key events
‘Turkish drone’ kills two Turkish journalists in northern Syria
A Turkish drone killed two journalists in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast while reporting on fighting between Ankara-backed militias and U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in northern Syria, AFP reported.
Nazem Dastan and Jihan Bilgin were killed on Thursday when a drone struck their car east of Aleppo, the Dil Firat Journalists Association said.
“We condemn this attack against our colleagues and demand accountability,” the group said, describing the pair as “two valuable journalists” covering the violence in northern Syria.
The Turkish Journalists Union also condemned the attack, saying they were “allegedly targeted by Turkish drones,” commonly known as drones.
The pro-Kurdish Mesopotamian News Agency said the blast was caused by a Turkish drone.
Turkish forces insist they are not targeting civilians, only terrorist groups.
A delegation of top U.S. diplomats has arrived in Syria to speak directly with the new Islamist-led rulers, hoping to encourage a moderate, tolerant path and seek information about missing Americans.
It is the first formal U.S. diplomatic mission to Damascus since the early days of the brutal civil war in 2011 that culminated in a sudden lightning offensive this month that toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.
The U.S. State Department said on Friday that diplomats would meet with representatives of Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which Washington considers a terrorist organization, as well as activists, civil society and members of minority groups.
opening summary
Welcome to our coverage of crises in the Middle East.
U.S. and Arab mediators are working around the clock to prepare a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, sources close to the negotiations told Reuters, as attacks continued in Gaza, where medics said 44 Palestinians were killed on Thursday .
Mediators in talks between Egypt and Qatar are trying to reach a deal to halt the 14-month war that would include the release of hostages held by Hamas from Israel during the October 7, 2023 attack in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel. prisoner.
Mediators have managed to narrow some differences on previous points of contention, sources said, but differences remain.
Medical personnel reported dozens of deaths in attacks on homes, shelters and refugee camps in Gaza City, a refugee camp in central Gaza and a housing project near Beit Lahiya in the north.
The Israeli military has commented on an attack in the Tufa suburb of eastern Gaza city, which it said was carried out by Hamas militants operating out of the suburb’s regional command and control center previously used as the Karama and Shaban schools. Hamas allegedly uses these complexes to plan and carry out attacks against its forces.
Here is a selection of the latest developments:
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Israel launches massive air strikes against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen The group killed at least nine people in the port city of Hodeidah and threatened more attacks against the group, which has fired hundreds of missiles into Israel over the past year. This follows reports that Israel plans to carry out military strikes in Yemen following a recent increase in Houthi attacks, including two attacks in the past week.
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The country’s new education minister says all references to Syria’s former ruling party, the Baath Party, will be removed from the country’s education system. Nazir Mohammed Qadri added in an interview with Reuters that the country’s new leaders would not otherwise change school curricula or restrict girls’ rights to study, saying: “Education is a red line for the Syrian people. , more important than food and water… The right to education is not limited to one particular gender. There may be more girls than boys in our schools.
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The British government says any new Syrian government needs to create a “safe and peaceful” Syria, weeks after President Bashar Assad fled the country. British Foreign Secretary Anneliese Dodds said that British officials had met with the Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Damascus and that the UK would provide 61 million pounds in aid to Syria.
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Thousands of people demonstrated in northeastern Syria on Thursday in support of U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces who have been fighting Turkish-backed militants for weeks, AFP reporters said. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) showed support after Islamist-led rebels ousted Syria’s longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad earlier this month.
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Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” in the Gaza Strip in a report documenting 14 months of conflict released on Thursday. The report documented 41 attacks on Médecins Sans Frontières staff, including airstrikes on medical facilities and direct fire on humanitarian convoys, according to Agence France-Presse. The NGO said it had been forced to evacuate hospitals and health centers 17 times.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had not been defeated in Syria and that Moscow had made suggestions to Damascus’ new rulers about Russian military bases in Syria. Putin said he had not yet met Bashar al-Assad but planned to, and said he would inquire about the fate of missing American journalist Austin Tice.
Bethan McKernan
Bashar al-Assad’s face has been torn off from posters at an abandoned checkpoint that separates the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood in northern Aleppo from the rest of the city. No cars dare use the wide boulevard anymore because it remains monitored by regime-aligned Kurdish snipers. The forces retreated into bombed and burned buildings after Islamist rebel groups launched an unprecedented attack on the city in late November, setting off a chain reaction that led to the rapid collapse of the Assad dynasty.