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Hezbollah Launches ‘Squadrons of Drones’ at Israel

Mourners carry the coffin of a Hamas official Samer Al-Hajj, who was killed on Friday by an Israeli drone strike, during his funeral procession at Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, in the southern port city of Sidon, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Mourners carry the coffin of a Hamas official Samer Al-Hajj, who was killed on Friday by an Israeli drone strike, during his funeral procession at Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, in the southern port city of Sidon, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
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Hezbollah Launches ‘Squadrons of Drones’ at Israel

Mourners carry the coffin of a Hamas official Samer Al-Hajj, who was killed on Friday by an Israeli drone strike, during his funeral procession at Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, in the southern port city of Sidon, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Mourners carry the coffin of a Hamas official Samer Al-Hajj, who was killed on Friday by an Israeli drone strike, during his funeral procession at Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, in the southern port city of Sidon, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Hezbollah group said it launched on Saturday explosive-laden drones at a north Israel army base following the killing of a Hamas commander in south Lebanon a day earlier.
Hezbollah fighters launched “squadrons of explosive-laden drones” at the Michve Alon base near the Galilee town of Safed “in response to the attack and assassination carried out by the Israeli enemy in the city of Sidon” on Friday, the group said in a statement.
Hezbollah’s media office said it was “the first time” the group had targeted that base.
On Friday, an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the south Lebanon city of Sidon killed a Hamas commander, the Palestinian militant group and the Israeli military said.
Hamas said in a statement that Samer Al-Hajj was killed “in a Zionist strike in the city of Sidon.”
The Israeli military said that its aircraft struck the Sidon area and “eliminated” Hajj, whom it identified as “a senior commander” for Hamas in Lebanon.
It was the first strike of its kind in Sidon since Hamas launched its October 7 attack on Israel, triggering war in Gaza and prompting its Lebanese ally Hezbollah to begin trading near-daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army in a bid to tie down its troops.

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Arab World

Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Meets HTS Leader in Damascus

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
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Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Meets HTS Leader in Damascus

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)

Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, Türkiye’s foreign ministry said, without providing further details.

Photographs and footage shared by the ministry showed Fidan and Sharaa, leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, which led the operation to topple Bashar al-Assad two weeks ago, walking ahead of a crowded delegation before posing for photographs.

The two are also seen shaking hands, hugging, and smiling.

On Friday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that Türkiye would help Syria's new administration form a state structure and draft a new constitution, adding Fidan would head to Damascus to discuss this new structure, without providing a date.

Ibrahim Kalin, the head of Türkiye’s MIT intelligence agency, also visited Damascus on Dec. 12, four days after Assad's fall.

Ankara had for years backed opposition fighters looking to oust Assad and welcomed the end of his family's brutal five-decade rule after a 13-year civil war. Türkiye also hosts millions of Syrian migrants it hopes will start returning home after Assad's fall, and has vowed to help rebuild Syria.

Fidan's visit comes amid fighting in northeast Syria between Türkiye-backed Syrian fighters and the Kurdish YPG militia, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast and Ankara regards as a terrorist organization.

Earlier, Türkiye’s defense minister said Ankara believed that Syria's new leadership, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) armed group which Ankara backs, will drive YPG fighters from all territory they occupy in the northeast.

Ankara, alongside Syrian allies, has mounted several cross-border offensives against the Kurdish faction in northern Syria and controls swathes of Syrian territory along the border, while repeatedly demanding that its NATO ally Washington halts support for the Kurdish fighters.

The SDF has been on the back foot since Assad's fall, with the threat of advances from Ankara and Türkiye-backed groups as it looks to preserve political gains made in the last 13 years, and with Syria's new rulers being friendly to Ankara.