Russia has carried out massive strikes across Ukraine, using drones and ballistic missiles, a day after the US stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv that had previously given advance warnings of attacks.

The strikes came early on Friday as a Ukrainian delegation prepared to meet with US counterparts in Saudi Arabia for talks about a possible end to the war.

The Kremlin sought to destroy Ukraine’s energy and gas infrastructure, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. It targeted facilities in several regions, including Odesa and Poltava, using nearly 70 cruise and ballistic missiles and almost 200 attack drones, the Ukrainian president said.

“All of this was directed against infrastructure that ensures normal life,” he wrote on social media. “Currently, repair and restoration work is ongoing.” He said several people were injured when a missile hit a private building in Kharkiv.

Zelenskyy is due to travel to Saudi Arabia on Monday to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “After that, my team will stay in Saudi Arabia to work with our American partners,” he wrote. “Ukraine is most interested in peace. As we told POTUS [the president of the US], Ukraine is working and will continue to work constructively for a swift and reliable peace.”

The Trump administration has piled further pressure on Ukraine amid apparent US attempts to replace Zelenskyy.

“I think Ukraine wants to make a deal because they don’t have a choice,” Trump said on Thursday. “I also think that Russia wants to make a deal because in a certain different way – a different way that only I know – they have no choice either.”

Over a matter of days, the White House has suspended weapons deliveries and the supply of intelligence to Kyiv. There were reports on Friday that the US aerospace company Maxar Technologies had disabled Ukraine’s access to its satellite images after a request from the Trump administration.

In the face of escalating US hostility, Zelenskyy has set out a tentative ceasefire plan. On Friday, he suggested a ban on the use of “missiles, long-range drones and aerial bombs”, as well as a suspension of military operations in the Black Sea.

“Ukraine is ready to pursue the path to peace, and it is Ukraine that strives for peace from the very first second of this war. The task is to force Russia to stop the war,” he posted on X.

Since US and Russian negotiators met in Saudi Arabia, the Kremlin has dramatically stepped up its air war against Ukraine. Its advance on land in the east of the country has largely stopped, with Ukraine’s armed forces carrying out local counter-offensives in some areas.

An overnight strike in Kharkiv injured eight people and damaged nine apartment buildings, officials said. An adult and a child were also injured in Poltava oblast when a missile hit two housing blocks, the energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, said.

Despite the US weapons cut-off, Ukraine is still able to shoot down some – but not all – enemy missiles. On Friday, Zelenskyy said French-supplied Mirage 2000 aircraft were used for the first time together with F-16 fighter jets to protect Ukrainian skies.

He said: “The Mirages successfully intercepted Russian cruise missiles. Thank you! I also want to recognise the performance of our anti-aircraft missile forces, army aviation, all our electronic warfare units, and mobile fire groups.”

The Kremlin, meanwhile, said Russia may have to respond to what it said were EU plans to boost its military capability and to cast Russia as its enemy. The comments follow Thursday’s meeting in Brussels, in which EU leaders agreed a plan for a massive rise in defence spending.

“We see that the European Union is now actively discussing the militarisation of the EU and the development of the defence segment. This is a process that we are watching closely, because the EU is positioning Russia as its main adversary,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters.

Russia has carried out massive strikes across Ukraine, using drones and ballistic missiles, a day after the US stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv that had previously given advance warnings of attacks.

The strikes came early on Friday as a Ukrainian delegation prepared to meet with US counterparts in Saudi Arabia for talks about a possible end to the war.

The Kremlin sought to destroy Ukraine’s energy and gas infrastructure, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. It targeted facilities in several regions, including Odesa and Poltava, using nearly 70 cruise and ballistic missiles and almost 200 attack drones, the Ukrainian president said.

“All of this was directed against infrastructure that ensures normal life,” he wrote on social media. “Currently, repair and restoration work is ongoing.” He said several people were injured when a missile hit a private building in Kharkiv.

Zelenskyy is due to travel to Saudi Arabia on Monday to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “After that, my team will stay in Saudi Arabia to work with our American partners,” he wrote. “Ukraine is most interested in peace. As we told POTUS [the president of the US], Ukraine is working and will continue to work constructively for a swift and reliable peace.”

The Trump administration has piled further pressure on Ukraine amid apparent US attempts to replace Zelenskyy.

“I think Ukraine wants to make a deal because they don’t have a choice,” Trump said on Thursday. “I also think that Russia wants to make a deal because in a certain different way – a different way that only I know – they have no choice either.”

Over a matter of days, the White House has suspended weapons deliveries and the supply of intelligence to Kyiv. There were reports on Friday that the US aerospace company Maxar Technologies had disabled Ukraine’s access to its satellite images after a request from the Trump administration.

