Israel strikes across Syria as civilians, rebel forces unravel Assad regime's torture prisons

Israel has carried out around 250 strikes on Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime on Sunday, a war monitor has said.

The majority of some 100,000 forcibly disappeared Syrians were likely killed by the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the head of the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has said.

Speaking on Syria TV, SNHR head Fadel Abdul Ghany appeared to break down as he conceded that the tens of thousands of prisoners had likely been killed.

"This is the reality that we cannot change," Abdul Ghany said.

Earlier in the day, the SNHR head took to X to describe his organisation's work to ascertain what had happened to those abducted and imprisoned by the Assad regime.

"The Syrian regime has detained approximately 136,000 individuals, of whom an estimated 96,000 are forcibly disappeared. This indicates that around 40,000 individuals were officially detained, most of whom have since been released. However, the fate of the 96,000 forcibly disappeared remains largely unknown, and they constitute the majority of unresolved cases," he said.

Piles of dead bodies of former detainees from the Assad regime's Sednaya prison have been discovered at the Harasta Hospital in Eastern Ghouta, Anadolu Agency reported.

The Turkish agency shared footage of a room filled with shrouded bodies lying on the floor. The victims were recently tortured to death, according to the report.

Israel's incursion into Syria beyond the occupied Golan Heights following Bashar al-Assad's overthrow must only be "temporary," the United States said Monday, after the United Nations said Israel was violating a 1974 deal.

"This is a temporary action that they have taken in response to actions by the Syrian military to withdraw from that area. Now, what we want to see, ultimately, is that agreement fully upheld, and we'll watch to see that Israel does that," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

Asked if the United States was calling on its ally to pull out, Miller said the agreement reached after the 1973 Yom Kippur War "includes Israel's withdrawing to its previous position".

He declined to set a timetable, pointing to the fast-changing situation on the ground in Syria.

"Israel has said that these actions are temporary to defend its borders. These are not permanent actions, and so ultimately, what we want to see is lasting stability between Israel and Syria, and that means we support all sides upholding the 1974 disengagement agreement," Miller said.

Israel has carried out attacks on major Syrian airbases across the country, destroying infrastructure and dozens of helicopters and planes, two Syrian security sources told Reuters.

Israel conducted more than 100 air strikes on military targets in Syria on Monday including a research centre Western countries suspected of having links to chemical weapons production in Damascus, a war monitor said.

"Israeli warplanes launched over 100 strikes in Syria today, including on the Barzah scientific research centre," Rami Abdel Rahman who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP, reporting "increased Israeli strikes to destroy the former regime's military capabilities".

Israel has carried strikes on Damascus and on the port of Latakia, a correspondent for The New Arab's Arabic-language sister site, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

Witnesses were also cited by Reuters as saying that they heard at least two explosions in Damascus.

Israeli troops that have moved into the buffer zone on the edge of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights "constitute a violation" of the 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria, a UN spokesman said Monday.

The UN peacekeeping force deployed in the Golan Heights, known as UNDOF, "informed the Israeli counterparts that these actions would constitute a violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement," said Stephane Dujarric, specifying that the Israeli forces that entered the zone were still present in three locations.

Britain is pausing Syrian asylum claims as London studies the fast-moving events after the ouster of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, the Home Office said Monday.

"The Home Office has temporarily paused decisions on Syrian asylum claims whilst we assess the current situation," the ministry said in a statement, which came after several European countries took the same step.

The infamous Saydnaya Prison is currently under the spotlight as Syrian opposition rebels, rescue groups, and local residents search for any remaining inmates trapped in the facility after scores were freed on Sunday and Monday.

Many of those trapped are held in the prison's underground cells, which have been difficult to access due to being locked by secret codes only known by the prison's guards, and due to its sprawling, labyrinth-like complex.

Rescue organisations, chiefly the White Helmets, are also attempting to uncover the prison's hidden chambers in a bid to further expose the prison's abuse against inmates.

Opened in the 1980s around 30 kilometres (approximately 19 miles) north of the capital Damascus during Hafez al-Assad's presidency, Saydnaya became the site of rights abuses, inhumane torture methods and mass executions for years. Multiple prisoners died preventable deaths, due to medical negligence.

Former Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Jalali told Al Arabiya TV on Monday that he had agreed to hand over power to the rebel "Salvation Government". 

