Türkiye Brings in New Reinforcements to Syria’s Idlib

File photo of Turkish military reinforcements heading to Idlib.
File photo of Turkish military reinforcements heading to Idlib.
TT

Türkiye Brings in New Reinforcements to Syria’s Idlib

File photo of Turkish military reinforcements heading to Idlib.
File photo of Turkish military reinforcements heading to Idlib.

The Turkish army on Monday dispatched to their positions in Syria’s eastern Idlib new military reinforcements, including a number of vehicles, tanks and field artillery.
The Turkish military convoy entered Syria via the Kafr Lossin border crossing in northern Idlib. It was later dispatched to Turkish observation posts in Sarmeen, Banash, Nayrab and Taftanaz east the governorate in northwestern Syria. The new reinforcement aims to boost Turkish presence amid the military escalation in the area.
In the past few days, Syrian regime forces and their backed-militias stepped up their attacks on northwestern Syria. Forces stationed in the vicinity of Idlib targeted several neighborhoods in the east of the city with rockets and artillery.
Turkish media outlets quoted civil defense sources as saying that five civilians were injured by Syrian regime forces and their backed Iranian militias who fired at the Saraqib area and the village of Sarmeen in eastern Idlib governorate.
On Sunday, the Turkish forces had targeted positions of the government forces in the city of Saraqib in eastern Idlib with artillery, following a rocket strike carried out by the government forces on Idlib.
The injury of five civilians was confirmed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which said that Syrian regime artillery forces had fired at Sarmeen city in eastern Idlib governorate. The shells struck the popular market in the city center near the Sarmeen High School for Girls and the ancient Grand ‘al-Kabir’ Mosque, it added.
The Observatory later mentioned that Turkish forces stationed in the “Putin-Erdogan” area fired missiles on regime positions in Saraqib and Khan Al-Sabl near the road between Damascus and Aleppo “M5.”
Meanwhile, regime forces fired highly explosive missiles on the frontlines of Al-Sirmaniya village in Hama countryside and Al-Sheikh Sandiyan village in Idlib countryside. However, no casualties were reported.
Syrian regime forces also bombed the villages of Sfuhn and Al-Baraa in Jabal al-Zawiya, south of Idlib, the villages of Kafar aama and Kafr Taal, west of Aleppo, and the Kabana area in Jabal al-Akrad, north of Latakia.
The regime forces then targeted Hayat Tahrir al-Sham positions in Jabal Al-Akrad.
For their part, Ansar al-Tawhid forces targeted the village of Al-Malaja in Jabal al-Zawiya, south of Idlib, with mortar shells, amid the hovering of intense Russian drones in Jabal al-Zawiya, Jabal Al-Akrad, and Al-Ghab plain in the Hama countryside.
In a separate development, the Turkish security forces “neutralized” five members of the People's Protection Units (YPG), the primary component of the Syrian Democratic Forces in northern Syria, the Turkish Defense Ministry said on Monday.
The YPG members were preparing for an attack in the Euphrates Shield and Peace Spring regions, the ministry said on X.



EU Says Strikes on Lebanon Endangering US-Iran Ceasefire

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on a building in Beirut, Lebanon, on April 8, 2026. Hassan Ammar, AP
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on a building in Beirut, Lebanon, on April 8, 2026. Hassan Ammar, AP
TT

EU Says Strikes on Lebanon Endangering US-Iran Ceasefire

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on a building in Beirut, Lebanon, on April 8, 2026. Hassan Ammar, AP
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on a building in Beirut, Lebanon, on April 8, 2026. Hassan Ammar, AP

The European Union on Thursday called on Israel to halt its strikes on Lebanon which it said were endangering the US-Iran ceasefire, AFP reported.

"Israeli actions are putting the US-Iran ceasefire under severe strain. The Iran truce should extend to Lebanon," the European Union's top diplomate Kaja Kallas said.

"Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into the war, but Israel's right to defend itself does not justify inflicting such massive destruction," she said.
"Israeli strikes killed hundreds last night, making it hard to argue that such heavy-handed actions fall within self-defence," she added.
"Hezbollah must disarm, as it agreed to do. The EU supports Lebanon's efforts to disarm" the Iran-backed group, Kallas added.

