Iraq, Lebanon intel cooperation leads to destruction of Captagon factory
The announcement late on Monday showcased rare security operation between the two countries and comes a month after the Lebanese army issued a statement about the discovery of a factory with large amounts of drugs in Yammoune village in the eastern Bekaa Valley.
Iraq's Interior Ministry said the Lebanese operation in Yammoune in mid-July came after Iraqi authorities gave Beirut information about the factory.
A senior Lebanese security official on Tuesday said it was not clear why Iraqi authorities made the announcement on Monday, adding that Lebanon's security agencies are always in contact with Arab and international security agencies.
Arab states have been intensifying efforts to battle the massive drug trade.
The vast majority of the world's Captagon is produced in neighbouring Syria with some production in Lebanon.
Western governments estimated that Captagon generated billions of dollars in revenue for ousted longtime Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, his family, associates and allies. The former government in Damascus denied the accusations.
But in the immediate days after al-Assad's fall in December, opposition fighters, who took control of the capital, Damascus, uncovered large stashes of Captagon, a stimulant that has long been mass-produced in the country and became almost synonymous with the nation's former leadership.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the rebels who forced al-Assad out of the country and has since become interim Syrian president, accused the former regime of turning Syria into 'the world's leading source of Captagon'. He promised to crack down on Captagon manufacturing and trade.
In February, the interior ministers of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq held talks in Amman on ways to combat the illegal drug trade and agreed to set up a joint telecommunications cell to exchange information.
Smugglers have used Jordan as a corridor to smuggle Captagon pills out of Syria, mainly to oil-rich Arab Gulf states.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
an hour ago
- Chicago Tribune
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will push ahead with Gaza City takeover and renew ceasefire talks
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he will give final approval for the takeover of Gaza City while also restarting negotiations with Hamas aimed at returning all the remaining hostages and ending the war on Israel's terms. The wide-scale operation in Gaza City could start within days. Netanyahu's approval was expected during a meeting with senior security officials late Thursday, but no decision was announced before midnight in Jerusalem. Hamas said earlier this week that it had agreed to a ceasefire proposal from Arab mediators, which — if accepted by Israel — could forestall the offensive. The Israeli military has begun calling medical officials and international organizations in the northern Gaza Strip to encourage them to evacuate to the south ahead of the expanded operation. The military plans to call up 60,000 reservists and extend the service of 20,000 more. Israeli strikes, meanwhile, killed at least 36 Palestinians Thursday across Gaza, according to local hospitals. A renewed offensive could bring even more casualties and displacement to the territory, where the war has already killed tens of thousands and where experts have warned of imminent famine. Many Israelis fear the operation could also doom the remaining 20 or so living hostages taken by Hamas-led fighters in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war. During a visit to the military's Gaza command in southern Israel, Netanyahu said he would approve the army's plans to retake Gaza City and had instructed officials 'to begin immediate negotiations' for the release of all hostages 'and an end to the war on terms acceptable to Israel.' 'These two things — defeating Hamas and releasing all our hostages — go hand in hand,' he said. It appeared to mark Israel's first public response to the latest ceasefire proposal drawn up by Egypt and Qatar. Egyptian and Hamas officials say it is almost identical to an earlier one that Israel accepted before the talks stalled last month. The proposal would include the release of some of the hostages in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a pullback of Israeli forces and negotiations over a more lasting ceasefire. Israeli troops have already begun more limited operations in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood and the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp, areas where they have carried out several previous large-scale raids over the course of the war, only to see fighters later regroup. The military says it plans to operate in areas where ground troops have not yet entered and where it says Hamas still has military and governing capabilities. So far, there has been little sign of Palestinians fleeing en masse, as they did when Israel carried out an earlier offensive in Gaza City in the opening weeks of the war. The military says it controls around 75% of Gaza, and residents say nowhere in the territory feels safe. Hundreds gathered Thursday for a rare protest in Gaza City against the war and Israel's plans to support the mass relocation of Palestinians to other countries. Women and children held placards reading 'Save Gaza' and 'Stop the war, stop the savage attack, save us,' against a backdrop of destroyed buildings as Palestinian music played. Unlike in previous protests, there were no expressions of opposition to Hamas. 'We want the war on Gaza to stop. We don't want to migrate. Twenty-two months … it's enough. Enough death. Enough destruction,' said Bisan Ghazal, a woman displaced from Gaza City. In Israel, protesters marched Thursday night in Tel Aviv holding banners that read 'The people will bring back the hostages' and 'How much blood will be spilled?' Among the demonstrators was Dudu Dotan, who said Netanyahu is endangering the remaining hostages by moving forward with the planned Gaza City offensive. Of the 50 still being held in Gaza, Israel believes about 20 hostages are still alive. 