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More than 70 people were killed and dozens more wounded in Syria in fighting between government security forces and militants loyal to deposed ruler Bashar al-Assad, a war monitor said Friday.”More than 70 killed and dozens wounded and captured in bloody clashes and ambushes on the Syrian coast between members of the Ministry of Defense and Interior and militants from the defunct regime’s army,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a post on X.It said earlier that fighting Thursday between government forces and Assad loyalists had killed 48 people in the coastal town of Jableh and adjacent villages, saying they were “the most violent attacks against the new authorities since Assad was toppled” in December.The overall toll during this week’s unrest was not immediately clear.Pro-Assad fighters killed 16 security personnel while 28 fighters aligned with the ousted president and four civilians were also killed, the Observatory said Thursday.The earlier fighting was in the Mediterranean coastal province of Latakia, the heartland of Assad’s Alawite minority who were considered bastions of support during his rule.Mustafa Kneifati, a security official in Latakia, said that in “a well-planned and premeditated attack, several groups of Assad militia remnants attacked our positions and checkpoints,” targeting patrols in the Jableh area.The attacks resulted in “numerous martyrs and injured among our forces”, he added without providing the number of casualties.Kneifati said security forces would “work to eliminate their presence”. “We will restore stability to the region and protect the property of our people,” he declared.- Top officer arrested -The Observatory said most of the security personnel killed were from the former rebel stronghold of Idlib in the northwest.During the operation, security forces captured and arrested a former head of air force intelligence, one of the Assad family’s most trusted security agencies, state news agency SANA reported.”Our forces in the city of Jableh managed to arrest the criminal General Ibrahim Huweija,” SANA said.”He is accused of hundreds of assassinations during the era of the criminal Hafez al-Assad,” Bashar al-Assad’s father and predecessor.Huweija, who headed air force intelligence from 1987 to 2002, has long been a suspect in the 1977 murder of Lebanese Druze leader Kamal Bek Jumblatt.The provincial security director said security forces clashed with gunmen loyal to an Assad-era special forces commander in another village in Latakia, after authorities reportedly launched helicopter strikes.”The armed groups that our security forces were clashing with in the Latakia countryside were affiliated with the war criminal Suhail al-Hassan,” the security director told SANA.Nicknamed “The Tiger”, Hassan led the country’s special forces and was frequently described as Assad’s “favourite soldier”. He was responsible for key military advances by the Assad government in 2015.- Helicopter strikes -The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had earlier reported “strikes launched by Syrian helicopters on armed men in the village of Beit Ana and the surrounding forests, coinciding with artillery strikes on a neighbouring village”.SANA reported that pro-Assad militias had opened fire on “members and equipment of the defence ministry” near the village, killing one security force member and wounding two.A defence ministry source later told SANA that large military reinforcements were being deployed to the Jableh area.Alawite leaders called in a statement on Facebook for “peaceful protests” in response to the helicopter strikes, which they said had targeted “the homes of civilians”.The security forces imposed overnight curfews on Alawite-populated areas, including Latakia, the port city of Tartus and third city Homs, SANA reported.In other cities around the country, crowds gathered “in support of the security forces”, it added.Tensions erupted after residents of Beit Ana, the birthplace of Suhail al-Hassan, prevented security forces from arresting a person wanted for trading arms, the Observatory said.Security forces subsequently launched a campaign in the area, resulting in clashes with gunmen, it added.The killing of at least four civilians during a security operation in Latakia also sparked tensions, the monitor said on Wednesday.Security forces launched the campaign in the Daatour neighbourhood of the city on Tuesday after an ambush by “members of the remnants of Assad militias” killed two security personnel, state media reported.Islamist rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched a lightning offensive that toppled Assad on December 8.The country’s new security forces have since carried out extensive campaigns seeking to root out Assad loyalists from his former bastions.Residents and organisations have reported violations during those campaigns, including the seizing of homes, field executions and kidnappings.Syria’s new authorities have described the violations as “isolated incidents” and vowed to pursue those responsible.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday delayed some tariffs targeting Canada and Mexico, leading Ottawa to halt an upcoming wave of countermeasures — offering a reprieve to companies and consumers after blowback on financial markets.Stock markets tumbled after Trump’s duties of up to 25 percent took effect Tuesday, as economists warned that blanket levies could …