 (Reuters)

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday pledged to reopen a border post on Turkey's southern frontier with Syria to facilitate the return of refugees after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad.

"In order to ease the traffic at the border, we're opening the Yayladagi border gate," Erdogan said, referring to a crossing on the westerly edge of the border that has been closed since 2013.

Qatar condemned on Monday the Israeli seizure of the buffer zone and sites on the border with Syria.

In a statement the foreign ministry said this is "a dangerous development".

Two civilians were killed and six injured on Monday during protests against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Deir az-Zour city in eastern Syria, Wissam Selim from Al-Araby Al-Jadeed writes.

Ahmad Al-Hussein, a media activist in Deir az-Zour, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that SDF members directly opened fire on protesters in the Al-Joura neighborhood of Deir az-Zour, resulting in the death of two protesters and the injury of six others, some of whom are in critical condition.

He added that the city of Deir az-Zour witnessed protests today in the neighbourhoods of Al-Joura, Al-Moddafen, and Al Qusour, rejecting the entry of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) into Deir az-Zour following the withdrawal of the Syrian regime forces formerly stationed there and demanding the entry of opposition factions.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) took control of the city of Deir az-Zour as well as parts of its western countryside, taking advantage of the vacuum left by the withdrawal of regime forces to expand their areas of influence. Meanwhile, opposition factions, in coordination with local groups from the tribes of Deir az-Zour’s countryside, managed to seize control of the eastern and western countryside of Deir az-Zour ("Badia Shameya").

This followed the surrender of a large number of regime forces to the Military Operations Command and the retreat of most Iraqi and Iran-backed militias towards Iraqi territory, amidst ongoing advances toward the city of Deir az-Zour in eastern Syria [by opposition forces].

More than a dozen corpses have been discovered at Harasta military hospital outside Damascus after people rushed to the facility to find missing loves ones, according to reports.

Al Jazeera Arabic network is sharing footage of corpses piled ontop of each other and wrapped in white shrouds.

The hospital, north-east of Damascus, has been highlighted in the past by human rights groups and media investigations as a secret detention centre where sick detainees were taken and tortured.

Syrian rebels have granted amnesty to all military personnel conscripted into service during ousted President Bashar al-Assad's rule, they said on Monday on their Telegram channel. 

(Reuters)

Mohammed al-Bashir, a key official in the administration overseen by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), has been appointed as Syria's prime minister, according to reports on Monday.

Bashir previously led the Salvation Government, affiliated with HTS, which governed only parts of northwestern Syria and Idlib.

Several reports on Monday indicated that he had met HTS leader Abu Muhammad al-Jolani and Mohammed al-Jalali, who served as prime minister under the now-ousted Bashar al-Assad regime.

Over the past few days, HTS and rebels backed by Turkey - working under the umbrella of the Military Operations Division - made a surprise sweep across Syria to seize the capital Damascus in the early hours of Sunday.

Al-Bashir now faces the challenge of navigating Syria's transitional phase, addressing both political instability and the reconstruction of war-torn regions formerly under HTS control.

The United Nations chemical watchdog OPCW said Monday it had warned Syrian authorities to make sure suspected stockpiles of chemical weapons were safe after the overthrow of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

The OPCW said it had contacted Syria "with a view to emphasising the paramount importance of ensuring the safety and security of all chemical weapons related materials and facilities" in the country.

Syria agreed in 2013 to join the OPCW shortly after an alleged chemical gas attack killed more than 1,400 people near Damascus.

It handed over its declared stockpile for destruction but the OPCW has always been concerned that the declaration made by Damascus was incomplete and that more weapons remained.

"To date... the Syrian declaration of its chemical weapons programme still cannot be considered as accurate and complete," said the OPCW.

"Serious concerns have remained about the completeness of Syria's initial declaration and the fate of significant amounts of chemical weapons unaccounted for," added the group.

Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed responsibility on Monday for a drone strike on Israel, where an explosion that did not cause any injuries was reported in the central Israeli city of Yavne.

"The drone units targeted a sensitive target of the Israeli enemy in Yavne," the Houthi military spokesman said in a statement.

Syria's central bank said Monday depositors' funds in the country's lenders were "safe" after rebels took the capital, and following chaotic scenes near some official institutions including the central bank.

