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  • Russia and Syria bomb rebel-held Idlib as Assad prepares major counter-attack

    Russian and Syrian warplanes bombed the rebel-held city of Idlib on Sunday in an attempt to push back insurgents who have swept across northern Syria.

  • Zelenskyy says Russia is treating the first North Korean soldiers well, but it won't last

    Russia is treating North Korean troops well right now, Ukraine's Zelenskyy said, as it wants more to come fight, but they will become "cannon fodder."

  • Iranian militias enter Syria to help Assad fight off rebels

    Iran has sent militia groups into Syria to prop up Bashar al-Assad, as China also gave its backing to the regime.

  • Iran pledges support for Syria's Assad as rebels advance after taking Aleppo

    Russian and Syrian jets targeted insurgents in northwestern Syria on Sunday and Iran pledged to “firmly support” the regime in Damascus as the Syrian army scrambled to stem a rebel advance south of Aleppo that has dealt a huge blow to President Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian military rushed reinforcements to the northwest and launched airstrikes Sunday in an attempt to push back insurgents who seized the country’s largest city of Aleppo, as Iran pledged to help the government counter the surprise o

  • Myanmar navy fires at boats, detains Thai fishermen, Thailand says

    STORY: Ambulances were seen at the port of Ranong in southern Thailand, after Myanmar's navy opened fire on a group of Thai fishing vessels on Saturday (November 30).The incident caused one fisherman to drown, while Myanmar authorities detained 31 crew members from one of the boats, according to a spokesperson for Thailand's Defence Ministry.Two of 15 fishing vessels were fired at after they operated inside Myanmar's territorial waters near Ranong, the ministry initially said.But Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on Sunday questioned the claims that the boats had encroached into Myanmar waters, saying it was "inconclusive".Thailand's authorities have protested the use of force during the incident and are in negotiations to release those detained.Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister, Phumtham Wechayachai, told reporters the country had quote "no intention of encroaching on anything"."If any side encroaches on another's sovereignty, there will be warning shots, but they don't aim to destroy targets," he said.Myanmar's ruling junta did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.The country has been in crisis since 2021 when the military seized power, toppling an elected government and sparking an armed rebellion by crushing protests with lethal force.

  • Israel kills charity worker it claims took part in October 7 massacre

    Israel has killed a World Central Kitchen aid worker it claims took part in Hamas’s October 7 terror attack.

  • Hamas says 33 hostages killed in course of war in Gaza

    Hamas said on Monday that 33 hostages in Gaza had been killed during the almost 14-month-old war between the Palestinian militant group and Israel in the enclave, without giving their nationalities. Hamas added that other hostages had gone missing. Hamas shortly afterward published a video it said detailed when and how the hostages had been killed, blaming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for their fate.

  • Rebels behind Aleppo’s surprise fall took advantage of Russian and Iranian distraction

    Forces only took three days to take the city from Bashar al-Assad’s regime, but the Middle East’s newest conflict looks set to last

  • Assault on Aleppo: who are the Syrian rebels HTS and why are they advancing?

    The fast-moving offensive began on Wednesday, surprising forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad and his allies

  • Russian, Syrian jets intensify bombing of Syria's rebel-held northwest

    AMMAN (Reuters) -Russian and Syrian jets struck the rebel-held city of Idlib in northern Syria on Sunday, military sources said, as President Bashar al-Assad vowed to crush insurgents who had swept into the city of Aleppo. Residents said one attack on the second day of raids hit a crowded residential area in the centre of Idlib, the largest city in a rebel enclave near the Turkish border where around four million people live in makeshift tents and dwellings. The Syrian army and its ally Russia say they target the hideouts of insurgent groups and deny attacking civilians.

  • What is happening in Georgia and why are people holding massive protests outside parliament?

    Georgia’s government has lost the support of EU and the US after recent events

  • American-Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza was ‘killed on October 7,’ Israel says

    The Israeli military on Monday confirmed the death of American Israeli soldier Omer Maxim Neutra.

  • A 2nd ceasefire is reached between warring Shiites and Sunni Muslims in Pakistan's restive northwest

    Pakistani authorities with help from community leaders brokered a second ceasefire between warring minority Shiites and Sunni Muslims in a troubled northwestern region bordering Afghanistan following a deadly sectarian violence that left dozens of people dead, officials said Monday. The violence in Kurram, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, erupted after gunmen attacked a convoy of vehicles carrying mostly Shiites, killing 52 people on Nov.21.

  • Assad regime scrambles to halt Syrian rebels’ advance after surprise seizure of Aleppo

    Civilians among casualties as Russia and Syria launch second day of airstrikes, war monitors say

  • A US Navy destroyer has come under missile fire 3 times in 3 months as the Houthis try to score a hit on a warship

    USS Stockdale has had to fight off Houthi missiles three times in as many months, a US defense official said.

