BEIRUT: Drug gang and human trafficking ringleaders were arrested in a joint security operation targeting smuggling hotspots on the Lebanon-Syria border on Saturday.
Large quantities of drugs, weapons and ammunitions were also seized in the combined Lebanese Army and Intelligence Directorate operation, which struck several locations in the northern Bekaa Valley simultaneously.
Army and security personnel closed three illegal crossings used by human trafficking gangs and vehicle smugglers in Fessani, Wadi Al-Turkman, and Zeghrine in the Hermel district on the northeastern border with Syria.
Military intelligence also raided Syrian refugee camps and houses in Masharih Al-Qaa, a Lebanese region that overlaps Syrian territory, and arrested two Syrian nationals wanted in connection with Captagon smuggling and human trafficking.
The two suspects were found with a large quantity of hashish and Captagon pills, a military source said.
Another Syrian national, a member of a car theft and armed robbery gang, was also arrested.
The gang fired on intelligence directorate personnel two months ago in Brital in the Baalbek-Hermel region.
A Syrian national wanted on a string of weapons and narcotics charges was also arrested in the raids.
In a coordinated ambush in Hermel, the Lebanese army in cooperation with the intelligence directorate arrested two Lebanese nationals, one said to be the leader of a human trafficking gang, while they were smuggling Syrians through illegal mountain crossings.
The raid in Hermel also targeted a kidnapping and drug smuggling gang operating between Lebanon and Syria, the military source said.
Residents of Masharih Al-Qaa last month complained about criminal activity in the border area, including illegal crossings by Syrians who carry out thefts, murders and kidnappings for ransom.
The arrests follow a visit by army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun to the 1st Land Border Regiment on Lebanon’s northern border with Syria.
Aoun warned that terrorists, as well as arms and drug smugglers, could easily cross uncontrolled borders, and urged soldiers to be “patient because security cannot be compromised.”
The army chief said: “We are safeguarding the supreme national interest, which for us remains an absolute priority.”
In a speech on Friday night, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah suggested that sending a ministerial security delegation to Damascus would help address the refugee issue.
Lebanon deported about 50 Syrians last month.
All had entered Lebanon illegally, but it is unknown whether they were registered as refugees by the UNHCR.
The deportations continue to spark protests by international institutions.
In a statement, 20 Lebanese and global organizations said on Saturday that the deportations come amid an alarming surge in anti-refugee rhetoric in Lebanon and other coercive measures intended to pressure refugees to return to their countries.
The statement was signed by groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Deportations should be halted and due process respected, it said.
Lebanese authorities had “deliberately mismanaged the country’s economic crisis, but instead of adopting much-needed reforms, they have instead resorted to scapegoating refugees for their own failures,” it added.
The organizations said that they “continue to document horrific violations committed against Syrian returnees, including unlawful or arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment, rape and sexual violence, and enforced disappearance.”
Lebanon security sting targets crime gangs, smuggling networks
https://arab.news/bxq3g
Lebanon security sting targets crime gangs, smuggling networks
- Large quantities of drugs, weapons and ammunitions were also seized in the combined Lebanese Army and Intelligence Directorate operation
- The arrests follow a visit by army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun to the 1st Land Border Regiment on Lebanon’s northern border with Syria
Syrian authorities evacuate citizens amid major forest fires
- “Our teams recorded losses in the orchards due to the widespread spread of the forest fire in several areas of the Latakia countryside,” the civil defense added, calling on citizens to report anyone they suspect of starting fires
DAMASCUS: Syrian rescuers evacuated residential areas in Latakia province because of major forest fires, authorities said on Friday.
Fires have spreading across large parts of Syria, particularly on the coast, for several days, with firefighters struggling to control them due to strong winds and a drought.
Abdulkafi Kayyal, director of the Directorate of Disasters and Emergencies in Latakia province, told the state SANA news agency that fires in the Qastal Maaf area had moved close to several villages, prompting the evacuations.
Syria’s civil defense warned residents of “the spread of rising smoke emissions to the northern section of the coastal mountains, the city of Hama, its countryside, and southern Idlib areas.”
“Our teams recorded losses in the orchards due to the widespread spread of the forest fire in several areas of the Latakia countryside,” the civil defense added, calling on citizens to report anyone they suspect of starting fires.
Syrian minister of emergency situations and disasters Raed Al-Saleh said on X that he was following events and “we will exert our utmost efforts to combat these fires.”
With man-made climate change increasing the likelihood and intensity of droughts and wildfires worldwide, Syria has been battered by heatwaves, low rainfall and major forest fires.
In June, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization told AFP that Syria had “not seen such bad climate conditions in 60 years,” noting that an unprecedented drought was on course to push more than 16 million people into food insecurity.
The country is also reeling from more than a decade of civil war leading up to the end of the iron-fisted rule of Bashar Assad in December.
Kayyal said the presence of mines and unexploded ordnance was hindering the work of rescuers, along with strong winds spreading the fires.
Turkish prosecutors add charges of forging diploma against jailed Istanbul mayor
- Imamoglu denies the allegations against him, which his party says are orchestrated to protect Erdogan in power
- His indictment over his diploma was reported by Milliyet newspaper
ANKARA: Turkish prosecutors charged Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on Friday with falsifying his university diploma, a new case threatening more years in prison for President Tayyip Erdogan’s main rival, already jailed pending corruption charges he denies.
Imamoglu, at the center of a sprawling legal crackdown on the main opposition party, has been jailed since March 23 pending trial. He denies the allegations against him, which his party says are orchestrated to protect Erdogan in power.
His indictment over his diploma was reported by Milliyet newspaper, which said prosecutors were seeking eight years and nine months of prison time for the new charges. Reuters could not immediately obtain the document.
