
Islamic State group claims first attack on new Syria forces since Assad fall
The Islamic State (IS) group claimed its first attack on Syria's new government forces since the fall of longtime Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday, two war monitors said on Wednesday, May 29.
SITE Intelligence Group said it was the first IS-claimed attack on Syria's new government, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying that one person was killed and three members of the Syrian army's 70th division injured when their patrol was hit by a remotely detonated landmine on Wednesday.

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LeMonde
11 hours ago
- LeMonde
Syria says al-Assad cousin involved in drug trade arrested in border ambush
Syrian authorities arrested Wassim al-Assad, a cousin of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, the interior ministry said Saturday, June 21, in one of the most high-profile arrests since the former president's ouster. Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia in December with only a handful of confidants, abandoning senior officials and security officers, some of whom have reportedly fled to neighboring countries or taken refuge in the coastal heartland of Assad's Alawite minority. An interior ministry statement said that intelligence services and other authorities managed to "lure the criminal Wassim al-Assad," carrying out a "well-planned ambush that resulted in his successful arrest." He is "considered among the most prominent drug traffickers and people involved in a number of crimes during the period of the former regime," the statement said, without elaborating on the other allegations against him. While Wassim al-Assad did not hold high office, he is the first prominent figure from the Assad family to be arrested since Islamist-led forces toppled the government on December 8, ending five decades of one-family rule. The US Treasury sanctioned him in 2023, saying he had led a paramilitary unit and was "a key figure in the regional drug trafficking network." State news agency SANA, citing an unidentified security source in Homs province, said Wassim al-Assad was arrested on the Syria-Lebanon border. In recent years, Wassim al-Assad, who called himself a "customs broker," posted images of himself on social media near luxury cars, sometimes appearing in military clothing and bearing arms or shooting, at times alongside other armed men. Since taking power, the new authorities have occasionally announced the arrest of Assad-era security and other officials. In April, Syrian authorities said security forces had arrested Sultan al-Tinawi, a former officer in the feared air force intelligence, one of the Assad family's most trusted security agencies.


Local France
14 hours ago
- Local France
French court upholds life sentence over 2016 police killings
In 2023, Mohamed Lamine Aberouz, a 31-year-old Franco-Moroccan, was found guilty of complicity in the stabbings of Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and his partner Jessica Schneider by his friend Larossi Abballa in June 2016. Abballa slit 36-year-old Schneider's throat in front of her three-year-old son and then stabbed 42-year-old Salvaing to death outside their home in the town of Magnanville outside Paris. He was shot dead by a police response unit. Abballa claimed the attack on behalf of the Islamic State group in a chilling live video from the scene of the crime broadcast on social media. The assault took place at the height of a wave of terror and marked the first time that police officers were traced to, and killed, in their homes. On Saturday, the Paris Special Criminal Court found Aberouz guilty on all counts including complicity in the murder of a person in a position of public authority and participation in a terrorist criminal conspiracy. His lawyers said their client would lodge an appeal with the Court of Cassation. 'Evil will' Vincent Brengarth, one of his lawyers, said Aberouz was "devastated". "The benefit of the doubt was effectively granted to the prosecution, which represents a reversal of a fundamental principle," he said. Aberouz has maintained his innocence, saying he was at prayers the night of the attack. He has condemned the attack and insisted that Abballa acted alone. Advertisement "It was his evil will," Aberouz said in court. "I regret having known him and having been fooled." "I assure you that I have no responsibility for your misfortune," Aberouz said in the courtroom, looking at the families of Schneider and Salvaing. According to the prosecutor, the accused was a member of the Islamic State group and present at the scene of the crime on June 13, 2016. The defendant's denials "do not stand up to scrutiny", said prosecutor Naima Rudloff. "The sequence of events confirms that this could only have been done with the help of a second man," added the lawyer. "Can you imagine a man, in broad daylight, attacking two potentially armed police officers?" Brengarth, one of the lawyers for the accused, had argued for his client's acquittal on the grounds of reasonable doubt, stressing the lack of "concrete evidence" against him. The accused's DNA was found on the victims' computer. His lawyers have claimed his DNA came from Abballa's car.


France 24
17 hours ago
- France 24
French court upholds life sentence for man linked to jihadist murder of police couple
A French court on Saturday upheld a life sentence for a man convicted for his part in the 2016 killing of a police couple at their home in front of their young child. In 2023, Mohamed Lamine Aberouz, a Franco-Moroccan, was found guilty of complicity in the stabbings of Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and his partner Jessica Schneider by his friend Larossi Abballa in June 2016. Abballa slit 36-year-old Schneider's throat in front of her three-year-old son and then stabbed 42-year-old Salvaing to death outside their home in the town of Magnanville outside Paris. He was shot dead by a police response unit. Abballa claimed the attack on behalf of the Islamic State group in a chilling live video from the scene of the crime broadcast on social media. The killings came amid a wave of attacks in France linked to the Islamic State group and marked the first time that police officers were traced to, and killed, in their homes. On Saturday, the Paris Special Criminal Court found Aberouz, 31, guilty on all counts including complicity in the murder of a person in a position of public authority and participation in a terrorist criminal conspiracy. His lawyers said their client would lodge an appeal with the Court of Cassation. 'Evil will' Vincent Brengarth, one of his lawyers, said Aberouz was "devastated". "The benefit of the doubt was effectively granted to the prosecution, which represents a reversal of a fundamental principle," he said. Schneider's mother praised the ruling. "Justice has been done," Josiane Schneider told reporters. She praised the "very professional court," including the prosecutor. "I got a clear picture of what happened to my daughter. I had my own story in my head, she filled in the gaps and now I have answers." Aberouz has maintained his innocence, saying he was at prayers the night of the attack. He has condemned the attack and insisted that Abballa acted alone. "It was his evil will," Aberouz said in court. "I regret having known him and having been fooled." "I assure you that I have no responsibility for your misfortune," Aberouz said in the courtroom, looking at the families of Schneider and Salvaing. 03:23 According to the prosecutor, the accused was a member of the Islamic State group and present at the scene of the crime on June 13, 2016. The defendant's denials "do not stand up to scrutiny", said prosecutor Naima Rudloff. "The sequence of events confirms that this could only have been done with the help of a second man," added the prosecutor. "Can you imagine a man, in broad daylight, attacking two potentially armed police officers?" Brengarth, one of the lawyers for the accused, had argued for his client's acquittal on the grounds of reasonable doubt, stressing the lack of "concrete evidence" against him. The accused's DNA was found on the victims' computer. His lawyers have claimed his DNA came from Abballa's car.