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Bombing kills co-founder of Syria’s main al-Qaida-linked group, once known as Nusra Front

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IDLIB, Syria (AP) — A suicide bomber set off his explosives late on Thursday in northwestern Syria, killing the co-founder of the country’s main al-Qaida-linked group that controls much of the northwest, a war monitor said.

Some activists disputed the source of the explosion, saying instead that a remotely detonated bomb killed Abu Maria al-Qahtani, whose real name was Maysara al-Jubouri. Al-Qahtani co-founded the Nusra Front in Syria, a militant group that later renamed itself Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and claimed it had severed ties with al-Qaida.

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The conflicting accounts could not immediately be reconciled.

Syria

This is a locator map for Syria with its capital, Damascus.  (AP Photo)

According to the Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor with a network of activists on the ground, the bomber entered al-Qahtani’s guesthouse in the town of Sarmada in Idlib province late in the evening and detonated his explosives.

The small enclave of northwestern Syria is the country’s last rebel-held territory. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham controls the northwestern Idlib province while Turkey-backed opposition groups control northern Aleppo province. Most of the 4.5 million people living in Idlib and Aleppo provinces rely on humanitarian aid to survive, and almost half live in displacement camps

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The killing of al-Qahtani came against the backdrop of protests against his group and its leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, over the militants’ harsh reign over the region and deteriorating economic conditions.

He was released from jail in March after being detained by his own men in August over misuse of social media. According to the Observatory, he was accused of communicating with hostile groups. He had since been dismissed from his duties as a senior official for the group.

The Observatory said that shortly after the explosion, al-Qahtani was rushed to Bab al-Hawa Hospital in Idlib but died of his wounds. According to the war monitor, two of guests at al-Qahtani’s house were also wounded.

However, a medical official told The Associated Press that al-Qahtani’s escort and eight other guests were wounded, nine in all. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was no authorities to talk to the media.

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Public sentiment against al-Golani and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has been rising since the militant group cracked down on senior members and suppressed street protests.

Al-Qahtani, an Iraqi citizen, had been a longtime al-Qaida member who fought against U.S. forces in Iraq following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. In 2011, he was one of several al-Qaida figures who moved to Syria, months after the country’s ongoing deadly conflict began.

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INTERNACIONAL

US ally accuses Biden admin of using USAID as a ‘tool to interfere with domestic issues’

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President Donald Trump’s second administration has made the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) a prime target for spending cuts. Under Trump, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, is taking a serious look at the foreign aid agency — and America’s allies and enemies alike are taking notice.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital at the United Nations, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó didn’t hide his disdain for USAID. While insisting that he was not interested in interfering with US domestic issues, Szijjártó did speak about what he saw from the agency under former President Joe Biden.

«The former administration couldn’t digest that we weren’t ready to give up our national positions. We were not ready to give up representing our national interests,» Szijjártó told Fox News Digital. «And we were not ready to give up our non-liberal, patriotic, conservative type of approach.»

Former President Joe Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. (Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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Szijjártó also accused the Biden administration of using USAID to «destabilize the situation in other countries» and to fund «programs which were totally alien and strange compared to the culture and the heritage of other countries.»

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«If you ask me whether it’s good to us that there’s a revision period of 90 days when it comes to payments regarding USAID and others, we are very happy,» Szijjártó added.

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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a longtime ally of Trump, also ripped USAID after it was reported that the agency was funding Politico.

Prime Minister Orbán followed up in another tweet saying, «We had to endure for years that the ultra-progressive, self-proclaimed human rights champions of the mainstream media demonized Patriotic political forces for years. They did it because they were paid to do so by USAID and the previous, left-wing US administration. I agree with President [Trump]: this is too big and too dirty to hide from.»

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed during Wednesday’s press briefing that «more than $8 million taxpayer dollars» went to Politico, adding that DOGE is «working on canceling those payments.» However, the publication denied that it has ever been a «beneficiary of government programs.»

Musk, who is heading up Trump’s cost-cutting efforts through DOGE, described the agency as a «viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America.»

Elon Musk at Congress

Elon Musk leads the Department of Government Efficiency. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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On Monday, Trump’s White House issued a list of examples of «waste and abuse» at USAID. This included $6M to fund tourism in Egypt, $1.5M in funding for DEI programs in Serbia’s workplaces, $47,000 for a «transgender opera» in Colombia and more.

The White House also accused the agency of spending «hundreds of millions of dollars» on «irrigation canals, farming equipment, and even fertilizer used to support the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan,» adding that this was «benefiting the Taliban.»

Donald Trump and Elon Musk

Trump and Musk watch the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on Nov. 19, 2024, in Brownsville, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

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At the end of its list, the White House noted that the highlighted examples were part of a longer list of projects.

«Under President Trump, the waste, fraud, and abuse ENDS NOW,» the White House added.


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