US-led airstrikes kill 40 civilians in northeastern Syria

Here is a round-up of global news developments:

• US-led airstrikes in northeastern Syria have killed nearly 40 civilians since Wednesday. The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the raids hit Shadadi in Hasakah province. At least 11 people were also killed on Monday in a raid on a hospital in Idlib province. Damascus blamed the attack on the US.
• Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir says Riyadh will not stop military intervention in Yemen and that the war will continue until the country’s fugitive former president returns to power. Jubeir also claimed that Saudi forces and their allies have opened up supply lines for aid in Yemen.
• Turkey’s main opposition leader says the country has turned into a QUOTE bloodbath following the car bomb attack in Ankara. Leader of the Republican People’s Party, Kemal Kilich-daroglu also criticized how the ruling AK party is governing the country. Ankara has blamed Syrian Kurdish fighters for the attack.
• A day after life-saving supplies arrived in five besieged areas in Syria, the United Nations says more humanitarian aid is to come within a week. Syria’s Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura says the second phase of the mission will be much vaster in scale. There are plans to airdrop aid is some areas.
• Armed Israeli settlers have shot dead two Palestinian youths near the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the deaths. The two were gunned down after they stabbed two Israelis near the Shaer Benjamin settlement. One of the settlers reportedly died in the incident.
• Swiss inspection group has denied any responsibility for security at an Iraqi site where an amount of radioactive material went missing last year. S-G-S said U-S oilfield services company Weatherford, which owns the site, does not control accesses to the site in question.
• Nigerians have held a protest in the city of Kano demanding the release of the leader of Nigeria’s Islamic Movement, Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky. The demonstrators condemned the international community’s silence on the massacre of Nigerian Muslims. The massacre took place in December during the army's attack on Muslims in Zaria.
• U-S Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has slammed Pope Francis for criticizing his anti-immigration remarks. Trump said it is disgraceful for a religious leader to question someone's faith. Trump also pledged, if elected, he would not allow Christianity to be QUOTE consistently attacked and weakened.

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