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Hidden behind imposing brick walls in the heart of Tehran, a renovated industrial cellar where decades ago Iranian beer was made has been transformed into a hub for contemporary art.The ambitious restoration of the derelict Argo factory has made it “one of the most beautiful buildings of Tehran”, said architect Nazanin Amirian, visiting the latest exhibition there.While the former factory with its towering chimney and cavernous cellar has been given a new life, many other historic buildings in the Iranian capital face a grimmer fate.”We hoped restoring Argo would inspire others to preserve similar buildings,” said Hamid Reza Pejman, director of the Pejman Foundation that took on the project.But “economic conditions are tough”, said Pejman, after years of crippling sanctions and with no government funding to support restoration endeavours.Established more than a century ago, the Argo factory had produced one of Iran’s oldest and biggest beer brands before falling into disuse.It had ceased operations just a few years before the 1979 Islamic revolution, which toppled Iran’s Western-backed shah and ushered in a strict ban on the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages.The brand itself lives on alcohol-free, with rights to the Argo logo transferred to a local beverage company, Pejman said.He said that since the factory was “out of operation” at the time, it was spared the fate of some other breweries which were set ablaze during the revolution.Ever since the Islamic republic banned alcohol, bootleg beverages proliferated on the black market, with toxic methanol occasionally contaminating the natural ethanol and resulting in mass poisonings.- ‘Transform the city’ -Left a crumbling structure of weathered brick walls that also served as a shelter for homeless people, the Argo building was eventually purchased by the Pejman Foundation in 2016.Its brick walls and chimney were restored, keeping their distinct industrial look, while other parts like the roof had to be entirely rebuilt.Since 2020, the building has been open to the public as a museum, featuring local and international artists.In a nod to its past life, the Argo arts centre offers non-alcoholic beer for sale.The current exhibition is a collection of installation works, sculptures and paintings by Iranian multidisciplinary artist Maryam Amini.Over the years, the building has been swallowed by Tehran’s rapid urban expansion, now surrounded by high-rises, modern cafes and sprawling commercial centres in one of the city’s busiest neighbourhoods.Much like the Argo factory until 2016, some of Tehran’s historic buildings including old movie theatres have been abandoned for years, largely due to economic hardship.Others were demolished as shifting urban priorities have favoured modern developments over restoration.Amir Ali Izadi, a 43-year-old artist visiting the factory-turned-museum, expressed his hope that similar buildings would undergo renovation.”It would transform the city’s landscape,” he said.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is to finance a joint initiative with the WTA for paid maternity leave of “up to 12 months” for players on the women’s tennis circuit, it was announced on Thursday.The PIF WTA Maternity Fund Program “will offer benefits to more than 320 eligible WTA players”, the Women’s Tennis Association said in a statement.”WTA players will for the first time receive paid maternity leave up to 12 months, and have access to grants for fertility treatments to build families, as well as other benefits,” it read.Players will have to compete “in a certain number of WTA tournaments in a window of time” to benefit from the payments.Belinda Bencic, who won Olympic gold for Switzerland in Tokyo and has returned to the WTA tour after having daughter Bella last April, welcomed the development.”Absolutely it’s the best news really,” Bencic said after cruising past Germany’s Tatjana Maria in the first round at Indian Wells in California.”I think we are very proud as players for the WTA (to be) the first sport in female sports to make this.”It’s great for everyone who is considering to have a family and come back, especially also the lower-ranked players that have to survive somehow when they are not playing for a year and a half and then trying to come back,”Bencic, who earned her first title since returning from her leave in Abu Dhabi in February, noted that her Thursday opponent Maria was a mother of two.”I’m really feeling like there are so many moms now on the tour, so we’re trying to show everyone it’s possible to have a baby and play professional tennis,” she said.- Support and flexibility -Two-time Grand Slam winner Victoria Azarenka, a WTA players’ council representative, welcomed “the beginning of a meaningful shift in how we support women in tennis, making it easier for athletes to pursue both their careers and their aspirations of starting a family.””Ensuring that programs like this exist has been a personal mission of mine,” the Belarusian former world number one, who gave birth to a son in 2016, was quoted in the statement as saying. For WTA CEO Portia Archer “this initiative will provide the current and next generation of players the support and flexibility to explore family life, in whatever form they choose.”Several top players have taken a break from their careers to give birth, with varying degrees of impact on their subsequent careers. The WTA says 25 active players are mothers.Belgian Kim Clijsters won three majors — the US Open in 2009 and 2010 and the Australian Open in 2011 — after giving birth to her daughter in 2008, following in the footsteps of Australians Margaret Court and Evonne Goolagong, who triumphed at Grand Slams as mothers.However, 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams did not win any after the birth of her first child in September 2017, even though the American reached four finals at Wimbledon and the US Open.Four-time Grand Slam winner and former world number one Naomi Osaka of Japan returned to the courts in early 2024 after giving birth to a daughter. Since then, the 27-year-old’s best result has been a final at the modest Auckland tournament in January. Criticised by some tennis figures for its record on women’s rights, Saudi Arabia has boosted its tennis investments in recent years, organising the season-ending WTA Finals for the first time in Riyadh last November.That came months after the WTA entered into a multi-year partnership with the PIF sovereign wealth fund, with the kingdom again set to host the WTA Finals in 2025 and 2026. 

