In the early years of Xi Jinping’s war on corruption, the Chinese leader consolidated control over the world’s largest military by taking down powerful generals from rival factions and replacing them with allies and proteges loyal to himself.

A decade on, having given the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) a structural overhaul and stacked its top ranks with his own men, the supreme leader is still knee-deep in his seemingly endless struggle against graft and disloyalty.

And, like many strongman leaders in history, he is increasingly turning against his own handpicked loyalists.

Late last month, Xi purged one of his closest proteges in the military – a decades-old associate entrusted with instilling political loyalty in the PLA and vetting senior promotions.

Adm. Miao Hua, who sits on the Central Military Commission (CMC), the top command body chaired by Xi, has been suspended under investigation for “serious violations of discipline,” the Defense Ministry announced, using a common euphemism for corruption and disloyalty.

As the head of the CMC’s political work department, which oversees political indoctrination and personnel appointments, Miao is the most senior scalp in Xi’s latest military purge. Since last summer, more than a dozen high-ranking figures in China’s defense establishment have been ousted, including the last two defense ministers promoted to the CMC by Xi.

But none of them boast the kind of long-standing relationship Miao shared with the top leader, dating back decades to Xi’s early political career in the coastal province of Fujian.

The probe into Miao opens a new front in a widening purge that has raised questions over Xi’s ability to end systematic corruption in the military and enhance its combat readiness at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions.

Over the past decade, Xi has overseen an ambitious transformation of the PLA into a “world class” fighting force that can rival the US military. A key goal of that modernization drive is to ensure China is ready to fight and win a war over Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island Beijing claims as its own.

But Miao’s downfall renews questions – raised during last summer’s purges – about how much confidence Xi has in his top generals who would be responsible for leading a war, said Joel Wuthnow, a senior research fellow at the Pentagon-funded National Defense University.

“If he fears that he has brought in people who are not unquestionably loyal to him or his agenda, that would be a huge problem.”

Experts say Xi’s purge of a longtime acolyte points to a familiar dilemma for autocrats, including his predecessor Mao Zedong: after eliminating political rivals, the supreme leader never stops looking for new threats to their absolute hold on power – including from their own close circle.

‘Obscene extent of corruption’

Miao’s history with Xi goes back three decades. The Fujian native served as a political officer in the former 31st Group Army from the 1980s to the early 2000s, when Xi was rising through the ranks as a local official to become the provincial governor of Fujian.

“According to credible sources, Xi regularly visited the 31st Group Army at the time” and is known to have had personal contacts with Miao, said James Char, a longtime PLA-watcher and research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

Miao’s military career took off soon after Xi came to power. In 2014, he received a major promotion to become the political commissar of the PLA Navy, making an unusual switch from a career in the Ground Force. Three years later, he was promoted again into the CMC, the apex of military power.

“We cannot find a more apodictic acolyte of Xi than Miao,” Char said. “If Miao is eventually indicted of graft, clearly Xi himself had not anticipated the obscene extent of corruption that exists among PLA elites.”

For the past 18 months, Xi’s cleanup had largely targeted officials connected to the procurement of weapons and the Rocket Force, which oversees China’s nuclear and conventional missiles. But Miao’s downfall signals a broadening of that crackdown into new sectors, such as political work – which Xi has described as the “lifeline” of the military – and the Navy.

“Wherever they look, I’m sure they will find issues and cases. It’s just a matter of which sector they pick,” Char said.

‘Loss of confidence’

The Defense Ministry has offered no details about the allegations against Miao.

As the chief political commissar of the PLA, Miao is tasked with ensuring its loyalty to the ruling Communist Party. He oversees promotions in the military, vetting key candidates for their political loyalty – a role he also held in the Navy.

In the past, such roles have offered fertile ground for graft, especially bribes for promotions. Miao’s predecessor, Gen. Zhang Yang, killed himself while under disciplinary investigation for bribery.

As the geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China heats up, the PLA Navy has also seen a drastic increase in the procurement of warships and other weapons, providing ample opportunities for corruption, said Victor Shih, a political science professor at the University of San Diego.

