Category Archives: Syria

US orders reprisal strikes against Iranian-backed militia

Posted on by

Strikes expected to take place in Syria and possibly Iraq, after three US soldiers were killed at a base in Jordan

The US has ordered a series of reprisal strikes to be launched over more than one day against an Iranian-backed militia, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said.

Austin said all drones in the region attacking the US were of Iranian origin. The retaliatory strikes are expected to hit militia in Syria and possibly Iraq, though Austin did not specify the timing or precise location.

Continue reading...

Iran on high alert as Biden mulls response to killing of US servicemen

Posted on by

Tehran warns Washington but regime unsure of degree of support for interventionist foreign policy

Iran has told the US via intermediaries that if it strikes Iranian soil directly, Tehran will itself hit back at American assets in the Middle East, drawing the two sides into a direct conflict.

The warning comes as Iran waits on high alert to see how Joe Biden responds to the death of three US servicemen deemed by Washington to have been killed by a Tehran-backed militia based in Syria.

Continue reading...

Israel denies its forces are storming al-Amal hospital in Gaza – as it happened

Posted on by

Denial comes after Palestinian Red Crescent Society says hospital in Khan Younis is under attack; White House declines to give further details of response

The Wafa Palestinian news agency reports that “dozens of Palestinian civilians” have been killed today by Israeli airstrikes, including “intense and fierce airstrikes at the city of Rafah”, which is in the south of the Gaza Strip and is one of the areas Israel’s military has repeatedly told Palestinians to flee to for safety.

Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah for Al Jazeera, said the strike in Rafah caused “a great deal of panic and concern as people believe the military operation is expanding step by step”. He said a house was destroyed and a number of people were reported dead, as “the Israeli military continues bombing, killing and maiming Palestinians across Gaza”.

Continue reading...

Middle East crisis live: US vows ‘very consequential’ response to deadly attack as reports suggest drone was misidentified

Posted on by

White House spokesman says Biden mulling options as media reports suggest the drone that killed three US service people was confused with a US drone

Medical sources in the West Bank have said that the man killed by Israeli military fire in the village of Yamoun, near Jenin, was 21-year-old Tair Hamo, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported.

As we reported earlier, the Israeli military carried out raids on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin overnight, as well as a nearby town and village.

If we don’t want another October 7, we need to go back home and control [Gaza]. We need to find a legal way to voluntarily emigrate [Palestinians] and impose death sentences on terrorists … I turn to you, prime minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu: this is time for brave decisions.

Continue reading...

Several people killed in Israeli strikes on Iran-linked site in Syria

Posted on by

Strikes reportedly hit farm housing members of Hezbollah and other Iran-backed factions

Israel has struck an Iran-linked site south of the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing several people, two days after regional tensions rose again when three US troops were killed in a drone attack on a military outpost in Jordan.

The Israeli strikes, which also left an unspecified number injured, were not regarded as a direct response to the attack on the Tower 22 base on Jordan’s border with Iraq and Syria.

Continue reading...

Jordan drone strike: who are Islamic Resistance in Iraq and what is Tower 22?

Posted on by

The group that claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on a US military base in Jordan is a loose coalition of Iranian-backed militias

Three US service personnel were killed and 34 wounded on Sunday after a drone hit a residential quarters at a military outpost in Jordan known as Tower 22, which lies on the border between Iraq and Syria.

It is the first time US soldiers have been killed by hostile fire since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, after an estimated 150 attacks by Iranian-based militias on American bases in Iraq and Syria since 7 October.

Continue reading...

Three US service members killed in ‘despicable’ drone attack in Jordan, Biden says

Posted on by

Iranian backed militia took credit for attack that injured 34 troops and killed first US soldiers in battle since start of the Gaza conflict

The spectre of a direct US-Iranian military conflict drew closer on Sunday when the US president Joe Biden announced three US servicemen have been killed and more than 34 injured following a drone attack on a US service base on the border of Jordan and Syria. Biden blamed Iranian backed militia mainly based in Iraq for the “despicable” attack and vowed revenge.

Responsibility for Saturday’s attack on Tower 22, a military outpost on the Jordanian Syrian Iraqi borders was claimed by the Iranian backed umbrella group Islamic Resistance, and the US made no attempt to disguise its belief that Iran was ultimately responsible.

Continue reading...

Iran accuses Israel of killing Revolutionary Guards spy chief in Damascus

Posted on by

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it has lost four members in strike on Syrian capital

A suspected Israeli strike killed the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ espionage chief for Syria and three other guard members on Saturday, Iran has said, in an attack that destroyed much of a multistorey residential building in Damascus.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said six people were killed in the Israeli strike on the upmarket Mazzeh neighbourhood in the Syrian capital.

Continue reading...

Israeli airstrike in Damascus kills high-ranking Iranian general, says Iran

Posted on by

Officials vow revenge after Sayyed Razi Mousavi, top member of Revolutionary Guards, reportedly killed

An Israeli airstrike in a Damascus neighbourhood on Monday killed a high-ranking Iranian general, Iranian state media has said.

Iranian officials and allied militant groups in the region vowed revenge for the killing but did not immediately launch any retaliatory strike.

Continue reading...

Britain to repatriate woman and five children from Syrian camps

Posted on by

However, human rights group says UK lagging behind other western nations in repatriating families who lived under IS

Britain has agreed to repatriate a woman and five children from camps in Syria, the second time the UK has allowed an adult to return since the end of the ground war against Islamic State more than four years ago.

