• US officials are scrambling to prevent ISIS from regrouping in Syria, as dozens of competing factions vie for control in different parts of the country.
• Israel said it struck Syria nearly 500 times in two days, hitting most of the country’s strategic weapons stockpiles and destroying its navy fleet. The bombings were intended to prevent the stockpiles from falling “into the hands of extremists,” an Israeli official said.
• Separately, Turkish state media said a Turkish drone destroyed military equipment in northern Syria that had been seized by a Kurdish group.
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Rebel group appoints caretaker prime minister. Here's what is happening now in Syria
From CNN's Elise Hammond
Musicians play on top of a destroyed tank in Umayyad Square in Damascus, Syria, on December 11.
Chris McGrath/Getty Images
A caretaker prime minister linked to the rebel group that toppled longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria has been appointed to oversee the transition of power.
Meantime, the country’s Baath Party, which had been led by Assad’s family for decades, is suspending its work and activities until further notice, according to a statement. Assad fled the country following a lightning offensive by rebel forces.
Here are some of the top headlines:
Rebel group leader: Mohammad al-Jolani, who is head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the main group in the coalition that overthrew the regime, said rebels will not pardon those involved in torturing prisoners under the Assad regime. He also said his team is working with international organizations to secure possible chemical weapons sites, according to a statement shared with Reuters.
Turkey and Israel strikes: Turkish state media said a drone destroyed military equipment in northern Syria that had been seized by a Kurdish group, while Israel said it struck Syria nearly 500 times in just two days, hitting most of the country’s strategic weapons stockpiles. It also confiscated several Syrian tanks along the buffer zone that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria. Israeli strikes were intended to preventing military assets from falling into an adversary’s hands.
Reaper drone shot down: An American MQ-9 Reaper drone was accidentally shot down over northern Syria on Monday by the US’ main partners in the country, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, officials said. A US Defense Department said “the incident was a result of friendly fire” and its partners misidentified the drone.
Videos links Assad regime to drug trafficking: Social media video surfaced Wednesday allegedly showing a warehouse in Syriastacked with captagon, an illicit drug that had transformed the country into a narco-state under Assad’s rule. Captagon has become a significant social problem in neighboring Arab nations and spurred some of them to engage in talks with the former Syrian regime to curb its trafficking.
In northeast Syria: Tens of thousands of people who fled to Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria for safety are facing “dire conditions” due to a lack of shelter and basic necessities, Human Rights Watch said. One Yazidi woman told the organization that she witnessed “two pregnant women give birth without any medical care.”
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Displaced civilians in northeast Syria face "dire conditions," Human Rights Watch says
From CNN's Michael Rios
Tens of thousands of people who fled to Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria for safety are facing “dire conditions” due to a lack of shelter and basic necessities, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Wednesday.
The organization said reception centers for displaced people have reached full capacity in Tabqa and Raqqa, and that authorities are now establishing more centers in Kobani, al-Hasakah and Qamishli.
Thousands have fled to the north since November 27, when a rebel coalition began a sweeping assault on territories held by the regime of Bashar al-Assad that led to the fall of the capital, Damascus, over the weekend.
A Yazidi woman told HRW local authorities in Tabqa were overwhelmed by the scale of displacement.
A Kurdish man who sought refuge at a Tabqa school with his family said they received food and mattresses, but other families “remained without proper shelter, resorting to the streets for accommodation.”
Several people interviewed by HRW also expressed fear of the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) rebel group and the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), who seized territory from the toppled Syrian government.
The pro-Turkish factions involved in the fighting in the north are part of the coalition that began a rebel offensive against the Assad regime late last month. Since then, clashes have broken out with Kurdish groups in the parts of northern Syria that have been under Kurdish control for much of the last decade.
“The dire situation of displaced people in northeastern Syria won’t solve itself,” said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Donors, humanitarian agencies, and the United Nations should center their response around a rights-based approach to alleviate people’s needs.”