But there could be another potential reason behind Miao’s downfall, Shih said, for “being too obvious in his attempt to foster a faction in the military.”

Xi has repeatedly warned against the forming of factions in both the party and the military. “Of course, the only person who is allowed to do that is Xi himself,” Shih added.

Miao is seen by some analysts as having recommended multiple associates in the Navy for promotions to key positions, including Rocket Force Commander Wang Houbin and Defense Minister Dong Jun.

The announcement of Miao’s investigation came a day after the Financial Times reported that Dong had been placed under investigation for corruption, citing current and former US officials. The Defense Ministry dismissed the report as “sheer fabrication,” and days later, Dong made a public appearance at a security forum.

Wuthnow, the expert at the National Defense University, said what led to Miao’s downfall was a “loss of confidence,” but the reasons for that remain elusive.

In one scenario, Wuthnow said, Xi might have viewed Miao as becoming too powerful and independent, and wanted to uproot what he saw as a bastion of influence that he could not fully control.

“I don’t think this is how leaders who are confident in their own power and ability to corral the bureaucracy behaves. It actually strikes me as a sign of weakness, if not paranoia, that he feels he needs to constantly overturn the apple cart,” he said.

‘This happens over and over again’

Miao’s downfall comes less than a year after former defense minister Li Shangfu was removed from the CMC.

The powerful body had six members – all deemed as Xi’s loyalists – serving under the top leader when he began his unprecedented third term two years ago. If Miao is also removed, it would leave two vacant seats.

Shih, the expert on Chinese elite politics, said many dictators, from former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to Mao, have eventually turned against their own proteges.

“Once all of their real competitors are gone, a dictator can never think to themselves: ‘Oh well, all the threats are gone. I can just relax.’ Because they always think that new threats could emerge, including from people who once were very close to them. This happens over and over again,” he said.

As a result, the dictator is always looking for increasingly subtle signs that someone is plotting against them, said Shih, the author of “Coalitions of the Weak,” which examines Mao’s hold on power in the late stage of his life.

During Mao’s last years, he turned against Lin Biao, his longtime protege, former defense minister and heir apparent, accusing him of plotting a coup.

“This kind of dynamic will become increasingly severe as Xi Jinping gets older, as his health is not as robust as previously. His sensitivity to signs of potential challenge to his power will also become keener over time,” Shih said.

For now, the top leader appears determined to carry on his crusade against corruption and disloyalty.

Earlier this month, Xi inspected the PLA’s Information Support Force with his four remaining loyalists on the CMC.

“We must ensure the troops remain absolutely loyal, absolutely pure and absolutely reliable,” Xi told an audience of note-taking officers.

An Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed an Al Jazeera photojournalist on Sunday – exactly one year to the day after an attack killed one of his colleagues.

Ahmad Al-Louh, 39, and four other people were killed by the strike that targeted an office of the Civil Defense service in central Gaza’s Nuseirat Camp area, according to Al Awda Hospital, which treated the casualties.

Al Jazeera has condemned the attack, saying Al-Louh was “brutally killed” while covering the service’s attempt to rescue a family that had been severely injured in an earlier bombing.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it had targeted the Civil Defense offices in a “precise strike,” claiming the site was being used as a “command-and-control center” by Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who were planning an “imminent terror attack against IDF troops.”

It said Al-Louh was among those killed in the strike and alleged he was a “terrorist” who had previously served with Islamic Jihad. The IDF did not provide any proof for their allegations.

In late July, an IDF strike killed Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul, who it accused of being a Hamas member – an allegation the network slammed as “baseless.”

According to the hospital, the other people killed in the strike were three Civil Defense workers and one civilian.

A spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense strongly denied the IDF’s claim of a terrorist presence at the site.

“These teams work around the clock to rescue people. Everyone knows that the Civil Defense organization is a humanitarian body that provides services during both peace and war to civilians and has no political involvement. The team was directly targeted,” said Zaki Imad Eddine.