"We assure our fellow citizens dealing with all operating banks that their deposits and funds at these banks are safe and have not been and will not be exposed to any harm," said a statement on the central bank's official Facebook page.

US officials are communicating with people on the ground in Syria to seek information about Austin Tice, an American journalist captured more than 12 years ago in Syria, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday.

"This is a top priority for us - to find Austin Tice, to locate the prison where he may be held, get him out, get him home safely to his family," Sullivan said in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America."

"We are talking through the Turks and others to people on the ground in Syria to say, 'Help us with this. Help us get Austin Tice home.'"

Tice, a former US Marine and a freelance journalist, was 31 when he was abducted in August 2012 while reporting in Damascus on the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted by Syrian rebels who seized the capital Damascus on Sunday. Syria had denied he was being held.

Germany has suspended decisions on asylum requests from Syrians amid the "unclear situation" in the war-torn country after the ouster of President Bashar Al-Assad, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said Monday.

"In view of this unclear situation, it is right that the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees has today imposed a freeze on decisions for asylum procedures that are still ongoing until the situation is clearer," she said. Germany has Europe's biggest Syrian diaspora.

Rescue groups and families in Syria are calling for international help with finding relatives imprisoned by the Assad regime in underground cells at the notorious Saydnaya Prison facility after scores of detainees were freed on Sunday following the ousting of the Assad regime.

Several cells are reportedly inaccessible due to secret codes and gates, while the prison’s sprawling complex - built like a labyrinth - has also proved difficult for opposition figures to navigate.

Some prisoners were previously held in the "white" part of the prison and were freed with the help of opposition rebels and local residents. Many have also been freed from the "red", underground part of the prison – though several others remain in captivity.

Such obstacles have prompted calls from international experts to help with freeing the rest of the inmates.

Read more here.

Palestinian group Hamas congratulated the Syrian people on Monday for achieving their aspirations for freedom and justice after toppling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Lebanon's Hezbollah views events in Syria as a "major, dangerous and new transformation", a senior Hezbollah politician said on Monday, the Iran-backed group's first reaction to the toppling of its ally Bashar al-Assad.

Hezbollah played a major part propping up Assad through years of war in Syria, before bringing its fighters back to Lebanon over the last year to fight in a bruising war with Israel - a redeployment which weakened Syrian government lines.

His downfall has stripped Hezbollah of a vital ally along Lebanon's eastern border. Assad-ruled Syria long served as a vital conduit for Iran to supply weapons to the Shi'ite Islamist Hezbollah.

"What is happening in Syria is a major, dangerous and new transformation, and how and why what happened requires an evaluation, and the evaluation is not done on the podiums," Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said in a statement.

(Reuters)

Egypt condemns Israel's "further occupation of Syrian lands" and views the Israeli military's movement into a buffer zone as an attempt to enforce a new reality on the ground, it said in a foreign ministry statement on Monday.

Israel moved tanks over the border into the buffer zone with Syria, calling the move temporary and limited and aimed at ensuring Israel's security.

Mohammad Al-Bashir has been named as the new prime minister to head the next Syrian government to manage the transitional phase after the collapse of the Assad government.

Al-Bashir was voted in by the General Shura Council in Idlib, affiliated with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, to head the 'Salvation Government', The New Arab's sister outlet Syria TV reported.

Al Jazeera Arabic network reported that a meeting took place between HTS chief Ahmed al-Sharaa and the prime minister of the former regime government Mohammed al-Jalili.

We will bring you more when we have it.

A German foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al Qaeda affiliate that spearheaded a lightning advance that toppled the Syrian regime, will be judged by its treatment of minorities.

"In recent months and years, HTS has endeavored to distance itself from its jihadist origins and to build up civilian structures," the spokesperson said.

"Whether these efforts can now be taken seriously will be seen in particular in the treatment of civilians and especially minorities in the areas they now control," the spokesperson added.

Foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin said that Russia was holding talks on the security of its citizens in Syria, Interfax news agency reported on Monday.

The Kremlin said earlier in the day that it was too early to say what the future would hold for Russia's military bases in Syria after rebels toppled President Bashar al-Assad, adding that it would be the subject of discussion with the new rulers in Damascus

Palestinian medical officials said Monday that Israeli strikes in the central Gaza Strip overnight killed at least six people, including one woman.

