ֱ

Syria militants say found dozens of tortured bodies in hospital near Damascus

Syria militants say found dozens of tortured bodies in hospital near Damascus
Sanitary servicemen arrange the bodies of dead persons at the morgue of a hospital in Damascus on December 10, 2024. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 10 December 2024

Syria militants say found dozens of tortured bodies in hospital near Damascus

Syria militants say found dozens of tortured bodies in hospital near Damascus
  • At the core of the system of rule that Assad inherited from his father Hafez was a brutal complex of prisons and detention centers used to eliminate dissent

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Militants told AFP they found around 40 bodies bearing signs of torture inside a hospital morgue near Damascus on Monday, stuffed into body bags with numbers and sometimes names written on them.
“I opened the door of the morgue with my own hands, it was a horrific sight: about 40 bodies were piled up showing signs of gruesome torture,” Mohammed Al-Hajj, a fighter with militant factions from the country’s south told AFP by telephone from Damascus.
AFP saw dozens of photographs and video footage that Hajj said he took himself and showed corpses with evident signs of torture: eyes and teeth gouged out, blood splattered and bruising.
The footage taken in Harasta hospital also showed a piece of cloth containing bones, while a decomposing body’s rib cage peaked through the skin.
The bodies were placed in white plastic bags or wrapped in white cloth, some stained with blood.
Corpses had pieces of cloth or adhesive tape bearing scribbled numbers and sometimes names.
Some seemed to have been killed recently.
While some of the dead were wearing clothes, others were naked.
Militants seized power on Sunday ousting former President Bashar Assad, whose family ruled Syria with an iron fist for more than five decades.
At the core of the system of rule that Assad inherited from his father Hafez was a brutal complex of prisons and detention centers used to eliminate dissent by jailing those suspected of stepping out of the ruling Baath party’s line.
Thousands of people hoping to reunite with loved ones who disappeared in Assad’s jails had gathered Monday evening at the notorious Saydnaya prison outside Damascus, AFP correspondents said.
Hajj said the fighters received a tip from a hospital worker about the bodies that were being dumped there.
“We informed the military command of what we found and coordinated with the Syrian Red Crescent, which transported the bodies to a Damascus hospital, so that families can come and identify them,” he added.
Diab Serriya, who cofounded the Association of Detainees and the Missing in Sednaya Prison (ADMSP) watchdog, told AFP the bodies were likely detainees from Saydnaya prison.
“Harasta Hospital served as the main center for collecting the bodies of detainees,” he said.
“Bodies would be sent there from Saydnaya prison or Tishrin Hospital, and from Harasta, they would be transferred to mass graves,” he added.
“It is very important to document what we are seeing in the video.”
According to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, at least 60,000 people have been killed under torture or because of terrible conditions in Assad’s detention centers.
Since the start of the conflict, President Bashar Assad’s government has been accused of human rights abuses and of cases of torture, rape and summary executions.
Hajj said he hoped that efforts will focus on “exposing the crimes committed by Assad in prisons and detention centers” during the transitional period.
“We hope Assad will be held to account as a war criminal,” he said.


Explosion heard in Syria's Idlib, al-Ekhbariah TV reports

Explosion heard in Syria's Idlib, al-Ekhbariah TV reports
Updated 28 sec ago

Explosion heard in Syria's Idlib, al-Ekhbariah TV reports

Explosion heard in Syria's Idlib, al-Ekhbariah TV reports

Greece to send salvage ship to Red Sea after latest Houthi attacks

Greece to send salvage ship to Red Sea after latest Houthi attacks
Updated 18 min 11 sec ago

Greece to send salvage ship to Red Sea after latest Houthi attacks

Greece to send salvage ship to Red Sea after latest Houthi attacks
  • Shipping Minister Vassilis Kikilias said the salvage vessel — called Giant and provided by the Hellenic Association of Tugboat Owners — would “support, protect and assist Greek-owned vessels and Greek