In the face of escalating US hostility, Zelenskyy has set out a tentative ceasefire plan. On Friday, he suggested a ban on the use of “missiles, long-range drones and aerial bombs”, as well as a suspension of military operations in the Black Sea.

“Ukraine is ready to pursue the path to peace, and it is Ukraine that strives for peace from the very first second of this war. The task is to force Russia to stop the war,” he posted on X.

Since US and Russian negotiators met in Saudi Arabia, the Kremlin has dramatically stepped up its air war against Ukraine. Its advance on land in the east of the country has largely stopped, with Ukraine’s armed forces carrying out local counter-offensives in some areas.

An overnight strike in Kharkiv injured eight people and damaged nine apartment buildings, officials said. An adult and a child were also injured in Poltava oblast when a missile hit two housing blocks, the energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, said.

Despite the US weapons cut-off, Ukraine is still able to shoot down some – but not all – enemy missiles. On Friday, Zelenskyy said French-supplied Mirage 2000 aircraft were used for the first time together with F-16 fighter jets to protect Ukrainian skies.

He said: “The Mirages successfully intercepted Russian cruise missiles. Thank you! I also want to recognise the performance of our anti-aircraft missile forces, army aviation, all our electronic warfare units, and mobile fire groups.”

The Kremlin, meanwhile, said Russia may have to respond to what it said were EU plans to boost its military capability and to cast Russia as its enemy. The comments follow Thursday’s meeting in Brussels, in which EU leaders agreed a plan for a massive rise in defence spending.

“We see that the European Union is now actively discussing the militarisation of the EU and the development of the defence segment. This is a process that we are watching closely, because the EU is positioning Russia as its main adversary,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters.

Three Bulgarian nationals accused of spying for Russia have been found guilty of espionage charges in a trial that heard how they were involved in a string of plots around Europe directed by a fugitive based in Moscow.

After more than 32 hours of deliberations, a jury at the Old Bailey reached unanimous verdicts on Katrin Ivanova, 33, a lab technician, Vanya Gaberova, 30, a beautician, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, a painter and decorator, all of whom were living in London before their arrest.

The three were convicted for being junior members of a spy ring that was ultimately directed by Jan Marsalek, an Austrian businessman who had fled to Russia in 2020 after a company he helped to run collapsed amid a €1.9bn fraud.

Marsalek directed the hostile surveillance of Christo Grozev – an investigative journalist who had helped implicate Russian spies in the poisoning of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny – in Bulgaria, Austria and Spain. All three defendants were involved in the operation.

The spy master also directed gang members, including Ivanova, to steal mobile phone numbers of Ukrainian troops believed to be training at a US barracks in Stuttgart, Germany, using a military-grade snooping device not previously seen in criminal hands.

Marsalek communicated directly with the ring leader, Orlin Roussev, 47, from Great Yarmouth, who in turn directed the surveillance activities from a former guesthouse in the Norfolk seaside town. The building was crammed with hundreds of thousands of pounds-worth of electronic and surveillance equipment.

Roussev has already pleaded guilty to espionage charges, as has his friend and deputy, Bizer Dzhambazov, 43. But the three more junior members had denied the charge of espionage, leading to an Old Bailey trial that lasted nearly three months.

The court also heard that Dzhambazov was in a relationship with both Ivanova, his long-term partner, and Gaberova for a year and a half before their arrest. The third defendant, Ivanchev, was Gaberova’s ex-boyfriend.

All three were found guilty of being involved in conspiracy, contrary to section 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977, to commit an offence under section 1 of the Official Secrets Act 1911. It carries a maximum jail term of 14 years.

Of the three defendants, only Ivanchev was in court. The two women were present via video link from HMP Bronzefield.

Ivanova and Gaberova, both seated, remained passive and subdued as the guilty verdicts were read out. Ivanchev, standing in the dock, nodded briefly as he heard the jury’s conclusion.

Ivanova was also found guilty of possessing faked passports at her flat in Harrow, where she lived with Dzhambazov.

More details soon …

A hierarchical network of individuals constituted a Russian-directed spy ring, the Old Bailey heard during a three-month espionage trial. Directed from Moscow by a fugitive, it was led by a Bulgarian based in Great Yarmouth who, largely through a friend and deputy, directed the operations of the others. Here are those named in court.

Jan Marsalek, 44, the spymaster

The Austrian-born Russian agent had fled to Moscow in June 2020 after Wirecard, a German payments company he helped run, collapsed amid a near €2bn fraud. It was believed Marsalek had been secretly working for Russian military intelligence for a decade. One report said he had taken a new identity of an Orthodox priest, but the Old Bailey heard that from August 2020 to February 2023 he had been directing the activities of a spy ring of Bulgarians based in the UK through an old associate, Orlin Roussev. Police recovered 78,747 messages between Marsalek, who used the moniker Rupert Ticz, and Roussev. He directed operations against personal adversaries and enemies of the Russian state, who were often one and the same. Unlike the other members of the spy ring, Marsalek remains at large.

