Portal:Current events/2025 March 22

March 22, 2025 (Saturday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian civil war
- Western Syria clashes
  - 2025 massacres of Syrian Alawites
    - The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports that thousands of Syrian civilians are still missing following sectarian reprisal massacres committed by Syrian government-affiliated forces that killed at least 1,614 coastal civilians, including many Alawites and Christians. (SOHR)
    - The SOHR also reports several efforts by pro-government forces to hide the scale of the atrocities by gathering unaccounted bodies into mass graves, through cremation, or retaining hundreds of unidentified corpses from families. (SOHR)
Israeli–Lebanese conflict
- Israeli invasion of Lebanon
  - Six people, including a child, are killed by Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon in the heaviest exchange of fire since the ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah almost four months ago. The strikes were carried out in retaliation for rockets from Lebanon being fired into Israel. (CTV News)
Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Zaporizhzhia strikes, Attacks on civilians in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
  - An overnight Russian drone attack on Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, kills three people and wounds twelve others. Several apartments in residential areas are targeted during the attack. (AP)
- Pokrovsk offensive
  - Russian artillery targets Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast, killing three people and injuring one other person. (Reuters)
Somali Civil War
- 2025 Shabelle offensive
  - At least 100 al-Shabaab militant fighters are killed in a Somali Air Force airstrike in the Lower Shabelle region of the South West State, Somalia. (TRAC)
Sudanese civil war
- Battle of Khartoum
  - The Sudanese Armed Forces say that they seized control of the main headquarters of the central bank from the Rapid Support Forces as it continues to make advances in Khartoum. (Al Jazeera)
Ethiopian civil war
- Ethiopian National Defense Forces claimed to have killed more than 300 fighters from the Fano armed group in two days of clashes in the northern Amhara region of Ethiopia. (Reuters)
Fambita mosque attack
- Niger declares three days of national mourning after yesterday's attack in which 44 people were killed in a mosque in Fambita. (Al Jazeera)
Red Sea crisis
- A ballistic missile disintegrates over Saudi Arabia after being fired by the Houthis from Yemen against Israel. (The Jerusalem Post)

Disasters and accidents

2025 Trident Aviation DHC-5 crash
- A de Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo cargo plane en route from Dhobley Airport in Lower Juba, Jubaland, to Aden Adde International Airport in Somalia’s capital city, Mogadishu, crashes in the Ceel Xabaaloow settlement in Lower Shabelle, South West State, killing all five Kenyan crew members on board. (Somalia Civil Aviation Authority) (Idil News)
March 2025 South Korea wildfires
- Three firefighters and a civilian are killed after multiple wildfires sweep across a large forested area in South Korea. (DW)

International relations

Foreign ministers from Japan, China, and South Korea meet in Tokyo to discuss cooperation on shared challenges like aging populations and climate change, seeking to improve relations and prepare for a leaders' summit. Japan raises security concerns about North Korea while China criticizes protectionism and the politicization of science. (AP)

Law and crime

The United States lifts a $10 million dollar reward for information leading to the arrest of Afghan warlord Sirajuddin Haqqani after the Taliban released an American citizen who had been kept in captivity for two years. (Al Jazeera)

Politics and elections

2025 Turkish protests
- Anti-Erdoğan government protests spread to fifty-five of Turkey's eighty-one provinces, with Republican People's Party leader Özgür Özel estimating that over half a million protesters are demonstrating in Istanbul alone. At least 343 protesters are arrested by Turkish police. (France 24)