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MARAAT AL-NUMAN, Syria (AP) — After a decade of war and displacement, many Syrians are returning to their homes, only to find them looted and roofless.

In towns like Maarat al-Numan and Kfar Nabl in northern Syria, residents who fled years ago have returned since the fall of former President Bashad Assad but are now confronting the harsh reality of widespread theft and destruction.

Strategically located on the route between the cities of Aleppo and Damascus, Maarat al-Numan became a touchpoint in the Syrian civil war.

Assad’s forces seized the area back from rebel control in 2020. After that, groups affiliated with Assad looted houses and demolished some of them to extract valuable materials and furniture, human rights groups said. Steel and wires were taken out of rooftops to be sold.

An aerial video of the area shows rows of houses that are still standing but with their roofs missing.

Anmar Zaatour, a resident who left in 2019, said he came back in 2025 to find his home destroyed.

“There was nowhere to put our children,” he said. “This destruction isn’t from the bombing, it was the military. And it’s not just mine, it’s my neighbors, and friends.”

Zakaria al-Awwad burst into tears of mixed joy and sorrow upon his return to Maarat al-Numan. His house was destroyed, “one of the first ones to get hit,” he said.

“There is no place like home,” he said. “Even if I have to put on a sheet of cloth, it is better than anything else. We have freedom now, and that is priceless.”

Others were more circumspect about the future.

“The problem is, it’s impossible to resume a life without a roof,” said returning resident Hassan Barbesh. “Maarat al-Numan is an impoverished town. It’s a very difficult task to start from scratch.”

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Ghaith AlSayed in Kfar Nabl, Syria, and Omar Albam in Maarat al-Numan, Syria, contributed to this report.

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MUNICH (Reuters) – Europe will need to make tough choices and sacrifices in order to deal with the threats facing it and to ensure its security, said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.

“We need to prepare. We will have to face difficult days, make complicated decisions and even sacrifices which we weren’t expecting until now to ensure this security,” said Barrot, speaking to reporters at the event.

Barrot also said he thought that, after he had held talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, that the U.S. administration was still forming its opinion over how the U.S should handle the Ukraine crisis.

(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

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LONDON (Reuters) – The family of two British nationals detained in the Iranian city of Kerman said on Saturday they were engaging with relevant authorities to ensure their well-being and safe return home.

Iran’s official news agency reported on Thursday the two British nationals, a man and a woman, were in custody on security-related charges. It published blurred images of the two meeting with the British ambassador but did not identify them.

The family of the two, in a statement released by the British Foreign Office, named them as Craig and Lindsay Foreman.

It was not clear when they were detained.

“This unexpected turn of events has caused significant concern for our entire family, and we are deeply focused on ensuring their safety and well-being during this trying time,” the family said.

They said they were actively engaging with the British government and relevant authorities, and were “united in our determination to secure their safe return”.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of foreigners and dual nationals in recent years, mostly on espionage and security-related charges.

Human rights groups and some Western countries have accused the Islamic Republic of trying to win concessions from other countries through arrests on security charges that may have been trumped up. Tehran denies arresting people for political reasons.

(Reporting by Catarina Demony; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – African leaders chose Djibouti’s Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf to chair the African Union commission on Saturday at a summit dominated by fears of the Congo war widening into a regional conflict, the country’s finance minister said. 

In a post on the X platform Djibouti’s economy and finance minister, Ilyas Dawaleh, said Youssouf had “won” the election.

Youssouf has been foreign minister since 2005. He was previously Djibouti’s ambassador to Egypt and has served as foreign minister in the governments of three presidents.

(This story has been refiled to remove the extraneous word ‘post’ in paragraph 2)

(Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw; Writing by Elias Biryabarema; editing by David Evans)

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SEOUL (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told South Korea’s Foreign Minister that the United States wants to maintain a stable trust relationship with South Korea regardless of the domestic situation of either country, the South Korean ministry said in a statement on Friday.

Rubio and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul agreed in a meeting in Germany to work closely toward the goal of complete denuclearisation of North Korea, and shared concerns about military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, the ministry said.

Both agreed to cooperate in fields such as energy and advanced technologies such as shipbuilding, nuclear power and liquefied natural gas (LNG), it said.

In response to Cho’s request to resolve U.S. tariff issues through close bilateral consultation, Rubio called for consultation between relevant ministries, the statement said.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; editing by David Evans)

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LONDON (Reuters) – British Foreign Minister David Lammy said on Saturday he would encourage U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to deepen their partnership in the future.

“I would encourage Donald Trump and the Ukrainians to look very carefully at a deepening partnership over the next generations,” Lammy said at the Munich Security Conference.

Britain and Ukraine signed a landmark 100-year partnership agreement last month to deepen security ties and strengthen their countries’ relationship.

