INTERNACIONAL
Tulsi Gabbard’s warning to Senate on Syria proves prophetic as Al Qaeda-linked regime slaughters minorities
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s warning of a terrorist takeover in Syria looks to be coming true amid reports that al Qaeda-linked terror forces aligned with Syria’s interim new president—a former al Qaeda terrorist—are being accused of massacring Alawites as well as members of the country’s dwindling Christian community.
Syrian security forces and affiliated gunmen have killed more than 340 civilians, the vast majority of them from the Alawite minority, over the last two days, Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters on Saturday.
At Gabbard’s Senate confirmation hearing she said «I have no love for Assad or any dictator. I just hate al-Qaeda. I hate that our leaders cozy up to Islamist extremists, calling them «rebels», as Jake Sullivan said to Hillary Clinton, «al Qaeda is on our side in Syria.» Syria is now controlled by al-Qaeda offshoot HTS, led by an Islamist Jihadist who danced in the streets on 9/11, and who was responsible for the killing of many American soldiers.»
An Alawite woman from the region of Al-Ghab plain, where there is a majority Alawite population, told Fox News Digital that the forces said, «Alawites are pigs, and they have to execute all of them and the small children before the elderly people.»
TRUMP URGES US TO STAY OUT OF SYRIAN CIVIL WAR, BLAMING OBAMA FOR FAILURE AS ISLAMISTS CLOSE IN ON CAPITAL
Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump’s choice to be the Director of National Intelligence, arrives to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee for her confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell) (AP)
The witness spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal from the authorities. She said that two militias had entered her house on Thursday and searched her residence for weapons. One of the members «put a gun to my head and asked for all my money. They took all the money and took money from our neighbors.»
She confirmed reports that the Islamist forces murdered the prominent Alawite 86-year-old cleric Shaaban Mansour and his son Hussein Shaaban. Reuters reported that Mansour was killed on Friday with his son in the village of Sahlab in western Syria. Residents there accused fighters aligned with Damascus of killing them.
A sizable Christian population living in the area has also reportedly been under attack. Greco-Levantines Worldwide media reported that a young family, including their infant child, was killed on Friday. A father and son, Tony and Fadi Petrus, were also executed by Islamists.
The witness said that in other Alawite towns—Nahr al-Bared and Deir Shamil—the Islamist militias «are entering houses and killing people and stealing everything. They are covering their faces.»
«I feel there is no safety. There is no homeland. There is nowhere to escape to, and no one to defend us. I feel fear and horrifying feelings.»
The witness added that the Islamists are Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other such groups affiliated with HTS, who stormed her region. She said HTS terrorists were Syrian Arabs, because of their spoken Arabic.
TRUMP CONGRATULATES US MILITARY AFTER AIRSTRIKE THAT KILLED OFFICIAL OF AL-QAEDA AFFILIATE: ‘DEALT JUSTICE’
Ahmed al-Sharaa and his group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, overthrew former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December (Photo by Omar Haj Kadour/AFP via Getty Images)
Ahmed al-Sharaa and his group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a U.S.-designated Sunni terrorist organization, toppled the former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December. Assad is a member of the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. The Alawites comprise roughly 10% of the Syrian population.
The Alawite source told Fox News Digital that the community is seeking support from the U.S., noting that the Islamists «want to kill all of us. They don’t want us in Syria. We have to flee Syria. They are seeking revenge from the former regime. I am asking for protection and to live in dignity, because we can be killed at any moment.»
One Alawite, who asked to remain anonymous, and who lives in Europe and is in constant contact with her community in Syria, claimed that in the coastal region and Alawite, more than 4,000 people are estimated to have been killed. She claimed to have received lists of people from Alawites who have documented the mass murder.
The Syrian army sends reinforcements, including tanks, armored vehicles and rocket launchers, to Latakia and Tartus as search operations against the ousted regime forces expand following an attack on security forces in Latakia province of Syria on March 7, 2025. (Izettin Kasim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
She and her group wrote on Telegram that al-Sharaa’s «fighters have unleashed a wave of terror against civilians in Syria’s coastal cities. Reports from Alawite community sources indicate hundreds of casualties, with Christians also among the victims.»
In his first comments on the violence, interim President al-Sharaa said that government forces would pursue «remnants» of the ousted Bashar Assad government.
UNCOVERING THE ATROCITIES OF THE ASSAD REGIME AT ITS ‘DEATH FACTORY’ ON THE HILL
People wave guns in the air as they gather to celebrate the fall of the Syrian regime in Umayyad Square on Dec. 8 in Damascus, Syria. (Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images)
«We will continue to pursue the remnants of the fallen regime. . . . We will bring them to a fair court, and we will continue to restrict weapons to the state, and no loose weapons will remain in Syria,» Sharaa added in a pre-recorded speech.
