Tag: syria

Report: Syria Talks With Israel Involve Seizing North Lebanon

Israeli media began reporting new specificities about the Syria-Israel peace talks that have been ongoing for awhile, and incredibly they seem to suggest that the deal is centering around discussions of carving off parts of Lebanon to give to Syria’s Islamist government.

The normalization was centering heavily around the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights. Israel invaded and occupied parts of Golan in 1967, and invaded further parts of Golan in December after the ouster of the Assad government. The new Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) government has argued that public opinion obliges them to try to get the Golan back.

Or at least part of the Golan. Israeli media are suggesting that a compromise under discussion would see Israel return one third of the Golan to Syria, at least nominally, though potentially with Israel being allowed to continuing leasing it, and then compensating Syria with parts of Lebanon.

The HTS is reportedly keen to seize Tripoli, historically Tripoli of the Levant to distinguish it from the one in Libya, arguing it is a Sunni majority city and was separated from Syria proper during the French mandate. They also reportedly want the Bekaa Valley.

This seems like it would be a non-starter for Lebanon, of course, but there is no indication they’re even involved in the discussion. This gives this talk the appearance of Israel and Syria discussing how to carve up their smaller neighbor.

Tripoli is Lebanon’s second largest city, and over 8% of the city’s population is Alawites. That’s another potential problem with Syria annexing the city, because there have been on-again, off-again massacres of Alawites in northwest Syria, resulting in over ten thousand fleeing into northern Lebanon and the Tripoli area. Now, it seems, the city they fled is also up for grabs.

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White House Pressures Syria To Normalize Ties with Israel Amid ‘Quiet Talks’

President Trump believes Syria may soon join the Abraham Accords, based on comments given to reporters by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Friday. The reasoning seems to be that with Assad out, this provides an opportunity to control the outcome and force Damascus to make peace with Israel.

After all, Syria under the Assad family was the single fiercest, longtime enemy of Israel, with a de facto state of war on for half-a-century, centered on the occupied Golan Heights.

Leavitt told reporters that Trump remains optimistic about expanding the peace agreement. She confirmed that the president brought up the issue directly with Syria’s new de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa (aka. US-terror designated Jolani) during this Riyadh visit and Gulf tour. 

“One of President Trump’s main requests during his meeting with President Sharaa was for Syria to join the Abraham Accords,” Leavitt said. “Achieving a lasting peace in the Middle East is a core objective for this administration.”

Sharaa had reportedly told US Representative Cory Mills during a visit in April that Syria was open to joining the accords under the “right conditions.”

US Special Envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack has also been bringing the pressure. He has recently referenced quiet discussions with Damascus underway, amid the reopening of the ambassador’s residence in Damascus – a first since 2012.

Barrack encouraged the international community to give Syria’s new leadership “an opportunity to prove its new direction.”

However, so far the government stacked with Jolani’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham members has turned a blind eye to massacres targeting Alawites, Christians, and Druze – along the coast and in Damascus and elsewhere.

Sadly, this whole ugly reality seems to be missing from White House statements. Why didn’t Trump name as a firm condition the protection of churches, for example, as a basis for dropping sanctions on Syria?

Just last week Mar Elias Orthodox Church in Damascus was attacked by a suicide bomber, resulting in the deaths of 25 people and scores more wounded.

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Offshoot Of Syria’s Ruling HTS Claims Credit For Damascus Church Bombing

On Sunday, a massive suicide bomb attack tore through the important Greek Orthodox church Mar Elias in Damascus, killing 27 and wounding dozens more. The huge attack just added to the spate of sectarian violence across Syria, which undercuts the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) government’s claim to be protecting religious minorities.

The HTS was quick to blame ISIS for the Mar Elias bombing, and on Monday announced the arrest of a number of ISIS associates who they claimed were involved, vowing to bring them to justice. Now that whole narrative seems in doubt.

ISIS never took credit for the Mar Elias bombing, which, since it was the biggest attack in Damascus in a very long time, would be an unusual oversight. Now, another group, Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah (SAAS), issued its own statement claiming credit for the attack.

