US, Russia Expand Military Movements in Northeastern Syria

An American vehicle in Tal Tamr, northeastern Syria. (North-Press Agency)
An American vehicle in Tal Tamr, northeastern Syria. (North-Press Agency)
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US, Russia Expand Military Movements in Northeastern Syria

An American vehicle in Tal Tamr, northeastern Syria. (North-Press Agency)
An American vehicle in Tal Tamr, northeastern Syria. (North-Press Agency)

Washington and Moscow have recently expanded their military movements east of the Euphrates in Syria. Paving the way to establish a new base in the al-Hasakah governorate, Washington has deployed an armed unit and a military convoy to the town of Tal Tamr.

Meanwhile, Russian helicopters staged live ammunition military exercises over the Qamishli International Airport. The drill was held after a warplane and several Sukhoi-35 fighter jets had arrived in the area.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced that contact lines in al-Hasakeh’s Tal Tamr, Raqqa governorate’s town of Ain Issa, and the M4 highway had witnessed provocative reinforcements and mobilization by Turkish-backed Syrian factions.

However, the SDF reaffirmed its commitment to de-escalation agreements.

In Tal Tamr, a US armed force and military convoy arrived at the town’s center. US troops toured the area by foot and talked to residents.

Military sources from the Tal Tamr Military Council said that US forces had intensified their patrols in town at a time Turkey is threatening an armed escalation against SDF units in the area. More so, sources revealed that the US troops intended to set up a third base in the region.

Today, US-led International Coalition forces are stationed at the bases of Al-Qasrak and Tal Baydar, about 25 kilometers east of Tal Tamr. One of the bases includes an airstrip.

A convoy of logistical materials for these bases had recently arrived from the neighboring Kurdistan region of Iraq. The convoy included tankers carrying fuel.

The third of its kind in November, and the second in less than 48 hours, the convoy included 40 trucks loaded with logistical materials and military equipment coming through Al-Waleed border crossing.

In other news, US forces conducted on Tuesday a military patrol in the city of Derik, in the far northeastern Syria.

The patrol, consisting of four military armored vehicles without air cover, started from Rubaria Agricultural Airport in the southwestern Derik countryside, which is used by the US forces as a landing strip, and headed to the southern countryside of the city.

This coincided with the flight of two Russian helicopters in the northern and western Derik countryside.



Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
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Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled.

The warning came a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant more than a year into the Gaza war.

The United Nations and others have repeatedly decried humanitarian conditions, particularly in northern Gaza, where Israel said Friday it had killed two commanders involved in Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.

Gaza medics said an overnight Israeli raid on the cities of Beit Lahia and nearby Jabalia resulted in dozens killed or missing.

Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza's field hospitals, told reporters all hospitals in the Palestinian territory "will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation's (Israel's) obstruction of fuel entry".

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of 80 patients, including 8 in the intensive care unit" at Kamal Adwan hospital, one of just two partly operating in northern Gaza.

Kamal Adwan director Hossam Abu Safia told AFP it was "deliberately hit by Israeli shelling for the second day" Friday and that "one doctor and some patients were injured".

Late Thursday, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Muhannad Hadi, said: "The delivery of critical aid across Gaza, including food, water, fuel and medical supplies, is grinding to a halt."

He said that for more than six weeks, Israeli authorities "have been banning commercial imports" while "a surge in armed looting" has hit aid convoys.

Issuing the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the Hague-based ICC said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe they bore "criminal responsibility" for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and crimes against humanity including over "the lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and specific medical supplies".

At least 44,056 people have been killed in Gaza during more than 13 months of war, most of them civilians, according to figures from Gaza's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.