.
Sqeilbiyyeh female defenders – mothers, wives, sisters and relatives of martyrs have taken up arms and trained with Russian forces to defend their city. Photo: Vanessa Beeley
The event was attended by an impressive number of Syrian and Russian dignitaries. General Ramadan Ramadan of the Ninth Division of the Syrian Arab Army and the Commander in Chief at the Russian base of Hmemim, General Alexander Chaiko was also in attendance and participated in the laying of the foundation stone. The Archbishop of Hama, Nikolai Baalbek and a number of other Orthodox Christian representatives gave their seal of approval.
The day before the event, Erdogan was particularly bellicose. He announced that “Turkish conquest is not occupation or looting – It is spreading the justice of Allah, if anybody wants to stand against us and pay the price, let them come”. The social media chatter from his client terrorists in Idlib echoed his belligerence and displeasure that Alabdalla was defying the neo-Ottoman diktats. Apologies for the Memri/Israeli clip but here is the speech with subtitles.
Alabdalla’s challenge to Erdogan certainly did not go unnoticed. Alabdalla has been a steadfast military opponent of Turkey and the US Alliance since the war against Syria began ten years ago. Not only has Alabdalla defended his own city against the threat of massacre by the sectarian hordes, he has also fought in many of the most arduous campaigns across Syria and he is considered a legend by his soldiers, many of whom have fought by his side in all the campaigns.
Nabel Alabdalla had the courage of his convictions. He had his detractors who believed the project was foolish but he has proven them wrong. The core belief that Alabdalla has upheld is that Christianity is an integral part of the middle eastern cultural tapestry and that a secular Syria must be defended at all costs.
It is that secular Syria that is now threatened by Erdogan’s terrorist proxy Junta that now imposes the anti-minority policies that are undermining Syria’s ancient history of inclusivity and co-existence.
My section on UK Column News covering the heinous Turkish proxy terrorist attack on a Syrian Christian ceremony on Sunday 24th July. During the ceremony to open the Hagia Sophia replica church in Al Sqeilbiyyeh on Sunday, Idlib terrorist carried out a suicide drone attack on more than 1000 civilians, children, teenagers, foreign diplomats, Syrian dignitaries and faith leaders who had come together to honour Syrian and Russian martyrs who have given their lives in the 11 year war against Western-incubated terrorism: (Video at link.0
In the midst of the ceremony just as a representative from the Syrian Al Waqf religious institution was talking about forgiveness and leniency towards those who have harmed Syria, the terrorists attacked. Four meters away from our seats the drone struck – a young National Defence Solider Hisham Elias took the full force of the blast shielding us all. The statue also protected us from the shrapnel and deadly debris. Hisham later died from his dreadful wounds. Seven others were injured, soldiers and teenagers.
There was mass panic as people fled to any shelter they could find. Reports of more drones incoming forced us all to leave the vicinity and return to the town center. This is a new warfare funded by the US Coalition, technology most probably supplied by Turkey and training by NATO member state operatives on the ground in Idlib assisting the terrorists to kill Syrian civilians.
The Hagia Sophia Church in Al Sqeilbiyyeh survived this attempt to destroy its existence in Syria and it became the symbol of Resistance for the population of Sqeilbiyyeh who would later get married in the simple church or have their wedding photos taken in the beautiful grounds surrounding the church. Now HTS have concreted the door to the church blocking entry to all who found solace there.
I spent many months with the people of Al Sqeilbiyyeh, both during the terrorist siege and attacks and during the fragile peacetime that followed the Syrian Arab Army allied liberation of the areas surrounding the besieged town, pushing the terrorist groups into the Idlib Al Qaeda haven.
I am proud to say that my name is engraved on the walls surrounding the church and I was offered a burial site in the grounds of the church when my time finally came to an end in this world. This is how connected I was to this tiny corner of Syria that represents the war against the worlds that would see Humanity destroyed and inclusivity consigned to memory under the HTS terrorist regime.
(While I must respect the right of people to have their private beliefs and to resist sectarian attack the fact that the victims in this case are Christians cuts no ice with me, no more or less sympathy than should be shown to Shia or Kurds.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."
After decades of secular authoritarianism, Syria now teeters on the edge of an even graver threat: a fundamentalist state led by the Islamist victors of the ‘revolution,’ threatening to replace one dictatorship with another and plunge the country into a new era of oppression and religious intolerance.
A Cradle Correspondent
JAN 6, 2025
Photo Credit: The Cradle
Three weeks after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) seized power in Damascus, Syrians find themselves caught between hope and trepidation. While many celebrate the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s Baathist dictatorship, they fear the rise of an Islamic state that could impose oppressive laws and replicate the authoritarianism they sought to escape.
The Cradle’s recent visit to Idlib, Aleppo, and Damascus reveals signs that a fundamentalist religious state, accompanied by a brutal security apparatus, is already emerging. For Syrians, the question is no longer about change, but the price they will pay for it.
‘Let’s watch and see’
“When Assad fell, we celebrated a lot,” a Syrian women’s rights activist informs The Cradle.
But if Syria’s new government, led by former Al-Qaeda leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani, who now goes by his real name Ahmad al-Sharaa, imposes Islamic law on Syria and severely restricts women’s rights, “we will resist them,” she asserts.
When asked if she feared a return to the days when militants from Julani's HTS (previously known as the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front) executed women for adultery in public squares in Aleppo during the war, she states:
“So far, Julani is saying that these were mistakes we made in the past. I don’t know if these are lies. I don’t trust him. But I say to myself, let’s watch and see what will happen. I just hope the government will respect our rights. No one here wants to repeat the past [the oppression of the Assad government], but in a different [religious extremist] way.”
Four more years
Many in Syria are waiting to pass judgment on Julani until a permanent government is formed. But on 29 December, Julani announced that a new constitution would not be written for three years, and elections would not be held for four years, giving HTS plenty of time to consolidate their rule and impose their fundamentalist ideology on the state and society.
In response, one secular Syrian noted on X, “Let me get this straight, so we are trusting the protege of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to rebuild the future Syria and to give him four years of carte blanche to do so? Did I hear that correctly?”
Two days before, during Friday prayers at Aleppo’s Rahman Mosque, the imam addressed the question of women’s rights during his sermon. He stressed that Islam demands justice in society, but this does not mean equality between men and women.
Drawing on the medieval scholar Ibn Taymiyyah, synonymous with takfirism and infamous for advocating Alawite extermination, the cleric made a case for imposing Islamic law.
The imam discussed a recent protest in Damascus on 12 December, where demonstrators called for a civil state, dismissing those who attended as being part of a “mob.”
Activists had planned a protest in Aleppo to demand a secular state and equal rights for women; however, after seeing the reaction to the demonstration in Damascus, they decided to cancel it.
“We decided not to do the protest in Aleppo after we saw how the protestors in Damascus were treated,” the women’s rights activist tells The Cradle.
“The media called them ‘Shabiha’ or supporters of the old regime of Bashar al-Assad. So we didn’t feel comfortable to hold the protest,” she explains.
But a protest led by women did take place in Aleppo that day, at Saadallah al-Jabiri Square in the city’s center. But instead of calling for equal rights, a group of women dressed in head and face coverings, known as niqab, called for the establishment of an Islamic state.
Just a phase
Symbolism reinforces this ideological shift. A Shia poet’s statue in a public park has been veiled. Billboards of the new Islamist ministers in the current post-Assad transitional government – such as Prime Minister Mohammad Bashir and Justice Minister Shadi Mohammad al-Waisi – adorn Aleppo’s streets.
Justice Minister Shadi Mohammad al-Waisi vowed to implement Islamic law and has been at the center of controversy due to circulating videos from 2015 showing him attending the execution of two women. While Verify-sy, citing an interim government official, confirmed the authenticity of the video, they clarified that Waisi was serving as a judge at the time.
As for Prime Minister Mohammad Bashir, the New York Times (NYT) writes that he is from the Jabal al-Zawiya region of Idlib, home to the Salafist armed group Saqour al-Sham, or the Falcons of Sham, which fought alongside Julani’s Nusra Front against the Syrian Arab Army (SAA).
In 2007, he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and later went on to get another degree in “Shariah and law” from Idlib University in 2021. In the past, Bashir administered the Salvation Government, which Julani established to rule Idlib after Nusra’s conquest of the governorate in 2015.
The NYT notes that it is not clear where Bashir was during the war to topple the Syrian government.
Less is known about Waisi. However, upon HTS’s conquest of Aleppo in early December, he stated that Islamic Law would be applied in the city.
Billboards in Aleppo's streets of the new Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Bashir (left) and new Syrian Justice Minister Shadi Mohammad al-Waisi (right).
Idlibistan
One way to peer into Syria’s possible future is to look at life under the Salvation Government in Idlib. Julani stated on 29 December, “The Idlib experience is not suitable for all of Syria, but it is a nucleus.”
In 2017, US official Brett McGurk famously expressed concern that Idlib had become the “largest Al-Qaeda safe haven since 9/11.” He did not mention that Julani’s suicide bombers had conquered Idlib with the help of US-supplied TOW anti-tank missiles.
In a recent visit to Idlib City, The Cradle observed that all women in the city wore head coverings, including about half who also wore the niqab to fully cover their faces.
While walking in the city center and eating at a popular restaurant, The Cradle observed many HTS fighters casually carrying AK-47s and wearing military fatigues. Several wore black arm patches displaying the Islamic testimony of faith known as the Shahada.
Upon entering the city at the first roundabout, The Cradle saw a large mural commemorating the successful toppling of Bashar al-Assad, which HTS calls the Syrian revolution.
Above the mural was a massive white flag with the Shahada, rather than the new Syrian flag with three stripes and three stars. It is the same flag that is raised in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
Mural commemorating the toppling of Bashar al-Assad shows the new Syrian flag with three stripes and three stars, a text reading “A revolution for all Syrians,” and the dates 2011 and 2024 under the flag, which is shaped like the map Syria.
White flag raised above the 'Syrian Revolution’ mural the with the Shahada printed on it. This is the same flag that is also raised in the Islamic State of Afghanistan.
Julani’s mukhabarat
More concerning than the establishment of a fundamentalist religious government in Syria is the possibility that Julani will expand the security apparatus of the Salvation Government in Idlib to the rest of the country.
Many Syrians are happy to see the back of Assad’s secret police – the feared mukhabarat, but Julani's mukhabarat in Idlib has been similarly brutal.
Julani has appointed Anas Hasan Khattab, a figure with known ties to Al-Qaeda and who previously oversaw general security operations in Idlib, as the new head of the country's General Intelligence Service. Soon thereafter, Anas announced the Syrian mukhabarat would be dissolved and restructured.
But regarding Anas’s security apparatus in Idlib, Mohammed Ali Basha, a 29-year-old activist from Binnish in Idlib Governorate, told Al Jazeera:
“Over the past few years, I have noticed the injustice practiced against the people of the liberated areas [not controlled by Assad], and how the security branches affiliated with HTS have begun to commit the same criminal acts committed by Assad’s security forces, such as killing under torture and arbitrary detention.”
In the same protest in Aleppo where women dressed in niqab called for an Islamic State, they were holding up pictures of their sons and husbands who had been detained in HTS prisons.
Earlier this year, protests erupted against the Salvation Government in Idlib after Abdul Qadir al-Hakim, a father of three and fighter in the Jaish al-Ahrar armed group, was detained for 10 months and tortured to death.
“We demanded that the General Security Service hand over my brother’s body, but they told us that they buried him and gave us the address of the burial place,” Hakim's brother told Al Jazeera.
He found his brother’s body in a mass grave in a large trench. “There were many graves without names, only numbered,” he said.
Foreign extremists
After HTS (at the time known as the Nusra Front) conquered Idlib in 2015, many Christians fled the city and neighboring villages. Many of their homes were taken over by Uyghur foreign fighters from the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP), whose roots are in Xinjiang province in western China.
Uyghurs played a crucial role in helping Julani conquer Idlib province from the SAA. These foreign fighters may well be granted Syrian citizenship under the new transitional government, while Julani has promoted many to high ranks in Syria’s new army.
While riding an old, overcrowded bus from Idlib City to Sarmada, a bustling town and HTS stronghold near the Bab al-Hawa crossing with Turkiye, The Cradle stood next to an Uyghur foreign fighter. He had clear Central Asian Turkic features and a long, flowing beard characteristic of Salafi Muslims.
In another instance, while riding in a microbus from the town of Darkush to Idlib City, The Cradle saw an Uyghur berating the driver for refusing to accept 10 Turkish liras less than the regular fare.
The Druze
Uyghur and Uzbek fighters from TIP now occupy many Druze homes in the village of Qalb Loze in Idlib province.
During the Nusra conquest in 2015, a Tunisian Nusra Front commander and his fighters massacred at least 20 Druze residents after one Druze man resisted the commander taking his home.
Uyghur and Uzbek fighters continued to terrorize the Druze residents in Qalb Loze and neighboring villages of the Jabal al-Summaq region for years.
During a visit to Qalb Loze, The Cradle observed that a large new mosque was constructed next to the ruins of an ancient church in the town and that the women almost all wore the niqab. In the past, Druze women in the village used to show their hair freely.
Locals speaking with The Cradle confirmed that many Uzbeks still reside in the village, and that Uyghur fighters from TIP previously occupied a military camp set up in the ruins of another ancient Christian church on a nearby hilltop.
Christianity in the new Syria
HTS has so far treated Christians in Aleppo well, assuring the community they have nothing to fear and providing armed men as security outside religious services.
The Cradle briefly spoke with several armed HTS fighters guarding the St. Elias Maronite Church in Aleppo before services on Christmas morning. The fighters were friendly, and there did not seem to be any tension between them and the worshippers entering the church. A group of young Christian men, unarmed and wearing matching blue coats, also stood guard outside the church.
The church had been heavily damaged by rockets fired by militant groups fighting the SAA during the war. When the Syrian army retook Aleppo from the militants in December 2016, Christians were able to light Christmas trees and safely celebrate the holiday from within the church’s bombed-out façade.
After the SAA's victory in Aleppo in 2016, George Bakhash, a Christian community leader, told Reuters the number of people attending mass across the city had “surged now that worshipers no longer feared missiles from rebel-held areas.”
But although the HTS fighters are now treating the Christians well, the memories of the expulsion of Christians from Idlib and the kidnapping and killing of Christians in Aleppo previously during the war are difficult for the Christian community to forget.
Concern mounted after a video clip went viral showing foreign militants from Ansar al-Tawhid, a group affiliated with HTS, burning down a Christmas tree in Suqaylabiyah's public square, a town in western Hama countryside, just days before Christmas.
More ominous are reports of the killing of an elderly Christian couple in Wadi al-Nasara, the Valley of the Christians, near Homs a week before. Initially reported as a robbery, it later emerged that the husband had been beheaded, a common Al-Qaeda practice in the past, and the woman shot in cold blood.
When asked about HTS's assurances to protect Christians, one resident of Maaloula, an ancient Christian town near Damascus, stated,
“Yes, but the point is that we already know them. Many of those who came to Maaloula under the banners of Nusra 10 years ago, who destroyed homes and killed residents, have returned since the regime fell.”
Worshippers gathered at the entrance of the St. Elias Maronite Church in Aleppo, which is guarded by HTS militants.
Destruction of Saint Simeon’s pillar
Saint Simeon was a Christian ascetic who was born in 390 AD and died in 459 AD. He lived for decades on top of an 18-meter-high stone pillar, making him a prominent figure in the ancient world. A massive church and monastic complex were built on the ruins of Simeon’s pillar. It became a major pilgrimage site that rivaled Jerusalem for over a thousand years.