Orlin Roussev, 47, the ringleader

The leading British-based member of the spy network, Roussev directed operations around Europe from a rundown former guesthouse in the centre of Great Yarmouth but never travelled himself. A Bulgarian national who lived in the UK, he was found to have amassed what he described as an “Indiana Jones warehouse” of surveillance equipment worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, plus a host of forged documents, including passports, when he was arrested in February 2023. He pleaded guilty to spying on behalf of Russia before the trial began and did not appear at the Old Bailey during the nine-week long case, though there were frequent references to him.

Biser Dzhambazov, 43, the sidekick

The medical courier from Harrow, north-west London had known fellow Bulgarian Roussev for many years and like him pleaded guilty to espionage before the trial began. Dzhambazov was Roussev’s friend and principal ally. He called himself “Van Dam,” after the Belgian martial artist, in their messages, while Roussev used the name “Jackie Chan”. Dzhambazov had been in a long relationship with the first defendant, Katrin Ivanova, but was also dating Vanya Gaberova for a year and a half. He told both women he had brain cancer, though he was not sick, and Gaberova that he worked for Interpol, though his badges and photo identification were fake.

Katrin Ivanova, 33, the ‘chief minion’

A lab technician who had known the older Dzhambazov since she was 17, she had come to the UK with him from Bulgaria in 2012. The two worked for the same company in Euston and lived together in a Harrow flat, where fake passports and surveillance cameras were recovered by police. Ivanova pleaded not guilty after she was accused by prosecutors of engaging in the hostile surveillance of Christo Grozev, an investigative journalist and Kremlin critic, and the reconnaissance of a US barracks in Stuttgart where Ukrainian soldiers were thought to be based. Her defence was that she had been manipulated by Dzhambazov. She said she knew nothing of his “parallel relationship” with Gaberova – and was forced to admit an affair of her own.

Vanya Gaberova, 30, the beautician

A beautician who had come to the UK at the end of the last decade, she was running her own salon in Acton at the time of her arrest. Gaberova met Dzhambazov as her relationship with the third defendant, Tihomir Ivanchev, was petering out. She was recruited by Dzhambazov on a trip to Valencia, where they stayed in a five-star hotel, at the tail end of what he said was an operation for Interpol. Prosecutors accused Gaberova of becoming involved in the monitoring of Grozev while knowing he was disliked by the Russian state, but she pleaded not guilty, arguing that Dzhambazov had repeatedly lied to her. She said he had told her falsely that Grozev was a “bad journalist” who was going to be exposed by Interpol.

Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, the ex-boyfriend

A painter and decorator who said his life “fucked up” after he met Gaberova. The two came to the UK together, and Ivanchev lent Gaberova £30,000 to help start her beauty salon, though the two broke up in the summer of 2021. Gaberova introduced him to her new boyfriend Dzhambazov, who told Ivanchev that he worked for Interpol and asked if he wanted to go on a “free holiday” doing some basic surveillance of Grozev and others. Ivanchev said in a police interview that after a while he realised “there is something dodgy” in what he was being asked to do, but prosecutors accused him of liaising with a Russian spy on another surveillance operation in Montenegro.

Authorities are set to reveal more information about an investigation into the deaths of the actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, whose partially mummified bodies were discovered last month at their home in New Mexico.

The Santa Fe county sheriff’s office has said it does not suspect foul play, and tests for carbon monoxide poisoning were negative.

The sheriff, Adan Mendoza, and state fire, health and forensics officials scheduled an afternoon news conference on Friday to provide updates on the case.

Mendoza has said the couple may have died up to two weeks before they were discovered on 26 February. Hackman’s pacemaker last showed activity on 17 February, nine days before maintenance and security workers showed up at the home and alerted police.

Arakawa was found with an open prescription bottle and pills scattered on the bathroom counter, while Hackman was found in the home’s entryway.

One of the couple’s three dogs also was found dead in a crate in a bathroom closet near Arakawa, while two other dogs survived. Authorities initially misidentified the breed of the dead animal.

Authorities retrieved personal items from the home including a monthly planner and two cellphones that will be analyzed. Medical investigators have been working to establish the cause of their deaths, but toxicology reports often take weeks to complete.

When they were found, the bodies were decomposing with some mummification, a consequence of body type and climate in Santa Fe’s especially dry air at an elevation of nearly 7,200ft (2,200 meters).

Hackman, a Hollywood icon, won two Oscars during a storied career in films including The French Connection, Hoosiers and Superman from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.

Arakawa, born in Hawaii, studied as a concert pianist, attended the University of Southern California and met Hackman in the mid-1980s while working at a California gym.