SAAS, which was said to be formed in February, went on to say that the government’s claims of arresting people involved with the attack were “untrue, fabricated.” The group is being presented as an ISIS splinter group by some reports, but the reality is substantially different.

SAAS does indeed have some ISIS defectors within, according to reports, but it also has a substantial number of HTS defectors.

SAAS founder Abu Aisha al-Shami was an HTS member, and said he broke away and formed his own group because he perceived HTS as being too soft on Shi’ites and other “rejectionists.”

While HTS has undergone a massive reformation in its presentation in the media, the group was a renamed al-Qaeda affiliate that retains its deeply Salafist ideologies.

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They Should Have Been Called Martyrs: Syria’s Church Bombing and the Government’s Possible Involvement

On what should have been a peaceful Sunday morning of worship, 25 Syrian Christians were slaughtered for their faith.

As the faithful gathered for Divine Liturgy at Mar Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Dweila, outside Damascus, on June 22, 2025, at least three terrorists shattered the sanctity of the service with bullets and explosives.

The main attacker entered the packed church, opened fire on the 350 worshippers, and detonated his explosive vest at the entrance as they tried to force him out.

Meanwhile, at least one terrorist remained outside, firing at worshippers and into the stained-glass windows, while the other attempted to enter and detonate a grenade.

Two parishioners intervened and managed to wrest the device away before it exploded. Still, the blast tore through the church, destroying pews, shattering glass, and leaving blood-stained icons and scattered bodies in what should have been a sanctuary.

“People were praying safely under the eyes of God,” said Father Fadi Ghattas, who witnessed the carnage that left 25 dead and at least 63 wounded. Among the victims were children, innocent lives taken in a place meant to offer peace and protection.

This attack is the latest in a series of assaults on Christians, but it is the first known to be launched from inside a church since the Syrian conflict began in 201, marking a disturbing escalation in violence and a grave violation of holy spaces.

But the historical significance was even more damning.

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Pentagon quietly boosts presence in Syria despite ‘withdrawal’ plans

The US-led international coalition has deployed over 100 trucks of military and logistical reinforcements to its bases in northeastern Syria over the past two days, according to a report by Shafaq on 12 June. The move comes despite recent US announcements of troop drawdowns and base closures in the country.

The convoy, which crossed from Iraq through the Al-Waleed border crossing, was loaded with military vehicles, fuel, food, water, and sealed containers believed to contain weapons and ammunition. The supplies were delivered to coalition bases in Khrab al-Jeer, Qasrak, and Al-Shaddadi in Syria’s Hasakah province.

A source from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) told the Shafaq news outletthat “weekly deliveries of military and logistical equipment are ongoing,” despite Washington’s claims of scaling down operations. The source confirmed that US forces remain stationed at their posts in Kurdish-controlled territories, actively cooperating with the SDF to contain Islamic State (ISIS) activities.

“The Coalition, in coordination with the SDF, continues to monitor ISIS cells to prevent the group from exploiting the current situation to reorganize or carry out attacks in Syria,” the source stated.

On Wednesday, the SDF announced a joint operation with coalition forces in Al-Mansoura, west of Raqqa, that resulted in the arrest of two prominent ISIS operatives. 

Abdul Sattar Abdul Fattah al-Mohammed, known as “Abu Amira,” and his brother, Mohammed Abdul Fattah al-Mohammed, known as “Abu Al-Baraa,” were captured at a workshop used for manufacturing car bombs and explosive silencers.“These individuals were directly involved in producing improvised explosive devices,” the SDF said in a statement. “The Islamic State’s efforts to destabilize the region will be met with firm resistance to safeguard civilians and public institutions.”

The redeployment of coalition assets comes amid renewed warnings from regional and western intelligence sources that ISIS is attempting a resurgence in both Syria and Iraq.

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US To Formalize Military Presence In Syria In Deal With AQ-Linked Govt

The US is working to formalize its military presence in Syria by signing a deal with the new al-Qaeda-linked government, according to a report from The New Arab.

