Live Briefing ‘Hell to pay’ if hostages not released, Trump says; Lebanon ceasefire under strain

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist group based in northwestern Syria’s Idlib province, is leading the fight against the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government. In recent days, battle lines that remained largely static for years have shifted fast.

After seizing much of Aleppo, the largest city in northern Syria, the group’s fighters are pushing southward toward the city of Hama, which lies between Aleppo and the capital, Damascus. It is unclear how much of Hama remains under government control.

Besides HTS, two other groups are active in the broader region, holding some territories. Turkish-backed Syrian National Army forces are based in northern Syria along the Turkish border. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported that the SNA participated in the recent rebel offensive, claiming to have captured a military airport in Aleppo.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) control some territories in the northeast. In the past week, the SDF said it has battled to hold back advancing SNA fighters. The United States backed Kurdish forces in the fight against the Islamic State, which by 2019 had lost its vast swaths of territory captured in Iraq and Syria. The United States pulled back under the first presidency of Donald Trump, leaving erstwhile Kurdish allies to face an offensive by Turkey.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah appeared severely under strain after exchanges of fire late Monday that led to several deaths. Israeli forces hit targets after Hezbollah fired rockets toward Israel, in what the militant group called a “warning defensive response” to “repeated violations” of the ceasefire earlier by Israel.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said the Israeli attacks killed 11 people.

The dueling claims of breaches came as U.S. officials said that the Washington-brokered deal was holding and that a mechanism set up with the government of France would evaluate any alleged violations.

In a statement Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said it struck sites across Lebanon. According to the Israeli military, Hezbollah launched two projectiles toward Mount Dov, a disputed Israeli-held territory also known as Shebaa Farms, on Monday evening. The projectiles fell in an open area, and no injuries were reported, the IDF wrote on Telegram.

The incident appeared to be the first time Hezbollah has fired rockets toward Israel since the ceasefire started Wednesday. Israel’s alleged violations included “firing on civilians and airstrikes in different parts of Lebanon, which led to the death of citizens and the injury of others, in addition to the continued violation of Lebanese airspace by hostile Israeli aircraft reaching the capital Beirut,” Hezbollah said in its statement.

Initial U.S. assessments are that the ceasefire is holding, said Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman. The attacks are generally limited in scope, Ryder said, indicating that the agreement has not broken down.

Russia launched airstrikes in support of the Syrian army Monday in an effort to stanch a major rebel advance that surprised and overwhelmed the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad late last week.

After initially withdrawing from some areas, Syrian government forces appeared to be regrouping to counterattack Monday. The Syrian army said its warplanes also carried out airstrikes against the rebel forces that are posing the most significant challenge to Assad’s rule in more than a decade. And in the background, Iranian officials launched a diplomatic blitz to shore up the Assad regime.

Whether Syrian government forces can stop the lightning assault and roll back rebel gains will largely depend on how much support Russia and Iran provide the Assad regime. Both allies have been instrumental in helping Assad cling to power as the country was engulfed in a civil war that killed tens of thousands of civilians.