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Lebanese Judiciary Summons Hezbollah Supporters Following Insults to Aoun

Hezbollah supporters carry a Hezbollah flag as they flash the victory sign during a rally in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 21 January 2026. (EPA)
Hezbollah supporters carry a Hezbollah flag as they flash the victory sign during a rally in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 21 January 2026. (EPA)
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Lebanese Judiciary Summons Hezbollah Supporters Following Insults to Aoun

Hezbollah supporters carry a Hezbollah flag as they flash the victory sign during a rally in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 21 January 2026. (EPA)
Hezbollah supporters carry a Hezbollah flag as they flash the victory sign during a rally in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 21 January 2026. (EPA)

The Lebanese judiciary issued on Thursday summons of Hezbollah supporters who had slandered President Joseph Aoun in wake of his criticism of the Iran-backed party.

Aoun has made repeated statements in recent weeks over the need to impose state monopoly over weapons, effectively disarming Hezbollah.

The government had last year taken a landmark decision to impose state monopoly over arms. Hezbollah has refused to lay down its weapons, putting it at odds with the state, and most recently Aoun.

Lebanon is keen on preventing itself from being dragged into "suicidal adventures, whose price we paid dearly for in the past," he said on Tuesday, which was seen as an indirect reference to Hezbollah.

A judicial source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the judiciary summoned on Thursday a Lebanese journalist who is close to Hezbollah over a video he posted online. The journalist ignored the summons, saying that as a journalist he does not have to appear before the judicial police, but rather the "Press Court".

The source added that another summons will be made over insults levelled against the president.

Lebanon's Public Prosecution allows the judiciary to act without prompting in three cases: the first over attacks against the character of the president, the second, attacks against the army and third, attacks against the judiciary.

Attacks and slander against any other parties are addressed when a complaint is filed. The source said the presidency did not file a complaint to the judiciary over the campaign against Aoun.

Hezbollah supporters had been vocally criticizing Aoun on social media over his recent stances. The posts did not shy away from using offensive language against the president.

Lebanese law allows summons when insults are made against the president in order to protect constitutional institutions. Any country, during strained political times, is concerned with protecting its constitutional figures and entities while still respecting freedom of expression and the press.

The recent summons are not aimed at undermining freedom of expression, but drawing a line between how much criticism can be levelled and between insulting the president's character and infringing on a constitutional figure, explained the source. Political criticism is acceptable, but a line is drawn when personal insults are made.

Lawyer Farouk al-Moghrabi told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Lebanese judiciary clearly details the measures that should be taken when it comes to the president.

The president has the right to file a complaint or the Public Prosecution can act without being prompted when he comes under attack, he added.

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Arab World

Syrian Government Says It Controls Prison in Raqqa with ISIS-linked Detainees

A Syrian army soldier stands guard as Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) forces withdraw from al-Aqtan prison on the outskirts of the northeastern city of Raqqa, bound for Kobani, on January 23, 2026. (AFP)
A Syrian army soldier stands guard as Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) forces withdraw from al-Aqtan prison on the outskirts of the northeastern city of Raqqa, bound for Kobani, on January 23, 2026. (AFP)
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Syrian Government Says It Controls Prison in Raqqa with ISIS-linked Detainees

A Syrian army soldier stands guard as Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) forces withdraw from al-Aqtan prison on the outskirts of the northeastern city of Raqqa, bound for Kobani, on January 23, 2026. (AFP)
A Syrian army soldier stands guard as Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) forces withdraw from al-Aqtan prison on the outskirts of the northeastern city of Raqqa, bound for Kobani, on January 23, 2026. (AFP)

Syria's Interior Ministry said on Friday it had taken over al-Aqtan prison in the city of Raqqa ​in northeastern Syria, a facility that was formerly under the control of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The prison has been holding detainees linked to the ISIS group, and witnessed clashes in Its vicinity this week between advancing Syrian government forces and the SDF.

