World

(LONDON) — Rebel forces in Syria are building a transitional government after toppling the regime of President Bashar Assad in a lightning-quick advance across the country.

The Israel Defense Forces continues its intense airstrike and ground campaigns in Gaza, particularly in the north of the strip around several Palestinian hospitals.

Meanwhile, the November ceasefire in Lebanon is holding despite ongoing Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah targets, which Israeli officials say are responses to ceasefire violations by the Iranian-backed militant group.

Tensions remain high between Israel and Iran after tit-for-tat long-range strikes in recent months and threats of further military action from both sides. The IDF and the Yemeni Houthis also continue to exchange attacks.

Ukraine foreign minister meets Syrian leader in Damascus

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on Monday met with Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa — also known by nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani.

Sybiha became the latest foreign representative to meet with Sharaa in Damascus, where the latter’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham forces and their allies are establishing a transitional government having toppled former President Bashar Assad.

Sybiha wrote on X that he “personally conveyed the message” of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “We are with you and ready to assist in restoring normal life, stability and food security,” Sybiha said.

“We rely on the new Syria respecting international law, including Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he added. “This will pave the way to fully restoring our diplomatic ties, political dialogue and diplomatic presence. We are ready to develop cooperation in a number of areas.”

The visit came days after Zelenskyy announced Kyiv’s dispatch of 500 tons of wheat flour to Syria as part of the “Grain from Ukraine” humanitarian program in cooperation with the World Food Program.

Gaza hospitals become ‘battlegrounds,’ WHO chief says

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said early Monday that Gaza’s beleaguered hospitals “have once again become battlegrounds and the health system is under severe threat.”

Ghebreyesus said the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north Gaza town of Beit Lahia “is out of service,” following an Israeli raid which itself came after several weeks of encirclement and bombardment.

Israeli forces raided the compound on Friday, forcibly evacuating all remaining patients and staff. The Israel Defense Forces said it detained 240 alleged militants, among them hospital director Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya. The IDF said the hospital was a “command center” for Hamas “military operations” in the surrounding area.

Ghebreyesus said Safiya’s “whereabouts are unknown. We call for his immediate release.”

Kamal Adwan patients were transferred to the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, both of which have also reported repeated Israeli attacks. The latter “is itself out of function,” Ghebreyesus said.

“Seven patients along with 15 caregivers and health workers remain at the severely damaged Indonesian Hospital, which has no ability to provide care,” he added.

Four patients were detained by the IDF during their transfer out of Kamal Adwan Hospital, the WHO chief said.

Two other facilities — the Al-Ahli Hospital and Al-Wafa Rehabilitation Hospital in Gaza City — were also attacked and sustained damage on Monday, Ghebreyesus said.

“We repeat: stop attacks on hospitals,” he wrote. “People in Gaza need access to health care. Humanitarians need access to provide health aid. Ceasefire!”

Family of Gaza hospital director asks international community to help find him

The family of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Gaza Strip, is pleading with the international community to help learn his whereabouts, alleging he was detained by Israeli forces during a recent raid on the medical facility.

The family posted a message on Abu Safiya’s official Instagram page, on which the doctor had been posting updates about the hospital’s functioning, pleading, “We do not know the fate of our father.”

“We appeal to every compassionate individual and all international organizations and institutions to take action,” said the family, asking the international community to apply media pressure and make appeals to “help us push for his swift release from captivity.”

The message said Abu Safiya is still recovering from injuries he suffered a month ago while working at the hospital.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement released on Saturday that Abu Safiya is suspected of being a Hamas terrorist and is being held in Gaza.

Abu Safiya had not been arrested in previous IDF raids of the hospital.

-ABC News’ Camilla Alcini and Nadine Shubailat

IDF issues statement on Kamal Adwan Hospital raid

The IDF released a statement outlining their operations in and around Kamal Adwan Hospital in the last few days.

The Israel Defense Forces said the hospital was a “command center” for Hamas “military operations in Jabaliya,” although the statement and attached media do not provide corroborating evidence of this.

