By Daren Butler

ISTANBUL, March 18 (Reuters) - Thousands of Turks gathered in central Istanbul on Wednesday in support of jailed mayor Ekrem Imamoglu at an opposition rally, one year after President Tayyip Erdogan’s main rival was arrested on corruption charges.

Supporters waving red party banners and Turkish flags gathered at city hall for the rallyby Imamoglu’s party, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which has been the target of an unprecedented judicial crackdown since late 2024.

By Pesha Magid

EILON, Israel, March 18 (Reuters) - Israel has more than doubled the number of troops along its border with Lebanon since March 1 and they are searching homes in southern Lebanese villages that the military has ordered evacuated, a senior Israeli commander said on Wednesday.

As Israeli warplanes pound Beirut in operations against Hezbollah that have become the deadliest spillover of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, heavy smoke could be seen rising from villages in southern Lebanon as troops fired artillery across the border.

By Andreas Rinke, Ludwig Burger and John Irish

BERLIN/PARIS, March 18 (Reuters) - For a self-described Transatlanticist like German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the language has been unusually blunt.

When President Donald Trump asked countries to join a global effort against Iran and deploy ships to prise open the Strait of Hormuz, whose near closure has held the global economy in a vice, he was rebuffed by some of America's closest allies.

Through one conflict after another, herders in Iraqi Kurdistan have grazed their animals under the endless blue skies of the Zagros Mountains -- a lifestyle they are stoically trying to maintain as yet another war engulfs the region.

Since the beginning of the US and Israeli campaign against Iran, the Zagros range, which separates the northern autonomous region from the Islamic republic some 50 kilometres (31 miles) away, has been regularly targeted by Iranian drone and missile strikes.

Just a trickle of cargo ships and tankers has made it through the Strait of Hormuz since Iranian forces blocked the crucial trade route in the Middle East war.

Here are facts and figures about vessels that have passed through the 167-kilometre (104-mile) strait since the war broke out with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

- Shipping near zero -

The channel typically sees around 120 daily transits, according to shipping industry intelligence site Lloyd's List.

By Joshua McElwee

ROME, March 18 (Reuters) - The Vatican's top diplomat on Wednesday called on U.S. President Donald Trump to end the expanding Iran war as soon as possible and suggested Israel should also stop its strikes against Lebanon.

"I would say to finish it as soon as possible ... and to leave alone Lebanon," Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, a senior advisor to the American Pope Leo, said in an unusually direct appeal.

"This message goes also to the Israelis," he added, speaking to journalists at an event at the Italian parliament.

An international media association on Wednesday criticised an "unprovoked assault" by Israeli police on journalists in Jerusalem, which it said left a CNN producer with a fractured wrist.

The Foreign Press Association (FPA) said police officers on Tuesday night "unnecessarily and aggressively repelled a group of journalists who were doing their jobs, documenting individuals who were praying outside the walls of the Old City".

It said police detained several journalists, damaging photographic equipment and confiscating memory cards.

March 18 (Reuters) - Several loud bangs were heard in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Wednesday and some of the city's residents received phone alerts for the first time warning them of a hostile aerial threat, a Reuters witness in the city said.

(Reporting by Timour Azhari. Editing by Jane Merriman)

By Mohammad Yunus Yawar and Ariba Shahid

KABUL/KARACHI, March 18 (Reuters) - Former heroin user Nazar Mohammad said the Kabul rehabilitation centre bombed by Pakistan cured him of his drug addiction two years ago and helped keep him alive. He even stayed on to work there as a live-in carer for the 2,000 patients.

Now he fears he could relapse.

On Monday, he left the clinic and watched "as a plane dropped a bomb", he said. He rushed back to find a scene of devastation.

By Parisa Hafezi

DUBAI, March 18 (Reuters) - The killing of Iran's most influential powerbroker, Ali Larijani, has pushed the Islamic Republic into a more uncertain phase, complicating decision-making in Tehran and narrowing its options as the war grinds on.

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began with the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei alongside a group of military commanders, and shows no sign of abating, with several more senior officials now targeted by air strikes.