ZIYARA: With tears in her eyes, Rasheeda Ali said she would not celebrate the Kurdish New Year this week after she and her family were forced to flee under fire from Syria’s Afrin.
The annual Nowruz holiday which was being marked on Wednesday had always been a time for Syrian Kurdish families to gather together and mark new beginnings, but this year is different.
Tens of thousands have been left homeless after abandoning their homes and loved ones in the northwestern city of Afrin, now controlled by Turkish troops and allied fighters.
The fall of Afrin on Sunday was a major blow for Syria’s Kurds, who have proudly run autonomous local governments since 2013 — finally speaking Kurdish and marking customs long banned by the Damascus government.
With her hometown overrun, Nowruz this year is nothing but “tragedy and displacement,” Ali said, a mauve scarf wrapped around her hair and her eyes moist with tears.
“Death would have been easier than leaving our home,” said the 40-year-old Arabic language teacher, in an area outside Afrin that is jointly held by Kurds and the Syrian regime.
“I left my home — which looks like a palace — and now I live in this house with 50 other people,” she said, gesturing to the small room in a collective shelter in the Ziyara area.
Children huddled around her as she spoke. A mattress was propped up against a wall behind her and scant belongings were stacked on bare metal shelves.
Around 100,000 civilians streamed out of Afrin, using the only escape route available into government-held zones to the south and east, the UN says.
They hit the road on foot, in cars, on motorbikes and in pickup trucks, with what little belongings they could carry or cram into their vehicles.
Once in regime territory, they sought shelter in mosques, schools and buildings under construction.
Some have nowhere at all to go and have been sleeping in their vehicles, others are still on roadsides sleeping in the open.
For Syria’s Kurds, Nowruz symbolizes the deliverance of Kurdish people from a mythical tyrant — but that was hard to imagine now.
“I’ll never forget fleeing. Looking back and getting a last glimpse of Afrin, feeling helpless and torn,” said 38-year-old Rohan, also displaced.
“Away from Afrin, Nowruz means nothing. Afrin was our paradise,” she told AFP in the nearby Zahraa area.
In Ziyara, Mohammed Zaki, a middle-aged man, recounted how he and his family fled farmland on which they had lived for generations.
“We fled on foot carrying just the clothes we wore,” he said, now living with several other displaced families.
Women and children packed the room, as a small child slept bundled up in a donated blanket behind him.
“We have no money to buy food. We left everything and came here penniless,” Zaki said.
It may be Nowruz but “we wouldn’t dream of celebrating,” he said. “We just dream of ending this tragedy for our children.”
Afrin, an agricultural area famed for its olive trees, was part of territory in northern Syria where the Kurds have been setting up systems of self-rule.
The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) recaptured eastern areas of the territory from the Daesh group, with backing from a US-led coalition.
The Kurds have otherwise largely stayed out of Syria’s complex seven-year conflict, instead focusing on building their own institutions including in Afrin.
But Turkish-led forces on Jan. 20 launched a deadly assault on Afrin, dragging Kurds into conflict and capturing the city in a major setback for the dream of autonomy.
His boots and a bag of flat bread by his side, 82-year-old Khalil Tamer sat on a blanket atop a layer of straw — thin cushioning for the hard concrete floor underneath.
With his head hung low, he recounted how he and his family escaped fighting in the neighboring province of Aleppo to Afrin.
When Turkey began its assault on the YPG, whom it considers “terrorists,” Tamer and his family were forced to flee a second time.
“We walked out on foot for four days straight,” he said. But in the chaos, he was separated from some of his loved ones and will mark Nowruz without them.
Smoking a cigarette in a holder, he repeated his fate in disbelief.
“We lost the children. I lost them. I lost my children.”
Syria Kurds mark grim Nowruz after fleeing Afrin
Syria Kurds mark grim Nowruz after fleeing Afrin
Syria seeks European help as forest wildfires rage
The fires have been burning for six days, with Syrian emergency crews struggling to bring them under control amid strong winds and severe drought.
Neighbouring countries Jordan, Lebanon and Turkiye have already dispatched firefighting teams to assist in the response.
“We asked the European Union for help in extinguishing the fires,” minister Raed Al-Saleh said on X, adding Cyprus was expected to send aid on Tuesday.
“Fear of the fires spreading due to strong winds last night prompted us to evacuate 25 families to ensure their safety without any human casualties,” he added.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) office in Syria, the fires impacted “some 5,000 persons, including displacements, across 60 communities.”
