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Arab World

Syria War Deaths Reach 387,000 in Slowest Annual Increase, Says Monitor

People visit a cemetery in the al-Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo. (Reuters file photo)
People visit a cemetery in the al-Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo. (Reuters file photo)
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Syria War Deaths Reach 387,000 in Slowest Annual Increase, Says Monitor

People visit a cemetery in the al-Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo. (Reuters file photo)
People visit a cemetery in the al-Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo. (Reuters file photo)

The overall death toll for Syria's war has crept up to 387,000 following the least deadly of 10 years of conflict, a monitor said Wednesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria, said the new figure included almost 117,000 civilians, among them more than 22,000 children.

The Observatory's previous tally was issued in January and stood at more than 380,000.

The fighting, which erupted in 2011 after the brutal repression of anti-government protests, has largely abated this year as a ceasefire held in northwestern Syria and attention turned to containing the coronavirus pandemic.

The latest toll included more than 130,500 pro-government fighters, among them foreigners.

More than half of those were Syrian soldiers, while 1,703 were from the Lebanese Hezbollah party whose members have been fighting in Syria since 2013.

The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 57,000 non-extremist opposition fighters.

It has also killed more than 67,500 extremists, mainly from the ISIS group and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group dominated by ex-members of Syria's former al-Qaeda affiliate.

More than 12,500 Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces fighters have been killed in battles against ISIS and Turkish forces.

The Observatory's toll does not include some 88,000 people it says died of torture in government-run prisons, nor thousands who were abducted during the conflict and are still missing.

After turning the tide of the war with Russian and Iranian support since 2015, the Syrian government now controls around two-thirds of the country.

Among the regions still beyond its reach are the last opposition enclave of Idlib in the northwest, Turkish-held areas along the northern border, and northeastern parts of the country held by US-backed Kurdish forces.

The war has forced more than half the country's pre-war population to flee their homes.

Some 6.7 million Syrians remained displaced inside the country, while 5.5 million are registered as refugees abroad, according to the United Nations.

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Arab World

Israel Pounds South Beirut, Says Captured Hezbollah Members

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 24, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 24, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Pounds South Beirut, Says Captured Hezbollah Members

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 24, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 24, 2026. (AFP)

A series of strikes hit Beirut's southern suburbs on Monday and early Tuesday, the first attack on the Hezbollah stronghold in days, as Israel's military said it captured two members of the Iran-backed group in southern Lebanon.

An earlier Israeli strike hit the upscale, predominantly Christian area of Hazmieh near Beirut, with Israel saying it targeted a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' foreign operations arm.

AFPTV's live broadcast showed clouds of smoke over the capital's southern suburbs, and Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported a series of strikes on the area, with low Israeli warplanes heard across Beirut and its surroundings.

The Israeli military also announced it was "striking Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut" after having called on residents to leave the southern suburbs beforehand.

Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East war when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei in an Israeli-US attack.

Israel has since launched strikes across Lebanon, killing at least 1,039 people, and sent ground troops into the country's south.

In a statement on Monday, the Israeli army said that "during an activity to locate weapons in southern Lebanon, (Israeli) troops identified several armed Hezbollah Radwan Force terrorists who were planning to fire an anti-tank missile", referring to the group's commando force.

"After being identified, the terrorists surrendered. They were apprehended by the troops and transferred to Israeli territory for further questioning," it added.

The Israeli military told AFP two Hezbollah members were captured.

Hezbollah, for its part, announced more than 50 attacks targeting Israeli troops and bases in northern Israel and southern Lebanon, particularly in the border coastal town of Naqoura.

The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) announced Monday that its headquarters in Naqoura had been hit by a projectile, probably launched by a "non-state actor".

Elsewhere in the south, the NNA reported several Israeli strikes.

Early on Tuesday, the Israeli military issued evacuation warnings for two coastal towns near the southern city of Tyre.

- Strike near Beirut -

The Israeli strike on Hazmieh killed at least one person, according to Lebanon's health ministry.

The upmarket area, overlooking Beirut and adjacent to the presidential palace, houses diplomatic missions, government offices and luxurious residential buildings.

The Israeli military said it had "struck an IRGC Quds Force terrorist in Beirut", referring to the foreign operations arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Mayor Jean Asmar told journalists at the scene that the strike targeted a room inside an apartment rented by a displaced family.

Asmar said the attack forced the municipality to take new measures regarding hosting people displaced by the war, "so that this incident is not repeated".

Israel had previously struck the area on March 5, though it was not clear who the target was. It said another strike in central Beirut days later killed five people, including three Quds Force commanders.

Iran accused Israel of killing four of its diplomats in that attack.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Sunday told the Al Hadath network that Iran's Revolutionary Guards were "unfortunately... managing the military operation in Lebanon".

- 'Only just begun' -

The two Hezbollah members captured in the south were the latest additions to a list of Lebanese who have been held in Israel since the last war between it and the group.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hussein al-Hajj Hassan said in January that Israel was holding "20 Lebanese prisoners", alleging 10 had been abducted "inside Lebanese territory after the ceasefire" that sought to end the previous conflict in 2024.

The next month, Israeli forces seized a member of the Hamas-allied Jamaa Islamiya in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli army's Arabic-language spokesperson Ella Waweya said on Monday "the battle against Hezbollah... has only just begun".

In a video statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country will "continue to strike both in Iran and in Lebanon".

Israel earlier struck a bridge linking areas in southern Lebanon to the Bekaa Valley in the east of the country, a day after a major bridge in the Tyre region was targeted.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday he and Netanyahu had instructed the military to "destroy all the bridges over the Litani River that are used for terrorist activity".

