An Israeli airstrike demolished Iran's consulate in Syria on Monday (Apr. 1), killing two Iranian generals and five officers, according to Iranian officials. The strike appeared to signify an escalation of Israel's targeting of military officials from Iran, which supports militant groups fighting Israel in Gaza, and along its border with Lebanon. Israel, which rarely acknowledges strikes against Iranian targets, said it had no comment on the latest attack in Syria, although a military spokesman blamed Iran for a drone attack early Monday against a naval base in southern Israel.

The airstrike in Syria killed Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who led the elite Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016, according to Iran's Revolutionary Guard. It also killed Zahedi's deputy, Gen Mohammad Hadi Hajriahimi, and five other officers. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in Britain, said two Syrians also were killed. Iran's ambassador, Hossein Akbari, vowed revenge for the strike "at the same magnitude and harshness."

The opposition in Myanmar claimed a rare mass drone attack on the country's embattled junta government in the heavily guarded capital, Nay Pyi Taw. The National Unity Government (NUG) - which calls itself the government in exile - said it deployed 29 drones armed with explosives to the airport, air force base and army headquarters. The junta said it had intercepted the drones, shooting down seven, including one which exploded on a runway. There were no casualties, they said.

The NUG represents the elected civilian government previously led by Aung San Suu Kyi, which was toppled in a coup in 2021. Since then it and other opposition groups have been fighting the junta regime, which has begun losing control of large areas of the country. The country's three-year civil war has killed thousands and displaced about 2.6 million people according to the UN. Thursday morning's attack on the capital marks another bold, and rare incursion by the resistance groups who are mounting an increasingly effective opposition to the junta.

The strongest earthquake in a quarter-century rocked Taiwan Wednesday morning, killing at least nine people, stranding dozens at quarries and a national park, and sending some residents scrambling out the windows of damaged buildings. The quake, which injured more than 1,000, struck just before 8 a.m. and was centred off the coast of rural, mountainous Hualien County, where some buildings leaned at severe angles, their ground floors crushed. Just over 150 kilometres (93 miles) away in the capital of Taipei, tiles fell from older buildings, and schools evacuated students to sports fields as aftershocks followed.

Rescuers fanned out in Hualien, looking for people who may be trapped and using excavators to stabilise damaged buildings. About 700 people were either still missing or stranded Thursday, including over 600 who were stranded inside a hotel called Silks Place Taroko, the National Fire Agency said. Authorities said the employees and guests were safe and had food and water, and that work to repair the roads to the hotel was close to completion.

US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed Taiwan, artificial intelligence and security issues Tuesday in a call meant to demonstrate a return to regular leader-to-leader dialogue between the two powers. The call, described by the White House as "candid and constructive," was the leaders' first conversation since their November summit in California produced renewed ties between the two nations' militaries and a promise of enhanced cooperation on stemming the flow of deadly fentanyl and its precursors from China.

"We should prioritize stability, not provoke troubles, not cross lines but maintain the overall stability of China-U.S. relations," Xi said, according to China Central Television, the state broadcaster. The roughly 105 minute call kicks off several weeks of high-level engagements between the two countries, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen set to travel to China on Thursday and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to follow in the weeks ahead.