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More than 12 years after a prominent Syrian dissident and her entire family vanished during a regime raid in Damascus, Syria’s official National Commission for Missing Persons has confirmed that her six children were killed by armed factions loyal to former President Bashar al-Assad shortly after their 2013 abduction.

Rania al-Abbasi, a dual Syrian and Arab national chess champion and practicing dentist, was a well-known public critic of the Assad government before her detention. In March 2013, forces loyal to the then-ruling Assad regime stormed her Damascus family home, taking Abbasi, her husband Abdul-Rahman Yasin, and their six children — ranging in age from 2 to 10 years old at the time — into custody. The entire family disappeared without a trace in the years that followed, becoming one of the most high-profile symbols of the widespread forced disappearances that marked Assad’s 50-year rule over Syria.

In an official statement posted to the social platform X on Saturday, Syria’s new interior ministry confirmed that evidence gathered from multiple detained former regime operatives confirms the six children were killed by militias tied to the former Assad government. The ministry added that supporting video evidence and case files provided by the National Commission for Missing Persons have further corroborated these findings, and that search operations to recover the children’s remains are still active. Per official protocol, the surviving extended family was notified of the investigative results before any public announcement to honor their right to information and protect their privacy and dignity.

Investigators have also named Amjad Youssef, a former Assad regime intelligence officer infamously linked to the 2013 Tadamon massacre in southern Damascus, as a directly implicated perpetrator in the children’s killings. The Tadamon massacre gained global attention in 2022 when leaked footage shot by the perpetrators themselves showed blindfolded, bound civilians — including 15 children and seven women — being led to a mass grave pit and executed one by one. The footage became irrefutable documentary proof of systemic war crimes committed under Assad’s leadership.

Youssef was captured by current Syrian government forces during a security sweep in the Ghab Plain of rural Hama in April 2025. A recorded confession released by the interior ministry after his capture saw Youssef admit to participating in the killing of roughly 40 detainees, claiming he acted on his own direction. Hassan al-Abbasi, Rania’s brother, told media the family was able to confirm the children’s identities from footage of Youssef’s interrogation, in which the former officer falsely labeled the young children as “major financiers of terrorism”. In an interview with Al Arabiya, Hassan al-Abbasi added that the children were killed the same day they were detained, most by strangulation with plastic cables.

The fate of Rania al-Abbasi and her husband Abdul-Rahman Yasin remains unconfirmed as of Saturday’s announcement. Human rights organizations say it is likely the couple were also killed shortly after detention, though their remains have yet to be located.

The al-Abbasi family’s case is far from an isolated tragedy. Between the start of the 2011 Syrian uprising and the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024, tens of thousands of Syrians were detained or forcibly disappeared by regime forces. Data from the Syrian Network for Human Rights shows that between March 2011 and August 2025, more than 177,000 Syrians were forcibly disappeared, including over 4,500 children and nearly 9,000 women.

In a significant escalation of its ground campaign in southern Lebanon that defies an existing nominal ceasefire, the Israeli military announced Sunday it has seized control of the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle and the strategic high ground surrounding the historic site. The takeover pushes Israeli military presence deeper into Lebanese territory, extending well beyond the “Yellow Line” demarcation zone established under a ceasefire agreement in April.

The capture of the castle, which bears the Arabic name Qalaat al-Shaqif, comes after days of brutal close-quarters combat and heavy Israeli airstrikes on nearby villages, where infantry forces have battled Hezbollah militants across the region’s rugged terrain. Sitting just five kilometers from Nabatieh, southern Lebanon’s major population center, the medieval fortress occupies a critical vantage point that overlooks vast swathes of both southern Lebanon and northern Israel. This is not the first time Israeli forces have held the site: troops first captured Beaufort Castle during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, retaining control until Israel’s full withdrawal from the country in 2000.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed he had explicitly ordered the military to widen the scope of its operations in Lebanon, cross the Litani River — which had previously served as a de facto boundary for Israeli forces — and seize control of the Beaufort Ridge. Following the castle’s capture, Katz announced Israeli troops would remain positioned at the site as part of a newly expanded Israeli “security zone” inside Lebanese territory.

