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Kurdish rebels reaffirmed on Tuesday that they will start withdrawing guerrilla fighters from Turkey to bases in northern Iraq this week.
The Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, declared a cease-fire in March and promised to gradually pull fighters out of Turkey as part of peace talks aimed at ending a nearly three-decade-old conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people. The group has been fighting Turkey for autonomy for Kurds in southeastern Turkey.
A Syrian official called an attack Sunday on the nation’s military research facility a “declaration of war” by Israel.
In an exclusive interview with CNN hours after a series of massive explosions illuminated the predawn sky in Damascus, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al Mekdad said the attack represented an alliance between Islamic terrorists and Israel.
Israeli officials confirmed Saturday that the Israeli Air Force carried out a strike against Syria that targeted a shipment of advanced missiles.
The officials said the shipment was not of chemical arms, but of “game changing” weapons bound for the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group. They say the airstrike was early Friday. They did not say where it took place.
Government forces and militia members loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have stormed the coastal village of al-Baida, killing between 50 and 100 people including women and children, Syrian opposition activists say.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Thursday that the death toll would increase and could reach more than 100, with many of those killed appearing to have been “summarily executed” by shooting or stabbing.
Ten people were killed and 37 others wounded in separate incidents of bombings and shootings in central and eastern Iraq Wednesday, police said.
Three members of a government-backed paramilitary group, known as Awakening Council, were killed and 13 wounded in a car bomb explosion in the town of Garma near the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
One of those killed was the leader of a group whose members were gathering at a military base in the town when the blast occurred, the source said.