Al-Asad airbase was targeted by 15 rockets" fired from Anbar province, which is home to the military base, an Iraqi police official from the region told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said 13 of the projectiles were shot down by anti-air defenses but that "two fell on the...

The mid-morning strike, which caused a large plume of smoke to billow into the sky, was also reported by Syrian state media. An AFP correspondent at the scene said the destroyed building was cordoned off with ambulances, firefighters and Syrian Arab Red Crescent rescue teams all present at the site.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had destroyed the "Zionist regime's spy headquarters in the Kurdistan region of Iraq." The strike came "in response to the recent vicious actions of the Zionist regime which martyred the commanders of the Revolutionary Guards and the resistance front," a Guards statement carried by Iran's...

The IRGC also hit targets in Syria with ballistic missiles, including the "gathering places of commanders and main elements related to recent terrorist operations, particularly the Islamic State group", their Sepah News service reported. It added that the strike on Syria was in response to recent attacks by terrorist groups...

Qamishli, Syria - Hundreds of northeast Syrian villages and towns have lost power after Turkish strikes pounded electricity stations and infrastructure, the region's semi-autonomous Kurdish administration said on Monday. The Kurdish administration said Turkey launched a slew of strikes since Friday, mostly concentrated on infrastructure including power stations and oil refineries....

Violence involving Iran-aligned groups in Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria has surged since the war in Gaza began in early October. The Houthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with Gaza, have carried out a growing number of attacks on what they deem Israeli-linked shipping on the key Red...

The Turkish ministry said the strikes had targeted 29 locations including "caves, bunkers, shelters and oil installations" belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the YPG (People's Protection Units), a Syrian Kurdish militia which is a central element of US-allied forces in a coalition against Islamic State. Meanwhile, 113...

Britain, the United States and eight allies said the strikes aimed to "de-escalate tensions". But Iran and other governments condemned the Western action or warned that unrest could worsen. The UN Security Council was due to hold an emergency meeting on the strikes on Friday, days after adopting a resolution...

"We have repeatedly expressed our views to the authorities of the countries of the region, including Iraq, and declared that the presence of American forces in any form whatsoever... would not help to maintain stability and peace," said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani.

Baghdad, Iraq - A "US strike" in Baghdad on Thursday killed a military commander of the Hashed al-Shaabi, the ex-paramilitary force said, with an Iraq security official reporting two deaths in a drone attack. "A drone targeted the logistical support headquarters of Hashed al-Shaabi," mainly pro-Iranian former paramilitary units integrated into...

The fighting pitted the army of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria branch. The Britain-based war monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria, said the bombardments struck a bakery, a mosque, a power plant and a popular market.

Air strikes in eastern Syria "likely" launched by Israel killed at least 19 pro-Iran fighters, a war monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "19 pro-Iranian fighters, including four Syrians, and six Iraqis, were killed and more than 18 were wounded" in at least nine air strikes overnight...

"On December 25 at 10:00 pm (0700 GMT) Russian warplanes targeted civilian houses" on the outskirts of the town of Armanaz, in Idlib province, said Abdel Halim Shehab of the White Helmets voluntary search-and-rescue group. Members of the White Helmets, which operates in rebel-held zones of northern Syria, pulled the...

Razi Moussavi "was killed during an attack by the Zionist regime a few hours ago in Zeinabiyah district in the suburbs of Damascus," Tehran's official IRNA news agency reported. The general was "active in the field of providing logistical support to the axis of resistance in Syria," IRNA said, referring...

Ankara has operated several dozen military posts in the area for the past 25 years in its decades-old war against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a group blacklisted by Turkey and many of its Western allies as a terrorist organization. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday called for retaliation...

The Syriac Catholic Church was not alone, with the leaders of three of Syria's major churches -- the Greek Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox and Melkite Greek Catholic patriarchs -- announcing they were cancelling Christmas festivities and limiting celebrations to religious ceremonies. More than 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza since...

Ankara, Turkey - Six Turkish soldiers were killed and one wounded when their base in northern Iraq was attacked by members of a Kurdish party outlawed by Ankara, the defense ministry said on Saturday. Turkey has operated several dozen military posts in northern Iraq for the past 25 years in its...

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said six other people were injured in the attacks. Earlier, five government soldiers were killed by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, formerly the local branch of Al-Qaeda, in the north of Latakia province, according to the Observatory.

There have been near-daily cross-border exchanges between Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Hamas ally in Lebanon, and Israel since the Palestinian group's unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel.

Beirut, Lebanon - Lebanon's compounding crises are having a "devastating" impact on children and their education, a United Nations agency said Wednesday, warning of additional pressure as the Israel-Hamas war spills over into the country. UN children's agency UNICEF said more than a quarter of households surveyed last month reported children...

The agency said the funding would allow it to reach 17.3m children in need of measles vaccinations, 7.6m children with acute malnutrition, and 19.3m children lacking access to education. At the same time, the United Nations Population Fund called for $1.2bn in funding "to address the mounting crises affecting women...

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, the strikes had targeted "Hizbollah sites" in the Sayeda Zeinab district and near Damascus airport. Strong explosions were reported in the suburbs of Damascus, which have been previously targeted by strikes that Syrian authorities have blamed on Israel.

On Friday, it said 11 pro-government forces and five HTS fighters had been killed after the jihadists launched an attack in neighboring Aleppo province a day earlier. Late last month, Syrian government bombardment killed nine civilians including six children as they harvested olives in Idlib province, reported the Observatory, which...

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its northern neighbour since Syria's civil war began in 2011, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, as well as Syrian army positions. But it has intensified attacks since its war with Hamas, a Hezbollah ally, began in October.

