Syria War News Updates: The Israeli military on Tuesday denied reports that its tanks were advancing towards Damascus, insisting that Israeli forces were stationed in a buffer zone near the Israeli-Syrian border
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Syrian citizens wave the revolutionary flag and shout slogans, as they celebrate during the second day of the take over of the city by the insurgents in Damascus, Syria. AP
December 10, 2024, 15:51:14 (IST)
Israeli warplanes pound Syria as troops reportedly advance deeper into country
Israel carried out a wave of heavy airstrikes across Syria as its troops advanced deeper into the country, drawing to within 25 kilometres of the capital, a Syrian opposition war monitor said Tuesday. Israel denied its forces were advancing toward Damascus.
Associated Press reporters in Damascus heard heavy airstrikes overnight and into Tuesday on the city and its suburbs. Photographs circulating online showed destroyed missile launchers, helicopters and warplanes.
There was no immediate comment from the insurgent groups — led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS – that have taken control of Damascus.
Israel had earlier seized a roughly 400-square-kilometre buffer zone inside Syria that had been established after the 1973 Mideast war, a move it said was taken to prevent attacks in the aftermath of the overthrow of President Bashar Assad.
December 10, 2024, 15:15:32 (IST)
Syria War Live Updates: Access to Syria ‘crime scene’ a ‘game-changer’,says UN investigator
UN investigators who for years have been gathering evidence of horrific crimes committed in Syria hope Bashar al-Assad’s downfall will finally mean they can access “the crime scene” and “massive evidence”.
“There is a sea change,” said Robert Petit, a Canadian prosecutor and legal scholar who heads the United Nations investigative body known as the International Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) on Syria.
“The evidence in Syria is finally becoming available,” he told AFP in an interview, a day after Assad fled Syria as Islamist-led rebels swept into the capital, bringing to a spectacular end five decades of brutal rule by his clan over a country ravaged by one of the deadliest wars of the century.
December 10, 2024, 15:13:28 (IST)
Syria War Live Updates: Syria defence research centre destroyed after strikes: AFP
Strikes that a Syrian war monitor said were carried out by Israel in Damascus’s Barzeh area have completely destroyed a defence ministry research centre, AFP correspondents saw Tuesday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had reported Monday that “Israeli warplanes launched over 100 strikes… including on the Barzeh scientific research centre”. Western countries including the United States struck the facility in 2018, saying it was related to Syria’s “chemical weapons infrastructure”.
December 10, 2024, 15:12:14 (IST)
Syria War Live Updates: Croatia temporarily suspends asylum applications of Syrians after Assad’s fall
Croatia said it had temporarily suspended asylum applications from Syrians, following the lead of other European governments, after rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad after 13 years of civil war.
Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said his ministry had instructed authorities “to halt on an interim basis requests for asylum by Syrian citizens until some decision has been brought at the European Union level”.
Other European countries, including Germany, Norway, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland, have also announced suspensions of Syrian requests pending clarity on political developments in Syria.
Bozinovic noted that Syrians had fled an oppressive regime that had killed its own citizens.
December 10, 2024, 14:54:50 (IST)
Syria War Live Updates: Austria to support Syrians wanting to return after Assad’s fall, Nehammer says
Austria will support Syrians who want to return now that rebels have seized Damascus and President Bashar al-Assad has fled, Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on Tuesday.
“The fall of the Assad regime is changing the overall situation in Syria. The country now needs its citizens,” Nehammer posted on social media platform X.
“We will support everyone, who wants to return to their homeland,” he added.
The Austrian government had on Monday said it had paused the processing of asylum applications by Syrians.
Nehammer, of the conservative People’s Party (OVP) which has a hard line on immigration, is in coalition talks with two other parties to form a government after an election in September.
A public backlash against an influx of Syrians fleeing civil war during the migration crisis of 2015-2016 continues to fuel support for Austria’s far right and conservatives.
December 10, 2024, 14:50:33 (IST)
Syria War Live Updates: Israel military rejects reports tanks advancing towards Damascus
The Israeli military on Tuesday denied reports that its tanks were advancing towards Damascus, insisting that Israeli forces were stationed in a buffer zone near the Israeli-Syrian border.
“The reports circulated by some media outlets claiming that the Israeli Defense Forces (military) are advancing towards or nearing Damascus are completely false,” military spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on X. “The IDF forces are stationed within the buffer zone and at defensive points near the border in order to protect Israel’s borders.”
December 10, 2024, 14:11:05 (IST)
Syria War Live Updates: Switzerland suspends Syria asylum proceedings after Assad’s fall
The Swiss government said it was suspending asylum procedures for Syrians until it can better assess the situation in the Middle Eastern country following the capture of Damascus by rebels and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s flight to Russia.
The state secretariat for migration said on Monday evening it was currently unable to conduct a thorough check on whether grounds for asylum exist for Syrians or whether carrying out a deportation order for them would be reasonable.
“The secretariat is suspending asylum procedures and decisions for asylum seekers from Syria with immediate effect until the situation can be reassessed,” it said on X.
Switzerland’s decision follows those of other European governments to put asylum applications on hold for now.
December 10, 2024, 13:55:01 (IST)
Syria War Live Updates: Syria war monitor records more than 300 Israeli strikes since fall of Assad
A monitor of Syria’s war said Tuesday it had recorded more than 300 Israeli strikes since rebels toppled the country’s longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad over the weekend.
“The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has been able to document around 310 strikes” carried out by “Israeli warplanes” since the announcement of the fall of Assad on Sunday morning, the monitor said, while AFP journalists in the capital reported hearing loud explosions early Tuesday.
December 10, 2024, 13:44:53 (IST)
Syria War Live Updates: Scholz, Macron prepared to work with Syrian rebels after Assad ouster
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emannuel Macron are prepared to work with the Syrian rebel groups who ousted President Bashar al-Assad on certain conditions, a German government statement after a phone call between the two leaders.
The leaders of the European Union’s two largest powers welcomed the departure of Assad who had caused “terrible suffering to the Syrian people and great damage to his country”. The Syrian leader fled Damascus for Moscow on Sunday, ending more than 50 years of brutal rule by his family.
“(Scholz and Macron) agreed that they were prepared to work together with the new rulers on the basis of fundamental human rights and the protection of ethnic and religious minorities,” according to the German government statement published late on Monday.
December 10, 2024, 13:44:18 (IST)
Syria War Live Updates: Iran’s power undiminished after Assad’s fall in Syria, Revolutionary Guards commander says
The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic had not been weakened following the fall of its ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Iranian media reported.
“We have not been weakened and Iran’s power has not diminished,” Hossein Salami was quoted as telling members of parliament in a closed session.
Iran and Russia had propped up Assad’s rule since Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011 with military support, men and airpower. Tehran deployed its Revolutionary Guards to Syria to keep its ally in power to maintain Tehran’s “Axis of Resistance” to Israel and U.S. influence in the Middle East.
Assad’s exit has eroded Tehran’s ability to project power and sustain its network of militia groups across the region, particularly to its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, which agreed a ceasefire with Israel last month.
December 10, 2024, 13:34:24 (IST)
Syria War Live Updates: Israeli incursion into Syria reaches 25 km southwest of Damascus, security sources say
An Israeli military incursion into southern Syria has reached about 25 km (16 miles) southwest of capital Damascus, two regional security sources and one Syrian security source said on Tuesday.
The Syrian security source said Israeli troops reached Qatana, which is 10 km into Syrian territory east of a demilitarized zone separating Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria.
The Israeli military declined to comment.
They came from all over Syria, tens of thousands. The first place they rushed to after the fall of their longti