Lebanon Says Israeli Strike Kills One in South

 People douse the flames of a car hit by an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese village of Burj al-Muluk on March 15, 2025, in which one person was reportedly killed. (AFP)
People douse the flames of a car hit by an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese village of Burj al-Muluk on March 15, 2025, in which one person was reportedly killed. (AFP)
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Lebanon Says Israeli Strike Kills One in South

 People douse the flames of a car hit by an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese village of Burj al-Muluk on March 15, 2025, in which one person was reportedly killed. (AFP)
People douse the flames of a car hit by an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese village of Burj al-Muluk on March 15, 2025, in which one person was reportedly killed. (AFP)

An Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon on Sunday killed one person, the health ministry said, the latest attack more than three months into a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

The strike, which also wounded one person, targeted a four-wheel-drive vehicle near Yater in Bint Jbeil district at around 2:00 am, the official National News Agency reported.

"The Israeli enemy's air strike on a vehicle in the town of Yater resulted in the martyrdom of a citizen and the injury of another," the ministry said in a statement carried by NNA.

It comes a day after the ministry said one person was killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the southern border town of Burj al-Muluk.

Following that raid, the Israeli military said it "struck a Hezbollah terrorist who took part in terrorist activity in the area of Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon".

And on Tuesday, the Israeli military said it carried out a strike in southern Lebanon that killed a senior Hezbollah member.

That came as Lebanon received four detainees who had been taken to Israel during fighting with Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group, with a fifth detainee, a soldier, released on Thursday after he was taken earlier this month.

A November 27 truce largely halted more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, including two months of full-blown war in which Israel sent in ground troops.

Israel has continued to carry out periodic strikes on Lebanese territory since the agreement took effect.

Israel had been due to withdraw from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops at five locations it deems "strategic".

The ceasefire also required Hezbollah to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and to dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.



Germany Hands Syrian Doctor Life for Torturing Assad Critics

Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)
Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)
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Germany Hands Syrian Doctor Life for Torturing Assad Critics

Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)
Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)

A Syrian doctor who had practiced in Germany was sentenced to life in prison by a German court on Monday for crimes against humanity and war crimes after he was found guilty of torturing dissidents in Syria.

The 40-year-old, identified only as Alaa M. in accordance with German privacy laws, was found guilty of killing two people and torturing another eight during his time working in Syria as a doctor at a military hospital and detention center in Homs in 2011 and 2012.

The court said his crimes were part of a systematic attack against people protesting against then-President Bashar al-Assad that precipitated the country's civil war.

Assad was toppled in December. His government denied it tortured prisoners.

Alaa M. arrived in Germany in 2015, after fleeing to Germany among a large influx of Syrian refugees, and became one of roughly 10,000 Syrian medics who helped ease acute staff shortages in the country's healthcare system.

He was arrested in June 2020, and was handed a life sentence without parole, the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt said in a statement.

The defendant had pleaded not guilty, saying he was the target of a conspiracy.

German prosecutors have used universal jurisdiction laws that allow them to seek trials for suspects in crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.

They have targeted several former Syrian officials in similar cases in recent years.

The plaintiffs were supported by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.

ECCHR lawyer Patrick Kroker called Monday's ruling "a further step towards a comprehensive reckoning with Assad's crimes".

Judges found that the doctor caused "considerable physical suffering" as a result of the torture inflicted on his victims, which included serious beatings, mistreating wounds and inflicting serious injury to the genitals of two prisoners, one of whom was a teenage boy.

Two patients died after he gave them lethal medication, the court statement said.

Monday's ruling can be appealed.