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.

ANKARA, Turkey — A journalists association says two journalists working for Kurdish media outlets were killed in northern Syria while covering fighting between Turkish-backed fighters and Syrian Kurdish militia.

Turkey-based Dicle-Firat Journalists Association said Friday Nazim Dastan and Cihan Bilgin were killed Thursday after their vehicle was reportedly targeted by a Turkish drone on a road near the Tishrin Dam.

Tishrin Dam, located some 90 kilometers east of Aleppo, has been the scene of clashes between the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF, and the Turkey-backed opposition forces.

There was no immediate comment from Turkish officials.

Bianet, a news website dedicated to human rights issues, said Bilgin was a reporter for the Kurdish Hawar News Agency, while Dastan worked as a freelance journalist for the Firat News Agency, which is associated with the militant group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organization because its main component is a group aligned to the PKK. The group has been engaged in an armed struggle against the Turkish state since the 1980s in pursuit of its objective to secure autonomy for Kurds in the country.

GENEVA — The head of the U.N. migration agency says that large-scale returns of Syrians to their homeland at this stage would “overwhelm” the country.

Syria’s civil war has displaced millions of people since 2011. The fall of Bashar Assad’s government earlier this month has fueled talk in some of the countries where they went of the refugees’ return.

Amy Pope, the director-general of the International Organization for Migration, told reporters Friday after returning from a visit to Syria that her agency’s message to countries in Europe and elsewhere is that “this is not the moment to talk about large-scale returns.”

Pope said that communities “are just not ready to absorb the people who are displaced and would come back.” She argued that if “overwhelming numbers” of people return, "it will overwhelm the country and it could risk more disruptive impact on a very fragile peace process.”

Pope said it’s right to support individuals on a case-by-case basis who want to go home or know that their place of origin is safe, but that efforts now need to focus on the humanitarian situation, recovery and rebuilding.

STOCKHOLM — The Swedish government says it is ending its “core support” for the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians.

The government said Friday that 800 million kronor ($72.4 million) being allocated for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the region next year will go through the channels of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the government’s support for other agencies such as the World Food Program, the U.N. Children’s Fund, the U.N. Population Fund and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

In October, Israel’s parliament approved legislation banning UNRWA’s activities in the Palestinian territories, a measure that was to take effect in 90 days.

Sweden’s minister for international development cooperation and foreign trade, Benjamin Dousa, posted on X that the Israeli decision will make much of UNRWA’s work difficult or impossible.

He said that Swedish aid must arrive and not get stuck in a bank account en route, and that the Israeli parliament’s decision forces it to pass on support to other organizations. Dousa added that UNRWA is undergoing a crisis of confidence.

Sweden provided 451 million kronor to UNRWA this year.

A Syrian "revolutionary" flag hangs at the entrance of the Umayyad Mosque ahead of Friday prayers in Damascus, Syria, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. 2024.(AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A worker sets up a Syrian "revolutionary" flag at the entrance of the Umayyad Mosque ahead of Friday prayers in Damascus, Syria, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. 2024.(AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A person disguised as a cat stands in the street near the Umayyad Mosque ahead of Friday prayers in Damascus, Syria, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. 2024.(AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A man sits next to a vendor setting up his shop in the Old City , near the Umayyad Mosque, ahead of Friday prayers in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A man smokes a water pipe next to two Syrian "revolutionary" flags in front of a door still adorned with the official flag of the ousted government, near the Umayyad Mosque ahead of Friday prayers in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Two boys have their picture taken posing with Syrian fighters at the Umayyad Mosque ahead of Friday prayers in Damascus, Syria, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. 2024.(AP Photo/Leo Correa)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Hungary has given political asylum to a Polish opposition politician who is wanted on suspicions of corruption, triggering a diplomatic spat that worsened on Friday.

Poland's government decried Hungary's decision as a “hostile act,” and Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that he was dismayed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's decision to shelter a man being sought on suspicions of defrauding the state of millions of zlotys.

The Polish Foreign Ministry said Friday morning that it has summoned its ambassador to Hungary back home for “indefinite consultations.” It also summoned the Hungarian ambassador in Warsaw to give him a protest note.

The matter centers on the case of a former deputy justice minister, Marcin Romanowski, but also reveals a clash over rule of law and democracy.

Tusk took office last year vowing to restore democratic norms and fight corruption that has prevailed under the national conservative government of Law and Justice.

As part of that effort, his government has been seeking to bring to justice some former government officials who allegedly broke the law during the eight-year rule of Law and Justice.

“I did not expect corrupt politicians escaping justice would be able to choose between (Belarusian President Alexander) Lukashenko and Orbán,” Tusk said on Friday.

Hungary on Thursday offered political asylum to Romanowski, who is wanted under a European arrest warrant.

Romanowski through his lawyer argues that he is the victim of political retribution by Tusk's government.

Gergely Gulyás, Orbán’s chief of staff. said that Budapest believed that Romanowski wouldn’t receive a fair trial in Poland.

Both Poland and Hungary are members of the 27-member European Union, and Poland believes Budapest's move is "an action contrary to the fundamental principle of loyal cooperation” as laid out in the EU treaties.

“We consider the decision of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government to grant political asylum to Marcin Romanowski, wanted under the European Arrest Warrant, to be an act hostile towards the Republic of Poland and contrary to the elementary principles binding on the member states of the European Union,” the ministry said.

The Polish prosecutor's office has accused Romanowski of committing 11 crimes, including criminal group and rigging tenders, and the misappropriation of millions.

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk speaks with the media prior to a group photo at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks during his visit at Bulgarian presidency in Sofia on Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

FILE - Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, right, speaks with Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk as they pose for a group photo during an Nuclear Energy Summit at the Expo in Brussels, on March 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)