Israeli strikes in southwestern Syria kill 6 people as troops clash with residents

KOAYIAH, Syria (AP) — An Israeli strike Tuesday in southwestern Syria killed at least six people as Israeli troops occupying the area clashed with local residents, Syria's Foreign Ministry and a war monitor reported.

Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said troops fired back at gunmen who attacked them, before launching a drone attack.

The Syrian ministry said the six killed were civilians.

Syrian state-run news agency SANA said that several people were wounded, including a woman. The report said Israeli tanks in the southwestern village of Koayiah also fired several rounds. Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at seven.

“We also call on the Syrian people to hold on to their land and reject any attempts at displacement or the imposition of a new reality by force, stressing that these attacks will not deter Syrians from defending their rights and their land,” the Foreign Ministry's statement read, accusing Israel of “flagrant violation of national sovereignty and international laws.”

The observatory and a town resident told The Associated Press that clashes had erupted between Israeli troops and residents after Israeli forces tried to enter the village and were confronted by armed civilians. Residents of the village fled the shelling and took refuge in neighboring villages and olive groves.

Israel seized a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone inside Syria after Islamist insurgents toppled President Bashar Assad and seized power in December, with Israeli officials saying they will thwart any threats. Israeli officials have also said that they will not allow the new Syrian military south of Damascus, claiming that they aim to protect the Druze, a minority sect present in both Syria and Israel.

Syria’s new authorities and U.N. officials have said Israel is violating the 1974 agreement that set up the buffer zone along the border and called for its withdrawal.

Elsewhere, the spokesperson of an investigative committee tasked with probing days of clashes and revenge attacks in Syria's coastal region that killed hundreds of civilians said they had listened to almost 100 testimonies and received dozens of written and recorded civilian and military statements.

“There are areas where the events took place that are dangerous, and some witnesses and residents are afraid to communicate with the committee,” Yasser al-Farhan said at a news conference. He declined to elaborate on the committee's findings so far.

The clashes erupted after pro-Assad loyalists attacked a security patrol in the coastal city of Lattakia, leading to revenge killings that broadly targeted Assad's minority Alawite community.

The two-day violence was a major setback in Damascus' efforts to improve its image and convince Europe and the United States to lift economic sanctions after over a decade of conflict.

SANA also said Tuesday that two internet cables were cut in an act of sabotage, cutting online access across much of the country for 12 hours.

—

Chehayeb reported from Beirut.

Children ride in a truck as they are evacuated due to fears of Israeli army incursions, following a drone attack that reportedly killed at least four people in the area, on the outskirts of the village of Koayiah, southwestern Syria, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Local residents ride in the back of vans as they are evacuated due to fears of Israeli army incursions, following a drone attack that reportedly killed at least four people in the area, on the outskirts of the village of Koayiah, southwestern Syria, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Local residents wait to be evacuated due to fears of Israeli army incursions, following a drone attack that reportedly killed at least four people in the area, on the outskirts of the village of Koayiah, southwestern Syria, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Local residents wait on the side of the road to be evacuated due to fears of Israeli army incursions, following a drone attack that reportedly killed at least four people in the area, on the outskirts of the village of Koayiah, southwestern Syria, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Children sit inside a Red Crescent vehicle as they are evacuated due to fears of Israeli army incursions, following a drone attack that reportedly killed at least four people in the area, on the outskirts of the village of Koayiah, southwestern Syria, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

The mother of Ali Mohammad al-Hneiss, reportedly killed in an Israeli drone attack that claimed at least four lives, weeps during his funeral in the village of Koayiah, southwestern Syria, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Malek Khattab)

The body of Loay Reda al-Aqla, reportedly killed in an Israeli drone attack that claimed at least four lives, is laid to rest in the village of Koayiah, southwestern Syria, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Malek Khattab)

Local residents carry the bodies of Ayman Salem al-Suleiman and Ayham Hayel Hamdan who were reportedly killed in an Israeli drone attack that claimed at least four lives, during their funeral in the village of Koayiah, southwestern Syria, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Malek Khattab)

