Commander of Navy warship relieved of duty months after backward rifle scope photo flap

This undated photo, provided by Stars and Stripes, shows Cameron Yaste, commanding officer of the destroyer USS John McCain, firing a rifle with a backwards scope. (AP)
This undated photo, provided by Stars and Stripes, shows Cameron Yaste, commanding officer of the destroyer USS John McCain, firing a rifle with a backwards scope. (AP)
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Updated 03 September 2024
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Commander of Navy warship relieved of duty months after backward rifle scope photo flap

Commander of Navy warship relieved of duty months after backward rifle scope photo flap
  • The Pentagon sent the carriers to the Middle East to be in position should Israel need help repelling an attack by Iran or other countries, if such a thing happens, military officials said

SAN DIEGO: The commander of a Navy destroyer that’s helping protect the San Diego-based aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Middle East has been relieved of duty about four months after he was seen in a photo firing a rifle with a scope mounted backward.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Cameron Yaste, commanding officer of the destroyer USS John McCain, was removed on Friday.
The Navy said Yaste was relieved of duty “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command the guided-missile destroyer” that’s currently deployed in the Gulf of Oman.
In April, a photo posted on the Navy’s social media showed Yaste in a firing stance gripping the rifle with a backward scope. The image brought the Navy considerable ridicule on social media.
The military news outlet Stars and Stripes reported that the Marine Corps took a dig at the Navy, sharing a photo on its social media of a Marine firing a weapon aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer. The caption read: “Clear Sight Picture.”
The post featuring Yaste was ultimately deleted. “Thank you for pointing out our rifle scope error in the previous post,” the Navy later wrote on social media. “Picture has been removed until EMI (extra military instruction) is completed.”
Yaste has been temporarily replaced by Capt. Allison Christy, deputy commodore of Destroyer Squadron 21, which is part of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group that’s also in the Gulf of Oman.
The Pentagon sent the carriers to the Middle East to be in position should Israel need help repelling an attack by Iran or other countries, if such a thing happens, military officials said.
The Roosevelt is the flagship of a strike group that has recently included three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, $2 billion vessels that are designed to shield carriers from attacks by air, sea and land.

 


Lebanon says nearly 50 killed in fresh Israeli strikes

Lebanon says nearly 50 killed in fresh Israeli strikes
Updated 23 sec ago
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Lebanon says nearly 50 killed in fresh Israeli strikes

