Reuters: Rebel-Backed Figure Takes Charge As Syria's Interim Prime Minister
“Syria's new interim leader announced on Tuesday he was taking charge of the country as caretaker prime minister with the backing of the former rebels who toppled President Bashar al-Assad three days ago. In a brief address on state television, Mohammed al-Bashir, a figure little known across most of Syria who previously ran an administration in a pocket of the northwest controlled by rebels, said he would lead the interim authority until March 1. "Today we held a cabinet meeting that included a team from the Salvation government that was working in Idlib and its vicinity, and the government of the ousted regime," he said. "The meeting was under the headline of transferring the files and institutions to caretake the government."”
“The lower house of the Russian parliament gave initial approval Tuesday to a long-discussed bill that would set the stage for Moscow to remove the designation of the Taliban in Afghanistan as a terrorist group. Under the bill passed by the State Duma in the first of three required readings, the official terrorist designation of an organization could be suspended temporarily by a court. The legislation also needs to be approved by the upper house and signed by President Vladimir Putin to become law. The Taliban were put on Russia’s list of terrorist organizations in 2003, and any contact with such groups is punishable under Russian law. At the same time, Taliban delegations attended various forums hosted by Moscow.”
Merkur.de: Battle For Raw Materials After Assad's Fall: Warning About IS Terrorists
“... One thing is clear: the Syrian alliance Hai'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which together with other groups overthrew Assad, is not a simple rebel alliance, but an Islamist militia. Some of the main founding members of HTS have their origins in the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. Experts fear a resurgence of religiously motivated terrorism in the region. Terror expert and Middle East expert Hans-Jakob Schindler from the Counter Extremism Project sees another risk that could also affect Europe and Germany in the medium term. "From the perspective of international counterterrorism, this is an extremely delicate situation - for two reasons," said Schindler in an interview with IPPEN.MEDIA.”
ZDF Heute: Al-Julani: "Only Part Of A Coalition"
“Parts of the HTS alliance in Syria are clearly extremist and Islamist, even if their leader appears moderate, explains extremism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler.”
ZDF Heute: Peace With Islamists In Power?
“... Is a peaceful future in Syria realistic? Can power be shared among the rebel groups ? How could other Islamist groups such as the Islamic State benefit from the current situation? ZDFheute live speaks with terrorism researcher Hans-Jakob Schindler from the transatlantic think tank Counter Extremism Project (CDP) and Phoebe Gaa in Gaziantep, Turkey, on the border with Syria. The Islamic militia Haitat-Tahir al-Sham (HTS) is currently the largest rebel group in Syria. The group was previously known as the Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of the terrorist network Al-Qaeda. Since then, it has changed its name several times and publicly distanced itself from Al-Qaeda and IS. However, experts doubt that HTS has completely broken with the past.”
“... "It hits them hard," Edmund Fitton-Brown, a senior advisor to the Counter Extremism Project, said of Russia. He added: "Syria has been their most reliable Arab ally." In 2017, Syria granted Russia a 49-year lease on the Hmeimim air base and the Tartus naval base, in return for military assistance. Russia has used the bases to project power in the Mediterranean and into Africa, and as a counter to NATO's southern flank. "These bases are the most important bases outside the direct sphere of Russian influence," Andreas Krieg, a Gulf specialist at the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies at King's College London, told Business Insider. Ann Marie Dailey, a geopolitical strategist at RAND, told BI that despite its massive landmass, Russia "doesn't have great geography for power projection."”
“The Biden administration said Tuesday it will recognize and support a new Syrian government that renounces terrorism, destroys chemical weapons stocks and protects the rights of minorities and women. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the U.S. would work with groups in Syria and regional partners to ensure that the transition from President Bashar Assad’s deposed government runs smoothly. He was not specific about which groups the U.S. would work with, but the State Department has not ruled out talks with the main Syrian rebel group despite its designation as a terrorist organization.”
