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[ti-amie]

Assad has left Damascus, senior army officers say; Syria rebels say they are in capital
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Timour Azhari
December 7, 202410:11 PM ESTUpdated 15 min ago

Summary
Assad boards plane, leaves Damascus, say senior army officers
Assad's destination unknown, officers say
Syrian rebels say they have entered the capital
After years of little movement, rebels mount lightening advance
Insurgent leader urges no reprisals

AMMAN/BEIRUT, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew out of Damascus for an unknown destination on Sunday, two senior army officers told Reuters, as rebels said they had entered the capital with no sign of army deployments.

Thousands in cars and on foot congregated at a main square in Damascus waving and chanting "Freedom", witnesses said.

"We celebrate with the Syrian people the news of freeing our prisoners and releasing their chains and announcing the end of the era of injustice in Sednaya prison," said the rebels.
Sednaya is a large military prison on the outskirts Damascus where the Syrian government detained thousands.

A Syrian Air plane took off from Damascus airport around the time the capital was reported to have been taken by rebels, according to data from the Flightradar website.

The aircraft initially flew towards Syria's coastal region, a stronghold of Assad's Alawite sect, but then made an abrupt U-turn and flew in the opposite direction for a few minutes before disappearing off the map.

Reuters could not immediately ascertain who was on board.

Just hours earlier, rebels announced they had gained full control of the key city of Homs after only a day of fighting, leaving Assad's 24-year rule dangling by a thread.

Intense sounds of shooting were heard in the centre of the Damascus, two residents said on Sunday, although it was not immediately clear what the source of the shooting was.

In rural areas southwest of the capital, local youths and former rebels took advantage of the loss of authority to come to the streets in acts of defiance against the Assad family's authoritarian rule.
Thousands of Homs residents poured onto the streets after the army withdrew from the central city, dancing and chanting "Assad is gone, Homs is free" and "Long live Syria and down with Bashar al-Assad".
Rebels fired into the air in celebration, and youths tore down posters of the Syrian president, whose territorial control has collapsed in a dizzying week-long retreat by the military.

The fall of Homs gives the insurgents control over Syria's strategic heartland and a key highway crossroads, severing Damascus from the coastal region that is the stronghold of Assad's Alawite sect and where his Russian allies have a naval base and air base.

Homs' capture is also a powerful symbol of the rebel movement's dramatic comeback in the 13-year-old conflict. Swathes of Homs were destroyed by gruelling siege warfare between the rebels and the army years ago. The fighting ground down the insurgents, who were forced out.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham commander Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the main rebel leader, called the capture of Homs a historic moment and urged fighters not to harm "those who drop their arms".
Rebels freed thousands of detainees from the city prison. Security forces left in haste after burning their documents.

Residents of numerous Damascus districts turned out to protest Assad on Saturday evening, and security forces were either unwilling or unable to clamp down.

Syrian rebel commander Hassan Abdul Ghani said in a statement early Sunday that operations were ongoing to "completely liberate" the countryside around Damascus and rebel forces were looking toward the capital.

In one suburb, a statue of Assad's father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, was toppled and torn apart.

The Syrian army said it was reinforcing around Damascus, and state television reported on Saturday that Assad remained in the city.

Outside the city, rebels swept across the entire southwest over 24 hours and established control.

EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO ASSAD RULE

The fall of Homs and threat to the capital pose an immediate existential danger to the Assad dynasty's five-decade reign over Syria and the continued influence there of its main regional backer, Iran.
The pace of events has stunned Arab capitals and raised fears of a new wave of regional instability.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Russia issued a joint statement saying the crisis was a dangerous development and calling for a political solution.

But there was no indication they agreed on any concrete steps, with the situation inside Syria changing by the hour.

Syria's civil war, which erupted in 2011 as an uprising against Assad's rule, dragged in big outside powers, created space for jihadist militants to plot attacks around the world and sent millions of refugees into neighbouring states.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the strongest rebel group, is the former al Qaeda affiliate in Syria regarded by the U.S. and others as a terrorist organisation, and many Syrians remain fearful it will impose draconian Islamist rule.

