DAMASCUS: Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik, journalists, were struck by a rocket on the morning of Feb. 22, 2012, in the neighborhood of Baba Amr in Homs at the beginning of the Syrian civil war. In federal court in Washington, DC, on Monday, evidence was submitted in a lawsuit accusing the Syrian government of targeting and murdering Colvin, a US citizen raised on Long Island, as she sought to cover the war.
The Intercept — in an article headlined “How the Assad regime tracked and killed Marie Colvin for reporting on war crimes in Syria” — describes how the Colvin family filed video and nearly 2,000 pages of evidence, including military intelligence memoranda and testimony from Syrian defectors, as part of the federal civil lawsuit. The documents provide detailed and unprecedented evidence to support the claim that Colvin was deliberately hunted and killed as part of a policy by the Assad regime to eliminate journalists.
The Center for Justice & Accountability, a San Francisco-based human rights group, built the case following a six-year investigation. “Three factors came together to create the conditions for the attack: The regime’s intent to target journalists, its access to powerful surveillance capabilities, and an absence of international political will to prevent atrocities in Syria,” says The Intercept.
How the Assad regime tracked and killed Marie Colvin for reporting on war crimes in Syria — The Intercept
How the Assad regime tracked and killed Marie Colvin for reporting on war crimes in Syria — The Intercept
Ankara city hall says water cuts due to ‘record drought’
- Dam reservoir levels have dropped to 1.12 percent and taps are being shut off for several hours a day in certain districts on a rotating schedule in Ankara
ANKARA: Water cuts for the past several weeks in Turkiye’s capital were due to the worst drought in 50 years and an exploding population, a municipal official told AFP, rejecting accusations of mismanagement.
Dam reservoir levels have dropped to 1.12 percent and taps are being shut off for several hours a day in certain districts on a rotating schedule in Ankara, forcing many residents to line up at public fountains to fill pitchers.
“2025 was a record year in terms of drought. The amount of water feeding the dams fell to historically low levels, to 182 million cubic meters in 2025, compared with 400 to 600 million cubic meters in previous years. This is the driest period in the last 50 years,” said Memduh Akcay, director general of the Ankara municipal water authority.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called the Ankara municipal authorities, led by the main opposition party, “incompetent.”
Rejecting this criticism, the city hall says Ankara is suffering from the effects of climate change and a growing population, which has doubled since the 1990s to nearly six million inhabitants.
“In addition to reduced precipitation, the irregularity of rainfall patterns, the decline in snowfall, and the rapid conversion of precipitation into runoff (due to urbanization) prevent the dams from refilling effectively,” Akcay said.
A new pumping system drawing water from below the required level in dams will ensure no water cuts this weekend, Ankara’s city hall said, but added that the problem would persist in the absence of sufficient rainfall.
Much of Turkiye experienced a historic drought in 2025. The municipality of Izmir, the country’s third-largest city on the Aegean coast, has imposed daily water cuts since last summer.
