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President Vladimir Putin has sent condolences after a Russian air strike accidentally killed three Turkish soldiers in northern Syria.

The soldiers were supporting Syrian rebels in efforts to capture the city of al-Bab from so-called Islamic State. It is part of a broader offensive by Turkey to push IS and Kurdish fighters away from Turkey’s southern border.

Russia and Turkey, who back opposing sides in the war, have been jointly targeting IS in air strikes recently.

A Russian aircraft attacked a building where some of the soldiers had been deployed near al-Bab, the Turkish military said. It had been planning to hit IS targets but « by accident three of our soldiers were martyred when a building was bombed where our units were », it added.

Eleven other soldiers were wounded in the friendly fire incident on Thursday.

The Kremlin has issued a statement (in Russian) saying President Putin had, in a telephone call with his Turkish counterpart, « expressed condolences over a tragic incident which resulted in the deaths of several Turkish troops in the al-Bab area ». The incident comes after a warming of ties between the two countries, which had previously been strained after Turkey downed a Russian jet near the Syrian border two years ago.

Six Afghan Red Cross workers have been killed by suspected Islamic State (IS) group gunmen in the northern province of Jowzjan, officials say.

The workers were shot dead in the Qush Tepa area, the governor said.

Two others are unaccounted for, feared abducted by the group, he said. The ICRC confirmed the deaths but said it did not know who had killed its staff.

IS has been active in Afghanistan since 2015, claiming recent attacks in the east and Kabul. There was no immediate claim for the attack in Jowzjan.

The ICRC said in a tweet that it was « shocked and devastated » by the news. The organisation’s head, Peter Maurer, said it was a deliberate attack on his staff which « we condemn in the strongest possible terms ». The ICRC has had an uninterrupted presence in Afghanistan for 30 years and says it will now assess its operations in the country.

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A married teenage couple have been charged with planning to carry out a terror attack in Sydney.

Sameh Bayda and Alo-Bridget Namoa, both 19, are accused of « conspiracy to do an act, or acts in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act or acts ». The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, the Australian Federal Police said.

The pair were already in custody after being arrested in early 2016 on lesser charges, a court heard on Wednesday.

Previous court documents alleged Mr Bayda had collected instructions about how to make an improvised explosive device and commit a stabbing attack. Ms Namoa was accused of recklessly possessing a hunting knife and instructions relating to a homemade bomb.

Court Hearing

Their charges were upgraded on Wednesday following an investigation by New South Wales (NSW) counter-terrorism police. The pair did not appear at a preliminary hearing in the Sydney Central Local Court later in the day.

Magistrate Alexander Mijovich said the case should move forward because the brief of evidence did not contain new material. « It needs to proceed, it can’t just keep on meandering along now that they’ve sorted out the charges and the brief, » he said.

The case will return to court on 15 March.

As many as 13,000 people, most of them civilian opposition supporters, have been executed in secret at a prison in Syria, Amnesty International says.

A new report by the human rights group alleges that mass hangings took place every week at Saydnaya prison between September 2011 and December 2015.

Amnesty says the alleged executions were authorised at the highest levels of the Syrian government. The government has previously denied killing or mistreating detainees.

However, UN human rights experts said a year ago that witness accounts and documentary evidence strongly suggested that tens of thousands of people were being detained and that « deaths on a massive scale » were occurring in custody.

Amnesty interviewed 84 people, including former guards, detainees and officials at Saydnaya prison for its report. It alleges that every week, and often twice a week, groups of between 20 and 50 people were executed in total secrecy at the facility, just north of Damascus.

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Turkish police have detained 445 people suspected of links to the Islamic State group, state media say.

Co-ordinated early morning raids were carried out in 18 provinces, Anadolu News Agency reported, quoting anonymous security sources.

Most of those held are foreigners, among them 60 people taken into custody in the capital, Ankara, it said.

IS claimed responsibility for the New Year shooting attack on an Istanbul nightclub which left 39 people dead.

Last month police arrested an Uzbek national, Abdulkadir Masharipov, suspected of mounting the assault on revellers at the Reina nightclub.

In Sunday’s operations, nine suspects who are alleged to have been planning a terrorist attack were held in the Aegean province of Izmir, Anadolu reported.

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