Golani has tried to reassure minorities that he will not interfere with them and the international community that he opposes Islamist attacks abroad. In Aleppo, which the rebels captured a week ago, there have not been reports of reprisals.

When asked on Saturday whether he believed Golani, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov replied, "The proof of the pudding is in the eating".

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group withdrew from the Syrian city of Qusayr on the border with Lebanon before rebel forces seized it, Syrian army sources said on Sunday.

At least 150 armoured vehicles carrying hundreds of Hezbollah fighters left the city, long a point on the route for arms transfers and fighters moving in and out of Syria, the sources said. Israel hit one of the convoys as it was departing, one source said.

ALLIES' ROLE IN SUPPORTING ASSAD

Assad long relied on allies to subdue the rebels. Russian warplanes conducted bombing while Iran sent allied forces including Hezbollah and Iraqi militia to reinforce the Syrian military and storm insurgent strongholds.

But Russia has been focused on the war in Ukraine since 2022 and Hezbollah has suffered big losses in its own gruelling war with Israel, significantly limiting its ability or that of Iran to bolster Assad.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said the U.S. should not be involved in the conflict and should "let it play out".

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Reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Damascus, Timour Azhari in Beirut, Jaidaa Taha in Cairo, Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington; Writing by Angus McDowall, Matt Spetalnick and Michael Perry; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and William Mallard

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-ea ... 024-12-07/

[ashkor87]

All this is the legacy of the 'great powers' - Britain, France.. who drew some arbitrary lines and created nations out of nothing.. the hapless people there are paying for it, and will continue to pay forver.. the poor people of Syria will probably have to endure an Afganistan-like Islamic state now.. the current leader is supposed to be moderate but, as we all know, moderates seldom surive - it is the most ruthless who come out on top..sigh...'the centre cannot hold'

[ti-amie]

‪Anonymous‬ ‪@youranoncentral.bsky.social‬
·
1m
Th plane allegedly carrying Assad dropped from an altitude of over 3,650 meters to 1,070 in minutes, just outside Lebanese airspace north of Akkar. Reportedly Lebanon denied the plane permission to land. Rumours are rife, no confirmation if that was his plane or the fate of those onboard.

[Suliso]

All this is the legacy of the 'great powers' - Britain, France.. who drew some arbitrary lines and created nations out of nothing.. the hapless people there are paying for it, and will continue to pay forver.. the poor people of Syria will probably have to endure an Afganistan-like Islamic state now.. the current leader is supposed to be moderate but, as we all know, moderates seldom surive - it is the most ruthless who come out on top..sigh...'the centre cannot hold'

That is true BUT it's also not obvious what lines could have been drawn in this area. That is if the goal is homogeneity instead of Indian style living together.

[ponchi101]

Just like in South America, the fixation with the past remains strong in other parts of the world. It is NEVER our fault; nope, our corrupt, inefficient governments are not to be blamed, and our lack of long term planning, meaning setting up a long term goal like the Japanese and the Koreans did after WWII and the Korean war, are not the reason why we are third world.
Nope. It all goes back to something that happened over 200 years ago, at a time in which technological differences were way smaller than today.
It is not us, it was the Brits.
It is not us, it was the French.
It is not us, it was the Spaniards.
And we will never prosper and become productive, viable countries until we decide to think of the now.

[ti-amie]

Tears of joy and sadness as ‘disappeared’ Syrians emerge from Assad’s prisons
Men, women and children, many jailed for speaking out against regime, reunite with their families

Bethan McKernan
Sun 8 Dec 2024 19.29 GMT
Share
As Syrian rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) captured city after city on the road to Damascus, forcing Bashar al-Assad to flee the country, they also opened the doors of the regime’s notorious prisons, into which upwards of 100,000 people disappeared during nearly 14 years of civil war.

Many emerged frail and emaciated into the bright December sunlight, greeted by weeping family members who had no idea they were still alive. Some struggled to comprehend that Assad was gone; a few held even longer had never even been told that he had succeeded his father, Hafez, who died in 2000.