The couple’s stucco, Pueblo-revival style home sits on a hill in a gated community at the southern tip of the Rocky Mountains. Santa Fe is known as a refuge for celebrities, artists and authors.

Hackman dedicated much of his time in retirement to painting and writing novels far from Hollywood’s social circuit. He served for several years on the board of trustees at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, and he and his wife were investors in local businesses.

More than 500 people may have been tortured or starved to death and then buried in a secret mass grave north of Khartoum, according to evidence seen by the Guardian.

A visit to a base belonging to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shortly after it was retaken by the Sudanese military found a previously unknown detention centre, with manacles hanging from doors, apparent punishment chambers and bloodstains on the floor. Accounts from people held at the detention centre describe being repeatedly tortured by their captors.

Nearby was a large burial site with at least 550 unmarked graves, many of them freshly dug and a number apparently containing multiple bodies.

The site is the biggest makeshift burial ground found in Sudan during its civil war and, if confirmed, would make this one of the worst war crimes of Sudan’s brutal conflict.

People rescued from the detention centre at the base’s southern perimeter, about 40 miles (70km) north of the capital, Khartoum, said that many had died inside and were believed to be buried nearby.

Examination of survivors by doctors found myriad signs of torture and concluded they were being starved.

The RSF took over the base, close to the village of Garri, as a command and training centre after fighting began with the Sudanese military almost two years ago. Satellite images and military sources confirm that no graves were present at the location before the war started on 15 April 2023.

The conflict has caused one of the world’s worst famines in decades, killed tens of thousands of people and forced more than 14 million people to leave their homes.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has investigated abuses throughout Sudan during the war, said the detention centre site could constitute “one of the largest atrocity crime scenes discovered in Sudan since the war started”, and called for UN war crime investigators to be given access.

Dr Hosham al-Shekh, who examined 135 men who were found there after the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) recaptured the site in late January, said clinical evidence of torture and chronic malnutrition was widespread.

Shekh told the Guardian that the men – all of whom were civilians – were so traumatised when they were discovered that many could not speak.

“When we got there, they couldn’t even walk out. We had to carry them out. They had marks of being severely beaten, tortured,” he said. “Some of them were badly injured from the torture.

“Some of them had been shot in the leg with a bullet. They were beaten with sticks which left marks: clean straight scars from being beaten. All of them were tortured.”

One man was beaten so frequently by RSF guards that he adopted a prolonged foetal position to protect himself.

“They beat me in the morning and at night, they discriminated against me. I got so used to sitting with my knees tucked up that now I cannot straighten my legs to walk,” he said in a statement to Sudanese military medical staff.

The findings raise questions over the credibility of the RSF, coming days after it signed a political charter in Kenya to establish a parallel Sudanese government in areas it controls.

Satellite images of the base confirm that the graves appeared only after the war began and after the RSF occupied the site. An image taken weeks after the war began shows no trace of burial mounds beside a single-track road on the base.

Another image of the same location, captured a year later on 25 May 2024, reveals a significant number of mounds stretching over a distance of about 200 metres.

Capt Jalal Abaker, of the Sudanese military, said he had served on the Garri base up to the outbreak of war in 2023 and said there was no burial site then. “I was there until Ramadan that year [22 March to 20 April 2023],” he said. “There was no cemetery.”

Sgt Mohammed Amin, who is now stationed at Garri, said: “All the bodies buried there died on the base.”

Shekh added that survivors talked of other captives dying. “A lot of them told me that a lot had passed away inside. Many, they said, died because of the torture.”

A senior Sudanese army officer, Col Bashir Tamil, said detainees were found with their hands and feet tied together. “They were in a very bad condition with marks on their bodies and injuries,” he added.

Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, at HRW’s crisis, conflict and arms division, said it was “vital” that the authorities in control of the base treated it as a potential war crime site and made “immediate efforts to secure, collect and safeguard evidence that may be critical for accountability efforts”.

The site, so far, appears to be fully preserved with no public access with the Sudanese military protecting the location to safeguard evidence. International mass grave experts hope independent analysts will be allowed access to the site.

Many of the conflict’s most notorious atrocities have occurred in the western region of Darfur, with the RSF and allied Arab militias accused of ethnic cleansing. Earlier this year the US accused the paramilitary group of genocide.

The international criminal court is investigating abuses in Darfur. Evidence of the crimes against humanity uncovered by the Guardian are being passed to the ICC prosecutor.

The Sudanese army is also accused of committing serious atrocities against civilians, with its leaders sanctioned by the US.

Military sources believe that the RSF never expected the detention centre and burial ground near Garri to be found. Until recently, the group occupied so much territory in the region that it may have believed the site was secure from attack.

The RSF has been contacted for comment. When accused of abuses in the past, the group has responded by forwarding a code of conduct banning mistreatment of detainees and saying it had a committee to investigate abuses and prosecute those responsible.