An estimated 100 square kilometers (40 square miles) of forest and farmland — more than three percent of Syria’s forest cover — have burned, OCHA told AFP.
At least seven towns in Latakia province have been evacuated as a precaution.
Efforts to extinguish the fires have been hindered by “rugged terrain, the absence of firebreaks, strong winds, and the presence of mines and unexploded ordnance,” Saleh said.
Seven months after the fall of longtime ruler Bashar Assad, Syria continues to face the repercussions of its 14-year civil war, which include explosive remnants scattered across the country.
With man-made climate change increasing the likelihood and intensity of droughts and wildfires worldwide, Syria has also been battered by heatwaves and low rainfall.
In June, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said Syria had “not seen such bad climate conditions in 60 years.”
Israel far-right minister demands end to Gaza ceasefire talks
- Minister calls for ‘total siege, military crushing, encouraging emigration (of Palestinians outside of Gaza), and (Israeli) settlement’ in the Gaza Strip
- Israel has been waging war on Hamas in Gaza for over 21 months, its troops gradually occupying more and more of the Palestinian territory
JERUSALEM: Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call back a delegation conducting indirect talks with Hamas in Qatar for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“I call on the Prime Minister to immediately recall the delegation that went to negotiate with the Hamas murderers in Doha,” Ben Gvir said in a post on X on the third day of talks between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Instead, the minister who lives in a West Bank settlement called for “total siege, military crushing, encouraging emigration (of Palestinians outside of Gaza), and (Israeli) settlement” in the Gaza Strip.
He called these measures “the keys to total victory, not a reckless deal that would release thousands of terrorists and withdraw the (Israeli army) from areas captured with the blood of our soldiers.”
A Palestinian official close to the talks said on Tuesday that the talks were ongoing, with a focus on “the mechanisms for implementation, particularly the clauses related to withdrawal and humanitarian aid.”
Netanyahu traveled to Washington for his third visit since Trump’s return to power, where the US president on Monday voiced confidence that a deal could be reached.
The Israeli leader ruled out a full Palestinian state, insisting Israel would “always” keep security control over the Gaza Strip.
Israel has been waging war on Hamas in Gaza for over 21 months, its troops gradually occupying more and more of the Palestinian territory.
According to the UN, 82 percent of Gaza is now under Israeli military control or displacement orders.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The attack resulted in 1,219 deaths on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
Of the 251 people abducted that day, 49 are still hostages in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli army.
At least 57,523 Gazans, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory campaign, according to data from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
The figures are deemed reliable by the UN.
South Sudan’s president fires army chief after seven months in post
- No reason was given for the firing of army chief Paul Nang Majok
NAIROBI: South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has fired the country’s army chief after seven months in the post and named a replacement, according to an announcement on state radio.
No reason was given for the firing of Paul Nang Majok in the announcement late on Monday. Majok had been in the post since December. The announcement said Kiir had appointed Dau Aturjong as the Chief of Defense Forces.
Majok was in charge of the army while fighting raged between the army and the White Army, an ethnic militia largely comprising Nuer youths, triggering the country’s latest political crisis.
“There has been a tradition that when you are appointed, or reassigned there are no reasons (given) for getting appointed and there are no reasons given for getting relieved. It is normal,” said Lul Ruai Koang, South Sudan army spokesperson.
South Sudan has been formally at peace since a 2018 deal ended the five-year conflict responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, but violence between rival communities flares frequently.
In March, First Vice President Riek Machar was put under house arrest, stirring fears of renewed conflict.
Information Minister Michael Makuei said the arrest was due to Machar contacting his supporters and “agitating them to rebel against the government with the aim of disrupting peace so that elections are not held and South Sudan goes back to war.”
Machar’s party has previously denied government accusations that it backs the White Army, which clashed with the army in the northeastern town of Nasir in March. In May, South Sudan’s army said it had recaptured the town from the White Army.
Two killed in attack off Yemen as Houthis claim they sank Greek ship
- The Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier Eternity C has 22 crew members and armed guards on board
- Ship was attacked with sea drones and rocket-propelled grenades fired from manned speedboats
ATHENS: Two crew members of the Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated, bulk carrier Eternity C were killed after an attack by sea drones and speedboats off Yemen on Monday evening, Liberia's shipping delegation told a meeting of the UN shipping agency IMO on Tuesday.
The deaths, the first since June 2024, bring the total number of seafarers killed in attacks on vessels in the Red Sea to six.