During a visit to the site, The Cradle observed an ISIS logo painted on the guard tower at the entrance. Some guards from HTS greeted us as we exited the car. They were friendly and allowed us to enter.
Upon entering, The Cradle also observed that all the crosses had either been removed or destroyed and that militants previously occupying the site had used several churches for target practice. The entire façade of one church was littered with bullet holes.
Most importantly, the remnant of Saint Simeon’s stone pillar was gone, and the walls surrounding its location in the center of the complex had collapsed from an explosion.
The Telegraph claimed in 2016 that the remains of the pillar were destroyed in a Russian airstrike.
However, there were no other signs of damage due to bombardment. It is improbable that an airstrike would precisely target the center of the complex, where the remnants of the stone pillar – sacred to Christians but considered idolatrous by Salafist Muslims – were situated. ISIS or HTS likely used explosives to demolish the remains of the pillar when they destroyed all the crosses at the site.
Too moderate for the extremists
It is still unclear whether Julani’s claims about protecting Syria’s minorities and establishing democracy appear to be an effort to deflect criticism from the international community while quietly erecting a fundamentalist religious dictatorship.
However, if Julani’s commitments are sincere, this may create another problem for him and his US and Turkish backers.
A Syrian with numerous relatives who have fought for HTS tells The Cradle that many of Julani’s fighters are angry about his public rhetoric promising to protect minorities and to hold democratic elections.
“They are very extreme. They are angry because they say this is not what they fought the Jihad for.”
It is no accident that while traveling in Idlib, The Cradle observed a black metal sign that read, “Secularism is blasphemy” and another that read, “Democracy is idolatry.”
Such signs have previously been cited as warnings of the potential future awaiting the rest of Syria should Damascus fall.
If an Islamic State is not already here, it is fast approaching.
A black metal sign in Idlib reading “Secularism is blasphemy.”
Turkiye vows 'imminent eradication' of Kurdish militias as death toll skyrockets in north Syria
Ankara and its proxies are trying to establish control over the strategic Tishreen Dam in Aleppo governorate in fierce clashes against US-backed Kurdish forces
News Desk
JAN 6, 2025
(Photo credit: Huseyin Nasir/AA via Getty Images)
Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on 6 January that Kurdish militias in Syria will soon be driven out of the country and that Ankara will not agree to any policy allowing them to maintain a presence there.
Fidan said it was a “matter of time” before the Peoples Protection Unit (YPG) gets “eliminated,” stressing that it must lay down its weapons “as soon as possible.”
The YPG is the Syrian branch of Ankara’s sworn foe, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The YPG is considered the backbone of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Washington’s Kurdish proxy in Syria.
“Conditions in Syria have changed,” Fidan stated. “PKK’s empire of violence built over Kurdish people is on the verge of collapsing.”
The PKK, outlawed in Turkiye, has waged an armed campaign against Ankara since the 1980s.
Under the pretext of securing its borders and pushing away Kurdish militants, the Turkish military has been illegally occupying northern Syria since 2017 and supporting a coalition of armed factions called the Syrian National Army (SNA) – made up of several extremist groups such as Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham.
The SNA has incorporated scores of ISIS fighters and commanders into its ranks over the years. It played a significant role in the 11-day shock offensive, which ended with the collapse of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government on 8 December.
Since the fall of Damascus, the SNA and SDF have been engaged in fierce clashes with one another. The clashes have escalated in recent days, as a US-brokered truce has failed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on 5 January that over 100 fighters from both sides have been killed in the last few days. The clashes are focused in the northern city of Manbij in the Aleppo countryside.
“Turkish forces and their proxy militias to take control of the strategic Teshreen dam and Qarrah Qarquzaq bridge,” SOHR reported.
According to the SDF, the militants fighting alongside the SNA include Chechen, Turkestani, and Uzbek nationals.
SDF forces remain in control of large chunks of northeastern Syria and part of Deir Ezzor governorate, in particular, the eastern bank of the Euphrates River. The Kurdish militia, created with the support of the US in 2015, has helped Washington retain control of Syria's oil and wheat-rich regions since 2017.
US to 'ease restrictions' on Syria, keep sanctions in place: Report
The US imposed the 'Caesar Sanctions' on Syria in 2019, crushing the country's economy and preventing reconstruction
News Desk
JAN 6, 2025
(Nicole Tung for The New York Times)
The US is planning to announce an easing of restrictions on providing humanitarian aid and other basic services such as electricity to Syria while still keeping crushing economic sanctions on the country in place, Reuters reported on 6 January.
Reuters noted the “decision by the outgoing Biden administration will send a signal of goodwill to Syria's new Islamist rulers and aims to pave the way for improving tough living conditions in the war-ravaged country while treading cautiously and keeping US leverage in place.”
Syria's new government, led by extremist militants from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), is calling for the lifting of the US sanctions, which impoverished Syria and prevented reconstruction after the end of the Syria war in 2019.
Washington is so far refusing to lift sanctions, despite its longtime support for HTS and its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (also known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani), a former deputy to slain ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Previously known as the Nusra Front, HTS was the official Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. The group enjoyed support from the US, Israel, Qatar, and Turkiye, which sought to use the group to topple the Syrian government led by former president Bashar al-Assad starting in 2011.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden administration approved the easing of restrictions over the weekend, saying the move authorizes the Treasury Department to issue waivers to aid groups and companies providing essentials such as water, electricity, and other humanitarian supplies.
"Free Syria activists" have exposed themselves as hypocrites in the worst form.
While Syrians were starving under sanctions during Assad's rule, they lied and said the sanctions didn't affect civilians. Even in the wake of the largest earthquake the region had seen in nearly… https://t.co/3Zv1SnflfZ
— Bint Halab (@noone0826) January 5, 2025
The US-funded Syrian opposition group, the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), and other Syrian activists lobbied heavily for the US to impose the sanctions, claiming they would only hurt Assad and other top Syrian officials, not Syrian civilians.
However, Syria expert Joshua Landis warned in Foreign Affairs in 2020 of the “pointless cruelty of Trump's new Syria sanctions" while noting that in the 1990s, similar “US sanctions killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.”
The economic devastation wrought by the sanctions caused a new wave of Syrians to flee the country after 2020 despite the war having ended.
As for the Syrian energy sector, on which the Americans eased sanctions, the situation has predictably worsened in the month since Assad fled.
Expectedly, for those in the know. Although in the first days, enthusiastic supporters of HTS (banned by the Russian Federation and elsewhere) wrote to me in the comments about generators brought to Aleppo, not understanding (or understanding) that the effect is purely advertising, and that it is impossible to provide a city of 2 million even in partial supply mode, even in certain areas for more than a week, without payment.
For information, according to official data for 2021, the deficit was 1 GW in Latakia alone! And this is Latakia with a population of less than 700 thousand, and not industrial Aleppo.
In general, the situation has worsened even where the supply was 3 hours to 3 hours, it became an hour to 10 without power, and on average in the country and even worse.
What happened? After all, the power plants were not bombed by Israel, there were no military actions around them, and the "Assad underground" did not sabotage them. Moreover, after the dissolution of the Syrian army, as well as the capture of all bases and special government facilities that were supplied with priority, these capacities also disappeared somewhere!
It is quite funny at the same time, the rhetoric of the new authorities to the population that the criminal regime has ruined everything so much that now we must be patient, although Assad, when he fled, did not take a single turbine or power plant with him, not to mention beach and wedding photos))
Therefore, it is not enough to have power plants and substations - you also need to have fuel (gas and fuel oil) for them, which Iran previously shipped to Assad on credit (the lion's share in the form of oil).
Partially, Iranian oil still covered the need for automobile fuel.
A simple calculation will show that it is necessary to purchase at least 2 million barrels monthly - and this is a billion dollars, well, or sit on the neck of Qatar and other bay guys, while simultaneously canceling subsidies for electricity prices.
So now Qatar and Turkey have driven 2 floating power plants with a capacity of 800 MW (which also need fuel, but okay, a little - they will give it, as humanitarian aid for now), it was announced that they plan to increase the supply by almost 50 percent (!).
And again I see a wave of delight in the networks, tears of gratitude, etc.)
Well, and I, as in the story with the generators in Aleppo, again cannot help but note the main emphasis on the media, because in practice - this is a pea for an elephant, and even then, to return the energy supply, at least to the times of the criminal regime.
This is one of the reasons why Turkey is planning a military operation in Syrian Kurdistan to take control of Syrian oil from the Kurds and the US, which could at least partially solve the above-described problems. Hence the rhetoric in the style of "Al-Shaddadi in 3 days".
Hence the continuing hypothetical option in relations with Russia - oil in exchange for bases.
Of course, this will not solve all of Syria’s economic problems.
Carving up Syria and Assad's last moments
My reports yesterday for UK Column focus on Jolani's hold on power, the geopolitical gains for Turkey and Assad's departure
vanessa beeley
Jan 09, 2025
The 3 Times that Baathist Syria Refused to Betray the Resistance
January 9, 2025
Martyred Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and former President of Syria Bashar al-Assad.
By Mohammad Hussein Wazarati – Jan 6, 2025
“One must avoid being negligent about the enemy, one must not underestimate the enemy, and one must not trust the enemy’s smile. Sometimes the enemy speaks to a person with a pleasant tone and with a smile, but carries a dagger behind his back, waiting for the right opportunity.“—Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, December 11, 2024
The first time
On May 4, 2003, just three days after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime and the US occupation of Iraq, Colin Powell, then US secretary of State, traveled to Syria on George W Bush’s orders. Regarding his meeting with Bashar al-Assad, then president of Syria, Powell said:
If Syria continues to serve as the transit point for equipment and military equipment and weapons and armaments that might be heading to Hezbollah in Lebanon, then we will have continuing difficulty with Syria. And Syria will not find that it is on the path to a better relationship with the United States, and it would not be in their interest in—as a result of that. And we also made that clear to President Bashar Assad.
The clear message to President Bashar Assad was that there is a new situation in the region with the end of the Hussein regime, and with a commitment on the part of the United States and President Bush to go forward with the Middle East peace plan and to table a roadmap, and he can be a part of positive developments in the region if he chooses to do so.
So this isn’t a question of accepting his assurances, or accepting statements that he makes. This is a question of laying out an agenda for him, things we would like to see movement on, and we will measure whether or not he moves on them or not, and that will be an indication of whether he wants a better relationship or not.
During this meeting, Powell explained to Assad Washington’s plan for West Asia and threatened him that he must change his behavior to align with the implementation of this plan. The martyred Secretary General of Hezbollah, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, said about this meeting and its purpose:
The first step was the war in Afghanistan and the second step was the war in Iraq. After the occupation of Iraq, Colin Powell, who was US Secretary of State at that time, went to Damascus with a long list of Washington’s conditions and met with Bashar al-Assad. At that time, the Americans threatened Syria that if these conditions were not met, they would bring war to that country as well. Their conditions were related to the Golan Heights, Palestine, the Palestinian resistance, Lebanese Hezbollah, and others. In any case, the list was long and extensive. Despite Washington’s threats, Bashar al-Assad refused to surrender to them. In the end, thanks to the strategy and courage of the resistance front, the United States was unable to complete its Greater Middle East plan. After failing to achieve the objectives of occupying Iraq and the Zionist regime’s defeat in the 33-day war, the United States was forced to withdraw its forces from Iraq in 2011 despite all its financial, human, and reputation losses and its expenditure of much money, lives, and resources to achieve its plan for the region.
The second time
Before the beginning of the war in Syria in 2011, opponents of the resistance front entered into negotiations with Syria. Through the mediation of countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and teams that went to Syria country from the United States and some European countries like France, they carried forward negotiations and presented proposals to Bashar al-Assad and Syrian state officials. Among these proposals was the opening up of trade between Syria and Western countries, including the US. But in exchange for these gifts and offerings, they asked Syria to cut Iran out from the region, reduce its relationship with Iran to a minimum, and stop supporting Hezbollah. Bashar al-Assad did not accept their demands and never agreed to such an agreement. They even assigned the King of Saudi Arabia to negotiate with Bashar al-Assad, to tell him that if he did not agree to reach an agreement with the United States and the Europeans, he would face many consequences and problems, but Bashar al-Assad, once again, did not accept these negotiations imposed upon him.
The martyr Nasrallah had explained:
Before the efforts to overthrow the Damascus government began, many efforts were made to push President Bashar al-Assad to drag Syria’s leadership and state toward another axis. The Saudis were working on this matter to the extent that King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz personally went to Damascus despite the siege that he was imposing on Syria. The Qataris also made many efforts to achieve this goal. Turkey tried, along with several other Arab countries, including Egypt under Hosni Mubarak, to convinve Syria to join the opposing front. The Americans and their allies, through political promises and tempting financial offers to Assad, tried to direct Syria toward another axis called the “Arab moderate axis,” the one that we call the axis of surrender.
Nevertheless, Bashar al-Assad and other leaders in Syria continued to emphasize their firm position in supporting the resistance, as they considered that the Arab-Israeli battle was still ongoing. Bashar al-Assad believed that “without decisively resolving the occupied Golan issue and without the return of Palestinians’ stolen rights, there is no possibility for peace in the region.”
The third time
Only a few weeks before December 20, when US sanctions on Syria were set to expire and the US Congress would decide whether to extend them, the Western-Arab-Israeli axis moved again, and promises were made to Syria to ease sanctions on condition of accepting the usual terms. Reuters published a report citing informed sources that the United States and the United Arab Emirates negotiated together about the possibility of lifting sanctions against Assad and Syria if they distanced themselves from Iran and cut weapon supply routes to Hezbollah.
Lebanese media also published a report about this matter, stating that the Zionist entity had also proposed lifting Washington’s sanctions on Syria.
After the occupation entity’s attack on Hezbollah, White House officials conducted negotiations with their Emirati counterparts, following the UAE’s readiness to make financial commitments for Syria’s reconstruction and weakening Assad’s position. Washington believed that the possibility of lifting sanctions on Syria simultaneously with Israel’s strikes on Iran’s allies presented an opportunity to implement a carrot-and-stick policy to break Syria’s alliance with Iran and Hezbollah.
However, at the time these negotiations were being conducted by one wing of the Western-Arab-Israeli axis before the Syrian opposition’s attack on Aleppo, we saw the other wing of the same axis, not committed to the agreement or its pledges, sending a flood of armed opposition fighters toward Damascus. Despite the agreement at the Doha summit, which convened to discuss the latest developments in Syria, to address the Syria issue politically and reach a solution and for Assad’s government to enter negotiations with the armed opposition, the course of field events in Syria showed that Turkey reneged on what it had signed as one of the three guarantors of the Astana agreement.
Yes, as Imam Khamenei said, “one must avoid being negligent about the enemy.”
Erdogan’s dual Kurdish strategy: Peace talks vs reconfiguring Syria militarily
Turkiye’s renewed push to resolve the Kurdish question – through a mix of delicate negotiations with an incarcerated separatist icon and military action in Syria – could either pave the way for peace or deepen divisions in a region facing collapse.
Mohamad Hasan Sweidan
JAN 8, 2025
Photo Credit: The Cradle
“Conditions in Syria have changed. We believe it’s only a matter of time before PKK/YPG is eliminated.”
- Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaking at a news conference earlier this week.
In October 2024, Devlet Bahceli, leader of the far-right Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and political ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, surprised many with an unexpected proposal. He suggested that Abdullah Ocalan, the founding member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), could be granted conditional release if he renounced violence and dissolved the organization.
