Latest Syria developments: Govt asks UN to compel Israel to withdraw

Syria’s interim government is calling on the U.N. Security Council to take action to compel Israel to immediately stop its attacks on Syrian territory and withdraw from areas it has penetrated in the north in violation of a 1974 Disengagement Agreement.

In identical letters to the council and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres obtained Friday by The Associated Press, Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Koussay Aldahhak said he was acting “on instructions from my government” in making the demands. It appeared to be the first letter to the U.N. from Syria’s new interim government.

The letters are dated Dec. 9, days after rebels ousted president Bashar Assad and ended his family’s more than 50-year authoritarian rule of Syria.

“At a time when the Syrian Arab Republic is witnessing a new phase in its history in which its people aspire to establish a state of freedom, equality and the rule of law and to achieve their hopes for prosperity and stability, the Israeli occupation army has penetrated additional areas of Syrian territory in Mount Hermon and Quneitra Governorate,” ambassador Aldahhak wrote.

Israel still controls the Golan Heights that it captured from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war. The Disengagement Agreement ending the 1973 war between Israel and Syria established a demilitarized buffer zone between the two countries, monitored by a U.N. peacekeeping force known as UNDOF.

In a letter to the Security Council circulated Friday which was also written on Dec. 9, Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said his country had taken “limited and temporary measures,” deploying troops temporarily in the separation area “to prevent armed groups from threatening Israeli territory.”

Turkey says its ‘strategic goal’ in Syria is to eliminate a US-backed Kurdish militia

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Friday that eliminating a U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia is his country’s “strategic goal,” and called on members of the group to leave Syria or lay down arms.

In an interview with Turkey’s NTV television, Fidan also suggested that Syria’s new rulers — the rebels who swept into Damascus and who are backed by Ankara — would not recognize the militia, known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG.

The group is allied with the United States in the fight against the Islamic State group but Turkey views it as a terrorist organization and a security threat.

“The non-Syrian YPG members must leave the country as soon as possible. The entire command level of the YPG must also leave the country,” Fidan said. “After that, those who remain must put down their weapons and continue with their lives.”

Fidan said that as the Syrian insurgents advanced toward Damascus and Syria's Bashar Assad was toppled, Turkey in talks that were underway in Qatar at the time asked Iran and Russia not to intervene militarily.

“At some point they (Russians and Iranians) made phone calls. That evening, Assad left,” Fidan said.

Israeli warplanes bomb several sites in Syria

Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes on Friday against sites in several cities in Syria, an opposition war monitor reported.

Associated Press journalists heard loud explosions throughout the Syrian capital Damascus. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The strikes hit the summit of Mount Qasioun in Damascus, Khalkhala Airport in the countryside of Sweida and the Defense and Research Laboratories in Masyaf, located in the western countryside of Hama, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

Earlier on Friday, Israeli strikes targeted six military sites in the countryside of Damascus and Sweida, the observatory said.

Israel has conducted hundreds of airstrikes since the toppling of the Syrian regime, saying it seeks to neutralize potential threats following the ouster of Bashar Assad. The strikes have targeted weapons production sites, anti-aircraft batteries and airfields.

Israel has also moved troops to occupy a buffer zone in the Golan Heights on its border with Syria.

Russian military seen pulling out of southern Syria

Russian forces and military vehicles were seen withdrawing from southern Syria on Friday toward their primary base in in the coastal city of Latakia.

The Russian troop movement comes amid questions about whether Moscow will still be able to project power in the Middle East after the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad. His rule was supported by Russia and he received asylum in Russia after being toppled Sunday.

There are also questions about what a Russian pullback in Syria could mean for the war in Ukraine.

Significant Russian military convoys were seen on the Damascus-Homs highway near Shinshar village heading north. The military vehicles, bearing Russian flags, included tanks and armored personnel carriers. The military equipment had been previously stationed in southern regions such as Daraa and Damascus.

On Thursday, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Russian forces were leaving bases in Ain Issa and Tel Al-Samn in the Al-Raqqah countryside.

Satellite images released by Maxar Technologies on Friday show what appear to be cargo planes at a Russian military airfield in Syria with their nose cones opened to receive heavy equipment, along with helicopters being dismantled and prepared for transport.

Earlier this week, all Russian naval ships departed the Syrian port of Tartus, according to a U.S. official.