The latest territorial advance coincided with a new mass evacuation order issued by the Israeli military covering areas between the Zahrani River to the south and the Litani River to the north, a stretch of land extending roughly 40 kilometers from the Israel-Lebanon border. In a social media statement, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee warned: “Anyone present near Hezbollah elements, facilities, or combat means endangers their life. Any building used by Hezbollah for military purposes may become subject to targeting.” The Israeli military added in an official briefing: “A significant number of ground soldiers commenced offensive operations aimed at expanding the Forward Defense Line… The operation is currently expanding to additional areas.”

Casualties continue to mount on both sides amid the escalating fighting. Lebanon’s health ministry reported Saturday’s Israeli strikes killed at least 16 people and injured 34 more, bringing the total death toll in Lebanon since the outbreak of hostilities in early March to 3,371, with an additional 10,129 people wounded. On the Lebanese side, Hezbollah continued to resist the advance Saturday, launching a series of attacks against targets in northern Israel and engaging Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. The militant group confirmed it was confronting Israeli forces on the outskirts of the towns Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, Yohmor al-Shaqif and Dibbine, noting Israeli troops “had not yet succeeded in taking control of the towns.”

The Israeli military documented more than 25 projectiles fired from Lebanese territory into Israel on Saturday. Israel’s Home Front Command confirmed air raid sirens activated in the northern Israeli cities of Karmiel and Safad, marking the first time alerts have sounded in those urban centers since the April ceasefire took effect. On Sunday, the Israeli military also announced one of its soldiers had been killed a day earlier in a Hezbollah explosive drone attack, pushing the total number of Israeli troops killed in Lebanon operations since early March to 25. Hardline Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich doubled down on calls for escalated retaliation this week, demanding Israel “destroy one hundred buildings” in Lebanon for every drone strike that kills an Israeli soldier. A recent report from Israeli public broadcaster Kan found Hezbollah’s advanced drone capabilities are currently limiting 80 percent of Israeli ground assaults across southern Lebanon.

Diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the conflict remain ongoing. Military delegations from both Israel and Lebanon held US-brokered security talks in Washington on Friday, with a new round of negotiations scheduled for next week. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam acknowledged the outcome of the diplomatic process remains uncertain, but framed negotiations as the best available path forward. “It is not guaranteed, but it is the least costly path for our country and our people,” Salam said.

A devastating accidental explosion has left at least 55 people dead and dozens injured in a small village in insurgent-controlled northern Myanmar, local sources have confirmed to the BBC. The blast struck Kaung Tat village, located in Namkham Township of Shan State just a short distance from the border with China. Among the confirmed fatalities are 25 women and 30 men, including multiple children, though some independent reports cite small variations in casualty counts.

The area where the explosion occurred is currently administered by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), an ethnic insurgent group that has been locked in prolonged, intense armed conflict with Myanmar’s ruling military junta. According to a TNLA statement, the explosion originated from stockpiled explosives stored and used for local mining and quarrying operations.

In the wake of the blast, emergency rescue teams have been working around the clock to pull survivors from collapsed building rubble and locate missing people. Local residents described chaotic, apocalyptic scenes after the blast tore through a large residential neighborhood. Many in the village initially feared the explosion was the result of an airstrike by the ruling junta, a common threat in conflict zones across Myanmar.

One injured resident, who shared her account on social media, escaped death by chance. She explained she had been eating noodles in her bedroom while checking her phone when the explosion hit; had she been dining in her kitchen, she would almost certainly have been killed. The woman only sustained a minor leg injury, but her home was completely destroyed in the blast.

“People were crying, calling out for their parents,” she wrote of the immediate aftermath. “It felt as if the world had come to an end.”

The explosion damaged hundreds of residential structures, leaving nearly an entire neighborhood uninhabitable. The survivor has raised questions about why the explosive storage facility was permitted to operate so close to a populated residential area. She said families of the victims will not accept anything less than a full, transparent explanation from local authorities for the deadly incident.

A massive explosion at a mining explosives storage facility in a rural village of northeastern Myanmar has claimed the lives of at least 45 people and injured dozens more, according to multiple sources including rescue workers, independent media, and official statements. The accident occurred just after midday Sunday in Kaungtup village, located in Namhkam township, a region that sits roughly three kilometers south of Myanmar’s border with China and is currently controlled by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), an ethnic armed organization that has had long-running, sporadic conflict with Myanmar’s central military government.

