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Türkiye Eliminates PKK Official Behind 2020 Car bombing in Afrin

Türkiye Eliminates PKK Official Behind 2020 Car bombing in Afrin
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Türkiye Eliminates PKK Official Behind 2020 Car bombing in Afrin

Türkiye Eliminates PKK Official Behind 2020 Car bombing in Afrin

Turkish intelligence has eliminated senior official from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the biggest component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Manbij, in an operation northern Syria.

It said the member was responsible for the 2020 car-bombing in Afrin, which killed 40 and injured dozens.

Heysem Cuma, codenamed Heysem Abu Dahham, was operating in Manbij, the Anadolu Agency said quoting sources.

Cuma also transferred arms to attack Türkiye's zones in northern Syria, primarily the Euphrates Shield Operation Zone, said the sources on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

The figure was eliminated by the Turkish intelligence on July 9 in an operation in the city center of Manbij.

Also, Cuma was responsible for several bomb attacks in Jarablus in 2019 as well as the 2020 car-bombing in which left 40 civilians dead, including 11 children, and 47 people injured.

After the car bombing, the governor's office in Türkiye's Hatay province, bordering Afrin, said it arrested a person suspected to be behind the fuel truck.

Meanwhile, pro-Turkish factions brought in massive military reinforcement to Afrin, amid a state of high security alert in the city and countryside.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said “Al-Hamzah” and “Suleiman Shah” divisions, in addition to “Ahrar Al-Sham Islamic Movement” brought in huge military columns of heavy weapons, tanks, rocket launchers and 4×4 vehicles with submachine guns, amid a state of high alert in Hayat Tahrir al-Sham-held area.

In Aleppo, SOHR sources said Turkish forces brought in a new military convoy of military and logistic vehicles, armored vehicles and personnel carriers escorted with members.

The convoy crossed through Kafar Lousin border crossing with the Turkish side and headed towards the Turkish posts in the western countryside of Aleppo, within the “Putin-Erdogan” area.

The Turkish military reinforcements came after SDF escalated their attacks on Turkish military positions in Syria.

The shelling coincided with Russian aircrafts flying over the region. No causalities were reported.

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Israel Says Ceasefire with Hezbollah Violated, Fires on South Lebanon

File photo: This picture taken from a position in northern Israel along the border with Lebanon on January 21, 2024 shows smoke billowing over the Lebanese village of Markaba during reported Israeli bombardment, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. (AFP)
File photo: This picture taken from a position in northern Israel along the border with Lebanon on January 21, 2024 shows smoke billowing over the Lebanese village of Markaba during reported Israeli bombardment, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. (AFP)
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Israel Says Ceasefire with Hezbollah Violated, Fires on South Lebanon

File photo: This picture taken from a position in northern Israel along the border with Lebanon on January 21, 2024 shows smoke billowing over the Lebanese village of Markaba during reported Israeli bombardment, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. (AFP)
File photo: This picture taken from a position in northern Israel along the border with Lebanon on January 21, 2024 shows smoke billowing over the Lebanese village of Markaba during reported Israeli bombardment, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. (AFP)

Israeli tank fire hit six areas in southern Lebanon on Thursday and the Israeli military said its ceasefire with Hezbollah was breached after what it called suspects, some in vehicles, arrived at several areas in the southern zone.
A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday under a deal brokered by the US and France, intended to allow people in both countries to start returning to homes in border areas shattered by 14 months of fighting, Reuters said.
The Israeli military had urged residents of towns along the border strip not to return yet for their own safety.
On Thursday morning, Israeli tank fire hit six areas within that border strip, state media and Lebanese security sources said.
The rounds struck Markaba, Wazzani and Kfarchouba, Khiyam, Taybe and the agricultural plains around Marjayoun, all of which lie within two kilometers of the Blue Line demarcating the border between Lebanon and Israel. One of the security sources said two people were wounded in Markaba.
Lebanese families displaced from their homes near the southern border have tried to return to check on their properties. But Israeli troops remain stationed within Lebanese territory in towns along the border and Reuters reporters heard surveillance drones flying over parts of southern Lebanon.
There was no immediate comment on the tank rounds from Hezbollah or Israel, who had been fighting for over a year in parallel with the Gaza war.
The agreement, a rare diplomatic feat in a region racked by conflict, ended the deadliest confrontation between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group in years. But Israel is still fighting its other arch foe, the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in the Gaza Strip.
Under the ceasefire terms, Israeli forces can take up to 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon but neither side can launch offensive operations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed the military not to allow residents back to villages near the border.
Lebanon's speaker of parliament Nabih Berri, the top interlocutor for Lebanon in negotiating the deal, had said on Wednesday that residents could return home.
Hezbollah has said its fighters "remain fully equipped to deal with the aspirations and assaults of the Israeli enemy." Its forces will monitor Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon "with their hands on the trigger".
The group has been weakened by casualties and the killing of its leader Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders by Israel.