The Folly of Establishing a U.S. Military Base in Damascus
By José Niño | The Libertarian Institute | December 16, 2025
Recent reports indicate the United States is preparing to establish a military presence at an airbase in Damascus, allegedly to facilitate a security agreement between Syria and Israel. This development represents yet another misguided expansion of American military overreach in a region where Washington has already caused tremendous damage through decades of failed interventionist policies.
The United States currently operates approximately 750 to 877 military installations across roughly eighty countries worldwide. This staggering number represents about 70 to 85% of all foreign military bases globally. To put this in perspective, the next eighteen countries with foreign bases combined maintain only 370 installations total. Russia has just twenty-nine foreign bases, and China operates merely six. The American empire of bases already dwarfs every other nation combined, and the financial burden is crushing. Washington spends approximately $65 billion annually just to build and maintain these overseas installations, with total spending on foreign bases and personnel reaching over $94 billion per year.
These figures are not abstract accounting entries. They translate directly into American lives placed in volatile environments, as demonstrated by the recent insider attack in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, where a purported ISIS infiltrator embedded in local security forces turned his weapon on a joint U.S. Syrian patrol, killing two U.S. soldiers and one U.S. civilian during what was described as a routine field tour. The incident underscores how the sprawling U.S. basing network increasingly exposes American personnel to unpredictable and lethal blowback in unstable theaters far from home.
Syria itself already hosts between 1,500 and 2,000 American troops, primarily concentrated in the northeastern Hasakah province and at the Al Tanf base in the Syrian Desert. The Pentagon recently announced plans to reduce this presence to fewer than 1,000 personnel and consolidated operations from eight installations to just three. Yet now, despite this supposed drawdown, Washington reportedly plans to establish a new presence in Damascus itself, either at Mezzeh Air Base or Al Seen Military Airport. This contradictory expansion reveals the hollow nature of promises to reduce American military commitments abroad.
Since the fall of Bashar al Assad in December 2024, Israel has conducted hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian military and civilian infrastructure while occupying parts of southern Syria including Quneitra and Daraa. Israel has systematically violated the 1974 disengagement agreement and expanded control over buffer zones. These actions align disturbingly well with the Yinon Plan, a 1982 Israeli strategic document by Israeli foreign policy official Oded Yinon that envisions the dissolution of surrounding Arab states into smaller ethnic and religious entities. The plan explicitly calls for fragmenting Syria along its ethnic and religious lines to prevent a strong centralized government that could challenge Israeli interests.
A permanent American military presence in Damascus would effectively serve as a tripwire guaranteeing continued U.S. involvement in securing Israeli strategic objectives in the Levant. Rather than protecting American interests or enhancing national security, such a base would entrench Washington deeper into regional conflicts that have consistently proven disastrous for both American taxpayers and Middle Eastern populations.
The human cost of American intervention in Syria should give any policymaker pause. The Syrian Civil War has resulted in between 617,000 and 656,000 deaths, including civilians, rebels, and government forces. More than 7.4 million people remain internally displaced within Syria, while approximately 6.3 million Syrian refugees live abroad. This catastrophic toll stems partly from Operation Timber Sycamore, the CIA covert program that ran from 2012 to 2017 to train and equip Syrian rebel forces.
Timber Sycamore represented a joint effort involving American intelligence services along with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. The CIA ran secret training camps in Jordan and Turkey, providing rebels with small arms, ammunition, trucks, and eventually advanced weaponry like BGM 71 TOW anti-tank missiles. Saudi Arabia provided significant funding while the United States supplied training and logistical support.
The program proved to be counterproductive. Jordanian intelligence officers stole and sold millions of dollars worth of weapons intended for rebels on the black market. Even worse, U.S.-supplied weapons regularly fell into the hands of the al Nusra Front, al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, and ISIS itself. The program inadvertently strengthened the very extremists Washington was ostensibly fighting.
The failure of Timber Sycamore illustrates a fundamental problem with American interventionism in Syria. Washington has pursued regime change in Damascus in various forms for decades, yet these efforts have consistently backfired, creating power vacuums filled by jihadist groups and prolonging devastating conflicts. The current enthusiasm for establishing a military presence in Damascus suggests American policymakers have learned absolutely nothing from these failures.
The figure now leading Syria exemplifies the moral bankruptcy of this entire enterprise. Ahmed al Sharaa, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al Julani, currently serves as president of Syria’s interim government. This represents a stunning rehabilitation for a man who founded al Nusra Front in 2012 as an al-Qaeda affiliate and later formed Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) by merging various rebel factions. Under the name Abu Mohammad al Julani, he was designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the United States on July 24, 2013, with a $10 million bounty maintained on his head.
Al Sharaa’s terrorist designation stemmed from his leadership of al Nusra Front, which perpetrated numerous war crimes including suicide bombings, forced conversions, ethnic cleansing, and sectarian massacres against Christian, Alawite, Shia, and Druze minorities. He fought with al-Qaeda in Iraq, spent time imprisoned at Camp Bucca between 2006 and 2010, and was dispatched to Syria by Abu Bakr al Baghdadi in 2011 with $50,000 to establish al Nusra. His close associates have faced accusations from the United States of overseeing torture, kidnappings, trafficking, ransom schemes, and displacing residents to seize property. The New York Times reported that his group was accused of initially operating under al-Qaeda’s umbrella.
Yet in November 2025, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 2799, removing al Sharaa and Interior Minister Anas Khattab from the ISIL and al-Qaeda sanctions list. The U.S. Treasury Department followed suit, delisting him from the Specially Designated Global Terrorist registry. This reversal came after the State Department revoked HTS’s Foreign Terrorist Organization designation in July 2025. Washington essentially decided that a former al-Qaeda commander who oversaw sectarian massacres was now a legitimate partner worthy of American military support. This absurd rehabilitation demonstrates how completely untethered American foreign policy has become from any coherent moral framework or strategic logic.
Critics rightly question whether al Sharaa has truly broken from his extremist roots or merely engaged in calculated political rebranding. The speed with which Washington embraced him as a legitimate leader suggests American policymakers care far more about advancing Israeli interests and maintaining regional influence than about genuine counterterrorism or protecting religious minorities.
The United States needs to pursue a fundamentally different approach to foreign policy. Rather than establishing yet another military base to advance Israeli strategic objectives in Syria, Washington should implement a comprehensive drawdown of overseas military commitments. The hundreds of foreign bases it maintains abroad represent an unsustainable burden that diverts resources from genuine national security priorities like border security and stability in the Western Hemisphere. American taxpayers deserve better than footing the bill for an empire that consistently fails to advance their interests while enriching defense contractors and serving foreign powers.
Syria offers a perfect case study in the futility of American interventionism. Decades of attempts at regime change through covert programs like Timber Sycamore and direct military presence have produced nothing but chaos, empowered jihadist groups, created millions of refugees, and cost hundreds of thousands of lives. The rehabilitation of a former al-Qaeda commander into Syria’s president illustrates how divorced American policy has become from any coherent strategy or values.
Rather than doubling down on failed policies, the United States should pursue strategic restraint, scale back its sprawling network of foreign bases, and allow regional powers to sort out their own affairs without American military involvement. That represents the path toward a more sustainable, affordable, and morally defensible foreign policy. The Damascus base proposal deserves to be rejected outright as yet another wasteful expansion of an already overextended military empire.
A New Low: Western Media Promotes ISIS-Linked Gangsters In Gaza
By Robert Inlakesh | Palestine Chronicle | October 29, 2025
Al-Natour is the embodiment of the archetypal Palestinian collaborator. A man who portrays himself as a victim uses his own experience as a Palestinian to whitewash Israeli genocide.
On October 27, the Washington Post published an article entitled “The ceasefire created two Gazas. One will consume the other.” The author argues that “My Gaza is ready for peace” and that “Hamas is trying to destroy it”, promoting the fictitious Israeli narrative that a utopian Gaza is being made possible inside the portion of the enclave where the occupation forces remain, behind the so-called “Yellow Line”.
The article works to promote the Israeli scheme in Gaza, which has been openly endorsed by US officials, and argues in favor of only allowing reconstruction in the territory operated by Israel, alongside four primary ISIS-linked militias.
