Reuters, Beirut
The Syrian army and its allies seized control of at least 30 km (19 miles) of Syria’s border with Jordan from rebels in an attack on Thursday, two rebel groups and a Syrian military source said.
A military media unit run by Hezbollah, a close ally of the Syrian government, said the army and its allies had gained control over all checkpoints and border posts on the border in Sweida, one of four Syrian provinces that border Jordan.
Turkey detains 42 suspected militants
Reuters, Ankara
Turkish police on Friday detained 42 people over suspected militant links in operations across two separate provinces, security sources and media said.
Police detained 22 suspected Islamic State militants in operations across the eastern province of Elazig, security sources said.
German court convicts 3 smugglers
AP, Berlin
A court in southern Germany has convicted three Syrian men over the drowning deaths of 13 migrants off the coast of Greece in September 2015.
Prosecutors accused the men of “professional smuggling of people resulting in death.” The court in Traunstein near the Austrian border on Friday sentenced the 27-year-old main defendant to four years in prison for organizing the boat that was to take Syrian refugees from Turkey to the island of Lesbos.
Bomb kills 3 in Pakistan
AP, Karachi
Gunmen riding on a motorcycle opened fire on a vehicle carrying a senior police officer in southern Pakistan on Friday, killing him and his guard before fleeing, while just hours later in the northwest of the country a powerful bomb ripped through a remote tribal region, killing three people and wounding another 25.
Zulfiqar Larik, deputy inspector general of police, said no one claimed the drive-by shooting that took place in Karachi.
, the capital of southern Sindh province, but suspicion fell on local militants who often claim responsibility for attacks on security forces in Karachi and elsewhere in the country.