This ‘follows a pattern’: Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera, which has in the past accused Israel of systematically targeting its journalists – a charge Israel denies, described Al-Louh’s killing as a crime and said it followed a pattern of attacks in which its workers had been killed or injured by Israeli attacks.

It noted that Al-Louh’s death coincided with the first anniversary of the killing of one of its cameramen, Samer Abu Daqqa, who died on December 15, 2023, after sustaining injuries in an Israeli attack on southern Gaza.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Abu Daqqa was the first Al Jazeera journalist to have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war since the October 7 terror attack of 2023. Since then, a string of other journalists with the network have been killed or injured in Gaza, in disputed circumstances.

On Sunday, Al Jazeera extended its condolences to Al-Louh’s wife and family, adding that just days earlier an Israeli strike had destroyed his house in the Da’wa neighborhood of Nuseirat Camp.

The network also said it was committed to pursuing “all legal measures to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes against journalists” and urged international legal institutions to take “urgent measures” to hold the Israeli authorities to account and “to put an end to the targeting and killing of journalists.”

Israel’s military has in the past said it “takes all operationally feasible measures to protect both civilians and journalists” and that it “has never and will never deliberately target journalists.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists says the Israel-Gaza war has killed more journalists in a year than any other conflict the group has documented. At least 137 journalists have been killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and Lebanon since the war began, according to the CPJ, making it the deadliest period for journalists since it began collecting data in 1992. Of those killed, 129 were Palestinian. According to Gaza’s government media office, at least 196 journalists have been killed.

“He was a very fun person to be with, he always tried to help everyone and bring joy to everyone’s face,” Al Sawalhi said.

“He had a great relationship with all journalists, helping them all because he knew central Gaza very well.”

Dozens killed across Gaza

Al-Louh was just one of dozens of people killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza on Sunday.

At least 15 people were killed early Sunday when an Israeli airstrike hit a school sheltering displaced people in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza, according to the Civil Defense.

Eyewitnesses reported 10 to 15 charred bodies after fires caused by “intensive Israeli bombing” at the Khalil Awida school, which was sheltering about 1,500 displaced people, the Civil Defense said.

The IDF said it had carried out a “targeted raid on a terrorist meeting point in the Beit Hanoun area.”

In Deir al Balah, a strike on tents killed four people and a strike on a family home east of Gaza city killed six, according to the Civil Defense.

Meanwhile in the south, Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said 12 people were killed in an Israeli strike.

Correction: This write has been updated to reflect that the strike that killed Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul was in late July.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he had a “very warm” phone call with US President-elect Donald Trump, during which they spoke about the need for Israel’s victory in its war on Hamas in Gaza and its stance on Syria.

In a video statement, Israel’s leader said he discussed a range of issues with Trump during the call on Saturday evening, including Israel’s commitment to preventing Lebanon-based Hezbollah from rearming and Israel’s conflict with Hamas, which has killed nearly 45,000 Palestinians in the besieged Gaza strip.

The leaders also spoke of the need to bring home the remaining hostages in Gaza, Netanyahu said.

“I discussed all of this again last night with my friend, US President-elect Donald Trump,” Netanyahu said.

“It was a very friendly, very warm and very important conversation. We spoke about the need to complete Israel’s victory, and we also spoke at length about the efforts we are making to free our hostages.”

Hamas and other groups are believed to still be holding 100 hostages in Gaza, including seven Americans. All but four of the hostages were captured during Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Netanyahu said that Israel continues to “work tirelessly to bring our hostages home, both the living and the dead. And I add, the less we talk about it, the better, and so with God’s help, we will succeed.”

‘No interest in confronting’ Syria

Regarding Syria, where a rebel coalition overthrew the regime of President Bashar al-Assad last weekend following a lightning advance through the country, Netanyahu said that Israel had “no interest in a conflict” the country, but would adjust its policy according to the “emerging reality on the ground.”

His latest comments come after Israeli forces following Assad’s fall took control of a long-standing buffer zone that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces for decades – a move the rebels now in charge of Syria and some of the country’s neighbors have criticized.

Israeli officials have said the measure is temporary and Netanyahu has previously insisted Israel has “no intention” of intervening in Syria’s internal affairs.

