Monitor: Syrian Regime Captures Strategic Town in Idlib

Rescuers search for survivors after a Syrian regime air strike on Kfar Ruma town in Idlib province on May 30, 2019. via AFP
Rescuers search for survivors after a Syrian regime air strike on Kfar Ruma town in Idlib province on May 30, 2019. via AFP
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Monitor: Syrian Regime Captures Strategic Town in Idlib

Rescuers search for survivors after a Syrian regime air strike on Kfar Ruma town in Idlib province on May 30, 2019. via AFP
Rescuers search for survivors after a Syrian regime air strike on Kfar Ruma town in Idlib province on May 30, 2019. via AFP

Syrian regime forces captured on Sunday a northwestern village from militants after clashes that left more than a dozen killed on both sides, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syrian troops captured Msheirfeh after clashes with insurgents that left some of them killed or wounded, state news agency SANA reported.

The Britain-based monitor said the village was taken by regime forces in fighting that left six troops and nine insurgents dead.

The Syrian regime launched a four-month offensive earlier this year against the country’s last opposition stronghold in Idlib Province, according to the Associated Press (AP).

The offensive forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee their homes.

A fragile ceasefire halted the advance at the end of August, but in recent weeks it has been repeatedly violated.

In eastern Syria, a mine left behind since the days of ISIS in the village of Taybeh killed a child and wounded 17 others in a school field, according to SANA.

The Observatory said the blast in the village in Deir el-Zour Province killed five children and wounded others.

Mines left behind by the extremist group have killed or maimed scores of people over the past months.

ISIS lost the last area it controlled in Syria in March marking the end of its self-declared caliphate, AP reported.



WHO Chief Says He Was at Yemen Airport as Israeli Bombs Fell Nearby

FILE: A crater is seen on the tarmac of the international airport of Yemen's capital Sanaa, April 29, 2015. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
FILE: A crater is seen on the tarmac of the international airport of Yemen's capital Sanaa, April 29, 2015. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
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WHO Chief Says He Was at Yemen Airport as Israeli Bombs Fell Nearby

FILE: A crater is seen on the tarmac of the international airport of Yemen's capital Sanaa, April 29, 2015. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
FILE: A crater is seen on the tarmac of the international airport of Yemen's capital Sanaa, April 29, 2015. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

A wave of Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen's main airport Thursday just as the World Health Organization’s director-general said he was about to board a flight there. One of the UN plane’s crew was wounded, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X.

The Israeli military said it attacked infrastructure used by Yemen's Houthis at the international airport in the capital Sanaa, as well as power stations and ports, alleging they were used to smuggle in Iranian weapons and for the entry of senior Iranian officials, The AP reported.

UN associate spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay said the rest of the U.N. team left the airport and are “safe and sound” in Sanaa, and the injured crew member is being treated in a hospital, she said.

Last week, Israeli jets bombed Sanaa and Hodeida, killing nine people. The US military also has targeted the Houthis in Yemen in recent days.

Israel's latest wave of strikes in Yemen follows several days of Houthi launches setting off air-raid sirens in Israel. The Houthis have also been targeting shipping in the Red Sea corridor, calling it solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel's war in Gaza has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.