World
Hundreds of Civilians Killed by Government Forces in Syria, War Monitors Say
Three days of clashes between fighters affiliated with Syria’s new leaders and those loyal to the ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad have left scores of civilians dead, according to two war monitoring groups, who reported on Saturday that many of them had been killed by the government’s forces.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has monitored the Syrian conflict since 2011, said early Sunday that more than 1,000 people had been killed in the coastal provinces of Tartus and Latakia. That figure included about 700 civilians, most killed by government forces. The information could not be independently verified.
Another monitoring group, the Syrian Network for Human Rights, reported earlier that government security forces had killed some 125 civilians. It said that men of all ages were among the casualties and that the forces did not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Information Ministry officials, responding to the charges of killing civilians, said they rejected “undocumented allegations accusing government forces of committing violations.” But they also said the government was committed to conducting comprehensive investigations and would hold to account those found to have harmed civilians.
“The Syrian government confirms that its forces operate according to strict standards that respect international humanitarian law and are keen to protect civilians during their operations,” a ministry statement said.
The Observatory said most of the civilians killed were from the country’s Alawite religious minority, to which Mr. al-Assad belongs, but this could not be independently verified either. The monitoring group said scores of combatants on both sides of the conflict had also been killed.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights said the Assad loyalists had killed more than 100 security forces for the new government.
The Defense Ministry told Syrian state media on Saturday afternoon that forces had regained control over most areas that had been taken by the former regime remnants ,and that roads leading to the coastal area had been closed “to regulate violations, prevent transgressions and gradually restore stability to the area.”
The unrest has been the bloodiest outbreak of violence since the Assad regime was ousted in early December by rebels who became the country’s new leaders. It presents a major test of the new government’s authority and has raised the specter of a larger sectarian conflict in Syria, where tensions were already high as a result of the civil war.
By Saturday afternoon, the Syrian Red Crescent had been given permission to enter one of the towns to evacuate the injured, said Haidera Younes, a spokesman for the Red Crescent’s branch in Tartus.
The clashes began on Thursday after Assad loyalists killed 16 government security personnel in Latakia province, in the deadliest attack yet on Syria’s new security forces, according to government officials and the Observatory.
Violence quickly spread across Latakia and Tartus provinces, longtime strongholds of Mr. al-Assad along the Mediterranean coast and home to most of the country’s Alawites. Armed remnants of the ousted regime are believed to be scattered across the two provinces and have presented a challenge to the country’s new leaders as they try to exert their authority and unite a fractured country after more than 13 years of civil war.
The government responded to the initial attack on Thursday by deploying thousands of security forces and soldiers from other parts of the country to the restive coast. The government has sought to present the clashes as a legitimate authority fighting the remnants of a brutal regime.
For the first time, the new government forces deployed helicopters outfitted with machine guns on Thursday around the mountainside of the coastal region, according to a government official on the coast, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. The helicopters were deployed to areas where armed Assad loyalists were stationed, the official added.
A video verified by The New York Times and filmed along the coast west of Latakia airport appears to show government fighters repurposing Russian-made anti-submarine depth charges by dropping them as bombs from the rear of a helicopter. A spokesman for the government in Latakia did not respond to a request for comment about the video. A journalist with Syrian state media, Muhammad al-Othman, said that the munitions were dropped over mountainous areas where old regime remnants remain.
The Assad regime drew international condemnation for its frequent use of helicopters for indiscriminate bombings, dropping improvised “barrel bombs” onto civilian populations for years. The use of anti-submarine munitions for that purpose fits the old regime’s pattern of using whatever it could either fabricate or repurpose for launching aerial attacks via helicopter.
The munitions used in the helicopter attacks appeared to be Russian RBG-25 depth charges, which are normally launched from ships for use against submarines, said Trevor Ball, a former U.S. Army explosive ordnance disposal technician. They most likely originated from old Assad regime stocks, he said.
“This is quite a bit different from how they are designed to be deployed,” said Mr. Ball. “These aren’t going to cause as much damage as the barrel bombs the Assad regime commonly used.”
Christina Goldbaum, Muhammad Haj Kadour and Reham Mourshed contributed reporting.
Shops and schools shut in northern Israel as residents protested a 10-day ceasefire with Lebanon that took effect on April 16, saying “nothing was achieved”. Israeli officials say operations may continue, with forces still deployed inside southern Lebanon.
Published On 19 Apr 2026
World
Pope Leo says remarks about world being ‘ravaged by a handful of tyrants’ were not aimed at Trump: report
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Pope Leo XIV said Saturday that remarks he made this week in which he said the “world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants” were not directed at President Donald Trump, a report said.
The pope, speaking onboard a flight to Angola during his 10-day tour of Africa, said reporting about his comments “has not been accurate in all its aspects” and his speech “was prepared two weeks ago, well before the president ever commented on myself and on the message of peace that I am promoting,” according to Reuters.
The news outlet cited the pope as saying his comments were not aimed at Trump.
“As it happens, it was looked at as if I was trying to debate the president, which is not in my interest at all,” the pope reportedly said.
