The leader of Syria’s Nusra Front said in recording aired Thursday that his group is changing its name, claiming it will have no more ties with al-Qaida in an attempt to undermine a potential U.S. and Russian air campaign against its fighters.
Clashes broke out this week between Syrian government forces and fighters in a camp in northern Syria’s Idlib province led by an internationally wanted French militant.
The clashes come at a delicate moment, as Syria’s interim authorities are trying to decide how to handle the presence of thousands of Islamist foreign fighters in the country.
Bottom Line Up Front
Iranian leaders fear that Türkiye, emboldened by the ousting of the Assad regime in Syria, will further advance its influence in the South Caucasus at the expense of Iran.
Iran’s foreign minister visited Tehran’s key South Caucasus ally, Armenia, last week to coordinate efforts to thwart the establishment of a Turkish-backed transit corridor that would block Iran’s land access to Armenia.
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa is calibrating relations with both Washington and Moscow to ensure they both contribute to the country’s stability and security.
Sharaa’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week sought, in part, to prod Trump officials to pressure Israel to end its assaults on Syrian territory and Syrian strategic assets.
To weaken Hamas’s grip on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli government initiated a campaign to arm rival groups within the enclave, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged in June. The first of these groups, the Popular Forces led by Yasser Abu Shabab, surfaced in May as a direct challenge to Hamas’s authority. Backed by Israeli funding and logistical support, additional anti-Hamas militias soon emerged, seeking to erode Hamas’s control from within. These groups, particularly the Popular Forces, have complicated Hamas’s internal governance and drawn retaliatory attacks.
The question of what should happen to the terrorists who committed the October 7 massacre remains at large. Now, after the release of the final living hostages, it will finally begin to be answered.
Working in apparent coordination with Abu Shabab, which also claims arms and other support from Israel, Hossam al-Astal says hundreds flocking to his base for food, power and escape from Hamas
In a village south of Khan Younis, emptied by months of fighting, a 50-year-old former Palestinian Authority officer is carving out what appears to be the latest attempt to pare back Hamas’s power in the Strip, establishing a small, armed enclave that promises an alternative to the terror group with the quiet support of Israel and the West.
The photo shows a lean, tanned man in a dark helmet. He’s grasping a rifle and UN vehicles move behind him as he waves through traffic.
The man is Yasser Abu Shabab, who says he commands hundreds of armed men known as the Popular Forces to offer protection to international organizations working in southern Gaza.
What’s new? Israel’s far-right government is restructuring the occupation of the West Bank, shifting governing powers from military to civilian agencies in order to gradually institute permanent control. With Israeli law reaching further into the territory and space for Palestinian independence shrinking, much of the territory has, in effect, already been annexed.
Armed militia and gangs supported by Israel are seizing control of parts of Gaza, exacerbating its humanitarian crisis and potentially threatening any efforts to bring order if Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza takes hold.
The Israeli military and security services have for several months been arming and training groups in Gaza as local auxiliary forces and as an alternative to Hamas, but the strategy appears to have gathered momentum in recent weeks.