Lebanon Says 6 More Killed in Fighting in the past 24 Hours

A dog sits on the ground as people check the destruction a day after Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh on October 17, 2024. (AFP)
A dog sits on the ground as people check the destruction a day after Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh on October 17, 2024. (AFP)
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Lebanon Says 6 More Killed in Fighting in the past 24 Hours

A dog sits on the ground as people check the destruction a day after Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh on October 17, 2024. (AFP)
A dog sits on the ground as people check the destruction a day after Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh on October 17, 2024. (AFP)

Lebanon’s crisis response unit says six people have been killed and 69 wounded in the past 24 hours in the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The new numbers raise the total toll over the past year of conflict to 2,418 killed and 11,336 wounded, the Lebanese Health Ministry said Friday.

The crisis response unit report also records 87 airstrikes and shellings in the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon and the Nabatiyeh province.

Some 1,098 centers — including educational complexes, vocational institutes, universities, and other institutions — are sheltering 191,501 people, including 44,646 families, displaced by the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, the report says.

Among these shelters, 902 are full. The fighting in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, including more than 400,000 children, according to the UN children’s agency.

The Lebanese Ministry of Education reports that 77 % of public schools are out of service, either due to their use as shelters or their location in areas directly affected by the war.

Despite a major border crossing between Lebanon and Syria being out of commission after an Israeli strike on the road, crowds continue to flow across the border seeking safety in Syria. Between Sept. 23 and Oct. 18, Lebanese General Security recorded 335,948 Syrian and 135,181 Lebanese citizens crossing into Syria, the report said.



Syria Authorities Say Torched 1 Million Captagon Pills

A man throws a bag onto a pile of burning illicit drugs, as Syria's new authorities burn drugs reportedly seized from a security branch, in Damascus on December 25, 2024. (AFP)
A man throws a bag onto a pile of burning illicit drugs, as Syria's new authorities burn drugs reportedly seized from a security branch, in Damascus on December 25, 2024. (AFP)
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Syria Authorities Say Torched 1 Million Captagon Pills

A man throws a bag onto a pile of burning illicit drugs, as Syria's new authorities burn drugs reportedly seized from a security branch, in Damascus on December 25, 2024. (AFP)
A man throws a bag onto a pile of burning illicit drugs, as Syria's new authorities burn drugs reportedly seized from a security branch, in Damascus on December 25, 2024. (AFP)

Syria's new authorities torched a large stockpile of drugs on Wednesday, two security officials told AFP, including one million pills of captagon, whose industrial-scale production flourished under ousted president Bashar al-Assad.

Captagon is a banned amphetamine-like stimulant that became Syria's largest export during the country's more than 13-year civil war, effectively turning it into a narco state under Assad.

"We found a large quantity of captagon, around one million pills," said a balaclava-wearing member of the security forces, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Osama, and whose khaki uniform bore a "public security" patch.

An AFP journalist saw forces pour fuel over and set fire to a cache of cannabis, the painkiller tramadol, and around 50 bags of pink and yellow captagon pills in a security compound formerly belonging to Assad's forces in the capital's Kafr Sousa district.

Captagon has flooded the black market across the region in recent years.

"The security forces of the new government discovered a drug warehouse as they were inspecting the security quarter," said another member of the security forces, who identified himself as Hamza.

Authorities destroyed the stocks of alcohol, cannabis, captagon and hashish in order to "protect Syrian society" and "cut off smuggling routes used by Assad family businesses", he added.

- Manufacturing sites -

Since an opposition alliance toppled Assad on December 8 after a lightning offensive, Syria's new authorities have said massive quantities of captagon have been found in former government sites around the country, including security branches.

AFP journalists in Syria have seen fighters from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group set fire to what they said were stashes of captagon found at facilities once operated by Assad's forces.

Security force member Hamza confirmed Wednesday that "this is not the first initiative of its kind -- the security services, in a number of locations, have found other warehouses... and drug manufacturing sites and destroyed them in the appropriate manner".

Maher al-Assad, a military commander and the brother of Bashar al-Assad, is widely accused of being the power behind the lucrative captagon trade.

Experts believe Syria's former leader used the threat of drug-fueled unrest to put pressure on Arab governments.

Jordan in recent years has cracked down on the smuggling of weapons and drugs including captagon along its 375-kilometer (230-mile) border with Syria.