The Israeli military accused Lebanese armed group Hezbollah on Tuesday of seeking to rebuild its combat abilities in south Lebanon to the point of threatening Israel's security and undoing last year's ceasefire deal.

The United States said on Monday it was partly suspending enforcement of some of its toughest sanctions on Syria for another 180 days as President Donald Trump hosted Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the White House for landmark talks.

Ahmed al-Sharaa — who 20 years ago was thrown into a US detention centre in Iraq after he joined al-Qaeda militants fighting the Americans — will on Monday become the first Syrian president to visit the White House since the country’s independence in 1946.

(Reuters) -Syria recently signed a political cooperation declaration with the Global Coalition to Defeat Islamic State, the Syrian information minister said in a post on X post on Monday. "The agreement is political and until now contains no military components," he said.

Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa is expected during his Washington visit Monday to commit to joining the U.S.-led coalition to defeat ISIS, two U.S. officials told NBC News.

The killings happened in the village of Anaz in Wadi al-Nasara, or the Valley of the Christians – an area of rolling hills in rural Homs province in western Syria. Locals say the gunman came from the direction of a nearby Sunni Muslim village.