Israel kills terror cell head, Dermer reportedly to visit US for hostage talks

The Syrian army said on Saturday dozens of its soldiers had been killed in a major attack led by Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels who swept into the city of Aleppo, forcing the army to redeploy in the biggest challenge to President Bashar al-Assad in years.

Russia's Defence Ministry said its air force had carried out strikes on Syrian rebels in support of the country's army, Russian news agencies reported. The strikes followed what was the boldest rebel assault for years in a civil war where front lines had largely been frozen since 2020.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, once known as the Nusra Front, is designated a terrorist group by the US, Russia, Turkey and other states. Assad is a close Moscow ally.

In Washington, the White House National Security Council said it was closely monitoring the situation and had been in contact with regional capitals over the last 48 hours.

NSC spokesperson Sean Savett said Syria's refusal to engage in a political process and its reliance on Russia and Iran had "created the conditions now unfolding, including the collapse of Assad regime lines in northwest Syria."

Savett said the US had nothing to do with the offensive led by "a designated terrorist organization" and "urged de-escalation ... and a serious and credible political process" under the 2015 U.N. Security Council Resolution 2254, which laid out the steps for a ceasefire and political transition.

The war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced many millions, has ground on since 2011 with no formal end, although most major fighting halted years ago after Iran and Russia helped Assad's government win control of most land and all major cities.

Aleppo had been firmly held by the government since a 2016 victory there, one of the war's major turning points, when Russian-backed Syrian forces besieged and laid waste to rebel-held eastern areas of what had been the country's largest city.

"I am a son of Aleppo, and was displaced from it eight years ago, in 2016. Thank God we just returned. It is an indescribable feeling," said Ali Jumaa, a rebel fighter, in television footage filmed inside the city.

Acknowledging the rebel advance, the Syrian army command said insurgents had entered much of Aleppo.

After the army said it was preparing a counterattack, airstrikes targeted rebel gatherings and convoys in the city, the pro-Damascus newspaper al-Watan reported. One strike caused casualties in Aleppo's Basel square, a resident told Reuters.

The state-run Russian Centre for the Reconciliation of the Enemy Parties in Syria said missile and bomb strikes against the rebels had targeted "militant concentrations, command posts, depots, and artillery positions" in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. It claimed about 300 rebel fighters had been killed.

Images filmed on Saturday showed people posing for photos on a toppled statue of Bassil al-Assad, late brother of the president. Fighters zipped around the city in trucks and milled around in the streets. A man waved a Syrian opposition flag as he stood near Aleppo's historic citadel.

The Syrian military command said militants had attacked in large numbers and from multiple directions, prompting "our armed forces to carry out a redeployment operation aimed at strengthening the defence lines in order to absorb the attack, preserve the lives of civilians and soldiers".

Rebels took control of Aleppo's Airport

The rebels also took control of Aleppo airport, according to a statement by their operations room and a security source.

Two rebel sources also said the insurgents had captured the city of Maraat al Numan in Idlib province, bringing all of that area under their control.

The fighting revives the long-simmering Syrian conflict as the wider region is roiled by wars in Gaza and Lebanon, where a truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday.

With Assad backed by Russia and Iran, and Turkey supporting some of the rebels in the northwest where it maintains troops, the offensive has brought into focus the conflict's knotted geopolitics. Fighting in the northwest had largely abated since Turkey and Russia reached a de-escalation agreement in 2020.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a phone call with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, discussing the situation in Syria, Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

"Both sides expressed serious concerns at the dangerous development of the situation," the ministry said. They agreed it was necessary to coordinate joint actions to stabilise the situation in the country.

Turkish security officials had said on Thursday that Ankara had prevented operations which opposition groups wanted to organise, in order to avoid further tensions in the region.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Lavrov in a phone call that the rebel attacks were part of an Israeli-US plan to destabilise the region, Iranian state media said.

The Syrian Civil Defense, a rescue service operating in opposition-held parts of Syria, said in a post on X that Syrian government and Russian aircraft carried out airstrikes on residential neighbourhoods in rebel-held Idlib, killing four civilians and wounding six others.

Two Syrian military sources said Russia has promised Damascus extra military aid that would start arriving in the next 72 hours.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which spearhead the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces that control much of northeastern and eastern Syria and have long had a foothold in Aleppo, widened their control in the city as government troops left, a senior YPG source said.

