According to local authorities, a passenger bus plunged into a ravine on the Inter-American Highway killing at least 15 people and injuring 19 others.
According to Leandro Amado, a spokesperson for local firefighters, there were 11 men, three women, and a minor among the deaths.
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On Saturday, Amado reported to reporters that 19 injured people had been transported to nearby hospitals.
Between the kilometres 172 and 174 of the Solola Department’s (western Guatemala) “Alaska Peak” is a name for the rugged terrain it occupies in the region of Totonicapan.
Driving along the route in question is frequently impeded by the dense fog there.
“Unknown Reason”
Amado added that the bus, which was traveling between Guatemala City and the border with Mexico’s department of San Marcos, fell into a ravine that was nearly 75 meters (250 feet) deep for unknown reasons.
The wrecked bus was seen in the ravine as firefighters arrived on the scene to help the injured and recover the victims’ bodies, according to images released by the fire department on social media early on Saturday.
According to local media reports, relatives of the passengers were dispatched to the scene of the accident as well as to nearby hospitals looking for their loved ones.
An investigation into the crash of a private jet that killed Libya’s army chief Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad and seven other people was being investigated in Istanbul, Turkiye, by Turkish authorities and Libyan officials.
According to officials, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office is focusing on technical evidence, flight recordings, crew work, and aircraft maintenance. BEA, France’s agency for civil aviation investigations, has announced its participation in the investigation.
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General al-Haddad met with defense minister Yasar Guler and his Turkish counterpart Selcuk Bayraktaroglu on Tuesday for talks.
The French-made Dassault Falcon 50, which was headed back to Libya at 2:17 p.m. on Tuesday, reported an electrical problem 16 minutes later and requested an immediate return.
At 2:41 p.m. (17:41 GMT), the aircraft was descending toward the runway and losing radar contact.
According to officials, the emergency alarm and the collision were only two minutes apart.
The numerous factors investigated
General al-Haddad and his military companions’ bodies were examined early on Saturday, and they were returned to Libya after a ceremony in their honor at an airbase outside of Ankara.
The crash’s location, which is located close to Kesikkavak village in Haymana district, is close to Ankara, which is located about 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of the city. According to authorities, all wreckage has been secured and transported for analysis, including the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, or “black boxes.”
Specialists are examining radar data, airport security camera footage, and air traffic control recordings as part of the prosecutor-led investigation.
Authorities are reviewing the crew’s rest times, medical histories, and records of meals or medications taken before the flight in addition to requests for communication logs between the pilots and the control tower.
Any potential technical gaps are also being looked into with maintenance logs and documentation related to the aircraft’s most recent checks.
To rule out contamination or improper fuel use, local weather data from the time of the crash have been requested, and fuel samples have been taken from both the wreckage and the airport tanks.
According to investigators, the inquiry could include manufacturers and maintenance contractors if there is any proof that a structural failure or design flaw exists.
International regulations and reporting dates
Given the number of parties involved, Gursel Tokmakoglu, former head of the Turkish air force’s intelligence agency, said the crash should be treated as an international incident.
“A foreign country-registered aircraft was issued by the Libyan government. Another nation produced the aircraft. The pilots were from abroad. He claimed that the crash took place in Turkiye and that the passengers were Libyan.
This is undoubtedly a multinational incident, according to experts from insurance companies and international aviation organizations.
Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu had previously stated that black boxes could be sent to a different country for further analysis, which raises some questions about why Turkiye or Libyan analysis couldn’t be conducted.
Tokmakoglu claimed Turkiye had the option of sending the black boxes abroad for analysis or to conduct an internal investigation.
He said, “Transferring the recorders can help ensure greater transparency and a clearer understanding of what happened, especially in a case involving so many international stakeholders.”
Tokmakoglu noted that the crew reported an electrical malfunction and the aircraft reported receiving the 7700 emergency “squawk” code, which indicates an emergency that warrants immediate attention.
However, he continued, it would be premature to assume that the aircraft’s crash was caused by an electrical malfunction.
He compared this situation to being admitted to intensive care for heart failure and later dying from a lung infection, saying that “in aviation, an electrical failure can trigger other problems.”
According to Guntay Simsek, an expert in the aviation industry, there are no conclusive theories as to whether the crash was caused by an explosion, adding that the technical investigation is still being conducted.
On the second day of a massive military operation ordered by Israel’s defense minister, Israeli forces made numerous arrests and forced dozens of families from their homes in the town of Qabatiya in the occupied West Bank.
Local sources told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces secluded the entrances to Qabatiya while questioning and arraigning dozens of residents on Saturday. According to the Palestinian Wafa news agency, they displaced their occupants by turning a number of homes into military interrogation centers.