Ocalan, who has been imprisoned in Turkiye since 1999, has long been a symbol of Kurdish resistance. Despite persistent demands from Kurdish groups for his release or a reduction in his sentence, Turkish authorities have never responded positively.
The following month, Bahceli expanded his proposal, presenting it as a potential solution to the decades-long conflict with Kurdish militants and calling for the pro-Kurdish Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) to engage in direct talks with Ocalan.
Erdogan endorsed the idea, calling it a “historic opportunity.” This proposal coincided with the political upheaval in Syria in which Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by Abu Mohammad al-Julani, overthrew former president Bashar al-Assad on 8 December after a two-week shock offensive that took the region by surprise. Julani, who now goes by his real name Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly led the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, which he founded in Syria under the direction of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2011. The Nusra Front later became HTS. The events in Syria and the collapse of Assad's Baathist rule bolstered Ankara's regional standing.
Representatives from DEM met with Ocalan, followed by a meeting between the party and Bahceli earlier this month. Turkiye is now poised to leverage its strengthened negotiating position to address what it perceives as the Kurdish threat in Syria.
Turkiye–PKK conflict: Historical milestones
To understand Turkiye’s stance on the Kurdish issue, particularly its position on the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and its ties to the PKK, it is essential to examine the conflict’s historical milestones. These moments have shaped the relationship between the Turkish state and the PKK over decades of violence and sporadic peace efforts.
The PKK was officially founded on 27 November 1978 in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province. Its founders, including Ocalan, were a group of Marxist students who sought to establish an independent Kurdish state encompassing Kurdish-majority regions in Turkiye, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.
However, this vision clashed with Turkiye’s policies, which denied the existence of a separate Kurdish identity and restricted Kurdish cultural expression. The military coup on 12 September 1980 dealt a severe blow to the PKK, in which many of its members and leaders were arrested. Despite this setback, the PKK launched its first military operation in 1984, marking the beginning of a prolonged and bloody conflict with the Turkish state.
In the early 1990s, the PKK made its first notable attempt at peace. On 20 March 1993, the group declared a ceasefire after indirect talks, but this initiative unraveled after the sudden death of Turkish President Turgut Ozal in April of that year. By May, President Suleyman Demirel officially ended the peace process, reigniting hostilities between the two sides once again.
The arrest of Ocalan in 1999 marked a turning point in the conflict. On 15 February, Turkish intelligence captured Ocalan in Nairobi, Kenya, and extradited him to Turkiye. Initially sentenced to death, his punishment was later commuted to life imprisonment after Ankara abolished the death penalty. Following his arrest, the PKK declared a unilateral ceasefire, but this truce ended in 2004, when the group resumed operations, targeting urban centers in Turkiye.
The following years saw significant military escalation alongside attempts at secret negotiations. In 2008, the Turkish military launched Operation Sun in northern Iraq, involving 10,000 soldiers. At the same time, secret talks were initiated in Oslo in 2010, but these negotiations failed to produce meaningful results.
In late 2012, then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced talks with Ocalan in prison with the aim of reaching peace. In March 2013, Ocalan called from his prison to ask his cadres to stop fighting and withdraw from Turkiye, stressing the need for politics to prevail over weapons. The party responded to this call and declared a ceasefire.
A renewed peace process began in late 2012, initiated by Erdogan, in which he announced direct talks with Ocalan aimed at resolving the conflict peacefully. In March 2013, Ocalan called for an end to hostilities and urged PKK fighters to withdraw from Turkiye. The PKK declared a ceasefire in response, but this period of calm was short-lived.
The peace process collapsed in July 2015 following the killing of two Turkish policemen by PKK members. The violence that ensued saw Turkiye launching extensive military operations and regaining control of Kurdish-held areas in the country's southeast. The clashes resulted in the deaths of thousands of PKK fighters and hundreds of Turkish soldiers.
Between 2016 and 2020, Turkiye shifted its focus to cross-border operations in Syria, launching a series of military campaigns, including Operation Euphrates Shield, Operation Olive Branch, Operation Peace Spring, and Operation Spring Shield, to weaken Kurdish forces in Syria.
These operations targeted the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Turkiye considers an extension of the PKK. To maintain control over recaptured areas, Turkiye reorganized Syrian opposition groups under the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), tasking them with enforcing security measures, particularly in Kurdish-majority areas.
A map showing Turkish intervention in northern Syria.
The Syrian situation and current negotiations
The fall of the Assad government in Syria has now created an opportunity for Turkiye to address the Kurdish issue on multiple fronts. Erdogan’s administration is pursuing parallel strategies: engaging in negotiations with Ocalan and Kurdish forces while preparing for potential military action if talks fail.
Ocalan has expressed his readiness to contribute to peacemaking, considering that strengthening the Kurdish–Turkish brotherhood is a “historic responsibility.” He was quoted as saying he was “ready to take the necessary positive steps,” noting that the delegation that visited him would convey its position to the Turkish state and other political forces.
However, the US-backed SDF remains adamant about retaining its weapons unless Turkiye halts its attacks, and Ankara has rejected SDF commander Mazloum Abdi’s proposal to integrate the SDF into the Syrian army.
Meanwhile, Ankara continues to exert military pressure in Syria, with the SNA targeting critical infrastructure controlled by Kurdish forces, such as the Tishreen Dam and Qaraqoq Bridge. These actions, while aimed at weakening Kurdish influence, reveal the deeply entrenched tensions between Turkiye, the SDF, and the interim Syrian government. Despite periodic negotiations, disagreements persist, making further conflict increasingly likely.
Adding to Kurdish anxieties are statements suggesting another potential reduction of US support under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump exclaimed:
"Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!" (His caps)
Further comments by Trump's ally Robert Kennedy Jr. revealed that the US president-elect has privately advocated for withdrawing US troops from Syria, aiming to avoid turning them into “cannon fodder” in regional conflicts. Such rhetoric has left the SDF feeling vulnerable, given their longstanding reliance on US protection as a counterbalance to Ankara’s aggressions.
Diverging visions and regional uncertainty
In light of these uncertainties, the SDF has sought an arrangement with the new Syrian government.
During a meeting with Turkish-backed Syrian interim leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, the SDF proposed adopting a decentralized governance system, integrating the SDF into the Syrian army as a unified corps, and limiting its operations to the areas of the Kurdish Autonomous Administration.
While the SDF further requests equitable distribution of resources from the resource-rich regions east of the Euphrates, Sharaa’s response highlights the continuing stark differences between the two sides.
Damascus proposes redirecting 80 percent of oil and gas revenues to the central government, disbanding the SDF, dispersing its members across Syria, dissolving the Kurdish Asayish security forces, and reassigning urban security to the Syrian Central Police. These opposing visions leave little room for compromise and suggest an increased likelihood of Turkiye pursuing further military actions in northeastern Syria.
Erdogan’s willingness to engage in negotiations with Ocalan and the SDF is not solely shaped by regional dynamics but also by pressing domestic considerations. Constitutionally, Erdogan is barred from seeking another term unless early elections are called, which puts his political future at a crossroads.
Securing the support of the pro-Kurdish Equality and Democracy Party – the third-largest party in parliament – could be crucial for Erdogan to push through constitutional amendments that would extend his presidency.
Whether through diplomacy or military action, Erdogan’s approach to the Kurdish issue will shape not only the future of Turkiye’s internal politics but also determine whether Syria can achieve a fragile unity or succumb to fragmentation across ethnic and sectarian lines.
Turkish drone strikes US-backed Kurds as clashes rage in north Syria
Kurdish fighters and Turkish-backed militants are fighting over control of the strategic Tishreen Dam near the Aleppo countryside
News Desk
JAN 8, 2025
(Photo credit: X)
Heavy clashes between Turkish-backed militants and US-backed Kurdish fighters continued to rage across the Aleppo countryside in northern Syria on 8 December, as Ankara provided air cover to its proxies throughout the fighting.
A Turkish drone struck a vehicle belonging to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the eastern Aleppo countryside on Wednesday. Turkish artillery shelling also hit the vicinity of the Qarqozak Bridge south of the city of Kobani (Ain al-Arab).
Factions from Ankara’s Syrian National Army (SNA) proxy force fired rockets at SDF positions near the bridge. Turkish drones also bombed an SDF rocket launcher near Manbij in the Aleppo countryside and an SDF vehicle in the city of Malikiyah northeast of Hasakah.
“Turkish warplanes bombed Tishreen Dam and its surroundings with a number of raids, coinciding with attacks carried out by mercenary factions affiliated with Turkey on villages north of Tishreen Dam and southeast of Manbij, where violent clashes are taking place,” SDF’s media center announced. Civilian casualties have been reported.
Turkiye’s proxies have been trying to secure control over the Tishreen Dam for weeks. The fighting between the SDF and the SNA has escalated recently – despite a fragile, US-brokered ceasefire agreement.
The SDF media center warned that the dam was in danger of collapsing, and said Turkiye is responsible for whatever “disaster” may befall the area as a result of continuous airstrikes.
SDF also confirmed its fighters destroyed two vehicles loaded with weapons belonging to the SNA factions.
A day earlier, SDF-affiliated Kurdish authorities in north Syria warned that the Tishreen Dam was at risk of being put out of service by Turkish attacks. The strategic dam, one of the most important in Syria, is viewed as the key to controlling the area east of the Euphrates.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that over 280 people have been killed in the clashes in recent weeks. Twenty-five are civilians, including five women and children, according to SOHR.
SDF forces remain in control of large chunks of northeastern Syria and part of Deir Ezzor governorate, in particular, the eastern bank of the Euphrates River. The Kurdish militia, created with the support of the US in 2015, has helped Washington retain control of Syria's oil and wheat-rich regions since 2017.
Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on 6 January that Kurdish militias in Syria will soon be driven out of the country and that Ankara will not agree to any policy allowing them to maintain a presence there.
The SDF is made up predominantly of fighters from the Peoples Protection Unit (YPG), the Syrian branch of Ankara’s sworn foe, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Posted by Internationalist 360° on January 9, 2025
The Cradle
Tel Aviv is planning to initiate an international conference to discuss its plans in post-Assad Syria, which allegedly include ensuring ‘safety’ for minorities.
The Israeli government is considering the preparation of an international conference aimed at discussing the division of Syria into “cantons,” Hebrew newspaper Israel Hayom reported on 9 January.
A recent cabinet session led by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz focused on the changes that have taken place in Syria, including concerns about the new government and the fate of the Kurdish minority in the north.
During the session, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen proposed the idea of the conference to “ensure the safety of [their] northern border and allow Israel to actively defend itself against threats from rebel groups.”
Part of this conference would be discussing the idea of splitting Syria into “cantons” – different administrative divisions.
“The main fear is that an idea that is identified with Israel will necessarily not be accepted in Syria, which is why the discussions on the matter are classified,” and a conference needs to be held, Israel Hayom adds. Its goal is to allow Israel to “defend itself” from potential threats posed by new authorities in Syria – led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
The report notes that the 1974 border agreement between Israel and Syria is not respected by HTS-led authorities. Tel Aviv immediately and publicly withdrew from the decades-old deal after the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government, which saw its forces immediately invade the country and start a bombing campaign.
The conference also aims to guarantee “safety” for minority groups, including Kurds in Syria.
According to the report, ministers discussed during the cabinet session ways to counter the strong Turkish influence in Syria – which has been solidified since the overthrow of the former government.
Sources cited by the Israeli newspaper say that while Tel Aviv does not intend to remain in the parts of Syria it occupied after the fall of Assad, it has no plans of withdrawal yet.
Assad’s government fell on 8 December after an 11-day shock offensive that resulted in the collapse of the Syrian military and ended with the storming of the capital by HTS-led extremists.
While the new government has vowed to protect minorities, there have been numerous instances of attacks on Christian and Alawite holy sites, symbols, and towns. Executions of Alawite civilians and former government soldiers have also been widely reported. Extremists and ex-Al-Qaeda elements have assumed several official posts in the new government and its armed forces.
Israeli forces advanced on Syria as soon as the former government collapsed, immediately pushing beyond the UN-monitored buffer zone and sweeping across southern Syria. The Israeli army has now seized several strategic positions and water sources in the south, including near the outskirts of Damascus.
It has threatened Syrian villages, shot at protesters, and besieged government buildings – while receiving little condemnation from the new authorities, which have been waging a violent crackdown on remnants of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and armed residents opposed to HTS and its rule.
Comments and statements by several HTS officials, including its leader, former Al-Qaeda chief Ahmad al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Julani), have signaled that the new administration in Syria has no plans to make an enemy of Israel or confront it.
Israeli forces briefly detained a French journalist in the buffer zone in the occupied Golan Heights on 8 January.
The journalist for French magazine Marianne, Sylvain Mercadier, said he and his colleague were “mistreated for more than four hours” and had their equipment “stolen” by Israeli troops.
Israeli army spokesman Nadav Shoshani said the journalist “came too close” to forces, was detained and questioned, and then released.
Gaddafi foresaw the Balkanization of Arab World
Social media users recall the statement made by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who died more than 10 years ago.
“Their plan is to wipe Lebanon and Syria off the map so that the borders of what we call Israel will be with Turkey and not with Arab countries. You will see that, unfortunately, this will happen, if not in our lifetime, then in the lifetime of our children… Israel said this: the balkanisation of the Arab states, that is, the balkanisation of Egypt into 4 states, Syria into 5 states, little Lebanon will be divided into provinces, municipalities and cantons… The map already exists and everything is written…”
NATO’s military aggression against Libya led to the overthrow and death of Gaddafi. Was he punished for his prescience?
SDF leader urges Trump to keep US troops in Syria citing 'resurging ISIS threat'
Noting recent terror attacks in the US, the Kurdish commander reiterated the threat posed by thousands of imprisoned ISIS fighters, whom US officials have referred to as 'an army in waiting'
News Desk
JAN 9, 2025
(Photo Credit: Sky News)
The commander-in-chief of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), General Mazloum Abdi, has called on US President-elect Donald Trump to keep thousands of troops inside Syria during his government.
“The key factor of stabilization in this area is the US presence on the ground,” Abdi told The Guardian on 9 January, claiming that if 2,000 US troops occupying Syria's largest oil fields and a massive military base in the south are withdrawn, it would lead to the “resurgence” of “many factions, including [ISIS].”
“The recent terrorist attacks in the US itself [are] an indication to the incoming president that the terrorist threat is increasing,” Abdi added.
The Kurdish military commander also reiterated warnings that SDF-controlled prison camps holding thousands of ISIS fighters are at risk of being swarmed by extremist armed groups, which he claims are seeking to “take advantage” of the ongoing clashes between the SDF and the Syrian National Army (SNA).
“US forces withdrawal [would lead to] another chaotic situation, and this may lead to another civil war since many factions are threatening the Kurds,” the Kurdish general said.
SDF positions east of Aleppo have been under continuous attack by the SNA with support from the Turkish army since the fall of the Syrian government at the hands of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) one month ago. Similar to HTS, SNA forces include former members of Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
Hundreds of people have been killed in the fighting, including many civilians.
“If what is expected regarding the terrorist organization PKK/YPG is not done, necessary action will be taken,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said during an interview on CNN Turk late on Thursday. “That action is a military operation,” he added.
The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) serve as the backbone of the US-sponsored SDF. The YPG has deep historical ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a Kurdish armed group labeled as a terrorist organization by Turkiye and several western nations.
“Senior leaders of the terrorist organization must leave Syria,” Fidan emphasized, reiterating that Ankara's demands have been communicated through diplomatic and public channels to Washington's allies.
