First Class of Syrian Police Cadets Since Assad’s Ouster Graduates

Syrian police members attend their graduation ceremony, after the ouster of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, at the Police Academy under the Syrian Salvation Government, in Damascus, Syria January 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Syrian police members attend their graduation ceremony, after the ouster of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, at the Police Academy under the Syrian Salvation Government, in Damascus, Syria January 14, 2025. (Reuters)
TT

First Class of Syrian Police Cadets Since Assad’s Ouster Graduates

Syrian police members attend their graduation ceremony, after the ouster of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, at the Police Academy under the Syrian Salvation Government, in Damascus, Syria January 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Syrian police members attend their graduation ceremony, after the ouster of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, at the Police Academy under the Syrian Salvation Government, in Damascus, Syria January 14, 2025. (Reuters)

The first class of Syrian police cadets has graduated since the ouster of President Bashar Assad.

The newly reopened police college in Damascus began accepting applications shortly after opposition groups toppled Assad last month, ending decades of his family rule that was known for widespread surveillance, arbitrary detentions, torture and deaths of real and perceived opponents.

The country’s new leadership under the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group has been working on restructuring Syria’s military and security forces, Oussama Mohammad, a military official at the police college, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

“The purpose of this course is to preserve security and safety in Syria’s provinces and to track down remnants of the (Assad) regime,” he said.

Over 400 young men applied to join the police, Mohammad said.



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
TT

UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”