Syrian army withdraws from key city of Hama amid rebel surge, state news reports
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(LONDON) — Syrian state media said Thursday that government forces were withdrawing from the city of Hama in the face of a rebel advance, marking another major setback for President Bashar al-Assad and his backers in Russia and Iran.
The Syrian Arab News Agency said government forces withdrew to positions outside the central Syrian city. The report came hours after opposition fighters — led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group — claimed to have entered the city and struck towards its center.
Hama is Syria’s fourth largest city. It sits between the capital Damascus to the south and Aleppo — Syria’s second city — to the north. Aleppo fell to the lightning rebel offensive on Nov. 29. Hama was one of the few major cities that did not fall to anti-government forces following the 2011 revolution against Assad’s rule.
The Syrian army said its troops withdrew after rebel fighters broke through government defenses in Hama. The army accused the opposition groups of using suicide attacks to breach government lines.
The army’s General Command said the withdrawal was ordered to “preserve civilian lives” by avoiding fighting inside the city, SANA reported.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Someyah Malekian contributed to this report.
(GAZA CITY) — Alma Ja’arour is not like most children her age. Instead of talking about school and friends, her days are filled with memories of the family she lost and the uncertainty of her future after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement on Jan. 15.
Alma, who is 12 years old, is the sole survivor of her family after her home was bombed in December 2023 in Gaza City.
Soon, she will return — not to the home she once knew, but to a graveyard where her parents and siblings rest.
“My mother, father, and brothers are all buried in one grave in our home in Gaza City,” she told ABC News. “I want to see them, say goodbye. But what will I do after that? There is no home to return to, no one waiting for me.”
After 15 months of living in displacement camps because of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, Alma and others like her will be allowed to return to northern Gaza on Saturday.
But for Alma, returning without her family is difficult, she told ABC News.
Alma’s story is one of countless others unfolding across Gaza, where children like her face unimaginable challenges. The ongoing conflict has left over 17,000 children separated from their parents, according to UNICEF.
Amid the challenges Alma has faced, she has one wish.
“I want to make my parents proud of me in heaven,” Alma told ABC News.
Her hope is to become a doctor, fulfilling a desire that her late father always encouraged, she said.
“Through education, I can achieve my goals. I will work hard to make my father proud,” Alma added.
Alma has been living in a tent at the Al-Barakah Orphanage Camp in Khan Younis.
Mahmoud Kalakh, the camp’s director, said the children in the orphanage display resilience, despite the tragedy around them.
“These children carry the weight of tragedy, yet they still dream of a better future,” he said. “Our role is to provide them with the support they need to heal and rebuild their lives.”
UNICEF and other humanitarian organizations have called for urgent support for children like Alma. The loss of family, education and basic necessities has created a crisis that requires immediate global attention, global aid organizations say.
“Children are the most vulnerable in conflicts,” a UNICEF spokesperson said. “We must ensure they have the resources and care they need to survive and thrive.”
(SEOUL) — Thousands of South Korean citizens were gathering on Sunday near impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol’s residence a day before an arrest warrant for him expires.
Protesters from both sides — one calling the warrant invalid or illegal and the other shouting for arrest — have occupied the wide four-lane road in a normally quiet neighborhood, blocking all traffic, in freezing temperatures and snow.
The effort to detain Yoon came after a South Korean court issued an arrest and search warrant on Dec. 31 over his short-lived imposition of martial law, ABC News confirmed. Yoon has been suspended from his position since Dec. 14.
The warrant is valid until Jan. 6, Yonhap reported, meaning investigators hoping to serve it would have to attempt to detain the president again by Monday.
Yoon declared martial law in a televised speech on Dec. 3. The president said the measure was necessary due to the actions of the country’s liberal opposition, the Democratic Party, which he accused of controlling parliament, sympathizing with North Korea and paralyzing the government.
Animosity has been sky-high between the two sides, after over 100 investigators from the CIO anti-corruption agency and the police retreated from the residence after a tense standoff with the presidential security service.
Yoon’s die-hard supporters have been camping on the street vowing to protect him from “pro-North Korean forces about to steal away the presidency.” Anti-Yoon protesters who are backing of the opposition party claim that Yoon must be jailed for insurrection.
Arrest warrant questioned
Many law experts question the validity of the warrant, which specified that certain key provisions of South Korea’s Criminal Procedure Act should be excluded, which meant the police could search the military and government-classified presidential residence.