The release was announced by the Kurdish administration that controls north-east Syria – but a human rights group and a former minister accused the UK of lagging behind other western nations in allowing families who lived under IS to return.

Continue reading...

Two Revolutionary Guards members killed by Israeli strike in Syria, says Iran

Posted on by

Airstrikes near Damascus follow end to seven-day pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza Strip

Two Iranian Revolutionary Guards members serving as military advisers in Syria have been killed in an Israeli attack, Iranian state media has said.

Strikes near the Syrian capital of Damascus came less than 24 hours after the end of a seven-day pause in fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah ally Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Continue reading...

French court issues arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad for complicity in war crimes

Posted on by

Three others also subject to warrants over use of sarin gas in two attacks in Syria in August 2013 that killed more than 1,000 people

A French court has issued an international arrest warrant for the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for complicity in war crimes against humanity linked to chemical weapon attacks on civilians.

Three others – including Assad’s brother Maher, head of an elite army unit – are also subject to warrants over the use of banned sarin gas in two attacks in August 2013 that killed more than 1,000 people, including hundreds of children.

Continue reading...

US announces fresh strikes on Iran-linked sites in Syria

Posted on by

Defence secretary says US will defend its personnel and interests in the region amid surge in attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria

The United States carried out strikes against two Iran-linked sites in Syria on Sunday in response to attacks on American forces, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said.

It is the third time in less than three weeks that the US military has targeted locations in Syria it said were tied to Iran, which supports armed groups that Washington blames for a spike in attacks on its forces in the Middle East.

Continue reading...

US forces targeted in broadest Iraq attacks since start of Israel-Hamas war

Posted on by

Armed drones attack two airbases and explosive device targets patrol in most widespread strikes in a single day

US forces were targeted in three attacks in Iraq on Thursday but suffered no casualties, security sources have said, in the most geographically widespread series of strikes on US assets in a single day since the Israel-Hamas conflict started.

Spokespeople for the US embassy in Baghdad and US-led international forces stationed in Iraq did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Continue reading...

Australia has no legal obligation to repatriate 31 women and children held in Syrian camp, court rules

Posted on by

Most of the Australians have been held in the Roj detention camp in north-east Syria for four years

The federal government does not have a legal obligation to repatriate 31 Australian women and children who have been forcibly held in a Syrian detention camp for four years, a court has ruled.

The Australians are the wives, widows and children of slain or jailed Islamic State fighters. Most have been held in the squalid Roj detention camp in north-east Syria for four years. None have been charged with a crime or currently face a warrant for arrest.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Israel-Hamas war live: women and children make up nearly 70% of people reported killed in Gaza, says UN

Posted on by

UNRWA chief says ‘human tragedy unfolding under our watch is unbearable’; Netanyahu says ‘this is a time for war’ as he says no to ceasefire

Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has urged Israel to “listen” when its friends ask it to protect innocent lives in Gaza and warned that the world “will not accept continuing civilian deaths”.

Wong’s comments reflect a strengthening of the Labor government’s calls for Israel to minimise civilian deaths in Gaza. The foreign minister said civilians on both sides had been “murdered” in the “dreadful, tragic conflict”.

“It is a dreadful, tragic conflict. We are seeing loss of life. We are seeing civilians on both sides [who] have been murdered,” Wong told Radio National.

“We have seen civilians up on both sides in a lot of pain, and obviously, we still have Israeli hostages who have been taken, that Hamas is still holding.”

Continue reading...

Why did the US launch airstrikes on Syria and what happens next?

Posted on by

The war in Gaza risks developing into a wider conflict, but for now, the actions seem to be more about messaging between Washington and Tehran

Over the last 10 days, US military bases in eastern Syria and western Iraq have been hit by rockets and drones. There have been 22 such attacks, although details are sketchy and some may not have been counted. More than 20 US service personnel have been injured, though not seriously, and a civilian contractor died of cardiac arrest.

Continue reading...

Cold war satellite images reveal hundreds of unknown Roman forts

Posted on by

Declassified spy images point to 396 undiscovered forts in Syria and Iraq, shifting understanding of Roman frontier

Declassified cold-war spy satellite images have thrown new light on the workings of the Roman empire by revealing hundreds of previously undiscovered forts, with dramatic implications for our understanding, experts have said.

Archeologists examining aerial photographs taken in the 1960s and 70s said they reveal 396 sites of unknown Roman forts in Syria and Iraq across the Syrian steppe.

Continue reading...

Shamima Begum a victim of trafficking when she left Britain for Syria, court told

Posted on by

Lawyers argue Home Office failed to properly consider whether Begum had been groomed before stripping her of UK citizenship

Shamima Begum’s lawyers argued before the court of appeal on Tuesday that it was unlawful to deprive her of British citizenship because she was a victim of trafficking when she left the UK for Islamic State territory in Syria at 15.

Samantha Knights KC, her barrister, told the start of a three-day hearing that the Home Office and a lower court had failed to properly consider whether she was groomed – and called for the decision to be overturned.

Continue reading...

US shoots down Turkish drone flying near its troops in Syria

Posted on by

Turkey’s defence ministry says the device did not belong to the country’s armed forces

The US has shot down an armed Turkish drone that was operating near its troops in Syria, the first time Washington has brought down an aircraft of its Nato ally.

A Turkish defence ministry official said the drone did not belong to the Turkish armed forces, but did not say whose property it was.

Continue reading...