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.



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)
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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.