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According to Israeli Army Radio, the town is “full curfew-free.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued an order to “act forcefully” against the village of Qabatiya, where he claims a Palestinian who is accused of waging a stabbing and car-ramming attack in northern Israel is alleged to have been.
Israel’s military said in a statement on Friday that it had sent troops from various divisions to Qabatiya, along with border patrol agents, and members of the Shin Bet security service. According to the statement, authorities had gone inside the suspect’s home and were preparing to destroy it.
Palestinians who are accused of attacking Israelis have long been condemned by human rights organizations for their ongoing use of demolition of their homes.
Israel’s military alleged that it would “work to arrest wanted individuals and locate weapons” and “scan additional locations in the village.”
One resident told Al Jazeera, “There is a sense of fear in the town.” Israeli threats and incitement are present.
According to Wafa, the Israeli military operations on Saturday extended to other areas of the occupied West Bank, including several villages close to Ramallah and Hebron. According to the news agency, Israeli forces attacked and detained eight people near Hebron in Dura, Abda, and Imreish.
During Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza, Israeli military incursions and attacks across the occupied West Bank have occurred almost daily.
Nearly 21, 000 Palestinians have been taken into custody by Israeli authorities as of October 7, 2023. More than a third of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons were unarmed as of December 1; approximately 9,300 were there.
A member of Syria’s own security forces ambushed a joint US-Syrian patrol on December 13 near Palmyra, a city in central Syria that was once under the control of the ISIL (ISIS) organization.
Before Syrian forces killed the shooter, two US soldiers and an interpreter were killed along with four other people.
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US and Syrian officials made a connection between the attacker and ISIL, which once held vast areas of Syria and Iraq, and made a promise to retaliate following the attack.
The incident highlights the US and Syria’s growing cooperation with ISIL, particularly since Damascus joined the US-backed coalition in November.
Analysts claim that the two nations’ cooperation is strong and expanding, though it’s still unclear whether the attacker was an ISIL member or a group opposed to US-Syrian relations.
According to Rob Geist Pinfold, a scholar of international security at King’s College London, “The Syrian government is responding very strongly to ISIL [Hayat Tahrir al-Sham] had a long-term policy of fighting ISIL,” referring to former Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s group.
This is more of a continuation of the strategy that it HTS used in Idlib to crack down on insurgents and cells.
Noureddine al-Baba, a spokesman for Syria’s interior ministry, claimed that the gunman was not a member of the force responsible for escorting the US forces and that there was no direct chain of command over him within Syria’s internal security forces. He continued, looking into whether he had any direct ties to ISIL or embraced violent ideology.
Down ISIL attacks
ISIL dissolved the former Syrian government’s city of Palmyra in May 2015.
The city bounced between regime forces and ISIL before being expelled in 2017. It is best known for its Greco-Roman ruins.
ISIL had declared Raqqa, the country’s capital, the three-year-old caliphate, the US-led coalition had also forced the organization to leave in May 2017.
In northeast Syria’s al-Hol and Roj camps, which are run by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), many of the ISIL fighters still alive were housed there. Other people have occasionally launched attacks from the Syrian desert around Palmyra.
Analysts claimed that ISIL fighters regrouped after the Syrian president’s regime was overthrown on December 8, 2024, and that they used the chaos to attack various cities across the nation. At least 25 people were killed when the group launched an attack on a church in Damascus in June.
According to recent estimates, ISIL’s fighter numbers in Iraq and Syria range between 3 000 and 5 000, according to Samy Akil, a fellow researcher at the Tahrir Institute.
However, experts told Al Jazeera that Damascus and Washington have improved over the past year, and that Syrian security forces have prevented several ISIL attacks thanks to US-provided intelligence.
In contrast to the Assad administration, al-Sharaa’s new government consistently receives tip-offs from US intelligence and probably other forms of US support, according to the new government. That combination is quite powerful, according to Aron Lund, a research fellow at Century International with a focus on Syria.
According to a report from consulting firm Karam Shaar Advisory, ISIL attacks have decreased in Syria as a result of this collaboration. According to the report, ISIL launched 63 attacks per month on average in 2024, but that figure dropped to ten in 2025.
Collaboration with the US has become much simpler since HTS arrived in Damascus, according to senior analyst Jerome Drevon of the International Crisis Group.
structural problems
There were concerns about how security would be enforced following the Assad regime’s fall. Security would not be enforced by the few thousand HTS members who had previously only been in charge of northwest Syria’s Idlib.