Evidently, the article makes no mention of the Israeli armed and controlled Palestinian death squads – composed of convicted drug traffickers, rapists, murderers, ISIS-linked Salafists and aid looters.
The piece is purportedly written by one Moumen al-Natour, which makes even more sense out of why there is no mention of the ISIS-linked death squads, because he himself is an armed member of one such death squad.
Al-Natour is the embodiment of the archetypal Palestinian collaborator. A man who portrays himself as a victim uses his own experience as a Palestinian to whitewash Israeli genocide and lies about every detail to turn himself into a “peace activist” opposed to armed resistance, while simultaneously partaking in activities designed to further the extermination of his own people.
Take, for example, the following excerpt from the ISIS-linked death squad collaborator’s alleged opinion piece:
“My Gaza, where I wish to live, exists between Israel and the yellow line. There, the war is over and change buzzes in the air. People have access to food, medicine and electricity. And other signs of normality are beginning to return, such as some children going back to school. This is the Gaza that is waiting with anticipation to work with a new civil administration and an international protection force that will keep the peace as Israel withdraws. Few there speak of Hamas with any warmth or positivity. For once they no longer have to.”
The territory spoken of here is the area of Gaza where Israel and four ISIS-linked collaborator gangs operate; the only civilians there are the families of the death squads. Any other Palestinians attempting to reach their homes inside this area are bombed or gunned down by Israeli forces.
This territory, on the other side of Israel’s “Yellow Line,” is supposed to be 53% of Gaza, yet in reality is anywhere between 54-58% of the territory, due to Israel violating the ceasefire agreement and operating deeper than agreed upon inside the supposed withdrawal zone.
In addition to this, Israel continues its daily demolition operations against the remaining Palestinian civilian infrastructure inside the territory, again in violation of the ceasefire agreement. The proof of this has been openly published by Israeli soldiers who post videos of their demolition work on social media.
As for access to food, medicine, and electricity, these are provided to the collaborator gangs by Israel and are something they have not lacked during the war. While the people of Gaza were being starved for three months straight earlier this year, al-Natour’s militia friends were living lives of relative luxury.
Not only were al-Natour’s collaborator gang not starved, the so-called “Popular Forces” that he is part of, led by ISIS-linked convicted drug trafficker Yasser Abu Shabab, were living off of the supplies they stole from humanitarian aid trucks and looted from Gaza’s civilian population.
That is what these militant organizations began receiving Israeli backing to do – before being repurposed, armed and given direct combat missions by the IDF and Shin Bet – to rob humanitarian aid trucks and help enforce Israel’s starvation policy in Gaza. All of these collaborator gangs were tasked with involvement in such activities, and many of their militants continue to loot.
Meanwhile, in the Western corporate media and its allied Arab publications, al-Natour and his ilk are portrayed as the peace activists opposed to Hamas tyranny. For al-Natour’s part, he was one of the founders of the “We Want To Live” movement, which claimed its mission was to improve living conditions inside the besieged coastal enclave, described by UN experts as “unlivable” back in 2020.
As an activist, he was accused of working on behalf of Israel and spreading a message critical of Hamas, leading to his arrest. Whether he was a collaborator back then is under dispute, yet, during the genocide, he and his anti-Hamas message were picked up by a media outlet called Jasoor News.
This media outlet’s editor-in-chief is a Washington based journalist, named Hadeel Oueis, who routinely shares anti-Hamas content, including from the Center for Peace Communications (CPC). Oueis also expresses support for the current Syrian leadership of Ahmed al-Shara’a.
The CPC has received considerable donations from the Adelson Family Foundation of Israel’s richest billionaire and top Trump campaign donor, Miriam Adelson. For Jasoor News’ part, it is explicitly anti-Hamas, anti-Hezbollah, anti-Ansarallah, while publishing pieces in favor of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Western Media Support For ISIS-linked Groups
The recent propaganda opinion piece published by the Washington Post comes as little surprise, as it was the first Western publication to publish an interview with ISIS-linked militia leader Yasser Abu Shabab in November of 2024, when Israel began to give the aid looting gang a facelift and begin promoting them as a “grassroots” anti-Hamas resistance force.
In that WP piece, Abu Shabab claims victim status and that he looted aid out of necessity, expressing that “Hamas has left us with nothing”, despite his gang of collaborators clearly being the only group of Gazans who actually did have something during the genocide. Abu Shabab was used to do Israel’s bidding, blocking the flow of aid to civilians and lived under the protection of the Israeli military while doing so.
Back in July, the Wall Street Journal then published an opinion piece entitled “Gazans are finished with Hamas”, which it claimed was written by Yasser Abu Shabab himself. This was despite the fact that local sources in Gaza attest to Abu Shabab not only being unable to write in English, but also being illiterate and incapable of writing such a piece in Arabic too.
According to anonymous sources belonging to Palestinian journalist Muhammad Shehada, the latest Washington Post piece was published as explicit Israeli propaganda. “Journalists told me a pro-Israeli PR firm in DC is the one that pushed for this propaganda article to be published,” he wrote on X [formerly Twitter], adding that “my sources said there’s a chance the firm is the one that even wrote the op-ed”.
All of this works as part of an Israeli propaganda campaign aimed at legitimizing the agenda to create two separate systems of rule in Gaza, through spreading lies about Hamas and egregiously exaggerating the brutality of its Security Force crackdown on collaborators.
Israel is currently violating the Gaza ceasefire, not only through its daily bombings and sniping of civilians, but also through its refusal to allow sufficient aid to reach the civilian population. The Israelis had committed to allowing 400 aid trucks into Gaza for the first five days of the ceasefire before an unlimited amount afterward, later committing to permit 600 a day to enter, yet have allowed in a daily average of less than 90.
The idea, endorsed by the United States, is to deploy an international invasion force in the Gaza Strip, which will work alongside the ISIS-linked death squads to disarm Hamas. Once the Israelis withhold construction materials and equipment from entering the populated areas of the territory, where Hamas remains in power, they will then offer the civilian population a choice between entering their version of Gaza under occupation, or remaining where they are to starve and rot.
Hamas, along with all the other Palestinian factions, has agreed to hand Gaza over to an interim administration of technocratic governance, but will not disarm until the creation of a Palestinian State. Israel will not allow for this and instead uses its collaborators to fight for its own agenda, depending on its propaganda that is being prominently spread by its Palestinian media allies as a means of justifying this approach.
Inside Gaza, these ISIS-linked gangsters have no popular support. In fact, the vast preponderance of the population supports the Security Forces campaign to stamp out these groups. Despite the propagandists and militia members claiming that they are fighting a tyrannical regime that is killing its own people, the population of Gaza do not believe this narrative and hence will not support such a scheme.
The current round of propaganda against Hamas mirrors the regime change rhetoric used to overthrow countless governments in the region, beginning with Iraq. For example, during the campaign to justify the overthrow of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Western governments and Washington-based think-tanks paid Iraqi “experts” and “peace activists” to justify the invasion of their own country.
Every time, the regime change script is the same. Except in this case, it is unlikely to succeed due to the grievances of Gazans with Hamas not matching those of their regional neighbors. This, however, will not stop the constant chorus of lies, exaggerations, and distortions from Washington and Tel Aviv’s “peace activists” who turn out to be armed members of ISIS-linked gangs and “Palestinian analysts” who just so happen to work for Zionist think-tanks.
These individuals speak with the language of “peace”, “reconciliation,” and “forgiving Israel”, but are ultimately soulless propagandists who weaponize their identity to serve an agenda aimed at destroying their own people. They value nothing more than status, power, and financial gain.
In the pro-genocide Western corporate media, these voices will continue to be elevated and their claims will never be fact-checked, because these outlets function as stenographers for the US and Israeli governments.
From Syria to Gaza: Israel’s proxy playbook returns
By Robert Inlakesh | The Cradle | October 21, 2025
With the already violated ceasefire in place, and Israeli occupation forces implementing a phased withdrawal, Gaza remains under siege, this time through Tel Aviv’s use of armed collaborator militias.