This court order is widely seen as a first-ever and as being highly irregular, along with being criticized by some as being outside the limits of the judiciary’s authority, violating the principles of separation of powers.
Typical search warrants include clear parameters of space, time and items to retrieve but excluding the application of legal provisions entirely is unprecedented, experts say.
Yoon’s declaration of martial law had sparked protests, and hours after the declaration, the National Assembly voted to demand that the president lift the martial law order. A majority of parliament — all 190 members who were present, out of the 300-person body — voted to lift the decree — requiring that it then be lifted, under the South Korean constitution.
Following the National Assembly’s vote, Yoon said he withdrew the troops that had been deployed to carry out martial law and “will lift martial law as soon as we have a quorum in the cabinet.” The State Council then convened to vote to officially lift it.
The country’s Democratic Party called on Yoon to resign following what it called the “fundamentally invalid” declaration of martial law. Without Yoon resigning, the opposition party worked to enact impeachment proceedings against the president.
Yoon has been suspended from his position since Dec. 14, when the National Assembly voted for his impeachment in a 204-85 vote.
Presidential security service facing charges
While politicians and lawyers argue heatedly over the validity of the warrant in higher courts, the Presidential Security Service has found itself in the limelight.
The CIO has been leading a joint investigation with police and prosecutors, but say detaining Mr. Yoon would be “virtually impossible” as long as he is protected by the security team.
CIO and the opposition party are seeking charges against the head of the president’s security team for obstruction of justice after the police were blocked from entering the residence on Friday.
The security team formed a barricade comprising about 10 buses and vehicles, at one point forming a human chain of about 200 officers to block access, according to CIO.
The opposition has criticized the president’s security team as being over-excessive and summoned the chiefs and deputy chiefs. The Presidential Security Service defied the order, citing that this is not the time to leave their positions.
“Some media and political circles are saying that the Presidential Security Service is a private soldier (to President Yoon),” Park Chong-Jun, Head of Presidential Security Service, said in a video press release. “I can’t help but feel terrible and sad as the presidential security officer”.
He added that fake news reports of him ordering to fire with live ammunition are “absurd claims,” there was no violence on Saturday, and that they should not be forced to be associated with political ideology.
ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
(SEOUL) — A team of U.S. investigators arrived in South Korea to assist local aviation officials as they comb the wreckage of the Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 aircraft that crashed Sunday, killing 179 people.
Three members of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board are leading the U.S. team, which also includes advisers from the Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing and CFM International, a jet-engine manufacturer. Some of those advisers will be on site and others will remain in the U.S., the NTSB said.
“Additional NTSB investigative staff are standing by to assist if needed, including specialists in recorders, powerplants, and survival factors, among other specialties,” the board said in a statement.
In the wake of the deadly plane crash at Muan International Airport, local officials are also now investigating similar aircraft models that are operating in airports around the country.
Jeju Air Flight 2216 was landing just before 9 a.m. when the plane went off the runway and crashed into a wall. There were a total of 175 passengers and six crew members aboard the Boeing 737, which had taken off from Bangkok, Thailand.
A total of 179 people aboard the flight were killed, with two flight attendants — a man and a woman — being the only survivors of the crash.
Officials were continuing to identify the victims of the crash. Five of the remains were still unidentified as of Tuesday, local officials said. The remains of four individuals being transported to their respective families for funeral.
Authorities are conducting a full investigation into over 100 aircraft that are the same model, B737-800. The planes are currently operating in six local airlines, officials said.
The investigation includes reviewing the maintenance history of the engines, landing gears and the aircraft’s operation records.
“There are no plans to suspend operations, but they will examine those parts once more and check them thoroughly during the inspection process,” said Song Kyung-hoon, head of Jeju Air’s Management Support Division.
The Muan International Airport runway will be closed for the investigation until Jan. 7, officials said.
The two flight attendants who survived the crash were recovering at separate hospitals in Seoul on Monday, according to the Korean Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport.
Neither survivor had life-threatening injuries, the ministry said, adding that both had awoken in the hospital without a clear recollection of what had happened after they heard a blast during the landing.
The man, who was identified only by his surname Lee, was receiving treatment for fractures in an intensive care unit. He was alert and speaking with medical staff, Ju Woong, director of the Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital, said at a press conference on Monday.
“[Lee is] fully able to communicate,” Woong added. “There’s no indication yet of memory loss or such.”
The woman, a 25-year-old flight attendant named Koo, was also recovering, though not in intensive care, according to hospital staff and officials, as well as the Korean Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport.
ABC News’ Sam Sweeney and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
