Connect with us

News

Russian and Syrian warplanes seek to blunt rebel advance from Aleppo

Published

on

Russian and Syrian warplanes seek to blunt rebel advance from Aleppo

Russian and Syrian warplanes have intensified attacks on rebels who over-ran most of Aleppo, Syria’s second city, in a lightning assault that poses the biggest challenge in years to Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Air raids struck the rebel-held city of Idlib for a second day on Sunday, while opposition media and war monitors said Russian and Syrian jets had also launched attacks near Aleppo University Hospital.

Thousands of rebels, led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, entered Aleppo city, which has a population of 2mn, on Friday. Images circulating on opposition-linked social media this weekend showed them raising their flag over the city’s citadel and posing in its airport.

The rebels, who launched their assault only on Wednesday, said their fighters had advanced in multiple directions from their stronghold in Idlib province in north-western Syria, although their progress seemed to have slowed by Sunday.

HTS rebels attempted to press on to the major regime-held city of Hama, south of Aleppo, and claimed they had seized at least four towns in Hama province. The Syrian army has denied this. Rebels also said they captured the strategic town of Sheikh Najjar.

Advertisement

In his first public comments since the start of the offensive, Assad said Syria would continue to “defend its stability and its territorial integrity in the face of terrorists and their supporters”, in remarks carried by state news agency Sana.

The comments came during a call with Emirati leader Mohammed bin Zayed, an Assad ally, who “emphasised the UAE’s solidarity with Syria and its support in combating terrorism”.

Later, Assad vowed to defeat the insurgents in a phone call with the acting leader of the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, Badra Ganba, saying “terrorism only understands the language of force”.

It was not clear whether Assad had returned to Syria following a visit to Moscow earlier this week.

The Syrian army denied that the rebels had secured Aleppo, but later said it was redeploying its forces as it prepared to launch a counterattack supported by Russian air strikes and strengthen its defensive lines after days of fierce fighting. Dozens of Syrian army soldiers were killed by rebel forces, the defence ministry said.

Advertisement

Social media videos showed rebel fighters driving through the streets of Aleppo, pulling down and kicking statues of Assad family members and celebrating by honking horns and firing their weapons. Videos also showed them freeing captives from Aleppo prisons.

Hundreds of civilians fled the city and its suburbs and headed for regime- or Kurdish-controlled areas, fearing a repeat of the gruelling 2016 battle that devastated their city. Those who remained in Aleppo were placed under night-time curfew by the HTS, residents told the Financial Times, adding that the streets were mostly empty on Sunday.

Assad faces increasing domestic and external pressures in a country shattered by a civil war that erupted after a 2011 popular uprising. He was able to quash the original rebellion with military backing from Russia, Iran and Iran-backed groups, including Hizbollah, the Lebanese militant movement.

Despite regaining control over two-thirds of the country, years of conflict and a deep economic crisis have left much of Syria in ruins.

The fighting had largely subsided in recent years, with the surviving rebel groups pushed into northern and north-western areas close to the Turkish border.

Advertisement

But over the past year, Israel has intensified air strikes on Iran-affiliated targets in Syria as it launched an offensive against Hizbollah in Lebanon, severely weakening groups that had played a vital role in keeping Assad in power.

<ap denoting the control of Syrian territory
G0911_24X

HTS’s ability to move deeper into Syria is a major embarrassment for Assad, underscoring the regime’s weakness. The offensive appeared to have been planned for years, and comes at a time when Assad’s allies are preoccupied with their own conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

HTS leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani said his fighters would not rest “until we reach the heart of Damascus”, in old video footage that was republished by social media networks linked to the group this weekend.

Russian warplanes bombed rebel positions in a bid to stem their advance. Russia’s defence ministry was quoted by state news agencies as saying the country’s forces had killed “at least 300 militants by missile strikes . . . on command posts, warehouses and artillery positions”.

Russian military blog Rybar, known to be close to the defence ministry, said it understood that Major General Sergei Kisel, the top commander of Russia’s forces in Syria, had been removed from his post.

He was earlier removed from his position commanding Russia’s 1st tank army in Ukraine shortly after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, after the supposedly elite force suffered heavy defeats in the first weeks of the war.

Advertisement

The Rybar channel also said Russian troops were forced to evacuate the Kuweires air base in the Aleppo area as the rebels advanced. The Syrian air base was regularly used by Russian forces.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has discussed the situation in Syria with Hakan Fidan, his Turkish counterpart. Lavrov also spoke to Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, who is expected to visit Damascus on Sunday and Ankara on Monday, as the main powers involved in Syria began a flurry of diplomacy.

Araghchi on Sunday reaffirmed Iran’s unwavering support for Assad, accusing radical Islamist factions of aligning with the interests of the US and Israel. “We will witness their defeat,” he said.