'This way will not bring the hostages back,' Dotan said. 'Every hostage he brought back, he brought back through deals. And every time he tried to bring them back with military force, he caused the hostages to be killed.' Plans for widening the offensive have also sparked international outrage, with many of Israel's closest Western allies — but not the United States — calling on it to end the war. At least 36 Palestinians were killed Thursday by Israeli fire across the Gaza Strip, including 14 who were seeking humanitarian aid, according to local hospitals. The military says it only targets fighters and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas. The Israeli military said it killed several armed fighters in the Morag Corridor, a military zone where people seeking aid have repeatedly come under fire in recent weeks, according to witnesses and health officials. Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza had earlier reported that six people were killed in that area while seeking aid on Thursday. It was not possible to reconcile the two accounts. The Media Freedom Coalition, which promotes press freedoms worldwide, called Thursday for Israel to allow independent foreign news organizations access to Gaza. Aside from rare guided tours, Israel has barred international media during the war, in which at least 184 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed. 'Journalists and media workers play an essential role in putting the spotlight on the devastating reality of war,' said a statement signed by 27 of the coalition's member countries. Israeli airstrikes also destroyed a tent camp in Deir al-Balah, the only city in Gaza that has been relatively unscathed in the war and where many have sought refuge. Residents said the Israeli military warned them to flee shortly before the strikes set the camp ablaze, and there were no reports of casualties. Families, many with children, could later be seen sifting through the ashes for the belongings they had managed to take with them during earlier evacuations. Mohammad Kahlout, who had been displaced from northern Gaza, said they were given just five minutes to gather what they could and evacuate. 'We are civilians, not terrorists. What did we do, and what did our children do, to be displaced again?' The Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that at least 62,192 Palestinians have been killed in the war. Another two people have died from malnutrition-related causes, bringing the total number of such deaths to 271, including 112 children, the Health Ministry said. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. It does not say whether those killed by Israeli fire are civilians or combatants, but it says around half were women and children. The U.N. and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties. Israel disputes its toll but has not provided its own. Hamas-led fighters started the war when they attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Hamas says it will only free the rest in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Israel pounds neighborhoods as operation to take Gaza City underway
Advertisement 'We have begun the preliminary actions, and already now IDF troops are holding the outskirts of Gaza City,' Israel Defense Forces spokesperson General Effie Defrin said late Wednesday. He added that Israeli forces were also operating in Jabalya, north of the city, and in the southern neighborhood of Zeitoun. The planned operation has drawn condemnation from the United Nations and countries around the world, which warned it would lead to the forced displacement of about a million Palestinians in the area and deepen the suffering of civilians throughout the territory. In Israel, hundreds of thousands of people protested the plan on Sunday, arguing that it would endanger the 20 hostages still believed to be alive in Gaza and strain already exhausted reservists. Advertisement Members of a forum representing families of current and former Israeli hostages in Gaza called Wednesday for an urgent meeting with defense ministry officials to ask how the military would ensure that Hamas captors would not execute the hostages as Israeli troops close in — as they did in August 2024, when Hamas militants shot six Israeli captives in southern Gaza. 'Approving plans to invade Gaza while a deal is already on the table for Netanyahu to approve is nothing less than sabotage in the making — a knife to the heart of the families and the Israeli public,' the forum said in a statement. In his address Thursday, Netanyahu said he had instructed his negotiating team to begin immediate discussions with mediators 'for the release of all our hostages and the end of the war, on conditions that are acceptable for Israel.' It wasn't clear if the statement marked a change in Israel's position, conveyed by Israeli officials this week, that it was no longer willing to consider a phased ceasefire that would see the hostages released in stages. For days, Israel has stalled on responding to a last-minute push by Egypt and Qatar to stave off the invasion. The two Arab mediators persuaded Hamas to sign on to a proposal Monday for an initial 60-day ceasefire that tracks almost exactly with a US-backed framework to which Israel had previously agreed. Instead, Israel — which already controls 75 percent of the Gaza Strip, according to its own estimation — appeared to be moving full steam ahead toward the conquest of Gaza City. The IDF issued call-up orders Wednesday for some 60,000 reserve soldiers for early September, military officials said. Between 120,000 and 130,000 reservists overall are expected to take part in the new offensive. Advertisement The first stages will mostly involve five divisions of active-duty forces operating throughout Gaza, with a focus on Gaza City, an Israeli military official told reporters Wednesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the military. The official said the operation has been 'carefully planned' and will be carried out gradually and involve an 'expansion of our ongoing humanitarian efforts.' The IDF was working to establish more aid distribution sites, beyond the four hubs run by the