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Lebanon: Syrian Minors Arrested in Assassination Case of Key ‘Qassam’ Figure

Firefighters douse a burning car after it was hit in a reported Israeli drone attack in Lebanon's southern area of Naqoura near the border with Israel on March 13, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by AFP)
Firefighters douse a burning car after it was hit in a reported Israeli drone attack in Lebanon's southern area of Naqoura near the border with Israel on March 13, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by AFP)
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Lebanon: Syrian Minors Arrested in Assassination Case of Key ‘Qassam’ Figure

Firefighters douse a burning car after it was hit in a reported Israeli drone attack in Lebanon's southern area of Naqoura near the border with Israel on March 13, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by AFP)
Firefighters douse a burning car after it was hit in a reported Israeli drone attack in Lebanon's southern area of Naqoura near the border with Israel on March 13, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by AFP)

The Palestinian factions and Islamic forces in the Tyre region in Lebanon announced on Friday the arrest of a group of Israeli agents it said were involved in the assassination of a member of the Qassam Brigades earlier this month, and handing them over to the relevant Lebanese authorities.
It is a first for the factions to make such an announcement since the outbreak of clashes between the Hezbollah group and Israel in southern Lebanon, following the Al-Aqsa Flood operation in Gaza and Israel’s focus on assassinating members and officials of Hamas and Hezbollah.
In its statement, the factions said: "After the cowardly assassination of Qassam Brigades member Hadi Mustafa (Abu Shadi), carried out by the Zionist enemy on Wednesday, March 13, 2024, the leadership of the factions and Islamic forces conducted thorough field monitoring and surveillance operations, during which investigations revealed the involvement of a group of infiltrators in our camp in the assassination operation”.
“They have been handed over to the relevant security authorities in the Lebanese state”, it added.
Two Individuals in Army’s Custody
The Palestinian factions have handed two Syrian minors to the Lebanese army intelligence, according to Lebanese security sources. They are being interrogated for their involvement in the assassination of Hadi Mustafa.
A source told Asharq Al-Awsat on condition of anonymity that the detainees planted a tracking device in the vehicle of a member of the Qassam Brigades, facilitating his assassination with an Israeli drone.
A Lebanese judicial source also confirmed the arrest of two individuals suspected of involvement in the assassination of Mustafa. “The army intelligence is conducting an investigation with two Syrian minors based on information linking them to this assassination”, he told Asharq AlAwsat.
Hamas: Arresting the Operator
A source in the Hamas group told Asharq Al-Awsat that a third person, the operator of the Syrian minors, was arrested in the Rashidieh Palestinian refugee camp. According to information, each of the detainees received the sum of approximately 11 US dollars in exchange for planting the tracking device.
The Israeli army had said that Mustafa was a "central figure" in Hamas in Lebanon and that he was "promoting terrorist activities against Israeli targets worldwide, and was involved in directing sabotage cells and field activities to attack Israeli and Jewish targets in various countries around the world."
Record Full of Assassinations
One of the most notable assassinations attributed to Israeli operatives is the killing of Hamas leader and head of its political office, Saleh al-Arouri, in an Israeli raid targeting a building in the southern suburb of Beirut, the stronghold of the Lebanese Hezbollah.
Additionally, the assassination of the son of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc leader, MP Mohammed Raad, occurred during a raid targeting a residence in southern Lebanon while he was inside with several party members.
Furthermore, the assassination of Wissam al-Taweel, a commander in the Al-Ridwan Force affiliated with Hezbollah, took place in a bombing targeting his car in southern Lebanon.
According to Dr. Riad Kahwaji, the CEO of the Near East and Gulf Military Analysis (INEGMA), "In wars, armies always seek to strengthen their intelligence capabilities against the targeted party, which is why Israel always resorts to enhancing human intelligence and recruiting agents for it is not a new matter."
“The repeated successes in targeting leaders, whether from Hezbollah or Hamas and knowing their movement methods and times, as well as identifying weapon storage locations, require advanced intelligence work through agents present on the ground.
“It appears that the Israeli side has succeeded in recruiting a large number of these agents, enabling it to achieve the desired hits”, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

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Arab World

Lebanon PM Pledges Reconstruction on Visit to Ruined Border Towns

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
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Lebanon PM Pledges Reconstruction on Visit to Ruined Border Towns

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam visited heavily damaged towns near the Israeli border on Saturday, pledging reconstruction.

It was his first trip to the southern border area since the army said it finished disarming Hezbollah there, in January.

Swathes of south Lebanon's border areas remain in ruins and largely deserted more than a year after a US-brokered November 2024 ceasefire sought to end hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed group.