However, in his statement Sunday, the Israeli leader noted that Syria had “allowed Iran to arm Hezbollah through its territory” and said Israel was committed to preventing the militant group from rearming.

“This is an ongoing test for Israel, we must meet it – and we will meet it. I say to Hezbollah and Iran in no uncertain terms – to prevent you from harming us, we will continue to act against you as much as necessary, in every arena and at any time,” he said.

Israel reached a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah in November after a 13-month conflict largely fought along Israel’s border with Lebanon which saw Israel kill a string of high-ranking Hezbollah commanders. Continuing tit-for-tat strikes have put strain on the deal.

Plan to expand Golan settlements

Israel’s control of the buffer zone has added to tensions with Syria over its decades-long presence in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau in southwestern Syria that Israel has occupied since a war in 1967. Syria attempted to retake the territory in a surprise attack in 1973, but failed, and Israel annexed it in 1981.

Since the fall of Assad last week, the Israeli military has also taken control of Mount Hermon, which abuts the Golan Heights and lies within the buffer zone that had previously separated the two sides’ troops.

Despite Israel’s insistence the move is temporary, several Arab states have accused Israel of exploiting instability in Syria to execute a land grab, while the rebel coalition now in charge of Syria has accused it of “crossing the lines of engagement.”

Adding to those tensions, the Israeli government on Sunday approved a plan by Netanyahu to expand settlements in the occupied Golan Heights, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.

“In light of the war and the new front against Syria, and out of a desire to double the population of the Golan Heights, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today submitted for government approval the first amendment to the plan to encourage demographic growth in the Golan Heights and Katzrin Heights,” the statement said. Katzrin is an Israeli settlement in the Golan.

The plan “will assist the Golan Regional Council in absorbing the new residents who will arrive,” the statement added.

“Strengthening the Golan Heights is strengthening the state of Israel, and it is especially important at this time. We will continue to hold on to it, make it flourish, and settle it,” Netanyahu said, according to the statement.

The occupation is illegal under international law, but the United States recognized Israel’s claim on the Golan during the Trump administration in 2019. Israel does not view its presence in the Golan as settlements.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar condemned the plan to expand the Golan settlement. Qatar said it considered the expansion plan a “blatant violation of international law” and a new aggression on Syrian territories; Saudi Arabia said the move would derail Syria’s chances of restoring security and stability.

New Delhi (AP) — Zakir Hussain, one of India’s most accomplished classical musicians who defied genres and introduced tabla to global audiences, died on Sunday. He was 73.

The Indian classical music icon died from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic lung disease, at a hospital in San Francisco, his family said in a statement.

“His prolific work as a teacher, mentor and educator has left an indelible mark on countless musicians. He hoped to inspire the next generation to go further. He leaves behind an unparalleled legacy as a cultural ambassador and one of the greatest musicians of all time,” the statement read.

Hussain was the most recognizable exponent of tabla, a pair of hand drums that is the main percussion instrument in Indian classical music.

Considered the greatest tabla player of his generation, Hussain had a career that spanned six decades in which he collaborated with the likes of singer-songwriter George Harrison, jazz saxophonist Charles Lloyd, drummer Mickey Hart and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

The son of legendary tabla artist Ustad Alla Rakha, Hussain was born in 1951 in Mumbai and was taught how to play the instrument by his father at the age of 7. A child prodigy, he began performing alongside India’s classical music legends during his teens.

In 1973, Hussain formed the Indian jazz fusion band “Shakti” with jazz guitarist John McLaughlin. The band played acoustic fusion music that combined Indian music with elements of jazz, introducing a new sound to Western audiences.

In 2024, Hussain became the first musician from India to win three Grammy awards in the same year.

Hussain’s “Shakti” won Best Global Music Album, and his collaboration with Edgar Meyer, Béla Fleck and flutist Rakesh Chaurasia won Best Global Music Performance and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. He had earlier won a Grammy in 2009.

In 2023, Hussain received the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award.