ATHENS: Greece will deploy a salvage vessel in the Red Sea to assist in maritime accidents and protect seafarers and global shipping, the shipping minister said on Thursday, following attacks on two Greek vessels by Yemen’s Houthi militants this month.
Two Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated cargo ships, Magic Seas and Eternity C, sank off Yemen after repeated attacks by the Iran-aligned militant group.
The strikes on the two vessels marked a resumption of attacks on shipping by the Houthis, who struck more than 100 ships between November 2023 and December 2024 in what they said was a show of solidarity with the Palestinians in the war in Gaza.
Shipping Minister Vassilis Kikilias said the salvage vessel — called Giant and provided by the Hellenic Association of Tugboat Owners — would “support, protect and assist Greek-owned vessels and Greek seafarers.”
All of the crew members from the Magic Seas were rescued by a passing ship.
The crew of the Eternity C had to abandon the ship. Ten were rescued by a privately led mission, but five more are feared dead and the Houthis are believed to be holding another 10 crew members, maritime security sources have said.
Aspides, the European Union naval mission protecting shipping in the Red Sea, did not have assets in the area at the time of the incidents.
Giant is manned by a specialist crew of 14 Greek sailors, has four engines with 16,000 horsepower, and can sail in the most adverse weather conditions, the Shipping Ministry said.
It can participate in search and rescue operations, with accommodation for 40 people, help prevent marine pollution and also has firefighting capacity.


South Sudan faces legal battle in London amid oil debt crisis, political turmoil

South Sudan faces legal battle in London amid oil debt crisis, political turmoil
Updated 25 min 59 sec ago

South Sudan faces legal battle in London amid oil debt crisis, political turmoil

South Sudan faces legal battle in London amid oil debt crisis, political turmoil
  • South Sudan has endured two civil wars in the past 15 years and is grappling with increased debt and a shaky peace deal

LONDON: Trading house BB Energy has filed a case against South Sudan in London for failing to deliver oil owed under a pre-payment deal, according to court filings and a company spokesperson.
One of the poorest countries in the world, South Sudan has endured two civil wars in the past 15 years and is grappling with increased debt and a shaky peace deal. In March, the government placed its petroleum minister, as well as other officials, under house arrest.
BB Energy DMCC filed the case last month, court records showed. A company spokesperson told Reuters the action was necessary to preserve BB Energy's rights under a contract with the Ministry of Petroleum.
"As yet, they have defaulted on delivery," the spokesperson said. "We are currently in the process of serving formal proceedings; however we are always looking to find an amicable solution, especially considering our long-term interests in the country."
Officials in South Sudan did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case.
Oil trader Vitol also filed a case against South Sudan in London in May, but said it had since resolved the issue. Sources told Reuters that case related to a single cancelled oil cargo.
In May, a London court ordered South Sudan to pay Afreximbank $657 million over defaulted loans. The IMF pegged South Sudan's total public debt at $3.7 billion as of 2023, with $550 million of the total owed to oil companies.
At its peak before the civil war, South Sudan's crude oil production stood at 350,000 to 400,000 barrels per day, but that tumbled to just 72,000 bpd last year, according to OPEC data, after a damaged oil pipeline halted exports.
The pipeline resumed operations in June, and the country pumped 138,000 bpd that month.


Israel studies Hamas reply to Gaza ceasefire plan as fighting continues

Israel studies Hamas reply to Gaza ceasefire plan as fighting continues
Updated 4 min 25 sec ago

Israel studies Hamas reply to Gaza ceasefire plan as fighting continues

Israel studies Hamas reply to Gaza ceasefire plan as fighting continues
  • Hamas confirmed in a statement early Thursday that it sent the proposal to mediators
  • Israel is reviewing a revised response from Hamas to a proposed ceasefire and hostage release deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday

