������Ƶ

ANKARA: Turkiye has sent 81 disaster relief experts to the Gaza Strip, some of whom will help with finding the remains of 19 hostages still unaccounted for, a defense ministry source said Thursday.
“There is already a team of 81 AFAD staff there,” the source said, referring to Turkiye’s disaster relief agency, indicating that “one team will be in charge of seeking and finding the bodies.”
Turkiye’s Disaster Management Authority (AFAD) is a government agency that operates under the interior ministry.
“The tasks are known: transmitting humanitarian aid, finding corpses and protecting the ceasefire. But there is no clear information on how to handle these tasks,” the ministry source said.
Asked whether Turkish military forces could get involved, the source said it would be “more the task of civilian entities like AFAD” but in theory the military could help out if needed.
AFAD rescue workers are accustomed to operating in difficult terrain and have responded to numerous earthquakes that have shaken Turkiye, including the one in February 2023 in the southeast of the country, which killed at least 53,000 people.
AFAD says it has carried out rescue and humanitarian aid missions in more than 50 countries on five continents in recent years, including Somalia, the Palestinian territories, Ecuador, the Philippines, Nepal, Yemen, Mozambique, and Chad.

LONDON: Syrian authorities arrested a prominent drug dealer on Thursday in the coastal province of Lattakia.

Nomair Al-Assad is regarded as one of the country’s most prominent drug dealers and has been involved in several crimes during the era of the Bashar Assad regime, according to the Ministry of Interior.

Internal Security Forces captured Al-Assad alongside several members of a criminal gang in the city of Qardaha, famously known as the hometown of the Assad family.

Brig. Gen. Abdulaziz Al-Ahmad of the ISF told SANA that Al-Assad used his kinship with the Assad regime to “form and manage organized terrorist networks, which were involved in murders, kidnapping, extortion and armed robbery against civilians in a number of governorates.”

Al-Ahmad added that Al-Assad oversaw drug production and smuggling to neighboring countries and participated in an armed attack on Syria’s forces early this year.

The ministry emphasized that the arrest reflects the ISF’s commitment to pursuing remnants of the Assad regime, combating crime, and achieving justice.

Since the fall of the regime last December, the new government in Damascus has arrested several suspects, including army officers, for crimes committed against Syrians during the country’s civil conflict.

Additionally, Syrian authorities continue to fight against drug trafficking, cooperating with neighboring countries such as Jordan, Turkiye, and Iraq to dismantle criminal networks.