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Turkey Announces Idlib Ceasefire for Jan. 12 as Strikes Continue

Smoke rises up from bombing by a Syrian regime warplane in Taftanaz village, Idlib province, northern Syria. (AP)
Smoke rises up from bombing by a Syrian regime warplane in Taftanaz village, Idlib province, northern Syria. (AP)
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Turkey Announces Idlib Ceasefire for Jan. 12 as Strikes Continue

Smoke rises up from bombing by a Syrian regime warplane in Taftanaz village, Idlib province, northern Syria. (AP)
Smoke rises up from bombing by a Syrian regime warplane in Taftanaz village, Idlib province, northern Syria. (AP)

Turkey’s Defense Ministry said on Friday that it had agreed with Russia that a ceasefire will be implemented on Sunday in northwestern Syria’s Idlib region to stem the flow of civilians uprooted by the violence.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled attacks in Idlib province toward the Turkish border in recent weeks, as towns and villages have been pounded by Russian jets and Syrian artillery since a renewed regime assault last month.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry said attacks by air and land would halt at one minute past midnight on Jan. 12 under the ceasefire, which Ankara has been seeking for several weeks.

The announcement came a day after a Russian defense ministry official was quoted as saying that a ceasefire had already been implemented at 1100 GMT on Thursday, in line with agreements with Turkey.

Some 3.6 million Syrians have sought shelter in Turkey from their country’s nearly nine-year-old war. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey cannot carry the burden of more refugees from Idlib, where up to 3 million people live.

Many Syrians still in Idlib are completely dependent on cross-border aid, according to the United Nations, but a six-year-long United Nations operation delivering supplies will expire at midnight on Friday if a deadlocked UN Security Council cannot reach a last-minute deal to extend its authorization.

Syrian regime leader Bashar Assad, backed by Russia and Iran, has vowed to recapture Idlib, the last opposition-held swathe of territory. Turkey has for years backed Syrian factions fighting to oust Assad.

On Friday, regime warplanes bombed Idlib, less than 24 hours after the ceasefire went into effect there, opposition activists said.

Nevertheless, activists reported an overall drop in violence in Idlib compared to the past three weeks.

Friday's airstrikes were reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which said Russia warplanes executed intensive raids on the strategic rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan and surrounding villages.

The Britain-based organization, which documents the war in Syria through a network of activists on the ground, also said regime forces and opposition fighters clashed in eastern parts of Idlib province Friday morning.

The Smart news agency, a Syrian opposition activist collective, said Friday's airstrikes concentrated on the western and northern neighborhoods of Maaret al-Numan.

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Drone Strike Targets Port Sudan Naval Base 

A view shows a large plume of smoke and fire rising from fuel depot in Port Sudan, Sudan, May 6, 2025. (Reuters)
A view shows a large plume of smoke and fire rising from fuel depot in Port Sudan, Sudan, May 6, 2025. (Reuters)
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Drone Strike Targets Port Sudan Naval Base 

A view shows a large plume of smoke and fire rising from fuel depot in Port Sudan, Sudan, May 6, 2025. (Reuters)
A view shows a large plume of smoke and fire rising from fuel depot in Port Sudan, Sudan, May 6, 2025. (Reuters)

A drone strike targeted Sudan's biggest naval base on Wednesday, an army source told AFP, marking the fourth straight day the seat of the army-backed government has come under attack.

It comes a day after the government severed ties with the United Arab Emirates, which it accuses of supplying rival paramilitaries with weapons used to attack the army.

Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast had been a safe haven, hosting hundreds of thousands of displaced people and United Nations offices, until Sunday when drone strikes blamed on the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries began.

Wednesday's drone strikes "were met with anti-aircraft missiles", the army source said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

An AFP correspondent reported a series of explosions from the direction of the Flamingo Base, just north of the city.

Later Wednesday, residents reported air defenses in action against drones circling above the city.

War has raged since April 2023 between Sudan's regular armed forces and the RSF.

- 'Major escalation' -

Nearly 600 kilometers (375 miles) further south, "three drones attempted to strike airport facilities" in the army-held eastern city of Kassala on Wednesday, near the border with Eritrea, a security source said.

Witnesses told AFP they heard explosions from anti-aircraft missiles west of the city, which has also come under repeated attack this week.

In the city of Merowe in Northern state, around 420 kilometers from Khartoum, residents reported drones overhead being intercepted by anti-aircraft fire.

Nationwide, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 13 million.

It has also effectively split Sudan in two, with the army controlling the center, north and east, while the RSF holds nearly all of Darfur in the west and parts of the south.

The RSF has not directly commented on this week's attacks on Port Sudan, about 650 kilometers from its nearest known positions on the outskirts of the capital.

A spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called the drone strikes a "major escalation (that) could lead to large-scale civilian casualties and further destruction of critical infrastructure".

Port Sudan is the main entry point for humanitarian aid into Sudan, and Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the attacks "threaten to increase humanitarian needs and further complicate aid operations in the country".

Famine has been declared in some areas in Sudan and nearly 25 million people are suffering dire food insecurity.

The UN also has warned of more "human suffering in what is already the world's largest humanitarian crisis".

- 'Advanced weaponry' -

French medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Wednesday its services in the northern River Nile state have been disrupted after drone attacks targeted a power plant in state capital Atbara.

The attacks caused a major power outage and affected the city's water treatment plant, disrupting access to clean water and risking a surge in waterborne diseases such as cholera, MSF said.

The attacks also scaled down production at the state's oxygen concentration factory, which provides health facilities with oxygen tanks.

MSF said such attacks on infrastructure "have a devastating impact on the health of the local communities" and harm "an already overburdened health system".

The drone campaign comes after the RSF in March lost control of nearly all of greater Khartoum.

The army-backed foreign ministry described the attack on Port Sudan as "a full-fledged crime of aggression", which it said was carried out with "strategic drones and advanced weaponry".

Sudan has accused the UAE of supplying the RSF with the weapons it has used to strike Port Sudan.

The UAE has repeatedly denied arming the RSF.

On Wednesday, it rejected the severing of ties, saying the decision was made by an administration that "does not represent the legitimate government of Sudan".