People chip away at a wall at Sednaya Prison in Damascus on Monday. Hundreds of thousands of people disappeared into Syria’s prison system under the former regime of Bashar al Assad.
Summary
- Israel faced condemnation after it launched a wave of airstrikes and a ground advance into Syrian territory, which it said were temporary and defensive, in the wake of President Bashar al-Assad being overthrown.
- Syria’s main rebel leader has vowed to hold Assad regime officials involved in torture accountable, saying they would be named and that rewards would be offered for information on those “involved in war crimes.”
- Abu Mohammad al-Golani, head of the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), made the statement as a close ally was named the country’s caretaker prime minister for a transition government until March.
- The Biden administration says it is considering removing HTS from its list of terrorist organizations.
- Removing the terrorist designation for HTS would include taking the $10 million bounty off Golani, US officials said.
- Golani’s extremist past raises questions about his future role in Syria after his fighters led the rapid offensive that toppled Assad and sent him fleeing to Moscow.
- Families and rescue teams rushed to a notorious Damascus prison where civil defense workers said they found no evidence of detainees held underground. Many Syrians who disappeared under Assad emerged to reunite with their loved ones, while others still remain missing.
- Families were desperate to learn what happened to their loved ones who disappeared during the Assad regime and turned to morgues for information.
- Hundreds of thousands of people disappeared into Syria’s prison system under the former regime. Many of them were killed, and their families were left with no idea where they were.
- The top U.S. commander in the Middle East Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla visited American military personnel and partners, including members of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and the Syrian Democratic Forces, at several bases in Syria.
- He also visited Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani, Iraqi generals and U.S. Maj. Gen. Kevin C. Leahy in Iraq, U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
- Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said Israel does not intend to stay in Syria Permanently but “will not allow the Iranians” to return to their borders.
- Israel was criticized after it launched a wave of airstrikes and a ground advance into Syrian territory after Assad was overthrown.
- Danon also called Golani “a bad guy,” adding that Golani “said that he’s changed all of a sudden.”
- Turkish-backed mercenaries are attacking regions near the northern Syrian city of Kobani, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said. “There are currently fierce clashes between our forces and the Turkish-backed factions,” SDF said in a WhatsApp group. “They are supported by the Turkish warplanes and UCAVs that conducted dozens of airstrikes on the region of Kobani.”
- “The country will be rebuilt,” Golani told Sky News reporter Zein Jaafar in Damascus.
- He said the people of Syria are afraid of Iranian militias, including Hezbollah, adding that “their removal is the solution for Syria.”
- Lebanon’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said a meeting of Arab ministers is likely later this week to discuss the situation in Syria. Caretaker Foreign Affairs Minister Abdallah Bou Habib spoke with Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Badr Abdelatty yesterday about “the necessity of Arab action to keep pace with Syria at this critical stage,” according to a statement on X.
- At least 800,000 Syrians had been displaced by the recent fighting in Syria, Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, the U.N. refugee agency’s representative for the country said today.
- “There is a situation of huge humanitarian needs and there is a situation of huge forced displacement,” Vargas Llosa told the BBC’s “Newsday,” adding that the situation inside the country was already dire with 16 million people in “urgent need of humanitarian aid.”
- A number of European nations have paused asylum applications from Syria following the ousting of Assad, a decision that affects tens of thousands of open claims.
- A minister from the U.K.’s home office told the BBC today that the nation was no longer able to judge applications when Syria “is in such turmoil,” and when “the regime they fled from has disappeared.”
- While Syria celebrates overthrowing its longtime dictator, it is also being subjected to a new ground incursion and a wave of airstrikes from its neighbor Israel that drew growing international condemnation and concern Tuesday.