The statement says the IDF faced heavy fighting in areas near the hospital, and says the IDF detained 240 terrorists, including the director of the hospital, Dr Hossam Abu Safiya, whom it says is is “suspected of being a Hamas terrorist operative.”

Abu Safiya was one of the only male staff members at the hospital not detained during the IDF’s raid of the hospital in October, and he would have helped coordinate numerous resupply and patient evacuations with Israel over the last several months.

Kamal Adwan is the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza and is operating at a limited capacity due to a lack of medical supplies and the repeated attacks on the hospital.

-ABC News’ Victoria Beaule

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden announced on Monday that the United States would offer almost $2.5 billion in defense assistance to Ukraine, a move that will bring an “immediate influx of capabilities” as the country defends itself against Russia’s assault.

“At my direction, the United States will continue to work relentlessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in this war over the remainder of my time in office,” Biden said in a statement.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — World leaders have offered their condolences after the death of former President Jimmy Carter at the age of 100.

Carter died in Plains, Georgia, on Sunday afternoon, the Carter Center wrote in a post to X. President Joe Biden led the tributes, saying that “America and the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian.”

Leaders abroad were quick to offer their own tributes.

In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Carter’s legacy “is one of compassion, kindness, empathy and hard work. He served others both at home and around the world his entire life — and he loved doing it. He was always thoughtful and generous with his advice to me.”

“My deepest condolences to the Carter family, his many loved ones and the American people who are mourning a former president and a lifelong humanitarian,” Trudeau added. “May his selfless service continue to inspire us all for years to come.”

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said in a post to X that, above all, Carter “was a lover of democracy and a defender of peace.”

Lula recalled Carter’s pressure on the military dictatorship in Brazil in the 1970s to release political prisoners. “Later, as a former president, he continued to campaign for the promotion of human rights, peace and the eradication of diseases in Africa and Latin America,” the president added.

“Carter achieved the feat of having a job as a former president, over the decades, that was as important or even more important than his term in the White House,” Lula wrote.

A slew of tributes also came from leaders in Europe. Several alluded to one of Carter’s landmark foreign policy achievements in brokering the Camp David Accords in 1978, which led to the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty the following year.

“Throughout his life, Jimmy Carter has been a steadfast advocate for the rights of the most vulnerable and has tirelessly fought for peace,” French President Emmanuel Macron said. “France sends its heartfelt thoughts to his family and to the American people.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “very sorry to hear of President Carter’s passing. I pay tribute to his decades of selfless public service. My thoughts are with his family and friends at this time.”

King Charles III expressed “great sadness” at the news. “His dedication and humility served as an inspiration to many, and I remember with great fondness his visit to the United Kingdom in 1977.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote, “We join our American friends in mourning the loss of their former President Jimmy Carter. The U.S. has lost a committed fighter for democracy. The world has lost a great mediator for peace in the Middle East and for human rights.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted Carter’s continued advocacy for democracy and human rights even towards the end of his life.

“He was a leader who served during a time when Ukraine was not yet independent, yet his heart stood firmly with us in our ongoing fight for freedom,” Zelenskyy wrote.

“We deeply appreciate his steadfast commitment to Christian faith and democratic values, as well as his unwavering support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s unprovoked aggression,” he added.

“He devoted his life to promoting peace in the world and defending human rights. Today, let us remember: peace matters, and the world must remain united in standing against those who threaten these values.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Carter “served his country with honor — and humanity, with compassion. His work advanced peace, health and democracy worldwide.”

“He will be remembered for his moral leadership,” she added. “May his noble legacy live on.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(SEOUL) — Authorities in South Korea were working on Monday to confirm the identities of more than three dozen of the 179 people who were killed when a Jeju Air plane crash-landed at an airport on Sunday.

The bodies of 141 people had been identified through their fingerprints or DNA, but 38 of the dead remained unidentified, local officials said.