Lammy said the best security guarantee for Ukraine against future Russian aggression was binding U.S. industry, business and defence capability into its future.

“That is what will make Putin sit up and pay attention, and that is what’s attractive to a U.S. president who knows how to get a good deal,” Lammy added.

(Reporting by Catarina Demony; Editing by David Evans)

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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel released 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Saturday in the latest exchange for Israeli hostages captured by Hamas, as the fragile ceasefire held after a standoff over aid deliveries.

Israel views the prisoners being released as terrorists. Palestinians often see them as freedom fighters resisting a decadeslong Israeli military occupation.

Nearly every Palestinian has a friend or family member who has been jailed by Israel, for militant attacks or lesser offenses such as rock-throwing, protesting or membership in a banned political group. Some are incarcerated for months or years without trial in what is known as administrative detention, which Israel says is needed to prevent attacks and avoid sharing sensitive intelligence.

Among those released on Saturday, 36 had been sentenced to life for their involvement in deadly attacks against Israelis. Only 12 of them have been allowed to return to their homes in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, where their families and supporters mobbed the Red Cross minibus, chanting “God is greatest” and cheering. Palestinian medics said four were taken straight to the hospital for urgent care.

As part of the deal, the 24 others with life sentences will be sent to exile.

The Palestinian prisoners released into the West Bank and east Jerusalem on Saturday were wearing white sweatshirts given to them by the Israeli Prison Service upon their release, emblazoned with a Star of David, the Prison Service logo and the phrase “Never forgive, never forget” written in Arabic on the front and back.

The rest of the 333 Palestinians released Saturday had been detained from the Gaza Strip after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack and Israel’s subsequent invasion of the enclave. In Gaza, Israeli forces have arrested hundreds of people and held them without trial.

As part of the agreement, Israel committed to releasing over 1,000 of those detained from Gaza on the condition that they had not participated in the Oct. 7 attack.

A look at some prominent Palestinian prisoners released since the truce went into effect on Jan. 19:

Among the most prominent Palestinian prisoners released Saturday is a close aide of militant leader and iconic political figure Marwan Barghouti. The last name is common among Palestinians and the two are not closely related.

Ahmed Barghouti was given a life sentence for dispatching assailants and suicide bombers to carry out attacks that killed Israeli civilians during the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, in the early 2000s. As a commander in Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, an armed offshoot of President Mahmoud Abbas’ secular Fatah Party, he was also convicted of possession of firearms and attempted murder, according to the Israeli Justice Ministry.

He was sent to Egypt.

Marwan Barghouti, a senior Fatah leader, was also given multiple life sentences over attacks in the early 2000s. Polls consistently show that he is the most popular Palestinian leader, with some comparing him to Nelson Mandela. He is not slated for release in the first phase of the ceasefire.

Three brothers, originally from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, were released after more than 22 years in prison for their involvement in suicide bombings that killed a number of Israelis during the second intifada. Israeli authorities brought two of them — Ibrahim, 55, and Musa, 63 — to their homes in the Dheisheh refugee camp near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

Ibrahim Sarhneh’s Ukrainian wife, Irena, had also been sentenced to life in prison in 2002 for working with her husband to organize a suicide bombing that killed two people in the Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, but was released in 2011 with hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in a swap for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas.

The third brother, Khalil, 45, who was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to life in 2002, was sent to Egypt.

Hassan Aweis, 47, and Abdel Karim Aweis, 54, from the Jenin refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank, were released on Saturday after nearly 23 years in prison.

Hassan Aweis — sentenced to life in 2002 on charges of voluntary manslaughter, planting and explosive device and attempted murder, according to Israel’s Justice Ministry — was among the few released prisoners welcomed by joyous crowds in Ramallah. He was involved in planning attacks during the second intifada for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade.

Abdel Karim Aweis — sentenced to the equivalent of six life sentences for throwing an explosive device, attempted murder and assault, among other charges, according to Israel’s Justice Ministry — was transferred to Egypt for deportation.

An intelligence officer with the Palestinian Authority police, Aweis has recalled turning to violence as the 1993 Oslo Accords that launched the Israeli-Palestinian peace process unraveled. He became a leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, organizing shooting attacks on Israeli settlers driving West Bank roads and later dispatching suicide bombing missions within Israel.

Abu Shakhdam was sentenced to the equivalent of 18 life sentences over his involvement in Hamas attacks that killed dozens of Israelis during the second intifada.

Among the most infamous of those attacks was a suicide bombing that blew up two buses in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba in 2004, killing 16 Israelis, including a 4-year-old.

Abu Shakhdam was arrested from his hometown of Hebron in the southern West Bank in November 2004, following a gunfight with Israeli security forces in which he was shot 10 times.