Mustafa Abdul Jaber, a commander in the Jaish al-Izza rebel brigade, said the rebels' speedy advance had been helped by a lack of Iran-backed manpower to support the government in the broader Aleppo province.

Iran's regional allies have suffered a series of blows at the hands of Israel as the Gaza war has expanded through the Middle East.

The opposition fighters have said the campaign was in response to stepped-up strikes in recent weeks against civilians by the Russian and Syrian air forces on areas of Idlib province, and to preempt any attacks by the Syrian army.

Arab-Israeli journalist and activist for Israel Yoseph Haddad was kicked out of an Oxford Union debate on Thursday, footage on social media showed.

The debate, which attracted pro-Palestine protesters, concluded in a vote that determined "Israel was an apartheid state responsible for genocide." This was passed by 278 votes to 59, according to a Friday Jewish Chronicle report. 

Haddad posted on X/Twitter that he was kicked out because he "was not ready to accept the humiliation of the Israeli hostages."

Footage posted on X showed Haddad being escorted out of the event as people in the audience shouted in his direction. 

זה מה שעשיתי כשסילקו אותי מהאירוע העוין כשאני מוקף אנטי ישראלים בגלל שלא הייתי מוכן לקבל ביזוי של החטופים הישראלים!

עוד אספר בהרחבה על מה שהיה בעימות באוקספורד ועוד אעלה את הקטעים של הנאום שלי שם, אבל דבר אחד אני יכול לומר בוודאות- אוקספורד נכבשה בידי תומכי טרור. 90% מהמשתתפים… pic.twitter.com/pmHI3lLREJ

— יוסף חדאד - Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) November 29, 2024

When explaining in a post on X what happened at the event, Haddad began by writing that "Oxford was occupied by supporters of terrorism. 90% of the participants are distinctly anti-Israeli."

Yoseph Haddad at a London demonstration calling for support for Israel and the return of the hostages. (credit: Elliot Jacobs)

He then continued to explain that during the "biased discussion," extreme statements were made that supported terrorism and the October 7 Hamas attacks.

"When one audience member cried over Gaza residents in an exaggerated and insincere manner, I pulled out a photo of the Muslim hostages and asked if she was crying for them, too. One participant took the photo, threw it on the floor, and others stepped on it," Haddad continued.

"I faced insults, boos, and threats during the confrontation, but there was one thing I wasn’t willing to tolerate—the disgrace of our hostages," Haddad wrote and then added that afterward, he demanded the audience members be removed.  

"I wasn’t willing to let the discussion continue, even when the anti-Israel moderator, who was practically part of the confrontation, warned me. In the end, he decided to have me removed from the hall," Haddad explained.

He also added that before he was kicked out of the event hall, he put a T-shirt over his suit that featured former Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah and had a large X marked over his face with the text, "Your hero-terrorist is dead! We did that."

Escorted by eight security guards to 'stay alive'

In an additional post that Haddad shared on X after the event, he posted a video of him in which he explained how he had to be escorted by eight security guards "in order to stay alive."

"Everyone is talking about freedom of speech, freedom of speech. That's fine, but it's freedom of speech only for one side. When it comes to the Israeli side, the freedom of speech stops, and that's why we need the security to be with me all the time."

As he waited for security to arrive, the video continued, "Waiting for evacuation from Oxford. Not from Gaza, not from Lebanon, not from a terrorist that has war. From Oxford. Because Oxford has been occupied by anti-Israel terrorist support from the Middle East."

When the security guards came to escort Haddad back to London, where he was staying, the video concluded with him saying, "We need eight security guards in order to take us back to safety. Oh UK, you are in trouble."

Additional attendees of the debate 

Mossab Hassan Yousef, the son of a Hamas co-founder and an advocate for Israel, also attended the event and made a Saturday X post writing that "Oxford Union is controlled by terrorist supporters."

"Last night, I asked the participants and pro 'Palestine' opponents during a debate at Oxford Union if they would have reported Hamas plans to authorities to prevent the October 7 massacre. 75% of the participants voted they would have chosen not to report Hamas plans to the authorities," he wrote.