The U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, European politicians and diplomats from the former Biden administration have sought to woo Sharaa with sanctions relief and diplomatic relations since December. Critics argue that a former Islamic State and al-Qaeda terrorist, Sharra, can’t simply sport a suit and pretend he has abandoned his terrorist ideology and methods.
Just two days before the slaughter of Alawites, Guterres met with Sharaa on Tuesday in Cairo where they discussed views about a new course for Syria.
While an official statement has yet to come from the U.N. chief, his special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said he was «deeply concerned» by the reports of killings.
A group of Alawite clerics, the Alawite Islamic Council, blamed the violence on the government, saying that fighters had been sent to the coast «with the pretext of (combating) ‘regime remnants,’ to terrorize and kill Syrians.» It called for the region to be put under U.N. protection.
Syrian authorities said the violence began when remnants loyal to Assad launched a deadly and well-planned attack on their forces on Thursday.
The violence has shaken Sharaa’s efforts to consolidate control as his administration struggles to get U.S. sanctions lifted and grapples with wider security challenges, notably in the southwest, where Israel has said it will prevent Damascus from deploying forces.
The violence spiraled on Thursday when the authorities said groups of Assad-aligned militias had targeted security patrols and checkpoints in the Jableh area and surrounding countryside, before spreading.
ISRAEL DEPLOYS PARATROOPERS TO SYRIA IN ‘DEFENSE ACTIVITIES’ AFTER FALL OF ASSAD
Moussa al-Omar, a Syrian media figure close to the country’s new leadership, told Reuters that tens of thousands of fighters in Syria’s newly constituted security forces had been deployed to the coast in the operation and that order had been largely restored as of Friday night.
He said the crackdown was «a message to anyone in the south or east of Syria that the state . . . is capable of a military resolution at any time, even as it seeks peaceful solutions.»
Alawite activists say their community has been subjected to violence and attacks, particularly in rural Homs and Latakia, since Assad was overthrown in December after decades of repressive family rule and civil war.
Saudi Arabia condemned «crimes being undertaken by outlaw groups» in Syria and their targeting of security forces.
Deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad seen arriving in Jeddah, to attend the Arab League summit the following day in Saudi Arabia, May 18, 2023. Assad is in now living in exile in Russia. SANA/Handout via Reuters
Turkey, a close ally of Syria’s new government, also stated its support for Damascus, saying, «The tension in and around Latakia, as well as the targeting of security forces, could undermine the efforts to lead Syria into the future in unity and solidarity.»
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz blasted Syria’s Islamist rulers on Friday for their campaign to smash a nascent insurgency by fighters from ousted President Assad’s Alawite group.
«[Abu Mohammed] al-Julani switched his robe for a suit and presented a moderate face,» Katz said in a statement on X, using the nom de guerre of Ahmed al-Sharaa. «Now he’s taken off the mask and exposed his true face: A jihadist terrorist of the al-Qaeda school who is committing horrifying acts against a civilian population.»
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Katz added, «Israel will defend itself against any threat from Syria. We will remain in the security zones and Mount Hermon and protect the communities of the Golan and Galilee. We will ensure that southern Syria remains demilitarized and free of threats, and we will protect the local Druze population—anyone who harms them will face our response.»
The Syrian Alawite source in Europe told Fox News Digital that the Alawites want Israel to protect them like Israel’s offer of aid to the Syrian Druze population, who are also being targeted by the Islamist government in Damascus.
Reuters contributed to this report.
INTERNACIONAL
Widespread killing, rape, disease and war make Democratic Republic of Congo hell on earth
It is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman – or a Christian. Disease is rampant, and children as young as 4 are being forced to work in mines.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is 95% Christian, yet the faithful are being targeted by jihadists. Just last month, Islamist ADF terrorists, who want the eastern part of the country to become a Muslim Caliphate, rounded up 70 Christians and beheaded them – in a church.
Women are under threat too. According to the U.N., 895 cases of rape were reported in the last two weeks of February alone – an average of more than 60 a day.
In the east, «Sexual violence and human rights abuses remain rampant, as is the looting and destruction of civilian homes and businesses,» Patrick Eba, deputy director of UNHCR’s Division of International Protection, said this week.
70 CHRISTIANS BEHEADED IN AFRICAN COUNTRY BY ISIS-ALIGNED MILITANTS, GROUPS SAY; WORLD MOSTLY SILENT
The facade of a church hit by an artillery shell following clashes in Goma on Jan. 30, 2025. M23’s capture of most of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, is a dramatic escalation of a decade-long conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Alexis Huguet/AFP via Getty Images)
Eba added that «hundreds of thousands of people (are) on the move», fleeing the violence, with many crossing into neighboring countries.