’60 MINUTES’ ACCUSED OF USING LEFT-LEANING CARDINALS TO BAIT TRUMP INTO FEUD WITH VATICAN
Pope Leo XIV answers journalists’ questions during his flight from Yaoundé, Cameroon, to Luanda, Angola, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (Luca Zennaro/Pool Photo via AP)
Vice President JD Vance later took to X to thank the pope for clearing the record.
“While the media narrative constantly gins up conflict — and yes, real disagreements have happened and will happen — the reality is often much more complicated,” Vance wrote. “Pope Leo preaches the gospel, as he should, and that will inevitably mean he offers his opinions on the moral issues of the day.
“The President — and the entire administration — work to apply those moral principles in a messy world,” he continued. “He will be in our prayers, and I hope that we’ll be in his.”
The vice president’s comments came days after he told Fox News’ Bret Baier on “Special Report” that it would be best for the Vatican to “stick to matters of morality.”
“Let the President of the United States stick to dictating American public policy,” Vance said Tuesday.
Trump last Sunday accused Pope Leo XIV of being “terrible” on foreign policy after the pontiff criticized the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
“He talks about ‘fear’ of the Trump Administration, but doesn’t mention the FEAR that the Catholic Church, and all other Christian Organizations, had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers, and everybody else, for holding Church Services, even when going outside, and being ten and even twenty feet apart,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”
POPE LEO SLAMS THOSE WHO ‘MANIPULATE RELIGION’ FOR MILITARY OR POLITICAL GAIN, TRUMP RESPONDS
Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump (Simone Risoluti/Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images; Salwan Georges/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
During a speech in Cameroon on Thursday, the pope said, “We must make a decisive change of course — a true conversion — that will lead us in the opposite direction, onto a sustainable path rich in human fraternity.
“The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters.
Pope Leo XIV speaks as he meets with the community of Bamenda at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Bamenda on the fourth day of an 11-day apostolic journey to Africa April 16, 2026. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images)
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“Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic or political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.
Bulgarians headed to the polls Sunday for the eighth time in five years, with anti-corruption candidate and former president Rumen Radev’s bloc tipped to win.
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The European Union’s poorest member has been through a spate of governments since 2021, when large anti-graft rallies brought an end to the conservative government of long-time leader Boyko Borissov.
Eurostat data shows Bulgaria consistently ranks last in the EU by GDP per capita. In 2025, Bulgaria (along with Greece) was at 68% of the EU average.
Radev, who has advocated for renewing ties with Russia and opposes military aid to Ukraine, was president for nine years in the Balkan nation of 6.5 million people.
He stepped down in January to lead newly formed centre-left grouping Progressive Bulgaria, with opinion polls before Sunday’s vote suggesting the bloc could gain 35% of the vote.
The former air force general has said he wants to rid the country of its “oligarchic governance model”, and backed anti-corruption protests in late 2025 that brought down the latest conservative-backed government.
“I’m voting for change,” Decho Kostadinov, 57, told reporters after casting his ballot at a polling station in the capital, Sofia, adding corrupt politicians “should leave — they should take whatever they’ve stolen and get out of Bulgaria”.
Polls are forecasting a surge in voter participation, with more than 3.3 million Bulgarians expected to cast ballots according to the Bulgarian News Agency.
Voting will close at 1700 GMT, with exit polls expected immediately afterwards. Preliminary results are expected on Monday.
‘Preserve what we have’
Borissov’s pro-European GERB party is likely to come second, according to opinion polls, with around 20%, ahead of the liberal PP-DB.
“I’m voting to preserve what we have. We are a democratic country, we live well,” said Elena, an accountant of about 60, who did not give her full name, after casting her vote in Sofia.
Front-runner Radev has slammed the EU’s green energy policy, which he considers naive “in a world without rules”.
He also opposes any Bulgarian efforts to send arms to help Ukraine fight back Russia’s 2022 invasion, though he has said he would not use his country’s veto to block Brussels’ decisions.
Pushing for renewed ties with Russia, Radev denounced a 10-year defence agreement between Bulgaria and Ukraine signed last month – drawing fresh accusations from opponents of being too soft on Moscow.
The ex-president also stoked outrage online for screening images at his final campaign rally of his meetings with world leaders including Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
“We need to close ranks,” he told around 10,000 cheering supporters at the rally, presenting his party as a non-corrupt “alternative to the perverse cartel of old-style parties”.
Borissov, who headed the country virtually uninterrupted for close to a decade, has dismissed suggestions that Radev brings something “new”.
At a rally of his party earlier this week, he insisted GERB had “fulfilled the dreams of the 1990s” with such achievements as the country joining the eurozone this year.
‘No one to vote for’
Radev is aiming for an absolute majority in the 240-seat parliament.
A lack of trust in politics has affected voter turnout, which slumped to 39% in the last election in 2024.
But with Radev rallying voters, high turnout is expected this time, according to analyst Boryana Dimitrova from the Alpha Research polling institute.
Miglena Boyadjieva, a taxi driver of about 55, said she always votes, but the “problem is that there is no one to vote for”.
“You vote for one person and get others. The system has to change,” she told reporters.
Political parties have called on Bulgarians to show up for the polls, also to curb the impact of vote buying.
In recent weeks, police have seized more than one million euros in raids against vote buying in stepped-up operations.
They have also detained hundreds of people, including local councillors and mayors.
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