Fierce fighting between Syrian security forces and gunmen loyal to deposed ruler Bashar al-Assad killed 48 people on Thursday, a war monitor said.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the clashes in the coastal town of Jableh and adjacent villages were “the most violent attacks against the new authorities since Assad was toppled” in December.Pro-Assad fighters killed 16 security personnel while 28 fighters “loyal” to ousted President Bashar al-Assad and four civilians were also killed, it said.The fighting struck in the Mediterranean coastal province of Latakia, the heartland of the ousted president’s Alawite minority who were considered bastions of support during his rule.Mustafa Kneifati, a security official in Latakia, said that in “a well-planned and premeditated attack, several groups of Assad militia remnants attacked our positions and checkpoints, targeting many of our patrols in the Jableh area.”He added that the attacks resulted in “numerous martyrs and injured among our forces” but did not give a figure.Kneifati said security forces would “work to eliminate their presence”. “We will restore stability to the region and protect the property of our people,” he declared.- Top officer arrested -The UK-based observatory said most of the security personnel killed were from the former rebel bastion of Idlib in the northwest.During the operation, security forces captured and arrested a former head of air force intelligence, one of the Assad family’s most trusted security agencies, state news agency SANA reported.”Our forces in the city of Jableh managed to arrest the criminal General Ibrahim Huweija,” SANA said.”He is accused of hundreds of assassinations during the era of the criminal Hafez al-Assad,” Bashar al-Assad’s father and predecessor.Huweija, who headed air force intelligence from 1987 to 2002, has long been a suspect in the 1977 murder of Lebanese Druze leader Kamal Bek Jumblatt.His son and successor Walid Jumblatt retweeted the news of his arrest with the comment: “Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest).”The provincial security director said security forces clashed with gunmen loyal to an Assad-era special forces commander in another village in Latakia, after authorities reportedly launched helicopter strikes.”The armed groups that our security forces were clashing with in the Latakia countryside were affiliated with the war criminal Suhail al-Hassan,” the security director told SANA.Nicknamed “The Tiger”, Hassan led the country’s special forces and was frequently described as Assad’s “favourite soldier”. He was responsible for key military advances by the Assad government in 2015.- Helicopter strikes -The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had earlier reported “strikes launched by Syrian helicopters on armed men in the village of Beit Ana and the surrounding forests, coinciding with artillery strikes on a neighbouring village”.SANA reported that militias loyal to the ousted president had opened fire on “members and equipment of the defence ministry” near the village, killing one security force member and wounding two.Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera reported that its photographer Riad al-Hussein was wounded in the clashes but that he was doing well.A defence ministry source later told SANA that large military reinforcements were being deployed to the Jableh area.Alawite leaders later called in a statement on Facebook for “peaceful protests” in response to the helicopter strikes, which they said had targeted “the homes of civilians”.The security forces imposed overnight curfews on Alawite-populated areas, including Latakia, the port city of Tartus and third city Homs, SANA reported.In other cities around the country, crowds gathered “in support of the security forces”, it added.Tensions erupted after residents of Beit Ana, the birthplace of Suhail al-Hassan, prevented security forces from arresting a person wanted for trading arms, the Observatory said.Security forces subsequently launched a campaign in the area, resulting in clashes with gunmen, it added.Tensions erupted after at least four civilians were killed during a security operation in Latakia, the monitor said on Wednesday.Security forces launched the campaign in the Daatour neighbourhood of the city on Tuesday after an ambush by “members of the remnants of Assad militias” killed two security personnel, state media reported.Islamist rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched a lightning offensive that toppled Assad on December 8.The country’s new security forces have since carried out extensive campaigns seeking to root out Assad loyalists from his former bastions.Residents and organisations have reported violations during those campaigns, including the seizing of homes, field executions and kidnappings.Syria’s new authorities have described the violations as “isolated incidents” and vowed to pursue those responsible.