CBS: Upper St. Clair Man Charged With Lying To FBI About Involvement With Terrorist Group
“An Upper St. Clair man has been charged with lying to FBI agents about his desire to join a terrorist organization, federal prosecutors announced on Monday. Twenty-four-year-old Jack Molloy was charged with making a false statement or representation involving international terrorism to a department or agency of the United States, U.S. Attorney Eric Olshan announced. Prosecutors said Molloy lied to FBI agents at the Pittsburgh International Airport on Oct. 20 when he told them that he had no plans to become involved with the terrorist organization Hizballah, sometimes spelled Hezbollah, and that he had no business in Syria nor was he meeting anyone there. But authorities said Molloy had traveled to Syria to further his attempts to join Hizballah.”
Associated Press: Israeli Warplanes Pound Syria As Troops Reportedly Advance Deeper Into The Country
“Israel carried out a wave of heavy airstrikes across Syria as its troops advanced deeper into the country, a Syrian opposition war monitor said Tuesday, and the Israeli defense minister announced that his forces had destroyed Syria’s navy. Israel acknowledged pushing into a buffer zone inside Syria following the overthrow of President Bashar Assad. But it remained unclear if Israeli soldiers had gone beyond that area, which was established more than 50 years ago. Israel denied that it was advancing on the Syrian capital of Damascus. The Israeli military said Tuesday that it carried out more than 350 strikes in Syria over the last 48 hours, hitting “most of the strategic weapons stockpiles” in the country to stop them from falling into the hands of extremists.”
The Wall Street Journal: Iran Suffers Blow Of ‘Historic Proportions’ With Assad’s Fall
“Iran spent decades and billions of dollars building a network of militias and governments that allowed it to exercise political and military influence across the Middle East, and deter foreign attacks on its soil. In a matter of weeks, the pillars of that alliance came crashing down. The departure of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad is the latest strategic catastrophe that will force Iran to rethink decades-old security policies, just as it is also confronting the election of President-elect Donald Trump and his promises of new pressure on Tehran.”
Reuters: US Military Says It Defeated Houthi Attack On Ships In Gulf Of Aden
“Two U.S. Navy destroyers escorting three merchant vessels through the Gulf of Aden defeated an attack by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, the U.S. military said on Tuesday. The Houthis launched multiple drones and a cruise missile while the ships were transiting the Gulf on Monday and Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said in a post on X. "The reckless attacks resulted in no injuries and no damage to any vessels, civilians or U.S. Naval," CENTCOM said. A military spokesman for the Houthis said earlier on Tuesday that the group had targeted three supply ships and two American destroyers accompanying them in the Gulf of Aden.”
The New York Times: Houthi Attacks Turn Back The Clock For Shipping As Costs Pile Up
“Before this year, Tobias Kammann, a German container ship captain, had only once sailed around the southern tip of Africa, and the lack of other vessels in the little-trafficked waters made him feel very much alone. But these days, there are so many ships there, he said, that “it’s a bit like the autobahn.” To get from Asia to Europe and back, global shipping companies have for decades sailed through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. But a year ago, the Houthi insurgents in Yemen began targeting vessels in the Red Sea with drones and missiles, forcing shipping companies to divert their cargo around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa’s southern tip, a route that is some 3,500 nautical miles and 10 days longer.”
Associated Press: Israeli Strikes On Gaza Kill At Least 29, Palestinian Medics Say
“Israeli strikes pounded the Gaza Strip overnight and into Wednesday, hitting a home where displaced people were sheltering in the isolated north and a built-up refugee camp. At least 29 people were killed, according to Palestinian health officials. The Israel-Hamas war has raged on with no end in sight, even after Israel reached a ceasefire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah and attention shifted to the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Both the outgoing and incoming U.S. administrations have said they hope to end the war before the inauguration but months of ceasefire talks have repeatedly stalled. The strike on the home killed 19 people in the northern town of Beit Lahiya near the border with Israel, according to the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, which received the bodies.”