Drawing on tactics refined in Syria, these death squads have been unleashed to assassinate resistance figures, sow chaos, and undermine what remains of the Hamas-led administration.
Three proxy groups backed by Tel Aviv have since escalated their military campaigns against Gaza’s security forces and society. These militias of collaborator death squads have been used to stir chaos on direct orders of the Israeli army, seeking to establish bases of control in the portions of the territory that Israel has yet to withdraw from.
Upon the cessation of hostilities between the Israeli military and Palestinian resistance factions, at least 7,000 security personnel affiliated with the Hamas-led civil administration took to the streets of Gaza to establish law and order. Yet, almost immediately, they were confronted with ambushes, and armed clashes broke out in a number of areas of the territory.
In particular, the armed clashes in northern Gaza have received the most attention in the media, with Israeli and a handful of Palestinian Authority (PA) aligned personalities attempting to sell the situation as a “civil war.”
Collaborator militias exploit the Gaza ceasefire
Amid the chaos, the son of senior Hamas leader Bassem Naim was shot in the head by proxy forces. Mohammed Imad Aqel, son of a prominent Qassam Brigades commander, was murdered by members of the Doghmush clan. And Saleh al-Jaafarawi, a prominent journalist, was kidnapped, tortured, and shot dead at point-blank range.
At the beginning of October, in Khan Yunis, the Majayda family reportedly collaborated with Hossam al-Astal under Israeli air cover, launching attacks on security positions – a key example of Tel Aviv’s use of clan structures to advance its proxy war strategy.
Israeli researcher Or Fialkov noted:
“The Majaydeh clan from Khan Yunis – which fought Hamas a week ago – announces it has disarmed. The clan, which received assistance from the Israeli army in airstrikes against Hamas members, said it has handed over its weapons to Hamas. Hamas is settling scores across the strip and showing everyone who is in charge.”
To counter the threat posed by these armed collaborators, Hamas formed two new specialized units. The first, Sahm (Arrow) Forces, is comprised of officers from the civil security services. The second, the Resistance Security Force (Amn al-Muqawamah), includes fighters from Hamas’s military wing, as well as those from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Fatah al-Intifada, and other factions.
A senior security source in northern Gaza tells The Cradle that a document containing a hit list was discovered during a raid on a collaborator’s hideout. Although the document itself could not be shared, the source claims it noted that Israel’s “goal is to create chaos, to carry out assassinations, allow for lawlessness, and to fight the resistance through its collaborators.”
This account was reinforced in a KAN News interview, in which the leader of one collaborator militia confirmed that the Israeli army is providing his forces with security support and authorization to operate beyond the so-called Yellow Line. Roughly 54–58 percent of Gaza is still under the occupation army’s control.
US advisors recently informed Axios that Washington is working on an Israeli-backed plan to create pathways for Palestinians opposed to Hamas to live outside of Israel’s Yellow Line. To this effect, the Israeli military is currently marking this line by installing cement blocks and security equipment to demarcate its boundaries.
According to Israel Hayom, the American-Israeli plan seeks to use Gaza reconstruction funds to begin rebuilding hospitals, schools, and homes inside the territory that is jointly controlled by the Israeli army and its ISIS-linked proxy groups.
Under this scheme, Palestinians will be presented with the choice to live under Hamas along the coast or inside the newly constructed areas. It appears as if a proposed multinational military force will also be used to help implement such a model.
Despite this, the collaborator groups currently operating there do not enjoy popular support, and Israel is continuing to demolish the remaining civilian infrastructure located there. Meanwhile, all the major families, segments of whom began fighting Gaza’s security forces, have issued statements aligning themselves with Hamas and against any collaborators in their midst.
The Ramallah-based PA has also expressed its interest in vying for power in the Gaza Strip, yet Israel has at least publicly rejected this idea over fears that this will put it in a stronger position to demand a Palestinian State. Nevertheless, the PA has been part of a propaganda campaign designed to delegitimize Hamas as a political entity in Gaza and accuses it of indiscriminately targeting its opponents.
Tel Aviv retools death squads as ‘Popular Forces’
Throughout the two-year Israeli war on Gaza, humanitarian aid convoys were routinely looted in the southern enclave, triggering food shortages and creating a booming black market. The looting initially involved armed clans and petty criminals who charged extortionate bribes for aid access. But following the 6 May invasion of Rafah, the phenomenon transformed into a more coordinated enterprise.
That evolution gave rise to the Abu Shabab militia, a gang led by convicted drug trafficker Yasser Abu Shabab, who has long-standing links to ISIS affiliates in Sinai. His fighters, many from the Bedouin Tarabin clan, have ties stretching from Israeli-occupied Bir al-Saba (Beersheba) to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
A Hamas official familiar with the file on drug trafficking tells The Cradle:
“These individuals were known to routinely cross into the Sinai and maintained close ties to extremists. These criminal elements were also tied to the Ansar Bait al-Maqdis group [ISIS in the Sinai] and later Wilayat Sinai that came after it. These people do not have a coherent ideology and will shift over time, they are criminals, which is why they are also involved in activities like drug smuggling, and their connections come through familial ties.”
Following the surface of footage of these militants driving around in SUVs bearing Sharjah license plates registered in the UAE, sources belonging to Al-Akhbar claimed that Emirati intelligence has been cooperating with these militia forces.
A month prior to the introduction of the Abu Shabab aid looting gang to the scene, Israel’s top human rights group B’Tselem had issued a report accusing Tel Aviv of “manufacturing famine” in the enclave. A later investigation conducted by Sky News revealed that while most Palestinians were suffering a severe food shortage, the Abu Shabab gangs were living a life of luxury, with an abundance of stolen aid, along with vehicles and weapons supplied by Israel.
This group, despite becoming infamous throughout Gaza for stealing aid from humanitarian organizations, demanding a $4,000 bribe fee for each truck, was soon to be destined for a task much more pernicious.
In November 2024, the Israelis saw that it was time to give their aid looting cadres a facelift, as the Washington Post interviewed Yasser Abu Shabab himself, who is portrayed as a criminal by necessity and claims that “Hamas has left us with nothing.”
Amid the January ceasefire, the gang resurfaced as the “Popular Forces,” now dressed in Israeli tactical gear and openly operating with occupation military backing.
The Wall Street Journal even published an op-ed supposedly authored by Abu Shabab titled “Gazans are finished with Hamas.” Local sources confirm to The Cradle that the militia leader is illiterate and could not have authored a piece in Arabic, let alone English.
By June, former Israeli minister Avigdor Lieberman publicly accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of backing ISIS-linked militias in Gaza. Netanyahu not only confirmed the collaboration – but defended it. Then, in September, Haaretz reported that Popular Forces militias were receiving direct orders from the Israeli army and Shin Bet.
Israel’s proxy model expands across Gaza’s clans
As the Israeli military was experiencing a manpower crisis, recently struggling to recruit 60,000 soldiers for operation “Gideon’s Chariots 2” to occupy Gaza City, it made the decision to expand this proxy militia strategy.
In August, Israel worked alongside Hossam al-Astal, a former member of the PA’s Preventive Security Forces (PSF), to form the “Counterterrorism Strike Force” (CSF) that would run operations in the Khan Yunis area of Gaza. Astal, according to two security sources speaking to The Cradle, had long been suspected of holding ties with the Israeli Shin Bet.
Alongside the CSF, new groups like the “People’s Army Northern Forces” (PANF) have emerged in Jabalia and Beit Lahia. Led by Ashraf Mansi, who had been openly praised by Abu Shabab. The PANF consists of drug dealers and ex-Jaish al-Islam fighters, some linked to ISIS. The group even held an armed parade after the ceasefire, before engaging in clashes with Gaza’s Radaa security unit, which captured several of its fighters.
In Gaza City, the Doghmush clan launched a violent campaign to assert control over parts of the north. It raided civilian homes, looted properties, and allegedly murdered prominent figures. After the killing of journalist Saleh al-Jaafarawi, Hamas cracked down, arresting dozens and killing up to 40 armed members of the clan.