Tens of thousands of new recruits were recruited by Syria’s security forces as part of a significant recruitment campaign, adding to the number of former opposition battalions that had been incorporated into the new security apparatus of the state.
According to analysts, vetting was a challenging task given the size of the recruitment campaign.
“The Palmyra attack is more of a one-off incident than a one-time incident. Infiltration continues because of the integration of former faction fighters and the rapid growth of new recruits, Nanar Hawash, senior Syria analyst for the International Crisis Group, said.
These factors, together, “flood off early warning signs and open up space for unintended threats, thereby increasing the risk of repeated attacks.”
Analysts predict that the vetting process will get better with time thanks to Syrian security forces. In addition, another attack like the one on December 13 was possible, which could undermine the US’s belief that al-Sharaa’s government could provide security in Syria.
The government will “improve its game and be more thorough to prevent that from happening again,” Drevon said, “because it will have consequences.” “It could happen again due to the sheer numbers of new recruits.
“We should be cautious about generalizing based on one attack, which might be a one-off,” he warned. However, if it occurs again, it might alter how the Syrian government is perceived.
ISIL’s goals are unknown.
Analysts say that since al-Assad’s assassination, ISIL’s priorities have changed.
ISIL is currently attempting to establish boundaries and carry out attacks knowing it cannot gain territorial control, Akil said.
It “aims at staying relevant while destabilizing.”
ISIS cannot overthrow cities or overthrow governments. But that’s not required. Destabilization is what gives it its strength, Hawach said. According to the Palmyra attack, “a single operative with the right access can shake up bilateral relations and endanger three US personnel.”
According to analysts, ISIL could destabilize Syria by attacking state security forces, religious minorities, or any foreigner on Syrian soil, including US soldiers and humanitarian or UN workers, like it did in the June attack at the Damascus church. The SDF and Damascus could use their differences over how to integrate the former into the state’s security apparatus to fuel further development.
The SDF also oversees the northeast of Syria’s al-Hol and Roj prison camps, where many of ISIL’s most skilled fighters and leaders are incarcerated. This could prove to be ISIL’s main target in Syria.
Hawach claimed that “ISIL thrives in those vacuums.”
A year after Israel detained him without charges or trial, Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, 52, is still incarcerated in an Israeli prison.
His family and supporters are pressing for his release as his health worsens as a result of rumors about the inhumane conditions in which he is being held.
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Abu Safia, who is renowned for running Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, north of Gaza City, has become a key player in international discussions about the protection of medical personnel in armed conflicts.
Despite ongoing Israeli attacks on the hospital, he insisted on staying along with several members of the medical staff.
Finally, Israel forced everyone to leave the hospital and eventually encircled it. Since then, Abu Safia has been detained and the hospital has been shut down.
He was repeatedly mistreated while being transferred between Israeli prisons, moving from the notorious Sde Teiman holding facility to Ofer Prison.
Abu Safia is being held in violation of the “unlawful combatant” law, which allows detention without a typical criminal trial and prevents detainees from accessing the evidence against them.
The suffering of a family
Abu Safia is being held in a cruel manner and has lost more than a third of his weight, according to lawyers.
He also has heart problems, irregular heartbeats, high blood pressure, skin infections, and lacks specialized medical care, which worries his family.
His eldest son, Ilyas, 27, explained to Al Jazeera via Zoom that his father’s only “crime” was being a doctor, adding that his family had fled from Kazakhstan a month ago.
Despite having the opportunity to leave Gaza, especially considering Albina is a Kazakh citizen, Ilyas, his mother Albina, and four siblings remained with his father at Kamal Adwan despite the Israeli attacks.
Ibrahim, the 20-year-old Ilyas’ brother, was killed by Israel on October 26, 2024 while the hospital was shelled.
Ilyas claimed that “the entire medical staff cried in grief for]my father] and Ibrahim.
Dr. Abu Safia’s consumption
The hospital woke up to an Israeli-imposed tightening siege on dawn on December 27, 2024, using quadcopter drones and tanks.
Israeli tanks had been stationed in Kamal Adwan since mid-October 2024, gradually advancing closer, destroying infrastructure like water tanks, until that day, when they were so close that no one could leave.
[Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] Dr. Walid al-Badi remained with Abu Safia in Kamal Adwan until they were forced to leave.
According to Dr. Walid al-Badi, 29, who remained with Abu Safia until his arrest, and spoke to Al Jazeera at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on December 25 in the emergency reception corridor.
“Dr. Abu Safia asked us to remain calm, but the situation was extremely tense, loudspeakers were urging everyone to leave.” Then the loudspeakers demanded that Dr. Abu Safia enter the tank.
