JERUSALEM (AP) — Signs of apparent celebration in Beirut and no reported violations shortly after Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire takes effect.
The jihadi rebels who toppled Syrian President Bashar Assad say they want to build a unified, inclusive country. But after nearly 14 years of civil war, putting that ideal into practice will not be easy.
Twenty-three-year-old Syrian military conscript Farhan al-Khouli was badly paid and demoralized. For years, the Islamist rebels of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) had sat behind the nearby frontline, with Syria's long civil war frozen.
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Israel carried out a wave of heavy airstrikes across Syria as its troops advanced deeper into the country, a Syrian opposition war monitor said Tuesday, and the Israeli defense minister announced that his forces had destroyed Syria’s navy.
Slender shoulders, a limp handshake and soft-spoken lisp. Those were the most vivid memories from my meeting with Bashar al Assad.
Khalil Haqqani, Taliban acting minister of refugees, was killed in a blast Wednesday at the ministry's headquarters in Kabul.
Israel's arrest of almost 30 mostly Jewish citizens who allegedly spied for Iran in nine covert cells has caused alarm in the country and points to Tehran's biggest effort in decades to infiltrate its arch foe, four Israeli security sources said. Among the unfulfilled goals of the alleged cells was the assassination of an Israeli nuclear scientist and former military officials, while one group gathered information on military bases and air defences, security service Shin Bet has said. Last week, the agency and Israel's police said a father and son team had passed on details of Israeli force movements including in the Golan Heights where they lived.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved resolutions Wednesday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and backing the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees that Israel has moved to ban.
The Palestinian militant group has engaged in talks with rival Fatah over a unity committee to govern Gaza. It reflects Hamas’ diminished prospects following more than a year of conflict.
Syrian fighters received about 150 drones as well as other covert support from Ukrainian intelligence operatives last month, weeks ahead of the rebels' advance that toppled Bashar al-Assad over the weekend, according to the Washington Post. Citing unnamed sources familiar with Ukrainian military activities, the Post late on Tuesday said Ukrainian intelligence sent about 20 drone operators and about 150 first-person-view drones about four to five weeks ago to aid Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Russia's foreign ministry had earlier said, without providing evidence, that the rebels had received drones from Ukraine and training in how to operate them, an accusation that Ukraine's foreign ministry at the time said it "categorically" rejected.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — A suicide bombing in the Afghan capital on Wednesday killed the Taliban refugee minister and two others, officials said, in the most brazen attack on a member of the Taliban inner circle since they returned to power three years ago.
Ireland is to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to broaden its definition of genocide - claiming Israel has engaged in the "collective punishment" of people in Gaza. An intervention will be made later this month, deputy prime minister Micheal Martin said, and will be linked to a case South Africa has brought under the United Nations' Genocide Convention.
A top U.S. military officer visited Beirut on Wednesday to monitor the withdrawal of the first Israeli troops from Lebanon under a ceasefire agreement reached last month, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said. Army General Michael Kurilla, CENTCOM's commander, visited the monitoring headquarters in Beirut for the ceasefire and met with the commander of Lebanon's armed forces, General Joseph Aoun, CENTCOM said in a post on X.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Reem Ajour says she last saw her husband and then 4-year-old daughter in March, when Israeli soldiers raided a family home in northern Gaza. She is haunted by those chaotic last moments, when the soldiers ordered her to go – to leave behind Talal and Masaa, both wounded.
Rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, pledged to shut down Bashar al-Assad's infamous prisons and pursue those involved in torture and killings, BBC News reports.
A top U.S. military officer visited Beirut on Wednesday to monitor the withdrawal of the first Israeli troops from Lebanon under a ceasefire agreement reached last month, the U.S. Central Command said. The U.S. confirmed that Israel had withdrawn its forces from the town of Al-Khiam in south Lebanon. Israeli forces completed their first withdrawal from a town in southern Lebanon, handing control to the Lebanese military under a ceasefire agreement, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Wedn
Seventy-five-year-old Marina Terishvili's teenage son Mamuka was shot dead at a nationalist rally in Georgia in 1992. Now her other son, Giorgi, has been arrested for his role in protests against perceived Russian influence in their homeland. Seven police cars pulled up at her house in the capital Tbilisi on Friday and took Giorgi, a 52-year-old taxi driver, into custody, she said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israeli forces will remain in a Syrian buffer zone until a new force on the other side of the border can guarantee security. After the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Israeli forces pushed into a buffer zone that had been established after the 1973 Mideast war. The military says it has seized additional strategic points nearby.
A U.S.-based charity, the World Central Kitchen, fired dozens of Palestinians working for the charity in the Gaza Strip, at least three workers told Reuters, after Israel said at least 62 staff were linked to militant groups. In a message to staff, WCK confirmed that it had "made changes" after Israel demanded an investigation into its hiring practices in Gaza. "This should not be taken as a conclusion by WCK that the individuals are affiliated with any terror organization," it said, adding that Israel had not shared its intelligence and "we do not know the basis for Israel’s decision to flag these individuals."
A suspected Palestinian shooting attack on an Israeli bus in the occupied West Bank killed a child overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, Israeli emergency services said. The Israeli military said its forces were in pursuit of the gunman and had set up roadblocks and encircled an area near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem. Violence in the West Bank was already on the rise before the war in Gaza erupted on Oct. 7 last year and has surged since, with frequent Israeli military raids, violence by Jewish settlers and Palestinian street attacks on Israelis.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed straight into talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss fallout from the ouster of Syria's Bashar al-Assad after landing in Ankara on Thursday, a US official said. Blinken's visit comes as Turkey-backed rebel forces advance against a Kurdish militia in northern Syria, a Turkish defence ministry source said. Follow our liveblog for the latest developments. Yesterday's key developments: Syria's Baath party has announced that it is susp
