The Times of Israel is liveblogging Friday’s events as they happen.
Pentagon says number of US troops in Syria more than doubled prior to Assad’s fall
WASHINGTON — The United States has more than doubled the number of its forces in Syria to fight the Islamic State group — a dramatic increase that the Pentagon reveals, acknowledging that the added troops have been there for months or even more than a year.
The US had said for years that there were about 900 troops in Syria, but Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, acknowledges there are roughly 2,000 there now.
The Pentagon was asked repeatedly about the US presence in Syria in the wake of the chaotic overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad on December 8. It did not disclose the increase and instead kept repeating the 900 figure.
Speaking at a Pentagon press conference, Ryder says the additional forces have been in Syria “at a minimum months — it’s been going on for awhile.” He says he only just learned the new number and that the increase is not related to the ouster of Assad or any hike in attacks either by or against IS.
Pentagon officials say they are working to nail down the timing of the increase and what exactly the additional forces were doing.
Ryder blamed the secrecy on “diplomatic considerations” and sensitivities, but declines to be more specific. There has long been friction between the US and Syria’s neighbors — Turkey and Iraq — about the ongoing presence of American forces in Syria and the need to keep them at a particular level.
And Ryder says he is “not tracking” any additional adjustments to the force numbers in the future. That could change, however, as President-elect Donald Trump has said he does not support US forces getting more involved in Syria.
FBI charges man with attempted mass casualty attack against Israeli consulate in New York
NEW YORK — The FBI has arrested a suspect for an attempted mass casualty terror attack against the Israeli consulate in New York City, according to the consulate.
The suspect, Abdullah Ezzeldin Taha Mohamed Hassan, was an Egyptian national living in Falls Church, Virginia, who instructed an FBI informant to carry out the attack, according to a criminal complaint filed on Monday.
Hassan ran several social media accounts that supported ISIS, al-Qaeda and Hamas, and advocated for violence against Jews, the FBI says in the complaint filed in a federal court in Virginia.
Local police located Hassan after receiving a tip about one of his accounts on X. An undercover FBI asset then connected with Hassan on social media and secure messaging apps, in conversations that took place last month and this month.
Hassan instructed the informant on how to join ISIS and shared jihadist propaganda, including a video that advocated for killing Jews. He also encouraged the informant to carry out an attack, sending him instructions on how to create a “martyrdom video,” the complaint says.
The suspect sent the informant bomb-making instructions and told the informant, who said he was in New York, to target a building representing Jews, later settling on the Israeli consulate.
Ofir Akunis, Israeli’s consul-general in New York, thanks US security services for thwarting the attempted attack.
“This attempted attack by terror organizations is an attack on the sovereign soil of the State of Israel in its entirety,” Akunis says in a statement to The Times of Israel.
“It’s proof that terror knows no boundaries and that we must fight it everywhere and every time.”
Report: US State Department’s top diplomat for the Middle East to travel to Damascus in coming days
The US State Department’s top diplomat for the Middle East, Barbara Leaf, will travel to the Syrian capital Damascus in the coming days, the Axios news site reports.
The State Department does not immediately respond to a request for confirmation.
Washington still designates as a terrorist organization the Sunni Muslim group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which led the rebel forces that ended 50 years of brutal dynastic rule by Assad earlier this month.