More than 500 people may have been tortured or starved to death and then buried in a secret mass grave north of Khartoum, according to evidence seen by the Guardian.

A visit to a base belonging to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shortly after it was retaken by the Sudanese military found a previously unknown detention centre, with manacles hanging from doors, apparent punishment chambers and bloodstains on the floor. Accounts from people held at the detention centre describe being repeatedly tortured by their captors.

Nearby was a large burial site with at least 550 unmarked graves, many of them freshly dug and a number apparently containing multiple bodies.

The site is the biggest makeshift burial ground found in Sudan during its civil war and, if confirmed, would make this one of the worst war crimes of Sudan’s brutal conflict.

People rescued from the detention centre at the base’s southern perimeter, about 40 miles (70km) north of the capital, Khartoum, said that many had died inside and were believed to be buried nearby.

Examination of survivors by doctors found myriad signs of torture and concluded they were being starved.

The RSF took over the base, close to the village of Garri, as a command and training centre after fighting began with the Sudanese military almost two years ago. Satellite images and military sources confirm that no graves were present at the location before the war started on 15 April 2023.

The conflict has caused one of the world’s worst famines in decades, killed tens of thousands of people and forced more than 14 million people to leave their homes.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has investigated abuses throughout Sudan during the war, said the detention centre site could constitute “one of the largest atrocity crime scenes discovered in Sudan since the war started”, and called for UN war crime investigators to be given access.

Dr Hosham al-Shekh, who examined 135 men who were found there after the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) recaptured the site in late January, said clinical evidence of torture and chronic malnutrition was widespread.

Shekh told the Guardian that the men – all of whom were civilians – were so traumatised when they were discovered that many could not speak.

“When we got there, they couldn’t even walk out. We had to carry them out. They had marks of being severely beaten, tortured,” he said. “Some of them were badly injured from the torture.

“Some of them had been shot in the leg with a bullet. They were beaten with sticks which left marks: clean straight scars from being beaten. All of them were tortured.”

One man was beaten so frequently by RSF guards that he adopted a prolonged foetal position to protect himself.

“They beat me in the morning and at night, they discriminated against me. I got so used to sitting with my knees tucked up that now I cannot straighten my legs to walk,” he said in a statement to Sudanese military medical staff.

The findings raise questions over the credibility of the RSF, coming days after it signed a political charter in Kenya to establish a parallel Sudanese government in areas it controls.

Satellite images of the base confirm that the graves appeared only after the war began and after the RSF occupied the site. An image taken weeks after the war began shows no trace of burial mounds beside a single-track road on the base.

Another image of the same location, captured a year later on 25 May 2024, reveals a significant number of mounds stretching over a distance of about 200 metres.

Capt Jalal Abaker, of the Sudanese military, said he had served on the Garri base up to the outbreak of war in 2023 and said there was no burial site then. “I was there until Ramadan that year [22 March to 20 April 2023],” he said. “There was no cemetery.”

Sgt Mohammed Amin, who is now stationed at Garri, said: “All the bodies buried there died on the base.”

Shekh added that survivors talked of other captives dying. “A lot of them told me that a lot had passed away inside. Many, they said, died because of the torture.”

A senior Sudanese army officer, Col Bashir Tamil, said detainees were found with their hands and feet tied together. “They were in a very bad condition with marks on their bodies and injuries,” he added.

Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, at HRW’s crisis, conflict and arms division, said it was “vital” that the authorities in control of the base treated it as a potential war crime site and made “immediate efforts to secure, collect and safeguard evidence that may be critical for accountability efforts”.

The site, so far, appears to be fully preserved with no public access with the Sudanese military protecting the location to safeguard evidence. International mass grave experts hope independent analysts will be allowed access to the site.

Many of the conflict’s most notorious atrocities have occurred in the western region of Darfur, with the RSF and allied Arab militias accused of ethnic cleansing. Earlier this year the US accused the paramilitary group of genocide.

The international criminal court is investigating abuses in Darfur. Evidence of the crimes against humanity uncovered by the Guardian are being passed to the ICC prosecutor.

The Sudanese army is also accused of committing serious atrocities against civilians, with its leaders sanctioned by the US.

Military sources believe that the RSF never expected the detention centre and burial ground near Garri to be found. Until recently, the group occupied so much territory in the region that it may have believed the site was secure from attack.

The RSF has been contacted for comment. When accused of abuses in the past, the group has responded by forwarding a code of conduct banning mistreatment of detainees and saying it had a committee to investigate abuses and prosecute those responsible.

Syrian security forces have battled Assad regime loyalists on Syria’s coast for a second day, as the country’s new government struggled to contain the biggest rebellion to its rule since it took power in December.

Fighters loyal to the ousted Assad government ambushed Syrian security forces in a coordinated attack on Thursday afternoon in the countryside of Latakia province, a former stronghold of the deposed leader where many of Syria’s minority Alawite Islamic sect live.