During 21 years in prison, his family said, he finished high school and earned a certificate for courses in psychology.

He was released on Feb. 8, hoisted up onto the shoulders of dozens of cheering supporters.

“From the moment I entered prison, I was sure, one day, I’d go home,” he told The Associated Press.

Al-Tawil, a prominent Hamas politician in the occupied West Bank, has spent nearly two decades in and out of Israeli prisons, in part over allegations that he helped plot suicide bombings.

Most recently, the Israeli military arrested al-Tawil in 2021, saying that he had participated in violent riots and mobilized Hamas political activists in Ramallah, the seat of the semiautonomous Palestinian Authority and Hamas’ main rival.

He had been held without charge or trial since then.

During one of al-Tawil’s stints in Israeli prison in the early 2000s, he ran a successful electoral campaign from custody to become mayor of Al-Bireh, a West Bank town abutting Ramallah.

Too weak to walk, al-Tawil had to be lifted off the bus of prisoners and taken immediately to a hospital for treatment after his release in Ramallah on Feb. 8.

The Palestinian manager of the Gaza branch of World Vision, a major Christian aid organization, was arrested in 2016 and accused of diverting tens of millions of dollars to Hamas in a high-profile case that drew criticism from rights groups. He was freed on Feb. 1. He returned to Gaza to find his family house destroyed during the war.

Both el-Halabi and World Vision vigorously denied the allegations and independent investigations found no proof of wrongdoing. One independent audit found that el-Halabi had enforced internal controls and ordered employees to avoid anyone suspected of Hamas ties.

Rights groups say el-Halabi was denied a fair and transparent trial, as he and World Vision had no chance to review the evidence against them. U.N. experts say el-Halabi was questioned for 50 days without access to a lawyer. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Israel has attributed the closed hearings to sensitive security information being discussed.

A prominent former militant leader in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade during the second intifada, Zubeidi later became a theater director in the Jenin refugee camp, where he promoted what he described as cultural resistance to Israel.

His dramatic jailbreak in 2021 — when he and five other detainees used spoons to tunnel out one of Israel’s most secure prisons and remained at large for days before being caught — thrilled Palestinians and stunned the Israeli security establishment, reinforcing his status as a Palestinian folk hero.

In 2019, after Zubeidi had already served years in prison for attacks in the early 2000s, Israel arrested him again, accusing him of being involved in shooting attacks that targeted buses of Israeli settlers but caused no injuries. Last year, Israeli forces killed his son in a drone strike during a military operation in Jenin camp.

Zubeidi had been awaiting trial when he was sentenced to five years in prison for his jailbreak. He was released on Jan. 30 into the West Bank.

Mohammed Aradeh, 42, an Islamic Jihad militant who was serving a life sentence, was widely credited with organizing the prison break. He was reelased on Jan. 25. Supporters chanted “The freedom tunnel!” as they welcomed him home.

All three men hail from the neighborhood of Silwan, in east Jerusalem, and rose within the ranks of Hamas. Held responsible for a string of deadly attacks during the second intifada, the men were handed multiple life sentences in 2002.

They were accused of plotting a suicide bombing at a crowded pool hall near Tel Aviv in 2002 that killed 15 people. Later that year, they were found to have orchestrated a bombing at Hebrew University that killed nine people, including five American students. Israel had described Odeh, who was working as a painter at the university at the time, as the architect of the attack.

All three were transferred to Egypt on Jan. 25.

Al-Tous had held the title of longest continuously held prisoner in Israel until his release on Jan. 25, Palestinian authorities said.

First arrested in 1985 while fighting Israeli forces along the Jordanian border, the activist in the Fatah party spent a total of 39 years behind bars. Originally from the West Bank city of Bethlehem, he was among the prisoners sent into exile.

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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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By Nichola Groom

(Reuters) -The Trump administration has halted funding for federal programs to reduce wildfire risk in western U.S. states and has frozen hiring of seasonal firefighters as part of broad cuts to government spending, according to organizations impacted by the moves.

The reduction in resources for wildfire prevention comes a month after devastating blazes in Los Angeles that are expected to be the costliest in U.S. history, with some expecting losses as high as $35 billion.

The Oregon-based non-profit Lomakatsi Restoration Project said its contracts with the federal agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to reduce hazardous fuels in Oregon, California and Idaho, have been frozen.

“The funding freeze has impacted more than 30 separate grants and agreements that Lomakatsi has with federal agencies, including pending awards as well as active agreements that are already putting work on the ground,” Executive Director Marko Bey said in a letter to U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat.

In an interview, Bey said his organization was forced to lay off 15 people and issue stop work orders on many active projects, impacting other jobs in the region. About 65% of the organization’s budget comes from funding allocated under the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act – laws enacted under former U.S. President Joe Biden.