A day after the deadly crash, in which the Boeing 737 skidded along a runway, crashed into a wall, and burst into flames, officials had recovered the flight’s data recorders from the wreckage and were releasing information about both the dead and the two survivors. Six crew members and 175 passengers had been on the flight.

The acting president, Choi Sang-mok, who has been leading the country since Friday, ordered an emergency safety inspection of South Korea’s entire air fleet and operations.

The two survivors, a man and woman who were both crew members, were not in life-threatening condition, officials said. The man was receiving treatment in an intensive care unit and the woman was recovering, officials said.

Flight 7C2216 had taken off from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand before dawn on Monday, according to Flightradar24, a flight tracker.

As the aircraft approached South Korea’s Muan International Airport at about 9 a.m., the flight control tower issued a warning of a possible bird strike, the Korean Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport said on Sunday.

About a minute after that warning, a pilot sent a mayday distress signal, after which the tower issued permission for the aircraft to land, the ministry said.

The official death toll, provided by the National Fire Agency, climbed steadily in the hours after the crash. By nightfall on Sunday, local officials said all but two of the 181 people onboard had died in the crash.

The aircraft’s voice and data recorders, or “black boxes,” were recovered from the wreckage, the Air and Railway Investigation Committee said. The flight data recorder was found partially damaged and the cockpit voice recorder was collected intact, officials said.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Sunday it would send an investigative team — which was to include members from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration — to assist South Korean officials. The results of that investigation will be released by the Republic of Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board, or ARAIB.

Efforts were being made to speed up the identifications of the remaining 38 people who died, but some bodies were too damaged for their fingerprints to be used.

Others were the bodies of minors, whose prints were not on file to compare, authorities said. According to the flight manifest, the youngest passenger on board was 3 years old. The manifest recorded five children under 10 years old on the flight.

Jeju Air, which operates an all-Boeing fleet, is a popular low-cost carrier in South Korea. The airline operated about 217 flights a day and carried more than 12 million people during 2023.

ABC News’ Sam Sweeney, Hakyung Kate Lee, Jack Moore, Will Gretsky, Victoria Beaule and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(SANTIAGO, CHILE) — Three luxury watches, including a Rolex worth about $9,000, that were stolen from actor Keanu Reeves’ Los Angeles home have been discovered in Chile, police confirmed to ABC News.

Authorities in Chile said a man was arrested in Santiago on Saturday in connection with the robbery, and that his arrest was part of a larger, local operation.

The unnamed suspect is currently in custody, police said.

One of the three watches discovered was a Rolex Submariner that had the “John Wick” star’s name engraved on it.

The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed in Dec. 2023 to ABC News’ Los Angeles station that a group of burglars were at large after breaking into Reeves’ house in Hollywood Hills.

It was unclear at the time whether any property was stolen, and it was not immediately clear whether the stolen property recovered in Chile was related to that break-in.

The break-in was reported by a caller who reported observing four suspects who were also recorded by a surveillance camera entering the home through a window at the rear of the hillside residence, an LAPD spokesperson said at the time.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

All 181 passengers and crew aboard a passenger jet that crashed upon landing in South Korea on Sunday morning are presumed dead except for two people rescued from the wreckage, authorities said.

Jeju Air Flight 2216 was landing at Muan International Airport around 9 a.m. local time when the plane went off the runway and crashed into a wall.

There were a total of 175 passengers and six crew members aboard the Boeing 737 aircraft, which had taken off from Bangkok, according to the Korean Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport. The official death toll, which has been provided by the National Fire Agency, has climbed steadily in the hours since the crash.

The transport ministry was on the scene investigating the cause of the crash, and details of what happened were beginning to come into focus. Prior to the plane’s crash landing, the control tower issued a warning of a possible bird strike, the ministry said. About a minute after that warning, a pilot sent a mayday distress signal, after which the tower issued permission for the aircraft to land, the ministry said.

According to the Air and Railway Investigation Committee, the aircraft’s “black boxes” were recovered from the wreckage. The plane’s flight data recorder (FDR) was found partially damaged and its cockpit voice recorder (CVR) was collected intact, officials said.