It ‌was not ‌immediately clear how many ‌ISIS ⁠detainees ​remain in al-Aqtan ‌prison as the US military has started transferring up to 7,000 prisoners linked to the extremist group from Syrian jails to neighboring Iraq. US officials say the detainees are citizens of many countries, including in Europe.

"Specialized teams were ⁠formed from the counter-terrorism department and other relevant authorities to ‌take over the tasks of guarding ‍and securing the prison ‍and controlling the security situation inside it," ‍the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Under a sweeping integration deal agreed on Sunday, responsibility for prisons housing ISIS detainees was meant to be transferred to ​the Syrian government.

The SDF said on Monday it was battling Syrian government forces near ⁠al-Aqtan and that the seizure of the prison by the government forces "could have serious security repercussions that threaten stability and pave the way for a return to chaos and terrorism".

The US transfer of ISIS prisoners follows the rapid collapse of Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria. Concerns over prison security intensified after the escape on Tuesday of roughly 200 low-level ISIS fighters from Syria's ‌Shaddadi prison. Syrian government forces later recaptured many of them.

Arab World

Sudan Hospital Welcomes First Patients after War Forced It Shut

Women walk outside Bahri Teaching Hospital after it resumed services in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on January 18, 2026. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)
Women walk outside Bahri Teaching Hospital after it resumed services in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on January 18, 2026. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)
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Sudan Hospital Welcomes First Patients after War Forced It Shut

Women walk outside Bahri Teaching Hospital after it resumed services in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on January 18, 2026. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)
Women walk outside Bahri Teaching Hospital after it resumed services in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on January 18, 2026. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)

At a freshly renovated hospital in Khartoum the medical team are beaming: nearly three years after it was wrecked and looted in the early days of Sudan's war, the facility has welcomed its first patients.

The Bahri Teaching Hospital in the capital's north was stormed by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023, soon after fighting broke out between the RSF and Sudan's army.

Bahri remained a war zone until an army counteroffensive pushed through Khartoum last year, recapturing the area from the RSF in March.

A man waits outside the entrance to the emergency room while others walk through Bahri Teaching Hospital after resuming services in Khartoum, January 18, 2026 (AFP)

"We never thought the hospital would reopen," said Dr Ali Mohamed Ali, delighted to be back in his old surgical ward.

"It was completely destroyed, there was nothing left," he told AFP. "We had to start from scratch."

Ali fled north from Khartoum in the early days of the war, working in a makeshift medical camp with "no gloves, no instruments and no disinfectant".

According to the World Health Organization, the conflict has forced the shutdown of more than two-thirds of Sudan's health facilities and caused a world record number of deaths from attacks on healthcare infrastructure.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed across Sudan since the war began, while 11 million have been left displaced, triggering the world's largest hunger crisis.

But with the RSF now driven out of Khartoum, Sudan's army-backed government is gradually returning and the devastated city is starting to rebuild.

Around 40 of Khartoum's 120 hospitals, shut during the war, have resumed operations, according to the Sudan Doctors' Network, a local medical group.

People enter Bahri Teaching Hospital after resuming services in the Sudanese capital, January 18, 2026 (AFP)

- 'In ruins' -

The Bahri Teaching Hospital, which before the conflict treated around 800 patients a day in its emergency department, was repeatedly attacked and looted.

"All the equipment was stolen," said director Galal Mostafa, adding that about 70 percent of its buildings were damaged and the power system was destroyed.

"We were fortunate to receive two transformers just days ago," said Salah al-Haj, the hospital's chief executive.

During the first five days of fighting, Al-Haj -- an affable man with a sharp grey moustache -- was trapped inside one wing of the hospital.

"We couldn't leave because of the heavy gunfire," he told AFP, saying that anyone "who stepped outside risked being detained and beaten" by the RSF.

Patients were rushed to safety in dangerous transfers to hospitals away from the fighting across the Nile.

"Vehicles had to take very complicated routes to evacuate patients safely, avoiding shells and bullets," Al-Haj said.

