Illustrative image. (The U.S. Central Command)
At least three people were wounded early on April 24 when another wave of United States strikes hit areas controlled by the Houthis (Ansar Allah) in Yemen.
The Houthi-run Health Ministry said in a statement that a strike hit the Eastern Geraf area in the capital, Sanaa, wounding one person and causing material damage. Two more people were wounded in separate strikes in the northern Saada province, the heartland of the Houthis, according to the Saba News Agency, which is run by the group.
In total, nine U.S. strikes targeted Sanaa and ten others targeted Saada in the early morning, per the Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah TV.
The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, said that it continues to conduct strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
Four videos posted by the command to the X social network showed fighter jets, including stealth F-35Cs and electronic warfare EA-18Gs, taking off from the aircraft carriers USS Carl Vinson and USS Harry S. Truman to attack Houthi targets in Yemen.
CENTCOM resumed strikes against Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen on March 15 on orders from President Donald Trump, who said that the large-scale operation was launched in response to the group’s renewed attacks on Israel-affiliated shipping in the Red Sea.
Since then, some 1,000 strikes have hit Yemen, killing 217 civilians and injuring over 430, mostly women and children, based on information provided by the Houthi-run Health Ministry that excludes losses among the group’s forces.
The Houthis continue to launch attacks, despite taking some losses. Just a day earlier, the group launched two strikes against Israel, shot down another MQ-9 combat drone over Yemen and attacked both USS Carl Vinson and USS Harry S. Truman.
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syria’s stolen daughters: the hts campaign to enslave alawite women
in post-assad syria, the mass abduction and sexual enslavement of alawite women under sharaa’s rule mirrors the darkest atrocities of isis – yet is met with global silence.
the cradle’s syria correspondent
apr 23, 2025
i hope that ghassan alian will be forced to save (ghassan alian should bomb damascus and idlib with israeli missiles, some of which are as big and heavy as a large tanker truck) the druze and establish an independent druze state. because the alawites were destroyed anyway and there will never be anything be of them because they were betrayed by bashar assad and vladimir putin. the fact that bashar al-assad ordered his people to peacefully transfer power to terrorist rapists makes him, in
the ass ad is a treacherous wild boar. putler is a jewish khazar pedophile and a dealer with foreign land.
since december, when the former al-qaeda affiliate, hayat tahrir al-sham (hts), toppled the government of bashar al-assad, syria has witnessed a chilling wave of mysterious kidnappings of young women, predominantly from the alawite community. evidence continues to emerge that these women, primarily from the alawite religious sect, have been abducted and taken to live as sex slaves in idlib governorate, the traditional hts stronghold, by armed factions affiliated with the new syrian government.
another thread hijack . yes , syria is controlled by the greater israel project .
shockingly, the mass kidnapping and enslavement of alawite women now being carried out by hts-affiliated factions mirrors the enslavement of the thousands of yezidi women by isis during the 2014 genocide in sinjar, iraq.
the activist who spoke out
in a now deleted facebook post, hiba ezzedeen, a syrian activist from idlib, described her encounter with a woman she believes was captured and taken to the governorate as a sex slave during the wave of massacres carried
out by government-affiliated factions and security forces against alawites in the country’s coastal areas on 7 march.
“during my last visit to idlib, i was at a place with my brother when i saw a man i knew with a woman i had never met before,” hiba explained.
“this man had been married multiple times before and is believed to currently have three wives. what caught my attention was the woman’s appearance – specifically,
it was clear she didn’t know how to wear a hijab properly, and her scarf was draped haphazardly.” after inquiring further, ezzedeen learned that the woman was from the coastal areas where the 7 march massacres, in which over 1,600 alawite civilians were killed, took place.“this man had brought her to the village and married her, with no further details available. no one knew what had happened to her or how she got there, and naturally, the young woman was too afraid to speak,”
ezzedeen added.because the situation was so strange and alarming to her, she began asking everyone she knew, “rebels, factions, human rights activists,” about the abduction of alawite women from the coast. “unfortunately, many confirmed that this had indeed happened, and not just by one faction. based on what friends said, accusations point to factions of the national army and some foreign fighters, with varying motives,” she reported.