On March 18, Istanbul University said it had annulled Imamoglu’s diploma. He was detained a day later on the corruption charges, triggering Turkiye’s largest protests in a decade, and later jailed pending trial.
His detention has drawn sharp criticism from opposition parties and some foreign leaders, who call the case politically motivated and anti-democratic. The government denies the case is political.
Imamoglu is the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s presidential candidate in any future election. He won re-election as mayor in March last year by a wide margin against a candidate from Erdogan’s ruling AK Party.
Gaza’s Nasser Hospital operating as ‘one massive trauma ward’
- 613 killed at aid distribution sites, near humanitarian convoys, says UN human rights office
GENEVA: Nasser Hospital in Gaza is operating as “one massive trauma ward” due to an influx of patients wounded at non-UN food distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
The US- and Israeli-backed GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of deliveries that the UN says is neither impartial nor neutral. It has repeatedly denied that incidents involving people killed or wounded at its sites have occurred.
The GHF said on Friday that “the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys,” and said the UN and humanitarian groups should work “collaboratively” with the GHF to “maximize the amount of aid being securely delivered into Gaza.” The UN in Geneva was immediately available for comment.
FASTFACT
Hundreds of patients, mainly young boys, were being treated for traumatic injuries, including bullet wounds to the head, chest, and knees, according to the WHO.
Referring to medical staff at the Nasser Hospital, Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the West Bank and Gaza, told reporters in Geneva: “They’ve seen already for weeks, daily injuries ... (the) majority coming from the so-called safe non-UN food distribution sites. The hospital is now operating as one massive trauma ward.”
Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza on May 19.
The UN human rights office said on Friday that it had recorded at least 613 killings, both at aid points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and near humanitarian convoys.
“We have recorded 613 killings, both at GHF points and near humanitarian convoys — this is a figure as of June 27. Since then ... there have been further incidents,” Ravina Shamdasani, the spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in Geneva.
The OHCHR said 509 of the 613 were killed near GHF distribution points. The GHF dismissed these numbers as coming “directly from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry” and were being used to “falsely smear” its effort.
The GHF has previously said it has delivered more than 60 million meals to hungry Palestinians in five weeks “safely and without interference,” while other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted.”
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that there have been some instances of violent looting and attacks on aid truck drivers, which it described as unacceptable.
Hundreds of patients, mainly young boys, were being treated for traumatic injuries, including bullet wounds to the head, chest, and knees, according to the WHO.
Peeperkorn said health workers at Nasser Hospital and testimonies from family members and friends of those wounded confirmed that the victims had been trying to access aid at sites run by the GHF.
Peeperkorn recounted the cases of a 13-year-old boy shot in the head, as well as a 21-year-old with a bullet lodged in his neck, which rendered him paraplegic.
“There is no chance for any reversal or any proper treatment. Young lives are being destroyed forever,” Peeperkorn said, urging for the fighting to stop and for more food aid to be allowed into Gaza.
French President Macron and Malaysian PM reaffirm calls for Gaza ceasefire
- “Our two countries are urging, more than ever, for a ceasefire,” said Macron
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim reaffirmed on Friday their calls for a ceasefire in the fighting in Gaza, as Macron hosted Ibrahim in Paris.
“Our two countries are urging, more than ever, for a ceasefire, the release of the hostages, and for aid to get through,” said Macron, referring to Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Egypt says Ethiopia’s power-generating dam lacks a legally binding agreement
- Egypt firmly rejects Ethiopia’s continued policy of imposing a fait accompli through unilateral actions concerning the Nile River, which is an international shared watercourse
CAIRO: Egypt said on Friday that Ethiopia has consistently lacked the political will to reach a binding agreement on its now-complete dam, an issue that involves Nile River water rights and the interests of Egypt and Sudan.
Ethiopia’s prime minister said Thursday that the country’s power-generating dam, known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, on the Nile is now complete and that the government is “preparing for its official inauguration” in September.
Egypt has long opposed the construction of the dam because it would reduce the country’s share of Nile River waters, which it almost entirely relies on for agriculture and to serve its more than 100 million people.
The more than $4 billion dam on the Blue Nile near the Sudan border began producing power in 2022.
It is expected to eventually produce more than 6,000 MW of electricity — double Ethiopia’s current output.
Ethiopia and Egypt have spent years negotiating an agreement over the dam, which Ethiopia began building in 2011.
Both countries reached no deal despite negotiations spanning 13 years, and it remains unclear how much water Ethiopia will release downstream in the event of a drought.
Egyptian officials, in a statement, called the completion of the dam “unlawful” and said that it violates international law, reflecting “an Ethiopian approach driven by an ideology that seeks to impose water hegemony” instead of equal partnership.
“Egypt firmly rejects Ethiopia’s continued policy of imposing a fait accompli through unilateral actions concerning the Nile River, which is an international shared watercourse,” Egypt’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation said in a statement on Friday.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, in his address to lawmakers on Thursday, said that his country “remains committed to ensuring that our growth does not come at the expense of our Egyptian and Sudanese brothers and sisters.”
“We believe in shared progress, shared energy, and shared water,” he said.
“Prosperity for one should mean prosperity for all.”
However, the Egyptian Water Ministry said on Friday that Ethiopian statements calling for continued negotiations “are merely superficial attempts to improve its image on the international stage.”
“Ethiopia’s positions, marked by evasion and retreat while pursuing unilateralism, are in clear contradiction with its declared willingness to negotiate,” the statement read.
However, Egypt is addressing its water needs by expanding agricultural wastewater treatment and improving irrigation systems, according to the ministry, while also bolstering cooperation with Nile Basin countries through backing development and water-related projects.