By Sunday evening, first responders who reached the blast site had recovered 46 fatalities, among them six children, according to a rescue worker who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity over security concerns. All recovered remains have been moved to cremation sites, while 74 people injured in the blast have been transferred to the nearest township hospital for treatment, the source added, noting that search and recovery operations were still ongoing at the time of the interview.

Figures from a second anonymous rescuer based in Namhkam placed the confirmed death toll at around 40, and added that more than 100 nearby residential homes suffered structural damage from the force of the blast. Local independent Myanmar media outlets, including Shan State-based online outlet Shwe Phee Myay News Agency, have reported higher death estimates ranging between 50 and 55 fatalities. The outlets have released public visual documentation of the aftermath, including photos and videos showing plumes of smoke rising from the blast site, leveled buildings, and scattered debris across the affected area.

China’s state broadcaster CCTV also confirmed the incident, reporting that the explosion left multiple people dead and injured and caused severe damage to dozens of nearby residential structures, though the outlet did not release specific casualty numbers. Citing preliminary investigation findings, CCTV confirmed the blast originated at a location storing large volumes of industrial explosives intended for local mining operations. Chinese state media added that local administrative teams are already coordinating to distribute relief supplies, deliver emergency medical care, and resettle residents displaced by the accident.

In an official statement posted to its Telegram channel, the TNLA confirmed that the stored explosives, specifically gelignite intended for mining and stone quarrying operations managed by the group’s economic department, were the source of the blast. The group confirmed that a full investigation into the root cause of the explosion is currently underway. Gelignite, a nitroglycerin-based explosive widely used in commercial mining and rock blasting, is known to become highly unstable over extended storage periods, particularly when storage conditions do not meet safety standards.

The TNLA is one of three core members of the Three Brotherhood Alliance, a coalition of ethnic rebel groups that has controlled the Namhkam area since the alliance and its partner armed groups launched a large-scale offensive against Myanmar’s ruling military junta in late 2023. Ethnic armed groups across Myanmar have fought for greater regional autonomy for decades, and tensions between the TNLA and the national military remain high despite a China-mediated ceasefire agreement signed between the two sides in October 2023.

The incident comes amid years of ongoing widespread unrest across Myanmar, which erupted after the country’s military seized control of the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in a February 2021 coup. The coup triggered massive nationwide popular opposition, and after peaceful pro-democracy protests were violently suppressed by junta forces, many opponents of military rule took up arms against the government. Today, large swathes of Myanmar’s territory remain engulfed in active conflict between the junta and a patchwork of ethnic armed groups and pro-democracy resistance forces.

More than a week after seven local villagers became trapped in a flooded cave system in central Laos’ Xaysomboun province, international rescue teams have ramped up operations to locate the final two missing men, with critical intel from survivors now guiding new search plans.

The seven villagers entered the narrow mountain cave tunnels on May 20 to hunt for gold, but an unexpected flash flood cut off their exit route, leaving them stranded deep underground. As of Sunday, five of the seven men have been pulled out to safety: the first survivor was rescued by official teams on Friday, while four more managed to escape on their own on Saturday after water levels inside the cave dropped enough to open a temporary path.

Rescuers told AFP on Sunday that several of the recently freed survivors are already contributing to the search from their hospital beds, sharing detailed descriptions of the cave’s deeper, uncharted sections to help teams navigate the complex system. The cave extends deep under the mountain, with some passageways measuring only 50 centimeters wide, so the first-hand information from survivors is being described as “substantial” and has already been integrated into a newly revised search strategy, according to a local Laotian rescue organization. A fresh push to locate the remaining two trapped men was scheduled to launch Sunday.

An unverified video shared on social media captured the moment the four Saturday escapees emerged from the cave mouth, drawing loud cheers from waiting rescuers and onlookers. While the exact cause of the water level drop remained unclear, Japanese rescue diver Yoshitaka Isaji told the Associated Press that teams have been working to drain flood water out of the cave system. However, the drainage pump that was in use over the weekend broke down, leaving the primary rescue passage used on Saturday currently impassable. Crews are working nonstop to repair the broken pump, after an earlier attempt to pump out flood water earlier in the week also ended in failure.

The cross-border rescue effort has drawn specialized cave diving teams from multiple countries, including Thailand, Indonesia, France and Australia, all of whom have joined local crews to support the search for the two remaining missing villagers.