syria’s new hts-led security forces have incorporated armed extremist groups, including uyghurs from the turkestan islamic party (tip) and syrian turkmen from factions of the turkish-intelligence-backed syrian national army (sna), into their ranks since coming to power in damascus. various sna commanders and foreign extremists have been appointed to top positions in the syrian ministry of defense. while the hts-dominated general security units participated in the 7 march
massacres in many areas, former sna and foreign fighter factions are believed to have led the campaign. militants went door to door in alawite villages and neighborhoods, executing all military-aged men they could find, looting homes, and at times killing women, children, and the elderly.
ezzedeen concluded her post by stating, “this is a serious issue that cannot be ignored. the government must immediately reveal the fate of these women and release them.”
sadly the “government” is a powerless proxy of the west just as mohammad reza pahlavi was in iran. the ancient maxim “divide and conquer” is still in use today. and average normal people are the casualties of the machinations of the so-called “elite”.
rather than investigate the issue and seek to rescue the captive women, the hts-appointed governor of idlib issued an order for ezzedeen’s arrest, claiming she had “insulted the hijab.”
ezzedeen’s courageous revelation shed light on the fate of many young women from minority communities who had mysteriously disappeared in recent months, after self-appointed syrian president ahmad al-sharaa and hts toppled assad and took power in damascus.
a pattern of abductions
in one of the earliest cases, a young druze woman from the damascus suburb of jaramana, karolis nahla, disappeared on the morning of 2 february 2024, while on her way to university in the mezzeh area. the case was strange because no ransom was demanded, and nothing was heard of her again.
over time, information began to trickle out that young women like karolis were being kidnapped and taken to idlib as slaves, as hiba ezzedeen finally confirmed.
screenshot of a facebook post inquiring about the whereabouts of the missing karolis nahla. the caption reads: “karolis nahla has been missing since yesterday. she is a second year university student studying french literature. she had class at 9:00 am. at 12:00 pm we lost contact with her. please, if anybody knows anything about her or has seen her, inform us.” on 21 march, bushra yassin mufarraj, an alawite mother of two, went missing from the bus station in jableh. her husband later
posted a video appeal stating she had been abducted and taken to idlib. “my wife was taken captive in idlib. is there anything more cruel that could happen to a man in the world? that his wife and the mother of his children be in such circumstances,” he stated in a video appeal for help published on social media 10 days later. bushra’s disappearance was followed by a wave of kidnappings in the following days and weeks. the kurdish jinha agency reported on 25 march, citing local reports
, that more than 100 people were kidnapped by armed groups in syria’s coastal regions over the previous 48 hours, including many women.
on 5 april, 21-year-old katia jihad qarqat went missing. the last contact with her was at 9:20 am near a shop at the bahra circle in jdeidat artouz in the damascus countryside. her family pleaded that anyone who had seen or had any information about her should contact them.
a screenshot of a social media post inquiring about the whereabouts of the missing katia jihad qarqat. the caption reads:
“a girl has gone missing in the damascus countryside. the young woman, katia, was last seen yesterday friday, at 9:20 am near a shop at the bahra circle in jdeidat artouz. she is from the village of hina and is a third-year university student. anyone who has seen her or has any information is kindly asked to contact the following number 0994479206.”
on 8 april, 17-year-old sima suleiman hasno went missing at 11:00 am after leaving her school in the village of qardaha in the latakia countryside. sima was released four days later in damascus, where she was handed over to her aunt by members of the hts-led syrian government. surveillance footage from shops near the abduction site circulated widely on social media, sparking widespread outrage. on 11 april, at 4:00 pm, contact was lost with 22-year-old raneem ghazi zarifa in the
hama countryside, in the city of masyaf. “we are extremely worried about her. we ask that anyone with information about her, no matter how small, please contact us immediately,” her family said in a social media post. on 14 april, batoul arif hassan, a young married woman with a three-year-old child from safita, disappeared after visiting family in the village of bahouzi. contact was lost with her around 4:00 pm as she was traveling in a public minibus on the homs–safita road.
