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3 months ago
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Updated Dec. 3, 2024, 10:47 AM UTC
What we know
- Syrian and Russian warplanes have launched "concentrated air and missile strikes" on the central Idlib province, "killing and wounding dozens of terrorists and destroying their vehicles and weapons," Syria's defense ministry said Tuesday.
- Elsewhere, Syria's army and allied forces have been battling the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the country's eastern Deir Al Zor province, state media reported.
- Israel launched its largest wave of airstrikes across Lebanon since agreeing to a ceasefire with Hezbollah last week, killing at least 11 people after the militant group fired a volley of projectiles on Monday.
- President-elect Donald Trump said on social media that there will be "HELL TO PAY" unless the Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza are freed before he takes office in January.
Syria and Russia strikes target rebel-controlled Idlib
Syrian and Russian warplanes have launched “concentrated air and missile strikes” on the central Idlib province, “killing and wounding dozens of terrorists and destroying their vehicles and weapons,” Syria’s defense ministry said Tuesday.
Syrian forces are advancing in the countryside near Aleppo, Hama, and Idlib as it seeks to secure territory claimed by rebel forces.
Yesterday, Russian airstrikes targeted a group of health centers and hospitals in the rebel-held city of Idlib in northwest Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said today.
Trump says ‘hell to pay’ if hostages in Gaza not released
President-elect Donald Trump said there will be “HELL TO PAY” unless the Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza are freed before he takes office in January, in a social media post yesterday.
“Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity,” he said in the post on Truth Social.
"Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody who has been hit in the long and stories history of the United States of America," he added.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog thanked Trump in a post on X.
Syria conflict risks spreading through Middle East, Iran's Foreign Minister says
The conflict between Syrian regime and rebel forces risks spreading across the entire region, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said following talks in Syria with its president Bashar al-Assad.
“Conflict carries 100%-guaranteed spillover of terrorism to the whole neighborhood,” he said on X Monday. “All agreed: NO ONE benefits from another war in Syria.”
Araghchi reiterated Iran’s support for the “Syrian people, Government and Army in their fight against terrorism.”
His comments came after Iran-backed militias based crossed into Syria from Iraq, to support Assad's military, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Syrian government launched wave of airstrikes, monitoring group says
Fighter jets and helicopters carried out 45 airstrikes near the Syrian city of Hama last night as the Syrian government tried to block rebel groups from advancing in the region, according to a leading monitoring group.
The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in an online update that the clashes between government and rebel forces were "the most violent" since the rebels launched their shock offensive last week
The government had "upset attempts" by rebels to advance into the town of Qala'at Madiq, but that rebels had take control of several villages in the northern Hama countryside, it added.
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