Tag: syria

Hezbollah’s Exploding Pagers Could Be As Monumental A Cyber-Espionage Operation As Stuxnet

In an extraordinary development in the Middle East conflict, thousands of Hezbollah members have been injured and at least three people were killed after pagers that the militants used exploded simultaneously today. While exactly how this occurred remains unclear, it could very well be a monumental cyber attack that could have widespread implications far beyond the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Regardless, it should be a wake-up call.

While no one has so far taken responsibility, Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the attack. A source from the group said that they expect the attack may have been launched in response to an alleged assassination attempt by the Lebanese militant group on a former senior Israeli security official. The existence of that plot was only revealed today by Israel’s Shin Bet security agency.

At this stage, the total number of individuals killed or injured by the pager blasts is unclear. Hezbollah has confirmed the deaths of at least three people, including two of its fighters. 

At the time of writing, at least nine people have died and approximately 2,800 have been wounded, according to Lebanon’s Minister of Health Firas Abiad. Of the injured, 170 at least are also said to be in critical condition.

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Hezbollah hit by a wave of exploding pagers in Lebanon and Syria. At least 9 dead, hundreds injured

Pagers used by hundreds of members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded near simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday, killing at least nine people – including an 8-year-old girl — and wounding several thousand, officials said. They blamed Israel in what appeared to be a sophisticated, remote attack.

Among those wounded was Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon. The mysterious incident came amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which have exchanged fire across the Israel-Lebanon border since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza.

The pagers that exploded had been newly acquired by Hezbollah after the group’s leader ordered members to stop using cell phones, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence. A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press the pagers were a new brand the group had not used before.

At about 3:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, pagers started heating up and then exploding in the pockets and hands of those carrying them — particularly in a southern Beirut suburb and the Beqaa region of eastern Lebanon where Hezbollah has a strong presence, and in Damascus, where several Hezbollah members were wounded, Lebanese security officials and a Hezbollah official said. The Hezbollah official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

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Arab tribes seize control of US-occupied Syrian towns in large-scale assault

A coalition of Syrian Arab tribes seized several towns from US-backed Kurdish forces in the countryside of eastern Syria’s Deir Ezzor governorate on 7 August. 

Tribesmen launched the “largest” attack on Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) sites since the start of the Arab tribal rebellion against the US-backed militia last year, Sputnikreported, adding that the attack took place “under the cover of artillery and mortar shells.” 

“Violent clashes have been ongoing since the early morning hours between the forces of the SDF-linked Deir Ezzor and Hajin Military Councils on the one hand, and the attacking groups of the ‘Army of Tribes’ coalition on the other, in the vicinity of the towns of Abu Hamam, Dhiban, Al-Lattwa, Al-Kashkiya, and Gharanij,” the news outlet’s correspondent said.

The clashes were concentrated in the towns of Al-Sabha and Al-Tayana, east of Deir Ezzor, the correspondent added. 

The Arab tribes used RPGs and machine guns against the SDF during the onset of the attack, according to Al Mayadeen.

“SDF militants imposed a complete curfew in the towns under their control in the Deir Ezzor countryside, after the arrival of large military reinforcements from Hasakah and Raqqa, coinciding with a wide search operation in the villages surrounding the areas of clashes,” the Sputnik correspondent went on to say.

Residents told Sputnik that many people were displaced as a result and that three civilians were killed while seven others were injured due to the fighting. Local sources also told the outlet that at least 10 SDF militants were taken captive by tribal fighters, who also seized large amounts of light and heavy weapons. 

The SDF and the tribal coalition also took some casualties. 

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CENTCOM Says It Was Involved in 196 Operations Against ISIS in Iraq and Syria in First Half of 2024

According to US Central Command, the US and its partner forces were involved in 196 missions against ISIS in Iraq and Syria that killed 44 ISIS operatives during the first half of 2024.

In Iraq, CENTCOM said it was involved in 137 operations with government forces that killed 30 ISIS fighters, and 74 more were detained.