The SDF recently held “positive” talks with HTS leader and Syria's de facto ruler Ahmad al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Julani), hoping to become an official member of a future Syrian army. “We agree that we are for the unity and integrity of Syrian territory and reject any division projects that threaten the country's unity,” Abdi said during an interview this week.
In 2018, then-president Donald Trump tried to withdraw all US troops occupying Syria, arguing that ISIS had been defeated and that the US role in the war-torn nation should end. However, this plan was met with strong opposition from the Pentagon.
By late 2019, Trump adjusted his policy to a more “gradual” withdrawal, infamously declaring that troops would remain in Syria to “keep the oil.”
Last month, the Pentagon confirmed that at least 2,000 US troops had been deployed inside Syria for an undetermined period of time, more than double the figure Washington previously claimed to have inside the war-torn country.
The US illegally deployed troops in Syria in November 2015 to allegedly “prevent the return of ISIS.” This came just two months after Russia accepted the request of Damascus to provide air support to the Syrian army, Iranian special forces, and Hezbollah in their fight against ISIS forces who threatened to overrun the Syrian capital.
Israel sets plans in motion to balkanize Syria under 'self-defense' claims: Report
Tel Aviv is planning to initiate an international conference to discuss its plans in post-Assad Syria, which allegedly include ensuring ‘safety’ for minorities
News Desk
JAN 9, 2025
(Photo credit: AA)
The Israeli government is considering the preparation of an international conference aimed at discussing the division of Syria into “cantons,” Hebrew newspaper Israel Hayom reported on 9 January.
A recent cabinet session led by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz focused on the changes that have taken place in Syria, including concerns about the new government and the fate of the Kurdish minority in the north.
During the session, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen proposed the idea of the conference to “ensure the safety of [their] northern border and allow Israel to actively defend itself against threats from rebel groups.”
Part of this conference would be discussing the idea of splitting Syria into “cantons” – different administrative divisions.
“The main fear is that an idea that is identified with Israel will necessarily not be accepted in Syria, which is why the discussions on the matter are classified,” and a conference needs to be held, Israel Hayom adds. Its goal is to allow Israel to “defend itself” from potential threats posed by new authorities in Syria – led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
The report notes that the 1974 border agreement between Israel and Syria is not respected by HTS-led authorities. Tel Aviv immediately and publicly withdrew from the decades-old deal after the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government, which saw its forces immediately invade the country and start a bombing campaign.
The conference also aims to guarantee “safety” for minority groups, including Kurds in Syria.
According to the report, ministers discussed during the cabinet session ways to counter the strong Turkish influence in Syria – which has been solidified since the overthrow of the former government.
Sources cited by the Israeli newspaper say that while Tel Aviv does not intend to remain in the parts of Syria it occupied after the fall of Assad, it has no plans of withdrawal yet.
Assad’s government fell on 8 December after an 11-day shock offensive that resulted in the collapse of the Syrian military and ended with the storming of the capital by HTS-led extremists.
While the new government has vowed to protect minorities, there have been numerous instances of attacks on Christian and Alawite holy sites, symbols, and towns. Executions of Alawite civilians and former government soldiers have also been widely reported. Extremists and ex-Al-Qaeda elements have assumed several official posts in the new government and its armed forces.
Israeli forces advanced on Syria as soon as the former government collapsed, immediately pushing beyond the UN-monitored buffer zone and sweeping across southern Syria. The Israeli army has now seized several strategic positions and water sources in the south, including near the outskirts of Damascus.
It has threatened Syrian villages, shot at protesters, and besieged government buildings – while receiving little condemnation from the new authorities, which have been waging a violent crackdown on remnants of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and armed residents opposed to HTS and its rule.
Comments and statements by several HTS officials, including its leader, former Al-Qaeda chief Ahmad al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Julani), have signaled that the new administration in Syria has no plans to make an enemy of Israel or confront it.
Israeli forces briefly detained a French journalist in the buffer zone in the occupied Golan Heights on 8 January.
The journalist for French magazine Marianne, Sylvain Mercadier, said he and his colleague were “mistreated for more than four hours” and had their equipment “stolen” by Israeli troops.
Israeli army spokesman Nadav Shoshani said the journalist “came too close” to forces, was detained and questioned, and then released.
ISIS plan to attack Syria's Sayyeda Zeinab shrine foiled by security forces
Western intelligence officials have warned of a resurgence of ISIS, without acknowledging their previous support for the extremist group
News Desk
JAN 11, 2025
(Photo credit: Ayman Oghanna/Los Angeles Times)
The General Intelligence Service of Syria's new interim government announced on 11 January it managed to foil an attempt by ISIS to attack the Sayyida Zainab shrine in the southern Damascus suburbs.
A source in the General Intelligence Service told state media SANA that "the persons involved in this criminal attempt against the Syrian people have been arrested."
"The General Intelligence Service is putting all its capabilities to confront all attempts to attack the Syrian people in all their spectrums," the source added.
The shrine contains the grave of Zeinab, a venerated granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad, and is known for its large golden dome.
Syria's interim government is led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. Ahmed al-Sharaa, the HTS leader and de facto ruler of Syria, is a former deputy of deceased ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The Sayyeda Zeinab shrine, revered by Shia Muslims worldwide, has been targeted by ISIS multiple times in the past while it was under the control of the previous Syrian government led by Bashar al-Assad.
In June 2016, an ISIS suicide bomber attacked the shrine, killing at least 20 people and wounding 20 more, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a British-based monitoring group.
Two months before, in April 2016, an ISIS attack on the shrine killed at least seven and wounded dozens.
A string of ISIS bombings near the shrine in February 2016 killed 134 people, most of them civilians, according to the SOHR. In January 2016, another attack on the shrine claimed by ISIS killed 70 people.
To maintain security, members of the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, guarded the site until they were withdrawn just before the fall of Assad's government in December 2024.
The US, Israel, Turkiye, and Arab States began supporting HTS, formerly known as the Nusra Front, in 2011 to topple Assad's government. In 2014, the US and its allies also backed ISIS as it conquered large swathes of eastern Syria and western Iraq, including the city of Mosul.
Recently, many western intelligence officials have warned of a resurgence of ISIS in Syria, without acknowledging their past and possibly ongoing support for the group.
Israel plans long-term occupation of 'control zone' deep inside Syria: Report
Israeli officials cite the existence of the new HTS extremist government as a pretext to occupy Syrian land
News Desk
JAN 10, 2025
(Photo credit: AFP)
Israel plans to establish a “control zone” 15 kilometers deep inside Syria and an intelligence “sphere of influence” extending 60 kilometers, claiming the new government in Damascus includes “the most dangerous people in the world,” Ynet reported on 10 December.
“The Israeli army will maintain a presence to ensure that the new regime's allies in Syria cannot fire rockets toward the Golan Heights,” the officials told the Hebrew newspaper.
They stressed “the need for a 60-kilometer sphere of influence inside Syria under the control of Israeli intelligence to monitor and prevent potential threats from developing.”
Israel claims that the new Syrian government, led by the former Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), poses a threat to Israel that is ignored by western countries.
“The west deliberately chooses to be blind and deal with the most dangerous people in the world, while the Arab world around us understands the threat and warns the west but refuses to listen,” an unnamed senior Israeli official told Ynet.
“No one can guarantee that they will not eventually turn against us, and these are very dangerous people,” the official added.
However, the Israeli government provided financial, military, and medical support to HTS in the past when the group was known as the Nusra Front.
Along with the US and other regional states, Israel sought to use extremist groups, including ISIS and the Nusra Front, to topple the Syrian government starting in 2011.
But Israeli officials now cite the presence in Damascus of HTS, led by former ISIS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa (previously known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani), as a reason to continue occupying Syrian land.
According to the officials, “Israel will have to remain there and ensure a missile-free zone 15 kilometers away under its control, in addition to a sphere of influence of 60 kilometers, to prevent threats from developing.”
The Israeli official also stressed that his country will not allow the presence of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Syria “just as it prevented a foothold for Iran there.”
Immediately after Sharaa and HTS captured Damascus on 8 December, Israel deployed its troops to occupy additional land in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
Israel illegally occupied parts of the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel and Syria signed a disengagement agreement after the October War in 1973, establishing a demilitarized buffer zone between the armed forces of both sides.
After the fall of the Syrian government on 8 December, Israel ordered its troops to occupy additional Syrian land beyond the buffer zone, including Mount Hermon, giving their army the strategic high ground overlooking both Syria and Lebanon.
Syria Psyop Theater: Mass Graves, Mass Deceptions
Posted by Internationalist 360° on January 14, 2025
Dan Cohen
The Al-Houta gorge mass grave used by HTS and ISIS. Image from Human Rights Watch
For over a decade of color revolutions and destabilization plots in West Asia and North Africa, U.S. government officials with their allied NGOs and media outlets have summoned the spectre of mass graves to justify their interventionist policies.
“As President, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action,” President Barack Obama declared in a March 2011 speech justifying Operation Odyssey Dawn, the U.S. airstrikes that led to the deposal and grisly murder of Libyan president Moammar Qadaffi.
“Why batter Colonel Qaddafi and not intervene on the side of the opposition in Yemen, Bahrain, perhaps even Syria?,” The Economist wondered.
From the earliest days of the Syrian crisis, Western media began to disseminate anonymously-sourced and unverified claims of mass graves, particularly in the cities of Homs and Deraa, while ignoring the presence of armed opposition groups and their killings of Syrian police and military personnel.
Father Frans van der Lugt, a Dutch Jesuit priest who had spent decades in Syria before being murdered by armed opposition groups in 2014, wrote that “From the start I saw armed demonstrators marching along in the protests, who began to shoot at the police first. The violence of the security forces has been a reaction to the brutal violence of the armed rebels.”
“The opposition of the street is much stronger than any other opposition. And this opposition is armed and frequently employs brutality and violence, only in order to blame the government,” he wrote in another report.
This sort of vital information was rarely included in reports, certainly not by mainstream media outlets and billionaire-funded human rights groups.
In June 2011, a Human Rights Watch report alleged, based on interviews with “more than 50” anonymous Syrians and “Jordanian nationals” (some conducted by phone), that multiple mass graves existed in Deraa. The only tangible evidence provided was a video produced by the Turkey-based opposition-affiliated Sham News Network, which received glowing coverage from CNN, of a shallow grave dug with a single corpse and three body bags visible. A single source, who was not in Syria, claimed the bodies were of his family members. The report failed to substantiate its claims, noting that “While we did our best to verify the names and circumstances of the killings with witnesses and family members, this was not always possible due to restrictions on access and communications in Syria.”
The only documented mass grave of the Syrian government is in the southern Damascus neighborhood of Tadamon.
Tadamon was a front line in the first years of the Syrian war, with the Syrian military and Palestinian faction Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command fighting against a collection of armed groups which journalist Charles Glass identified as “troops from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and its erstwhile allies the Nusra Front, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and other extreme Salafist militias.” The armed opposition was so brutal that, according a The New York Times report, Jabhat Al-Nusra militants captured an Alawaite family in Tadamon and forced a brother to rape his sister at gunpoint.
The anti-government armed groups, according to a March 2013 Amnesty International report, executed anyone they suspected of being informants for the Syrian government, and dumped their bodies into a “a large hole dug for the foundations of a building in Souk al-Talata,” called the “hole of death.” Among the victims was Palestinian refugee Ali al-Zamel. When the Syrian military temporarily regained control of the neighborhood around September 2012, it recovered bodies from the hole, but Jabhat al-Nusra once again ousted Syrian government forces in 2013.
However, this opposition mass grave was ignored while a a Syrian military intelligence mass grave was featured in an exposé jointly-published by the U.S. government-funded New Lines Institute, The Guardian, and Al Jumhuriyah, a staunchly pro-opposition Germany-based outlet, funded by the German and Norwegian governments, Open Society Foundation and Ford Foundation, among others, through a cultural institution. The exposé was done in collaboration with two researchers at the University of Amsterdam, one of whom wrote that she posed as a fervent support of the Assad government in order to lure an intelligence officer who participated in the massacre to confess his participation, and said it was done in “revenge,” apparently for the killing of his brother.
The report found that a small group of Syrian military intelligence officers executed 41 people in a mass grave, set their bodies alight, and then covered up their crime.
When the reports were published in 2022, the Syrian government arrested the confessed perpetrator, Amjad Yousef.
Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham and ISIS mass graves
While Western media focus on the Syrian military’s mass grave in Tadamon, they have omitted the overwhelming majority of documented mass graves made by anti-government terrorist groups in Tadamon and throughout the country in territory that opposition forces had held.
In late 2011, Jabhat al-Nusra (which would go on to become Hayat Tahrir al-Sham), Ahrar al-Sham, Jaish al-Islam, and Jaish al-Fatah began to use the Idlib province’s Al-Habat quarry as a mass grave, according to a 2021 report by the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression. Militants threw into the quarry Syrian soldiers, members of government-allied militias, people accused of collaboration with the government, people accused of apostasy, adultery, or homosexuality, and Shia Muslim residents of the village of Foua and Kefraya (condemned as “infidels”), earning it the title “the Al-Ahm death hole.”
Video uploaded by the “Idlib Special Operations Brigade”, a faction of the CIA-backed Free Syrian Army, shows militants with captured Syrian soldiers in a truck who, according to the report, were then killed and dumped in the mass grave.
By 2015, the Al-Ahm “death hole” contained at least 110 bodies, and by 2017, 30 more victims had been thrown in. While some had already been executed, others were thrown in alive, or blindfolded and told to run for freedom, only to fall to their death.
HTS reportedly ceased using the pit to dispose of its victims and began to use it as a garbage landfill for all of Idlib province, which it governed. However, the report documents further cases in 2020.
In 2011, anti-government militias dumped the “mutilated bodies of 10 security agents whose hands, head and feet had been cut off” in a mass grave in Jisr al-Shughur in Idlib province. “At least four of the bodies were beheaded or struck on the head with an ax,” according to an Associated Press reporter.
In November 2013, Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS attacked the ancient Chrisitan city of Sadad, ransacking the city, desecrating churches, and taking a man as a human shield before they murdered 46 Syrian men, women, and children and dumped their bodies in two mass graves.
“What happened in Sadad is the most serious and biggest massacre of Christians in Syria in the past two and a half years… 45 innocent civilians were martyred for no reason, and among them several women and children, many thrown into mass graves. Other civilians were threatened and terrorized. 30 were wounded and 10 are still missing,” Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh said.
After the Syrian government’s army expelled Islamic state forces from Palmyra in 2016, they discovered a mass grave that contained 40 bodies.
The greatest concentration of mass graves was in eastern Syria, where ISIS held territory for years, from Raqqa to Albu Kamal and around Deir Ezzor.
In 2017, the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition, with U.S.-backed Kurdish forces fighting under the banner of the Syrian Democratic Forces, expelled ISIS from Raqqa, leveling 80% of the city. First responders and residents began to uncover mass graves there too.
Unlike the White Helmets, who are lavishly funded by the U.S., UK, and Qatar and were once called the “Islamic state fire brigade” by ISIS prisoner journalist John Cantlie, Raqqa’s first responders received little funding from the U.S. government.
According to a July 2018 Human Rights Watch report on the mass graves, the U.S. was hesitant to allocate funds to exhuming graves there because it did not want to offend Ankara, which considers Kurdish groups to be terrorists.
“One of the issues reported is that some international organizations are unwilling or reluctant to support local authorities for fear of alienating Syrian government authorities in Damascus or to jeopardize their relations with Turkey, both of which are hostile to the local authorities,” HRW wrote.
