Current events: 2024-12-19

[Wikipedia Current Events]

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian civil war
  • Operation Dawn of Freedom, Turkish involvement in the Syrian civil war
    • 2024 Kobani clashes
      • U.S.-backed SDF militias vow to fight Turkey and the pro-Turkish rebel groups in Kobani. (Reuters)
  • 2024 Syrian opposition offensives
    • Ahmed al-Sharaa, the emir of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), makes an announcement claiming that the country is exhausted by perpetual warfare and is not a threat to its neighbors or to the Western world. (BBC)
    • Forces of the Military Operations Command (HTS) take control of the towns of Maadan, Al-Bohamad, Zour Shamar, Al-Maghllah and Al-Khemaysiyah in Raqqah Governorate. (SOHR)
    • Iraq announces the repatriation of members of the Syrian Army who fled after the fall of the Assad regime, stationed in Anbar, back to Syria. (Al Arabiya News)
  • Prosecution of Syrian civil war criminals
    • The Syrian Interim Government prepares the lists of names of those involved in war crimes, torture and murder from the former regime. (The Jerusalem Post)
  • Russian intervention in the Syrian civil war
    • Satellite imagery reveals Russian forces mobilizing heavy planes at Khmeimim Air Base and ships at Tartus naval base, signalling a potential withdrawal. (BBC)
    • Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, the Prime Minister of the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity of Libya, denounces the entry into the eastern part of the country of Russian forces coming from Syria. (The Libya Observer)
    • Russian president Vladimir Putin says that his country helped evacuate 4,000 Iranian fighters from Syria. (Anadolu)
• Red Sea crisis
  • December 2024 Israeli airstrikes in Yemen
    • Israel carries out a series of airstrikes against the Houthis in western Yemen, hitting the Ras Isa oil facility, the port of as-Salif and some power stations. At least nine people are killed. (Al Jazeera)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • Military aids during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, United Kingdom and the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    • British Defence Secretary John Healey announces a proposal to send British military advisors to train Ukrainian forces. (BBC)
• 2024 Parliament of Abkhazia shooting
  • A lawmaker is killed and another is injured during a shooting inside the Parliament of Abkhazia. The perpetrator, identified as Sukhumi's mayor Adgur Kharazia, has escaped from the scene. (Al Jazeera)

Business and economy

• Syria's largest oil refinery halts operations due to the cessation of crude oil shipments from Iran, which previously accounted for the majority of its supply, according to its general manager. (Financial Times)

Disasters and accidents

• 2024–25 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season
  • The death toll in Mozambique from Cyclone Chido increase to 73 people, sixty-six of whom in Cabo Delgado Province. (Al Jazeera)

• France's Directorate-General for External Security reports that four French nationals detained in Burkina Faso on allegations of being foreign intelligence agents have been released following mediation by Morocco. (Barron's)

Law and crime

• 2024 Northeastern United States drone sightings
  • The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration bans all drones over multiple cities across New Jersey citing "special security reasons". (6ABC)
• Mazan rapes
  • The Judicial Court in Avignon, France, finds Dominique Pelicot guilty of the aggravated rape of his ex-wife Gisèle Pelicot, and imposes the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The 50 other defendants in the case are also convicted of crimes ranging from attempted rape to aggravated rape, and receive prison sentences ranging from three to 15 years. (Reuters)
• A Malaysian high court acquits Rosmah Mansor, the wife of former Prime Minister Najib Razak, of 12 money laundering and five tax evasion charges due to insufficient evidence. (Reuters)

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