Arab World

World Gave Israel ‘License to Torture Palestinians’, Says UN Expert

United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese presents her latest report before delegates at the UN Rights Council, in Geneva, on March 23, 2026. (AFP)
United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese presents her latest report before delegates at the UN Rights Council, in Geneva, on March 23, 2026. (AFP)
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World Gave Israel ‘License to Torture Palestinians’, Says UN Expert

United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese presents her latest report before delegates at the UN Rights Council, in Geneva, on March 23, 2026. (AFP)
United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese presents her latest report before delegates at the UN Rights Council, in Geneva, on March 23, 2026. (AFP)

The world has given Israel "a license to torture Palestinians", a UN expert said Monday, with life in the occupied territories "a continuum of physical and mental suffering".

Francesca Albanese, the UN's special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, said "torture has effectively become state policy" in Israel.

"Israel has effectively been given a license to torture Palestinians, because most of your governments, your ministers, have allowed it," she said, as she presented her latest report to the UN Human Rights Council.

Albanese has faced harsh criticism, allegations of anti-Semitism and demands for her removal, from Israel and some of its allies, over her relentless criticism and long-standing accusations of "genocide".

"Francesca Albanese is not a promoter of human rights; she is an agent of chaos... and any document she produces is nothing but a politically-charged, activist rant," Israel's mission in Geneva said in a statement Monday.

Albanese "advocates dangerous extremist narratives to undermine the very existence of the State of Israel", it said.

Albanese's report claimed Israel was systematically torturing Palestinians on a scale "that suggests collective vengeance and destructive intent".

"My report also shows that torture extends far beyond prison walls, in what can only be described as a torturous environment imposed by Israel across the entire occupied Palestinian territory," she told the Human Rights Council.

She said torture destroys the conditions that make life meaningful, stripping away human dignity, leaving empty shells behind.

"The testimonies that I and many others are documenting are not only tragic stories of suffering; they are evidence of atrocity crimes targeting the totality of the Palestinian people, across the totality of the occupied land, through a totality of criminal conduct," she said.

Albanese warned that the international response would be a test of countries' collective legal and moral responsibility.

"Disregard for international law will not stop in Palestine. It is already unfolding from Lebanon to Iran, across the Gulf countries, and in Venezuela. And if left unchecked, it will spread far beyond," she said.

Though appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, special rapporteurs are independent experts and do not speak on behalf of the United Nations itself.

Arab World

Iran Pledges to its Allies in Lebanon to Include Them in Any Possible Deal to End the War

President Joseph Aoun meets with parliament Speaker Nabih Berri at the Baabda presidential palace. (Lebanese Presidency)
President Joseph Aoun meets with parliament Speaker Nabih Berri at the Baabda presidential palace. (Lebanese Presidency)
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Iran Pledges to its Allies in Lebanon to Include Them in Any Possible Deal to End the War

President Joseph Aoun meets with parliament Speaker Nabih Berri at the Baabda presidential palace. (Lebanese Presidency)
President Joseph Aoun meets with parliament Speaker Nabih Berri at the Baabda presidential palace. (Lebanese Presidency)

Widely informed Lebanese sources revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that Iran has “clearly pledged” to leaderships in Beirut to include Lebanon in any possible deal that could end the war between it and the US and Israel.

The sources said Lebanese officials learned through non-diplomatic channels that Tehran informed a number of its allies in Lebanon that any agreement to end the war will “certainly include Lebanon.”

Lebanon fears that should the war end, Israel will shift all of its attention on the Lebanese front. The Israeli military’s recent maneuvers indicate that it may be planning to launch broader operations.

President Joseph Aoun, meanwhile, received parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and army commander Rodolphe Haykal in separate meetings at the Baabda presidential palace.

In a telephone call with Asharq Al-Awsat, Berri hoped that Iran and the US would reach a deal soon and that it would also lead to an end to Israel’s war on Lebanon.

President Joseph Aoun meets with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam at the Baabda presidential palace. (Lebanese Presidency)

Asked if Aoun had brought up with him the issue of naming a Shiite representative to the Lebanese delegation expected to hold negotiations with Israel, he replied: “I focused on the issues of the displaced that should be addressed through the utmost seriousness.”

He expressed his concern that “Israel may exploit the situation in order stir strife in Lebanon.”

“Israel is bombing bridges in the South and we must not lose internal bridges of communications. This is what Israel is seeking,” he warned.

A statement from the presidency said Aoun and Berri discussed Israel’s targeting of bridges with the aim to cut off the South from the rest of Lebanon. They addressed the plight of the nearly 1 million displaced people.

They praised the Lebanese people for welcoming the displaced, underlining national unity and solidarity during the crisis and the importance of maintaining civil peace and avoiding rumors that aim to harm Lebanon.

Aoun then met with PM Salam, who told reporters at the presidential palace that he was in daily contact with the president. “We are working with everyone to end the war as soon as possible,” he added.

Damage at the site of an Israeli strike targeting the Qasmiyeh bridge near Tyre, southern Lebanon, 23 March 2026. (EPA)

After meeting with Aoun, Jumblatt condemned to reporters “accusations of treason” that have been directed against the president and prime minister given their willingness for Lebanon to hold negotiations with Israel.

“Negotiations are acceptable if they are held on declared foundations. The president's swearing in speech committed to the truce agreement, Taif Accord and international resolutions,” he went on to say.

“Negotiations are among the world’s legitimate means. We object to the rejection of the negotiations for the sake of rejecting them and for keeping Lebanon an open battlefield,” he stressed.

Aoun and Haykal discussed the security situation in the country, especially in the South amid the expected Israel escalation.

The president urged the army commander to bolster security measures throughout the country, especially in Beirut and to closely watch over the safety of displacement shelters.