“It doesn’t matter what your political perspective is, we all agree we have to reduce fire hazards,” Bey said. “But right now, with the funding freeze, we can’t operate programs because of the uncertainty of when we are going to get paid.”

The American Loggers Council, a logging industry group, said the funding freeze has also stopped work under the $20 million Hazardous Fuels Transportation Assistance program, which pays for removing dead wood from forests.

“In a period that has so recently demonstrated the catastrophic impacts of wildfires it is all the more evident that hazardous fuels landscape treatment and forest management is urgently needed,” Scott Dane, executive director of the American Loggers Council, said in a letter.

He called on the administration to exempt forest management programs from the broad suspension in federal funding.

A spokesperson for the Agriculture department, which oversees the Forest Service, said all programs and personnel were under review.

“The Department of Agriculture will be happy to provide a response to interested parties once Secretary Brooke Rollins has the opportunity to analyze these reviews,” the spokesperson said.

The agency also said it was working with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management on its wildland firefighting positions, which it said are public safety jobs.

A spokesperson for the Interior Department, the parent agency of the BLM and National Parks Service, said it was reviewing funding decisions.

“The Department of the Interior continues to review funding decisions to be consistent with the president’s executive orders,” the spokesperson said. “The Department’s ongoing review of funding complies with all applicable laws, rules, regulations and orders.”

Senate Democrats have called on the administration to unlock fire mitigation funding, and separately have asked Interior and the U.S. Department of Agriculture leadership to exempt seasonal firefighters from a broad federal hiring freeze.

U.S. agencies hire about 15,000 seasonal firefighters each year, according to the office of Senator Alex Padilla, a California Democrat.

Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, an advocacy group for federal firefighters, said its members have been unable to hire the hundreds of firefighters that are typically brought on this time of year to gear up for the summer fire season.

“The agencies already have had a recruitment and retention problem,” Riva Duncan, vice president of the Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, said in an interview. “This just exacerbates that problem.”

Dry conditions and a buildup of fuel on lands throughout the West have prompted more frequent and intense fires in recent years.

U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly has blamed poor forest management for catastrophic wildfires, including during a recent visit to the burn area in Los Angeles.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom; editing by Diane Craft and Chris Reese)

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian forces have taken control of two frontline settlements in eastern Donetsk region, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday.

A ministry report said Russian forces had captured the village of Zelene Pole located between Pokrovsk, the focal point of Russian attacks in the region, and Velyuka Novosilka, a settlement that Russia’s military said it captured late last month.

Also captured, according to the Russian report, was the village of Dachne, west of the town of Kurakhove, which Russia’s military said it also captured last month. The town had been subjected to weeks of heavy fighting.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s military, in a late evening report, said both villages were among 11 settlements that had come under Russian attack in the Pokrovsk sector. But it made no mention of them coming under Russian control.

Reuters could not independently confirm battlefield reports from either side.

Ukraine’s DeepState military blog, which tracks frontline positions based on open source reports, said this week that Russian forces had made advances near Zelene Pole and Dachne.

Russian forces failed in their initial bid to advance on Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, after the February 2022 invasion and have since concentrated on capturing Donbas, made up of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

They have been making steady progress across Donetsk region for months, capturing a long string of villages.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday praised the “good success” of a regiment based near Pokrovsk, without identifying where the operation had taken place.

At least one foreign blogger has noted Ukrainian counterattacks in the area.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Andrew Osborn, Ron Popeski and Leslie Adler)

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By Trevor Hunnicutt and Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Friday advocated taking a “hard stance” on Gaza, the Palestinian enclave for which he has proposed a U.S. takeover and where a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants is in place.

Trump had said this week that Hamas should release all Israeli hostages in Gaza by Saturday midday or “let hell break out.”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow (Saturday) at 12’o clock. If it was up to me, I would take a very hard stance but I can’t tell you what Israel is going to do,” Trump told reporters on Friday.

A ceasefire went into effect just before Trump returned to the presidency on January 20.

Some Israeli hostages have been released by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners have been released by Israel since then.

The U.N. human rights office has described images of both emaciated Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees released as distressing, saying they reflected the dire conditions in which they were held.

Trump on Friday reiterated his concerns about the appearances of released Israeli hostages without commenting on the state of the Palestinians.

U.S. ally Israel’s military assault on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians since October 2023, according to the Gaza health ministry, and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies. The assault internally displaced nearly Gaza’s entire population and caused a hunger crisis.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Trump has faced international condemnation for his proposal to take over Gaza and permanently displace Palestinians there. Rights experts and the United Nations have called it a proposal for ethnic cleansing.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Will Dunham)

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