Iranian state media reported that opposition forces in Aleppo seized Iran’s consulate on Saturday, tearing down and destroying images of Iranian political and military leaders.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which are supported by the US in the fight against Isis and control swaths of Syria’s north-east, announced a general mobilisation on Sunday. They called on people to join in the defence against the rebel offensive, which they say was “orchestrated” by Turkey — their longtime foe.  

Advertisement

Additional reporting by Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

News

Trump Says Israel and Lebanon Agree to Extend Cease-Fire by Three Weeks

Published

on

Trump Says Israel and Lebanon Agree to Extend Cease-Fire by Three Weeks

President Trump announced a three-week extension of a cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon that had been set to expire in a few days, after hosting a meeting between Israeli and Lebanese diplomats at the White House on Thursday.

Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group that has been attacking Israel from southern Lebanon, did not have representatives at the meeting and did not immediately comment on the announcement. The prime minister of Israel and the president of Lebanon also did not comment.

A successful peace agreement would hinge upon Hezbollah halting attacks, which Lebanon’s government has little power to enforce because it does not control the militia. Lebanon’s military has mostly stayed out of the fighting and is not at war with Israel.

The cease-fire, which was scheduled to end on April 26, would last until May 17 if it takes effect as Mr. Trump described it. Before the cease-fire was brokered last week, nearly 2,300 people were killed in Lebanon and 13 in Israel. Since then, the number of Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah attacks have been dramatically reduced, though the two sides have continued exchanging fire.

The Lebanese Ambassador to the United States, Nada Hamadeh, credited Mr. Trump for extending the cease-fire, saying that “with your help and support, we can make Lebanon great again.” Mr. Trump replied, “I like that phrase, it’s a good phrase.”

Advertisement

Asked about the potential of a lasting peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon, Mr. Trump said that “I think there’s a great chance. They are friends about the same things and they are enemies on the same things.”

But Lebanon and Israel have periodically been at war since Israel’s founding in 1948. Israel has invaded Lebanon for the fifth time since 1978, incursions that have destabilized the country and the delicate balance of power between Muslim, Christian and Druze communities.

In the hours before the president’s announcement on social media, Israel and Hezbollah were trading attacks in southern Lebanon, testing the existing cease-fire.

Mr. Trump said the meeting at the White House had been attended by high-ranking U.S. officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the U.S. ambassadors to Israel and Lebanon.

Earlier on Thursday, an Israeli strike near the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh killed three people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Hezbollah claimed three separate attacks on Israeli troops who are occupying southern Lebanon, though none were wounded or killed.

Advertisement

Hezbollah set off the latest round of fighting last month by attacking Israel soon after the start of the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran. Israel responded to Hezbollah’s attacks by launching airstrikes across Lebanon and widening a ground invasion of the country’s south.

Continue Reading

News

U.S. soldier charged with suspected Polymarket insider trading over Maduro raid

Published

on

U.S. soldier charged with suspected Polymarket insider trading over Maduro raid

Smoke rises from Port of La Guaira in Venezuela on Jan. 3, 2026 after U.S. forces seized the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

Jesus Vargas/Getty Images


hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

Jesus Vargas/Getty Images

Federal prosecutors on Thursday unsealed an indictment against a U.S. Army soldier, accusing him of using his insider knowledge of the clandestine military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January to reap more than $400,000 in profits on the popular prediction market site Polymarket.

The Justice Department says Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, who was stationed at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, was part of the team that planned and carried out the predawn raid in Caracas earlier this year that resulted in the apprehension of Maduro.

The Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed the actions against Van Dyke, the first time U.S. officials have leveled criminal charges against someone over prediction market wagers.

Advertisement

According to the indictment, Van Dyke now faces counts of wire fraud, commodities fraud, misusing non-public government information and other charges.

Trading under numerous usernames including “Burdensome-Mix,” Van Dyke allegedly traded about $32,000 on the arrest of Maduro, resulting in profits exceeding $400,000.

“Prediction markets are not a haven for using misappropriated confidential or classified information for personal gain,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York. “Those entrusted to safeguard our nation’s secrets have a duty to protect them and our armed service members, and not to use that information for personal financial gain.”

Van Dyke’s defense lawyer is not yet publicly known. Polymarket did not return a request for comment.

The charges against Van Dyke come at a sensitive time for the prediction market industry, which has been growing exponentially, despite calls in Washington and among state leaders for the sites to be reined in.

Advertisement

Van Dyke is the first to be charged in the U.S. for suspected Polymarket insider trading, but Israeli authorities in February arrested several people and charged two on suspicion of using classified information to place bets about military operations in Iran on Polymarket.

