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The Kurdish-led forces controlling Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), the Kurdish northeast Syria, on Thursday freed more than 600 Syrian prisoners detained over links to the Islamic State jihadist group.
The 631 detainees had been held on terrorism charges and were the first batch released in an amnesty deal announced recently following calls from Arab tribes in eastern Syria.
The death toll continues to rise in clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, despite a cease-fire and warnings of a humanitarian crisis.
Ethnic Armenian officials in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region reported 17 military deaths on Monday, raising the military death toll to about 540 since renewed fighting started on Sept. 27.
Yemeni troops and allied tribesmen have stormed and captured the strategic Al-Khanjer military base and surrounding areas in the northern province of Jouf.
The operation, supported by Saudi-led Arab coalition warplanes, is a heavy blow to Iran-backed Houthi militias and their control of much of northern Yemen, the army said.
An explosives-laden truck ignited Tuesday on a busy street in a northern Syrian town controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters, killing at least 14 people and wounding dozens, Turkey’s state-run news agency and Syrian opposition activists reported.
The blast in the town of al-Bab took place near a bus station where people often gather to travel from one region to another, according to the opposition’s Civil Defence, also known as White Helmets.
Yemen’s internationally recognised government and the Houthi rebels agreed to exchange about 1,000 detainees and prisoners, including 15 Saudis, as part of trust-building steps aimed at reviving a stalled peace process, the United Nations said.
“I am personally extremely pleased to be here to announce that you have reached a very important milestone,” UN envoy Martin Griffiths told reporters on Sunday.