Live Blog Update| Syria War
This is an entry from: Live: Over 100,000 bodies found in mass grave near Damascus

Evening update

14 December 2024 23:54 GMT

Good evening, Middle East Eye readers,

It is 3am in Damascus, and here are some of the latest developments unfolding in Syria:

  • Israel launched over 60 air strikes on Syrian territory on Saturday evening, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

  • Syrian rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed Jolani, said on Saturday that he is not interested in engaging in new conflicts, despite Israel's seizure of a buffer zone in the occupied Golan Heights and its air force pummelling Syrian military positions with air strikes.

  • The Turkish flag was raised at its embassy in Damascus as it was reopened after 12 years.

  • Israeli army chief of staff Herzi Halevi told troops in the occupied Golan Heights that the military is "not intervening" in Syria.

  • Reuters is reporting, citing senior Syrian officials, that the Russian military is pulling back its military from posts in the Alawite Mountains in northern Syria. According to the sources, Moscow will be retaining its its two main bases in the country - the Hmeimim airbase in Latakia and the Tartous naval facility.

  • Lebanese PM Najib Mikati has called on Syrian refugees who fled to Lebanon to return home.

  • US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed on Saturday that Washington has been in “direct contact” with HTS. He added that the easing of US sanctions on Syria would depend on “sustained action” by the group.

  •  Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers have demanded that Israel pull out of a demilitarised zone along the border with Syria.

  • The Arab Ministerial Contact group on Syria has committed to supporting a peaceful and Syrian-led political transition. The group also criticised Israel's incursions into Syria and its breaking of various agreements brokered between the two countries.