JERUSALEM: Israel is reviewing a revised response from Hamas to a proposed ceasefire and hostage release deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday, as Israeli air and ground strikes continued to pound the Gaza Strip.
Hamas confirmed it had handed over a new proposal, but did not disclose its contents. A previous version, submitted late on Tuesday, was rejected by mediators as insufficient and was not even passed to Israel, sources familiar with the situation said.
Both sides are facing huge pressure at home and abroad to reach a deal, with the humanitarian conditions inside Gaza deteriorating sharply amidst widespread, acute hunger in the Palestinian enclave that has shocked the world.
A senior Israeli official was quoted by local media as saying the new text was something Israel could work with. However, Israel’s Channel 12 said a rapid deal was not within reach, with gaps remaining between the two sides, including over where the Israeli military should withdraw to during any truce.
A Palestinian official close to the talks told Reuters the latest Hamas position was “flexible, positive and took into consideration the growing suffering in Gaza and the need to stop the starvation.”
Dozens of people have starved to death in Gaza the last few weeks as a wave of hunger crashes on the Palestinian enclave, according to local health authorities. The World Health Organization said on Wednesday 21 children under the age of five were among those who died of malnutrition so far this year.
Israel, which cut off all supplies to Gaza from the start of March and reopened it with new restrictions in May, says it is committed to allowing in aid but must control it to prevent it from being diverted by militants.
It says it has let in enough food for Gaza’s 2.2 million people over the course of the war, and blames the United Nations for being slow to deliver it; the UN says it is operating as effectively as possible under conditions imposed by Israel.

Israeli forces on Thursday hit the central Gaza towns of Nuseirat, Deir Al-Balah and Bureij.
Health officials at Al-Awda Hospital said three people were killed in an airstrike on a house in Nuseirat, three more died from tank shelling in Deir Al-Balah, and separate airstrikes in Bureij killed a man and a woman and wounded several others.
Nasser hospital said three people were killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid in southern Gaza near the so-called Morag axis between Khan Younis and Rafah. The Israeli military said Palestinian militants had fired a projectile overnight from Khan Younis toward an aid distribution site near Morag. It was not immediately clear whether the incidents were linked.
Washington has been pushing the warring sides toward a deal for a 60-day ceasefire that would free some of the remaining 50 hostages held in Gaza in return for prisoners jailed in Israel, and allow in aid.
US Middle East peace envoy Steve Witkoff traveled to Europe this week for meetings on the Gaza war and a range of other issues.
An Israeli official said Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer would meet Witkoff on Friday if the gaps between Israel and Hamas over the terms of a ceasefire had narrowed sufficiently.
Hamas is facing growing domestic pressure amid deepening humanitarian hardship in Gaza and continued Israeli advances.
Mediators say the group is seeking a withdrawal of Israeli troops to positions held before March 2, when Israel ended a previous ceasefire, and the delivery of aid under UN supervision.
That would exclude a newly formed US-based group, the Gaza Humanitarian Fund, which began handing out food in May at sites located near Israeli troops who have shot dead hundreds of Palestinians trying to get aid. 


Hamas confirms it responded to latest Gaza truce proposal

Hamas confirms it responded to latest Gaza truce proposal
Updated 24 July 2025

Hamas confirms it responded to latest Gaza truce proposal

Hamas confirms it responded to latest Gaza truce proposal
  • Negotiators from both sides have been holding indirect talks in Doha with mediators

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Hamas confirmed on Thursday that it has responded to an Israeli proposal for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, after more than two weeks of indirect talks in Qatar have failed to yield a truce.
“Hamas has just submitted its response and that of the Palestinian factions to the ceasefire proposal to the mediators,” the Palestinian militant group said in a statement on Telegram.
The response included proposed amendments to clauses on the entry of aid, maps of areas from which the Israeli army should withdraw, and guarantees on securing a permanent end to the war, according to a Palestinian source familiar with ongoing talks in Doha.
Negotiators from both sides have been holding indirect talks in Doha with mediators in an attempt to reach an agreement on a truce deal that would see the release of Israeli hostages.
Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s 2023 attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
But the talks have dragged on for more than two weeks without a breakthrough, with each side blaming the other for refusing to budge on their key demands.
For Israel, dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities is non-negotiable, while Hamas demands firm guarantees on a lasting truce, a full withdrawal of Israeli troops and the free flow of aid into Gaza.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer on Wednesday accused Hamas of obstructing talks.
“Israel has agreed to the Qatari proposal and the updated (US special envoy Steve) Witkoff proposal, it is Hamas that is refusing,” Mencer told reporters, adding that Israel’s negotiating team was still in Doha and talks were ongoing.
The United States said Witkoff will head to Europe this week for talks on a possible ceasefire and an aid corridor.
More than 100 aid organizations warned on Wednesday that “mass starvation” was spreading in Gaza.