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☆ U.S. sanctions Syrian leader Assad's cousins, others over drug trade -Treasury
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

It said the trade in captagon was estimated to be a billion-dollar enterprise and the sanctions highlight the role of Lebanese drug traffickers and the Assad family dominance of captagon trafficking, which helped fund the Syrian government. Assad's government denies involvement in drug-making and smuggling and says it is stepping up its campaign to curb the lucrative trade. Also sanctioned were Khalid Qaddour, who the Treasury said was a Syrian businessman and close associate of Bashar al-Assad's brother, the head of the army's Fourth Division. Hassan Daqqou was sentenced in 2021 to seven years in prison in Lebanon on charges of captagon trafficking, according to the same source. Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Daphne Psaledakis and Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; editing by Mark HeinrichOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/2] U.S. Joint Chiefs Chair Army General Mark Milley speaks with U.S. forces in Syria during an unannounced visit, at a U.S. military base in Northeast Syria, March 4, 2023. The attack against U.S. personnel took place at a coalition base near Hasakah in northeast Syria at approximately 1:38 p.m. (1038 GMT) on Thursday, it said. The other two wounded American troops were treated at the base in northeast Syria, the Pentagon said. Thousands of other Islamic State fighters are in detention facilities guarded by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, America's key ally in the country. American officials say that Islamic State could still regenerate into a major threat.

Just a day after the deadly attack on U.S. personnel in Syria, which Washington blamed on a drone of Iranian origin, sources said a U.S. base in Syria's northeast was targeted with a new missile attack. The U.S. strikes were in response to an attack earlier on Thursday by an attack drone against U.S. personnel at a coalition base near Hasakah in northeast Syria. Three service members and a contractor required medical evacuation to Iraq, where the U.S.-led coalition battling the remnants of Islamic State has medical facilities, the Pentagon said. NEW ATTACK INEFFECTIVEA U.S. base at the Al-Omar oil field in Syria was targeted with a missile attack on Friday morning, according to Lebanese pro-Iranian TV channel Al Mayadeen and a security source. U.S. forces first deployed into Syria during the Obama administration's campaign against Islamic State, partnering with a Kurdish-led group called the Syrian Democratic Forces.

☆ Syria says Israeli strike puts Aleppo airport out of service
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BEIRUT, March 7 (Reuters) - An Israeli air strike knocked Aleppo airport out of service on Tuesday and forced the Syrian authorities to reroute flights carrying aid for those affected by last month's earthquake, Syrian state media reported. The attack caused "material damage" to the airport, SANA cited the source as saying, without mentioning any casualties. Foreign donors including the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Algeria have flown aid into Aleppo airport since the Feb. 6 earthquake, Syrian state media has reported. The attack overnight was Israel's third air strike in Syria this year, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. In January, the Syrian army said an Israeli missile attack briefly put Damascus airport out of service.

American officials say that Islamic State could still regenerate into a major threat. Asked by reporters traveling with him if he believed the Syria mission was worth the risk, Milley tied the mission to the security of the United States and its allies, saying: "If you think that that's important, then the answer is 'Yes.'" Four U.S. troops were wounded during a helicopter raid last month when an Islamic State leader triggered an explosion. U.S. Army Major General Matthew McFarlane, who commands the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, described the attacks as a "distraction from our main mission." McFarlane cited progress against Islamic State, including through the reduction in the numbers of internally displaced people at refugee camps -- a pool of people who could be recruited by Islamic State.

Thousands of other Islamic State fighters are in detention facilities guarded by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, America's key ally in the country. American officials say that Islamic State could still regenerate into a major threat. Four U.S. troops were wounded during a helicopter raid last month when an Islamic State leader triggered an explosion. U.S. Army Major General Matthew McFarlane, who commands the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, described attacks against U.S. forces as a "distraction from our main mission." McFarlane cited progress against Islamic State, including through the reduction in the numbers of internally displaced people at refugee camps -- a pool of vulnerable people who could be recruited by Islamic State.

[1/2] Police officers stand amid the rubble of a damaged building at the site of a rocket attack in the Kafr Sousa neighbourhood of central Damascus, Syria, February 19, 2023. Its support for Damascus and the Lebanese group Hezbollah has drawn regular Israeli air strikes meant to curb Tehran's extraterritorial military power. A source close to the Syrian government with knowledge of Sunday's strike and its target said it hit a gathering of Syrian and Iranian technical experts in drone manufacturing, though he said no top-level Iranian was killed. "The strike hit the centre where they were meeting as well as an apartment in a residential building. On Sunday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry condemned what it described as attacks on "residential buildings in Damascus which killed and maimed innocent Syrian citizens".