The report was published Friday and said that a high-level US military delegation was expected to meet with Syrian officials in the coming days with the goal of shifting the US military presence from an illegal occupation to a formalized, legal partnership.

The report comes as the US has been drawing down its forces in northeastern Syria and handing over some bases to the Kurdish-led SDF. The US is expected to maintain only one base in Syria, the al-Tanf Garrison in the south, which is situated where the borders of Syria, Iraq, and Jordan converge.

From al-Tanf, the US helped its proxy militia, known as the Syrian Free Army (previously known as the Revolutionary Commando Army), join in on the offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) that ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on December 8, 2024.

A formal deal on al-Tanf would signal that the US is planning a long-term or even potentially a permanent military presence in Syria. The Pentagon has said that it’s currently working to reduce its forces in Syria to fewer than 1,000 troops in the country. According to the latest reports, approximately 1,500 US troops are currently stationed in the country.

The US has embraced the new Syrian government that’s led by HTS despite the group still being listed by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization due to its al-Qaeda roots.

President Trump recently met with HTS’s leader and Syria’s de facto president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, and praised him as a “young, attractive guy” with a “very strong past.”

Sharaa got his start with al-Qaeda in Iraq, where he fought an insurgency against US troops before being imprisoned from 2006 to 2011. In 2012, he traveled to Syria and formed al-Qaeda’s affiliate in the country, the al-Nusra Front.

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US official admits misleading Trump on US troop numbers in Syria

Outgoing Ambassador Jim Jeffrey, the U.S. special envoy for Syria, admitted in an interview with Defense One to misleading President Donald Trump about the true number of U.S. troops deployed in Syria and convincing the president not to withdraw troops.

Jeffrey said, “We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there.” Jeffrey said the actual number of troops in northeast Syria is “a lot more than” the approximately 200 troops Trump agreed to keep in the country in 2019.

According to anonymous sources who spoke with Defense One, the true number of U.S. troops in Syria is said to be around 900, though the precise number is classified and reportedly remains unknown even to Trump and other members of his administration hoping to bring U.S. troops out of foreign engagements.

Trump called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria at the end of 2018 and again in October 2019, both times receiving pushback. Despite calling for the withdrawals, both times Trump was convinced to leave a contingent of U.S. troops in the county.

“What Syria withdrawal? There was never a Syria withdrawal,” Jeffrey told Defense One. “When the situation in northeast Syria had been fairly stable after we defeated ISIS, [Trump] was inclined to pull out. In each case, we then decided to come up with five better arguments for why we needed to stay. And we succeeded both times. That’s the story.”

After his October 2019 call for the withdrawal of troops from Syria, Trump was convinced last year to agree to keep between 200 and 400 U.S. troops in the country to maintain control of oil fields. The actual number of troops in the country is said to be much higher than Trump was led to believe.

CNN national security correspondent Jim Sciutto similarly tweeted hearing claims that Department of Defense officials deceived Trump about the true U.S. presence in Syria.

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Syrian officials visited Israel for secret security talks: Report

Syrian officials visited Israel in April to meet with Israeli defense officials after Tel Aviv opened a direct line of communication with Damascus, Haaretz reported on 8 May, citing Syrian sources.

According to one source speaking with the Hebrew daily, a Syrian delegation, reportedly composed of officials from the Quneitra province and one senior defense official, secretly visited Israel for several days at the end of April.

Syria’s government is led by former Al-Qaeda in Iraq commander Ahmad al-Sharaa. Militants from the former Al-Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), toppled the government of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December.

The Israeli military supported HTS, at the time known as the Nusra Front, during the CIA-backed covert war to topple Assad that began in 2011, including by bombing positions of the Syrian army in defense of Nusra fighters.

The April visit of Syrian officials to Israel coincided with the highly publicized visit by Syrian Druze religious leaders to northern Israel to visit Jethro’s Tomb. The Druze identify Jethro with the Prophet Shuayb, the most revered prophet in the Druze faith.