Additionally, journalist Emily Schrader, who attended the debate, explained in an X post that she had never seen "such appalling mob-incited, unbridled Jew-hatred being endorsed and emboldened by one of the most respected institutions in academia."

"We should not need seven security guards with us to be proud of who we are. We should not have to scream over bloodthirsty lunatics to have our voices heard on a forum like the Oxford Union," she wrote.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is the primary group behind the current blitzkrieg offensive against the Assad regime that started on Wednesday, which led to the capture of around two-thirds of Aleppo and a total breakdown of the Syrian front lines.

HTS is the result of several reorganizations in Syrian jihadist groups in 2017. Many of HTS's commanders and intellectuals come from the Al Nusrah Front, the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda.

The group was originally formed by Hashem "Abu Jaber" al-Sheikh, who had been a long-time Salafist opponent of the regime, having been arrested and imprisoned as early as 2005. Sheikh was freed from the prison in 2011 during the opening moves of the Syrian Civil War.

Sheikh's view of Islam seems to have become HTS's primary outlook, with schools in territory held by the group teaching his Salafi interpretations of Islam.

However, Sheikh's Salfism claims to be distinct from the Salfism promoted by other Salafi groups; in particular, it is said to promote equality between the four traditional schools of Islamic jurisprudence (madhab). This is, in part, an alleged attempt to allow HTS to become more accepted by a variety of Muslim communities, allowing it to ingratiate itself with the locals, according to a 2021 paper from the European University Institute.

A rebel led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stands in the back of a vehicle in al-Rashideen, Aleppo province, Syria November 29, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/Mahmoud Hasano)

Despite this, HTS uses the Shafi school as their primary source of Sharia law, which is the standard in Syria, as opposed to the Hanbali, which Salafist groups normally use.

Who is al-Julani?

Despite his strong influence on the group, Sheikh was emir for about six months until current leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani replaced him as emir; Sheikh then became head of HTS's Shura Council. The US has put a ten-million-dollar bounty on Julani for information leading to his capture.

Julani has led the group since 2017, functioning as its political and military leader.

Julani has been markedly different than many other leaders of Jihadist groups; in particular, he has tried to persuade Western observers that he and his organization are not a threat to the West.

During a 2021 interview with PBS, Julani emphasized that despite previous comments, he was not looking to turn Syria into a launching point for attacks on the West, saying, "Yes, we did criticize some Western policies in the region, but to wage a war against the United States and the Europeans from Syria, that’s not true."

In the same interview, he defended his choice to join Al Qaeda as defensive but simultaneously tried to distance himself from ISIS.

He claimed that his organization was not looking to kill innocent people like ISIS, and this was why he distanced himself from them. He also later said that the decision to disaffiliate from Al Qaeda was final and that he and HTS did not support "external attacks" on European or American people.

Julani also defended his use of suicide bombers against the regime, saying, "If we had planes, we would have used planes. If we had artillery to replace martyrdom, we would have saved those brothers and used those weapons."

He also claimed that his organization did not target civilians with suicide bombings, saying they only targeted military targets.

Views on minorities

Julani alleged that he has a dislike for sectarian attacks and highlighted his attempt at forming a "broad" governing body in Idlib province, which the group controlled.

He said that Sharia law was extremely clear that Muslims must respect Christian minority groups and provide freedom of worship.

Reports from 2022 discuss Julani's attempts to build broader support from non-Muslims in Syria. In one instance, Julani allegedly helped inaugurate water infrastructure projects in Druze villages in the south of Idlib province, according to Al-Monitor. During the same trip, he condemned the massacre of 20 Druze that occurred in 2015.

Agenzia Fides, Vatican State media, announced that HTS was permitting Christians in Idlib to celebrate mass for the first time in ten years in 2022, with the decision being directly attributed to Julani. He also reportedly promised to return all property that was seized from the Christian community.

HTS troops also began issuing statements calling for unity between the different religious communities of Idlib.

HTS has just released a statement previously issued to Aleppo, now translated to Eng, so the target is the international audience.
Assures civilians of all sects to remain calm, declares humane treatment to surrendering combatants and advises all fighters to remain disciplined. pic.twitter.com/MxcKZl94Nr

— Paweł Wójcik 🦋 (@SaladinAlDronni) November 29, 2024

During the offensive into Aleppo, Julani issued statements in which he called on his troops to respect Aleppo's place in history as "a crossroads of civilizations and cultures, with a long history of cultural and religious diversity."