Despite having no training or experience and little equipment, they organized themselves from the Raqqa Civilian Council and volunteered to exhume human remains of civilians and fighters killed by ISIS and by anti-ISIS forces, hoping to help bring closure to families missing their loved ones, the report stated.
By July 2018, they had found nine graves in Raqqa, with “each one estimated to have dozens, if not hundreds, of bodies, making exhumations a monumental task,” said Priyanka Motaparthy, then HRW’s acting emergencies director.
However, the paltry support was insufficient for the job.
“If workers continue to exhume the graves without adequate technical training, equipment, and support, families may lose the opportunity to accurately identify the remains of their loved ones. Evidence regarding crimes in the area, including ISIS crimes, may be lost,” the HRW report added.
Despite its limitations, the teams managed to excavate 22 mass graves in the Raqqa environs, discovering 5,656 bodies, and 522 in northeast Deir Ezzor from 2018 to 2019.
A 2020 report by The International Commission on Missing Persons, titled “The Missing in North East Syria: a Stocktaking.” There, residents and researchers began to uncover mass graves, from which 3,797 human remains were exhumed.
In January and February 2019, they exhumed 793 human remains in Raqqa’s Panorama Park “believed to contain a large number of bodies killed by the Global Coalition, including ISIS fighters.”
The Al Fakhikha Grave south of Raqqa City was exhumed from January to June of 2019 and contained 673 bodies.
Al Tala’a Camp Grave, south of Raqqa City, is the largest documented mass grave, containing 815 bodies. Excavation began in June 2019 and lasted until September 18.
The most shocking mass grave, which is believed to contain thousands of bodies, is in the Al-Houta gorge, which had been a popular hiking and tourist destination north of Raqqa city, near the town of Hammam al-Turkman.
According to Human Rights Watch, a terrorist group known as the al-Qadsiya Brigade, led by a local man named Faysal al-Ballo, attacked and overcame a Syrian government checkpoint in July 2013. The brigade had originally pledged allegiance first to Ahrar al-Sham, then to the Free Syrian Army, and finally to Jabhat Al-Nusra. The fighters executed at least 16 Syrian soldiers, the celebratory aftermath of which is shown in the video below, and then reportedly dumped their bodies in the Al-Houta gorge. This practice was continued by ISIS, which dumped bodies of hundreds of Syrian military personnel, religious minorities including members of the Muslim Ismaili sect, and anyone accused of collaborating with the enemy.
According to the ICMP report, under the command of a security chief whose nom de guerre was “Abu Yasser al-Iraqi,” ISIS killed members of the CIA-backed Free Syrian Army, at least 20 government soldiers, and Kurdish YPG fighters.
They not only disposed of dead bodies by the car-full into the gorge but also employed sadistic methods of murder, sometimes throwing people alive to their deaths, executing victims at the edge to allowing their bodies to fall in, or having victims “brought blindfolded and told to run to their deaths, under the pretense that they were being released and running to their salvation,” the same practice used as the Al-Ahm “death hole.” The report does not give a specific number of victims but believes it to be in the thousands.
When local residents complained to ISIS authorities of the stench and possibility of diseases from decomposing remains, ISIS dumped crude oil into the gorge and burned it.
Human Rights Watch published footage of militants executing prisoners and throwing bodies into the gorge, which a researcher had obtained from a worker at a computer repair shop who found the footage on a computer left by an ISIS militant and clandestinely sent it to the group.
In 2020, Human Rights Watch also documented the Al-Houta mass grave, with its researchers flying a drone into the depths of the gorge and revealing three corpses in pools of oil at its bottom.
‘Lack of political will’ to investigate HTS/ISIS mass graves
Any hopes that the families who had lost loved ones might have had of finding their missing relatives were dashed by the October 2019 Turkish-backed invasion of Kurdish-held areas in northeastern Syria, greenlighted by the Trump administration. Since then, the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army has held the area. There have been no attempts to recover the bodies from the gorge nor international pressure to begin such a process, whether on the SNA itself or its Turkish sponsors, which have long supported the HTS and ISIS terrorists that dumped the bodies in the gorge.
“The families of the missing who spoke with Human Rights Watch said they had hoped that the territorial defeat of ISIS would quickly lead to information about their loved ones. However, a series of delays and an apparent lack of political will placed significant obstacles in their path,” HRW wrote in its report, entitled “Kidnapped by ISIS Failure to Uncover the Fate of Syria’s Missing.”
In 2019, HRW again noted that there were no efforts from the various forces, mostly foreign, to investigate these mass graves.
“At the time of writing, the extent of the control by the Syrian government, Turkey, NES, and the US-led coalition in former ISIS-held areas remains unclear, making it more difficult for families to identify who to speak to and recovery efforts more precarious… Regardless of who currently controls these areas, these developments highlight the urgency with which authorities should act on any leads available to learn what became of those missing at the hands of ISIS,” the report stated. “Thus far, authorities on the ground have not coordinated or systematized the limited local efforts to take up this issue.”
Legacy media ignore documented mass graves, promote evidence-free claims of Syrian government-filled mass graves
While mass graves in former al-Nusra and Islamic state-held territory in eastern Syria generated little interest in Western media, these outlets have promoted specious claims of mass graves perpetrated by the Syrian government.
The New York Times in 2022 published a report entitled “Mass Graves Identified in Syria Could Hold Evidence of War Crimes.” This misleadingly titled article contained no evidence of mass graves, relying instead on grainy and vague satellite photos of a field, described as a “suspected” grave, and an image of the Najha cemetery.
This was packaged with interviews from four Syrian men, two of whom were in Germany, another in Lebanon, and another in Syria. The Times granted them all anonymity for “fear of retribution by the Syrian government” despite the fact that all but one of them had left Syria.
Caption: The New York Times published this aerial photograph of the Najha cemetery, claiming it was a mass grave.
One of the men who was interviewed participated in a trial against Anwar Raslan, a Syrian government official who defected to the opposition and was granted asylum in Germany. There, he gave lurid accounts about mass-torture in government prisons but was then convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison despite significant doubts about his testimony, and the participation of the CIJA.
The New York Times, however, ignored those details and offered no evidence to support its allegations of mass graves or whom might have been buried in the graves, admitting that, “The Times could not independently corroborate all the details in their accounts, including the total numbers of bodies they recalled seeing.”
Another one of the men interviewed appeared masked in the U.S. Congress, calling himself “the gravedigger,” spinning lurid tales of mass murder and pressing to ramp up sanctions on Syria.
His March 2022 congressional testimony was promoted by The Holocaust Memorial Museum, which had on its board ex-U.S. government official Elliot Abrams. He oversaw massacres in Latin America and was convicted of unlawfully withholding information from Congress in the Iran-Contra scandal.
The “gravedigger” character appeared in Congress again in June 2022 and April 2023, and in numerous media outlets including a September 2022 Vice interview. Each time, however, the “gravedigger” appears to be a different person.
The New York Times also referenced a Human Rights Watch report that cited two anonymous defectors, interviewed in Lebanon and Turkey, who claimed to have served at military hospitals. The Times did not clarify if they relied on the same sources that HRW relied on.
“The two defectors Human Rights Watch interviewed who served at military hospitals said that soldiers transported the bodies to mass graves located on military land in the greater Damascus area, including near the Najha cemetary, near the Third Brigade military base, and near the Dhamir military airport. Human Rights Watch was not able to confirm these claims.”
While the Times alleged Qutayfah to be the largest mass grave, it was not mentioned in the 2017 Amnesty International “Human slaughterhouse” report that first claimed the Assad government was “exterminating” tens of thousands of prisoners and burying them in mass graves.
Staging a mass grave?
Outside of Damascus, graves may have been tampered with to produce the desired imagery.
Multiple reports documented an alleged mass grave in Adra, located near Damascus, which was being exhumed by the White Helmets, who have participated in numerous summary executions themselves and have demonstrated their capability to stage scenes.
A report by Turkish-state media outlet TRT showed the White Helmets at work, finding several bags of human remains in crypts. Correspondent Randolph Nogel made no effort to investigate and stated that they were all victims of Assad. However, an AFP report casually suggested that the graves were tampered with. According to Diab Serriya, co-founder of the Turkey-based Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Sednaya Prison, “the bags of bones were probably brought from other graves” and “probably this grave contains detainees but also former regime or opposition fighters killed in battle.”
Neither report notes that Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist groups overran Adra in December 2013 and massacred Syrians soldiers and civilians from religious minority groups.
Assad falls and the narrative takes hold
The “gravedigger” was accompanied by Mouaz Mustafa, head of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a regime-change outfit funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Since the earliest days of the crisis, Moustafa has played a central role. In 2013, he arranged for and accompanied neoconservative senator John McCain to illegally enter Syria to meet with anti-government militants who had kidnapped 11 Lebanese Shia pilgrims.
As soon as the Syrian government collapsed, Moustafa met with Biden administration national security adviser Jake Sullivan – who infamously wrote that “AQ [al-Qaeda] is our on side in Syria” – and then headed to Damascus along with his staffer Celine Kasem.
Moustafa apparently furnished multiple western media outlets with access to the alleged mass graves and interviews.
Days later, Channel 4, a British state-funded media outlet, published a report called “True scale of Assad’s slaughter revealed at Syrian mass grave,” showing what it claims are two mass graves in Qutayfah, east of Damascus, including one in which “around 150 thousand people may have been buried.”
The report contained no evidence and relied on drone footage of the open field that the New York Times alleged is a mass grave in its 2022 report using satellite photos and claims from the Syrian Emergency Task Force. The Channel 4 report also contains testimony from figures who claimed to have witnessed the disposal of bodies.
At a formal cemetery, the town’s former mayor, Mohammed Abdel Magid, estimates 300 to 400 bodies were dumped in a mass grave. The Channel 4 report additionally interviews a man named Esam Saad, who claimed to have been involved in covering up bodies.
The Shamalia cemetery is allegedly “ground zero” for the “industrial scale burying of corpses”
An alleged mass grave in the Shamalia cemetery, what the reporter called “the biggest mass grave in the 21st century” (at 0:38)
The report also featured Moustafa, who speculated that his uncle may be buried there.
On December 17, Reuters reported that “a mass grave outside of Damascus contained the bodies of at least 100,000 people killed by the former government of ousted President Bashar al-Assad,” explicitly referencing Moustafa.
“One hundred thousand is the most conservative estimate” Moustafa claimed. “It’s a very, very extremely almost unfairly conservative estimate.”
However, Reuters was forced to admit that it was “unable to confirm Moustafa’s allegations.”
A separate Reuters video report visited the Najha cemetery, which the 2022 New York Times article flippantly described as a mass grave without providing evidence. Reuters shows a neatly dug trench that appears to have been recent, but there are no human remains or any other evidence visible to prove their claim.
A trench next to the Najha cemetery, what the New York Times and Reuters state is a mass grave. No evidence is visible. Source: Reuters
A man looks inside a hole dug under a marked grave, what Reuters reported is a “mass grave.” No evidence is visible. Source: Reuters
The X account Levant_24_ published images of Najha cemetery taken the same day that Reuters visited (evidenced by the armed man visible in both the video and photos), incorrectly describing it as located in Qatana and claiming it to be a mass grave of 100,000 of Assad’s victims.
A report from Qatari-state media Al Jazeera also interviewed Qutayfah’s former mayor and a man named Issam Ali Saad who identified himself as the owner of a construction business. He said that the Syrian government borrowed his machinery to bury tortured prisoners in Qutayfah. Also interviewed was a man named Abdo Sheikh, who identified himself as the graveyard’s keeper and claimed the government buried around 100 people there, a fraction of the amount alleged by the former mayor in the Channel Four report, identifying all of them as innocent civilians. This report too shows no evidence of its claims.
The Free Press, a neoconservative outlet run by Zionist cancel-culture queen Bari Weiss, published another video entitled “Exclusive: Syria’s Largest Mass Grave,” produced by the Center for Peace Communications. This outlet also interviewed Saad on the same day (as evidenced by his clothing) but identified him as a gravedigger (it is possible but seems unlikely that he is both.) The report alleged that 200,000 victims were buried in Qutayfah but, like all other reports, showed no evidence.
Caption: Al Jazeera and The Center for Peace Communications both interviewed the same man on the same day, one calling him the owner of a construction business, and the other calling him a gravedigger.
Al Jazeera also published a report from a cemetery in Homs, claiming it to be a mass grave. The report contains footage of preparation for a mass grave but insists that the Assad government lied that some were Syrian soldiers. The report shows what it says is the cemetery register of bodies delivered from the military hospital but does not investigate the identities of any of those in the graves.
Hailing the mass murderers, memory-holing their mass graves
Since the Assad government’s ouster, the former opposition forces that used rape as a weapon of war, carried out summary executions, and threw thousands of bodies into mass graves have been transformed into heroic forces.
“When rebels overran portions of Tadamon early in the civil war, the district became an emblem of the resistance. Then when evidence emerged of mass killings, it seemed to encapsulate the sadism of Assad’s security forces,” Nabih Bulos wrote in the Los Angeles Times, making no mention of the atrocities carried out by HTS of any of its allied armed groups.
In the immediate aftermath of the coup, Democracy Now hosted Human Rights Watch researcher Hiba Zayadin in a segment entitled “Mass Graves Discovered as Syrian Families Seek Answers to Loved Ones’ Disappearances Under Assad.” Zayadin spoke at length about the Tadamon massacre as Democracy Now showed drone shots of the Qutayfah field alleged to be a mass grave. However, she made no mention of the HTS “death hole” mass grave in Tadamon, or any of the other numerous mass graves in Syria, many of which were documented by HRW itself, that could not be attributed to the Assad government but to its opponents.
Similarly, the U.S. government-funded PBS Newshour published a report from correspondent Simona Foltynon on alleged mass graves. She visited an alleged Assad government massacre site and a rubble-covered area that she claimed was actually a mass grave where “countless souls perished in summary executions” carried out by the Syrian government. The only evidence shown is a single mandible on top of a street. The rest of the human remains, she alleged, were buried under the rubble after the Syrian military blew up the area to cover the evidence.
Foltyn interviewed a man identified as a neighborhood resident who claims to have witnessed heavy “massacres,”but also admits that the neighborhood was the “front line in the fight for Damascus,” although neither Foltyn nor the man interviewed mention the extremist nature and shocking brutality of the armed opposition groups. Like HRW’s Zayadin, Foltyn made no mention of the HTS’s “death hole” mass grave in Tadamon or any other mass graves the new HTS regime or ISIS were responsible for throughout the country.
Executing a long standing plan
At the center of the supposed evidence collection is CIJA, the aforementioned organization that paid huge sums to have false documents smuggled out of Al-Qaeda and ISIS-controlled territory.
CIJA’s chair is Stephen Rapp, a former U.S. congressman appointed by the Obama administration as Ambassador-at-large for Global Justice. The position was created by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, who famously justified the killing of half a million Iraqi babies.
“We really haven’t seen anything quite like this since the Nazis,” Rapp said following visits to the alleged mass graves in Qutayfah and the Najha cemetery. In a CNN interview, he called the Assad government’s crimes “The worst atrocities of the 21st century,” likening them to the Holocaust.
Rapp is an overtly political actor and has been a vociferous supporter of regime change in Syria, appearing at a 2014 Atlantic Council event called “Making the Case Against Assad.”
More recently, Rapp defended Israel from international criticism, saying that evaluation of its actions in Gaza is “extremely complex,” denied the extermination of Palestinians there amounts to genocide, and admitted he advised Israel to feign internal investigation as a “magic bullet” to avoid international prosecution.