Lebanon says nearly 50 killed in fresh Israeli strikes
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry on Sunday said Israeli strikes killed nearly 50 more people, after Israel’s military said it kept up its bombardment of Hezbollah targets there and also struck Yemen.
The bombing comes after an air strike on Beirut’s densely populated southern suburbs on Friday killed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group which has been engaged in cross-border fire with Israel for almost a year.
Hezbollah says it is acting in support of Hamas militants in Gaza, who attacked Israel on October 7, triggering the war in the Palestinian territory.
After Israel turned its focus north from Gaza to Lebanon and cross-border fire escalated, Israeli attacks have killed hundreds since last Monday, the deadliest day since Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war.
The Lebanese health ministry said preliminary tolls showed 24 killed and 29 wounded in an Israeli strike near the main southern city of Sidon Sunday.
It later reported that Israeli air raids on the Baalbek-Hemel area of eastern Lebanon “killed 21 people and wounded 47,” another provisional toll.
Four more died in a raid targeting Joub Jenin in the Bekaa area, the ministry said.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot arrived in Lebanon Sunday, his ministry said. He spoke earlier with Prime Minister Najib Mikati and said Paris sought “an immediate halt” to Israeli strikes.
France also appealed for Hezbollah and its backer Iran to abstain from any action that could lead to “regional conflagration.”
Pope Francis, asked about Israeli air strikes on civilians, said a country “goes beyond morality” when defense is not proportional to the attack.
A source close to Hezbollah said Nasrallah’s body was found on Saturday “and was placed in a shroud on Sunday after being washed.”
Funeral details have not yet been arranged, the source said, requesting anonymity.
Israel’s military said it was attacking targets of Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, including around Hodeida port, a key entry point for fuel and humanitarian aid to war-ravaged Yemen.
Houthi media reports said the strikes killed four people and wounded 33.
The air raids came a day after the Houthis said they targeted Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport with a missile, trying to hit it as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from New York.
“Dozens of Air Force aircraft, including fighter jets, refueling planes, and reconnaissance aircraft, attacked military-use targets of the Houthi terrorist regime in the Ras Issa and Hodeida areas of Yemen,” military spokesman Captain David Avraham said in a statement to AFP.
Israel also hit Hodeida port in July, causing what an official there said was at least $20 million in damage, after a Houthi drone penetrated Israeli air defenses and killed a civilian in Tel Aviv.
An “unmanned aerial target” approaching Israel over the Red Sea — where the Houthis have regularly launched attacks — was intercepted earlier on Sunday, Israel’s military said.
Separately, it said the air strike that killed Nasrallah “eliminated” another 20 Hezbollah members.
Israel also said Nabil Qaouq, a member of Hezbollah’s central council, was killed in a strike on Saturday.
Hezbollah has yet to officially announce his death, but a source close to the group said Qaouq had been killed.
Israeli air strikes have decimated Hezbollah’s senior command structure, with Nasrallah’s right-hand man Fuad Shukr, head of the elite Radwan Force Ibrahim Aqil and others among the dead.
Hezbollah is a powerful political, military and social force in Lebanon, but Nasrallah’s killing dealt it a seismic blow.
Israeli bombardment has killed more than 700 people in a week, including 14 paramedics over a two-day period, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
AFPTV live images on Sunday afternoon showed smoke rising beyond palm trees in the coastal city of Tyre, and more smoke across a bay.
Israel’s military said late Sunday it hit 120 Hezbollah targets, after earlier reporting dozens more.
Hezbollah said it had again fired rockets on the northern Israeli town of Safed.
It also reported firing “a volley of Fadi-1” rockets at an Israeli base in the Golan Heights. Israel reported several launches from Lebanon fell in unpopulated areas near the Israeli-annexed territory.
Nasrallah was the face of Hezbollah, enjoying cult status among his supporters.
Netanyahu said Israel had “settled the score” with his killing, and Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the world was “a safer place” without him.
US President Joe Biden — whose government is Israel’s top arms supplier — said it was a “measure of justice for his many victims.”
Analysts told AFP Nasrallah’s death leaves a bruised Hezbollah under pressure to respond.
For Tehran, his killing “has not altered the fact that Iran still does not want to get directly engaged” in the ongoing conflict, said Ali Vaez of the International Crisis group.
Iran said a member of its Revolutionary Guards was also killed alongside Nasrallah.
UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said “well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon” and more than 50,000 have fled to neighboring Syria.
Premier Mikati said up to one million people may have been forced from their homes, in potentially the “largest displacement movement” in Lebanon’s history.
In Gaza, the territory’s civil defense agency said Israeli strikes killed several people on Sunday.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Of the 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,595 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

UN secretary-general highlights Egypt’s pivotal role in Mideast

UN secretary-general highlights Egypt’s pivotal role in Mideast
Updated 12 min 31 sec ago
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UN secretary-general highlights Egypt’s pivotal role in Mideast

UN secretary-general highlights Egypt’s pivotal role in Mideast
  • Guterres expressed his appreciation of the president’s wisdom and Egypt’s prudent policy in addressing international and regional issues and challenges

CAIRO: Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emigration and Egyptian Expatriates Badr Abdelatty has met Secretary-General of the UN Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of the high-level segment of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Abdelatty conveyed greetings from President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to the UN secretary-general, emphasizing Egypt’s commitment to continuing to strengthen cooperation with the UN.

Guterres expressed his appreciation of the president’s wisdom and Egypt’s prudent policy in addressing international and regional issues and challenges. He highlighted Egypt’s pivotal role in the Middle East, the Arab and Islamic worlds, and Africa, reaffirming the depth of the country’s civilization and its distinguished regional and global role.