The family has long developed a negative image throughout Gaza, due to actions committed by certain elements within it, dating back decades to before the Intifada, when individuals from the Doghmush family would steal cars from Israeli-held territory. The Mukhtar of the clan was assassinated by Israel back in 2023, and according to local reports, groups of men within the family have been arming themselves throughout the war.
Soon after tensions escalated, especially surrounding the murder of Jaafarawi and the clashes that ensued on Sunday, the Doghmush family released a statement disavowing collaborators and “transgressors,” reminding the public of how many members of the clan were killed by Israel. It is still unclear whether the militants from the Doghmush family were working alongside the PANF militia or were operating as a solo force motivated by control of territory.
However, the Doghmush clan represents a more complex case. While certain elements have openly collaborated with Israeli intelligence, others have refused such alliances. The clan is divided, with some fighting Hamas for over two decades, and others remaining within resistance ranks.
Reports have also linked segments of the clan to Dahlan networks and Emirati funding, alongside Salafi militant ties.
Salafist group Jaish al-Islam, once led by Mumtaz Doghmush, was responsible for the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Initially allied with Hamas, the group later turned against it, pledging allegiance to Al-Qaeda and even kidnapping two Fox News journalists.
Hamas has long battled Salafist militants inside Gaza, including Jund Allah and the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade. In 2009, it crushed Jund Allah in Rafah after the group attempted to declare an “Islamic emirate.” By 2015, the Omar Hadid Brigade was dismantled. In 2018, ISIS formally declared war on Hamas.
Today, Israel’s proxy fighters recycle the same Salafi justifications. Popular Forces fighter Ghassan Duhine, for instance, cited ISIS fatwas branding Hamas as apostates who deserve death.
But despite Israeli efforts to fragment Gaza’s internal cohesion, many families and clans have pushed back. The Majayda family has denounced collaborators, as have key members of the Tarabin clan.
“Israel hoped to install these agents to run concentration camps for Palestinians, like they planned in Rafah with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” a senior Hamas official tells The Cradle. “But our people can see through all of these conspiracies.”
While Tel Aviv pretends its military campaign is on pause, the facts on the ground reveal otherwise. Israel has outsourced the next phase of its war to collaborators, criminals, and extremists – executing its war objectives through mercenaries while claiming plausible deniability. It is a page taken straight from its playbook in Syria, now recycled in Gaza with deadly effect.
US envoy says Syria ‘back to our side’ after joint raid with extremist-led govt forces
The Cradle | October 20, 2025
US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack declared on 19 October that Syria and the US are once again allies.
In a post on X, Barrack said, “Syria is back to our side,” following reports of a joint US-Syrian security operation near Damascus, allegedly to detain an ISIS member.
Barrack commented on a post by Qatar-funded analyst Charles Lister claiming that US special forces launched a helicopter-borne raid into the town of Dumayr in the desert northwest of Damascus on 18 October. The operation was carried out in cooperation with Syrian counter-terror units to capture an ISIS operative.
However, the raid raises questions about its authenticity, as the ISIS operative detained during the operation, Ahmed Abdullah al-Badri, was openly living in Dumayr and enjoyed close ties with officials in the current Syrian government, led by self-declared president and former ISIS commander Ahmad al-Sharaa.
Kurdish-Syrian journalist Scharo Maroof reported that Badri had invited the governor of Damascus, Mohammed Amer, to his guest house in September. Maroof pointed to a photo showing Badri walking alongside the governor and his delegation during their visit to Badri’s home.
The Syrian government has carried out several fake raids against ISIS cells since coming to power in December, including after allegedly foiling an ISIS attack on the Sayyida Zaynab Shrine in southern Damascus in January, and following a suicide bombing at the Mar Elias Church in Damascus in June.
It was later revealed that members of Sharaa’s General Security Service (GSS) carried out the suicide attack that killed 25 worshipers and injured 52 more at the church in the Duweila district of Damascus.
The logic behind targeting Christians and blaming the attack on ISIS was explained by a former founder of Al-Qaeda in Syria (Nusra Front), Saleh al‑Hamwi.
While promoting the narrative that ISIS was responsible for the Mar Elias attack, he stated on the social media site X that, as a result, “The international community will rally around [the Syrian government], it will receive significant support, and it will join the international coalition against ISIS.”
He added that the government was releasing ISIS leaders from prisons in Idlib and exploiting “the ISIS file internationally in exchange for lifting sanctions.”
The US and Israel have a long history of supporting Al-Qaeda linked groups such as the Nusra Front and ISIS in Syria as part of the CIA-led operation known as Timber Sycamore.
Starting in 2011, the US, Israel, and allied countries sparked anti-government protests in Syria while flooding the country with Al-Qaeda operatives from Iraq and Lebanon, to topple the government of Bashar al-Assad for his anti-Israel foreign policies.
In 2012, Jake Sullivan, advisor to then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton, wrote in a leaked email that “AQ [Al-Qaeda] is on our side in Syria.”
Israeli officials later acknowledged supporting Al-Qaeda groups by paying their salaries, shipping them weapons, and allowing them to cross into Israel for treatment at Israeli hospitals.
The operation was finally successful on 8 December of last year as Assad was toppled and replaced by Sharaa, the head of the Nusra Front (rebranded as Hayat Tahir al-Sham, HTS).
The same day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly took credit for Sharaa’s rise, stating that the events in Syria were the “direct result of the blows we have inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah, the main supporters of the Assad regime,” since 7 October 2023.
The real ISIS
By Muhammad Jamil | MEMO | October 19, 2025
The people of Gaza Strip lived through two years of an unprecedented genocide in the history of warfare, leaving more than seventy thousand dead, tens of thousands more wounded and mutilated, and the territory itself reduced to rubble. Amid this devastation, a few conscienceless individuals emerged. They were collaborators who assisted the occupier in killing, looting, and abduction. They were also war profiteers whose crimes were no less vile, hoarding essential goods and extorting the starving with outrageous prices.
History, whether ancient or modern, shows that when wars end, the enemy swiftly abandons his agents to their fate. That is exactly what Israel did in the first minutes of the ceasefire, just as it did to the South Lebanon Army (LAHD) when it pulled out of southern Lebanon in 2000.
There were, by all accounts, only a few hundred collaborators and profiteers. Despite the magnitude of their crimes, retribution in Gaza was limited, that after field trials, a handful of those directly implicated in killings were executed. There was no sweeping revenge, but rather patience and dignity, which prevailed over the pain.
This is not to justify summary executions but to explain the extraordinary circumstances of a shattered society emerging from unprecedented destruction, where emotions run high and restraint is hard to find. By comparison, the European purge after the Second World War, what the French called the “épuration sauvage “, saw thousands killed without trial. Women accused of “horizontal collaboration” with German soldiers had their heads shaved and were publicly humiliated.
Wars always rupture the social fabric, where the occupier targets the communal web to achieve military ends. Gaza is not unique in this; its unprecedented unity during the two years of genocide made it a particular target. Israel used every devious method to tear it apart, spreading rumours, forming gangs through bribery or intimidation, even calling entire families, clan elders and sheikhs to demand collaboration under threat of bombing their homes.
On 27 September 2025, for example, Israeli intelligence phoned members of the Bakr family in the Shati camp in western Gaza, promising safety if they would form a militia modelled on the Abu Shabab gang in Rafah. The family refused; at dawn their houses were struck, killing nine people, including women and children.
Western newspapers and bulletins seized on the single field executions and raids on collaborators to revive the narrative Israel launched at the start of its onslaught which claimed that “These are the ISIS-like extremists we warned you about; what happened proves our story.” In the midst of a humanitarian catastrophe, this single episode was what interested them. Rather than pushing to enter Gaza after two years of being barred and seeing the destruction with their own eyes, they returned to their usual role of hijacking the truth to smear the victims.
Their hypocrisy and obsession with demonising Gaza’s residents in order to portray the occupation and its collaborators as “innocents” blinded them from seeing the tonnes of explosives that turned Gaza to ash, to the tens of thousands killed and wounded, the displaced and the hungry. They focused on a single incident because it could be made to echo the videos of ISIS beheadings and executions in Iraq and Syria that once shocked the world.