Decrypting the FDR data could take about a month, according to officials. However, if the damage to the FDR is severe, it may have to be sent to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) for decoding, which could take more than six months, officials said.

Video from the scene at the time of the crash appears to show the landing gear was up when the plane touched down, possibly indicating some sort of malfunction, and it also appears the plane landed at a high speed. Videos taken at the scene showed flames and a thick column of dark smoke at the crash site.

As of 1 p.m. local time, authorities said the plane had completely burned. A temporary morgue was being set up at the airport.

By about 8 p.m., the official death toll had climbed to 176 people, the National Fire Agency said. Eighty-three of the dead were women and 82 were men, the agency said, adding that another 11 bodies remained unidentified. According to the flight manifest, there were five children under 10 years old on the flight, the youngest of them 3 years old.

A man and a woman were rescued from the wreckage and were taken to the hospital, according to the transport ministry. Both were crew members, the fire agency said. Their conditions were not released.

Initially, there were conflicting reports on the number of people rescued.

Jeju Air is a South Korean low-cost carrier that operates an all Boeing fleet, with 42 planes and nearly 3,000 staff.

“We deeply apologize to all those affected by the incident at Muan Airport,” Jeju Air said in a notice posted in English on its website. “We will make every effort to resolve the situation. We sincerely regret the distress caused.”

The website’s landing page replaced Jeju Air’s logotype, which is usually orange, with an all-black version.

The NTSB posted on X Sunday that it is “leading a team of U.S. investigators (NTSB, Boeing and FAA) to assist the Republic of Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board (ARAIB)” with their investigation of the crash, adding that the ARAIB would release any information about the investigation “per international protocols.”

Boeing was in contact with Jeju Air regarding the crash and was “standing ready to support them,” a Boeing spokesperson told ABC News earlier.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones, and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew,” the spokesperson said.

Muan, a city of roughly 90,000 people, is located in southwest South Korea.

ABC News’ Jessica Gorman, Victoria Beaule and Rashid Haddou contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Mexico is developing a cellphone app that will allow migrants to inform family members and local consulates if they think they are about to be detained in the United States, the country’s secretary of foreign affairs announced on Friday.

The app is expected to become available in January as President-elect Donald Trump, who has pledged to launch mass deportations of migrants living in the U.S. without legal permission on Day 1 of his second term, takes office.

The app — dubbed Alert Button — will allow nationals who think they are about to be detained to notify the “consulate closest to their location about situations of imminent detention, notify family members who have previously been selected, as well as report to the Foreign Affairs Secretary,” Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release.

The app was developed with the Mexican Digital Transformation Agency for “emergency cases,” Juan Ramón de la Fuente, Mexico’s secretary of foreign affairs, said.

De la Fuente outlined other protective measures ahead of Mexican nationals’ possible detention under the incoming Trump administration.

“The foreign affairs secretary was emphatic in pointing out that to deport someone from the United States you need a court order, a final sentence of deportation or removal, and that is where the consular team will be very aware that due process is complied with,” the release said.

Trump has repeatedly pledged to get started on mass deportations as soon as he enters office.

He’s tapped several immigration hard-liners to serve in key Cabinet positions, including former Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan as “border czar.”

Homan previously discussed his vision for mass deportations, saying they would first concentrate on expelling criminals and national security threats. He didn’t rule out deporting families together.

An estimated 11.7 million unauthorized migrants are living in the U.S. without legal immigration status, including about 4.6 million from Mexico, as of July 2023, according to the Center for Migration Studies.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(KAZAKHSTAN) — Survivors of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan reported hearing thuds and explosions from outside the aircraft during the flight, as the cause of the deadly catastrophe remains under investigation.

The Azerbaijan Airlines passenger aircraft crashed near Kazakhstan’s Aktau Airport on Wednesday morning, killing 38 of the 67 people on board, Kazakh officials said.