The former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was toppled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) on 8 December after a lightning offensive by the Islamist rebel group.

The two-day, coordinated attack was unprecedented in its scale and is a marked escalation by loyalists to the former government against Syria’s new Islamist-led government.

About 70 fighters were killed in the clashes, including 20 government security officers, according to a government-aligned Syria TV, though other war monitors suggested a higher number of dead.

Dozens of Alawite civilians were also allegedly killed by fighters aligned with the government in Damascus, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor.

A video showed piles of people in civilian clothes lying on the ground dead while women wailed in the town of al-Mukhtariya in Latakia. Another showed men forced to crawl on their hands and knees being executed by gunmen. Neither of the videos could be verified by the Guardian.

Syria’s interior ministry said some “individual violations” had taken place as a result of people heading towards the villages being attacked by Assad loyalists, but did not claim responsibility for the alleged executions. “We are working to put a stop to these violations that do not represent the Syrian people as a whole,” an interior ministry source told Syria’s state broadcaster.

Thursday’s attack comes as the new government in Damascus struggles to consolidate its grip over the country. An Israeli incursion in south-east Syria, as well as an economic malaise perpetuated by western sanctions, threaten to undermine the fledgling authority’s rule.

The attack began in the town of Jableh, Latakia, on Thursday but soon spread to other areas. Gunmen cut off roads in the countryside and seized control of areas in the towns of Qardaha and Baniyas.

A video released by a former Assad regime officer shortly after the operation began called on Syria’s various sects to rise up against the government in Damascus in what it dubbed operation “coastal shield”.

Lengthy military columns of security officers and militias loyal to the government in Damascus quickly started heading towards Latakia from across Syria to quell the rebellion. Government forces began to carry out “combing operations” to catch gunmen, pounding the countryside of Latakia with artillery, helicopter gunships and drone strikes.

A curfew was established on the coast provinces and in Homs province, with residents instructed not to leave their homes until 9am on Saturday.

“Civilians are being killed two blocks down from me. The fights are becoming bigger, I have no clue what’s going to happen,” said a resident of Jableh over the phone while sheltering in their home on Friday.

Saudi Arabia condemned what it described as “crimes” by “outlaw groups” and reaffirmed its backing for the new authorities.

Syria’s coast is populated by Alawites, the same sect from which the Assad family hailed, though most of the sect had no relation to the former regime. Mutual suspicion between Alawites in the coastal region and the new rulers of Syria has persisted since the toppling of the Assad regime.

Despite assurances that minorities, including Alawites, would be safe in the new Syria, Alawite communities have been subject to a number of revenge killings since December.

In one case, on 31 January in the town of Arza, in Homs province, eight men were asked if they were Alawite and then executed with a bullet to the head.

Syria’s new rulers have said the killings were “individual cases” committed by individuals and groups unaffiliated with the government in Damascus, but that has done little to quell the growing fears of Alawites.

The new Syrian authorities have come under criticism for not being inclusive enough of Syria’s religious diversity and its vast civil society. A transitional government is to be announced in the coming weeks, the makeup of which will be a key test for the new rulers of Syria’s commitment to pluralism.

The US will conduct its first execution by firing squad in 15 years on Friday in South Carolina, despite widespread concerns about the safety and cruelty of this method and growing calls for clemency.

Brad Sigmon, 67, is scheduled to be shot to death by three South Carolina prison employees, part of a series of rapid executions the state has pursued in the last six months as it revives capital punishment. After a 13-year-pause in killings, due to limited supplies to carry out executions, the state now directs men on death row to choose their method of death – electric chair, lethal injection or firing squad.

Sigmon chose to be shot dead out of fear that lethal injection would result in a “prolonged death” following reports that the last three South Carolina men killed by pentobarbital, a sedative, took more than 20 minutes to die and one appeared to suffer a condition akin to drowning and suffocation. They were “three men Brad knew and cared for”, his lawyers said, and he feared a slow injection process or being “burned and cooked alive” by electrocution.

The South Carolina department of corrections (SCDC) firing squad protocols dictate that staff strap the person with metal restraints on a chair in the “death chamber” and place a hood over his head. An “aim point” is marked over his heart, and three staffers with rifles face him through a wall that has an opening 15 ft away, the protocols say. In a 2022 court case challenging this method, officials said if the person’s vital signs were still present 10 minutes after the first round of shots, staff would fire a second time. Witnesses in the room will see the profile of the man, but the rifles and portal will not be visible, SCDC said.

