By Eric Vandenbroeck and co-workers

Images of Current Developments in Syria

Russia is dismantling equipment at an air base in Syria and loading it into cargo planes after the ouster of longtime Moscow client Bashar al-Assad, images show.

Captured by Maxar on Friday morning, the images reveal two An-124 cargo planes at Russia’s Hmeimim airfield with their nose cones opened to receive equipment, the commercial firm said.

Nearby, a Ka-52 attack helicopter and a S-400 air defense unit were being dismantled, most likely for their removal via the cargo planes, Maxar said.

Above, a satellite image taken Friday December 13. show a Ka-52 attack helicopter being dismantled at the Hmeimim airfield in Syria.

Underneath: Parts of an S-400 air defense system being dismantled and prepared for transport at Hmeimim.

Russia used the base 15 miles south of Latakia to support the Assad regime in Syria’s 13-year civil war. The United States backed some forces against the regime.

Meanwhile, Jordan is hosting eight Arab foreign ministers today Saturday, December 14, along with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, to discuss Syria’s political transition.

The gathering in the coastal city of Aqaba comes as the fast-moving situation in Syria is stirring anxiety among the country’s neighbors. Leaders in the region are concerned that the overthrow of dictator Bashar al-Assad will trigger unrest in their countries and that the political vacuum could plunge Syria into chaos.

Also, an American citizen jailed in Syria was handed to the U.S. government and taken to Jordan on Friday, U.S. and Syrian officials said, after he was freed during the chaotic collapse of the Assad regime.

Travis Timmerman was found on the outskirts of Damascus on Thursday after a seven-month detention in a prison controlled by the government of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose flight from Syria this month marked a dramatic end to his family’s decades of authoritarian rule.

American citizen Travis Timmerman, center, is seen Friday upon his arrival at a U.S. military garrison in southeast Syria.

Yesterday, Friday, the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is leading an interim governing structure after its successful military charge on Damascus, said they handed Timmerman to a U.S. military garrison in southeastern Syria.

A U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said Timmerman was transferred to the U.S. military and taken by military aircraft to Jordan.

Foreign US Secretary Antony Blinken will arrive at the meeting after a lightning tour of the region that began in the wake of the sudden collapse of the Assad regime last week. The United States has repeatedly called for the new government in Syria to be inclusive and protective of minorities and women.

Turkey, which backed the rebel group that led Assad’s ouster and now stands to carry outsize influence over Syria’s political transition, has largely agreed with Washington’s stance. But it has expressed reservations about Israel’s recent military attacks in Syria and concern about the Syrian Democratic Forces, a U.S.-backed group of Kurdish-led militant groups, due to their links to Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which Turkey views as a terrorist organization.

• The “moment is ripe” for a ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of hostages, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in an interview Friday with Israel’s Channel 13. He argued that Hamas began “getting much more serious” about negotiations after a ceasefire came into effect in Lebanon in late November, and said the militant group had also seen the fall of Assad and Iran “weakened and distracted.”
• A Dutch court rejected a request from 10 pro-Palestinian groups to halt the Dutch government’s export of military goods to Israel. The court said the government “in principle has assessment and policy leeway.”

·         The European Commission, the European Union’s executive branch, said Friday it would transport close to 100 metric tons of humanitarian aid supplies to Syria and mobilize about $4.2 million “to ensure critical aid is provided swiftly.”

 

 

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