Continue Reading

News

Senate Adopts GOP Budget, Laying the Groundwork to Fund ICE and Reopen DHS

Published

on

Senate Adopts GOP Budget, Laying the Groundwork to Fund ICE and Reopen DHS

The Senate early Thursday morning adopted a Republican budget blueprint that would pave the way for a $70 billion increase for immigration enforcement and the eventual reopening of the Department of Homeland Security.

Republicans pushed through the plan on a nearly party-line vote of 50 to 48. It came after an overnight marathon of rapid-fire votes, known as a vote-a-rama, in which the G.O.P. beat back a series of Democratic proposals aimed at addressing the high cost of health care, housing, food and energy. The debate put the two parties’ dueling messages on vivid display six months before the midterm elections.

Republicans, who are using the budget plan to lay the groundwork to eventually push through a filibuster-proof bill providing a multiyear funding stream for President Trump’s immigration crackdown, used the all-night session to highlight their hard-line stance on border security, seeking to portray Democrats as unwilling to safeguard the country.

Democrats tried and failed to add a series of changes aimed at addressing cost-of-living issues, seizing the opportunity to hammer Republicans as out of touch with and unwilling to act on the concerns of everyday Americans.

Here’s what to know about the budget plan and the nocturnal ritual senators engaged in before adopting it.

Advertisement

The budget blueprint is a crucial piece of Republicans’ plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security and end a shutdown that has lasted for more than two months. After Democrats refused to fund immigration enforcement without new restrictions on agents’ tactics and conduct, the G.O.P. struck a deal with them to pass a spending bill that would fund everything but ICE and the Border Patrol. Republicans said they would fund those agencies through a special budget bill that Democrats could not block.

“We can fix this with Republican votes, and we will,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and the Budget Committee chairman. “Every Democrat has opposed money for the Border Patrol and ICE at a time of great peril.”

In resorting to a new budget blueprint, Republicans laid the groundwork to deny Democrats a chance to stop the immigration enforcement funding. But they also submitted themselves to a vote-a-rama, in which any senator can propose unlimited changes to such a measure before it is adopted.

The budget measure now goes to the House, which must adopt it before lawmakers in both chambers can draft the legislation funding immigration enforcement. That bill will provide yet another opportunity for a vote-a-rama even closer to the November election.

Democrats took to the floor to criticize Republicans for supercharging funding for federal immigration enforcement rather than moving legislation that would address Americans’ concerns over affordability.

Advertisement

“This is what Republicans are fighting for,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the Democratic leader. “To maintain two unchecked rogue agencies that are dreaded in all corners of this country instead of reducing your health care costs, your housing costs, your grocery costs, your gas costs.”

Democrats offered a host of amendments along those lines, all of which were defeated by Republicans — and that was the point. The proposals were meant to put the G.O.P. in a tough political spot, showcasing their opposition to helping Americans afford high living costs. Fewer than a handful of G.O.P. senators crossed party lines to support them.

The G.O.P. thwarted an effort by Mr. Schumer to require that the budget measure lower out-of-pocket health care costs for Americans. Two Republicans who are up for re-election this year, Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, voted with Democrats, but the proposal was still defeated.

Republicans also squelched a move by Senator Ben Ray Lujan, Democrat of New Mexico, to create a fund that would lower grocery costs and reverse cuts to food aid programs that Republicans enacted last year. Ms. Collins and Mr. Sullivan again joined Democrats.

Also defeated by the G.O.P.: a proposal by Senator John Hickenlooper, Democrat of Colorado, to address rising consumer prices brought on by Mr. Trump’s tariffs and the war in Iran; one by Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, to require the budget measure to address rising electricity prices, and another by Mr. Markey to create a fund to bring down housing costs.

Advertisement

Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat who is up for re-election in Georgia, also sought to add language requiring the budget plan to address health insurance companies denying or delaying access to care, but that, too was blocked by Republicans.

While Republicans had fewer proposals for changes to their own budget plan, they also sought to offer measures that would underscore their aggressive stance on immigration enforcement and dare Democrats to vote against them.

Mr. Graham offered an amendment to allocate funds toward a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to the apprehension and deportation of adult immigrants convicted of rape, murder, or sexual abuse of a minor after illegally entering the United States. It passed unanimously.

Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, sought to bar Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion and other services, and criticized the organization for providing transgender care to minors. Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, also attempted to tack on the G.O.P. voter identification bill, known as the SAVE America Act. Both proposals were blocked when Democrats, joined by a few Republicans, voted to strike them as unrelated to the budget plan.

The Republicans who crossed party lines to oppose their own party’s proposals for new voting requirements were Ms. Collins along with Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

Advertisement

Ms. Collins and Ms. Murkowski also opposed the effort to block payments to Planned Parenthood.

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending