Briefly

UNITED STATES

Al-Qaida chief taken out in Yemen hit

US President Donald Trump confirmed on Thursday that the US had killed the leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, days after the terror group claimed responsibility for a mass shooting at a US naval base. The US "conducted a counter-terrorism operation in Yemen that successfully eliminated Qassim al-Rimi, a founder and the leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)", Trump said in a statement.

SYRIA

Govt forces capture more towns in Idlib

The Syrian army captured five towns north of the city of Saraqeb in the countryside of Idlib Province on Thursday, state news agency SANA reported. With this progress, the army exposed the road connecting Saraqeb with Aleppo in northern Syria. The progress came with the Syrian army's capture of Saraqeb, the second-most important city that will enable it to take the road connecting Hama with Aleppo through Idlib.

KAZAKHSTAN

Record broken for female astronauts

NASA astronaut Christina Koch returned to Earth safely on Thursday after shattering the spaceflight record for female astronauts with a nearly 11-month stay aboard the International Space Station. Koch touched down on the Kazakh steppe along with Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian space agency.