Powerful Syria Figure Covers for Woman Who Mauled 3 Police Officers

A picture of the traffic accident in Damascus circulated on social media, Asharq Al-Awsat
A picture of the traffic accident in Damascus circulated on social media, Asharq Al-Awsat
TT

Powerful Syria Figure Covers for Woman Who Mauled 3 Police Officers

A picture of the traffic accident in Damascus circulated on social media, Asharq Al-Awsat
A picture of the traffic accident in Damascus circulated on social media, Asharq Al-Awsat

Last Sunday night, an unknown influential figure in Syria personally stepped in to disperse internal security forces that surrounded a crime scene where a woman in a four-wheel drive vehicle ran over three policemen and civilians in Al Mazzeh area in the capital, Damascus.

Authorities failed to report the incident on the official website of internal security forces.

Syrian opposition media, such as “Sawt Al Balad” (Voice of the Nation), reported the horrific crime and published a number of pictures shot from the crime scene.

“A female run over police officers, two civilians, and motorbikes while driving recklessly in Al Mazzeh neighborhood,” Sawt Al Balad reported without giving any further details.

Local sources confirmed that the vehicle was a four-wheel drive and was accompanied by an escort vehicle.

Police officers had stopped the vehicle near Al-Mousawwat Hospital for breaking a number of traffic laws. This sent the woman, who was behind the steering wheel, into a frenzy.

She allegedly directed a number of abusive slurs at the officer on duty and contacted her connections for help.

Riding high on hysteria, the woman proceeded to drive frantically, mauling anything in her way, including three police officers and two civilians.

Security forces, eventually, succeeded in cornering and forcing her to step out of the car.

It was then that a very “powerful” individual arrived at the scene announcing that the perpetrator was “one of his” and that they should let her go immediately.

Afterwards, the woman left with this important figure, local sources reported, stressing that neither the perpetrator nor their rescuer were identified.

Those injured in the run over were transported to the nearby Al-Mousawwat Hospital for treatment.

Syrian opposition sources are claiming that the lady in question is Aline Skaf, wife of Hannibal Muammar Gaddafi. She is a Lebanese national and a political refugee in Damascus.

Both she and her husband sought political asylum in Syria after the Gaddafi regime was toppled in Libya in 2012.



Hamas Official Says Group ‘Appreciates’ Lebanon’s Right to Reach Agreement

 A man walks next to a destroyed building in Beirut's southern suburbs on November 27, 2024, as people returned to the area to check their homes after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)
A man walks next to a destroyed building in Beirut's southern suburbs on November 27, 2024, as people returned to the area to check their homes after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)
TT

Hamas Official Says Group ‘Appreciates’ Lebanon’s Right to Reach Agreement

 A man walks next to a destroyed building in Beirut's southern suburbs on November 27, 2024, as people returned to the area to check their homes after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)
A man walks next to a destroyed building in Beirut's southern suburbs on November 27, 2024, as people returned to the area to check their homes after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said on Wednesday the group "appreciates" Lebanon's right to reach an agreement that protects its people and it hopes for a deal to end the war in Gaza.

A ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement came into effect on Wednesday after both sides accepted an agreement brokered by the United States and France, but international efforts to halt the 14-month-old war between Hamas and Israel in the Palestinian territory of Gaza have stalled.

"Hamas appreciates the right of Lebanon and Hezbollah to reach an agreement that protects the people of Lebanon and we hope that this agreement will pave the way to reaching an agreement that ends the war of genocide against our people in Gaza," Abu Zuhri told Reuters.

Later on Wednesday, the group said in a statement it was open to efforts to secure a deal in Gaza, reiterating its outstanding conditions.

"We are committed to cooperating with any effort to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and we are interested in ending the aggression against our people," Hamas said.

It added that an agreement must end the war, pull Israeli forces out of Gaza, return displaced Gazans to their homes, and achieve a hostages-for-prisoners swap deal.

Without a similar deal in Gaza, many residents said they felt abandoned. In the latest violence, Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed 15 people on Wednesday, some of them in a school housing displaced people, medics there said.

Months of attempts to negotiate a ceasefire have yielded scant progress and negotiations are now on hold, with mediator Qatar saying it has told the two warring parties it would suspend its efforts until the sides are prepared to make concessions.

Abu Zuhri blamed the failure to reach a ceasefire deal that would end the Gaza war on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly accused Hamas of foiling efforts.

"Hamas showed high flexibility to reach an agreement and it is still committed to that position and is interested in reaching an agreement that ends the war in Gaza," Abu Zuhri said.

"The problem was always with Netanyahu who has always escaped from reaching an agreement," he added.

Hamas wants an agreement that ends the war in Gaza and sees the release of Israeli and foreign hostages as well as Palestinians jailed by Israel, while Netanyahu has said the war can only end after Hamas is eradicated.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, senior Palestinian Authority Hussein Al-Sheikh welcomed the agreement in Lebanon.

"We welcome the decision to ceasefire in Lebanon, and we call on the international community to pressure Israel to stop its criminal war in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and to stop all its escalatory measures against the Palestinian people," Sheikh, a confidant of President Mahmoud Abbas, posted on X.

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday his administration was pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza.