International from Wednesday, July 16th, 2025

Powerful airstrikes shook Damascus on Wednesday, targeting the defence ministry as Israel vowed to destroy Syrian government forces attacking Druze communities in southern Syria and demanded they withdraw.

Russia attacked cities across Ukraine overnight with hundreds of drones and a missile strike, hitting energy infrastructure and wounding at least 15 people, authorities said on Wednesday.

At least 20 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday at an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in what the US-backed group said was a crowd surge instigated by armed agitators.

Israeli airstrikes killed 12 people in eastern Lebanon, according to a Lebanese security source - the attacks being the deadliest in the area since the US-brokered ceasefire between the two countries last November.

Clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed in the southern Druze city of Sweida early on Wednesday, collapsing a ceasefire announced just hours earlier that aimed to put an end to days of deadly sectarian bloodshed.

Britain set up a secret scheme to bring thousands of Afghans to the UK after their personal details were disclosed in one of the country's worst ever data breaches, putting them at risk of reprisals from the Taliban after their return to power.