28 h. ago US admiral denies ‘kill them all’ order in Caribbean boat strike

A US Navy admiral commanding the US military strikes on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean told lawmakers Thursday that there was no “kill them all” order from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, but a stark video of the attack left grave questions as Congress scrutinises the campaign that killed two survivors. Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley appeared for a series of closed-door classified briefings at the Capitol as lawmakers conduct an investigation after a report that he ordered the follow-on...

Events

62 h. ago Lebanon and Israel hold first direct civilian talks in decades

Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives held their first direct talks in decades on Wednesday under the auspices of a year-old ceasefire monitoring mechanism, though Lebanon’s premier cautioned the new diplomatic contact did not amount to broader peace discussions. The two sides met at the UN peacekeeping force’s headquarters in Lebanon’s Naqura near the border with Israel, where the guarantors of the November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah regularly convene. Lebanon and...

Politics

3 d. ago Will Lebanon face further Israeli strikes after Netanyahu’s Hezbollah ultimatum?

Lebanon is bracing for intensified Israeli attacks in the new year, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration set a December 31 deadline for Hezbollah to disarm, following its assassination of the group’s military commander. Rather than heralding another land invasion like a year ago, however, analysts say the military ultimatum issued by Defence Minister Israel Katz last week aims to further diminish the role of Hezbollah – and its creator Iran – in Lebanon’s national...

Politics

3 d. ago ‘No calm in Beirut’ as more Israeli strikes expected after Hezbollah ultimatum

Lebanon is bracing for intensified Israeli attacks in the new year, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration set a December 31 deadline for Hezbollah to disarm, following its assassination of the group’s military commander. Rather than heralding another land invasion like a year ago, however, analysts say the military ultimatum issued by Defence Minister Israel Katz last week aims to further diminish the role of Hezbollah – and its creator Iran – in Lebanon’s national...

Politics

5 d. ago Pope Leo travels to Lebanon, will appeal for peace amid Israeli strikes

Pope Leo travels to Lebanon on Sunday, where he is expected to appeal for peace in a country that is a continued target of Israeli air strikes, on the second and final leg of his first overseas trip as leader of the Catholic Church. The first US pope will arrive from Turkey, where he has been visiting for four days and warned that humanity’s future was at risk because of the world’s unusual number of bloody conflicts, condemning violence in the name of religion. Leo is due to land at Beirut’s...

Politics

6 d. ago Russian drone strike kills 1 near Kyiv amid flurry of peace talks

A Russian drone attack has killed one person and wounded 11 on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, the regional governor said on Sunday. Mykola Kalashnyk, the Kyiv regional governor, reported “another enemy drone attack” and said rescuers were evacuating residents of a high-rise building and firefighting was ongoing. “Unfortunately, as a result of the enemy attack on Vyshgorod, one person was killed and 11 were wounded. Among them is one child,” Kalashnyk wrote on social media. The latest...

Events

1 week ago Israel steps up strikes in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah official

Israel targeted the chief of staff of Lebanon’s Iran-aligned Hezbollah group in a strike in the capital Beirut’s southern suburbs, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday. The strike is the first on the capital’s southern suburbs in months and is known for housing Hezbollah officials. The target of the strike was military official Ali Tabtabai, according to an Israeli source briefed on the strike and a Lebanese security source. Netanyahu’s office did not say whether...

Politics

2 w. ago Israeli strike on Palestinian camp in Lebanon kills 13, deadliest since ceasefire

An Israeli air strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed 13 people and wounded several others, state media and government officials said. It was the deadliest strike on Lebanon since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war a year ago. The drone strike hit a car in the car park of a mosque in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon, the state-run National News Agency said. The Lebanese Health Ministry said 13 people were killed...

Events

2 w. ago Lebanon says Israeli strike that killed principal was ‘martyrdom of a citizen’

An Israeli strike killed a Lebanese man in the south of the country on Sunday, according to the Lebanese health ministry and the country’s main news agency. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to an Agence France-Presse query but has previously said it reserves the right to strike militant targets in Lebanon it deems a threat. The ministry said the strike hit a car in the town of al-Mansouri, south of Tyre and just over 10 km (6 miles) from the Israeli border, and “resulted in the...

Politics

2 w. ago Israeli strike in Lebanon kills man in car amid tensions with UN peacekeepers

An Israeli strike killed a Lebanese man in the south of the country on Sunday, according to the Lebanese health ministry and the country’s main news agency. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to an Agence France-Presse query but has previously said it reserves the right to strike militant targets in Lebanon it deems a threat. The ministry said the strike hit a car in the town of al-Mansouri, south of Tyre and just over 10km (6 miles) from the Israeli border, and “resulted in the...

Events

2 w. ago Israeli strike in Lebanon kills Hezbollah operative amid tensions with UN peacekeepers

Israel’s military said Monday it had killed a Hezbollah operative in southern Lebanon, a region that has witnessed several attacks despite the ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed group. “Yesterday evening (Sunday)... The IDF struck and eliminated Hezbollah terrorist Muhammad Ali Shuweikh in the Mansouri area in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement. The army said the targeted operative was the local representative for Hezbollah in the area. “He was responsible for...

Events

2 w. ago 7 children killed in air strike against Colombia rebel group, officials say

Colombia’s human rights ombudswoman said on Saturday that seven children were killed in a controversial air strike against a rebel group in the country’s south earlier this week, as the administration of President Gustavo Petro steps up efforts to regain control of rural areas in Guaviare province. In a statement, ombudswoman Iris Marin said the minors killed in the strike against the Farc-EMC rebel group had been forcibly recruited and were being used as “human shields”. Marin called on the...

Society

3 w. ago Ukrainian commander charged after Russian strike kills 19 at frontline party

A commander in the Ukrainian army has been charged after he allegedly gathered 100 soldiers for a celebration on the front line despite a ban by the Ukrainian General Staff, making them a target for a deadly Russian attack. Twelve soldiers and seven civilians were killed when Russian missiles and drones struck the gathering in the Dnipropetrovsk region on November 1, the General Prosecutor’s Office said in Kyiv on Saturday. Additionally, 36 soldiers were injured. According to the State...

Events

3 w. ago Civilians or terrorists? Israeli drone strike kills 2 Lebanese brothers

Israeli strikes in Lebanon killed three people and wounded several more on Saturday, according to the Lebanese health ministry, with Israel announcing one of the attacks had hit arms smugglers from a group affiliated with Hezbollah. The National News Agency reported that two brothers from the town of Shebaa were hit while driving on a road on the slopes of Mount Hermon in southeastern Lebanon, “causing their SUV to catch fire and resulting in their deaths”. The Israeli military confirmed that...

Events

4 w. ago ‘We will kill you’: Hegseth’s warning after new US strike on alleged drug boat

US forces on Thursday struck another alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean, killing three people, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said, bringing the death toll from Washington’s controversial anti-narcotics campaign to at least 70. The United States began carrying out such strikes - which experts say amount to extrajudicial killings even if they target known traffickers - in early September, taking aim at vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The US strikes have destroyed at least...

Events

4 w. ago Mass graves, blood stains: satellite images point to horrors in seized Sudan city

Satellite images analysed on Wednesday appear to show mass burials being conducted in El-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces seized it, further raising concerns about the scale of the violence that descended on the city. The images of El-Fasher come as the two-year war grinds on in Sudan despite growing international outrage, with local media and the United Nations reporting a drone strike targeting a funeral in another city called El-Obeid, killing at...

Events