The Washington Post, like virtually all top legacy media outlets, published a report on Assad’s alleged mass graves in Qutayfah and Najha too, entitled “Mass graves shed a light on Assad’s ‘killing machine’”. Authors Loveday Morris and Suzan Haidamous noted that the alleged mass graves “will provide evidence for future war crimes trials.”
CIJA’s public relations figure Nerma Jelacic stated in an interview with Al Jazeera
that the alleged mass graves “are being ransacked by a variety of actors for a variety of reasons” – a similar excuse was given for the lack of forensic evidence for allegations of Hamas mass rape on October 7, 2023 – but insists prosecutions will go on using the already discredited evidence in Europe.
Two days after the Assad government was overthrown, the ICMP, funded by the UK and Germany specifically for its Syria project, produced a report called “Syria’s Disappeared: Justice Must be Secured for Hundreds of Thousands of Victims and Survivors of the Assad Regime,” using hyper-politicized language and making no mention of the HTS and ISIS mass graves throughout the country.
The ICMP’s work on Syria was collected in a document called “Addressing the Issue of Mass Graves in Syria” by its Policy Coordination Group (PCG) for Syria’s Missing and Disappeared, a project specifically funded by the UK and Germany.
Ironically, the report’s only evidence was of the HTS and ISIS mass graves. The document referenced its 2020 report on HTS and ISIS mass graves but tacked on the aforementioned New York Times article that failed to provide evidence for its allegations, and a report from Al Jumhuriya that details, similar to the ICMP report, mass graves in Raqqa under HTS (then called Jabhat al-Nusra) and ISIS.
It is not only Rapp, CIJA, and ICMP that are involved in the whitewash. A United Nations investigative team known as the “International, Impartial, and Independent Mechanism for Syria” stated that the new HTS Syrian government is receptive to prosecuting Assad government officials but made no mention of HTS or ISIS mass graves.
Clearly, a nefarious and deceptive political agenda seeks to whitewash the new ISIS-in-suits HTS regime rather than bring closure to long suffering families, provide a semblance of justice, and build towards a better future. Instead these “human rights” outfits and the mainstream media cherrypick and distort reports on mass graves, as Syria spirals into another civil war.
Stealing Water: Israel’s Covert War on Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan
Posted by Internationalist 360° on January 14, 2025
Mohamad Hasan Sweidan
Taking advantage of the chaos following Damascus’s fall, Israel’s seizure of Syria’s Al-Mantara Dam showcases the long-standing Zionist strategy to secure regional water dominance, exacerbating tensions across an already parched West Asia.
At the beginning of January, less than a month after rebel forces seized Damascus and toppled the Syrian government, Israeli occupation forces launched an unchallenged advance extending to the vicinity of the Al-Mantara Dam – a critical water source for Deraa and the largest dam in the region, located in the western countryside of Quneitra.
Reports indicate that Israeli tanks and troops established military outposts, erected earth mounds, and imposed stringent restrictions on local movement, allowing access only during specific, pre-determined times.
Geopolitics of water
Natural resources have always played a pivotal role in shaping geopolitics, and among them, freshwater sources have become increasingly contested. While oil and gas dominate global headlines, the indispensable role of water in agriculture, industry, and daily life makes it an equally critical factor in global stability.
As freshwater resources grow scarcer, the risk of conflict over this precious resource escalates, threatening economic development and social stability.
Historically, nations have vied for control over water-rich territories to secure trade routes, forge alliances, and drive technological advances. Ancient civilizations in the Cradle of Civilization, like the Sumerians and Babylonians, flourished by harnessing the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In contrast, resource-poor regions often lagged in development, limiting their political and technological progress.
Today, water scarcity continues to shape regional political strategies. The Nile River Basin serves as a notable example, where Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia are locked in a dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
This project, Africa’s largest hydropower initiative, has heightened diplomatic tensions with Egypt, which relies on the Nile for 90 percent of its fresh water.
The West Asia and North Africa (WANA) region faces unparalleled water scarcity, with 83 percent of its population under extreme water stress. According to the World Resources Institute, 12 of the 17 most water-stressed countries globally are located in this region, with Qatar, Israel, and Lebanon ranking as the top three.
Additionally, about 40 percent of the global population depends on rivers that cross international borders, making transboundary water management a critical geopolitical challenge. The recent Israeli incursion at the Al-Mantara Dam starkly illustrates this reality.
Global water demand is projected to rise by 20–25 percent by 2050, placing immense pressure on regions like WANA. By mid-century, 100 percent of the region’s population could face extreme water stress, further destabilizing political relationships and heightening the risk of inter-state conflicts over shared water resources.
Such tensions are already apparent in Israel and Syria, where control over vital water sources has become a flashpoint.
Israel’s water realities and ambitions
Palestine’s arid climate and limited natural water resources have long shaped the occupation state’s approach to water management, as deserts constitute more than half of its territory. The country’s key freshwater sources include the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, and aquifers along the coast and mountains.
However, technological advancements in desalination and wastewater reuse have helped Israel reduce its dependence on natural water sources. By 2018, Israel was reusing 87 percent of its treated wastewater, primarily for agricultural purposes.
Yet, these innovations come with limitations. Desalination and wastewater treatment are costly and cannot entirely offset the effects of climate change. Rising temperatures, declining rainfall, and shrinking aquifer recharge rates are exacerbating Israel’s water scarcity, as are the declining water levels and increasing salinity of Lake Kinneret and further desertification in the south of the country.
To address these challenges, Israel has worked on collecting and treating about 94 percent of wastewater, 87 percent of which is reused, primarily for agriculture. Overall, between 2000 and 2018, agriculture’s share of freshwater withdrawals declined from 64 to 35 percent of total water withdrawals.
These challenges have compelled Israel to turn to regional water sources, such as the Yarmouk River in Jordan and the Litani River in Lebanon, to supplement its needs.
Water has been a cornerstone of Israel’s strategy since the early days of the Zionist ideological movement. Since the state was founded through wars, occupations, and negotiations with neighboring Arab states, access to water has been a strategic priority for Israel. This strategy revolved around maximizing the use of water within and beyond its borders, even at the expense of the water security of neighboring countries.
Early Zionist leaders, such as Chaim Weizmann, highlighted the importance of water from areas such as the recently occupied Mount Hermon in Syria and Lebanon’s Litani River for irrigation and economic development.
The founder of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, stressed from the outset the need for the Jewish state to include southern Lebanon, in part because of its containment of vital water sources. The Zionist movement exerted tremendous pressure during the 1919 peace conference in Paris, seeking to annex the sources of the Jordan River, the Litani River, and the Hauran Plain in Syria to Palestine. However, these demands were rejected by the French side, which had the mandate over Syria and Lebanon under the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement.
In 1941, David Ben-Gurion, who later became Israel’s first prime minister, clearly revealed that the future Israeli state coveted the Litani River, saying: “We must remember that the Litani River must be within the borders of the Jewish state to ensure its viability.”
Post-1948, Israel nationalized its water resources and launched ambitious projects, such as the National Water Carrier, to transport water from the north to the arid south.
Water studies conducted during the 1930s and 1940s indicate that Israel’s 1953 Johnston Project ignored the political boundaries of the Jordan River Basin countries, considering the Sea of Galilee a natural reservoir of river water. Tel Aviv has planned to divert the course of the Jordan River waters to its advantage, and has actually begun implementing these plans through the Israeli company Mekorot since 1953.
These efforts consisted of diverting the waters of the Jordan River and its tributaries to the Sea of Galilee, which led to a decrease in the Dead Sea’s water levels and shrinkage of its areas as it dried up due to the diversion of tributary streams for irrigation uses and agricultural expansion.
In addition, the high rate of evaporation resulting from high temperatures in the Jordan Valley region contributed to accelerating the decline in the water level. By the early 1990s, the water level of the Dead Sea had reached less than 410 meters below sea level, which seriously threatens its existence as a unique natural resource.
The 1967 war marked a turning point, as Israel gained control over water-rich territories like the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights. These areas now provide a significant portion of Israel’s water supply.
However, this control has come at the expense of neighboring states and Palestinians, who face severe restrictions on water access. For example, Palestinian per capita water consumption averages just 20 cubic meters annually, compared to Israel’s 60 cubic meters.
The Israeli government strictly regulates Palestinian water use, prohibiting the drilling of new wells and imposing fines for exceeding quotas, while Israeli settlements face no such restrictions. The result is a terrible inequality in access to water, as Palestinian agriculture remains backward and inefficient, while Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories enjoy modern irrigation systems.
Map of Israel’s water sources and Israeli expansion in Syria.
The alarming reality in southern Syria
Israel’s incursion into southern Syria highlights its ongoing water ambitions. Reports indicate that Tel Aviv now controls 40 percent of Syria and Jordan’s shared water resources. Following its takeover of the Al-Wehda Dam in the Yarmouk Basin in December, Israeli forces then advanced to the Al-Mantara Dam.
The Yarmouk Basin is a strategically critical area, forming part of the natural border between Syria and Jordan. The basin’s primary water source, the Yarmouk River, supports agricultural lands and provides drinking water to communities in Syria’s Deraa and Suwayda regions, as well as northern Jordan.
The river covers a distance of 57 kilometers, 47 kilometers of which are within Syrian territory, while the remainder forms part of the Syrian–Jordanian border. On its banks, Syria has built a number of dams, most notably the Yarmouk Dam, in addition to the larger Al-Wahda Dam, which has a storage capacity of 225 million cubic meters.
These dams are used to irrigate vast areas of agricultural land, estimated at approximately 13,640 hectares, in addition to supplying the surrounding villages with drinking water through major pumping networks such as the “Thawra Line,” which extends from the basin to the city of Deraa and its countryside, all the way to Suwayda’s countryside.
This vital waterway, however, has become a casualty of Tel Aviv’s broader strategy to secure regional water dominance.
Despite these challenges, Israel’s recent actions in southern Syria exemplify a consistent strategy of addressing its water shortages through regional expansion. The political turmoil in Syria provided a historic opening for the occupation state to advance these ambitions.
Notably, the events unfolding in West Asia only go to show that the primary deterrent against Israel’s exploitation of Lebanese water resources has always been effective resistance. Until the major strategic setbacks faced by the Axis of Resistance, this resistance managed to prevent Israel from replicating its territorial water gains in the region.
Today, by seizing control of critical water infrastructure, Israel’s ambitions pose direct threats to Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. Yet, as the region faces accelerating crises, the severity of this water-driven strategy risks being overshadowed by broader geopolitical concerns. It is increasingly evident that Israel’s thirst for water resources knows no bounds.
'All forces, hands off Syria': Erdogan vows to 'crush' ISIS, issues warning to Israel
The president’s statements precede the first official Syrian visit to Turkiye since the fall of Assad’s government
News Desk
JAN 15, 2025
(Photo credit: Reuters)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech on 15 January that Turkiye is the “greater power” capable of defeating ISIS terrorism in Syria, while renewing his threats against Kurdish militants and warning Israel of the “results” of its continued expansion across the country.
The speech comes ahead of a visit to Turkiye by a Syrian delegation led by interim Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani and interim Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra. The foreign minister was involved in the founding of Al-Qaeda in Syria, which later became known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), and the defense minister is accused of several war crimes.
“We will discuss with the Syrian delegation that will visit Turkiye ways to support Syria and rebuild. We will not allow the seeds of discord to be planted between us and the Syrian people,” Erdogan said.
“Israel must immediately end the hostility it is practicing in Syria, otherwise the results that will appear will harm everyone. If the People's Defense Units (YPG), which is plundering natural resources in Syria, does not lay down its weapons, it will bear the consequences,” the Turkish president added.
“Let all forces withdraw their hands from the region and we will be able, with our Syrian brothers, to crush ISIS and the YPG,” he went on to say, adding that “Turkiye is the greater power that has the ability to defeat ISIS.”
Turkiye’s policy toward Syria at the start of the war in 2011 contributed to the rise of ISIS in the country, given the opening of its borders to tens of thousands of extremist fighters. The Syrian National Army (SNA) proxy, which Ankara supports, is itself made up of numerous ISIS fighters and commanders.
Ankara has been backing HTS since it was known as the Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, which was rebranded several times. HTS now runs a transitional government and is in control of most of Syria following the Turkish-backed coup that ended in the collapse of former president Bashar al-Assad’s government last month.
Shaibani, a Nusra Front co-founder alongside Ahmad al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Julani), said on Tuesday that his delegation “will represent the new Syria tomorrow in our first official trip to the Republic of Turkiye, which has not abandoned the Syrian people for 14 years.”
Turkiye has recently signaled that it will have a hand in drafting the new Syrian constitution, which Sharaa said may need up to three years to be written.
It also continues to threaten US-backed Kurds in Syria, mainly the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – which helps Washington oversee its occupation and looting of the country’s oil and wheat.
The SDF and Turkiye’s SNA factions have been engaged in fierce clashes in the countryside of the northern cities of Manbij and Raqqa and near the strategic Tishreen Dam.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have expanded across southern Syria and are overlooking the capital. Israel has also decimated Syrian military infrastructure with scores of violent airstrikes across the country since the fall of Assad’s government.
Did Syria’s new leaders fake an 'ISIS plot' to attack the Sayyeda Zainab shrine?
Employing tactics reminiscent of its operations in Iraq, Syria’s new Al-Qaeda-linked government continues to manipulate sectarian divides and leverage foreign interests to consolidate power, while perpetuating instability under the guise of protecting minorities.
The Cradle's Syria Correspondent
JAN 17, 2025
Photo Credit: The Cradle
Syria's new interim government, led by former Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani) has claimed its security services thwarted an attempt by ISIS to bomb the Sayyida Zainab shrine in the southern suburbs of Damascus.
The shrine, attributed to the granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed and daughter of Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib is an especially revered site for Shia Muslims worldwide. Known as the Heroine of Karbala, this year, her martyrdom anniversary was commemorated on 15 January, coinciding with the Islamic date 15 Rajab.
According to news website Shia Waves, “Local sources reported a noticeable decrease in the number of visitors to the shrine compared to previous years, attributed to Syria’s ongoing security challenges and political turmoil.”
Sayyida Zainab Shrine (January 2025),
Sowing the seeds of sectarianism
However, a closer analysis of the details provided by Syrian state media suggests the plot to bomb the shrine was fabricated. The move appears to be an attempt to present the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)-led government as a protector of minorities to western audiences. This portrayal contrasts sharply with its ongoing sectarian cleansing campaigns in Alawite areas of the country.
The would-be false flag also serves the interests of the new Syrian government’s external sponsors. By exaggerating the ISIS threat, it provides the US with a pretext to maintain its illegal military occupation in Syria. Such an attack is all the more possible now that Hezbollah fighters and advisory forces of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have withdrawn from the country, ostensibly to ensure security for the shrine.
Photos of a Hezbollah fighter who died protecting Sayyida Zainab hang on a door inside the shrine (January 2025).
US forces currently occupy key oil fields in the north and east of the country and maintain a strategic base at Al-Tanf on the Syria-Iraq-Jordan border. The narrative of an ISIS threat ensures continued justification for these deployments and the exploitation of Syria’s resources.
Additionally, the conspiracy helps establish a narrative of ISIS culpability in advance. This could pave the way for blame to be assigned to the group if any party—whether elements within the Syrian government pursuing the Wahhabi project of targeting Shia and Sufi shrines, or foreign intelligence agencies seeking to destabilize Syria—decides to destroy the Sayyeda Zainab shrine. Such an event would create further chaos, deepening sectarian divides and serving the interests of those looking to fragment and destabilize Syria.
A staged plot
On 11 January, an unnamed official in Syria’s General Intelligence Service claimed four members of the ISIS cell planning an attack on the shrine were arrested.