The Arab normalisation platforms, newspapers, and TV channels, which from the very beginning promoted and supported the occupation’s narrative, were the most eager to portray the event as an “ISIS-like” act, fuelling the fire of sedition and inciting the population to internal conflict. What is striking is that these outlets hosted tribal leaders and elders from the Gaza Strip on their programs, assuming they would go along with their narrative that labeled the criminals as “opposition” and innocent civilians. Instead, those leaders shattered and refuted the narrative, explaining the danger of these gangs and the crimes they had committed.
They ignored the real ISIS-like elements within the occupation army who proudly filmed themselves blowing up whole residential blocks, while arresting hundreds and stuffing them into stadiums and open pits, then transferring them to prisons to disappear them forcibly. After some were released, especially following the recent agreement, these people told horrifying stories of torture, some leaving permanent disabilities and some dying in cold-blooded field executions. We saw the bodies handed over by the occupier showing signs of brutal torture, ropes tied around their necks, and in some cases their organs had been stolen.
The bitter truth is that we find ourselves forced to highlight certain scenes of the massacre to prove that these are the true ISIS, even their masters, in order to counter the false propaganda. It has become lodged in people’s minds that killing by slitting throats with a knife or shooting at point-blank range is what is called “cold-blooded” murder, an unforgivable crime. But what about killing by bombing for two years, collectively striking entire residential blocks so that women and children are killed, their bodies torn apart and burned? Is that “hot-blooded” killing? Is what matters the way of killing not the outcome?
Damn the propaganda that planted in the minds of the gullible the idea that one act is different from the other. Whoever is psychologically prepared to drop tons of bombs on civilians, killing women and children and destroying homes, schools and hospitals, is no different from someone who uses a knife or a rifle to kill. Both actions express the same criminal intent, equally willing to kill by bombing, shooting or slaughtering.
The real surprise came from Trump’s statements, which silenced everyone. He expressed his satisfaction with what had happened, saying that he was the one who had allowed it to confront “dangerous gangs,” adding that he “did not find it particularly troubling.” He further noted that the situation reminded him of what had happened in other countries, such as Venezuela, where the United States had dealt with Venezuelan gangs, some of whom were sent to America, in the same manner.
In all cases, field executions are unacceptable under any circumstances. Every accused person must be granted a fair trial in accordance with the requirements of the law, no matter how grave their offense. Emotions and anger must not take control when dealing with those who have harmed society, whether in times of peace or war.
Discipline and adherence to the rule of law are what distinguish law enforcement officers from criminals and present a bright image of society as civilized and cohesive, unshaken by the actions of such individuals.
Finally, as a tribute to the great sacrifices made by the Palestinian people throughout two years of extermination, we must avoid any actions that can be used to falsify reality, awareness or distort the truth. We want the story of sacrifice and heroism during the extermination to be told without any blemish in a manner that expresses the brutality of the occupation and of everyone who collaborated or conspired with it.
How MI6 built Syria’s extremist police
By Kit Klarenberg | Al Mayadeen | October 16, 2025
On September 19th, in a speech marking the end of his five-year tenure as MI6 chief, Richard Moore hailed the achievements of Britain’s foreign spying agency under his watch. Key among the stated gains was “the end of 53 years of the Assads in Syria.” He openly admitted MI6 “forged a relationship” with HTS, Damascus’ Al-Qaeda and ISIS-tied presumptive rulers – “a year or two before they toppled Bashar.” Moore went on to boast:
“Syria is a good example of where, if you can get ahead of events, it really helps when they suddenly, unexpectedly move at a faster pace. This nimbleness is a fundamental requirement for MI6 – and I think we remain pretty good at it. John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, while discussing a piece of joint business, said to me recently: ‘You guys can really hustle.’”
Al Mayadeen English has previously exposed how HTS was groomed for power for years prior to its violent palace coup in December 2024 by Inter-Mediate, an MI6-adjacent consulting firm run by Jonathan Powell. A key architect of the criminal 2003 Anglo-American Iraq invasion, he now serves as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s national security adviser, coincidentally taking up the position mere days before HTS illegitimately proclaimed themselves Syria’s government. It’s been subsequently revealed that Inter-Mediate has maintained a dedicated office in Syria’s Presidential Palace ever since.
Moore’s fresh admissions, while vague, offer further confirmation that London’s foreign spying agency has a longstanding relationship with HTS, which remains a proscribed terrorist group under British law. A key, confirmed mechanism by which MI6 entrenched HTS’ power in north west Syria over the years before the extremist group’s seizure of power was by financing and managing, via cutouts, “moderate opposition service provision”. This took the form of entities including the infamous White Helmets, which supposedly provided “demonstrations of a credible alternative” to Bashar Assad’s government.
While the clandestine efforts were ostensibly intended to weaken HTS’ hold on power and push “moderate” groups, leaked documents indicate British spooks were well-aware these initiatives were cementing the group’s credibility as a governance actor, assisting its “growing influence”, and meant many Syrians regarded HTS as “synonymous with opposition to Assad.” Eerily, the same documents note the group and its armed affiliates – including Al-Qaeda – were “less likely to attack opposition entities that are receiving support” from British intelligence, such as the White Helmets.
We are now left to ponder whether British-run “service providers” were explicitly left alone because of MI6’s secret relationship with HTS. In this context, the earliest and most obvious indication of a dark alliance between London and Syria’s new rulers may date back to January 2019, when HTS took power outright in north west Syria. Almost instantly, the Free Syrian Police, a British-created “moderate opposition service” provider, was formally dissolved. Its members were then invited to continue their activities under HTS’ banner.
‘Revolutionary Entities’
Like the White Helmets, the FSP were components of a wider effort by London to establish a series of statelets across occupied Syria, complete with parallel governance structures staffed by locals trained and funded by Britain, the EU, and US. Western propaganda and media reporting – heavily influenced by MI6 – universally portrayed these breakaway colonies as “moderate” success stories. In reality, they were deeply chaotic and dangerous, run by murderous violent factions, often under obscenely strict interpretations of Sharia Law.
In March 2017, the BBC published a fawning profile of the FSP, noting its British funding, and claiming the group “demonstrates to Syrians that it is not necessary to carry weapons in order to administer law and order in the country.” The British state broadcaster repeatedly stressed, the FSP “does not co-operate with extremist groups.” However, nine months later, it was revealed that London’s “moderate” police force enjoyed intimate relationships with multiple extremist groups, including HTS forerunner Jabhat al-Nusra.
Several FSP stations were found to be closely linked to and take directions from extremist courts run by these militants, which executed citizens who violated local extremist legal codes. FSP operatives were also not only present when women were stoned to death for disobeying al-Nusra’s extreme codes, but even closed roads to allow executions to take place. Meanwhile, portions of sums sent to the FSP by its foreign sponsors were regularly handed over to extremist factions for “military and security support”.
While these disclosures caused a scandal, and British funding for the FSP was temporarily suspended, it was reinstated within mere weeks, sparking outcry among aid experts. Officials justified their decision on unstated “mitigating context” to the revelations, and the issues in question being “already known” by the Foreign Office. Indeed, leaked documents reviewed by Al Mayadeen English indicate close collaboration with extremist groups and courts was hardwired into the FSP from the group’s inception, and not concealed from donors.
The documents, submitted to the Foreign Office by ARK – founded by MI6 veteran Alistair Harris – noted the FSP were “revolutionary entities who share a general ideological affinity with the Syrian rebels,” conducting “rudimentary policing operations” in opposition-controlled territory. FSP stations varied significantly “in terms of their effectiveness, their mandate and their overall level of organisation” in the areas comprising their beat. “Their authority” was dependent on “several factors, the most important of which” were:
“The strength of the relationship between an FSP station and local armed groups; the centrality of an FSP station in the work of a local rebel court or other judicial structure; the sophistication and maturity of an FSP station’s overarching command structure.”
‘Direct Engagement’
The leaks further state, “FSP networks enjoy the strongest relations with more moderate Syrian rebel groups.” Yet, chief among “key armed groups that have established relationships with FSP stations” was Nur al-Din al-Zinki. The group was said to have greatly “empowered” FSP offices across occupied Aleppo, establishing the force “as primary policing bodies in towns in which it is strong.” In reality, Nur al-Din al-Zinki didn’t adhere to any meaningful definition of the term “moderate”.