Lebanon's government has committed to disarming Hezbollah, and the army last month said it had completed the first phase of its plan to do so, covering the area between the Litani River and the Israeli border about 30 kilometers (20 miles) further south.

Visiting Tayr Harfa, around three kilometers from the border, and nearby Yarine, Salam said frontier towns and villages had suffered "a true catastrophe".

He vowed authorities would begin key projects including restoring roads, communications networks and water in the two towns.

Locals gathered on the rubble of buildings to greet Salam and the delegation of accompanying officials in nearby Dhayra, some waving Lebanese flags.

In a meeting in Bint Jbeil, further east, with officials including lawmakers from Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement, Salam said authorities would "rehabilitate 32 kilometers of roads, reconnect the severed communications network, repair water infrastructure" and power lines in the district.

Last year, the World Bank announced it had approved $250 million to support Lebanon's post-war reconstruction, after estimating that it would cost around $11 billion in total.

Salam said funds including from the World Bank would be used for the reconstruction and rehabilitation projects.

The second phase of the government's disarmament plan for Hezbollah concerns the area between the Litani and the Awali rivers, around 40 kilometers south of Beirut.

Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming, has criticized the army's progress as insufficient, while Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

Despite the truce, Israel has kept up regular strikes on what it usually says are Hezbollah targets and maintains troops in five south Lebanon areas.

Lebanese officials have accused Israel of seeking to prevent reconstruction in the heavily damaged south with repeated strikes on bulldozers, excavators and prefabricated houses.

Visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Friday said the reform of Lebanon's banking system needed to precede international funding for reconstruction efforts.

The French diplomat met Lebanon's army chief Rodolphe Haykal on Saturday, the military said.

Arab World

Over 2,200 ISIS Detainees Transferred to Iraq from Syria, Says Iraqi Official

One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
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Over 2,200 ISIS Detainees Transferred to Iraq from Syria, Says Iraqi Official

One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)

Iraq has so far received 2,225 ISIS group detainees, whom the US military began transferring from Syria last month, an Iraqi official told AFP on Saturday.

They are among up to 7,000 ISIS detainees whose transfer from Syria to Iraq the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced last month, in a move it said was aimed at "ensuring that the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities".

Previously, they had been held in prisons and camps administered by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.

The announcement of the transfer plan last month came after US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack declared that the SDF's role in confronting ISIS had come to an end.

Saad Maan, head of the security information cell attached to the Iraqi prime minister's office, told AFP on Saturday that "Iraq has received 2,225 terrorists from the Syrian side by land and air, in coordination with the international coalition", which Washington has led since 2014 to fight IS.

He said they are being held in "strict, regular detention centers".

A Kurdish military source confirmed to AFP the "continued transfer of ISIS detainees from Syria to Iraq under the protection of the international coalition".

On Saturday, an AFP photographer near the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria saw a US military convoy and 11 buses with tinted windows.

- Iraq calls for repatriation -

ISIS seized swathes of northern and western Iraq starting in 2014, until Iraqi forces, backed by the international coalition, managed to defeat it in 2017.

Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the extremists.

In recent years, Iraqi courts have issued death and life sentences against those convicted of terrorism offences.

Thousands of Iraqis and foreign nationals convicted of membership in the group are incarcerated in Iraqi prisons.

On Monday, the Iraqi judiciary announced it had begun investigative procedures involving 1,387 detainees it received as part of the US military's operation.

In a statement to the Iraqi News Agency on Saturday, Maan said "the established principle is to try all those involved in crimes against Iraqis and those belonging to the terrorist ISIS organization before the competent Iraqi courts".

Among the detainees being transferred to Iraq are Syrians, Iraqis, Europeans and holders of other nationalities, according to Iraqi security sources.

Iraq is calling on the concerned countries to repatriate their citizens and ensure their prosecution.

Maan noted that "the process of handing over the terrorists to their countries will begin once the legal requirements are completed".

Arab World

Drone Attack by RSF in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says

Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
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Drone Attack by RSF in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says

Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)

A drone attack by a notorious paramilitary group hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, a doctors’ group said.

The attack by the Rapid Support Forces occurred close to the city of Rahad in North Kordofan province, said the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s ongoing war.

The vehicle transported displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area of North Kordofan, the doctors’ group said in a statement. Among the dead children were two infants, the group said.

The doctors’ group urged the international community and rights organizations to “take immediate action to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership directly accountable for these violations.”

There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has been at war against the Sudanese military for control of the country for about three years.

Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.

The devastating war has killed more than 40,000 people, according to UN figures, but aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher.

It created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with over 14 million people forced to flee their homes. It fueled disease outbreaks and pushed parts of the country into famine.