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Syrian and Russian Airstrikes in Idlib, Militant Attacks Amount to War Crimes - UN

Saher al-Ali's family members stand inside their damaged house in the rebel-held town of Nairab, Idlib region, Syria April 17, 2020. Picture taken April 17, 2020. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo
Saher al-Ali's family members stand inside their damaged house in the rebel-held town of Nairab, Idlib region, Syria April 17, 2020. Picture taken April 17, 2020. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo
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Syrian and Russian Airstrikes in Idlib, Militant Attacks Amount to War Crimes - UN

Saher al-Ali's family members stand inside their damaged house in the rebel-held town of Nairab, Idlib region, Syria April 17, 2020. Picture taken April 17, 2020. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo
Saher al-Ali's family members stand inside their damaged house in the rebel-held town of Nairab, Idlib region, Syria April 17, 2020. Picture taken April 17, 2020. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo

Syrian and Russian planes have carried out deadly aerial strikes amounting to war crimes on schools, hospitals, and markets in Idlib province, UN investigators said on Tuesday in a report that also condemned attacks by militant fighters.

They said that "indiscriminate bombardment" by pro-government forces, ahead of a March ceasefire brokered with Turkey, claimed hundreds of lives and forced nearly one million civilians to flee, which may amount to a crime against humanity.

The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria also accused Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a militant group that controls part of northwest Syria, of firing artillery into civilian areas "with no apparent legitimate military objective".

Fighters from HTS, a group formerly known as Nusra Front, have tortured and executed detainees, it added.

"What is clear from the military campaign is that pro-government forces and UN-designated terrorists flagrantly violated the laws of war and the rights of Syrian civilians," Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the UN panel, said in a statement.

The report, covering Nov. 2019 until June 2020, was based on overflight data and witness testimony.

It examines 52 "emblematic attacks" in northwest Syria, including 47 attributed to the Russian-backed Syrian government.

Russian warplanes were solely implicated in a deadly March 5 strike on a poultry farm near Marat Misrin that sheltered displaced people and in three strikes next to a hospital damaged in the rebel-held town of Ariha on Jan. 29, the report said. Russia denies involvement in the latter attack, it said.

The region is home to a mix of militant and opposition groups, many of which fled other parts of Syria as President Bashar al-Assad, with Russian backing, seized back territory from them.

"The Commission has reasonable grounds to believe that pro-government forces committed the war crimes of deliberately attacking medical personnel and facilities by conducting airstrikes," it said.

Karen Koning AbuZayd, a panel member, said: "Women, men, and children that we interviewed faced the ghastly choice of being bombarded or fleeing deeper into HTS-controlled areas where there are rampant abuses of human rights...

"The acts by HTS members amount to war crimes."

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Arab World

Russian Mariner Held After Houthi Red Sea Attack Leaves Yemen for Home

A vessel said to be Greek-operated, Liberia-flagged Eternity C sinks in a footage released by Yemen's Houthis, in the Red Sea, in this screen grab taken from a handout video released on July 9, 2025. (Handout via Reuters)
A vessel said to be Greek-operated, Liberia-flagged Eternity C sinks in a footage released by Yemen's Houthis, in the Red Sea, in this screen grab taken from a handout video released on July 9, 2025. (Handout via Reuters)
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Russian Mariner Held After Houthi Red Sea Attack Leaves Yemen for Home

A vessel said to be Greek-operated, Liberia-flagged Eternity C sinks in a footage released by Yemen's Houthis, in the Red Sea, in this screen grab taken from a handout video released on July 9, 2025. (Handout via Reuters)
A vessel said to be Greek-operated, Liberia-flagged Eternity C sinks in a footage released by Yemen's Houthis, in the Red Sea, in this screen grab taken from a handout video released on July 9, 2025. (Handout via Reuters)

A Russian ‌mariner detained for around eight months after being on board a ship attacked by Yemen's Houthi militants has left the country for Russia following medical treatment in Sanaa, the Houthi-run foreign ministry said on Thursday.

The mariner, identified by Russian media as Aleksei Galaktionov, was a crew member of a ‌Greek-operated cargo ‌ship that was sunk by ‌the ⁠Houthis in July ⁠2025. He was wounded in the attack.

"The Russian citizen was transported on a United Nations aircraft, in coordination with the UN envoy," the foreign ministry said, according to the ⁠Houthi-run news agency, adding that his ‌departure was ‌arranged after he had completed treatment.

It said the ‌move followed contacts with Russian ‌officials and with counterparts in Iran.

The crew of the ship was released in December, an official with the ship's operator and ‌a maritime security source told Reuters.

The Iran-aligned Houthis sank the ⁠Liberia-flagged ⁠Eternity C, which had 22 crew and three armed guards on board, after attacking it with sea drones and rocket-propelled grenades over two consecutive days.

The Houthis have attacked more than 100 ships in what they said was a campaign of solidarity with Palestinians during the Gaza war. They halted attacks after a ceasefire was announced in October last year.