Abu Safia was given the order to enter an armored vehicle. The doctor returned with a sheet of instructions, dishevelled, dusty clothes, and a bruise under his chin, according to al-Badi.
He was informed that he had been assaulted by everyone who rushed to his aid.
According to al-Badi, “Israeli media showed a video where they claimed they treated him with respect, but they didn’t disclose how he was threatened and assaulted in the tank.”
The Israelis instructed Abu Safia to compile a list of all hospital employees, which he did and returned to the armored vehicle where he was told that only 20 of the staff could remain. The rest had to depart.
The Israelis allowed some ambulances to travel to the Indonesian Hospital [about 1 km away], while the medical teams then set off on foot, according to al-Badi, who accounts for the incident around 10 am.
However, the doctors and several patients remained besieged.
I told the doctor to leave, but I promised to stay until the doctor was done.
Dr. Mai Barhouma, the head of the intensive care unit, who spoke to Al Jazeera from the Baptist Hospital, was the only female physician still serving.
Despite being asked to do so by Abu Safia, Barhouma’s conscience prevented her from leaving because she had been working with critical patients who needed medical care and oxygen.
Drs. Barhouma and al-Badi claim that the Israeli army has repeatedly offered him a safe place to leave alone after repeatedly calling Abu Safia for new instructions.
He resisted and vowed to remain on his staff. Around 10 p.m., the quadcopters commanded everyone to line up and leave.
Israel shut off the electricity during this period by shelling and setting fire to the upper floors.
As Dr. Abu Safia led us out, al-Badi said, “We were heartbroken.” As Dr. Abu Safia left the hospital, he was crying and made an incredible effort to stay in.
According to those who spoke on the day, Israeli soldiers allegedly tortured and beat medical staff at al-Fakhoura School in Jabalia during interrogations.
Barhouma and an ICU patient travelled in an ambulance, but the school held the ambulance for hours.
[Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] Dr. Mai Barhouma, the hospital’s ICU director, steadfastly stayed with Dr. Abu Safia until the hospital’s evacuation.
The soldiers forced us to walk 2 km away from the hospital and bound our hands. Our morning departure colleagues were still being tortured, al-Badi said, adding that they arrived at midnight.
They told us to “strip down” our underwear, tied our hands, and began verbally and physically abusing us with rifle butts and boots.”
While Barhouma was in the ambulance with the critically ill patient, the doctors were interrogated and beat each other for hours while the cold kept coming.
“I started using a manual resuscitation pump because the oxygen ran out.” She said, “I was terrified that the patient would die because my hands swelled from pumping nonstop.”
She described hearing the male medics’ screams being tortured before being ordered by Israeli soldiers to leave the ambulance.
The soldier demanded my ID, had an eye exam, and then told me to leave. I refused, telling him that he had a critical patient who needed to be killed if I left them.
The Israelis eventually ordered the doctors to travel to western Gaza, including the ambulance carrying Barhouma, and took them on an alternative route westward.
However, there was no end to the relief. When an Israeli officer called to Abu Safia, they were only able to walk a short distance.
Our faces froze, al-Badi claimed. The doctor inquired as to what was wrong. We want you with us in Israel, the officers declared.
Al-Badi and a nurse tried to pull the doctor away, but he rebuked them and instructed them to continue walking.
As I watched the doctor being detained and wearing the white nylon detainees uniform, I was sobbing like a child was being separated from his father.
calls for his release
Abu Safia’s family is pressing for his immediate release through human rights and courts.
After numerous unsuccessful attempts with the prison administration, my father’s lawyers visited him seven times over the course of the past year. [Each visit was permitted] My father’s condition has significantly deteriorated over time, Ilyas reported to Al Jazeera.
Ilyas Abu Safia, the eldest son of Abu Safiya, speaks to Al Jazeera via Zoom from Kazakhstan about the most recent developments regarding his father’s case and detention conditions.
Before his arrest, he had injuries while he was in the hospital, and he has shrapnel in his foot. Additionally, he experiences severe psychological and physical abuse that is inappropriate for his generation. He also has other health issues.
In an area that Israel itself considered a “red zone” at the time, Israel is trying to criminalize my father’s work, his continued service to people, and his efforts to save the wounded and the sick.
The Israeli army’s plan to evict the north of its residents was a major challenge due to my father’s presence and steadfastness inside the hospital.
Ilyas is proud of his father.
“My father is a doctor who will serve as a shining example of medical ethics and bravery,” my father said.
I’m “proud beyond words,” and I’m hoping to see him leave prison in peace and safety.
Debris was burning, according to Wikipedia. Nigerians have spoken out about the US strikes on the town of Jabo, which President Donald Trump claims were aimed at ISIL.