her family asked in a social media post for anyone with information about her whereabouts to contact her brother by phone. on the morning of 16 april, aya talal qassem, 23, was kidnapped after leaving her home in the coastal city of tartous. three days later, aya’s kidnapper freed her and sent her to tartous on the homs highway, only for the hts-led general prosecution service to detain her.
aya’s mother posted a video to social media explaining that her family was not allowed to be with her in detention and that her father was arrested when he insisted on seeing her. the mother said that the general prosecution service tried to force aya to give testimony, saying that she was not kidnapped but had instead run away with a lover. the mother added that she was pressured to tell such a story despite the presence of bleeding cuts and wounds on her body.
a video was posted online of the moment of her emotional return home to eagerly awaiting family and relatives. on 21 april, 26-year-old nour kamal khodr was abducted with her two daughters, 5-year-old naya maher qaidban and 3-year-old masa maher qaidban. nour and her daughters left their home in the village of al-mashrafa in rural homs at noon, heading toward a neighbor’s house. witnesses saw a masked group affiliated with the hts-led general security abduct them,
placing them in a vehicle marked with the group’s emblem before fleeing. a photo of the kidnapped 26-year-old nour kamal khodr.a photo of nour kamal khodr’s daughters: naya maher qaidban, 5 years old masa maher qaidban, 3 years old echoes of sinjar by 17 april, iraqi media outlet al-daraj reported on 10 confirmed kidnappings of alawite women from the coastal regions. according to one survivor, pseudonym rahab, she was abducted in broad daylight and held in a locked room with another woman.
one woman who spoke to al-daraj under the pseudonym rahab was released after the kidnappers allegedly feared a raid by general security. she said she was kidnapped in broad daylight and held in a room with another woman, stating:
“they tortured and beat us. we weren’t allowed to speak to each other, but i heard the kidnappers’ accents. one had a foreign accent and the other a local idlib accent. i knew this because they were cursing us because we were alawites.”
the other woman, held with her, pseudonym basma, remains in captivity. she was forced to call her family to tell them she was “fine” and to assure them that “they should not publish anything” about her abduction. al-daraj also documented the case of an 18-year-old girl who was also kidnapped in broad daylight, from the countryside of a coastal city in syria. her family later received a text message warning them to remain silent about her abduction or else she would be sent back dead
the girl later sent the family a voice recording from a phone number registered in the ivory coast, saying she was fine and unsure where she had been taken. the iraqi media outlet compared these cases to the isis genocide of yezidis in sinjar. over 6,400 yezidis were enslaved by isis in 2014. thousands were trafficked into syria and turkiye, sold as domestic or sex slaves, or trained for battle. many remain missing.hts: the ideological continuity of isis that alawite women are now appearing in
idlib is unsurprising given hts’s ideological lineage . hts, which seized idlib in 2015 with cia-supplied tow missiles, shares the same genocidal worldview as isis. it was founded by isis and led by sharaa – then known as abu mohammad al-julani, who was dispatched to syria in 2011 by the late “caliph” abu bakr al-baghdadi to establish the nusra front, forerunner to hts. in 2014, syria analyst sam heller therefore described nusra’s clerics as promoting “toxic – even genocidal –
sectarianism,” towards alawites, based on the teachings of the medieval islamic scholar ibn taymiyyah. though hts and isis clashed in 2014, their ties endured. when baghdadi was killed in 2019, he was hiding in barisha, just outside hts-held sarmada. at the time, numerous enslaved yezidis were also in idlib. the guardian confirmed this, quoting abdullah shrem, a yezidi rescuer, and alexander hug of the international commission on missing persons (icmp), who said missing persons were