Tamim Khallaf, the spokesperson for the ministry, said that Abdelatty praised the UN secretary-general’s role in convening the Summit of the Future to support the multilateral work system, while welcoming the summit’s outcomes. He noted Egypt’s agreement with Guterres on the necessity of reforming the structure of the global financial system to make it fairer and more equitable for developing countries.

He also spoke of the importance of finding innovative solutions to expand access mechanisms for developing countries to concessional financing, alleviating the burden of existing debts, and supporting national developmental efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals.

Abdelatty praised the secretary-general’s principled positions, which consistently support the principles of international law and the application of uniform standards concerning various regional issues, particularly the ongoing Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip and the worsening humanitarian catastrophe in that region.

He also referred to the Israeli military escalation in the region and the aggression facing the sovereignty of Lebanon, stressing that the current approach was driving the region toward the brink of disaster.

The meeting witnessed a discussion on several other regional issues, including developments in Libya, Sudan, Yemen, the Red Sea, and the Horn of Africa. It also addressed the importance of maintaining Somalia’s unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.

Abdelatty also addressed the issue of water security and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, emphasizing its critical importance to Egypt in terms of national security.

He also reiterated Egypt’s rejection of any unilateral actions that would harm the interests of the downstream countries and violate established international norms governing transboundary water management.

Guterres stressed his appreciation of Egypt’s president, commending Cairo’s role as a founding member of the UN and its contributions to multilateral issues, the achievement of international peace and security, and the purposes and goals of the UN Charter.

Abdelatty also met the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

The meeting came within the framework of continuing communication between the two countries following the participation of Abdelatty in the inauguration ceremony of the Iranian president in July 2024, according to the Foreign Ministry of Egypt’s spokesperson.

The two sides exchanged views on various issues of common interest, especially developments in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, and the Israeli military escalation and its repercussions on the region’s security.

They also affirmed the importance of de-escalation and the avoidance of sliding into a regional war that would threaten the security and stability of the region.


Israel used US-made bomb in attack on Hezbollah head, US senator says

Israel used US-made bomb in attack on Hezbollah head, US senator says
Updated 47 min 30 sec ago
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Israel used US-made bomb in attack on Hezbollah head, US senator says

Israel used US-made bomb in attack on Hezbollah head, US senator says
  • Mark Kelly, chair of the Senate Armed Services Airland Subcommittee, said Israel used a 2,000-lb (900-kg) Mark 84 series bomb
  • “We see more use of guided munitions, JDAMs, and we continue to provide those weapons,” Kelly said

WASHINGTON: The bomb that Israel used to kill Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last week was an American-made guided weapon, a US senator said on Sunday.
Mark Kelly, chair of the Senate Armed Services Airland Subcommittee, said Israel used a 2,000-lb (900-kg) Mark 84 series bomb, during an interview with NBC. His statement marks the first US indication of what weapon had been used.
“We see more use of guided munitions, JDAMs, and we continue to provide those weapons,” Kelly said, using an abbreviation that stands for Joint Direct Attack Munitions. “That 2,000-pound bomb that was used, that’s a Mark 84 series bomb, to take out Nasrallah,” he said.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had eliminated Nasrallah in a strike on the group’s central command headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs. The Israeli military has declined to comment on what weapons were used in the attack. The Pentagon was not immediately available for comment.
JDAMs convert a standard unguided bomb using fins and a GPS guidance system into a guided weapon. The US is Israel’s longtime ally and biggest arms supplier.


Lebanon army makes plea for unity after Nasrallah’s killing

Lebanon army makes plea for unity after Nasrallah’s killing
Updated 50 min 58 sec ago
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Lebanon army makes plea for unity after Nasrallah’s killing

Lebanon army makes plea for unity after Nasrallah’s killing
  • Mikati sticks to diplomacy, says attacks may have forced up to 1m people to flee homes
  • Al-Rahi demands a president who will engage in peace negotiations

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s army on Sunday warned the Lebanese against actions that would disturb public order in the country after Israel’s killing of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.

