World

EditorialMiddle East Crisis: A Challenging Transformation

Michel Touma 2024-12-30 11:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Damascus Hezbollah Middle East Benjamin Netanyahu Tehran

It was hardly surprising. In this part of the world, where decades of chronic turmoil are frequently interrupted by bouts of disorder fueled by power struggles, the potential for harm has yet to be fully contained. A new political landscape appears to be emerging in various parts of the Middle East, as declared by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ...

AnalysisChaos or Restructuring?

Charles Chartouni 2024-12-30 10:37 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Lebanon Syria Iran Israel USA

The regional landscape is far from reassuring; none of the political and military events have come to a closure, and none of the geostrategic and political issues have found a way to deliberation. The situation in Syria is under the pull and sway of strident political factionalism, clashing regional power politics and endemic instability. Lebanon ...

Three Mass Graves Discovered in Homs, According to the SOHR

This is Beirut 2024-12-29 20:30 - Reading : less than a minute

mass grave syria SOHR

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), three mass graves have been discovered in the village of Al-Qabou, in the countryside of Homs, containing the bodies of 20 unidentified individuals. On December 23, SOHR sources reported that a mass grave had been found in the city of Homs, containing the bodies of over 1,200 ...

Uproar After Syria Official's Comments on Women

This is Beirut 2024-12-29 19:20 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Syria HTS women rights

Comments by Syria's newly appointed head of women's affairs have sparked uproar, with social media users expressing outrage on Sunday, weeks after Islamist-led rebels toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad. Turkey's state-run TRT broadcaster this week asked Aisha al-Dibs, the only woman so far in Syria's transitional government since Assad's ...

Gaza Rescuers Say Israeli Strike on Hospital Kills 7

This is Beirut 2024-12-29 18:50 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Hamas Israel Palestine Gaza

Gaza's civil defense agency said an air strike hit a hospital Sunday, killing at least seven people, while Israel said it had targeted militants at the no longer functioning facility. "Seven martyrs and several injured people, including critical cases, have been recovered following the Israeli strike on the upper floor of Al-Wafaa Hospital in ...

Syria: Explosion Near Damascus Kills Several People

This is Beirut 2024-12-29 17:30 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Damascus syria strike israel

An explosion at a weapons depot near Syria's capital Damascus on Sunday killed 11 people, a war monitor said, weeks after rebels ousted longtime leader Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the cause of the blast in the industrial area of Adra, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Damascus, was "likely" to have been an ...

Videos'Like a Dream': AFP Photographer Returns to Syria

This is Beirut 2024-12-29 17:20 - Reading : less than a minute

Damascus

AFP photographer Sameer al-Doumy returns home after fleeing Syria in 2017, just one year before a horrific chemical weapons attack in April 2018 on his hometown of Douma, a rebel stronghold near Damascus. The 26-year-old award-winning photographer, who has spent the last few years covering the migrant crisis for AFP's Lille bureau in northern ...

Syria: Al-Joulani Announces Elections in Four Years

This is Beirut 2024-12-29 16:40 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Saudi Arabia Syria HTS Jolani elections

The new leader of Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, announced in an exclusive interview with Al-Arabiya on Sunday that organizing elections in Syria could take up to four years, as it would require a complete population census. He also stated that drafting a new constitution could take three years. Rejecting criticism ...

Azerbaijan Accuses Russia of Trying to Hide Causes of Plane Crash

This is Beirut 2024-12-29 15:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Vladimir Putin Russia crash plane Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Sunday demanded that Russia admit that it fired at an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet before it crashed, accusing Moscow of initially trying to cover up the cause of the fatal disaster. Aliyev made the accusation in an interview to state media at Baku airport four days after the AZAL Embraer 190 plane ...

At Least 179 Dead in South Korea's Worst Plane Crash

This is Beirut 2024-12-29 15:16 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

south korea crash aviation

A Jeju Air plane carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea crashed on arrival Sunday, smashing into a barrier and bursting into flames, leaving all but two feared dead. A bird strike was cited by authorities as the likely cause of the crash, the worst ever aviation disaster on South Korean soil, which flung passengers out of the plane and ...

Nearly 300 Arrested in Syria Crackdown on Assad Loyalists

This is Beirut 2024-12-29 12:50 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Damascus Latakia Syria HTS

Syria's new authorities have arrested nearly 300 people, including informants, pro-regime fighters and former soldiers, in a crackdown on loyalists to ousted former president Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) war monitor said Sunday. Since rebels led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group toppled Assad ...

Palestinian Woman Shot Dead in Jenin Camp

This is Beirut 2024-12-29 12:45 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Fatah Hamas Israel West Bank Jenin

A Palestinian woman was shot dead overnight at the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, with her family on Sunday accusing the Palestinian Authority's security forces of killing her. Shatha al-Sabbagh, a journalism student in her early 20s, was killed by a bullet to the head, which her family said was fired by a security forces sniper ...