controversial US — and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in areas of southern Gaza under Israeli military control, the official said. Israel launched its war on Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, during which Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostage. Since then, the Israeli military has leveled and occupied much of Gaza, killing more than 62,000 people there, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and has displaced nearly the entire population at least once. The ministry's toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but it includes figures that show the majority of the dead are women and children. Intense Israeli strikes over the past 10 days in eastern and southern Gaza City — a prelude to the ground operation — have already driven thousands of people to flee, according to the UN and international organizations tracking population movements. The attacks 'indicate that the systematic destruction of Gaza City is already underway,' the UN human rights office said in a statement Wednesday. Ishaq Badawi, 56, was one of those forced to flee. He had been living in a tent near the rubble of his house in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood with his wife and their seven children. The shelling and airstrikes grew so intense there last week that he decided to rent a truck for about $1,000, load it with blankets, clothes, his kids, and his partially paralyzed wife, and drive southwest to Mawasi, an area along the coast that is already packed with displaced people. Advertisement 'All we heard were explosions, ambulances, and people screaming, trapped or wounded. The nights were really rough,' he said of his final days in Zeitoun. 'We just couldn't take it anymore.' The IDF issued evacuation orders for the neighborhood in early August. The ensuing assault there — which began Aug. 11 and has involved ground troops, airstrikes, and the use of explosive robots — has already destroyed hundreds of homes and civilian buildings, including schools, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. In Gaza City's historic district, residents are torn over whether to stay or go. The Israeli military sent evacuation notices to people in the area by mobile phone on Thursday, said Wejdan al-Baraqani, 36, who lives with her mother there. 'No one walks in the streets. From time to time, drones and helicopters fire live rounds. We also hear heavy artillery pounding Shejaiya and Sabra,' she said, adding that she could hear military vehicles moving in the distance. 'Of course, I'm afraid. But where could we go?' she added. 'We already went south once and came back. Anyone who's been displaced before doesn't want to relive that misery.' Baraqani said she hopes the proximity of her house to Gaza's only Catholic church will confer some protection. But the church has been attacked before, most recently in July. Advertisement For a civilian evacuation to be lawful under international humanitarian law, it has to be temporary, the occupying power has to ensure that the place to which civilians are relocating can provide for their basic needs, and it must be presented as an option in the context of lawful military operations in the area, according to Adil Haque, a professor of international law at Rutgers University.
The Hill
4 hours ago
- The Hill
Netanyahu says he's giving final Gaza City takeover approval
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he is giving the final approval for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) takeover of Gaza City and reopening talks with the Palestinian militant group Hamas in hopes of securing the release of the remaining hostages. 'I came here to approve the IDF plans for taking control of Gaza City and defeating Hamas. In parallel, I instructed to begin immediate negotiations for the release of all our hostages and the end of the war, on conditions that are acceptable for Israel,' Netanyahu said on Thursday. 'Those two things, the defeat of Hamas and the release of all our hostages, go hand in hand,' the prime minister added during a visit to the IDF's Gaza command in southern Israel. Israel is calling up tens of thousands of reservists ahead of its expanded military incursion into Gaza City. The operation around and in Gaza City could begin in the coming days. The IDF soldiers will operate in areas of Gaza City where they have not previously, an Israeli military official said on Wednesday. The Israeli military has called up about 60,000 reservists and another 20,000 got their services extended. Most of the reservists are not expected to operate in Gaza City. 'All that said, in Gaza, the main forces operating on the next stage of the operation will be our active duty forces,' the military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to brief the news media, said on Wednesday. 'We will have five divisions operating in Gaza in different operations focusing on Gaza City.' The most recent Arab-led ceasefire proposal was accepted by Hamas, a U.S.-government-designated foreign terrorist organization. Netanyahu's comments on Thursday seem to be the first reaction by Israel to the ceasefire proposal, crafted by Qatari and Egyptian officials. Egyptian officials argued the proposal is nearly identical to the one Jerusalem accepted before the discussion between Israel and Hamas was thwarted in July. The ceasefire offer would see the freeing of some hostages held by Hamas, the freeing of Palestinians held in prison by Israel, continuation of talks over a longer-term truce and the withdrawal of IDF soldiers from parts of Gaza. Israeli soldiers started limited operations at a Jabaliya refugee camp and in Zeitoun, a neighborhood in Gaza City, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Thursday. The Israeli military killed 36 Palestinians across Gaza on Thursday, the AP reported, citing local hospitals. The IDF says it controls about 75 percent of the war-torn enclave. Hamas' militants ignited the war after killing around 1,200 Israelis and taking about 250 people hostage on Oct. 7, 2023. Since then, the Israeli military has killed over 62,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
