SYRIA: Suppose the battle for Idlib turned out to be the turning point in modern Middle East geopolitics, with historians looking back on it as the moment Western powers ceased to have influence in the region and Russia and Iran took over? It’s not far-fetched, according to this analysis.

Fourteen United Nations peacekeepers died and more than 40 others sustained injuries when a rebel group attacked their base in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, UN officials said Friday. Radio Okapi, linked to the peacekeeping mission in the country, reported the peacekeepers attempted to repel fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces group. UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said he was outraged by the Thursday evening attack in North Kivu province, adding that medical evacuations at the scene are ongoing.

Iraqi Kurdish officials said more than 70 percent of Kurds showed up to vote in the region’s independence referendum Monday. As the Kurds await the results, the Iraqi government and several other regional leaders have threatened to respond forcefully if the push for independence continues. 

The United Nations on Wednesday said its investigators have found 17 new mass graves in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Central Kasai province, where clashes between security officials and a local militia have persisted.

The latest discovery brings to 40 the total number of mass graves uncovered in the region since August, and the UN has threatened to involve the International Criminal Court if the government fails to act to stop the region’s violence.

SYRIA: Russia is standing by Syria and President Bashar al-Assad even as the death toll in a suspected chemical weapons attack rises to at least 74. Today, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley confronted Moscow, with veto power at the UN Security Council, but it called a draft resolution to condemn the attack “categorically unacceptable.”

Officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo have found the bodies of two United Nations investigators, including an American, and a Congolese interpreter missing for more than two weeks.

The incident marks the first killing of international aid workers in Congo’s Central Kasai province and the first time UN experts have been reported missing in the country, according to Human Rights Watch.

Security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo used excessive force against political protesters, leading to the deaths of at least 40 people, the United Nations human rights agency said.

The report, released Wednesday, revealed the government deployed soldiers and military police to control protesting crowds in December. Hundreds of civilians had come out to protest Congo’s President Joseph Kabila’s move to stay in office beyond his term limit. The responding officials had no training in handling demonstrations and abused their power, the report said.