Syria Regime Conducts Deadly Strike on Clinic in Northwest

A picture shows a building sheltering the only medical center in Syria's northwestern Jabal az-Zawiya region struck by pre-dawn shelling on September 8, 2021. (Photo by Omar HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
A picture shows a building sheltering the only medical center in Syria's northwestern Jabal az-Zawiya region struck by pre-dawn shelling on September 8, 2021. (Photo by Omar HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
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Syria Regime Conducts Deadly Strike on Clinic in Northwest

A picture shows a building sheltering the only medical center in Syria's northwestern Jabal az-Zawiya region struck by pre-dawn shelling on September 8, 2021. (Photo by Omar HAJ KADOUR / AFP)
A picture shows a building sheltering the only medical center in Syria's northwestern Jabal az-Zawiya region struck by pre-dawn shelling on September 8, 2021. (Photo by Omar HAJ KADOUR / AFP)

Regime shelling on a medical center in northwestern Syria killed a woman Wednesday, in the latest in a long list of government attacks on health facilities, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The pre-dawn shelling in Marayan hit a building housing one of the few health centers in this part of Idlib province, it reported.

An AFP photographer saw men salvaging medical equipment from the damaged two-story building on the ground floor, where the health center was located.

The wife of the center’s director, who lived on the destroyed first floor of the same building, was killed by the shelling, the Observatory said.

In recent days, regime and allied forces have ratcheted up their attacks on parts of the Idlib region still controlled by opposition groups.

Four civilians, including a young woman and a child, were killed on Tuesday in rare artillery fire on the provincial capital of Idlib, the UK-based war monitor said.

The Idlib region, which is home to about three million people and borders Turkey, is the last pocket to oppose Damascus in the decade-old conflict.



Three Killed in Israeli Strike Targeting Hezbollah Militant in Beirut

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
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Three Killed in Israeli Strike Targeting Hezbollah Militant in Beirut

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

At least three people were killed and seven wounded in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs early on Tuesday, the Lebanese health ministry said, further testing a shaky four-month ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday in a statement that it attacked a Hezbollah militant "who had recently directed Hamas operatives and assisted them".
The attack took place a few days after a previous strike by Israel on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, a Hezbollah stronghold known as the Dahiyeh.
There was no immediate statement from Hezbollah on the identity of the target.
The strike appeared to have damaged the upper three floors of a building in Beirut's southern suburbs, a Reuters reporter at the scene said, with the balconies of those floors blown out. The glass on the floors below was intact, indicating a target strike. Ambulances were at the scene to recover casualties.
There was no evacuation warning issued for the area ahead of the strike, and families fled in the aftermath to other parts of Beirut, according to witnesses.
The ceasefire agreement halted the year-long conflict and mandated that southern Lebanon be free of Hezbollah fighters and weapons, that Lebanese troops deploy to the area and that Israeli ground troops withdraw from the zone. But each side accuses the other of not entirely living up to those terms.
However, the US-brokered truce has looked increasingly flimsy lately. Israel delayed a promised troop withdrawal in January and said that it had intercepted rockets fired from Lebanon in March, which led it to bombard targets in Beirut's southern suburbs and southern Lebanon.
The Iran-aligned Hezbollah has denied any involvement in the rocket firings.
The US State Department said on Tuesday that Israel was defending itself from rocket attacks that came from Lebanon and that Washington blamed "terrorists" for the resumption of hostilities.
"Hostilities have resumed because terrorists launched rockets into Israel from Lebanon," a State Department spokesperson said in an email, adding Washington supported Israel's response.
The Israeli-Lebanese conflict, in which thousands of people have been killed, was ignited by the Gaza war in 2023 when Hezbollah started firing rockets at Israeli military positions in support of its ally Hamas.
The Gaza war, in which Palestinian health authorities say more than 50,000 people have been killed, was triggered when the Hamas group attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.