Wall Street stocks resumed their downward slide on Thursday amid uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s shifting trade policy, while European bourses advanced following an ECB interest rate cut.Major US indices spent the entire day in the red, shrugging off Trump’s moves to soften tariff actions.Trump on Thursday unveiled a temporary rollback to steep tariffs …

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A major Israeli offensive which over several weeks has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians and ravaged refugee camps increasingly appears to be aligned with the “vision of annexation” of the West Bank, a UN official told AFP.Israeli forces carry out regular raids targeting militants in the West Bank, occupied since 1967, but the ongoing operation since late January is already the longest in two decades, with dire effects on Palestinians.”There are growing concerns that the reality being created on the ground aligns with the vision of annexation of the West Bank,” said Roland Friedrich, director of West Bank affairs for UNRWA, the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees.”It’s an unprecedented situation, both from a humanitarian and wider political perspective,” he said.”We talk about 40,000 people that have been forcibly displaced from their homes” in the northern West Bank, mainly from three refugee camps where the operation had begun, said Friedrich.”These camps are now largely empty,” their residents unable to return and struggling to find shelter elsewhere, he said.Inside the camps, the level of destruction to “electricity, sewage and water, but also private houses” was “very concerning”, Friedrich added.The Israeli operation, which the military says targets militants in the northern West Bank, was launched shortly after a truce took hold in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, a separate Palestinian territory.The operation initially focused on Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps, where UNRWA operates, but has since expanded to more areas of the West Bank’s north.- ‘Political operation’ -Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has said troops would remain for many months in the evacuated camps to “prevent the return of residents and the resurgence of terrorism”.And Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right politician who lives in one of dozens of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, has said that Israel would be “applying sovereignty” over parts of the territory in 2025.According to Friedrich, “the statements we are hearing indicate that this is a political operation. It is clearly being said that people will not be allowed to return.”Last year the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion saying that Israel’s prolonged presence in the West Bank was unlawful.Away from home, the displaced Palestinian residents also grapple with a worsening financial burden.”There is an increasing demand now, especially in Jenin, for public shelter, because people can’t pay these amounts for rent anymore,” said Friedrich.”Everyone wants to go back to the camps.”The UN official provided examples he said pointed to plans for long-term Israeli presence inside Palestinian cities, which should be under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA).”In Tulkarem you have more and more reports about the army just walking around… asking shop owners to keep the shops open, going out and issuing traffic tickets to cars, so almost as if there is no Palestinian Authority,” said Friedrich.”It is very worrying, including for the future of the PA as such and the investments made by the international community into building Palestinian institutions.”The Ramallah-based PA was created in the 1990s as a temporary government that would pave the way to a future sovereign state.- ‘Radicalisation’ -UNRWA is the main humanitarian agency for Palestinians, but a recent law bars the agency from working with the Israeli authorities, hindering its badly needed operations.”It’s much more complicated for us now because we can’t speak directly to the military anymore,” said Friedrich.”But at the same time, we continue to do our work,” he said, assessing needs and coordinating “the actual emergency response on the ground”.Israeli lawmakers had passed the legislation against UNRWA’s work over accusations that it had provided cover for Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip — claims the UN and many donor governments dispute.The prolonged Israeli operation could have long-term consequences for residents, particularly children traumatised by the experience of displacement, Friedrich warned.”If people can’t go back to the camp and we can’t reopen the schools… clearly, that will lead to more radicalisation going forward.”He said the situation could compound a legitimacy crisis for the PA, often criticised by militant Palestinian factions for coordinating security matters with Israel.Displaced Palestinians “feel that they are kicked out of their homes and that nobody is supporting them”, said Friedrich.A “stronger international response” was needed, he added, “both to provide humanitarian aid on the ground, and secondly, to ensure that the situation in the West Bank doesn’t spin out of control”.