Associated Press: Humanitarian Aid To Northern Gaza Mostly Blocked For The Last 2 Months, UN Says
“Humanitarian aid to north Gaza, where Israel launched a ground offensive on Oct. 6, has largely been blocked for the past 66 days, the United Nations said Tuesday. That has left between 65,000 and 75,000 Palestinians without access to food, water, electricity or health care, according to the world body. In the north, Israel has continued its siege on Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabaliya with Palestinians living there largely denied aid, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA, said. Recently, it said, about 5,500 people were forcibly displaced from three schools in Beit Lahiya to Gaza City. Adding to the food crisis, only four U.N.-supported bakeries are operating throughout the Gaza Strip, all of them in Gaza City, OCHA said.”
“Fighting erupted on Wednesday between Somalia's semi-autonomous Jubbaland region and federal government forces after Jubbaland held an election against the advice of authorities in Mogadishu, officials said. The clashes will raise concerns that internal rivalries are diverting attention from the fight against the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group just as the mandate of an African Union peacekeeping force expires. "This morning, federal forces from Mogadishu in Ras Kamboni, using drones, attacked Jubbaland forces," Adan Ahmed Haji, assistant security minister of Jubbaland, told a press conference in the regional capital Kismayu. Somalia's Defence Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur said the Jubbaland forces initiated the clashes.”
The Guardian: Man Planned Terrorist Attack At London Law Firm To ‘Intimidate’ Immigrants
“A man planned a terrorist attack at a law firm in north London to “intimidate” immigrants, the Metropolitan police said. Cavan Medlock, of Harrow, north-west London, was found to have committed the act of making a threat to kill and the preparation of terrorist acts at a fact-finding hearing at Kingston crown court on Tuesday. The 32-year-old, who identified as a Nazi, “wanted to provide a ‘rallying cry’ to inspire other extreme right-wing terrorists”, the force said. Medlock targeted solicitor Toufique Hossain at the Duncan Lewis law firm in Harrow on 7 September 2020, and was arrested at the scene with a rucksack containing a knife, handcuffs, gaffer tape and two large flags “demonstrating extreme right-wing terrorist ideology”, acting Cmdr Helen Flanagan, from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said.”
The Guardian: UN May Remove Syrian Rebel Group HTS From Terror List If Conditions Met
“The UN would consider taking the Syrian rebel group that toppled the regime of Bashar al-Assad off its designated terrorist list if it passes the key test of forming a truly inclusive transitional government, according to a senior official at the world body. Geir Pedersen, UN special envoy for Syria, held out the prospect of removing Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from the organisation’s list of proscribed terrorist groups. But he said the group could not seek to govern Syria in the way that it had governed Idlib, the northern province where it was based and from where it led the military breakout that resulted in the sudden collapse of the Assad regime.”
Business Insider: Melbourne Synagogue Attack To Be Investigated As A Terrorist Incident
“An arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne last week is being investigated as terrorist incident, Australian officials said Monday, as the government announced it was establishing a new task force to combat antisemitism. The Adass Israel Synagogue in the city’s south – one of Australia’s most significant Jewish centers – burst into flames early on Friday. Two worshippers inside the synagogue at the time of the attack reported seeing people pour liquid on the floor, police said. Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton on Monday said the “horrific, callous and targeted” attack was “likely a terrorist incident” and would be investigated by a joint counter-terrorism team including Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).”
“The fall of Bashar Assad has thrown Russia's military presence in Syria into question. It also poses a threat to Russia's ability to project power throughout the Middle East and beyond. On Sunday, Syrian rebels, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, overthrew Syria's longtime autocratic ruler. It followed a dizzying two-week campaign that caught the world off guard and many are now trying to work out what will come next for the country. Russia has been a close ally of Syria and has leases on two military bases in the country, giving it a strategic foothold in the Middle East. "It hits them hard," Edmund Fitton-Brown, a senior advisor to the Counter Extremism Project, said of Russia.”
Extremists: Their Words. Their Actions.
Fact:
On October 7, 2023, Hamas invaded southern Israel where, in the space of eight hours, hundreds of armed terrorists perpetrated mass crimes of brutality, rape, and torture against men, women and children. In the biggest attack on Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust, 1,200 were killed, and 251 were taken hostage into Gaza—where 101 remain. One year on, antisemitic incidents have increased by record numbers.
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