Earlier this year, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani was calling for the US to withdraw and said Iraqi forces could handle ISIS remnants on their own. But the US insisted on staying, and at this point, there’s no sign a withdrawal is being considered.

In Syria, CENTCOM said it participated in 59 operations with the Kurdish-led SDF that killed 14, and another 92 were detained. This year, Amnesty International said in a report that the SDF was responsible for torture and “mass death” due to the conditions of the prisons it has set up for ISIS, which hold many children.

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Israel assassinates Syrian businessman with links to Resistance Axis

Mohammad Baraa al-Katerji, a Syrian businessman with deep ties to the Axis of Resistance, was assassinated on 15 July in an Israeli airstrike near Syrian–Lebanese border. 

Katerji was killed in the town of Saboura on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon on Monday evening. 

He was a high-profile businessman in Syria and across the region. Along with his brother Hussam, he established businesses in the oil, construction, logistics, and transport sectors. The two were also close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. 

Katerji was allegedly involved in financing and helping to facilitate weapons transfers to resistance movements across the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to an Israeli official cited by Financial Times. According to the unnamed official, this included millions of dollars to Hezbollah since the start of the war in Gaza in October. 

As a result, he and his brother have faced harsh sanctions from the US, UK, and EU over the years. Among the sanctioned businesses is the Katerji Holding Group. 

“About a month ago, Katerji Holding Group announced the launch of work on the largest industrial complex in the Middle East and the first of its kind in Syria within the Sheikh Najjar Industrial City in Aleppo on an area of ​​up to three million square meters,” Syrian journalist Mohammad Dabaa wrote on Tuesday. 

“The project includes 357 industries, provides 300,000 direct and indirect job opportunities, and relies on alternative energy, producing 150 megawatts of electrical current, with an implementation period of 12 months,” he added. 

The killing comes as Israel has stepped up its illegal airstrikes on Syrian territory. 

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US Admits Allies in Syria Using Child Soldiers

The State Department has acknowledged that America’s top partner in Syria, the Kurdish-led “Syrian Democratic Forces” (SDF), is still using underage fighters after more than 10 years of similar allegations. The Pentagon continues to work closely with the group regardless, as US troops illegally occupy large swaths of territory in northeastern Syria.

Published Tuesday, the department’s 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report highlighted a number of armed factions employing child soldiers in Syria, among them notorious terrorist outfits like ISIS and al-Qaeda as well as more US-friendly groups.

“The recruitment or use of children in combat and support roles in Syria remains common, and since the beginning of 2018 international observers reported continued incidents of recruitment and use by armed groups,” the report said.

Those include several Kurdish militias, such as the People’s Protection Units (YPG), an affiliated all-female brigade known as the YPJ, as well as the US-backed and armed SDF. The latter org is an umbrella group containing several others, including the YPG, and has long served as Washington’s main proxy force in Syria.

Another related Kurdish faction, the Revolutionary Youth Movement, was said to have tricked minors into joining up using “fraudulent announcements for educational courses in northeast Syria.”

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Israel Launches Airstrikes Deep Into Syria – Reports Of Civilians Dead & Wounded

Israel’s military on Wednesday launched a fresh attack on targets deep inside Syria, which reportedly left civilian casualties, according to state media.

State sources identified that it was a neighborhood that was struck, while the anti-Assad opposition outlet Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Israeli strikes targeted “at least one military site… in the eastern countryside of Homs, causing plumes of smoke to rise.”

Syrian government sources said the Israeli strike killed a girl and wounded ten civilians. Gruesome images circulated on social media which purport to show the deceased child’s badly maimed body.

“The Israeli enemy launched an air attack from the direction of Lebanon, targeting a central site and a residential building in Baniyas city in the coastal region, killing a girl and wounding 10 civilians,” a Syrian defense ministry statement said.

“Syrian air defense intercepts enemy targets in the skies of the city of Homs,” the official SANA news agency also reported.

Israeli media sources regularly say that such air raids into Syria, which typically involve Israeli aircraft firing from over Lebanese airspace in order to avoid triggering Syria’s anti-air systems, target Hezbollah and Iranian positions.