The strikes came as ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad fled to Moscow on Sunday and received asylum from his longtime ally, according to Russian media, hours after rebels seized control of Damascus.

The U.N. Security Council plans to hold emergency closed consultations on Syria later Monday at Russia’s request.

Among the dead in the overnight Israeli strikes were Raed Ghabaien, who was released from Israeli detention in 2014, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the casualties were taken.

He was killed along with his wife when an Israeli strike hit their tent in the central town of Zuweida, the hospital records showed. Two other people were killed in a strike that hit their house late Sunday in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp. Another two were killed in a strike in the Wadi Gaza area early Monday.

Israel has struck suspected chemical weapons sites and long-range rockets in Syria in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of hostile actors, the foreign minister said Monday.

Syrian rebels reached Damascus over the weekend and overthrew President Bashar Assad’s government following nearly 14 years of civil war, raising hopes for a more peaceful future but also concerns about a potential security vacuum in the country, which is still split among armed groups.

Israelis have welcomed the fall of Assad, who was a key ally of Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, while expressing concern over what comes next. Israel says its forces temporarily seized a buffer zone inside Syria dating back to a 1974 agreement after Syrian troops withdrew in the chaos.

“The only interest we have is the security of Israel and its citizens," Gideon Saar told reporters on Monday. “That’s why we attacked strategic weapons systems, like, for example, remaining chemical weapons, or long-range missiles and rockets, in order that they will not fall in the hands of extremists.”

Saar did not provide details about when or where the strikes took place.

The Kremlin on Monday declined to confirm reports that toppled Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has fled to Moscow, adding that it was "surprised" by the rebel takeover.

"As for president Assad's whereabouts, I've got nothing to tell you," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists, adding: "What happened has surprised the whole world and, in this case, we are no exception."

France will support Syria's political transition following the fall of Bashar al-Assad and will send a special diplomatic envoy to the country in the coming days, France's caretaker foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Monday.

Syrian rebels seized the capital Damascus unopposed on Sunday after a lightning advance that sent President Assad fleeing to Russia after a 13-year civil war and six decades of his family's autocratic rule.

The events in Syria were a stunning defeat for Russia, Barrot told France Info radio, as Moscow could now lose access to military assets it has in the Arab country.

(Reuters)

A group of men at the Syrian embassy in Moscow raised the opposition flag there on Monday morning, an AFP journalist saw.

Standing on the embassy balcony, the men clapped and sang as they raised the green, red, black and white Syrian opposition flag under falling snow.

"Today the embassy opened and is working normally under a new flag," an embassy representative told TASS state news agency.

Russia was a key ally of Syria's ousted president, Bashar al-Assad.

A Kremlin source told Russian news agencies on Sunday that Assad and his family were in Moscow, hours after he fled the country as Islamist-led rebels entered Damascus.

The source also said the rebels who ousted Assad in a lightning offensive "guaranteed the security of Russian army bases and diplomatic institutions on Syria's territory".

Quite interesting that in Russia the Syrian embassy is raising the new flag of Syria.

This swift and seamless change of embassy hands in Moscow is a bit surprising. No change of personnel even. HTS reached out to Russia and said it has no quarrels with it.

Western countries.. pic.twitter.com/uHmO7DNT1N

— Hassan I. Hassan (@hxhassan) December 9, 2024

Turkey-backed Syrian opposition groups have taken control of the northern Syrian town of Manbij, a Turkish security source said on Monday.

US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces (SDF) were holding the town and there has been intense fighting with the Turkey-backed groups in recent days, as Syrian rebels in the south on Sunday declared Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's ouster after seizing control of Damascus.

(Reuters)

A Turkish drone strike on a house in a Kurdish-held area in northern Syria killed 11 civilians, six of them children, a war monitor said Monday.

"Eleven civilians, including six children, all members of the same family, were killed in a Turkish drone strike near Ain Issa," which is located in a Kurdish-held area, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Israeli forces have seized further parts of the buffer zone between Syria and the occupied Golan Heights since Sunday, according to Israeli media reports.

On Sunday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the move was temporary after the 1974 Separation of the Golan Heights agreement collapsed on the Syrian government’s withdrawal.

Israeli jets also carried out a wave of strikes on government facilities in the capital Damascus, causing extensive damaged to military intelligence and customs buildings, according to Reuters.