Arab World

Pro-Palestinian Flotilla’s New Gaza Mission to Start in Spain on April 12

The Global Sumud Flotilla's first weeks-long journey across the Mediterranean Sea to Gaza, blockaded by Israel during the war against Hamas, drew worldwide attention. (Reuters)
The Global Sumud Flotilla's first weeks-long journey across the Mediterranean Sea to Gaza, blockaded by Israel during the war against Hamas, drew worldwide attention. (Reuters)
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Pro-Palestinian Flotilla’s New Gaza Mission to Start in Spain on April 12

The Global Sumud Flotilla's first weeks-long journey across the Mediterranean Sea to Gaza, blockaded by Israel during the war against Hamas, drew worldwide attention. (Reuters)
The Global Sumud Flotilla's first weeks-long journey across the Mediterranean Sea to Gaza, blockaded by Israel during the war against Hamas, drew worldwide attention. (Reuters)

A flotilla of pro-Palestinian activists who attempted to reach Gaza last year said on Thursday they would launch a new mission to the devastated territory from Barcelona on April 12.

The Global Sumud Flotilla's first weeks-long journey across the Mediterranean Sea to Gaza, blockaded by Israel during the war against Palestinian group Hamas, drew worldwide attention.

Israel's interception of their boats and arrests of the activists as they approached Gaza, which suffered severe shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel, sparked international condemnation.

The group, which described its first attempt as a humanitarian mission, said the latest trip starting in Spain's second city would gather more than 80 boats and 1,000 international participants.

"The cost of inaction is too high to bear," it said in a statement, adding that a land-based movement would join the maritime action to create pressure in multiple countries.

"As Gaza endures intensifying blockade, violence, and deprivation, the mission is a principled, nonviolent intervention: a defense of human dignity, a call for humanitarian access, and a demand for international accountability," the group said.

Gaza is under a fragile ceasefire agreed last October, which followed two years of devastating conflict sparked by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people Israel, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli figures tallied by AFP. Palestinian fighters also abducted 251 hostages.

The retaliatory Israeli military campaign killed more than 70,000 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry whose figures the United Nations considers reliable.

Both sides have repeatedly accused each other of violating the ceasefire.

Gaza's health ministry says Israeli strikes have killed more than 700 Palestinians since the truce. Israel says five of its soldiers have been killed in the same period.

Arab World

Israel Says It Has Struck Over 3,500 Targets in Lebanon in Past Month

This picture taken from the southern Lebanese area of Tyre shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the area of Naqoura on March 31, 2026. (AFP)
This picture taken from the southern Lebanese area of Tyre shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the area of Naqoura on March 31, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Says It Has Struck Over 3,500 Targets in Lebanon in Past Month

This picture taken from the southern Lebanese area of Tyre shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the area of Naqoura on March 31, 2026. (AFP)
This picture taken from the southern Lebanese area of Tyre shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the area of Naqoura on March 31, 2026. (AFP)

The Israeli military said Friday it had struck more than 3,500 targets across Lebanon in the month since fighting with the Hezbollah group began.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 after Iran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel to avenge the US-Israeli attack that killed Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel has responded with massive strikes across Lebanon and a ground offensive.

The Israeli military said Friday it had killed approximately 1,000 militants in Lebanon over the past month, with strikes targeting what it described as "terrorist infrastructure, weapons storage facilities, launch positions, and command and control headquarters" belonging to Hezbollah.

Lebanon's health ministry said on Thursday that 1,345 people had been killed and 4,040 wounded since the start of the war, including 1,129 men, 91 women and 125 children.

The ministry said the toll also included 53 healthcare workers.

Hezbollah has so far not announced its losses.

On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem would pay an "extraordinarily heavy price" for escalating attacks during the ongoing Jewish holidays.

"The Hezbollah terrorist organization you now lead, and its supporters in Lebanon, will bear the full and severe consequences," Katz said.

His warning followed claims by Hezbollah that it had carried out a series of rocket attacks on northern Israel late Wednesday and early Thursday, as Israeli Jews began marking Passover.

Katz also reiterated that Israeli forces "will clear Hezbollah and its supporters from southern Lebanon, maintain Israeli security control throughout the Litani area, and dismantle Hezbollah's military capabilities across Lebanon".

Eighteen European countries on Thursday urged Israel and Hezbollah to stop fighting as their latest conflict reached one month and with fears over Israeli plans to occupy part of southern Lebanon post-war.

"Israeli military operations in Lebanon and Hezbollah's attacks must cease," the foreign ministers of the countries including Italy, Spain, Belgium, Poland and Ireland said in a joint statement.

"We urge Israel to fully respect Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and call on all parties, both Hezbollah and Israel, to halt military action," the statement said.

The countries include Spain, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Moldova, Norway, Poland, San Marino, Slovenia and Sweden.