  • Syria's second city slips from government control: monitor

    Syria's second-largest city Aleppo has fallen from government control for the first time since the country's conflict began more than a decade ago, a war monitor said Sunday, after a surprise advance by rebels.An Islamist-dominated rebel alliance has pressed a lightning offensive against forces of the Iranian- and Russian-backed Syrian government since Wednesday, the same day a fragile ceasefire took effect in neighbouring Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group after two months of all-out war.The Syrian army -- supported by Russian air power -- had recaptured in 2016 rebel-held areas of Aleppo, a city dominated by its landmark citadel.Damascus also relied on Hezbollah fighters to regain swathes of Syria lost to rebels early in the war which began in 2011 when the government crushed protests. But Hezbollah has taken heavy losses in its fight with Israel.The jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied rebel factions "control Aleppo city, except the neighbourhoods controlled by the Kurdish forces," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.For the first time since the conflict started, "Aleppo city is out of control of Syrian regime forces," Abdel Rahman said.Several northern districts inside Aleppo are predominantly inhabited by Syrian Kurds under authority of the People's Protection Units (YPG), the main component of the Syrian Democratic forces.The SDF are the de facto army in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northeast Syria. They are a US-backed force that spearheaded fighting against the Islamic State group jihadists before IS's territorial defeat in Syria in 2019.Separately, the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied rebel factions seized Aleppo's airport and dozens of nearby towns on Saturday after overrunning most of Aleppo, the Observatory said.- Tanks seized -Damascus ally Moscow responded with its first air strikes on Aleppo since 2016.Prior to this offensive, HTS, led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria branch, already controlled swathes of the Idlib region, the last area outside President Bashar al-Assad's government control, in Syria's northwest.HTS also held parts of neighbouring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces. Allied Turkish-backed rebel factions have also been taking part in the offensive.The fighting has killed more than 370 people, most of them combatants but also including at least 48 civilians, according to the Observatory, which has a network of sources inside Syria.The Observatory said rebel advances came with little resistance.AFP images showed fighters posing with seized tanks.The Observatory on Sunday said the army strengthened its positions around Syria's fourth largest city Hama, about 230 kilometres (140 miles) south of Aleppo, and sent reinforcements to the north of the surrounding province.Syria's defence ministry said army units in Hama province "reinforced their defensive lines with diverse means of fire, equipment and personnel", fighting to prevent a rebel advance.Rebels took dozens of towns across the north, including Khan Sheikhun and Maaret al-Numan, roughly halfway between Aleppo and Hama, the Observatory said.Some welcomed the rebels' arrival."Yesterday was my wedding but I didn't distribute sweets," Khaled al-Yussef said, holding up pastries beside a car. "I'm distributing them today in celebration of the liberation of Maaret al-Numan."- 'Weak' government -But in Idlib on Sunday, bodies lay in a hospital and vehicles were torched in the street, AFP images showed, after what the Observatory called Russian air strikes.Air strikes also occurred Saturday in Aleppo, where an AFP photographer saw charred cars, including a minibus. Inside one car, the body of a woman lay slumped in the back seat with a handbag beside her.Russian air strikes on parts of Syria's second city are the first since 2016.Aaron Stein, president of the US-based Foreign Policy Research Institute," said "Russia's presence has thinned out considerably and quick reaction air strikes have limited utility".He said the rebel advance is "a reminder of how weak the regime is".Another analyst, Dareen Khalifa of the International Crisis Group think tank, said the rebel alliance see their action in a "broader regional and geostrategic shift", including when "the Iranians are weakened".Syria's "reliance on Russia and Iran", along with its refusal to move forward with a 2015 peace process outlined by the UN Security Council, "created the conditions now unfolding", said US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett.The United States maintains hundreds of troops in Syria's northeast as part of an anti-jihadist coalition.- Diplomacy -Iran's top diplomat, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, left Tehran for Damascus to deliver what state media said would be a message of support for Syria's government and armed forces.Araghchi again called the surprise rebel offensive a plot by the United States and Israel and vowed that "the Syrian army will once again win".Assad vowed to defeat the "terrorists", however big their attacks."Terrorism only understands the language of force, and that is the language which we will break it and eliminate it with, whoever its supporters and sponsors are," he said.Russia, whose air support was previously decisive in helping Syria's government win back lost territory, joined Iran in expressing "extreme concern" over their ally's losses."Strong support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic was reaffirmed," the Russian foreign ministry said in a summary of a call between its top diplomat, Sergei Lavrov, and Araghchi.Since 2020, the Idlib rebel enclave has been subject to a Turkish- and Russian-brokered truce that had largely been holding despite repeated violations.Lavrov also spoke with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan on Saturday and agreed on the need to "coordinate joint action to stabilise the situation", Moscow said.bur-it/dv

  • Ukraine war briefing: Germany’s Olaf Scholz arrives in Kyiv on lightning visit

    Ukrainian president presses idea of ‘Nato umbrella’ for areas under Kyiv’s control while Kaja Kallas says it should not be ruled out. What we know on day 1,013

  • Why did Syrian militants HTS seize Aleppo – and how did they do it so quickly?

    Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s sudden offensive on major city has grabbed global attention but experts are not so surprised

  • Syria's embattled Assad seeks to shore up support after Aleppo loss

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sought to shore up support from his allies Sunday, after a monitor said a shock rebel offensive saw government forces lose control of Aleppo for the first time since the start of the country's civil war.The Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and allied factions now "control Aleppo city, except the neighbourhoods controlled by the Kurdish forces", Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP. For the first time

  • Former Israeli defense minister Yaalon warns of ethnic cleansing in Gaza

    A former Israeli defense minister has accused Israel of committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, drawing a sharp rebuke from government ranks. Moshe Yaalon, a hawkish former general, told Israeli media that hardliners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right cabinet were looking to chase Palestinians from northern Gaza and wanted to re-establish Jewish settlements there.