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Did the CIA Covertly Support Chechen Separatist Terrorism? Of Course They Did

In December, the rapid fall of the Syrian government to Western-backed jihadists stunned the world and sparked a wide range of reactions amid the fallout. Unsurprisingly, the collective West was quick to celebrate the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, a long-time U.S. foreign policy objective billions of dollars in the making. More unexpected were the public comments made by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who dismissed the notion that Assad’s ouster represented a strategic defeat for Moscow.

To the contrary, Putin insisted Russia had achieved its goal in Syria of preventing the creation of a “terrorist enclave similar to what we’ve seen in Afghanistan,” citing the cosmetically rebranded character of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militants who seized power in Damascus. The Saudi-born leader of HTS, Ahmed al-Sharaa—who until recently had a $10 million bounty on his head offered by the U.S. State Department—even dropped his nom de guerre (Abu Mohammad al-Julani) after dissolving the Syrian constitution and appointing himself president.

Now sporting a blazer instead of fatigues and a turban, Sharaa still required a female CNN news anchor to wear hijab for an interview and refused to shake hands with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during a state visit. Was Putin’s wishful thinking serious, or was he trying to save face? The Russian parliament recently passed a law allowing the reversal of bans on listed terror groups which would enable Moscow to normalize relations with both the Afghan Taliban and Syria’s new regime.

While the extent to which the so-called “moderate rebels” in Syria have tempered their extremism is highly questionable (as the recent mass killings of Alawites and Christians attest), Putin was speaking from experience. Just a thousand miles from Sochi, one of the primary motivations for the Russian intervention beginning in 2015 was the legitimate security risk of Syria becoming a hotbed of terrorism that could reignite Chechen separatism in the Caucasus.

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Global Silence As HTS & Allies Take Alawite Women As Sex Slaves In Syria

Since December, when the former Al-Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad, Syria has witnessed a chilling wave of mysterious kidnappings of young women, predominantly from the Alawite community.

Evidence continues to emerge that these women, primarily from the Alawite religious sect, have been abducted and taken to live as sex slaves in Idlib governorate, the traditional HTS stronghold, by armed factions affiliated with the new Syrian government.

Shockingly, the mass kidnapping and enslavement of Alawite women now being carried out by HTS-affiliated factions mirrors the enslavement of the thousands of Yezidi women by ISIS during the 2014 genocide in Sinjar, Iraq.

In a now deleted Facebook post, Hiba Ezzedeen, a Syrian activist from Idlib, described her encounter with a woman she believes was captured and taken to the governorate as a sex slave during the wave of massacres carried out by government-affiliated factions and security forces against Alawites in the country’s coastal areas on March 7.

“During my last visit to Idlib, I was at a place with my brother when I saw a man I knew with a woman I had never met before,” Hiba explained. 

“This man had been married multiple times before and is believed to currently have three wives. What caught my attention was the woman’s appearance – specifically, it was clear she didn’t know how to wear a hijab properly, and her scarf was draped haphazardly.”

After inquiring further, Ezzedeen learned that the woman was from the coastal areas where the March 7 massacres, in which over 1,600 Alawite civilians were killed, took place. “This man had brought her to the village and married her, with no further details available. No one knew what had happened to her or how she got there, and naturally, the young woman was too afraid to speak,” Ezzedeen added.

Because the situation was so strange and alarming to her, she began asking everyone she knew, “rebels, factions, human rights activists,” about the abduction of Alawite women from the coast.  “Unfortunately, many confirmed that this had indeed happened, and not just by one faction. Based on what friends said, accusations point to factions of the National Army and some foreign fighters, with varying motives,” she reported. 

Syria’s new HTS-led security forces have incorporated armed extremist groups, including Uyghurs from the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) and Syrian Turkmen from factions of the Turkish-intelligence-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), into their ranks since coming to power in Damascus. 

Various SNA commanders and foreign extremists have been appointed to top positions in the Syrian Ministry of Defense.

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