February 17, 2023 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Battle of Bakhmut
- Russian forces shell Bakhmut with artillery and Grad rockets, killing five people and injuring nine others. (The Kyiv Independent via Yahoo! News)
- Battle of Bakhmut
- Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- 2023 Karachi police station attack
- The Pakistani Taliban attack a police station in Karachi. Three militants, three police officers and a civilian are killed. (BBC News)
- 2023 Karachi police station attack
- Syrian civil war
- 2023 Al-Sukhnah attack
- Islamic State militants kill at least 68 people, including 61 civilians and seven soldiers, in Al-Sukhnah, Homs Governorate, Syria. (Barron's)
- 2023 Al-Sukhnah attack
- Jihadist insurgency in Burkina Faso
- At least 51 soldiers are killed when their convoy is ambushed by jihadists on a road between Oursi and Déou. At least 160 attackers are killed. (RFI)
- Médecins Sans Frontières suspends its operations in Burkina Faso for an "indefinite" period, except when responding to lifesaving emergencies, following the killings of two of its Burkinabé aid workers by armed men near Dédougou on 8 February. (AFP via Barron's)
- Four people are killed and two others are injured, including Mamintal Alonto Adiong Jr., governor of Lanao del Sur, when their convoy is ambushed in Maguing, Philippines, by unknown gunmen. (ABS-CBN News)
Disasters and accidents
- Aftermath of the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake
- A Syrian family of seven, including five children, are killed by a fire that struck a home in Konya Province, Turkey, which they moved to after surviving the earthquake. Seven other people are injured during the fire. (Al Jazeera)
International relations
- Russia–South Africa relations, China–South Africa relations
- The South African Navy hosts a ten-day joint military exercise in the Indian Ocean with Russia and China. The exercise is named "Mosi II" after the Tswana word for "smoke". (BBC News) (DW)
Law and crime
- Sofia lorry deaths
- Eighteen people who have immigrated illegally from Afghanistan are found dead in an abandoned truck in Sofia City Province, Bulgaria. Thirty-five others are hospitalized. Four people have been arrested. (Reuters via The Guardian)
- 2023 Arkabutla shootings
- Six people are killed in a spree shooting in Arkabutla, Mississippi, United States. A suspect has been arrested. (BBC News) (El País)
Science and technology
- Japanese space program
- JAXA aborts the first launch attempt of the H3 rocket after some of its boosters failed to ignite during the first stage. It is Japan's second failed rocket launch since 2003. (AFP via The Korea Times)