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Damascus Denies US Planning to Establish Military Presence in Syria 

A view of the Mezzeh military airbase in southeastern Damascus. (Reuters file photo)
A view of the Mezzeh military airbase in southeastern Damascus. (Reuters file photo)
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Damascus Denies US Planning to Establish Military Presence in Syria 

A view of the Mezzeh military airbase in southeastern Damascus. (Reuters file photo)
A view of the Mezzeh military airbase in southeastern Damascus. (Reuters file photo)

The Syrian Foreign Ministry denied on Thursday reports saying the United States was planning on establishing a military presence in the country.

Six sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that the US is preparing to establish a military presence at an airbase in Damascus to help enable a security pact that Washington is brokering between Syria and Israel.

After publication, a Syrian foreign ministry source denied the report, saying it was "false", state news agency SANA reported late on Thursday.

"Work is underway to transfer the partnerships and understandings that were necessarily made with provisional entities to Damascus, within the framework of joint political, military and economic coordination," SANA added, citing the source.

The US plans for the presence in the Syrian capital, which have not previously been reported, would be a sign of Syria's strategic realignment with the US following the fall last year of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Iran, continued Reuters.

The base sits at the gateway to parts of southern Syria that are expected to make up a demilitarized zone as part of a non-aggression pact between Israel and Syria. That deal is being mediated by US President Donald Trump's administration.

TRUMP SET TO MEET SYRIAN PRESIDENT ON MONDAY

Trump will meet Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the White House on Monday, the first such visit by a Syrian head of state.

Reuters spoke to six sources familiar with preparations at the base, including two Western officials and a Syrian defense official, who confirmed the US was planning to use the base to help monitor a potential Israel-Syria agreement.

The Pentagon and Syrian foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the plan. The Syrian presidency and defense ministry did not immediately respond to questions about the plan sent via the Syrian information ministry.

A US administration official said the US was "constantly evaluating our necessary posture in Syria to effectively combat ISIS and (we) do not comment on locations or possible locations of (where) forces operate."

The official requested that the name and location of the base be removed for operational security reasons. Reuters has agreed to not reveal the exact location.

A Western military official said the Pentagon had accelerated its plans over the last two months with several reconnaissance missions to the base. Those missions concluded the base's long runway was ready for immediate use.

Two Syrian military sources said the technical talks have been focused on the use of the base for logistics, surveillance, refueling and humanitarian operations, while Syria would retain full sovereignty over the facility.

A Syrian defense official said the US had flown to the base in military C-130 transport aircraft to make sure the runway was usable. A security guard at one of the base's entrances told Reuters that American aircraft were landing there as part of "tests".

It was not immediately clear when US military personnel would be dispatched to the base.

JOINT SYRIAN-AMERICAN PRESENCE

The new US plans appear to mirror two other new US military presences in the region monitoring cessation of hostilities agreements: one in Lebanon, which closely watches last year's ceasefire between Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and Israel, and one in Israel that monitors the Trump-era truce between Palestinian group Hamas and Israel.

The US already has troops stationed in northeastern Syria, as part of a decade-long effort to help a Kurdish-led force there combat ISIS. In April, the Pentagon said it would halve the number of troops there to 1,000.

Sharaa has said any US troop presence should be agreed with the new Syrian state. Syria is set to imminently join the US-led global anti-ISIS coalition, US and Syrian officials say.

A person familiar with the talks over the base said the move was discussed during a trip by Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of the US Central Command (CENTCOM), to Damascus on September 12.

A CENTCOM statement at the time said Cooper and US envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack had met Sharaa and thanked him for contributing to the fight against ISIS in Syria, which it said could help accomplish Trump's "vision of a prosperous Middle East and a stable Syria at peace with itself and its neighbors." The statement did not mention Israel.

The US has been working for months to reach a security pact between Israel and Syria, two longtime foes. It had hoped to announce a deal at the United Nations General Assembly in September but talks hit a last-minute snag.

A Syrian source familiar with the talks told Reuters that Washington was exerting pressure on Syria to reach a deal before the end of the year, and possibly before Sharaa's trip to Washington.

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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.