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Israeli Drones Hover over Beirut and Its Suburbs

Firefighters work at the site hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Firefighters work at the site hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
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Israeli Drones Hover over Beirut and Its Suburbs

Firefighters work at the site hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Firefighters work at the site hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Israeli reconnaissance drones hovered at a low altitude on Saturday flying over the Lebanese capital Beirut and several other areas.
Lebanese media said the planes flew over the southern suburbs of Beirut, Bchamoun, Aramoun, Khaldeh, Choueifat, and other surrounding areas.

Cautious calm prevailed in the southern suburbs of Beirut one day after an Israeli airstrike targeted a building in the area.
Israel on Friday carried out its first major airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs in months, retaliating for an earlier rocket launch from Lebanon in the most serious test of a shaky ceasefire deal agreed in November.
Israel said the strike had targeted a building in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, a Hezbollah stronghold known as the Dahiyeh, that Israel said was a drone storage facility belonging to the Iranian-backed group.
The south Beirut airstrike was heard across the Lebanese capital and produced a large column of black smoke. It followed an evacuation order by Israel's military for the neighborhood, and three smaller targeted drone strikes on the building intended as warning shots, security sources told Reuters.

 

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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.