Wednesday

March 12, 2025

Armed conflicts and attacks

Somali Civil War

2025 Shabelle offensive

2025 Beledweyne hotel attack

Somali security forces end the 24-hour siege at a hotel in Beledweyne, Hiran, Somalia, with at least fifteen civilians and all six Al-Shabaab attackers killed. (BBC News) (AP)

Following the attack, over 100 Somali parliament members urge President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to resign, citing leadership failures amid worsening security and governance crises. (Idil News) (Garowe Online)

Syrian civil war

Western Syria clashes

2025 massacres of Syrian Alawites, March 2025 Western Syria clashes

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documents three further reprisal massacres of Alawite minority communities on 12 March in which 158 civilians were killed, totaling 1,383 civilian deaths as a result of fifty separate massacres conducted in western Syria since March 6. (Barron's)

Insurgency in Balochistan

2025 Jaffar Express hijacking

Security forces rescue all surviving passengers and security personnel from yesterday's hijacking of the Jaffar Express passenger train in Pakistan by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA). Officials confirm the deaths of all 33 BLA militants, as well as 29 passengers, and 8 soldiers. (News 24) (Al Jazeera)

Russian invasion of Ukraine

Business and economy

2025 United States trade war with Canada and Mexico, Canada–United States relations

Canadian finance minister Dominic LeBlanc announces retaliatory tariffs on CAD$29.8 billion (US$20.7 billion) of goods from the United States after U.S. president Donald Trump announced additional tariffs on Canadian metals. (DW)