Monday’s attack 50 nautical miles southwest of the port of Hodeidah was the second strike against merchant vessels in the vital shipping corridor since November 2024, said an official at the European Union´s Operation Aspides, assigned to help protect Red Sea shipping.
The Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier Eternity C with 22 crew members – 21 Filipinos and one Russian – and armed guards on board, was attacked with sea drones and rocket-propelled grenades fired from manned speedboats, sources said.
At least two crew members were seriously injured, its manager, Cosmoship Management, said. The vessel’s bridge was hit and telecommunications were impacted, a company official said.
Maritime security sources said the vessel, which was unladen, has suffered severe damage and is currently listing. The crew was ordered to abandon the ship, but the lifeboats had been destroyed, two sources said.
The ship was adrift, an Aspides official said. At the time of the incident, no warship of the Aspides mission was close to the vessel.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, so far.
Earlier on Monday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack on the Greek-operated MV Magic Seas bulk carrier off southwest Yemen. The raid involved gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades from eight skiffs as well as missiles and four uncrewed surface vessels.
The 19 crew were forced to abandon the Liberian-flagged vessel as it was taking on water. They were picked up by a passing ship and have arrived safely in Djibouti, sources said.
The Houthis said they sunk the vessel. But Michael Bodouroglou, a representative of Stem Shipping, one of the ship’s commercial managers, said there was no independent verification.
Growing operational risk
The crew had reported fires at the vessel’s forepeak, in the bow. The engine room and at least two holds were flooded, and there was no electricity.
Aspides had earlier warned of a risk of explosion in the ship’s vicinity.
Since Israel’s war in Gaza against the Palestinian militant group Hamas began in October 2023, the Houthis have been attacking Israel and vessels in the Red Sea in what they say are acts of solidarity with the Palestinians.
Israel has struck Houthi targets in response, launching strikes on Monday for the first time in nearly a month. A US-Houthi ceasefire deal in May did not include Israel.
The latest attacks highlight a growing operational risk to commercial operators whose vessels have called at Israeli ports, Maritime security firm Diaplous said.
Magic Seas was carrying iron and fertilizers from China to Turkiye, a voyage that appeared low-risk as it had nothing to do with Israel, Bodouroglou said, adding that Stem Shipping had received no warning of the attack.
But the fleet of Allseas Marine, Magic Seas’ other commercial manager, had made calls to Israeli ports over the past year, according to analysis by UK-based maritime risk management company Vanguard Tech.
“These factors put the Magic Seas at an extreme risk of being targeted,” said Ellie Shafik, head of intelligence with Vanguard Tech.
The manager of ETERNITY C is also affiliated with vessels that have made calls to Israeli ports, security sources said.
John Xylas, chairman of the dry bulk shipping association Intercargo, said the crew were “innocent people, simply doing their jobs, keeping global trade moving.”
“No one at sea should ever face such violence,” he said.
Gaza ceasefire can be reached but may take more time, Israeli officials say
- The ceasefire proposal envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and discussions on ending the war entirely
JERUSALEM: Gaps in Gaza ceasefire talks under way in Qatar between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas can be bridged but it may take more than a few days to reach a deal, Israeli officials said on Tuesday.
The new push by US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators to halt fighting in the battered enclave has gained pace since Sunday when the warring sides began indirect talks in Doha and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set out to Washington.
Netanyahu met on Monday with US President Donald Trump, who said on the eve of their meeting that a ceasefire and hostage deal could be reached this week. The Israeli leader was scheduled to meet Vice President J.D. Vance on Tuesday.
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, who played a major role in crafting the ceasefire proposal, will travel to Doha this week to join discussions there, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters earlier on Monday.
The ceasefire proposal envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and discussions on ending the war entirely.
Hamas has long demanded an end to the war before it would free remaining hostages; Israel has insisted it would not agree to end the fighting until all hostages are released and Hamas dismantled. At least 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza are believed to still be alive.
Palestinian sources said on Monday that there were gaps between the sides on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Senior Israeli officials briefing journalists in Washington, said it may take more than a few days to finalize agreements in Doha but they did not elaborate on the sticking points. Another Israeli official said progress had been made.
Israeli minister Zeev Elkin, who sits in Netanyahu’s security cabinet, said that there was “a substantial chance,” a ceasefire will be agreed. “Hamas wants to change a few central matters, it’s not simple, but there is progress,” he told Israel’s public broadcaster Kan on Tuesday.
The war began on October 7 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza.
Israel’s subsequent campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, displaced almost the entire population of more than 2 million people, sparked a humanitarian crisis in the enclave and left much of the territory in ruins.