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is the primary group behind the current blitzkrieg offensive against the Assad regime that started on Wednesday, which led to the capture of around two-thirds of Aleppo and a total breakdown of the Syrian front lines.

HTS is the result of several reorganizations in Syrian jihadist groups in 2017. Many of HTS's commanders and intellectuals come from the Al Nusrah Front, the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda.

The group was originally formed by Hashem "Abu Jaber" al-Sheikh, who had been a long-time Salafist opponent of the regime, having been arrested and imprisoned as early as 2005. Sheikh was freed from the prison in 2011 during the opening moves of the Syrian Civil War.

Sheikh's view of Islam seems to have become HTS's primary outlook, with schools in territory held by the group teaching his Salafi interpretations of Islam.

However, Sheikh's Salfism claims to be distinct from the Salfism promoted by other Salafi groups; in particular, it is said to promote equality between the four traditional schools of Islamic jurisprudence (madhab). This is, in part, an alleged attempt to allow HTS to become more accepted by a variety of Muslim communities, allowing it to ingratiate itself with the locals, according to a 2021 paper from the European University Institute.

A rebel led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stands in the back of a vehicle in al-Rashideen, Aleppo province, Syria November 29, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/Mahmoud Hasano)

Despite this, HTS uses the Shafi school as their primary source of Sharia law, which is the standard in Syria, as opposed to the Hanbali, which Salafist groups normally use.

Who is al-Julani?

Despite his strong influence on the group, Sheikh was emir for about six months until current leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani replaced him as emir; Sheikh then became head of HTS's Shura Council. The US has put a ten-million-dollar bounty on Julani for information leading to his capture.

Julani has led the group since 2017, functioning as its political and military leader.

Julani has been markedly different than many other leaders of Jihadist groups; in particular, he has tried to persuade Western observers that he and his organization are not a threat to the West.

During a 2021 interview with PBS, Julani emphasized that despite previous comments, he was not looking to turn Syria into a launching point for attacks on the West, saying, "Yes, we did criticize some Western policies in the region, but to wage a war against the United States and the Europeans from Syria, that’s not true."

In the same interview, he defended his choice to join Al Qaeda as defensive but simultaneously tried to distance himself from ISIS.

He claimed that his organization was not looking to kill innocent people like ISIS, and this was why he distanced himself from them. He also later said that the decision to disaffiliate from Al Qaeda was final and that he and HTS did not support "external attacks" on European or American people.

Julani also defended his use of suicide bombers against the regime, saying, "If we had planes, we would have used planes. If we had artillery to replace martyrdom, we would have saved those brothers and used those weapons."

He also claimed that his organization did not target civilians with suicide bombings, saying they only targeted military targets.

Views on minorities

Julani alleged that he has a dislike for sectarian attacks and highlighted his attempt at forming a "broad" governing body in Idlib province, which the group controlled.

He said that Sharia law was extremely clear that Muslims must respect Christian minority groups and provide freedom of worship.

Reports from 2022 discuss Julani's attempts to build broader support from non-Muslims in Syria. In one instance, Julani allegedly helped inaugurate water infrastructure projects in Druze villages in the south of Idlib province, according to Al-Monitor. During the same trip, he condemned the massacre of 20 Druze that occurred in 2015.

Agenzia Fides, Vatican State media, announced that HTS was permitting Christians in Idlib to celebrate mass for the first time in ten years in 2022, with the decision being directly attributed to Julani. He also reportedly promised to return all property that was seized from the Christian community.

HTS troops also began issuing statements calling for unity between the different religious communities of Idlib.

HTS has just released a statement previously issued to Aleppo, now translated to Eng, so the target is the international audience.
Assures civilians of all sects to remain calm, declares humane treatment to surrendering combatants and advises all fighters to remain disciplined. pic.twitter.com/MxcKZl94Nr

— Paweł Wójcik 🦋 (@SaladinAlDronni) November 29, 2024

During the offensive into Aleppo, Julani issued statements in which he called on his troops to respect Aleppo's place in history as "a crossroads of civilizations and cultures, with a long history of cultural and religious diversity."