SDF Report Capture of Senior ISIS Financier in Syria

US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters stand guard in Raqqa, Syria, on Feb. 7, 2022. (AP)
US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters stand guard in Raqqa, Syria, on Feb. 7, 2022. (AP)
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SDF Report Capture of Senior ISIS Financier in Syria

US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters stand guard in Raqqa, Syria, on Feb. 7, 2022. (AP)
US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters stand guard in Raqqa, Syria, on Feb. 7, 2022. (AP)

US-backed Syrian fighters detained a senior official with the ISIS group who was in charge of financing and arming sleeper cells, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said Friday.

Despite the group's defeat in Syria in March 2019, ISIS sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in Syria and in neighboring Iraq. The extremists once controlled wide areas and declared a so-called “caliphate” in the two countries.

The SDF said its militia members, with the support of the US-led coalition against the ISIS group and the Counter Terrorism Group in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, apprehended senior ISIS financier Abdul-Ghafour Taber al-Diab, also known as Abu Amir.

He was detained Thursday in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, which was once seen as the capital of the extremists, according to the SDF.

“He was responsible for financing the ISIS terrorist cells and their terrorist acts in the region, supplying them with weapons,” the militia said in a terse statement.

The operation came after 10 days of fighting in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor between SDF fighters and Arab tribesmen in what many feared would affect the fight against ISIS. Earlier this week, the SDF took control of the areas it lost in the fighting that broke out on Aug. 27.

In other parts of Syria, hundreds of people took part in anti-government protests in the southern city of Sweida, tearing down pictures of President Bashar al-Assad from a state institution.

The demonstrations were sparked by worsening living conditions and inflation that surged after Assad’s decision last month to double public sector wages and pensions.

The protests in Sweida province, where Druze people represent the majority of the population, are now in their third week. Surging inflation and the war-torn country’s spiraling economy initially drove the demonstrations but quickly shifted to marchers calling for the fall of Assad’s government.

Sweida province has largely avoided the fighting of Syria’s 12-year war, which has killed a half-million people, wounded hundreds of thousands and left parts of the country destroyed. The conflict has displaced half of Syria's prewar population of 23 million, including more than 5 million who are refugees outside the country.

The Druze made up about 5% of Syria’s prewar population and are split between supporters and opponents of Assad.



Beirut Blast Investigator Resumes Work After Two Years

An aerial view shows the massive damage at Beirut port's grain silos and the area around it on August 5, 2020, one day after a massive explosion hit the heart of the Lebanese capital. (AFP)
An aerial view shows the massive damage at Beirut port's grain silos and the area around it on August 5, 2020, one day after a massive explosion hit the heart of the Lebanese capital. (AFP)
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Beirut Blast Investigator Resumes Work After Two Years

An aerial view shows the massive damage at Beirut port's grain silos and the area around it on August 5, 2020, one day after a massive explosion hit the heart of the Lebanese capital. (AFP)
An aerial view shows the massive damage at Beirut port's grain silos and the area around it on August 5, 2020, one day after a massive explosion hit the heart of the Lebanese capital. (AFP)

Lebanese judge Tarek Bitar resumed his investigation into the deadly 2020 Beirut port blast on Thursday, charging 10 people including security, customs and military personnel, a judicial official said.

The fresh charges come after a two-year hiatus in the investigation into the August 4, 2020 explosion that killed more than 220 people, injured thousands and devastated swathes of Lebanon's capital.

Authorities said the explosion was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertilizer had been haphazardly stored for years.

But nobody has been held responsible for the blast, one of history's largest non-nuclear explosions.

The probe stalled two years ago after Lebanese group Hezbollah had accused Bitar of bias and demanded his dismissal, and after officials named in the investigation had filed a flurry of lawsuits to prevent it from going forward.

The resumption comes with Hezbollah's influence weakened after its recent war with Israel.

It also follows the election of a Lebanese president after the top position had been vacant for more than two years, with the new head of state Joseph Aoun last week pledging to work towards the "independence of the judiciary".

The judicial official told AFP that "procedures in the case have resumed", speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

The official said that "a new charge sheet has been issued, charging three employees and seven high-ranking officers in the Lebanese army, in the General Security, (and) in customs" with negligence and "possible intent to commit murder". Their interrogations would begin next month.

In March and April, "investigating sessions" would resume for those previously charged in the case, including former ministers, lawmakers, security and military officers, judges and port management employees, after which Bitar would ask public prosecutors to issue indictments, according to the judicial official.

Analysts say Hezbollah's weakening in its war with Israel last year allowed Lebanon's deeply divided political class to elect Aoun last week and back his naming of Nawaf Salam as premier on Monday.

Salam, until recently the presiding judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, on Tuesday promised "justice for the victims of the Beirut port blast".

Hundreds of individuals and organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, had previously called for the United Nations to establish a fact-finding mission on the disaster -- a demand Lebanese officials have repeatedly rejected.

Cecile Roukoz, a lawyer whose brother died in the explosion, said she was optimistic after "the promises made by the president and the prime minister, then the probe resuming".

"There is hope that the rights of the victims, for whom we never stopped fighting, won't be forgotten," said the attorney, one of several representing the relatives of those killed.

Visiting Lebanon on Thursday, UN rights chief Volker Turk called for the "resumption of an independent investigation into the explosion".

"I repeat that those responsible for that tragedy must be held to account and offer the support of my office in this regard," he said.

The probe has been repeatedly stalled since 2020.

In December of that year, lead investigator Fadi Sawan charged former prime minister Hassan Diab -- who had resigned in the explosion's aftermath -- and three ex-ministers with negligence.

But Sawan was later removed from the case after mounting political pressure, and the probe was suspended.

His successor, Bitar, also summoned Diab for questioning and asked parliament, without success, to lift the immunity of lawmakers who had served as ministers.

The interior ministry also refused to execute arrest warrants issued by Bitar, further undermining his efforts.

The public prosecutor at the time, Ghassan Oueidat, thwarted his attempt to resume investigations in early 2023 after Bitar charged him in the case.