An Azeri crew member who survived the crash told ABC News in a phone call from his hospital room on Friday that he heard three thuds as they were flying over Grozny, Russia. He said he believes the noises came from outside the plane.

The crew member, who did not provide his name as crew members have not been authorized to speak with the media, said he sustained injuries to his left arm in the crash. He was hospitalized in Aktau but has since been transferred to a hospital in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The aircraft was flying from Baku to Grozny but couldn’t land due to heavy fog, according to the crew member. The flight was rerouted to Aktau in Kazakhstan when it crashed while trying to land.

A passenger told Reuters from his hospital bed that he heard a bang, saw oxygen masks falling down and that the fuselage was damaged. He said he initially thought the plane was going to fall apart and started praying.

“It was obvious that the plane had been damaged in some way,” the passenger, Subhonkul Rakhimov, told Reuters. “It was as if it was drunk — not the same plane anymore.”

Rakhimov said he was “thrown back and forth” while strapped in and then it was quiet, at which point he realized that they had landed.

Another passenger told Reuters she felt “two explosions” about 20 or 30 minutes after takeoff. A flight attendant told Reuters there were injuries on the flight “from the impact of the external blows,” and that he hurt his arm.

Azerbaijan’s transport minister said Friday that passengers and flight attendants on the plane heard explosions “from outside, and then something touched the plane” over Grozny, per local media.

Both Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan authorities are investigating the crash. The cause is still being determined, but multiple sources point to potential Russian involvement.

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby told reporters Friday that there are “early indications” that the plane could have been brought down by Russian air defense systems, but he added that the investigation is ongoing.

A high-level Azeri government source told ABC News on Thursday that there is new evidence emerging that the plane may have been shot down by a Russian surface-to-air missile.

The plane was flying over an area where Moscow’s air defense has battled Ukrainian drones recently.

Videos and photos of the plane after the crash show bullet holes in parts of the plane.

“Preliminary expert opinions indicate the presence of outside interference,” Rashad Nabiyev, Azerbaijan’s minister of digital development and transport, said Friday. “This is evidenced by the appearance of the plane’s wreckage on the ground and eyewitness testimonies.”

Azerbaijan Airlines also said Friday the preliminary results of the investigation show the crash was due to “physical and technical external interference.”

The Kremlin declined to comment on the matter until the investigation into the crash is completed.

“The investigation into the air accident is ongoing. And we do not think we have a right to give any assessments and will not do so until conclusions are drawn based on the results of the investigation,” Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Friday. “We have our own aviation authorities that can do it, and this information may come only from them.”

The head of Russia’s federal air transport agency, Dmitry Yadrov, shifted possible blame onto Ukraine for the crash.

“The situation in the Grozny Airport area was rather complicated on that day and at those hours. Ukrainian drones were conducting terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure in Grozny and Vladikavkaz,” Yadrov said Friday, according to state media.

Azerbaijan Airlines has temporarily suspended flights from Baku to 10 Russian cities “due to physical and technical external interference and considers potential risks to flight safety,” the airline said on Friday.

“The suspension will remain in effect until the completion of the final investigation,” it added.

Several other airlines, including El Al, Flydubai and Qazaq Air, have also suspended flights to various Russian cities in the wake of the crash.

ABC News’ Tomek Rolski, Michelle Stoddart and Lauren Peller contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(MOSCOW) — An American citizen, Evgeny “Eugene” Spector, was sentenced to 15 years in a high-security prison by the Moscow City Court on espionage charges on Dec. 24, reported Interfax, a Russian news agency.

The Russian Security Service, or FSB, said Spector collected information from Russia “in the interests of the Pentagon to create a system for genetic screening of the Russian population,” Interfax reported on Friday.

“We are aware of reports of the sentencing of a U.S. citizen in Russia. We are monitoring the situation but have no further comment at this time,” a State Department official told ABC News. “The Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and security of our U.S. citizens overseas. We will continue to press for fair and transparent treatment for all U.S. citizen detainees in Russia and around the world.”

The Pentagon declined to comment, instead directing all inquiries to the State Department.