On April 15, 2023, as the first shots rang out in the capital, RSF fighters seized Ali on his way into surgery.

They held him for two weeks at Soba, an RSF-run detention center in southern Khartoum whose former inmates have shared testimony of torture and inhumane conditions.

"When I was released, the country was in ruins," he said.

Hospitals were "destroyed, streets devastated and homes looted. There was nothing left."

Almost three years on, taxis now drop patients at the hospital's entrance, while new ambulances sit parked in a courtyard that until recently was strewn with rubble and overgrown weeds.

Inside, refurbished corridors smell of fresh paint.

The renovations and new equipment were funded by the Sudanese American Physicians Association and Islamic Relief USA at a cost of more than $2 million, according to the association.

Services have resumed in newly fitted emergency, surgical, obstetrics and gynecology rooms.

Doctors, nurses and administrators hustle through the halls, the administrators fretting over covering salaries and running costs.

"Now it's much better than before the war," said Hassan Alsahir, a 25-year-old intern in the emergency department.

"It wasn't this clean before, and we were short on beds -- sometimes patients had to sleep on the floor."

On its first day reopened, the hospital received a patient from the Kordofan region -- the war's current major battleground -- for urgent surgery.

"The operation went well," said Ali.

Arab World

Kurdish SDF Fighters Leave North Syria Prison under Govt Deal

Families of detainees waiting in Al-Aqtan prison on the outskirts of the city of Raqqa in northeastern Syria outside the prison in an attempt to get news about their relatives on Wednesday (AFP)
Families of detainees waiting in Al-Aqtan prison on the outskirts of the city of Raqqa in northeastern Syria outside the prison in an attempt to get news about their relatives on Wednesday (AFP)
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Kurdish SDF Fighters Leave North Syria Prison under Govt Deal

Families of detainees waiting in Al-Aqtan prison on the outskirts of the city of Raqqa in northeastern Syria outside the prison in an attempt to get news about their relatives on Wednesday (AFP)
Families of detainees waiting in Al-Aqtan prison on the outskirts of the city of Raqqa in northeastern Syria outside the prison in an attempt to get news about their relatives on Wednesday (AFP)

Syria said early Friday that government forces had begun transferring Kurdish fighters from a prison in the north where they had been holding ISIS detainees, as part of a weekend agreement.

An AFP correspondent in Raqa saw buses and cars heading away from the Al-Aqtan prison on the city's outskirts overnight, escorted by government vehicles, after roads to the facility were cut on Thursday.

Syrian state television reported that the transfer of SDF members has begun "after five days of negotiations with the Syrian state".

They will go to the Kurdish-held city of Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobane, in Aleppo province on the northern border with Türkiye "according to the security arrangements agreed upon by both parties", it reported.

Under military pressure from Damascus, which is seeking to extend its control across the country, the SDF has relinquished swathes of territory in recent days and withdrawn to parts of Syria's Hasakeh province in the far northeast.

On Sunday, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa announced a deal with SDF chief Mazloum Abdi that had included a ceasefire and the integration of the Kurds' administration into the state, which will take responsibility for ISIS prisoners.

State news agency SANA quoted the army as saying the Al-Aqtan transfer was "the first step in implementing the January 18 agreement under which the interior ministry will take over administration of the prison".

A government source told the broadcaster that around 800 fighters would exit the facility under "an internationally sponsored agreement aimed at de-escalation".

ISIS detainees will be managed "according to Syrian law", the source added.

Thousands of suspected extremists and their families, including foreigners, have been held in Kurdish-run prisons and camps in Syria since ISIS’s defeat in 2019 at the hands of the SDF, backed by a US-led coalition.

The source said the step came "in response to international mediation aimed at preventing a military escalation... and ensuring a peaceful transfer" of authority at key sites.

On Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported clashes between government forces and SDF fighters at Al-Aqtan.

On Wednesday, the United States said it had launched an operation that could see 7,000 ISIS extremist detainees moved from Syria to Iraq, with 150 transferred so far.