Hussain is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Reports of widespread damage are emerging from Mayotte after a 100-year cyclone ripped across the French archipelago Saturday, inflicting devastation that one resident likened to an atomic bomb, with hundreds and possibly even thousands of feared victims.

“We lost everything. The entire hotel is completely destroyed,” Garcia said. “There is nothing left. It’s as if an atomic bomb fell on Mayotte.”

Mayotte lies in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, just west of Madagascar. Made up of two main islands, its land area is about twice the size of Washington DC.

Cyclone Chido, a category 4 storm, tore through the southwestern Indian Ocean over the weekend, impacting northern Madagascar before rapidly intensifying and slamming Mayotte with winds above 220 kilometers per hour (136 miles per hour), according to France’s weather service. It was the strongest storm to hit the islands in more than 90 years, Meteo-France said.

Chido then continued into northern Mozambique where it continued to cause damage, though the storm has now weakened.

The cyclone – the worst to hit the territory of just over 300,000 in at least 90 years – flattened neighborhoods, knocked out electrical grids, crushed hospitals and schools and damaged the airport’s control tower.

“Honestly, what we are experiencing is a tragedy, you feel like you are in the aftermath of a nuclear war… I saw an entire neighborhood disappear,” Mohamed Ishmael, a Mamoudzou resident, told Reuters.

At least 11 people have been confirmed dead by the French Interior Ministry, but the true death toll is expected to be much higher, with local officials predicting the number of victims could be in the hundreds or even thousands, the Associated Press reported.

“I think there are some several hundred dead, maybe we’ll get close to a thousand. Even thousands … given the violence of this event,″ Mayotte Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville told TV station Mayotte la 1ère.

The worst damage was to neighborhoods composed of metal shacks and informal structures that are found across Mayotte, Bieuville said.

Of the official death toll, Bieuville said “this figure is not plausible when you see the images of the slums.”

“Everything has been razed”

Debris from the storm has blocked access to roads across the archipelago, making aid delivery challenging and hindering the search for survivors, BMFTV reported.

About two thirds of the island is currently unreachable, Estelle Youssouffa, member of parliament for the first constituency of Mayotte told BMFTV.

“We must not confuse the villages that are cut off from communication (…) and the shanty towns, where there is very little chance of there being survivors. Everything has been razed,” Yousouffa said.

Desperate family members took to social media to search for news of their loved ones after the storm disrupted telecommunications networks.

As of Monday morning, Mayotte had been almost entirely offline for over 36 hours, according to the website NetBlocks.

Located about 5,000 miles from Paris, Mayotte is the poorest place in the European Union and has long struggled with poverty, unemployment, social unrest and water shortages.

Over 100,000 undocumented migrants live in Mayotte, according to France’s Interior Ministry.

Hundreds of rescuers, firefighters and police have been sent to the territory from France and the nearby French territory of Reunion, though damage to the airport’s control tower means only military planes can land there, the Associated Press reported.

Cyclones, also known as typhoons and called hurricanes in North America, are enormous heat engines of wind and rain that feed on warm ocean water and moist air. Cyclone season in the southwest Indian Ocean typically runs from mid-November to the end of April, according to France’s weather agency.

Scientists say climate change is making tropical cyclones more destructive, in part due to rising sea levels caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2019, two powerful cyclones, Idai and Kenneth, pummeled Mozambique over a period of two months, killing hundreds and leaving millions in need of humanitarian assistance.

Chad Youyou, a resident in Hamjago in the north of Mayotte, posted videos to Facebook showing flattened trees and extensive damage to his village, the Associated Press reported.

“Mayotte is destroyed … we are destroyed,” he said.

More than a week after Bashar al-Assad fled Syria and his regime collapsed, hundreds of thousands of Syrians still have no answer to two questions that have haunted them for years, even decades.

What happened to family members and friends after they vanished or were detained by Assad’s secret police? And how do we bring their torturers and killers to justice?

With every passing day, Syrians’ slim hopes finding a loved one still alive are fading. But they want some form of closure; they scour prison and hospital walls where lists of names and images of bodies are posted. They cling to a sliver of hope, yearn for a miracle.

