Syria hit by US and Israeli airstrikes as war bloggers fret about ‘threat’ to Russian bases
Syria’s new rebel leaders are facing the daunting task of healing a divided nation – and the toppling of the Assad regime has not put an end to fighting in the country.
In northern Syria, Turkey-backed opposition fighters are still battling US-allied Kurdish forces, while both Israel and the US launched airstrikes on Syria on Sunday. There is also uncertainty surrounding two Russian bases.
President Bashar al Assad fled Damascus with his family on Sunday morning and their whereabouts were unknown until Russian state media confirmed they had been given asylum in Moscow “on humanitarian grounds”.
Read more: Latest updates from Syria
Sources also told Russian media the Kremlin had struck a deal with Syria’s rebel leaders to guarantee the safety of its bases in the country, as part of arrangements that saw Mr Assad head to Russia.
Moscow – a staunch backer of the Assad regime – has the strategically important Hmeimim airbase in Syria’s Latakia province and a naval facility at Tartous – its only Mediterranean repair and replenishment hub.
A satellite image shows Russia-operated Hmeimim Air Base. Pic: Reuters
Despite the deal, some Russian war bloggers have said the situations around the bases remain intense.
‘Rybar’, a Russian war blogger close to the country’s defence ministry, said: “Russia’s military presence in the Middle East region hangs by a thread.
“What anyone decided in high offices is absolutely irrelevant on the ground.”
Russian warships have left Tartous and taken up positions at sea for security reasons, Rybar added.
The account – which has more than 1.3 million followers on Telegram – also said the Hmeimim airbase had effectively been cut off after rebels took control of a nearby town. Rybar’s claims have not been verified.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs played down any immediate threat to its bases, but Sky News was told both are on “high alert” and Moscow is following events with “extreme concern”.
Smoke rises from Syria as people cross the Lebanese-Syrian border crossing of Arida. Pic: Reuters
Israel and US launch airstrikes on Syria
Meanwhile, Israel and the US have conducted separate airstrikes in Syria since Assad’s regime collapsed.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces had aimed dozens of strikes at Islamic State targets in central Syria, to ensure it does not take advantage of the uncertainty.
A senior official in the Biden administration said the US has also been focused on making sure chemical weapons controlled by the new regime are secured.
While there would be no role for US ground troops, the official said the US would work to ensure the safety of chemical weapons stockpiles in the country – which have in the past been used on rebels – but they did not elaborate on how that would be achieved.
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What are the impacts of Assad’s fall?
Meanwhile, Israel conducted three airstrikes against a major security complex and a research centre in Damascus, two regional security sources told Reuters.
According to Israel, the centre was used by Iranian scientists to develop missiles. Smoke was seen billowing over Damascus on Sunday, although it was not known what had caused it.
There has also been military action on the Israel-Syria border.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered Israeli forces to seize a buffer zone in the Golan Heights, established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement.
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What happened to Bashar al Assad?
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Mr Netanyahu claimed it was necessary to “ensure the protection of all Israeli communities in the Golan Heights” after Syrian soldiers abandoned their positions there.
The Golan area was captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, and later annexed. The international community, except the US, views it as occupied territory.
Donald Trump has agreed to send “top of the line weapons” to NATO to support Ukraine – and threatened Russia with “severe” tariffs if it doesn’t agree to end the war.
Speaking with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte during a meeting at the White House, the US president said: “We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons, and they’re going to be paying for them.
“This is billions of dollars worth of military equipment which is going to be purchased from the United States,” he added, “going to NATO, and that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield.”
Weapons being sent include surface-to-air Patriot missile systems and batteries, which Ukraine has asked for to defend itself from Russian air strikes.
Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump also said he was “very unhappy” with Russia, and threatened “severe tariffs” of “about 100%” if there isn’t a deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days.
The White House added that the US would put “secondary sanctions” on countries that buy oil from Russia if an agreement was not reached.
It comes after weeks of frustration from Mr Trump against Vladimir Putin’s refusal to agree to an end to the conflict, with the Russian leader telling the US president he would “not back down” from Moscow’s goals in Ukraine at the start of the month.
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Trump says Putin ‘talks nice and then bombs everybody’
During the briefing on Monday, Mr Trump said he had held calls with Mr Putin where he would think “that was a nice phone call,” but then “missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city, and that happens three or four times”.
“I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy,” he added.
Earlier this year, Mr Trump told Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy “you’re gambling with World War Three” in a fiery White House meeting, and suggested Ukraine started the war against Russia as he sought to negotiate an end to the conflict.
After Mr Trump’s briefing, Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev said on Telegram: “If this is all that Trump had in mind to say about Ukraine today, then all the steam has gone out.”
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Meanwhile, Mr Zelenskyy met with US special envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv, where they “discussed the path to peace” by “strengthening Ukraine’s air defence, joint production, and procurement of defence weapons in collaboration with Europe”.
He thanked both the envoy for the visit and Mr Trump “for the important signals of support and the positive decisions for both our countries”.
At least 30 people have been killed in the Syrian city of Sweida in clashes between local military groups and tribes, according to Syria’s interior ministry.
Officials say initial figures suggest around 100 people have also been injured in the city, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups.
The interior ministry said its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict, which the Reuters news agency said involved fighting between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes.
It marks the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minority groups have increased since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.
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In March, Sky’s Stuart Ramsay described escalating violence within Syria
The violence reportedly erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.
Last April, Sunni militia clashed with armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and fighting later spread to another district near the capital.
But this is the first time the fighting has been reported inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports the fighting was centred in the Maqwas neighbourhood east of Sweida and villages on the western and northern outskirts of the city.
It adds that Syria’s Ministry of Defence has deployed military convoys to the area.
Western nations, including the US and UK, have been increasingly moving towards normalising relations with Syria.
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UK aims to build relationship with Syria
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Concerns among minority groups have intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.
That was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.
The city of Sweida is in southern Syria, about 24 miles (38km) north of the border with Jordan.
The man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been charged with sexual assault against an ex-girlfriend.
Rudy Guede, 38, was the only person who was definitively convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy, back in 2007.
He will be standing trial again in November after an ex-girlfriend filed a police report in the summer of 2023 accusing Guede of mistreatment, personal injury and sexual violence.
Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was released from prison for the murder of Leeds University student Ms Kercher in 2021, after having served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence.
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Since last year – when this investigation was still ongoing – Guede has been under a “special surveillance” regime, Sky News understands, meaning he was banned from having any contact with the woman behind the sexual assault allegations, including via social media, and had to inform police any time he left his city of residence, Viterbo, as ruled by a Rome court.
Guede has been serving a restraining order and fitted with an electronic ankle tag.
The Kercher murder case, in the university city of Perugia, was the subject of international attention.
Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found murdered in the flat she shared with her American roommate, Amanda Knox.
The Briton’s throat had been cut and she had been stabbed 47 times.
(L-R) Raffaele Sollecito, Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox. File pic: AP
Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were placed under suspicion.
Both were initially convicted of murder, but Italy’s highest court overturned their convictions, acquitting them in 2015.
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