Over 150 women inmates were raped, and many of them then burned to death, in Goma in October last year. As M23 rebels advanced on the city, prison guards at the local jail fled. Hundreds of male inmates are said to have jumped over a wall and raped the women, before escaping.
The sick are also at risk. Earlier this week, the U.N. humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA) reported that armed men had raided at least two hospitals in North Kivu’s capital Goma, abducting dozens of patients.
Disease also stalks people – with three mystery «outbreaks» in the past six months in the DRC. In the latest, the World Health Organization stated late last month that 60 have died and a further 1,318 have shown symptoms of suffering from an as yet unidentified serious illness in Equateur Province.
Internally displaced civilians from the camps in Munigi and Kibati carry their belongings as they flee following the fight between M23 rebels and the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Goma, on Jan. 26, 2025. (Reuters/Aubin Mukoni)
The agency said the disease spreads through the body fast «with a median time from onset of symptoms to death of one day.» Tests for Ebola and the Marburg virus have come back negative so far.
In the Eastern Kivu provinces of the DRC, hundreds of thousands have been displaced, as rebel groups, often foreign-backed, push back government troops in a war «playing out in one of the poorest regions of earth,» analyst Frans Cronje told Fox News Digital, adding, «Thousands have been killed, disease pandemics are commonplace, (and) women live under the constant fear of rape and abuse.»
TRUMP FACING 1ST TEST IN AFRICA AMID BLOODY BATTLES ‘OVER ELECTRIC VEHICLE BATTERY MINERALS’
Boys working at a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (ILO/UNICEF)
«The conflict in the DRC is essentially about control of critical minerals», Cronje, an advisor for the Yorktown Foundation for Freedom, continued. «Scores of rebel groups and some state actors are engaged in the conflict. The two Kivu provinces contain vast deposits of these minerals that could be used in applications from defense and AI to green energy.»
Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and editor of the Long War Journal, told Fox News Digital, «I would argue that the minerals are only partially, or even tangentially, related. The main violence plaguing Congo runs from regional political issues, like Rwanda/M23 (rebel group), to ethnic like CODECO, (an association of militia groups) to religious, like Islamic State Central Africa Province, aka ADF, (rebel group) to just general localized banditry. And some groups do control and make money from artisanal mines, but not all.»
And, for more than a decade, children in some DRC areas have faced extreme exploitation and abuse, reportedly from China, forced to mine deep underground in its quest for metals such as cobalt. An estimated 70% of the world’s cobalt is produced in the DRC, according to Michigan State University’s Global Edge Research Organization. China is said to either own, or co-own with the DRC’s government, 80% of the DRC’s cobalt mines.
Red Cross workers clear the area in Bukavu, east Congo’s second-largest city, one day after it was taken by M23 rebels, on Feb. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Janvier Barhahiga)
This modern-day child slavery continues despite outcry. A report to a joint House and Senate Committee in November 2023 stated that the DRC «is a country that has been brutally pillaged throughout history, fueled by corrupt men’s unquenchable thirst for power, riches, land, rubber, copper, palm oil, and now cobalt, all at the expense of innocent women, men, and children.»
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«Children as young as 4 are forced to mine cobalt, «Jason Isaac told Fox News Digital last year. Isaac is the founder and CEO of the American Energy Institute.
The FDD’s Bill Roggio told Fox News Digital there are steps the Trump administration could take, «from counter-terrorism against one of IS’ most active global branches (ISCAP) to walking back a potential massive regional war, or even to improving good governance, a more stable, secure and prosperous Congo would do wonders for the global economy and regional security.»
INTERNACIONAL
Mother of injured Hamas hostage directs plea to ‘every mother in this world’ to help secure son’s release
The mother of Alon Ohel, a hostage taken from the Nova Music Festival Oct. 7, 2023, who remains in Hamas captivity, is pleading for her son’s release after the first phase of the ceasefire concluded last week, but no new deal for a second phase has yet been reached.
«I think every mother in this world, if they just stopped for a second, would [they] even be able to breathe, knowing that their son or daughter have eaten dinner, are not getting any food – they’re being starved, chained and in bad condition,» Idit Ohel told Fox News Digital.
«Would they be able to just do anything? It’s unbearable. It’s just unbearable.»
AFTER TRUMP THREAT, HAMAS REFUSES TO RELEASE MORE HOSTAGES WITHOUT PHASE 2 CEASEFIRE DEAL
A poster of Alon Ohel, who was taken hostage at the Nova music festival. (Syndi Pilar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Alon and 58 others, including one individual taken separately from the Oct. 7 attacks, remains a hostage after 518 days since the October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.
