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Beirut Bishop Warns Against Selling Ravaged Historic Houses

A Lebanese couple inspect the damage to their house in an area overlooking the destroyed Beirut Port on Aug. 5, in the aftermath of a pair of massive explosions in the Lebanese capital. Joseph Eid/AFP
A Lebanese couple inspect the damage to their house in an area overlooking the destroyed Beirut Port on Aug. 5, in the aftermath of a pair of massive explosions in the Lebanese capital. Joseph Eid/AFP
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Beirut Bishop Warns Against Selling Ravaged Historic Houses

A Lebanese couple inspect the damage to their house in an area overlooking the destroyed Beirut Port on Aug. 5, in the aftermath of a pair of massive explosions in the Lebanese capital. Joseph Eid/AFP
A Lebanese couple inspect the damage to their house in an area overlooking the destroyed Beirut Port on Aug. 5, in the aftermath of a pair of massive explosions in the Lebanese capital. Joseph Eid/AFP

Metropolitan bishop of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch for the Archdiocese of Beirut, Elias Audi, warned on Sunday residents living in disaster-stricken areas affected by the August 4 explosion, from falling victims to some real estate agents asking to buy their properties.

“I call on residents to withstand in their homes,” the bishop said Sunday.

Some 300,000 people were displaced when the explosion damaged or destroyed their homes, killing more than 178 people and injuring 6,000 more. The blast demolished entire neighborhoods of Lebanon’s capital in seconds.

Audi’s warnings came in light of recent reports saying mysterious buyers were offering to buy broken homes in the traditional neighborhoods of Gemmayzeh, Mar Mikhael, and Ashrafieh for a compelling sum of money.

The complaints drove Caretaker Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni to issue a decree last week for preventing the sale of any historic building without getting permission from the ministry of culture. The Finance Ministry said in a statement that the move aims to prevent any “exploitation.”

Also, Caretaker Culture Minister Abbas Murtada said no damaged houses could be sold or registered without being fully renovated and without getting the approval of the ministry.

Audi said: “It is necessary to warn residents not to fall victim to real estate agents and financiers swooping on people’s properties and trying to benefit from their woes by offering money in return of their houses.”

He called on residents of Ashrafieh and nearby neighborhoods not to fall into this trap and to preserve their homes.

“We will cooperate all together to emerge from this crisis,” he said.

For his part, Lebanese Deputy Hagop Terzian called on caretaker Justice Minister Marie Claude Najm to issue a decree preventing notaries from registering any transactions related to the selling of houses damaged by the Beirut port explosion.

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Head of ISIS in Iraq and Syria Has Been Killed, Iraqi Prime Minister Says

This handout picture released by the Iraqi Prime Minister's press office shows Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (R) meeting with Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani in Baghdad on March 14, 2025. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Iraqi Prime Minister's press office shows Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (R) meeting with Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani in Baghdad on March 14, 2025. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office / AFP)
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Head of ISIS in Iraq and Syria Has Been Killed, Iraqi Prime Minister Says

This handout picture released by the Iraqi Prime Minister's press office shows Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (R) meeting with Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani in Baghdad on March 14, 2025. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Iraqi Prime Minister's press office shows Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (R) meeting with Syria's interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani in Baghdad on March 14, 2025. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office / AFP)

The head of ISIS in Iraq and Syria has been killed in Iraq in an operation by members of the Iraqi national intelligence service along with US-led coalition forces, the Iraqi prime minister announced Friday.

“The Iraqis continue their impressive victories over the forces of darkness and terrorism,” Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Abdallah Maki Mosleh al-Rifai, or “Abu Khadija,” was “deputy caliph” of the militant group and as “one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world," the statement said.

A security official said the operation was carried out by an airstrike in Anbar province, in western Iraq. A second official said the operation took place Thursday night but that al-Rifai's death was confirmed Friday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

The announcement came on the same day as the first visit by Syria’s top diplomat to Iraq, during which the two countries pledged to work together to combat ISIS.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein said at a news conference that “there are common challenges facing Syrian and Iraqi society, and especially the terrorists of ISIS.” He said the officials had spoken “in detail about the movements of ISIS, whether on the Syrian-Iraqi border, inside Syria or inside Iraq” during the visit.

Hussein referred to an operations room formed by Syria, Iraq, Türkiye, Jordan and Lebanon at a recent meeting in Amman to confront ISIS, and said it would soon begin work.

The relationship between Iraq and Syria is somewhat fraught after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Al-Sudani came to power with the support of a coalition of Iran-backed factions, and Tehran was a major backer of Assad.

The current interim president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani and fought as an al-Qaeda militant in Iraq after the US invasion of 2003, and later fought against Assad's government in Syria.

But Syrian interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani focused on the historic ties between the two countries.

“Throughout history, Baghdad and Damascus have been the capitals of the Arab and Islamic world, sharing knowledge, culture and economy,” he said.

Strengthening the partnership between the two countries “will not only benefit our peoples, but will also contribute to the stability of the region, making us less dependent on external powers and better able to determine our own destiny,” he said.

The operation and the visit come at a time when Iraqi officials are anxious about an ISIS resurgence in the wake of the fall of Assad in Syria.

While Syria’s new rulers have pursued ISIS cells since taking power, some fear a breakdown in overall security that could allow the group to stage a resurgence.

The US and Iraq announced an agreement last year to wind down the military mission in Iraq of an American-led coalition fighting the ISIS group by September 2025, with US forces departing some bases where they have stationed troops during a two-decade-long military presence in the country.

When the agreement was reached to end the coalition’s mission in Iraq, Iraqi political leaders said the threat of ISIS was under control and they no longer needed Washington’s help to beat back the remaining cells.

But the fall of Assad in December led some to reassess that stance, including members of the Coordination Framework, a coalition of mainly Shiite, Iran-allied political parties that brought al-Sudani to power in late 2022.