Syria state TV showed images of the men, blindfolded and standing against a wall in casual civilian clothes, claiming the group consisted of Lebanese nationals and Palestinian-Lebanese. Images also showed a number of grenades and an anti-tank mine that were allegedly to be used for a suicide attack.
However, Karim Franceschi an Italian-Moroccan who fought with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) against ISIS in Kobane in 2014, gave several reasons why the claimed plot to bomb Sayyeda Zainab was manufactured.
Franceschi observed that ISIS attacks on Sayyida Zaynab in Damascus in the past have used parked vehicles—plastic bags, cars, or motorcycles to plant bombs, rather than suicide bombers.
Further, the TM-57 anti-tank mine allegedly meant to be used in the suicide attack was rigged with the wrong fuse.
“Instead, a crude cord and igniter setup—meant for a suicide vest—is shown. This makes no sense. Using a full mine, with its specific anti-tank explosion radius, is inefficient. HTS knows this, making it clear this setup was staged for propaganda. There is no way ISIS or HTS with their extensive knowledge expertise with explosives would make something this sloppily,” Franceschi writes.
Previous ISIS attacks were not so sloppy. A string of ISIS bombings near the shrine in February 2016 killed 134 people, most of them civilians, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). In January 2016, another attack on the shrine claimed by ISIS killed 70 people.
Julani’s PR offensive
One reason for faking the plot is clear based on the statement issued by the unnamed Syrian intelligence official. He told state media the intelligence service is seeking to protect the country’s minorities, by “putting all its capabilities to stand in the face of all attempts to target the Syrian people in all their spectrums.”
The AP promoted this narrative further, reporting that although HTS leader Sharaa was a former leader in Al-Qaeda, which was notorious for calling for committing massacres against Shia in Iraq, he “has preached religious coexistence since assuming power in Damascus.”
Sharaa needs to preach co-existence and protection of minorities to have economic sanctions lifted. Crippling sanctions were imposed on Syria by the US and EU to strangle the economy and impoverish millions of Syrians in an effort to topple the previous government of Bashar al-Assad. Yet even with Assad gone, the “pointlessly cruel” sanctions remain.
Sharaa has admittedly introduced several reforms to improve life for average Syrians, including ending mandatory military service for Syrian men (which at times lasted up to eight years for meager pay), reducing draconian customs fees on imported products such as cell phones, and removing the checkpoints which slowed travel and forced Syrians to pay bribes or risk being arrested and disappearing into the prison system for arbitrary reasons.
But the lifting of the sanctions and allowing for normal economic activity is crucial for Sharaa to maintain popular support, especially given the unpopularity of his and his government’s efforts to establish a fundamentalist Islamic State in the country.
Maintaining leverage through sanctions
Just as the US and EU used sanctions for leverage against Assad, they are doing the same against Sharaa. The Intercept noted that just hours before Assad fell, and when it was obvious Sharaa and HTS would take power in Damascus, the US Congress moved to extend sanctions, rather than simply let them expire.
“Not considering sanctions relief right now is like pulling the rug out from under Syria just when it’s trying to stand,” The Intercept cited Delaney Simon, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, as saying.
Now, EU governments cite the threat to minorities from Sharaa’s security forces, which are comprised of multiple formerly Al-Qaeda linked groups with records of committing massacres against Syria’s Alawites, Druze, and Christians, as an excuse to keep sanctions in place or to reimpose them as “snapback” sanctions in the future.
Considering that the members of the US Congress most responsible for imposing the sanctions, such as French Hill and Joe Wilson, are also rapid pro-Israel supporters, it can be assumed that Sharaa will be asked in the future to sign a peace deal with Israel giving up the occupied Golan Heights to the Zionist entity in exchange for the sanctions being lifted completely and the possible return of recently occupied Syrian territory under Sharaa’s watch.
Map showing Syrian territories seized by the Israeli military following the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government.
The spate of sectarian killings
By preaching religious coexistence and claiming to protect the Sayyeda Zainab shrine, Sharaa is also achieving another goal: providing cover for the ongoing campaign of sectarian cleansing that is taking place in Alawite areas of the country, including parts of Homs and the Hama and Latakia country sides.
The extremist sectarian ideology Sharaa previously embraced when dispatching car bombs to kill Shia civilians in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, is the same ideology which the armed factions under the HTS umbrella supporting his rule still embrace.
Militants affiliated with the new Syrian government, including many foreign jihadists from Uzbekistan, Chechnya, and China (Turkmenistan), are kidnapping and murdering members of Syria's Alawite community based on their religious identity in various parts of Syria.
As a result, reports of sectarian killings by HTS or affiliated militants in Homs, Latakia, and Tartous continue to flood social media.
Syria expert Joshua Landis wrote on X that “Alawites have been attacked, many who have no history of wrongdoing in military or military service whatsoever. Today, there were demonstrations in the Sunni district of Latakia, cursing Alawites.”
Some Alawites are therefore demanding international protection, Landis notes, which further opens the door to the partition of Syria, a key Israeli goal.
To provide just one example, an Alawite man, Sheikh Ali Deeb, and his wife were killed in rural Salamiyah in the village of Dniba during an HTS search operation on 8 January. Their bodies were found on a side road connecting the village of Dniba to the neighboring village of Snida.
A pretext for US occupation
The new Syrian government’s claim to have thwarted the ISIS attack on Sayyeda Zainab also helps Sharaa remain in the good graces of Washington by giving it a pretext to continue the US military occupation of north and east Syria and its oil fields, which provide crude oil to Israel via Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkiye.
Map showing the current distribution of control across Syrian territories.
In Iraq, the US perfected the strategy of supporting and even creating Al-Qaeda groups (with Kurdish assistance), to justify its invasion and military occupation of the country.
The Bush administration relied on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s presence in Iraqi Kurdistan to justify its invasion of Baghdad in 2003. Zarqawi built Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) with help from Kurdish Jihadists from Ansar al-Islam, which fought for the CIA in Afghanistan in the 1980’s and for Masoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) during the Kurdish civil war in the 1990’s.
Zarqawi’s car and suicide bombs targeting Shia pilgrims continued to justify the US occupation after the pretense of Saddam Hussein’s possession of WMDs collapsed.
A decade later, the US military provided weapons to ISIS to conquer large swathes of western Iraq, including Mosul, the country’s second largest city. US officials then used the existence of the so-called ISIS caliphate to return its forces to Iraq that had left after then Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has refused to sign a status of forces agreement with President Barack Obama guaranteeing non-prosecution of US troops in 2011.
Though ISIS has been defeated in Iraq, current Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani has failed to eject US forces from the country. US officials continue to claim they are still needed to fight ISIS, even though Sudani has repeatedly claimed the terror group no longer poses a threat that Iraqi forces cannot deal with on their own.
The Israeli/Wahhabi project
In a more extreme scenario, it is possible that Sharaa and/or his backers in foreign intelligence agencies may facilitate the destruction of the Sayyida Zainab shrine itself, while blaming it on ISIS. By claiming to thwart fake attacks on the shrine now, HTS is establishing a convenient narrative to claim innocence in the future if an attack does take place.
Attacking and destroying important Muslim shrines, important to both Shia and Sunnis, is a hallmark of AQI under the leadership of Zarqawi and ISIS under the leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Sharaa’s former bosses.
Zarqawi’s AQI is widely viewed as responsible for destroying the golden dome of the Al-Askari Shrine, home to the 10th and 11th Shia Imams, in Samarra in Iraq.
Al Askari shrine (January 2025).
To the delight of the Israelis and neoconservatives in the Bush administration—who sought the partition of the country, as outlined in the Yinon Plan and Clean Break documents—the 2006 attack almost ignited a full-blown sectarian war between Iraq’s Sunni and Shia communities. This catastrophic outcome was narrowly averted, thanks to the influential fatwa issued by Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani.
Before his defeat in Mosul in 2017, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ordered the destruction of the Great Mosque of Al-Nuri and its iconic minaret. ISIS also destroyed the Al-Nabi Yunus Mosque, home to a tomb thought to belong of the Prophet Jonah, claiming that revering the shrine was idolatrous.
Blowing up the Sayyeda Zainab Shrine in Damascus, whether for fundamentalist religious goals or for the sake of creating strategic chaos, would help ensure that the sectarian violence that engulfed Iraq and threatens to engulf Syria now, becomes a reality.
The sectarian chaos will again benefit the occupation state, allowing it to expand its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights and southern Syria, while incentivizing Syria’s Druze to ask for their territory to be incorporated into a Greater Israel to escape the sectarian fire consuming the rest of the country.
Alawites on Syria’s coast may turn north to Turkiye to request protection, or even annexation, if the extremist threat continues. Ankara will in turn be happy to incorporate Syrian territory, along with its offshore gas fields, as part of its ambitions to restore advance its neo-Ottoman ambitions and become an energy hub and transit point for West Asia gas headed to Europe.
Above all it is crucial to keep in mind that Israel, the US, Turkiye and others that orchestrated the HTS conquest of Syria do not have the well being of Syrians in mind. Many Syrians are happy to have Assad gone, but the future remains fragile and the risk of sectarian war and partition now looms large.
PKK to leave Syria on condition Kurds ‘maintain leadership role’
Ankara has recently stepped up its threats against the PKK, warning that the group will be eradicated if it does lay down its weapons
News Desk
JAN 17, 2025
((Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images)
An official from Turkiye’s main foe, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), said that the militant group would be willing to end its presence in Syria if US-backed Kurds in the country maintain a leadership role there.
“Any initiative resulting in the governance of northeastern Syria under the control of the SDF, or in which they have a significant role in joint leadership, will lead us to agree to leave the region,” the official at the PKK political office in northern Iraq said, according to Reuters.
The official also said the PKK would continue to monitor the situation from a distance if it leaves Syria, and will act against Turkish forces if needed.
“The future of Syria will be determined after the 20th of this month, once Trump assumes power,” the official added.
The US-backed Kurdish militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which helps Washington oversee its occupation and looting of Syrian oilfields, is predominantly made up of fighters belonging to the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) – Syria's branch of the PKK.
Ankara has stepped up its attacks on the SDF and has vowed to eradicate the Kurdish presence in Syria. Fierce clashes continue to rage near Raqqa and Manbij between the SDF and Ankara’s Syrian National Army (SNA) proxy, which is being given air cover by the Turkish military.
Turkiye is demanding the disbanding of the SDF and the expulsion of all PKK members in Syria. A US-brokered ceasefire agreement has failed to take effect. Washington has called for a “managed transition” for its Kurdish proxies, and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi has said the PKK would leave Syria if Ankara agreed to a comprehensive cessation of hostilities.
The SDF, formed in 2015, is affiliated with a US-backed autonomous administration that has ruled parts of northern Syria for over a decade. Since the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government, questions have risen over the fate of Kurdish factions in the new Syria – which is ruled by the former Al-Qaeda branch, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Negotiations are expected to be held in the coming months between different political factions in Syria – including the Kurds. The SDF has signaled that it would be willing to merge into a future Syrian army.
Syrian authorities have said that armed groups have agreed to disband and integrate “under the supervision of the Ministry of Defense.”
“There are two de facto authorities in Syria now – the [Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria] AANES and HTS. The US is working to ensure cooperation between the two sides ahead of formal negotiations in March to establish a unified Syrian government,” Fethullah Husseini, an official from AANES, told The New Arab on Thursday.
Twelve-year-old Abdulrahman collects aluminum from a destroyed car in Ghouta, Syria, on Dec. 19, 2024. Photo: Emre Caylak/Foreign Policy.
By Rick Sterling – Jan 11th, 2025
Peter Ford served in the UK Foreign Ministry for many years including being UK Ambassador to Bahrein (1999-2003) and then Syria (2003-2006). Following that, he was representative to the Arab world for the Commissioner General of United Nations Relief and Works Agency. He was interviewed by Rick Sterling on Jan 6, 2025.
Rick Sterling: Why do you think the Syrian military and government collapsed so rapidly?
Peter Ford: Everybody was surprised but with hindsight, we shouldn’t have been. Over more than a decade, the Syrian army had been hollowed out by the extremely dire economic situation in Syria, mainly caused by western sanctions. Syria only had a few hours of electricity a day, no money to buy weapons and no ability to use the international banking system to buy anything whatsoever. It’s no surprise that the Army was run down. With hindsight, you might say the surprise is that the Syrian government and Army were successful in driving back the Islamists. The Syrian Army forced them into the redoubt of Idlib four or five years ago.But after that point, the Syrian army deteriorated, became less battle ready on the technical level and also morale.
Syrian soldiers are mainly conscripts and they suffer as much as any ordinary Syrian from the really dreadful economic situation in Syria. I hesitate to admit it, but the Western sanctions were extremely effectively in doing what they were designed to do: to bring the Syrian economy down to its knees. So we have to say, and I say this with deep regret, the sanctions worked. The sanctions did exactly what they were designed to do to make the Syrian people suffer, and thereby to bring about discontent with what they call the regime.
Ordinary Syrians didn’t understand the complexities of geopolitics, and they blamed the Syrian government for everything: not having electricity, not having food, not having gas, oil, high inflation. Everything that came from being cut off from the world economy and not having supporters with bottomless pockets.
Syria was being attacked and occupied by major military powers (Turkey, USA, Israel). Plus thousands of foreign jihadist. The Syrian army was so demoralized that they really were a paper tiger by the end of the day.
RS: Do you think the UK and the US were involved in training the jihadis prior to the December attack on Aleppo?
PF: Absolutely. The Israelis also. The leader of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), Ahmed Hussein al Sharaa (formerly known as Mohammad abu Jolani) almost certainly has British advisors in the background. In fact, I detected the hand of such advisors in some of the statements made in impeccable English. The statements had Americanized spelling, so the CIA are in there too. Jolani is a puppet, a marionette saying what they want him to say.
RS: What’s is the current situation, a month after the collapse?
PF: There are skirmishes here and there, but broadly, the Islamists and foreign fighters are ruling the roost. There are pockets of resistance in Latakia where the Alawite are literally fighting for their lives. Much of the fighting is about the attempts by HTF, the present rulers to confiscate weapons. The Alawites are resisting and there are pockets of resistance in the South where there are local Druze militias.
HTS is spread thinly on the ground. They are facing problems in asserting themselves. Although they had a walkover against the Syrian army, they never actually had to do much fighting. I would guess they only have about 30,000 fighting men and spread across Syria, that is not a lot. There’s an important pocket of resistance in the Northeast where the Kurds are. The Kurdish American allies are resisting. The so-called Syrian National Army, which is a front for the Turkish army, may go into a fully fledged war against the Kurdish forces. But that’s going to depend partly on what happens after the inauguration of the new US president, how Trump deals with the situation.
RS: What are you hearing from people in Syria?
It is not a pretty story. HTS and their allies have been parading showing their dominance, flying ISIS and Al-Qaeda flags. They have been bullying, intimidating, confiscating and looting. Surrendering Christian as well as Alawite soldiers have been given summary justice, roadside executions being the norm. Christians in their towns and villages are just trying to hunker down and pray. Literally. I’m sorry to say the senior Christian clerics, with one or two noble exceptions, have opted for appeasement and effectively betrayed their communities. The senior leadership at the Orthodox Church, in particular Greek Catholic church, have had themselves photographed with dignitaries of the jihadi regime.
They are turning the other cheek. It’s quite a contrast with the Alawite. But they have no choice. You may remember that the slogan of the jihadi armies during the conflict was, “Christians to Beirut, Alawite to the grave.” HTS is going through the motions of having meetings with clerics and making soothing noises. All the while their henchmen are driving around in trucks flying ISIS flags. What I’m hearing is very depressing.