After SCDC recently released a photo of the death chamber where Sigmon will be shot, some firearm experts raised concerns about whether the setup was safe for witnesses and the shooters, citing the possibility for bullets to ricochet. The prison has said “bullet-resistant glass” is set up between witnesses and the chamber, and a spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

In recent weeks, there have been escalating calls for Sigmon’s life to be spared. He would be the oldest person ever executed by the state. He was convicted of the 2001 murders of his ex-girlfriend’s parents, David and Gladys Larke. He has long admitted his guilt, with his lawyers arguing that the killings stemmed from a childhood of severe abuse and neglect and undiagnosed and untreated mental illness.

His lawyers say he suffered organic brain injuries and manic episodes and was experiencing a psychotic break that likely rendered him incompetent to stand trial. His team has filed a clemency petition with the state’s Republican governor, Henry McMaster, arguing his trial counsel failed him and the jury “had no idea of how severely compromised his mental health was”. Lawyers have also asked the US supreme court to intervene.

Rebecca Armstrong, Sigmon’s ex-girlfriend and the daughter of the victims, told USA Today she does not believe in the death penalty, but he “should answer for what he’s done”.

Sigmon has transformed behind bars and consistently expressed remorse, said Gerald “Bo” King, one of Sigmon’s lawyers, in a statement: “When Brad went to prison, he rededicated himself to his Christian faith. He has devoted every day since to prayer, repentance, and the work of redemption. Brad is a peaceful, trusted presence on death row. Guards describe him as respectful and helpful. He serves as an informal chaplain to his fellow prisoners. He is a source of strength to his siblings and children. He is also in declining health and poses a danger to no one.”

The state has argued in court that some arguments raised by his attorneys about his trial counsel and mental health have already been litigated and that it was too late to raise new issues.

King, the chief of the capital habeas unit for the fourth circuit, which is part of the federal public defender’s office, has also been raising concerns around the secrecy of South Carolina’s execution methods. Lawmakers in 2023 passed a shield law to keep the identity of lethal injection drug suppliers secret, which allowed officials to restock pentobarbital and resume executions.

Sigmon’s lawyers have argued the state was obliged to “disclose some basic facts about the drug’s creation, quality and reliability” and criticized prison officials for failing to provide information about the “potency, purity and stability” of the drugs, their expiration dates and how they are being tested and stored.

In the execution of Richard Moore in November, autopsy records suggested he required two pentobarbital doses and that his lungs were swollen with fluid, “an excruciating condition known as pulmonary edema”.

“Brad has no illusions about what being shot will do to his body. He does not wish to inflict that pain on his family, the witnesses, or the execution team. But, given South Carolina’s unnecessary and unconscionable secrecy, Brad is choosing as best he can,” King said. “There is no justice here. Everything about this barbaric, state-sanctioned atrocity – from the choice to the method itself – is abjectly cruel.”

A South Carolina judge previously said the firing squad method “constitutes torture” and the person was “likely to be conscious for a minimum of 10 seconds after impact”.

Faith leaders in the state have protested Sigmon’s execution and supporters have collected thousands of signatures calling for clemency. No South Carolina governor has granted clemency to a defendant facing execution in the modern death penalty era.

Donald Trump has said he wants to negotiate a new deal with Iran to prevent its development of nuclear weapons and sent a letter to its leaders saying he hoped they would open talks.

It is the first practical step taken by the US president to see if new negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme are possible.

Trump pulled the US out of the previous agreement – which imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief – in 2018, and since then Tehran has built a stockpile of highly enriched uranium that is enough for use in multiple nuclear weapons.

“I’ve written them a letter, saying I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily it’s going to be a terrible thing for them,” Trump told Fox Business in a clip broadcast on Friday.

“You can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.”

The letter appeared to have been addressed to Iran’s supreme leader, the 85-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has recently opposed negotiations with the US so long as economic sanctions are in force.

The Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, discussed international efforts to resolve the situation around Iran’s nuclear program with the Iranian ambassador, Kazem Jalali, the Russian foreign ministry said on Friday.

The Trump administration has previously suggested the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had agreed to act as a mediator with Iran, and Russian diplomats have already been advising Trump to keep any negotiations with Iran limited to the nuclear issue.

The experienced Russian diplomat Mikhail Ulyanov earlier this week said Washington and Moscow had established a communication channel on Russia’s role as a mediator. He advised the US not to seek agreement on wider issues such as Iran’s missile program or its regional behaviour, a reference to its support to the resistance groups in the Middle East, also known as Iranian proxy forces. Ulyanov said it was not possible to kill three birds with one stone.

Trump’s strategy of reaching out to Russia would be enhanced if he could show a side benefit of his closer relations with Moscow was to reduce the growing risk of an Israeli attack on Iran to prevent Tehran acquiring nuclear weapons.

The letter, the first step Trump has taken towards Iran since he announced the US was seeking to reimpose maximum economic pressure on Iran, comes at a time when the Iranian government is locked in a public dispute on the wisdom of negotiating with the US, and what pre-conditions should be set.

