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Ship Briefly Grounded in Suez Canal Is Refloated

File photo of ships seen at the entrance of the Suez Canal. Xin Hai Tong 23 was briefly stuck after becoming grounded in the canal. Photograph: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters
File photo of ships seen at the entrance of the Suez Canal. Xin Hai Tong 23 was briefly stuck after becoming grounded in the canal. Photograph: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters
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Ship Briefly Grounded in Suez Canal Is Refloated

File photo of ships seen at the entrance of the Suez Canal. Xin Hai Tong 23 was briefly stuck after becoming grounded in the canal. Photograph: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters
File photo of ships seen at the entrance of the Suez Canal. Xin Hai Tong 23 was briefly stuck after becoming grounded in the canal. Photograph: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters

A ship was briefly stuck in the Suez Canal after running aground, before being successfully refloated after an hour and 16 minutes, a shipping agent said.

The ship, which Leth Agencies identified early on Thursday as Xin Hai Tong 23, a 190-metre bulk carrier, was freed by tugboats from the Suez Canal authority.

The Marine Traffic ship tracker and Refinitiv data had shown live updates of the ship, which sails under the Hong Kong flag, as “not under command” near the southern end of the canal, positioned at an angle next to the canal’s eastern side, surrounded by three Egyptian tugboats.

In 2021 the 400-metre, 220,000 tonne container ship Ever Given became lodged in the Suez canal for nearly a week, disrupting trade on a global scale.

The operation to free the Ever Given caused a backlog that delayed the journeys of hundreds of ships, forcing some to take a much longer route around the southern tip of Africa.

Last year tug boats refloated an oil tanker that was briefly stranded in the canal after a technical fault with its rudder, while the breakdown of a container ship caused minor delays in March.

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Kurdish Fighters Leave Northern City in Syria as Part of Deal with Central Government

A first contingent of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters leave Aleppo, headed for SDF-controlled northeastern Syria, in Aleppo, Syria, 04 April 2025. (EPA)
A first contingent of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters leave Aleppo, headed for SDF-controlled northeastern Syria, in Aleppo, Syria, 04 April 2025. (EPA)
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Kurdish Fighters Leave Northern City in Syria as Part of Deal with Central Government

A first contingent of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters leave Aleppo, headed for SDF-controlled northeastern Syria, in Aleppo, Syria, 04 April 2025. (EPA)
A first contingent of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters leave Aleppo, headed for SDF-controlled northeastern Syria, in Aleppo, Syria, 04 April 2025. (EPA)

Scores of US-backed Kurdish fighters left two neighborhoods in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo Friday as part of a deal with the central government in Damascus, which is expanding its authority in the country.

The fighters left the predominantly Kurdish northern neighborhoods of Sheikh Maksoud and Achrafieh, which had been under the control of Kurdish fighters in Aleppo over the past decade.

The deal is a boost to an agreement reached last month between Syria’s interim government and the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast. The deal could eventually lead to the merger of the main US-backed force in Syria into the Syrian army.

The withdrawal of fighters from the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) came a day after dozens of prisoners from both sides were freed in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.

Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported that government forces were deployed along the road that SDF fighters will use to move between Aleppo and areas east of the Euphrates River, where the Kurdish-led force controls nearly a quarter of Syria.

Sheikh Maksoud and Achrafieh had been under SDF control since 2015 and remained so even when forces of ousted President Bashar al-Assad captured Aleppo in late 2016. The two neighborhoods remained under SDF control when forces loyal to current interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa captured the city in November, and days later captured the capital, Damascus, removing Assad from power.

After being marginalized for decades under the rule of the Assad family rule, the deal signed last month promises Syria’s Kurds “constitutional rights,” including using and teaching their language, which were banned for decades.

Hundreds of thousands of Kurds, who were displaced during Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war, will return to their homes. Thousands of Kurds living in Syria who have been deprived of nationality for decades under Assad will be given the right of citizenship, according to the agreement.

Kurds made up 10% of the country’s prewar population of 23 million. Kurdish leaders say they don’t want full autonomy with their own government and parliament. They want decentralization and room to run their day-to day-affairs.