Wayanad landslides: Search operations continue for 10th day: 226 confirmed dead; 138 missing

News Network

August 8, 2024

Wayanad (Kerala): Search operations in the landslides-hit areas of this north Kerala district continued for the 10th day with more cadaver dogs being pressed into service on Thursday to look for remains buried deep under the debris that cover the disaster sites.

Using Air Force helicopters to drop special search teams to inaccessible areas along the Chaliyar river and deploying more rescuers, heavy machines and K9 dog squads in the segregated six zones of disaster-hit Chooralmala and Mundakkai continued.

Till Wednesday, the number of persons suspected to be missing in the landslides was around 138 with more than 226 confirmed to be dead.

Besides that, 192 body parts were also recovered from the disaster-hit areas and the Chaliyar river till August 7, according to figures provided by the Wayanad district administration.

As the search operations progress, the state government is also working to ensure temporary rehabilitation of those affected by the landslides.

A cabinet sub-committee, camped out at Wayanad, on Wednesday said that the rehabilitation will be carried out in three phases.

The first phase will involve immediate, but temporary settlement of the victims and survivors to vacant houses, quarters, flats and hostels within the panchayat limits of the affected areas or nearby panchayats.

Additionally, rental houses or flats will be found and provided at government expense, the committee had said.

Buildings and facilities under the government will also be utilised for this purpose, it had said.

The temporary rehabilitation is being carried out to free the schools where relief camps are being run in order to resume classes there, the committee had said.

The second phase would involve the implementation of a temporary transit home system before people are shifted to their permanent homes.

For this, suitable places will be found and accommodations will be prepared using prefab technology, the committee had further said.

The township project with all facilities, as part of the complete rehabilitation, will be implemented in the third phase, it had said.

Amidst the search and rescue operations and phased rehabilitation, the government is also working to restore the identification and other documentation as well as certificates of the people who lost all that in the landslides, the committee had said.

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Israeli forces invade southwestern Syria, set up checkpoint in Quneitra

News Network

November 24,2025

Israeli forces have pushed over the Syrian frontier, erecting a checkpoint and stopping vehicles in the southwestern city of Quneitra, in yet another breach of the Arab country’s sovereignty.

The violation took place on Sunday, when the troops made their way across the border, setting up the outpost near the Ain al-Bayda junction in northern Quneitra, Syrian outlets reported.

According to the al-Ikhbariya paper, an Israeli detachment positioned itself at the junction, halting cars and conducting searches.

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that three Israeli military vehicles then moved further into the northern countryside, deploying between the town of Jubata al-Khashab and the villages of Ofaniya and Ain al-Bayda. The agency added that a separate Israeli unit mounted a new incursion in the central region, approaching the villages of Umm Batina and al-Ajraf.

Residents said such activities have surged in recent months, pointing to Israeli advances onto farmland, leveling of extensive forested areas, arrests, and spread of mobile checkpoints.

The Israeli regime began markedly increasing its military aggression against Syria last year.

The escalation coincided with increasingly ferocious onslaughts throughout the country by the so-called Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Takfiri terrorist group, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad had confined to northwestern Syria. The HTS, however, managed to overthrow the government as the Israeli attacks would pummel the country’s civilian and defensive infrastructure.

Various reports have shown that, during the escalation, the regime conducted more than 1,000 airstrikes on the Syrian territory and over 400 ground raids into the south.

Following the collapse of the Assad government, Tel Aviv also widened its grip over the occupied Golan Heights by taking control of a demilitarized buffer zone, in defiance of a 1974 Disengagement Agreement. Earlier this month, senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visited the buffer zone, prompting expressions of alarm on the part of the United Nations.

The United States, the regime’s biggest ally, has, meanwhile, been fraternizing the HTS head Abu Mohammed al-Jolani amid the widely reported prospect of rapprochement with Tel Aviv.

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