Israel is preparing for a long-term occupation in southern Lebanon, where it has created a buffer zone outside the “yellow line,” which is a scorched land in which residents do not reside, and does not include any homes or civilian facilities.
A security source in southern Lebanon told Asharq Al-Awsat that targeting those towns located in contact with the “yellow line,” expelling residents from them and turning them into destroyed and dangerous areas “means that Israel is planning to thwart any attempt to use them to launch operations against its forces in the occupied region in the south.”
Meanwhile, opponents of Hezbollah revealed that it is suffering from a leadership crisis after the assassination of its former Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah, and today (Sunday) the party is commemorating the second anniversary of his assassination.
The party did not succeed in compensating him after it turned the General Secretariat into a center of political, organizational, military and popular gravity.
In a remarkable security development, the Syrian security authorities announced the implementation of a series of operations as part of a wide campaign to pursue former Air Force officers, which resulted in the arrest of 16 officers, including commanders, within less than a month. The arrests took place in particular in the governorates of Latakia and Tartous, on the Syrian coast, as well as in the Aleppo governorate in the north of the country.
On Saturday, the official Syrian News Channel quoted a source in the Counter-Terrorism Department confirming the arrest of the pilot, Khaldoun Hussein Mubarak, in the countryside of the city of Jableh in Latakia Governorate. According to reports in local media, he was arrested at his home in the village of Ain Qita in the Jableh countryside, on Friday.
Pilot Mubarak had survived the shooting down of his plane in 2020, and the official media of the former Syrian regime reported that his plane had fallen near the city of Saraqeb in Idlib Governorate, as a result of being targeted by Turkish aircraft. Activists rebroadcast an interview with Mubarak in which he confirmed, after his survival, that he would continue his military missions, even if he was repeatedly targeted more than once.
Pilot Khaldoun Hussein Mubarak is the sixteenth pilot to be arrested in less than a month. On September 18, the Commander of Internal Security in Tartous Governorate, Colonel Abdel-Al Muhammad Abdel-Al, announced the implementation of a series of precise security operations, in cooperation with the Counter-Terrorism Department, which led to the arrest of 5 senior officers in the former Air Force, namely: Major General Muhammad Fajr Ali, Brigadier General Pilot Abdullah Ali Mualla, Colonel Pilot Staff Nidal Hussein Saleh, Colonel Muhammad Ali Salim, and Pilot Lieutenant Colonel Talib Abdul Karim Hassan. Their arrest was based on suspicion of their involvement in planning, managing and implementing aerial bombardments targeting “populated areas” during the war, according to what the Internal Security Commander announced. Pointing out that investigations are continuing to determine their criminal responsibilities for the raids and violations attributed to them, in preparation for referring them to the competent judiciary in accordance with legal procedures.
This was preceded by the internal security announcement in Latakia Governorate, on the 10th of the same month, of the arrest of 9 pilots, namely: Brigadier General Manhal Anwar Saleh, Brigadier General Sami Ibrahim Mahmoud, Brigadier General Ghayath Ali Al-Rahiya, Colonel Issa Izz al-Din Khadour, Colonel Marwan Salah Nafesh, Colonel Bashar Samir Wannous, Lieutenant Colonel Ayham Hamza Alia, Captain Ayham Ahmed Daoud, and Captain Ammar Issa Junaidi. As published by the security forces through their official accounts.
The Commander of Internal Security in Latakia Governorate, Brigadier General Abdul Aziz Al-Ahmad, said that investigations showed “their participation in committing crimes and violations against the Syrian people in a number of governorates, taking advantage of their military positions and their specialization in military aviation and helicopters, and the accompanying bombing and targeting operations that led to large numbers of casualties, including dead and wounded, causing damage to cities and towns, displacing people, and destroying homes, facilities, and civilian facilities.”
The nine pilots logged more than 3,200 flight hours and sorties during the years of the revolution, according to a source in the Syrian Ministry of Interior, who said that investigations indicated that they carried out air strikes in which they used different types of attack helicopters and jet fighters that “targeted many areas, especially Eastern Ghouta, the city of Aleppo and its countryside, Deir ez-Zor and its countryside, and the countryside of Hama,” according to what was reported by the official SANA agency.
On September 5, the Internal Security Forces in Aleppo Governorate revealed the implementation of an operation that led to the arrest of Brigadier General Pilot Hamidi Ali Murad, a senior commander in the Syrian Air Force. During his years of service, he took over the management of several military airports, including Mezzeh Airport in Damascus, T-4 Airport in the eastern countryside of Homs, and Kuweires Airport in eastern Aleppo. In addition to his command of the Air Force College.
The Syrian authorities accuse the arrested pilots of being involved - depending on their position and responsibility - in planning, managing and implementing aerial bombardment operations, and taking advantage of the air force, air bases and field guidance centers to carry out combat raids targeting populated areas, which resulted in the destruction of residential neighborhoods and infrastructure, and the forced displacement of residents, in addition to extensive human losses, according to the Syrian News Agency.
It is noteworthy that the Ministry of the Interior had broadcast last April clips of the confessions of a number of pilots who were arrested last year, most notably the pilot Abdul Karim Ahmed Alia, and Mizer Sawan, nicknamed “the enemy of the two Ghoutas.” The confessions revealed that the use of fighter aircraft against Syrians revolting against Bashar al-Assad's regime began in 2013, that is, two years after the outbreak of protests. The confessions also confirmed Bashar al-Assad's direct intervention in determining the targets for the aerial bombardment.
