Middle East latest: 2 journalists working for Kurdish media killed in clashes in northern Syria

A journalists’ association said Friday two reporters working for Kurdish media outlets have been killed in clashes between Syrian Kurdish militia and Turkish-backed fighters in northern Syria. Fighting in parts of Syria continues despite the fall of President Bashar Assad.

Elsewhere in Syria, the transition following the government’s fall has been smooth so far, although it’s been less than two weeks since Assad was ousted by a lightning rebel advance on the capital, Damascus.

The country is home to diverse sects, and there is ongoing fear and uncertainty among minority groups, including Christians, regarding their rights and safety under the main rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, once an affiliate of al-Qaida.

Here’s the latest:

The Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said Friday that 77 people have died and 174 others arrived at hospitals during the past 24 hours as a result of the ongoing conflict in the territory.

The latest toll includes five children and 12 others who were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Shaaban Rais School sheltering displaced people on Thursday, as well as five people who were killed in Maghazi refugee camp in Deir al-Balah early Thursday.

Officials said some people remained under rubble and on roads where ambulance and civil defense crew could not reach them.

The ministry said the latest death toll brings the total of deaths in Gaza to 45,206 since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and triggered a 14-month Israeli offensive. Local health officials do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but have said more than half of the fatalities are women and children.

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested that Turkey could intervene in northern Syria to eliminate what he said are threats to its security posed by Syrian Kurdish groups.

His statement to a group of journalists late Thursday comes amid reports of fighting between Turkish-backed fighters and the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led force in northern Syria, near the border town of Kobani and the Tishrin dam on the Euphrates river.

“We will show that the time has come to neutralize the terrorist organizations present in Syria,” Erdogan said, according to a transcript of his remarks that was made available on Friday. “We will do this to prevent any further threats coming from the south of our borders.”

Turkey considers the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF, as a terrorist organization because its main component is a group aligned to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Earlier this week, the SDF said U.S.-led mediation efforts failed to reach a permanent truce in Syria’s north.

“The end of the road for the terrorist organizations is near,” Erdogan said. “There is no room for terrorists in the future of the region. The shelf life of the PKK terrorist organization and its extensions has run out.”

Erdogan said by securing the border area in Syria, Turkey would also prevent the PKK from recruiting militants.

The Turkish leader meanwhile, welcomed the fact that many countries were establishing contact with Syria’s new leaders, saying it was “a sign of trust” in the new administration. He said Turkey would assist the country to establish new “state structures.”

Erdogan added that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan would travel to Syria soon.

DAMASCUS — A delegation of U.S. officials headed by Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf left the Four Seasons Hotel in Damascus Friday afternoon without making any statement to waiting journalists. A statement was expected later in the afternoon.

Leaf, former special envoy for Syria Daniel Rubinstein and the Biden administration’s chief envoy for hostage negotiations, Roger Carstens, made the trip for talks with Syria’s interim leaders, the State Department said early Friday.

The first U.S. diplomats to visit Syria since President Bashar Assad’s ouster nearly two weeks ago — and the first to formally visit Syria in more than a decade since the U.S. shuttered its embassy in Damascus in 2012 — also came to seek information on the whereabouts of missing American journalist Austin Tice.

The State Department said in a statement that the team would be “engaging directly with the Syrian people, including members of civil society, activists, members of different communities, and other Syrian voices.” Members of the civil defense group known as the White Helmets were seen leaving the hotel along with the delegation.