Syrian government bombardment killed nine civilians including six children as they harvested olives in northwestern Idlib province, the country's last main rebel bastion, a war monitor said. "Ground bombardment by regime forces" struck the group "in the village of Qoqfin", in Idlib province's mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya area, the Syrian Observatory...

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported "the deaths of three citizens -- two journalists and another civilian -- in enemy bombing" of the Tair Harfa area

Israel has targeted Syria several times in the past weeks as regional tensions simmer over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. While Israel rarely comments on the strikes it carries out in Syria, it has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to extend its footprint there.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that his country's forces carried out precision strikes on facilities in Syria used by Iran's IRGC and Iran-affiliated groups in response to continued attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria. It is the third time in three weeks that the US targeted locations...

President Ebrahim Raisi has said Iran sees it as "its duty to support the resistance groups" but insisted that they act independently.

Washington, United States - Over the last three weeks, Iran-backed militia groups have attacked US bases and facilities in Iraq and Syria 41 times. The US has defended itself against those attacks and will continue to do so, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East said. Following...

Over 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in what is referred to by Palestinians as the "Nakba" (catastrophe in Arabic). Around 180,000 fled to Gaza, with the rest scattered across the West Bank and neighboring Arab countries, specifically Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Dubai, UAE - Middle East powers should maintain their push to de-escalate the region through trade and economic ties despite the Israel-Hamas war, a senior United Arab Emirates official said on Saturday. The sudden flare-up in Gaza, after a deadly attack by Hamas, follows a period of fence-mending in the region including...

Baghdad, Iraq - An international summit in Baghdad on "regional stability" planned for late November has been postponed due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, an Iraqi official told AFP on Thursday. The third edition of the Baghdad conference "for economic integration and regional stability", co-organised by France, "is postponed until further...

United Nations - The United Nations on Monday warned that Syria was at its "most dangerous" point in a long time as violence surges and as "spillover" from the Israel-Hamas war starts to have an impact. Syria has "seen growing instability and violence, exacerbated by the lack of a meaningful...

"Dozens" of tanks entered the Zaytun district for over an hour, witnesses told AFP, saying they were "firing at any vehicle" driving along the main Salahedin Road. Warplanes also bombed the road, leaving large craters in it. More than 8,300 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombardments since Oct 7.

A string of attacks have been carried out against US forces in Iraq and Syria as well as increasing exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanon border since the Gaza conflict began. Late Sunday, the Israeli military said it was striking "Hezbollah terrorist targets in Lebanon".

Israeli strikes have now killed more than 6,500 people in Gaza, a rise of over 700 since Tuesday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. One doctor said he was forced to perform emergency surgery on the wounded without anesthetic. Israel has cut off impoverished Gaza's usual water, food and other supplies,...

Many states including Jordan on behalf of an Arab group of nations, Russia, Syria, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Combodia formally requested General Assembly president to schedule the meeting. The UN Security Council, regularly divided on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, rejected a Russian draft resolution last week calling for a "humanitarian pause."

While Israeli strikes have repeatedly caused the grounding of flights at the government-controlled airports in the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, it is the second time simultaneous strikes have hit the facilities since this month's conflict between Israel and Hamas began. "At around 5:25 am (0225 GMT),...

The three countries are additional stops on his visit that included meetings with King of Jordan and Mahmud Abbas. Blinken said he raised with Israel the humanitarian needs of the Gaza Strip, while pledging unwavering support to Israel.

Hamas's weekend onslaught saw hundreds of fighters cross into the Israeli border in vehicles, by air and by sea, killing 1,200 people and seizing 150 hostages under the cover of a deluge of rockets. About another 1,200 people have been killed in thousands of Israeli strikes on Gaza, while a...

"Soldiers are responding with artillery and mortar shells toward the origin of the launching in Syria," an Israeli military statement said, on the fourth day of a war with Gaza-based Hamas militants that has sent regional tensions soaring. The military said there had been "a number of launches from Syria...

Beirut, Lebanon - Shelling by government forces targeting several locations in rebel-held northwest Syria killed seven civilians including four children on Saturday, a war monitor said. The Damascus regime has been bombing opposition-held areas in apparent retaliation for an attack on a military academy graduation ceremony in Homs on Thursday...

US troops observed drones carrying out strikes early Thursday, some of them inside a "restricted operating zone" (ROZ) near Hasakeh, about a kilometer (less than a mile) from American troops, Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder told journalists. A few hours later, a Turkish drone returned to the ROZ and...

"I am gravely concerned by the escalating violence in Syria today," Geir Pedersen, the UN Special Envoy for Syria, said in a statement issued in Geneva. The conflict in Syria has killed more than half a million people since it began in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests,...

Turkey has also launched strikes on positions of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq since Sunday, when two policemen were wounded in an attack in Ankara claimed by the PKK. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan alleged the perpetrators of the attack had been trained in Syria and warned...

A branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- listed as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies -- claimed responsibility for the first bombing to hit Ankara since 2016.

Al-Haddadiya, Syria - At his farm in Syria's northeast, Abdullah al-Mohammed adjusts a large solar panel, one of hundreds that have cropped up over the years as farmers seek to stave off electricity shortages in the war-ravaged region. Solar energy has offered a lifeline for the farmers amid drought and power...

Sick prisoners sent from detention facilities to the capital's Tishreen Military Hospital for treatment rarely received any medical attention, according to a report released Tuesday by the Association of Detainees and the Missing in Sednaya Prison (ADMSP), a Turkey-based watchdog. Instead, security forces at the hospital jail and even medical...

Peaceful protests have swept Sweida province, the heartland of the country's Druze minority, since President Bashar al-Assad's government ended fuel subsidies last month. The move dealt a heavy blow to Syrians reeling from more than a decade of war and economic woes.