During the initial years of the foreign-fomented Syrian civil war, the group committed countless horrendous atrocities, including beheading a Palestinian teenager in 2016. Its fighters subsequently joined HTS en masse. The readiness of ARK – and by extension British intelligence – to rub shoulders with dangerous armed elements is writ large in another leaked file, outlining potential risks to the project. If “armed actors” denied the FSP “operating space”, ARK would conduct “direct engagement” with the relevant militants to resolve the issue.
Other hazards included almost inevitable submission of “fraudulent invoices” by FSP operatives, and “significant physical risk” to them, “including possible assassination of police or justice actors.” Still, the British were so keen on the project, millions were pumped into the force over many years, with sophisticated communications equipment and vehicles provided. ARK also looked ahead to rebel groups increasing their “influence and territorial reach” in Syria, believing this would “[yield] benefits for the FSP” and expand its sphere of operations.
Fast forward to today, and courtesy of HTS, the British-created FSP is now Syria’s national police force. Ever since Assad’s fall, they have acted accordingly, brutally repressing internal dissent, while standing by as the new government’s militants massacre Alawites and other religious minorities in the country. Just as Inter-Mediate’s office in Damascus’ Presidential palace raises grave questions about the extent of London’s control over HTS, we must ask who all past beneficiaries of “moderate opposition service provision” in the country are truly working for.
As The National reported in February, the White Helmets have been formally invited by Syria’s HTS-run Health Ministry to “run the emergency services countrywide.” The creation of such groups years prior to Assad’s ouster is a palpable example of the ability of “hustlers” in British intelligence to “get ahead of events” in Moore’s phrase, and ensure MI6 has the people, organisations and structures in place to effectively take over countries if and when an enemy government falls.
Syria, Ukraine restore diplomatic ties at UN General Assembly
The Cradle | September 25, 2025
Damascus and Kiev have restored diplomatic ties following a meeting between self-appointed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
“We are pleased with this important step and are ready to support the Syrian people on their path to stability,” Zelensky said in a statement on 24 September. “During our negotiations with President Sharaa, we discussed in detail the promising areas for developing cooperation, the security threats facing both countries, and the importance of addressing them. We agreed to build our relations on the basis of mutual respect and trust,” he added.
“His Excellency the President of the Republic, Mr. Ahmad al-Sharaa, met with his Ukrainian counterpart, Mr. Volodymyr Zelensky, in the presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Mr. Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, and his accompanying delegation, on the sidelines of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York,” the Syrian Foreign Ministry said.
Syria’s foreign minister and his Ukrainian counterpart signed a joint declaration on the restoration of ties in the presence of Sharaa and Zelensky.
Sharaa was the former deputy to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, before becoming the head of the official Al-Qaeda branch in Syria, the Nusra Front. The Nusra Front was eventually rebranded into Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which took control of Syria in December 2024.
Ukraine played a role in the 11-day offensive that resulted in the collapse of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Two months before Assad’s government fell, Russian media reported that hundreds of Ukrainian experts were training HTS in the use and manufacture of drones.
According to the Washington Post, the Ukrainian government provided HTS with “about 150 first-person-view drones” and at least 20 experienced drone operators in the lead-up to the offensive.
In 2022, Assad recognized the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic as independent and sovereign states, prompting Zelensky to fully cut diplomatic ties with Syria.
Ex-CIA chief Petraeus hails former Al-Qaeda leader for ‘clear vision’ in Syria
The Cradle | September 23, 2025
Self-appointed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa engaged in a wide-ranging dialogue on 22 September with former CIA director David Petraeus as part of his visit to New York.
Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda commander, met Petraeus, who commanded troops in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, at the Concordia Summit on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. They discussed issues facing Syria, including reconstruction, governance, economic sanctions, and regional relations.
“We faced massive destruction over the past years, but we are focusing on economic development and building capabilities,” Sharaa stated.
“Syrians by nature are people of work and trade. So please lift the sanctions and see what we can do,” he added, referring to the 2019 US Caesar Act, which imposed crushing economic sanctions on Syria, impoverishing millions.
US President Donald Trump removed some sanctions earlier this year, but Congress must authorize their permanent removal.
Petraeus said that the conversation with the former Al-Qaeda in Iraq commander “has filled me with enormous hope.”
“Your vision is powerful and clear. Your demeanor is very impressive as well … We obviously hope for your success, Inshallah, because at the end of the day, your success is our success,” Petraeus added.
Though Sharaa was deemed a terrorist by the US State Department in 2012, the CIA covertly provided arms and funding to the Al-Qaeda affiliate he founded in Syria, then known as the Nusra Front.
According to journalist Seymour Hersh, Petraeus established a “rat line” between Libya and Syria to send weapons to the Nusra Front and other extremist groups seeking to topple the government of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
The CIA operation, known as Timber Sycamore, enjoyed a budget of over $1 billion per year. The operation finally allowed Sharaa to oust Assad and establish an extremist Islamic state over Syria in December.
According to former French intelligence officer and political analyst Thierry Meyssan, Petraeus continued to help fund Al-Qaeda groups, including ISIS, after he was forced to resign from the CIA in 2012 after a sex scandal.
Meyssan says that Petraeus joined the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), headed by Jewish billionaire Henry Kravis, which funded the Nusra Front and ISIS on behalf of the CIA in an off-the-books manner.
Addressing Israel’s war on Gaza, Sharaa dismissed speculation about Syria joining the Abraham Accords to normalize relations with Israel.
He claimed the destruction of Gaza has made any broad normalization with Israel impossible, but said limited security arrangements could be considered.
Before Sharaa’s trip to New York, Syrian and Israeli officials were carrying out security talks that would allow Israel to maintain control of the strategic Mount Hermon, establish a no-fly zone over the south of the country, and prevent Syrian forces from entering a demilitarized zone in the south.
In a personal question, Petraeus asked how Sharaa manages the pressure of leading a country after years of conflict.
“I spent 25 of my 43 years in conflict and crisis, so I am used to hardship. Decisions that carry the destiny of a nation must be taken with calm and an open mind.”
Sharaa first traveled to Iraq to join Al-Qaeda after the 2003 invasion and was known for dispatching suicide bombers to kill civilians. He was allegedly arrested by US forces in 2005 and sent to the US prison at Camp Bucca.
After his release in 2009, he became the Emir of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) in Mosul, before traveling to Syria to establish the Nusra Front in 2011 on the instructions of Islamic State (later ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Pentagon begins sudden troop withdrawal from major Iraq bases: Report
The Cradle | August 25, 2025
US forces have begun their withdrawal from two major military bases in Iraq, accelerating a previously negotiated timeline for the drawdown of International Coalition troops, Iraqi Kurdish media reported on 24 August.
According to a high-level source in the Iraqi government speaking with Kurdistan24, the withdrawal began Sunday morning following an order issued by the US Embassy.
The source stated that the Ain al-Asad base in Anbar and the Victory base at Baghdad International Airport are expected to be completely evacuated within the next few days.
The source added that some 2,000 US troops have been stationed at Ain al-Asad, a key hub for US operations in the country.
An Iraqi security source speaking with Shafaq News had provided a longer timeline for the withdrawal from Ain al-Asad, stating last week that the last US soldier would leave the base by 15 September, after which the international coalition headquarters there would be permanently closed.
Washington has justified the presence of US troops in Iraq under the pretext of fighting ISIS as part of an international coalition.
However, the US military has covertly supported ISIS in the past, including during the organization’s lightning capture of Mosul – the country’s second largest city – in June 2014.
The source speaking with the Kurdish news outlet indicated that a portion of the soldiers who have withdrawn have been transferred to Erbil, the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.
The Kurdistan region is controlled in part by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by Masoud Barzani.
The KDP assisted ISIS in taking over Mosul in 2014 and in carrying out the Genocide of Yezidis in nearby Sinjar two months later. Following the genocide, some ISIS leaders continued to live in safety in Erbil under KDP protection.
The abrupt withdrawal of US forces also accelerates the official timeline recently announced by Hussein Alawi, an advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.