The army statement called on citizens “to preserve national unity and not to be drawn into actions that may affect civil peace at this dangerous and delicate stage,” following the massive Friday strike that killed Nasrallah and as Israeli attacks continue.

Israel “is working to implement its destructive plans and sow division among Lebanese,” the statement added.

The army appeal came as dozens were killed and wounded on Sunday in Israeli air raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut, southern Lebanon, and the Bekaa.

According to preliminary statistics from the Ministry of Health issued on Sunday evening, 21 civilians were killed and 47 were wounded in 40 Israeli raids on Baalbek-Hermel.

Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi, in his first comment on the assassination of Nasrallah, said that “the Lebanese paid a heavy price for their departure from the national charter, and Lebanon will not be able to carry out its mission except with positive neutrality.”

Al-Rahi reminded “the international community of the necessity of working to stop the cycle of war, killing and destruction.”

He said: “We all are losers in the war, so it is necessary to adopt negotiations. We hope that by electing a president for Lebanon, he will stop the fire and engage in peace negotiations.”

Amid the Israeli bombardment, the Lebanese ministerial emergency committee continued its discussions on how to manage the vast number of displaced people from the southern suburbs of Beirut, the south, and Bekaa, who had been made homeless.

Some of the displaced are still sleeping in the streets of Beirut, on its seafront, and in front of mosques, while others cannot afford to buy milk for their children or clothes to keep them warm.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said after Sunday’s meeting that the number of displaced people might reach 1 million and that “this current displacement is the largest in Lebanon’s history.”

Mikati said the state’s contributions are “within its capabilities, and we will ask donor countries to help us in these difficult circumstances.”

Regarding political solutions, Mikati stressed that “we have no choice but diplomacy. We demand a ceasefire on all fronts.”

According to official statistics, those who have died since Oct. 8, 2023 amount to 1,640, while the wounded amount to 8,408. The number of missing persons is unknown.

Israeli forces have not given Hezbollah a chance to catch its breath after the assassination of Nasrallah.

Warplanes launched 216 raids within the last 24 hours, including a violent raid on a building between Shiyah and Ghobeiry in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

According to Channel 14, “the target was the prominent leader in the party, Abu Ali Rida, the commander of the Badr Unit.”

Hezbollah denied the claim, saying that he was “well and healthy.”

Hezbollah officially mourned Nabil Qaouk, the deputy head of its executive council, who was killed in a drone attack on Saturday evening in the Chiyah area, indicating that Qaouk “held many organizational responsibilities in the party’s various units.”

It also officially mourned the death of prominent party leader Ali Karaki, whom Israel put on its target list.

Israel also included among its targets an official in the Islamic Group in Lebanon — an ally of Hezbollah in the confrontations in the south.

A warplane launched a raid on the town of Jab Janin in western Bekaa, the first time this town had been targeted, and hit a car carrying the group’s official, Mohammed Dahrouj, who was with his wife, killing them both.

Also on Sunday, Hezbollah’s civil defense personnel retrieved the bodies of Nasrallah and those with him in preparation for their funeral.

A paramedic told Arab News: “We kept digging deep to reach the bodies, and they were pulled out using cranes brought to the site.”

He said the bodies of the party’s secretary-general, Karaki, and two Iranian figures were found.

Hezbollah’s operations in northern Israel declined relatively on Sunday.

Hezbollah announced the bombing of the “Sonubar settlement” and “Ofek camp with a batch of Fadi 1 missiles.”

Minister Nasser Yassin, head of the emergency committee, said: “We have reached 740 shelters within a few days with more than 250,000 displaced people.

“The number of displaced persons since the day of Hassan Nasrallah’s assassination on Friday until Sunday morning was estimated at 1 million.”
 
Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee claimed that the raids carried out on the Hezbollah command headquarters led to “the elimination of more than 20 other members of different ranks.”

He alleged that they had gathered inside the underground headquarters and managed the fighting against Israel from there.

Adraee provided a list of names: “Ibrahim Hussein Jazini, the commander of Nasrallah’s security unit; Samir Tawfiq Deeb, Nasrallah’s advisor for many years; Abdul Amir Mohammed Sablini, the official responsible for building the force; and Ali Nayef Ayoub, the official responsible for managing the fire.”

