$re = '/(?s)(?:<p|\G(?!\A))(?:(?!<\/p>).)*?\K[\n\r]+/m';
$str = '<p dir="ltr">Test<br>
A
aa</p>
abcd
<p dir="ltr">Bbb</p>';
$subst = "";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php