The mother of Ali Mohammad al-Hneiss, reportedly killed in an Israeli drone attack that claimed at least four lives, weeps during his funeral in the village of Koayiah, southwestern Syria, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Malek Khattab)

Local residents pray during the funeral of Loay Reda al-Aqla, who was reportedly killed in an Israeli drone attack that claimed at least four lives, in the village of Koayiah, southwestern Syria, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Malek Khattab)

Local residents pray during the funeral of Loay Reda al-Aqla, who was reportedly killed in an Israeli drone attack that claimed at least four lives, in the village of Koayiah, southwestern Syria, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Malek Khattab)

Residents mourn the body of Ayman Salem al-Suleiman, who was reportedly killed in an Israeli drone attack that claimed at least four lives, in Koayiah, southwestern Syria, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Malek Khattab)

Yasser Farhan, a member of the fact-finding committee investigating sectarian killings during recent clashes between rival groups in an insurgency led by Bashar al-Assad loyalists in Syria's coastal region, holds a press conference in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Yasser Farhan, a member of the fact-finding committee investigating sectarian killings during recent clashes between rival groups in an insurgency led by Bashar al-Assad loyalists in Syria's coastal region, holds a press conference in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — An independent counsel on Tuesday demanded a death sentence for former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on rebellion charges in connection with his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024.

Removed from office last April, Yoon faces eight trials over various criminal charges related to his martial law debacle and other scandals related to his time in office. Charges that he directed a rebellion are the most significant ones.

Independent counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team requested the Seoul Central District Court to sentence Yoon to death, according to the court.

The Seoul court is expected to deliver a verdict on Yoon in February. Experts say the court likely will sentence him to life in prison. South Korea hasn't executed anyone since 1997.

Yoon was scheduled to make remarks at Tuesday's hearing. He has maintained that his decree was a desperate yet peaceful attempt to raise public awareness about what he considered the danger of the liberal opposition Democratic Party, which used its legislative majority to obstruct his agenda. He called the opposition-controlled parliament “a den of criminals” and “anti-state forces.”

Yoon’s decree, the first of its kind in more than 40 years in South Korea, brought armed troops into Seoul streets to encircle the assembly and enter election offices. That evoked traumatic memories of dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, when military-backed rulers used martial law and other emergency decrees to station soldiers and armored vehicles in public places to suppress pro-democracy protests.

On the night of Yoon's martial law declaration, thousands of people rushed to the National Assembly to object to the decree and demand his resignation in dramatic scenes. Enough lawmakers, including even those in Yoon’s ruling party, managed to enter an assembly hall to vote down the decree.

Observers described Yoon’s action as political suicide. Parliament impeached him and sent the case to the Constitutional Court, which ruled to dismiss him as president.

It was a spectacular downfall for Yoon, a former star prosecutor who won South Korea’s presidency in 2022, a year after entering politics.

Lee Jae Myung, a former Democratic Party leader who led Yoon's impeachment bid, became president by winning a snap election last June. After taking office, Lee appointed three independent counsels to delve into allegations involving Yoon, his wife and associates.

There had been speculation that Yoon resorted to martial law to protect his wife, Kim Keon Hee, from potential corruption investigations. But in wrapping up a six-month investigation last month, independent counsel Cho’s team concluded that Yoon plotted for over a year to impose martial law to eliminate his political rivals and monopolize power.

Yoon’s decree and ensuing power vacuum plunged South Korea into political turmoil, halted the country’s high-level diplomacy and rattled its financial markets.

Yoon’s earlier vows to fight attempts to impeach and arrest him deepened the country’s political divide. In January last year, he became the country’s first sitting president to be detained.

Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs outside of Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

FILE - Then South Korea's ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol who is facing charges of orchestrating a rebellion when he declared martial law on Dec. 3, arrives to attend his trial at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, Pool, File)