Damascus has long said aid to the rebel enclave in the north should go via Syria not across the Turkish border. Jordan and the UAE, which once backed Syria's opposition but have normalised ties with Assad in recent years, have sent aid to Damascus, Syrian state media has reported. WRANGLE OVER RESOURCESMoscow has long argued that delivering aid to northwest Syria from Turkey violates Syrian sovereignty. But he said aid flows must be coordinated with the government and delivered through Syria not across the Turkish border. The Damascus-based Syrian Red Crescent called for lifting of sanctions, which Syria's government has long blamed for mounting economic hardship.

☆ Syria says Israel attacks areas around southern Damascus city
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

AMMAN, Jan 2 (Reuters) - The Syrian army said on Monday that Israel struck parts of southern Damascus in the latest string of strikes that regional intelligence sources say target Iran-linked assets. Israel has repeatedly bombed Iranian backed militia targets in Syria, saying its goal was to erode Tehran’s military presence which Western intelligence sources say has expanded in recent year in the war-torn country. Two regional intelligence sources say the strikes hit an outpost by Iran’s Quds Force and militias it backs, whose presence has spread in Syria in recent years. They say the Iranians have a strong presence in the Sayeda Zainab neighbourhood of southern Damascus where Iranian backed militias have a string of underground bases. Iran’s proxy militias led by Lebanon’s Hezbollah now hold sway in vast areas in eastern and southern Syria and northwest as well as several suburbs around the capital.

☆ Islamic State leader Quraishi blew himself up after being surrounded -sources
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Suleiman Al-Khalidi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

AMMAN, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Islamic State (IS) militant leader Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, who was killed in mid-October in Syria, blew himself up after he and his aides were surrounded by local fighters in the town of Jasem, fighters involved in the clash told Reuters. The province was brought under the control of the Syrian army following Russian-brokered reconciliation agreements in 2018 that gave control of southern Syria back to Damascus. Islamic State has selected Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Quraishi as its new leader, a spokesman for the group said in a recording. Islamic State emerged from the chaos of the civil war in neighbouring Iraq and took over vast swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014. Former IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared an Islamic caliphate from a mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul that year and proclaimed himself caliph of all Muslims.

☆ ISIS acknowledges the death of its leader, announces his successor
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Eyad Kourdi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —ISIS acknowledged the death of its leader Abu al-Hasan al-Hashmi al-Qurayshi on Wednesday and confirmed his successor. US Central Command confirmed his death on Wednesday, saying the ISIS leader was killed in mid-October by the Free Syrian Army. The deceased leader was appointed by ISIS after US President Joe Biden announced the death of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi in a military operation in the northwest of Syria. Abu al-Hasan’s predecessor, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, died in February during a US counterterrorism raid in northwest Syria. The raid was the biggest US raid in the country since the 2019 operation that killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and came amid a resurgence of the group in Syria and Iraq.

☆ US military confirms that another ISIS leader has been killed in Syria, revealing that he was taken out in a raid by local forces
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The US military revealed on Wednesday that another ISIS leader was killed recently. Earlier on Wednesday, the Islamic State's media affiliate announced that the leader of the terror group had been killed fighting recently. The terror group didn't mention who killed al-Qurayshi — or where, according to multiple reports. "We welcome the announcement that another leader of ISIS is no longer walking the face of the Earth." He added that actions by Turkey have led the SDF to suspend its operations against the terror group.

☆ Israel strike hits major air base in central Syria, military sources say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

CAIRO/AMMAN Nov 13 (Reuters) - Syrian air defences shot down Israeli missiles over Homs province on Sunday, state news agency SANA said, in what military sources said was a strike on a major Syrian air base. Syrian state television posted a short video of the "aggression" but gave no further details. A Syrian army source, who was not authorised to speak publicly, said that the strikes targeted Shayrat air base, a military complex southeast of Homs city. Its runway and underground facilities have undergone a major expansion by the Russia military in the last three years, he added. Russia, which maintains a major military presence in Syria, has forces stationed near to Shayrat air base, which has also been used recently by the Iranian air force, another security source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

☆ At war for decades, Lebanon and Israel edge towards a rare deal
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A general view shows the Lebanese-Israeli border as seen from the southern Lebanese village of Khiam, Lebanon October 11, 2022. Some 100,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes in Palestine during the war arrive in Lebanon as refugees. 1978Israel invades south Lebanon and sets up an occupation zone in an operation against Palestinian guerrillas. 1985Israel establishes an occupation zone in southern Lebanon, about 15 km (nine miles) deep, after it pulled back from a line further north, controlling the area with a proxy force, the South Lebanon Army. 2000Israel withdraws from southern Lebanon, ending 22 years of occupation.

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