The regime is leaving the Alawites totally abandoned. You barely read a word in the west in media about the plight of the Alawite and not much more about the Christians.
RS: Western media have demonized Bashar al Assad and even Asma Assad. What was your impression of Bashar and Asma when you met them? What do you think of accusations they accumulated billions of dollars?
PF: The accusations are completely spurious. I know some members of the Assad family, some of them have lived for many years in Britain. They lived in very modest personal circumstances. If Assad had been a billionaire, like they’re saying, some of that would’ve trickled down. I can guarantee you that has not been the case. These accusations also go against the impressions that I picked up when I was seeing the Assads when I was an ambassador there. They appreciated the good things of life the same as everybody else, but they didn’t come across as the Marcos type. Nothing at all like that. It is all lies, made up to serve the deeper agenda.
The media kicking of Bashar and Asma is really distasteful. It’s pointless.He’s disappointed his few remaining followers, although it was unrealistic, I believe, for them to expect more. But the fact is that he ran when others were not able to run, and many of those have been killed, or they’re hiding or they’ve escaped to Lebanon in some cases where they’re also hiding. He did get out with his skin, but to beat up on him as the media are doing is really distasteful and pointless. It is akin to this new genre of political pornography, Assad porn, the torture stories, the hyped up narrative about prison and graves being opened up. Actually, by the way, most of those graves are war dead. They were not people who’d been tortured to death as the media pretends. Hundreds of thousands of people died in the conflict over more than a decade, and many of them were buried in unmarked graves. But the western media are reveling in this new genre of Assad porn.
This is all being whipped up to make Western audiences more accepting of the way the West is getting into bed with Al-Qaeda. The more they demonize Assad and harp on the misdeeds of the Assad regime, and the more likely we are to swallow and be distracted away from the hideous atrocities being carried out right now.
Western leaders are kissing the feet of a guy who’s still a wanted terrorist and who has been a founder member of ISIS for God’s sake, as well as a founder member of Al-Qaeda in Syria. It is morally distasteful and shaming.
Joulani needs the west desperately now. Otherwise, he will face the same fate as Bashar Asad. If the economy continues on its trajectory of the years, then Joulani will be dead meat in fairly short order. He has to deliver massive rapid economic improvement to survive as leader. And this is what it’s all about. His strategy, obviously, is to milk his status as a puppet of the West in order to secure not just reconstruction aid, but that’s for the long term, but more immediately sanctions relief, the electricity flowing again, the oil.
Let”s not forget that the oil and gas of Syria is still effectively in the hands of the United States, which through its Kurdish puppets, controls a segment of the economy, which used to be worth, I think, 20% of serious GDP and provide essential oil for fuel, cooking, everything. He’s got to get his hands on that and get sanctions lifted. That’s what so much of it is about. But he has one major problem: Israel. Israel’s not buying it. Israel is the exception. All the western front is tumbling over itself to go and kiss the feet of the sultan of Damascus. But the Israelis are sucking their teeth, saying they don’t trust the guy.
Israel is destroying the remnants of the Syrian army and its infrastructure. Meanwhile they grab more Syrian land. They want to keep Syria on its knees indefinitely by insisting that Western sanctions not be lifted. I sense there’s a battle royal going on in Washington between what we might call the deep state, which would favor lifting sanctions and the Israel lobby, which is resisting that for selfish Israeli reasons. Given that the Israeli lobby wins these tussles nine times out of 10 , the outlook may not be that great for the Jolani regime.
RS: What are your hopes and fears for Syria? What’s the nightmare scenario and what’s the best possible?
PF: I’m very pessimistic. It is very hard to see a silver lining in what has happened. Syria has been taken off the table as a Middle East player. The old Syria has died effectively. Syria was the last man standing among the Arab countries that supported the Palestinians. There was no other. There were militias like Hezbollah plus Yemen but there were no states other than Syria. Syria is now gone, and the jihadist are saying, telling the world they don’t care. By the way, this is an example of how the Israelis will not take yes for an answer. The jihadis keep telling the world, “We love Israel. We don’t care about the Palestinians. Please accept us. We love you.” And the Israelis won’t take yes for an answer.
The best hope for the Syrian people is that they may get some respite. It is possible to imagine a scenario where the Syrian people are able to recover, at least economically a scenario under which sanctions are lifted, under which Syria, the central government recovers control of its oil and grain, where fighting has stopped, where it doesn’t have to pay anything to keep up an army because it’s not trying.They might be able to put everything into reconstruction.
So it is possible to imagine a scenario where Syria loses its soul, but gains more hours of electricity. That is possibly the most likely scenario. But there are major obstacles as we discussed, Israel standing in the way of sanctions, lifting pockets of resistance in discipline among the jihad ranks, Turkey rampaging against the Kurds and ISIS which is still not a completely spent force. So the outlook is obviously cloudy. We should take stock in a month’s time when we see the early days of the new regime in Washington on which so much will depend.
RS: In Trump’s first term he tried to remove all US troops from east Syria but his efforts were ignored. Perhaps that could have made a big difference?
PF: Yes, it could have been a total game changer. If Syria had access to its oil, it wouldn’t have had the fuel problem, the electricity problem. It could have changed the history of the region.
Now, the US is increasing the number of soldiers and bases in Syria. And they recently assassinated a ISIS leader which might have played a role in sparking the recent terrorist attack in the US. All of this makes it much harder now for Trump to withdraw US forces because it will seen as a retreat, a reward for ISIS.
I argued for years that the sanctions were manifestly not working. But in the end they did. It’s like a bridge. It gets undermined and then suddenly it breaks. There was no single cause. It was just the culmination and things reached a tipping point.
Violent clashes continue in north Syria as Damascus seeks to disarm US-backed Kurds
Forces from the new Syrian government are joining Turkish-backed elements in the war against the Kurdish-led SDF in the country's northeast
News Desk
JAN 20, 2025
(Photo credit: AP)
Violent clashes between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) continue in northeast Syria amid multi-sided negotiations for the future control of the strategic region and the nature of the new Syrian state.
Eight SNA fighters were killed and eight SDF fighters wounded in clashes near the Tishreen Dam, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on 20 January, bringing the death toll from fighting between the two groups to 440 people since December.
The SDF is backed by US troops occupying northeast Syria, home to the country's major oil fields and grain-producing regions.
The SNA and SDF have been fighting at the dam and nearby city of Manbij since Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by Ahmad al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Julani), took control of the Syrian state on 8 December, toppling the government of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
HTS militants representing the new government in Damascus appear ready to join the conflict on the side of the SNA. Syria TV reported on Monday that a military convoy of HTS militants has arrived on the frontlines near the Tishreen Dam area.
Amid the fighting, three sets of negotiations are taking place: between the US, SDF, and HTS, between Turkiye and HTS, and between the SDF and HTS, according to Reuters, citing sources from all parties.
In an effort to bring northeast Syria under state control, HTS officials are demanding that the SDF, viewed as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), lay down their weapons and join a new Syrian army as individuals.
SDF commander Mazloum Abdi has stated his group is willing to integrate into the Defense Ministry, but as “a military bloc” and without dissolving.
But Syria's new Defense Minister, Murhaf Abu Qasra, said on 19 January that HTS rejected the SDF proposal.
The HTS government is also demanding that Druze armed groups in Suweida in southern Syria give up their arms and join the new army. However, the Druze have refused the request, citing the need to protect their community until a permanent government is formed.
The Druze in Suwayda and elsewhere in Syria were the victims of several massacres by HTS (formerly known as the Nusra Front) and its fellow Al-Qaeda spin-off, ISIS, during the US-backed covert war on Syria that began in 2011.
Child-beheader allegedly appointed advisor to HTS chief, Jolani
HTS continues terrorist tradition in "New Syria"
vanessa beeley
Jan 21, 2025
In August 2016 a US-funded terrorist group beheaded a 12-year-old Palestinian, Abdullah Issa in Al Mashad Square, Al Insari district, Aleppo. Nour Al Din Zenki, the terrorist group responsible, later featured in a Channel 4 report “Up Close with the Rebels” which Channel 4 tried to remove from the internet after their terrorist-promotion was pointed out.
Despite statements from Palestinian Resistance factions in Syria, the BBC went with the terrorist pretext that Issa was actually a “child fighter”, not just a child taken from his hospital bed, tortured and decapitated, his severed head displayed as a gruesome trophy.
It is worth noting that the MI6-Al-Qaeda White Helmets headquarters were less than 200 meters from the square where the execution took place. the alleged “humanitarians” didn’t intervene.
According to Mohammed Jajeh on X, one of the Zenki child killers has appointed “advisor” to HTS Junta chief, Jolani.
SDF gives up ground in northeast Syria as Turkish-backed offensive heats up
The Kurdish-led SDF is facing threats from the HTS government in Damascus and the Turkish-backed SNA
News Desk
JAN 21, 2025
(Photo credit: AFP)
Militants from the US-backed Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have withdrawn from several Arab towns in eastern Syria, sources in the area told The National, in response to military pressure from Syria’s new ruling faction in Damascus and Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) militants in the country’s north.
Over the past day, militants from the SDF have withdrawn from four Arab-majority towns on the Euphrates River in the Raqqa and Deir Ezzor governorates, a group official told The National.
Militants from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Al-Qaeda affiliate that now rules Damascus, replaced the SDF in the four Arab towns: Maadan, Thiban, Basira, and Zir, the official stated.
The withdrawal was ordered to better defend the Kurdish-majority areas further east, including Hasakah and Qamishli, as well as around the strategic Tishreen Dam in the north where the SDF is battling the Turkish-backed SNA.
“The situation on the ground is changing every minute. The Turks are escalating, so the SDF is focusing on preserving the Kurdish areas and preventing a breakthrough at Tishreen,” the official added.
A Telegram group linked to HTS said its fighters had entered the four towns, showing videos of them after their capture.
Fighting between the SDF and SNA in north Syria escalated as HTS launched its lightning offensive from Idlib Governorate to topple the government of president Bashar al-Assad in Damascus in December.
The SDF was created by the US military in 2015 to help it capture strategic territory from ISIS in eastern Syria, including Arab tribal areas where most of the country’s oil and gas deposits are located. The US had covertly supported ISIS as it took over swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq in 2014.
The Kurdish-led SDF faced several revolts by Arab tribal forces backed by Assad’s government in recent years.
On Monday, HTS militants representing the new government in Damascus appeared ready to join the conflict on the side of the SNA. Syria TV reported that a convoy of HTS militants had arrived on the frontlines near the Tishreen Dam area.
Amid the fighting, three sets of negotiations are taking place: between the US, SDF, and HTS, between Turkiye and HTS, and between the SDF and HTS, according to Reuters, which cited sources from all parties.
In an effort to bring northeast Syria under state control, HTS officials are demanding that the SDF, viewed as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), lay down their weapons and join a new Syrian army as individuals.
SDF commander Mazloum Abdi stated that his group is only willing to integrate into the Defense Ministry as “a military bloc” without dissolving.
Israel builds new occupation outpost in south Syria
Israeli forces occupying Syria have established six military points in Quneitra Governorate since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government in December
News Desk
JAN 21, 2025
(Photo credit: REUTERS/Avi Ohayon)
The Israeli army has begun work on establishing a new military point in territory it illegally occupies in the countryside of Quneitra Governorate in southeast Syria, Al Jazeera reported on 21 January.
“Two days ago, the Israeli occupation began work on establishing a military point in the Jabatha al-Khashab Forest area in the Quneitra countryside,” Mohammed Abdel Rahman, a resident of the area, told Al-Jazeera.
Abdel Rahman added that Israeli bulldozers entered the region, uprooted hundreds of trees, and prevented residents from approaching the site, declaring it to be a closed military zone.
He said residents of the town of Jabatha al-Khashab are worried the establishment of the checkpoint will allow the Israeli military to further encircle them and limit their free movements.
The resident said the new fortifications extend for a distance of one kilometer towards Jabatha al-Khashab on agricultural lands containing fruit orchards owned by the town's citizens. The Israeli army has also built new roads towards the border strip with the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
Immediately after the overthrow of president Bashar al-Assad on 8 December 2024, Israel expanded its occupation of Syrian territory.
The occupying Israeli forces established six military points in Quneitra Governorate, including in the town of Hadar, the village of Qurs al-Nafal, and Al-Tulul al-Hamr (north of the governorate), the town of Al-Hamidiyah, the town of Kodna, and another near Al-Mantara Dam (in the south).
After Assad fell, Israel also immediately carried out a massive bombing campaign to destroy virtually all of the Syrian army's heavy weapons and infrastructure.
Israeli forces are now within artillery fire range of the Mezzeh Military Airbase on the outskirts of Damascus.
On 15 January, an Israeli drone targeted a military convoy belonging to the Military Operations Department of the new Syrian government, which is led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Al-Qaeda affiliate.
The drone opened fire in the town of Ghadir al-Bustan in the southern Quneitra countryside, killing the town's mayor, Abdo al-Koma, and wounding others.
Syria's de facto ruler, HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa (formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani), has stated that the new Syrian government poses no threat to Israel, adding that now that Iran's military presence in Syria is a thing of the past, Israel no longer has an excuse for occupying Syrian land.
Six killed as Syrian security forces raid town in western Homs
Reports of sectarian killings by Syria's new HTS-led security forces continue to emerge
News Desk
JAN 22, 2025
(Photo credit: OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP/Getty Images)
Six people were killed and dozens detained in Syria’s central Homs province during a raid by security forces from Syria’s new government, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on 21 January.
The raid was carried out in the Shia-majority village of Ghour al-Gharbiya near the Lebanese border.
The UK-based SOHR, which relies on a network of sources in Syria, said that among those killed were two “armed individuals” who died during clashes with security forces, while the other four were “civilians executed by local gunmen who entered the town” alongside the security forces.
Syrian state media SANA said security forces were operating in the area around “against the remaining militias supporting” ousted president Bashar al-Assad.
An “arms depot and munitions belonging to the ousted regime” were found, SANA added.
Militants from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate, toppled Assad’s government on 8 December and now make up the government’s security forces. HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa (previously Abu Mohammad al-Julani), who formerly fought under ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is now Syria’s de facto leader.
SOHR director Rami Abdel Rahman said that the village “hosted local groups close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah,” who left the area after the fall of Assad.
The Syrian Coast Observatory (SCO) said those killed in Ghour al-Gharbiya were targeted only for their identity as Shia Muslims and gave the victims’ names as:
Muhammad Saeed Jardo
Ahmad Hassan Jardo
Ali Mahdi al-Saddam
Faiz Muhammad
Saeed Jardo
Ahmad Hassan Mari Jardo
Syria’s new government has carried out a series of raids in primarily Alawite areas of Syria since coming to power, including Homs, Latakia, Tartus, and coastal villages.
The HTS-led government claims its forces, which are made up of extremist armed factions from Idlib, are targeting members of the old government who carried out crimes, and insist that they are committed to protecting minorities.
But reports continue to emerge of sectarian violations by the new security forces, including the kidnapping and killing of Alawites and the seizure of people’s homes.
Verify-Syria, a newly formed fact-checking group, confirmed “the reality of abductions in Syria.” It said the Syrian Ministry of Interior has blamed the abductions on “gangs impersonating military personnel.”
(@noone0826) January 5, 2025
Gaddafi foresaw the Balkanization of Arab World
Social media users recall the statement made by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who died more than 10 years ago.
NATO’s military aggression against Libya led to the overthrow and death of Gaddafi. Was he punished for his prescience?