But Syria has at the same time lodged repeat complaints to the United Nations that Israel is committing aggression against a sovereign state, and that very often civilians are killed and property and buildings left destroyed. These complaints tend to fall on deaf ears in the West, which has long waged a regime change war against President Bashar al-Assad. Israel was also part of this covert campaign, which saw the anti-Assad axis arm, train, and fund various al-Qaeda and jihadist groups.

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Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: Infamous Terrorist And US Intelligence Asset

Ranked second only to Osama bin Laden, the US’s most notorious declared enemy during the so-called War on Terror was Jordanian jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).

But a closer examination of Zarqawi’s life and his impact on events in Iraq shows that he was likely a product and tool of US intelligence.

Neoconservative strategists within the administration of George W. Bush utilized Zarqawi as a pawn to justify the illegal US invasion of Iraq in 2003 to the American public.

Moreover, he was instrumental in fomenting internal discord within Iraqi resistance groups opposing the US occupation, ultimately instigating a sectarian civil war between Iraq’s Sunni and Shia communities.

Israel’s plan unfolds in Iraq

This deliberate strategy of tension in Iraq advanced Tel Aviv’s goal of perpetuating the country’s vulnerabilities, dividing populations along sectarian lines, and weakening its army’s ability to challenge Israel in the region.

It has long been known that the CIA created Al-Qaeda as part of its covert war on the Soviet Red Army in Afghanistan in the 1980s and supported Al-Qaeda elements in various wars, including in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Chechnya in the 1990s.

Additionally, evidence points to CIA support for Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups during the clandestine war in Syria launched in 2011 amid the so-called Arab Spring.

Despite this history, western journalists, analysts, and historians still take at face value that Zarqawi and AQI were sworn enemies of the US.

Without understanding Zarqawi’s role as a US intelligence asset, it is impossible to understand the destructive role the US (and Israel) played in the bloodshed inflicted on Iraq, not only during the initial 2003 invasion but in launching the subsequent sectarian strife as well.

It is also essential to understand the importance of current Iraqi efforts to expel US forces and rid the country of US influence moving forward.

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Israeli Warplanes Strike Damascus As Iran Tensions Still On Edge

Israeli aircraft have reportedly attacked a location on the outskirts of the Syrian capital of Damascus late Thursday (local), a security source told Reuters.

Widely circulating images have emerged on social media showing plumes of smoke rising high over buildings which were struck. Syrian state media subsequently said that eight army soldiers were injured in the attack. 

The fresh Israeli aggression could be another targeted assassination operation against Iranian generals or IRGC officers, and certainly would also be intended to signal Israel remains undeterred by Iran’s April 13th attack, which was in retaliation for the prior Israeli attack on Iran’s embassy in Damascus.

According to unverified social media reports: 

The Israeli attack against Syria targeted the building of the Syrian State Security branch in the “Najha” area in the Damascus countryside.

There has been some speculation that this is an Israeli response to the launch of rockets from the Syrian side towards the Golan Heights earlier in the day and week.

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Israeli Airstrike Hits Iranian Consulate Building in Damascus, High-Level Iranian General Reported Killed

On Monday, an Israeli airstrike leveled an Iranian consulate building that’s next to the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital of Damascus, marking a significant escalation in Israeli attacks on Iranians in the region.

Initial reports say at least seven people were killed, including Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Several Iranian diplomats and other IRGC members have also been reported killed, but the details and final death toll are not confirmed.

Iran has confirmed the death of Zahedi, who oversaw the IRGC’s Quds Force operations in Syria and Lebanon, and is vowing a harsh response. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani Tehran will “decide on the type of response and punishment against the aggressor.”

The bombing of the diplomatic facility comes a few days after Israel launched some of its heaviest airstrikes in Syria that reportedly killed 52 people, including Syrian soldiers and members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Israel has also killed multiple members of the IRGC since it ramped up airstrikes in Syria after October 7.

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