Syria says detained senior Daesh jihadist in Damascus

Security forces stand guard in the capital Damascus ahead of Christmas festivities on December 22, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 25 December 2025
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Syria says detained senior Daesh jihadist in Damascus

  • The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers

DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities have arrested a senior Daesh group official in the Damascus region in a joint operation with a US-led international coalition, a security official said on Wednesday.
Taha Al-Zoubi, also known as Abu Omar Tabiya, an Daesh leader in Damascus, was detained with several of his men, General Ahmad Al-Dalati was reported as saying by state news agency SANA.
The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers and a US civilian that Washington said was carried out by a lone Daesh gunman in central Syria’s Palmyra.
“Our specialized units, in cooperation with the General Intelligence Directorate and and International Coalition forces, carried out a precise security operation targeting” an Daesh hideout, Dalati said.
On December 20, a Syria monitor said that five Daesh members were killed in US strikes in retaliation for the December 13 attack.
It was the first such incident since the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December last year, and Syrian authorities said the perpetrator was a security forces member who was due to be fired for his “extremist Islamist ideas.”


Israeli military says unintentionally struck UN agency truck in Gaza

Updated 07 March 2026
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Israeli military says unintentionally struck UN agency truck in Gaza

  • “Our teams are taking extraordinary risks every day to keep humanitarian operations and life-sustaining services running,” UNOPS Executive Director Jorge Moreira da Silva said in ⁠a statement, calling for an investigation ‌into the incident

TEL AVIV: Israel’s ‌military said on Friday that a “firing component” launched by its navy unintentionally struck a fuel truck belonging ​to a United Nations agency in Gaza the previous day, an incident that prompted the agency to publicly call for a full investigation.
The United Nations Office for Project Services, which oversees fuel distribution in Gaza, said that the empty fuel truck ‌was struck ‌on Thursday around 5 ​a.m. ‌from ⁠the ​direction of the ⁠sea, causing damage to the vehicle. There were no injuries.
“Our teams are taking extraordinary risks every day to keep humanitarian operations and life-sustaining services running,” UNOPS Executive Director Jorge Moreira da Silva said in ⁠a statement, calling for an investigation ‌into the incident.
“They ‌should not have to do ​that under fire,” ‌he said.
In response to Reuters questions, ‌the Israeli military said that the incident occurred during defensive naval activity, and that a firing component deviated from its intended trajectory.
The fuel truck ‌sustained “minor damage,” the military said in a statement. The military did not ⁠say ⁠what type of munitions had been fired, or what had been the navy’s intended target.
“The incident was reviewed, and lessons were learned accordingly,” it said, without providing further details.
The fuel truck had been on its way to the Kerem Shalom crossing when it was struck, and the truck’s movements had been coordinated with Israeli ​authorities in advance, ​UNOPS said.