Syria – live: Israeli troops ‘25km from Damascus’ as dozens of military sites bombed

An official in the Israeli Defense Forces has told The Independent that the allegations that its tanks are advancing towards Damascus are false.

“The reports circulating in the media about the alleged advancement of Israeli tanks towards Damascus are false. IDF troops are stationed within the buffer zone, as stated in the past,” the official said.

Bashar Barhoum, 63, was one of the tens of thousands of prisoners freed from Bashar al-Assad’s prisons in Syria, as civil defence teams investigate underground cells to free more detainees.

But he quickly realised they were seeking to free him and were not Assad’s notorious security forces.

Rebels broke into prisons and security facilities to free political prisoners – and people who disappeared – in the years since civil war erupted in 2011, as they swept across Syria in a lightning offensive that ended fifty years of Assad family rule.

Steffie Banatvala reports:

The Israeli military has denied that their incursion into Syria has reached 25 kilometres from Damascus, after Syrian sources said it had penetrated territory beyond the demilitarised buffer zone in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

A spokesperson for the military said: “It’s not true, the forces have not left the buffer zone.”

German chancellor Olaf Scholz and French president Emmannuel Macron are prepared to work with the Syrian rebels who deposed president Bashar al-Assad, according to a German government statement following a phone call between the leaders.

“(Scholz and Macron) agreed that they were prepared to work together with the new rulers on the basis of fundamental human rights and the protection of ethnic and religious minorities,” the German government statement, published late on Monday, read.

They welcomed the departure of Assad, who they said had caused “terrible suffering to the Syrian people and great damage to his country”.

The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the Islamic Republic has not been weakened after the fall of ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria, according to Iranian media.

“We have not been weakened and Iran’s power has not diminished,” Hossein Salami told members of parliament in a closed session.

Iran was one of the powers propping up Assad’s rule after a civil war sparked in 2011. Tehran’s Revolutionary Guards were sent to Syria to help Assad secure his dictatorship and allow Iran to maintain its ‘Axis of Resistance’.

Assad’s exit has come as a blow to Tehran as it seeks to sustain a network of militias across the region.

The Syrian rebel coalition led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) said it will release a list of senior officials involved in torture.

The HTS said it will not hesitate to hold security and army officers involved in torturing the Syrian people accountable, describing them as criminals and murderers.

“We will release a list that includes the names of the most senior officials involved in the torturing of the Syrian people,” said top rebel commander Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani.

“Rewards will be offered to those who will provide information about senior army and security officers involved in war crime.”

Former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger joked that Tulsi Gabbard could offer ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad “safe harbor” in her home.

Kinzinger, who made the jibe the day before Assad’s regime fell, has been outspoken about Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence following a 2017 visit to Syria, where she met with the tyrant when she was a Democratic House member.

“Wonder if @TulsiGabbard will offer Assad safe harbor at her house?” the former Illinois representative quipped on X. “They are great friends.”

An Israeli military incursion into southern Syria has reached about 25km southwest of the capital Damascus, Reuters reported citing two regional security sources.

The Syrian security source said Israeli troops reached Qatana, which is 10km into Syrian territory east of a demilitarised zone separating Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria.

The Israeli troops have allegedly carried out more than 100 airstrikes on military sites across Syria since the fall of the Assad regime, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based human rights organisation, said.

Israel has not put a number on these airstrikes, but told the UN Security Council that they would be “limited and temporary”.