ISLAMABAD/ KABUL, Feb 23 (Reuters) - At least 13 civilians were killed and seven injured in Pakistani airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan, the United Nations said on Monday, as cross-border tensions escalated following a string of suicide bombings in Pakistan.

The reported toll adds to fears of a renewed cycle of retaliation between the neighbours, threatening a fragile ceasefire along their 2,600-km (1,600-mile) frontier and further straining ties as both sides trade blame over militant violence.

LISBON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - A surge in U.S. aircraft activity at the Lajes air base in the Azores is covered by a decades-old bilateral treaty and does not require authorisation from Lisbon, Portugal's foreign minister said on Monday.

The country's left-wing opposition has called on the centre-right government to explain the legal basis behind the increase in U.S. military flights and to clarify whether Lisbon had given approval.

LONDON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Britain's populist Reform UK party unveiled "radical" plans on Monday to stop what it called an immigration "invasion", promising to create an agency to deport thousands of illegal migrants and to leave human rights treaties if it wins power.

With Reform ahead in opinion polls before an election due no later than August 2029, the party led by Brexit veteran campaigner Nigel Farage is ramping up policy announcements to try to convince Britain it is ready to govern.

Israeli settlers attempted to set fire to a mosque in the occupied West Bank village of Tell early Monday, the Palestinian Authority's ministry of religious affairs said.

"The Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs condemned the attempt by a group of settlers to set fire to a part of the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Mosque in the village of Tell, near Nablus, and the writing of racist slogans on its walls", the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry noted an increase in attacks on mosques in the West Bank, totalling 45 in 2025.

Feb 23 (Reuters) - Iraq's foreign minister said on Monday Turkey had agreed to take back Turkish citizens from among thousands of Islamic State detainees transferred to Iraq from Syria when camps and prisons there were shut in recent weeks.

Iraq took in the detainees in an operation arranged with the United States after Kurdish forces retreated and shut down camps and prisons which had housed Islamic State suspects for nearly a decade.

The US forces that led the coalition against the Islamic State group will complete their withdrawal from Syria within a month, three sources told AFP on Monday, as troops began leaving a major base.

The withdrawal comes as Syria's government has expanded its control to the country's northeast, previously controlled by US-allied Kurdish forces, and formally joined the coalition against IS.

By Feras Dalatey and Orhan Qereman

DAMASCUS, Feb 23 (Reuters) - U.S. forces began pulling out of their largest base in northeastern Syria on Monday, two Syrian military and security sources said, part of a wider departure as the U.S.-allied government in Damascus consolidates control.

Dozens of trucks, some carrying armoured vehicles, departed the base at Qasrak in Hasakah province on Monday morning, witnesses said. Reuters footage later showed the trucks moving along a highway on the outskirts of the city of Qamishli.

Iran vowed on Monday to retaliate "ferociously" against any attack by the United States and reiterated warnings of a regional conflagration in response to President Donald Trump's threat of limited strikes.

The bellicose rhetoric from Tehran and Washington came as both sides were set to hold indirect talks in Geneva on a potential deal regarding Iran's contentious nuclear programme, with a US official confirming discussions would resume on Thursday without offering further details.

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Human rights are under assault worldwide, the United Nations chief warned on Monday, citing widespread abuses of international law and devastating civilian suffering in conflicts in Sudan, Gaza, and Ukraine.

"The rule of law is being outmuscled by the rule of force," said U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, speaking at the opening of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Human rights are being pushed back deliberately, Guterres said, urging member states not to view international human rights as a menu to pick from.

President Donald Trump's threats to attack Iran provide little detail on what the long-term US goal would be in the event of a sustained or even brief conflict.

Trump sent warships and dozens of fighter planes to the Middle East and has several options to choose from that could destabilize the region.

Will Trump order surgical strikes targeting Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the backbone of the clerical regime in power, try to take out its missile program -- as Israel wants him to do -- or even try to force regime change in Tehran?