In recent days hardliners opposed to reaching out to the US appeared to have gained a decisive upper hand with MPs impeaching the economy minister, Abdolnaser Hemmati, and the resignation of Javad Zarif, the vice-president for strategy and a long term advocate of reviving contacts with the west.

The ministry of foreign affairs also issued a strategy paper stressing that Iran was not prepared to lose its political independence.

The paper said: “Governments that set their policies in the hope of security guarantees from great powers in the end at critical junctures were left alone. Iran has learned this historical lesson well. Independence is not just a slogan, but an inevitable necessity.”

The loss of such key ministers reflected both the hardliner parliament’s refusal to reconcile itself to the loss of the presidential election last year, and genuine public anger about the rapidly deteriorating state of the economy largely caused by the accumulation of years of economic sanctions.

Iranian politicians for months have been contradicting one another about the wisdom of talks, whether there could be direct discussions with the US and whether the talks should simply focus narrowly on re-imposing a UN regime to oversee the safety of Iran’s civil nuclear program.

But the foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, at a joint press conference with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, insisted Iran would not negotiate with the US directly so long as maximum US economic sanctions existed. He said: “We will not negotiate under pressure, under threats or under sanctions.” The wording does not preclude indirect talks, the form of ultimately abortive talks conducted between the Biden administration and the Iranians in Vienna.

The last nuclear deal signed by Iran in 2015 and negotiated by the US, Russia, China, and three European powers, the UK, France and Germany, was fatally weakened in 2018 when Donald Trump pulled the US from the deal, and Europe said the breadth of US secondary sanctions meant European firms could not find a lawful way to continue trading with Iran.

Gradually Iran, claiming it was taking a legitimate reprisal measures for the failure to lift sanctions, ended co-operation with most aspects of the 2015 nuclear deal, including breaching all the limits on stockpiling highly enriched uranium, the key material to make nuclear weapons. Recent good will gestures to allow more experienced nuclear inspectors into Iran never took place.

A deadline of sorts is hanging over the process since the UN’s nuclear weapons inspectorate is due to publish a comprehensive report this summer that will set out the level of Iranian non-compliance with the nuclear inspectorate, a report that would then in October trigger currently suspended UN sanctions coming into force. Rafael Grossi, the International Atomic Energy Agency director, told the IAEA board this week that Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% had reached 275kg. He said: “Iran is the only country that enriches uranium to this level without having nuclear weapons.”

SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft exploded on Thursday minutes after lifting off from Texas, dooming an attempt to deploy mock satellites in the second consecutive failure this year for Elon Musk’s Mars rocket program.

Several videos on social media showed fiery debris streaking through the dusk skies near south Florida and the Bahamas after Starship’s breakup in space, which occurred shortly after it began to spin uncontrollably with its engines cut off, a SpaceX livestream of the mission showed.

The failure comes just more than a month after the company’s seventh Starship flight also ended in an explosive failure. The back-to-back mishaps occurred in early mission phases that SpaceX has easily surpassed previously, indicating serious setbacks for a program Musk has sought to speed up this year.

The 403ft (123-meter) rocket system had lifted off at about 6.30pm ET (2300 GMT) from SpaceX’s sprawling Boca Chica, Texas, rocket facilities, with its Super Heavy first-stage booster returning to land as planned.

But minutes later, SpaceX’s livestream showed the Starship upper stage spinning in space, while a visualization of the rocket’s engines showed multiple engines shut down before the company confirmed it had lost contact with the ship.

“Unfortunately, this happened last time, too, so we’ve got some practice now,” Dan Huot, a SpaceX spokesperson, said on the livestream.

The rocket wasn’t carrying any astronauts. SpaceX stopped the livestream shortly after the launch and gave no indication where debris would fall.

SpaceX posted online that “the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost”. The company said its team was coordinating with safety officials and it would review flight data to understand the root cause of the explosion, adding: “Success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability.”

As debris scattered over parts of the Caribbean, the Federal Aviation Administration briefly issued ground stops of commercial flights at the Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Orlando airports because of “space launch debris” until at least 8pm ET. Flights were also diverted around Turks and Caicos.

The FAA said it had opened a mishap investigation into the incident, and would require SpaceX to examine the failure’s cause and get the agency’s sign-off before Starship can fly again.

The failure of Starship’s first attempt to launch since exploding in space on 16 January puts a dent in Musk’s development vision. He aims to build a rocket capable of sending bigger batches of satellites to space as well as humans to the moon and Mars.

The Starship failure in January ended eight minutes into flight when the rocket exploded in space, raining debris over Caribbean islands. The explosion was caused by a fire that ignited near the ship’s liquid oxygen tank. At the time, the FAA temporarily grounded commercial flights and ordered SpaceX to carry out an investigation. SpaceX said it had since made changes to the fuel lines and fuel temperature.