Verified videos from Damascus showed dozens of women and small children being held in cells, the rebels opening the doors telling them not to be afraid.

The prisons infamous for torture in and around Damascus itself – including Sednaya, the most notorious, where satellite imagery showed a new crematorium was built in 2017 to dispose of bodies – were broken open early on Sunday. There are conflicting reports of underground cell blocks yet to be reached.

The photos and videos of reunited families are bittersweet. The stories of the prisoners are astonishing; they will take years to be told in full, further grim evidence of the crimes the Assad family committed against so many of their own people.

Al-Arabiya broadcast footage of a family arriving in Damascus to meet their released son, the elderly mother’s voice breaking with emotion as she embraced him for the first time in 14 years.

Raghad al-Tatary, a pilot who refused to bomb the city of Hama during the uprising against Hafez al-Assad in the 1980s, was freed after 43 years; Tal al-Mallouhi, 19 when she was arrested in 2009 for a blogpost criticising state corruption, was found alive.

One shaven-headed, shaking man in Sednaya had been so ill-treated he had lost his memory and struggled to talk. His family said he had been 20 and a medical student when he vanished 13 years ago.

Thousands of protesters were arrested during the 2011 Arab spring revolution for speaking out against the government. Leaked documents showed the state security apparatus viewed imprisonment as a key way to crush dissent. As the war deepened, the vast network of security branches, detention centres and prisons grew notorious for their brutal torture methods, which rights groups said were applied on an industrial scale.

Many Syrians were over the years brusquely informed by authorities that their relatives had been executed, sometimes years earlier.

For many, there is still an agonising wait, hoping against the odds that loved ones will be found alive. At a large bus station in central Damascus, the activist Abdulkafi al-Hamdo, who fled Aleppo with his young family in 2016 for years in exile in Idlib, filmed himself meeting anxious families waiting for cars and buses that were dropping off freed prisoners on Sunday.

One woman said her son was 18 when he was seized in 2012; she has not heard or seen anything of him since. “All these families here have a lot of fear in their hearts that their sons are dead,” she said. “Some of them have a small hope, a window of hope, that their children will be alive.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... ds-prisons

[ashkor87]

Their bravery is as astonishing as their suffering is great...

[ti-amie]

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has reopened. I have no idea why that man was there but the look on Madam Macron's face is all of us.



https://www.npr.org/sections/the-pictur ... cron-trump

[mmmm8]

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has reopened. I have no idea why that man was there but the look on Madam Macron's face is all of us.



https://www.npr.org/sections/the-pictur ... cron-trump

I mean, she and Trump are both orange and should be in jail for sexual offences, so...

[ti-amie]

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has reopened. I have no idea why that man was there but the look on Madam Macron's face is all of us.



https://www.npr.org/sections/the-pictur ... cron-trump

I mean, she and Trump are both orange and should be in jail for sexual offences, so...

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[Owendonovan]

I think Macron is explaining what happens in a church, what the cross symbolizes, and why there's a mostly naked man being elevated in said church.

[ti-amie]

Anonymous
‪@youranoncentral.bsky.social‬
In Romania the pro-Russia fascist Calin Georgescu's right-hand man, leader to a terrorist group similar to the Proud Boys, who had planned to incite violence, has just been arrested at a Bucharest airport while attempting to flee the country.

Link is in Romanian.

Legionarul Sechila, saltat de la Aeroportul Otopeni, el incerca sa plece din tara. Sechila avea ca destinatie o tara din Africa - Aktual24
Eugen Sechila, unul dintre indivizii acuzati ca planuiau sa provoace violente in Bucuresti de 8 decenbrie, a fost saltat joi seara de pe Aeroportul Otopeni. Sechila a fost luat pe sus de politisti si ...
www.aktual24.ro

[ti-amie]

South Korea’s president reportedly defies summons in martial law inquiry
Report comes day after MPs voted to impeach Yoon Suk Yeol, who faces possible charges of insurrection

Sam Jones and agencies
Sun 15 Dec 2024 11.32 GMT

South Korea’s conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has reportedly failed to obey a summons from prosecutors investigating him on charges including insurrection as he faces impeachment after declaring martial law.