An Israeli raid on the town of Al-Ain, adjacent to Baalbek, led to the killing of 11 civilians.

The army launched a raid on a house in the Marjhin area in the Hermel outskirts, causing the death of more than 10 people.

A raid on a building in the town of Zboud in the Bekaa resulted in the deaths of 17 civilians.

Raids focused on Al-Khader, Tamnin, Nabi Sheet, and Al-Kharibeh in northern Bekaa — areas that support Hezbollah.

The attacks included the town of Choueifat, south of Beirut, targeting hangars belonging to a businessperson from the Al-Moussawi family.

An Israeli raid on a building near a civil defense center affiliated with the Amal Movement, an ally of Hezbollah, resulted in the death of several volunteers in the southern town of Tayr Dibba.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health condemned “this attack and a similar attack on Houmin Al-Fawqa in the south, which led to the death of 14 paramedics in two days.”

The Israeli army claimed in a statement that “it struck hundreds of Hezbollah targets throughout Lebanon in the past hours, including missile launch pads directed toward Israeli territory, weapons storage facilities, and additional terrorist infrastructure affiliated with Hezbollah.”

The army said that it will continue to work to “weaken and dismantle Hezbollah’s capabilities.”

Aircraft and drones remained in the skies of Beirut and its southern suburbs at a low level around the clock.

 


Houthis abduct 428 Yemenis during September revolution anniversary crackdown

Houthis abduct 428 Yemenis during September revolution anniversary crackdown
Updated 29 September 2024
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Houthis abduct 428 Yemenis during September revolution anniversary crackdown

Houthis abduct 428 Yemenis during September revolution anniversary crackdown
  • Rights Radar, a human rights organization based in Amsterdam, reported on Sunday that the Houthis have arrested people in 10 provinces

AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s Houthi militia has detained 428 people during a crackdown on commemorations of the 62nd anniversary of the country’s 1962 revolution, a human rights group said.

Rights Radar, a human rights organization based in Amsterdam, reported on Sunday that the Houthis have arrested people in 10 provinces under their control since early last week for commemorating the Sept. 26 revolution in the streets, honoring it on social media, or calling on the others to celebrate.

During the crackdown, the Houthis physically and verbally assaulted people, abducted them, and have prevented them from contacting or seeing their families, according to the organization. 

“Rights Radar has called on the Houthi militia to release all those abducted and detained during these campaigns immediately and to end the ongoing prosecutions related to these celebrations, as security forces are still pursuing dozens in many areas under Houthi control,” it said in a statement.

The province of Ibb had the most detentions, with 179, followed by Sanaa with 109, Dhamar with 56, Hodeidah with 37, and Taiz with 13 cases.

Mahweet, Amran, Hajjah, Al-Bayda, and Dhale also saw people abducted by the militia.

The revolution deposed northern Yemen’s Zaidi Imamate rulers, who had controlled the country for centuries, and paved the way for establishing the Yemen Arab Republic.

Yemenis say that the Houthis and Imamate rulers share the same ideologies that restricted the country’s rule to Hashemite families.

The Houthis have accused the revolutionaries of being tools for the US and other countries to undermine security in areas under their control, as well as to put pressure on them to stop attacking ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

The American Center for Justice also said on Saturday that the Houthis launched a “large-scale” campaign against Yemenis commemorating the anniversary, resulting in the abduction of hundreds of people, including lawyers, human rights activists, political party leaders, and others in Ibb, Hodeidah, Dhamar, Sanaa, and Amran.

The center said that the Houthis deployed heavy military vehicles and forces dressed in military uniforms and civilian clothing to disperse gatherings, accusing the Houthis of violating international and local laws protecting people’s rights to free expression and peaceful assembly.

The center “calls on the international community and human rights organizations to pressure the Houthi group to end all forms of repression against Yemenis, immediately release all detainees, and ensure the right of citizens to express their opinions and participate in national celebrations without fear or intimidation,” it said.