But they also want retribution.

One of those waiting for news was Hazem Dakel from Idlib, who is now in Sweden. His uncle Najeeb was arrested in 2012 and was later confirmed by the family as having been killed. His brother Amer was detained the following year. Former detainees at the horrific Saydnaya prison near Damascus said Amer had disappeared in mid-April 2015 after being tortured there. But the regime never acknowledged his death.

“I want this (new Syrian) country to stand on its feet so we can hold them accountable through the law and courts.”

Amid the celebrations in Idlib after the fall of Assad, he said, there was also mourning. “They are mourning their children. Yes, the regime fell after resistance and struggle, but there was sorrow—like, where are our children?”

“Justice is coming, and our right will not be erased no matter how long it takes,” Dakel posted on Facebook. The family is now “certain” Amer died under torture in Saydnaya, he said.

Human rights groups have begun visiting the many prisons and detention centers across Syria where those perceived as regime critics were confined. An Amnesty International team scoured security branches of the former regime around Damascus this week.

Mazjoub also posted photographs on X of instruments of torture left behind.

“Nothing could have prepared us for what we saw,” said one of the team, Aya Mazjoub. In a series of posts on X she described “underground labyrinths (that) are literally hell on earth. They were overcrowded, crawling with cockroaches and other insects, lacked ventilation. They still smell of blood and death.”

“This is ‘bisat ar-reeh’, a notorious torture device where detainees would be strapped to a wooden slab that would be folded until their back cracked,” she wrote.

“This is the ‘doulab’. Detainees would be stuffed into the tyre and beaten, usually on the soles of their feet.”

Identifying the bodies that are found will require a legion of forensic pathologists. “Many are beyond recognition, mutilated by years of torture and starvation,” said Mazjoub.

Desperate relatives have taken to social media with details of sons, brothers, fathers and sisters who disappeared.

In a video posted on X, Lama Saud said her brother Abdullah was detained in 2012. Regime records had registered his death in 2014, but she said she still had hope he might be alive. “There are many detainees whose families were told they were dead but were later found to be alive,” she said.

“We hope to find them, my situation is like hundreds of thousands of Syrian families who are waiting for news about their loved ones, and we will not give up hope until now.”

So far, he has found no trace.

Al Shahabi also asked on Facebook where the recordings of surveillance cameras at regime security branches had gone, why some documents had been destroyed and why human rights groups had not done more to protect records.

Preserving whatever evidence is left in prisons and around possible burial sites is critical to documenting what happened and tracking down the perpetrators.

But following that trail of evidence is also a race against time. Several human rights groups issued a joint appeal last week, saying: “The real toll will only be known after mass graves and documents from the detention centers are examined and authenticated by trained experts. This documentation must be preserved from destruction.”

Based on the accounts of former prisoners, doctors and regime personnel, it said that an “olive-green Honda with a closed shed that could accommodate around 50 bodies” was used to take the bodies to a site in Najha near Damascus – “which has been called cemetery no.1 (the term used by regime forces is ‘cemetery of the bastards’).”

Bodies at the military hospital stayed for two or three days until there were “enough to transport to Najha graveyard, and sometimes to Al Qutayfah graveyard,” and other sites, according to the report.

The Association of Detainees and the Missing at Saydnaya prison, which describes itself as a coalition of prison survivors, victims, and their families, has meticulously documented what has happened there in recent years, based on witness accounts and other evidence, such as satellite imagery. It reported last year how bodies were taken from the prison and a military hospital to a mass burial site.

In 2020, a man known as “the Gravedigger” told a German court he was recruited by the Assad regime to bury hundreds of bodies in mass graves, including Najha, according to the International Commission on Missing Persons.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said burial sites or mass graves “must be protected and preserved to allow organized exhumation” as soon as possible. “This is also crucial to identify and ascertain the fate of those missing and provide the much-awaited answers to their families.”

After its investigators found documents strewn all over Saydnaya prison, the ICRC appealed for all records to be safeguarded at hospitals and in security centers run by the ousted regime.