At least 182 people were killed in Lebanon on Wednesday when Israel intensified its attacks on the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, which joined the war in support of Tehran, according to the Associated Press. First responders searched overnight for missing people still under the rubble after the strikes, which hit commercial and residential areas of Beirut.

Israel said Thursday it killed Ali Yusuf Harshi, an aide to Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem. Hezbollah did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has insisted that an end to the war in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire deal, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump said it was not.

A New York-based think tank warned the deal “hovers on the verge of collapse.”

“Even if Lebanon was formally outside the deal, the scale of Israel’s strikes was likely to be viewed as escalatory, nonetheless,” the Soufan Center wrote in an analysis. “Israel’s strikes can be understood both as an effort to drive a wedge between Iran and its proxies and as a response to being allegedly sidelined in the original ceasefire discussions.”

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Thursday that an Israeli strike overnight had killed at least seven people in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military did not immediately acknowledge the strike.


Drone Strike Kills 12, Including Children, in Sudan's Darfur

08 April 2026, Chad, Aboutengye: Women and girls wait for water distribution at the Aboutengue refugee camp in eastern Chad near the border with Sudan. Photo: Eva Krafczyk/dpa
08 April 2026, Chad, Aboutengye: Women and girls wait for water distribution at the Aboutengue refugee camp in eastern Chad near the border with Sudan. Photo: Eva Krafczyk/dpa
TT

Drone Strike Kills 12, Including Children, in Sudan's Darfur

08 April 2026, Chad, Aboutengye: Women and girls wait for water distribution at the Aboutengue refugee camp in eastern Chad near the border with Sudan. Photo: Eva Krafczyk/dpa
08 April 2026, Chad, Aboutengye: Women and girls wait for water distribution at the Aboutengue refugee camp in eastern Chad near the border with Sudan. Photo: Eva Krafczyk/dpa

A drone strike on Kutum in Sudan's North Darfur state has killed 12 civilians, including six children, a medical source and local activists said Thursday.

A medical source told AFP that those brought to the town's hospital included 12 dead, among them six children, including three secondary school students. Sixteen others were injured, including women and children, and are receiving treatment.

The El-Fasher Resistance Committee, a pro-democracy group, said the strike on Wednesday hit the Al-Salama neighborhood near Al-Um Girls' School, blaming the Sudanese army, which has been at war with the Rapid Support Forces since April 2023.


Palestinian Health Ministry: Israeli Fire Kills One in West Bank

A resident inspects a car that, according to the Palestine Red Crescent, was torched by Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Tayasir, near Tubas, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
A resident inspects a car that, according to the Palestine Red Crescent, was torched by Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Tayasir, near Tubas, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
TT

Palestinian Health Ministry: Israeli Fire Kills One in West Bank

A resident inspects a car that, according to the Palestine Red Crescent, was torched by Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Tayasir, near Tubas, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
A resident inspects a car that, according to the Palestine Red Crescent, was torched by Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Tayasir, near Tubas, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

The Palestinian health ministry said on Thursday that Israeli forces fatally shot a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank a day earlier, while the Israeli military said an off-duty soldier fired at a stone-thrower.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry said 28-year-old Alaa Khaled Mohammed Sbeih "was shot and killed" by Israeli forces on Wednesday night near the village of Tayasir in the northern West Bank.

The military said troops were dispatched to the area on Wednesday "following a report of an incident between Palestinians and Israeli civilians, which included hurling rocks," adding that an Israeli and a Palestinian civilian were injured in the incident and taken to hospital.

"From initial inquiry, it emerged that an off-duty soldier fired toward a Palestinian after he threw stones at the Israeli civilians," the statement said, adding that the incident was under review.

The military often uses the term off-duty soldier to refer to Israeli settlers in the West Bank, who also serve in the army and sometimes carry their weapons with them when off duty.

Violence in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, has surged since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas which triggered the war in Gaza.

It has continued despite a ceasefire in Gaza in effect since October.

According to an AFP tally based on figures from the Palestinian health ministry, at least 1,057 Palestinians -- including many militants as well as civilians -- have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war.

At least 46 Israelis, both civilians and soldiers, have been killed in the same territory in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, according to official Israeli data.