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Rights Report: Football World Cup in Russia is Tainted with Blood of Syrian Civilians

Cover page of the rights report on Russia, Syria and the World Cup. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Cover page of the rights report on Russia, Syria and the World Cup. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Rights Report: Football World Cup in Russia is Tainted with Blood of Syrian Civilians

Cover page of the rights report on Russia, Syria and the World Cup. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Cover page of the rights report on Russia, Syria and the World Cup. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) released a report entitled, “The World Cup is Tainted with the Blood of 6,133 Syrian Civilians Killed by Russia”, documenting the most flagrant violations by Russian forces since the start of its military intervention in Syria on September 30, 2015.

The report noted that Russian warplanes were exterminating tens of thousands of Syrians, thousands of kilometers away from Moscow, at a time when Russia was building stadiums, hotels and hospitals as part of its campaign to organize the Fifa World Cup, which will kick of in June.

The Russia, therefore, is a primary partner in the Syrian regime’s serious violations, according to the report.

Stressing that the World Cup was an opportune moment to remind the world of the atrocities that Russia has perpetrated in Syria, the report said that the SNHR had compiled a comprehensive and detailed database of all the incidents and victims killed by Russian forces.

In addition, the report highlighted three main points that summarize Russia’s role at the United Nations Security Council with respect to Syria.

It said Russia was involved, as a permanent member state, in threatening security and peace in Syria through an unprecedented brutal bombardment, instead of working with the other members on protecting the Syrian people from the daily regime killings that started in the beginning of the popular uprising in the country.

The SNHR added that Russia used its veto power 12 times against any resolution that would condemn, confront, or demand the Syrian regime to be held accountable.

The report said that Russia’s claim that it had intervened in Syria to counter the ISIS and al-Nusra Front groups was used to justify its arbitrary killings and destruction against the people. The unprecedented violence perpetrated by the regime and its Iranian and Russian allies against the Syrians was the primary reason for the emergence of ISIS.

It also noted that 6,133 civilians, including 1,761 children and 661 women (adult female), were killed by Russian forces, which also perpetrated 317 massacres.

More than 939 attacks on vital civilian facilities have been documented, including 167 attacks on medical facilities, 140 on mosques and 55 on markets.

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Former Israeli Spies Describe Attack Using Exploding Electronic Devices against Lebanon’s Hezbollah

An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
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Former Israeli Spies Describe Attack Using Exploding Electronic Devices against Lebanon’s Hezbollah

An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)

Two recently retired senior Israeli intelligence agents shared new details about a deadly clandestine operation years in the making that targeted Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Syria using exploding pagers and walkie talkies three months ago.
Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war, The Associated Press said.
The agents spoke with CBS “60 Minutes” in a segment aired Sunday night. They wore masks and spoke with altered voices to hide their identities.
One agent said the operation started 10 years ago using walkie-talkies laden with hidden explosives, which Hezbollah didn't realize it was buying from Israel, its enemy. The walkie-talkies were not detonated until September, a day after booby-trapped pagers were set off.
“We created a pretend world,” said the officer, who went by the name “Michael.”
Phase two of the plan, using the booby-trapped pagers, kicked in in 2022 after Israel's Mossad intelligence agency learned Hezbollah had been buying pagers from a Taiwan-based company, the second officer said.
The pagers had to be made slightly larger to accommodate the explosives hidden inside. They were tested on dummies multiple times to find the right amount of explosive that would hurt only the Hezbollah fighter and not anyone else in close proximity.
Mossad also tested numerous ring tones to find one that sounded urgent enough to make someone pull the pager out of their pocket.
The second agent, who went by the name “Gabriel,” said it took two weeks to convince Hezbollah to switch to the heftier pager, in part by using false ads on YouTube promoting the devices as dustproof, waterproof, providing a long battery life and more.
He described the use of shell companies, including one based in Hungary, to dupe the Taiwanese firm, Gold Apollo, into unknowingly partnering with the Mossad.
Hezbollah also was unaware it was working with Israel.
Gabriel compared the ruse to a 1998 psychological film about a man who has no clue that he is living in a false world and his family and friends are actors paid to keep up the illusion.
“When they are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad,” Gabriel said. “We make like ‘Truman Show,’ everything is controlled by us behind the scene. In their experience, everything is normal. Everything was 100% kosher including businessman, marketing, engineers, showroom, everything.”
By September, Hezbollah militants had 5,000 pagers in their pockets.
Israel triggered the attack on Sept. 17, when pagers all over Lebanon started beeping. The devices would explode even if the person failed to push the buttons to read an incoming encrypted message.
The next day, Mossad activated the walkie-talkies, some of which exploded at funerals for some of the approximately 30 people who were killed in the pager attacks.
Gabriel said the goal was more about sending a message than actually killing Hezbollah fighters.
“If he just died, so he’s dead. But if he’s wounded, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You need to invest money and efforts,” he said. “And those people without hands and eyes are living proof, walking in Lebanon, of ‘don’t mess with us.’ They are walking proof of our superiority all around the Middle East.”
In the days after the attack, Israel's air force hit targets across Lebanon, killing thousands. Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was assassinated when Israel dropped bombs on his bunker.
By November, the war between Israel and Hezbollah, a byproduct of the deadly attack by Hamas group in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, ended with a ceasefire. More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas militants, health officials have said.
The agent using the name “Michael” said that the day after the pager explosions, people in Lebanon were afraid to turn on their air conditioners out of fear that they would explode, too.
“There is real fear,” he said.
Asked if that was intentional, he said, “We want them to feel vulnerable, which they are. We can’t use the pagers again because we already did that. We’ve already moved on to the next thing. And they’ll have to keep on trying to guess what the next thing is.”