“The American, acting in the interests of the Pentagon and a commercial organization affiliated with it, collected and transferred to a foreign party various information on biotechnological and biomedical topics, including information constituting a state secret, for the subsequent creation by the United States of a high-speed genetic screening system for the Russian population,” the FSB said Friday, according to Interfax.

The sentence has not entered into force and can be appealed, Interfax reported. The court did not report how Spector pleaded to the charges. It was a closed-door trial “due to the secrecy of the case materials,” Russian state media said.

Before espionage charges were brought against Spector in August 2023, he was arrested in a case involving bribes to the former assistant to Arkady Dvorkovich, the former deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation, according to Interfax.

Spector was sentenced 3 1/2 years in a maximum-security penal colony for acting as an intermediary in giving a bribe to Dvorkovich’s aide.

The sentence of espionage charges was handed down in conjunction with the previous sentence Spector had already received for the bribery charges, Russian state media said. Spector was handed a 13-year sentence for espionage charges, which added to his existing bribery sentence, converting the overall sentence into a new 15-year sentence, Russian state media reported.

The presiding judge had decided Spector should now serve an overall 15-year sentence in a maximum-security penal colony as punishment for both cases on Tuesday, reported TASS, a Russian state news agency.

Prior to his arrest, Spector was the chairman of the board of directors of the Medpolymerprom Group, a company specializing in cancer-curing drugs. Spector was born in Russia and then moved to the US.

On Friday, the U.S. State Department confirmed to ABC News another American serving a prison sentence in Russia was determined to be “wrongfully detained” by Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this year.

Marc Fogel, an American teacher who was arrested in Russia on drug charges in 2021, is currently serving a 14-year sentence.

A State Department spokesperson said the U.S. has been trying to secure Fogel’s release and tried to include him in the large Aug. 1 prisoner exchange that freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, among others.

Blinken determined Fogel as being wrongfully detained in October, the spokesperson said, adding that there was a variety of reasons why the department may not have made the designation public.

ABC News’ Nathan Luna contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — There are early indications that a Russian anti-aircraft system may have struck the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan, killing dozens, a U.S. official told ABC News.

There is new evidence that the passenger plane may have been shot down by a Russian surface-to-air missile from a Pantsir-S1 system, a high-level Azeri government source told ABC News.

If Russia did indeed strike the Azerbaijan plane, the U.S. official said it would be yet another example of Russia’s recklessness in the war with Ukraine. The plane was flying over an area where Moscow’s air defense has battled Ukrainian drones recently.

The White House referred ABC News to officials in the region as the investigation continues.

At least 38 people are dead and 29 others injured after the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger aircraft crashed near Kazakhstan’s Aktau Airport on Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations told ABC News.

Many of the 29 survivors were hospitalized, including two children, the spokesperson said.

The aircraft was flying from Baku in Azerbaijan to Grozny in Russia when it crashed near Aktau in Kazakhstan, the spokesperson said. The flight had been rerouted to Aktau due to fog in Grozny, Russian news agencies reported.

The prosecutor general’s office of Azerbaijan has launched a criminal case regarding the facts of the crash, officials announced during a press briefing on Wednesday.

“Currently, the investigation process is ongoing in cooperation with the prosecutor’s office of Kazakhstan. All versions are being explored in the criminal case,” Farid Huseynov, a spokesperson for Azerbaijan Airlines, said.

Aviation authorities from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia are collaborating to determine the exact cause of the crash, a spokesperson for Kazakhstan’s ministry of emergency situations said.

The plane was carrying 69 people: 64 passengers and five crew members. Based on preliminary data, the passengers included 37 Azerbaijani citizens, six from Kazakhstan, three from Kyrgyzstan and 16 from Russia, officials said.

Embraer, the aircraft manufacturer, released a statement about the crash, saying, “We are closely monitoring the situation, and we remain fully committed to supporting the relevant authorities.”

ABC News’ Dragana Jovanovic and David Brennan contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.