Israel and the Islamic militant Hezbollah group have reportedly agreed on informal rules of engagement as they prepare for possible war while trying to avoid setting it off. The New York Times newspaper reports that Israel has mostly refrained from killing members of Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and committed to destroying the Jewish state.
The foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey, and Iran will hold a video conference on April 22 to discuss Syria and a de-escalation deal in the last rebel-held enclave in Idlib.
President Trump threatened Iran with severe retaliation Wednesday after the U.S. military claimed Iranian ships had made ‘dangerous and threatening approaches’ toward American navy vessels in the Persian Gulf last week.
Lebanese media have reported that on Wednesday afternoon an Israeli drone attacked a vehicle belonging to the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group, Hezbollah. The vehicle was in Syria, close to the border with Lebanon. There were no reports of any injuries from the strike.
Authorities in Germany say they have detained four suspected Islamic militants for plotting to attack American military facilities in the country. The four men, originally from Tajikistan — along with a fifth individual arrested last year — targeted several U.S. airforce bases on behalf of the Islamic State group, prosecutors said.
The Syrian military is continuing to support Hezbollah and allowing the terrorist group to gain a foothold in the Syrian Golan Heights, claimed IDF Arabic language spokesperson Avichay Adraee on Twitter.
Iran has released a Christian woman who was jailed after refusing to reconvert to Islam, activists confirmed to Worthy News. Rokhsareh (Mahrokh) Ghanbari, 62, is among some 85,000 prisoners freed in recent weeks amid concerns about the spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon has been accused of helping to bring coronavirus to the nation. Opponents of the powerful group point out that Lebanon took three weeks to block flights from Iran, after a woman who had just returned from there tested coronavirus positive on February 20. Hezbollah is accused of causing the delay to ensure its supporters could return home. Denying the claims, Hezbollah is trying to show the Lebanon Shiite community that it is working to protect them from the outbreak.
The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday accused the Hezbollah terror group and the Syrian army of being behind an attempted sniping attack against Israeli soldiers in the Golan Heights earlier this month, which was thwarted by an Israeli strike on the suspects’ car.
Iran said Saturday the coronavirus outbreak has killed another 97 people, pushing the death toll in the country to 611, as war-ravaged Syria announced a number of strict measures despite the government saying it has no confirmed cases.
As it enters its tenth year, the war in Syria is anything but abating, as foreign powers scrap over a ravaged country where human suffering keeps reaching new levels.
The pace of U.S. military strikes against al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabab in Somalia this year is nearly on par with the number of strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Russia and Turkey have agreed to a new ceasefire in northwestern Syria, the site in recent weeks of numerous clashes between Turkish and Russian-backed Assad regime forces.
Damascus said early Thursday that Israel was carrying out airstrikes in central and southern Syria and that its air defenses had engaged the missiles.
The Greek military and police are clashing with refugees rushing to cross the border from Turkey as islanders to the south cope with hundreds of new arrivals.
The Russian Navy has dispatched a fourth warship to Syria’s Mediterranean coast as tensions over the northwestern province of Idlib spiral with Turkey, amateur ship spotters reported Monday.
Syrian government forces entered parts of a strategic rebel-held town on Monday, and Turkey said it would keep hitting President Bashar al-Assad’s troops after ramping up operations in its biggest intervention yet into the Syrian civil war.
The presidents of Turkey and Russia spoke by phone Friday to try to defuse tensions that rose significantly in Syria after at least 33 Turkish troops were killed in an airstrike blamed on the Syrian government, and a new wave of refugees and migrants headed for the Greek land and sea border after Turkey said it would no longer hold them back.
Turkey says its forces have retaliated against Russia-backed Syrian government forces after at least 33 of its soldiers were killed in air strikes in Idlib Province, as NATO condemned Damascus and Moscow for what it called “indiscriminate” bombing in the region.
Israel’s military says its warplanes struck Islamic Jihad targets in Palestinian-ruled Gaza and near Damascus in Syria after a barrage of rocket fire into Israel from Gaza Sunday.