The ICRC has also asked relatives of the missing – abroad and in Syria – to register with it, as the mammoth task of identifying the dead begins.

The conflict had killed more than 350,000 since 2011 – an “under-count of the actual number of killings,” a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in 2021 – and sent nearly six million refugees out of the country. Other groups put the estimated number of dead higher. An Amnesty International investigation published in 2017 said that as many as 13,000 people, most of them civilians believed to be opposed to the government, were hanged in secret at Saydnaya between 2011 and 2015 alone. With reports of civilians killed under torture in the detention centers and prisons for decades, the numbers of those who have lost their lives are still being counted.

In all likelihood, the vast majority of the missing are indeed dead.

In a tearful statement on Syrian television last week, the head of The Syrian Network for Human Rights, Fadel Abulghany, said: “I apologize for the tenth and thousandth time, before this announcement…Most of the forcibly disappeared in Syria are dead – and I am sorry.”

Now the almost overwhelming mission is to find those who died, and to identify them and their killers.

Seven tourists are being treated for suspected poisoning after drinking cocktails at a bar in an upscale Fiji resort that’s now being investigated by police.

Four Australians ages 18 to 56, along with other three people believed to be foreign nationals, were taken to the hospital after being served drinks made at a bar at the Warwick Fiji on Saturday.

The tourists suffered nausea, vomiting and “neurological symptoms,” according to a statement from Fiji’s Health Ministry, and as of Monday were in a stable condition.

The case comes just weeks after six tourists died from methanol poisoning after drinking at a bar in Laos, in a case that prompted safety warnings about consuming alcohol abroad.

Asked whether methanol was to blame, Dr Jemesa Tudravu, permanent secretary for Fiji’s Ministry of Health & Medical Services, said it was too soon to tell.

“We don’t have the results of the investigation yet and we don’t know if it was spiking or any other cause until we complete our investigations,” he said in a briefing Monday.

Sydney resident David Sandoe told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he’d received a call saying his daughter and granddaughter were among those hospitalized. He said they were among a group of people who drank a piña colada cocktail before falling ill.

“There was a group of them in the lounge of this resort and they had a similar cocktail and unfortunately, seven people came down with the symptoms that have been talked about,” Sandoe said.

He said his relatives were scheduled to fly home late Monday.

‘Isolated’ occurrence

Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Viliame R. Gavoka assured travelers to the Pacific nation that the incident was “extremely isolated.”

“No other incidents have been reported either at the resort, or across Fiji. The resort has been operating in Fiji successfully for many years and holds a strong reputation, particularly among our Australian visitors,” he said in a statement Monday.

“The resort management has assured us that they have not engaged in practices such as substituting ingredients or altering the quality of drinks served to guests,” he added.

The Warwick Hotels and Resorts operates luxury accommodation worldwide, including in the US, Europe and the Middle East.

In Fiji, king suites offering views of palm trees and the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean cost roughly $500 a night.

In a statement, Warwick Fiji said it was taking the matter “very seriously.”

“At this moment, we do not have conclusive details, but we are committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of our guests,” the hotel said.

Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers confirmed that four Australians were receiving support from department officials.

He said the situation was “very concerning” and pointed to updated travel advice from the Department of Foreign Affairs to be wary of drink spiking and alcohol poisoning in Fiji.

“Don’t leave your drinks unattended. Pay attention when your drinks are being mixed and get urgent medical help if you suspect that something is wrong,” he said.

Gavoka, who is also Fiji’s tourism minister, said close to a million tourists visit the island every year and thousands of tourists were currently holidaying on the Pacific Island.

“This is the only reported case of its kind that we’ve experienced in recent memory, and certainly nothing like this has been experienced this year,” he said.

“While we understand the concern, we want to emphasize that the tourism experience in Fiji is typically very safe, and we have acted immediately to try and discover the cause of what made these guests, at this resort, fall ill.”

In November, the deaths of two Australian teenagers, a British woman, an American man and two Danish women after drinking shots in Laos prompted warnings from several Western nations about the potentially fatal consequences of drinking tainted alcohol.