Alawi announced a timeline for a gradual withdrawal that would begin in September of this year and be completed by September 2026. He said the move would return relations between the US and Iraq to a “normal state,” giving the US military only an advisory role in Iraq.
US troops invaded and occupied Iraq in 2003 in a war to topple the government of Saddam Hussein. After withdrawing in 2011, they returned in 2014 following the rise of ISIS.
Alawi stated that “the Iraqi government is committed to its governmental program by building up the armed forces, ending the mission of the International Coalition, and transitioning the security relationship with them to a stable, bilateral defense relationship.”
Earlier this month, the US Defense Department announced that US forces had departed three military bases in northeast Syria. US troops were also stationed in Syria under the pretext of fighting ISIS.
A quarterly report from the Defense Department’s Inspector General said US and coalition troops had withdrawn from Mission Support Site Green Village, H2, and Mission Support Site Euphrates, sometimes referred to as the Conoco gas field, in May.
Syrian prisoners: A ticking bomb between Beirut and Damascus?
By Mohamad Shamse Eddine | The Cradle | July 23, 2025
A political storm is gathering over a long-festering crisis in Lebanon’s prisons: more than 2,000 Syrians, many detained without charge or trial, remain locked away in overcrowded and crumbling facilities.
The worsening humanitarian conditions are no longer just a domestic issue. It has morphed into a potent diplomatic flashpoint between Beirut and the new interim government in Damascus, with the latter signaling it will not tolerate further delay in resolving the status of its citizens.
The spark came from a Syria TV report quoting an official from the administration of interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa (Abu Muhammad al-Julani), who stated that Damascus is “mulling gradual escalation choices against Lebanon,” starting with the freezing of some security and economic channels if the detainee issue remains unresolved.
Official denials followed, but the message had already landed in Beirut. The prisoner file, dormant for years, is now wide open—and loaded with political implications that stretch far beyond the bars of Lebanon’s Roumieh Prison.
This comes as the Lebanese judiciary teeters on the verge of collapse and its prisons edge into crisis. At the same time, a transformed Syrian state under Sharaa’s Al-Qaeda-rooted administration is recalibrating its regional footing following years of civil war, western isolation, and struggles to assert sovereignty.
Damascus frames the detainee issue as a humanitarian one. However, political observers in Beirut view it as a strategic lever, part of a broader power play unfolding at a time when Lebanon faces internal divisions and competition between Turkiye and Saudi Arabia over influence within its Sunni community.
The detainees also represent more than individual cases—they are a legacy of the previous Syrian order, and a test for Lebanon’s ability to deal with the political costs of its judicial dysfunction.
Who are the detainees?
The Syrian prisoners in Lebanon fall into three categories. First, the political detainees: Syrians imprisoned over the past decade for joining militant factions like the Free Syrian Army (FSA) or the UN-designated terrorist Nusra Front – or for speaking out against the former Syrian government.
Most were never formally charged. Now, with former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gone and a new government in Damascus, these individuals are being recast not as enemies but as participants in a national cause. Their return is being framed by Damascus as part of Syria’s internal reconciliation process.
Second are the jihadist-linked detainees. These prisoners are accused of ties to terror groups such as ISIS or Al-Qaeda. Some have faced trial, but many continue to be held without verdicts. Legal definitions of terrorism vary significantly between Beirut and Damascus, complicating any coordinated legal handling.
The lack of evidence in many cases has raised questions about the fairness of prolonged detentions, especially in the absence of transparent legal standards or international oversight.
Third are the criminal offenders: Syrians charged with routine crimes like theft or smuggling. In theory, they fall under Lebanon’s legal system like any foreign national. In practice, a broken judiciary and Kafkaesque bureaucracy have left many in legal limbo, detained for years without resolution.
What unites all three groups is Lebanon’s failure to classify or process their cases adequately. Without access to lawyers, interpreters, or diplomatic support, most Syrian detainees are effectively voiceless and invisible. According to legal advocates, some have waited up to seven years for a single court appearance.
Damascus’ extrajudicial demands
The names requested by Damascus include figures deeply linked to past violence on Lebanese soil. Salafi preacher Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, sentenced in connection with the 2013 Abra clashes that left several Lebanese army soldiers dead, is among them. His case is closed under Lebanese law, so his inclusion signals political calculation, not legal necessity.
Also on the list are Sheikh Omar al-Atrash and Naeem Abbas, both tied to Al-Qaeda’s operations in Lebanon and implicated in the 2013 bombings in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahieh. Their convictions are firm. Their extradition, if attempted, would ignite a political firestorm.
Damascus is not seeking the return of petty criminals. It aims to influence what it considers political actors tied to the Syrian conflict—individuals it now views as part of its national narrative. Beirut, however, sees potential manipulation.
Syrian sources inform The Cradle that any returnees would undergo formal security and judicial oversight. But victims’ families fear the deals may serve regional interests, not justice. The Lebanese judiciary, lacking independence and burdened by years of foreign and sectarian interference, offers little public confidence.
Roumieh: A prison on the brink
Roumieh Prison was built to house 1,500 inmates. It currently holds over 4,000, including hundreds of Syrians. Many have been held without charges. Conditions in the Islamist wing, “Block B,” are dire—overcrowded, unsanitary, and deprived of basic medical and psychological care.
In February, more than 100 Syrian detainees began a two-week hunger strike. The protest followed months of inaction on promised reforms, including improved legal access and prison conditions. Security officials acknowledge the risk that unrest could escalate into a full-blown revolt, especially as external actors view the prison crisis as an opportunity to stir instability. Lebanese security sources warn that militant groups could exploit grievances inside Roumieh, turning a detention center into a flashpoint for wider conflict.
No legal architecture
Despite the gravity of the issue, there is no formal prisoner exchange treaty between Lebanon and Syria. An older extradition agreement remains on paper, but it does not cover sentenced prisoners. Lebanese law bars deportation unless a detainee has received a final verdict—and even then, not for crimes committed on Lebanese soil with Lebanese victims.
This legal grey zone explains why detainees like Abbas and Atrash remain in Lebanon, at least for now. However, a new judicial agreement is reportedly being negotiated between the justice ministries in Beirut and Damascus that may allow the repatriation of 370 convicted Syrians.
Lebanese judicial sources tell The Cradle that the draft agreement includes provisions for sentence continuation and post-transfer monitoring, but faces political opposition from factions aligned with western interests.
While Damascus demands its citizens back, Lebanon is silent on its nationals imprisoned in the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)-run detention camps in northeast Syria. Hundreds of Lebanese citizens—many detained alongside their families—languish there without trial, without consular access, and without official advocacy. Some have been held since 2019, captured during the final battles against ISIS.
This silence exposes Lebanon’s deeper dysfunction. Its institutions are too eroded to defend their own citizens, let alone negotiate a reciprocal deal with a fragile state like Syria, which now speaks from a position of renewed regional assertiveness. The contradiction is glaring: Beirut is expected to process Syrian cases with care, while ignoring its nationals trapped in US-backed detention zones under the SDF.
Is a deal possible?
Senior political sources tell The Cradle that Beirut may begin by releasing detainees with no political baggage, setting the stage for a broader settlement. This would allow both states to test the waters while avoiding immediate controversy. Some Lebanese officials argue this phased approach could also reduce overcrowding in prisons like Roumieh, while fulfilling Syria’s minimal expectations.
But any lasting resolution requires more than tactical moves. It demands a sweeping overhaul of Lebanon’s judicial architecture, the depoliticization of its detention policies, and a binding bilateral framework. Damascus, for its part, will have to offer clear guarantees that repatriated detainees are not used to settle old scores but reintegrated into a legal system that reflects its new political reality.
Until then, Lebanon’s prisons will remain overstuffed, its judiciary paralyzed, and the Syrian detainee file unresolved—exposing the unfinished reckoning between two states still mired in the legacies of occupation, war, and political dependency.
Israel-Backed Militias Linked to ISIS Loot Gaza Aid Under IDF Watch
By Robert Inlakesh | MintPress News | May 29, 2025
Israeli officials often claim that Hamas has been looting aid heading to Gaza, yet the evidence suggests the opposite. New reports and eyewitness accounts indicate that Israel is backing ISIS-linked militants who are working to replace Hamas security forces and are looting humanitarian aid under the watchful eye of IDF drones.