During the attack, Alon hid in a bomb shelter outside the Nova music festival and was injured when shrapnel hit his right eye.
Footage shared with Fox News Digital showed the harrowing state he and others were in during the attack and their subsequent abduction.
TRUMP STICKING TO GAZA RELOCATION PLAN, AS WHITE HOUSE SEEMS TO DISMISS EGYPTIAN PROPOSAL
According to Israelis who were held hostage with Alon, his injury was never properly treated, and he is now at risk of going blind in both eyes, Idit explained.
Alon was confirmed last month to still be alive after the release of three hostages who were held with him. He is now believed to be held on his own.
«I have no idea where Allen is right now, but I do know as a mother that I’m frightened for him, and I know that he needs to be back as soon as possible. It’s urgent,» Idit explained to Fox News Digital.
Idit Ohel, the mother of Israeli Serbian citizen Alon Ohel, who is being held hostage in Gaza by Hamas, holds a portrait of her son during a news conference at the Palace of Serbia in Belgrade Sept. 11, 2024. (Oliver Bunic/AFP via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump this week met with hostages released from Gaza who told the president they believed he had «been sent by God» to secure their release.
Idit, who is Israeli, has not heard from either the Trump administration or from Netanyahu’s office.
But she believes Trump will help to return her son.
«I know that Trump can bring my son home. I know this because he has the power to do it. And when he wants something, he does it,» Idit said. «I’m rooting for him.
«I came all the way from Israel to D.C. to make sure that I’m heard, that Alon is heard,» she added. «I’m advocating for him. Alon is being held. He can’t speak.»
News this week revealed the Trump administration was directly communicating with Hamas to secure the release of five American hostages still held in Gaza, including the only surviving American, Edan Alexander.
Reports also noted that the administration was directly negotiating with the terrorist organization, an unprecedented move that has reportedly frustrated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to try to secure a 60-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of 10 hostages.
But there are 25 hostages still believed to be alive, including Ohel.
The family of Alon Ohel, who was taken hostage by Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, continues to fight for his release. (Idit Ohel)
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In a direct message to her son, Idit said, «We pray for you, and I am doing everything in my power to make sure that you are not forgotten.
«You are not forgotten,» she added. «People here think about you every day, and they want to save you and want to bring you back home.
«Your father and I, and your sister and your brother, are with you all the time.»
Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s chronic lung disease has worsened to the point where it’s affecting «her ability to perform her duties,» the Royal House of Norway announced.
Mette-Marit, 51, is suffering from pulmonary fibrosis, described by the Mayo Clinic as a condition that irreparably damages and scars the lungs, leading to shortness of breath.
«The Crown Princess has daily symptoms and ailments that affect her ability to perform her duties,» the Royal House of Norway said in a statement, noting her disease has «progressed.»
«The Crown Princess needs more rest, and her daily routine changes more quickly than before. This means that changes to her official schedule may occur more frequently, and at shorter notice than we are used to,» it added.
FLASHBACK: METTE-MARIT OF NORWAY REVEALS SHE’S BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH CHRONIC LUNG DISEASE
Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway visits the International Library of Fashion at Stasjonsmesterbygningen on Jan. 24, 2025 in Oslo. (Rune Hellestad/Corbis/Getty Images)
«The Crown Princess has a strong desire to continue working, and therefore we will organize her official program in the future in the best possible way so that her health and work can be combined,» the Royal House of Norway also said.
Mette-Marit was diagnosed with the disease in October 2018.
«For a number of years, I have had health challenges on a regular basis, and now we know more about what is involved. The condition means that my working capacity will vary,» she said at the time.
SON OF NORWAY’S CROWN PRINCESS ARRESTED ON SUSPICION OF RAPE
Crown Prince Hakon Magnus and Crown Princess Mette-Marit attend the Save the Children Peace Prize Party at the Nobel Peace Center on Dec. 10, 2024 in Oslo, Norway. (Per Ole Hagen/Getty Images)
«The Crown Prince and I are choosing to make this public now partly because in future there will be a need to plan periods of time without an official program to accommodate treatment and when the disease is more active,» she added.
The Mayo Clinic said some people with pulmonary fibrosis «can stay stable for a long time, but the condition gets worse faster in others.»
Crown Princess Mette-Marit visits Lilleby Elementary School on Sept. 12, 2024 in Trondheim, Norway. (Rune Hellestad/Corbis/Getty Images)
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«As it gets worse, people become more and more short of breath,» it also said. «Medicines and therapies can sometimes help slow down the rate of fibrosis, ease symptoms and improve quality of life. For some people, a lung transplant might be an option.»
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