Yoon, who was sent a summons on Wednesday requesting him to appear for questioning at 10am local time on Sunday, did not show up, according to the Yonhap news agency. Yoon and other senior officials are being investigated on possible charges of insurrection, abuse of authority and obstructing people from exercising their rights.

Yonhap said prosecutors – who are also seeking arrest warrants for senior military officials, including the head of the army special warfare command and the chief of the capital defence command – plan to issue another summons for the president.

The president’s reported failure to appear came a day after South Korean MPs voted to impeach him over the unsuccessful attempt to declare martial law almost two weeks ago that plunged the country into some of its worst political turmoil in decades.

In a late-night emergency television address to the nation on 3 December, Yoon announced he was imposing martial law, accusing the opposition of paralysing the government with “anti-state activities”.

The imposition of martial law – the first of its kind in more than four decades – lasted only six hours, and hundreds of troops and police officers sent by Yoon to the national assembly withdrew after the president’s decree was overturned. No major violence occurred.

Yoon’s powers have been suspended until the constitutional court decides whether to remove him from office or reinstate him. If Yoon is dismissed, a national election to choose his successor must be held within 60 days.

The court will meet to begin considering the case on Monday, and has up to 180 days to issue a ruling. But observers say a ruling could come faster. In the case of parliamentary impeachments of past presidents, Roh Moo-hyun in 2004 and Park Geun-hye in 2016, the court spent 63 days and 91 days respectively before determining to reinstate Roh and dismiss Park.

South Korea’s main opposition leader, Lee Jae-myung, has offered to work with the government to ease the political tumult as officials seek to reassure allies and markets after the impeachment vote.

Lee, who leads the Democratic party and who has led the political offensive against Yoon’s embattled government, is seen as the frontrunner to replace him. Lee has urged the constitutional court to rule swiftly on Yoon’s impeachment and proposed a special council for cooperation between the government and parliament.

The opposition leader told a televised news conference that a rapid ruling was the only way to “minimise national confusion and the suffering of people”.

Lee also proposed a national council where the government and the national assembly would work together to stabilise state affairs, and said his party would not seek to impeach the prime minister, Han Duck-soo, a Yoon appointee who is serving as acting president.

“The Democratic party will actively cooperate with all parties to stabilise state affairs and restore international trust,” Lee said. “The national assembly and government will work together to quickly resolve the crisis that has swept across the Republic of Korea.”

On assuming his role as acting leader, Han ordered the military to bolster its security posture against North Korea. He asked the foreign minister to inform other countries that South Korea’s main external policies would remain unchanged, and the finance minister to work to minimise potential negative impacts on the economy from the political turmoil.

On Sunday, Han had a phone call with the US president, Joe Biden, in which they discussed the political situation in South Korea and regional security challenges including the North’s nuclear programme. Biden expressed his appreciation for the resiliency of democracy in South Korea and reaffirmed “the ironclad commitment” of the US, according to both governments.

Opposition parties have accused Yoon of rebellion, saying a president in South Korea is allowed to declare martial law only during wartime or similar emergencies and would have no right to suspend parliament’s operations even in those cases.

Yoon has rejected the charges and vowed to “fight to the end”. He said the deployment of troops to the national assembly was aimed to issue a warning to the Democratic party, which he called an “anti-state force” that abused its control of parliament by holding up the government’s budget bill for next year and repeatedly pushing to impeach top officials.

Law enforcement institutions are investigating possible rebellion and other allegations. They have arrested Yoon’s defence minister and police chief and two other high-level figures.

Yoon has immunity from most criminal prosecution as president, but that does not extend to allegations of rebellion or treason. He has been banned from leaving South Korea, but observers doubt that authorities will detain him because of the potential for clashes with his presidential security service.

With Agence France-Presse, Reuters and the Associated Press

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... aw-inquiry