New evidence recently emerged of ISIS-linked militants in Gaza, operating inside the Israeli-controlled buffer zone and controlling roads on which aid was destined to be transported. These armed men were photographed brandishing automatic weapons, wearing Israeli military tactical vests and bearing Palestinian flag patches on their helmets.
To the naked eye, they could be mistaken for Palestinian security force officers. In fact, they are members of an infamous criminal network responsible for looting humanitarian aid. On May 21, 15 World Food Program trucks carrying flour were looted, and UN sources suggest the perpetrators were these armed factions. Yet, they claim to be a legitimate opposition group poised to replace Hamas.
For some 80 days, Israel had imposed a total blockade on all food, medical supplies, water and fuel entering the territory. As soon as a small number of trucks were allowed to enter, the militants were spotted, sporting new military gear and poised to intercept the humanitarian supplies.
ISIS-linked “Anti-Terror Services”
The leader of the Israeli-aligned militia is a man named Yasser Abu Shabab, a member of the Tarabin tribe that extends between the Naqab (Negev), Gaza and Sinai. However, he and others affiliated with the Tarabin have long been denounced as not representing the tribe due to their extensive criminal pasts.
Abu Shabab was well known in Gaza for his fierce opposition to Hamas and had been arrested for smuggling narcotics. He also maintained a direct connection to ISIS in the Egyptian Sinai. When Israeli bombing destroyed the jails run by Hamas security forces during the early days of the Gaza war, the infamous criminal managed to escape.
From there, Abu Shabab quickly began building a militant force numbering at least 100 men, many of whom were also previously imprisoned and had known ties to ISIS and al-Qaeda-linked groups.
An internal UN memo, reported by the Financial Times in November 2024, stated that Abu Shabab’s men were operating inside Israel’s buffer zone, looting aid shipments with “the passive, if not active benevolence” of Israeli forces. This is notable, as Israeli forces have routinely shot and killed civilians attempting to enter that same zone, even when coordinated in advance.
While these criminal factions began looting early into the Gaza war, they became more prominent following Israel’s invasion of Rafah on May 6, 2024. Up until that point, Hamas-led Palestinian police had helped coordinate aid deliveries through the Rafah Crossing.
This security was provided despite Israel threatening to bomb the police officers if they approached aid trucks, often forcing Gaza’s law enforcement into a hands-off role. But once Rafah was invaded and police disappeared, Israeli forces worked in proximity with criminal networks to intercept and sell stolen aid through intermediaries.
The result was a massive price hike for basic goods, with these gangs reportedly drip-feeding supplies to local sellers, maintaining artificial scarcity during a famine. Israel’s leading human rights organization, B’Tselem, has labeled the policy “manufacturing famine.”
Two sources working with aid agencies in Gaza confirmed to MintPress News that all aid entering the Strip is either subject to a bribe paid to these gangs or is partially or completely confiscated. Both spoke on condition of anonymity, stating that the gangs are widely believed to be coordinating with Israeli forces.
Prior to January 19, when a temporary ceasefire began, these gangs wore face coverings and operated as a ragtag militia. In recent weeks, however, they have rebranded themselves as the “Anti-Terror Service,” claiming to be a grassroots opposition to Hamas.
On Abu Shabab’s Facebook page, he now describes himself as a “grassroots leader who stood up against corruption and looting,” posting photos of himself patrolling roads and claiming to work with international aid organizations, to ensure the delivery of flour trucks.”
Back in November 2024, he told The Washington Post that “Hamas has left us with nothing,” even denying that his men carried weapons. He claimed that the looting was done by unarmed individuals and that they avoided stealing food intended for children. Yet aid workers and truck drivers insist his men are committing armed robbery.
Another warlord reportedly backed by Israel is Shadi al-Sufi, a convicted murderer and drug trafficker who had been sentenced to death. In 2020, he assassinated Jabr Al-Qiq, a senior commander in the PFLP’s Abu Ali Mustafa brigades. He reportedly later worked with ISIS contacts to escape to Sinai.
A senior official with a major humanitarian organization told MintPress News :
In the areas where the security forces are operating, the situation is always more stable, and they have repeatedly cracked down on black market operations. Anyone telling you the gangs are helping the people is a liar, that is all I can say.”
In November, Haaretz reported: “The IDF is aware of the problem. They said that at one point, the government had even considered making the clans to which the armed men belong responsible for distributing aid to Gaza’s residents, even though some of the clans’ members are involved in terrorism and some are affiliated with extremist organizations like the Islamic State.”
This now appears to be the Israeli strategy: to deputize these criminal gangs as a replacement security force to supplant Hamas rule. The makeover also coincides with efforts by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a U.S.-linked initiative rumored to involve private military contractors, raising concerns that such groups may be tapped to cooperate with these armed networks.
A source affiliated with the Palestinian security forces in Gaza told Mint Press News that a similar strategy was attempted in northern Gaza, but that Hamas, working with politically unaffiliated locals, dismantled the criminal networks that began forming under Israeli supervision.
Hamas vs ISIS and Israel
Meanwhile, the UN and every major humanitarian organization that has addressed the issue have pointed the finger at the gangs, not Hamas, for looting. None have reported credible instances of Hamas stealing aid. In fact, the Biden administration even asked Israel in February 2024 to halt its targeting of Hamas-led security forces, which had been helping coordinate the delivery of humanitarian trucks into Gaza.
“Hamas is ISIS,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared. But recent actions by Israel suggest the opposite: that it is actively empowering Salafist factions to undermine Hamas in Gaza. In March, the Israeli military floated the idea of arming certain tribal clans to establish so-called “Hamas-free zones.” Among those considered was the Dughmush clan, long known for its links to ISIS.
Since Hamas was voted into power and took full control of Gaza in 2007, it has fought a years-long war against Salafi-jihadist factions inside the Strip. In 2009, it crushed an al-Qaeda-aligned uprising that left 22 dead. Sporadic bombings and assassination attempts followed.
Tensions between Hamas and al-Qaeda affiliates continued intermittently for years, marked by sporadic violence and periodic mass arrests, most notably in 2015, when Hamas detained over 50 Salafist militants after a wave of bombings targeting civilians in Gaza.
That same year, ISIS formally entered the fray. The Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, an ISIS affiliate, announced its presence in Gaza shortly after ISIS executed Hamas commander Sheikh Abu Salah Taha in Syria’s Yarmouk camp. Hamas responded swiftly: its security forces hunted down and killed the group’s leader, Younis Hunnar, in a gunfight.
In 2018, ISIS would officially “declare war” on Hamas, urging its followers to carry out attacks in order to overthrow the group in Gaza.
Now, in a bitter twist, Israel is backing many of these same elements. Under the guise of “aid security,” it is arming and enabling former ISIS and al-Qaeda-linked operatives, along with known traffickers and warlords, to carve out zones of control in Gaza. These forces are marketed as a grassroots alternative to Hamas. In practice, they are looting aid and destabilizing local governance under the watchful eye of Israeli drones.
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The lies about the 1967 war are still more powerful than the truth
By Alan Hart | June 4, 2012
In retrospect it can be seen that the 1967 war, the Six Days War, was the turning point in the relationship between the Zionist state of Israel and the Jews of the world (the majority of Jews who prefer to live not in Israel but as citizens of many other nations). Until the 1967 war, and with the exception of a minority of who were politically active, most non-Israeli Jews did not have – how can I put it? – a great empathy with Zionism’s child. Israel was there and, in the sub-consciousness, a refuge of last resort; but the Jewish nationalism it represented had not generated the overtly enthusiastic support of the Jews of the world. The Jews of Israel were in their chosen place and the Jews of the world were in their chosen places. There was not, so to speak, a great feeling of togetherness. At a point David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding father and first prime minister, was so disillusioned by the indifference of world Jewry that he went public with his criticism – not enough Jews were coming to live in Israel.
So how and why did the 1967 war transform the relationship between the Jews of the world and Israel? … continue
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