14 killed in a car crash in war-torn Yemen, state media report

The clothes of a victam lies on the wreckage of a bus at the site of an airstrike in Saada, Yemen, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018. (AP file photo)
The clothes of a victam lies on the wreckage of a bus at the site of an airstrike in Saada, Yemen, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018. (AP file photo)
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Updated 09 September 2024
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14 killed in a car crash in war-torn Yemen, state media report

The clothes of a victam lies on the wreckage of a bus at the site of an airstrike in Saada, Yemen, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018. (AP)
  • The crashes claim thousands of lives every year and are mostly caused by speeding, bad roads, or poor enforcement of traffic laws

SANAA, Yemen: A passenger bus overturned while driving Sunday in a mountainous area in southwestern Yemen, killing at least 14 people, state-run media reported.
The vehicle was traveling on a highway overlooking a rocky area in the Maqatra district when it suffered a mechanical failure and tumbled to the ground, according to the state-run SABA news agency.
The bus was transporting 14 passengers from the southern province of Aden, the seat of the internationally recognized government, to the southwestern province of Taiz, the agency reported.
It said only one person survived the crash and was taken to hospital for treatment.
Deadly traffic crashes are not uncommon in Yemen, where a decade of civil war wrecked the country’s infrastructure. The crashes claim thousands of lives every year and are mostly caused by speeding, bad roads, or poor enforcement of traffic laws.
Yemen plunged into civil war in 2014, when Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels took control of the capital, Sanaa, and much of the country’s north, forcing the government to flee to the south, then to Saudi Arabia.
A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in March 2015, backed at the time by the US, in an effort to restore the internationally recognized government to power.
The war has killed more than 150,000 people including civilians and combatants. In recent years the situation has deteriorated and the conflict has largely turned into a stalemate and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

 


Thousands around the world protest Middle East war as Oct 7 anniversary nears

Thousands around the world protest Middle East war as Oct 7 anniversary nears
Updated 5 sec ago
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Thousands around the world protest Middle East war as Oct 7 anniversary nears

Thousands around the world protest Middle East war as Oct 7 anniversary nears
  • 40,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched in London
  • Protesters oppose Israel’s Gaza actions, worry about spreading conflict
PARIS/WASHINGTON: Thousands of protesters took to the streets in major cities around the world on Saturday demanding an end to bloodshed in Gaza and the wider Middle East as the start of Israel’s war in the Palestinian enclave approaches its first anniversary.
About 40,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through central London while thousands gathered in Paris, Rome, Manila, Cape Town and New York City. Demonstrations were also held near the White House in Washington, protesting US support for its ally Israel in military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.
Protesters at Times Square in New York City wore the black-and-white keffiyeh scarf and chanted slogans like: “Gaza, Lebanon you will rise, the people are by your side.” They held banners demanding an arms embargo against Israel.
The latest bloodshed in the decades old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. It has also displaced nearly all of the enclave’s 2.3 million people, caused a hunger crisis and led to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.
“Unfortunately, in spite of all our good will, the Israeli government does not take any notice, and they just go ahead and continue their atrocities in Gaza, now also in Lebanon and in Yemen, and also probably in Iran,” said protester Agnes Kory in London.
“And our government, our British government, unfortunately is just paying lip service and carries on supplying weapons to Israel,” she added.
In Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, at least 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered on Sunday morning near the US embassy demanding that Washington stop supplying weapons to Israel.
In London, counter-demonstrators waved Israeli flags as pro-Palestinian marchers walked by. There were 15 arrests on the sidelines of the protests, according to police, who did not specify whether those detained were from either group.
In Rome, police fired tear gas and water cannons after clashes broke out. Around 6,000 protesters defied a ban to march in the city center ahead of the Oct. 7 anniversary of Hamas’ attack.
In Berlin, a protest drew about 1,000 demonstrators with Palestinian flags, who chanted: “One Year of Genocide.”
German demonstrators also criticized what they called police violence against pro-Palestinian protesters. Israel supporters in Berlin protested against rising antisemitism. Scuffles broke out between police and pro-Palestinian protesters.
Over the past year, the scale of the killing and destruction in Gaza has drawn some of the biggest global protests in years, including in the US, that saw weeks of pro-Palestinian college campus encampments.
Advocates have raised concerns over alarming antisemitic and Islamophobic rhetoric in some protests and counter-protests related to the conflict. Rights advocates have warned about rising threats against Muslims and Jews around the world.
Israel’s supporters have expressed offense over some slogans that they say question Israel’s right to exist as a nation. Pro-Palestinian protesters point to violence such as an incident in which a mob in California attacked an encampment of demonstrators in April.
The war in Gaza has spread through the region, drawing in Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq. Israel has sharply escalated a campaign in recent weeks in Lebanon that has killed hundreds, wounded thousands and displaced over a million. Israel says it is attempting to dismantle Lebanese Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
Iran launched a barrage of missiles against Israel this week to which Israel has not yet responded. Israeli operations have also escalated in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza.
In Paris, Lebanese-French protester Houssam Houssein said: “We fear a regional war, because there are tensions with Iran at the moment, and perhaps with Iraq and Yemen.” Houssein added: “We really need to stop the war because it’s now become unbearable.”
Israel has faced wide international condemnation over its actions in Gaza, and now over its bombarding of Lebanon. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his government is acting to prevent a repeat of the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas and Washington says it supports Israel’s right to self-defense.
US government agencies warned on Friday that the anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks may motivate individuals to engage in violence. Officials in some states, including New York, raised security measures out of caution.
In Manila, activists clashed with anti-riot police after they were blocked from holding a demonstration in front of the US embassy in the Philippine capital against Washington’s support for Israel.
International diplomacy backed by the US has so far failed to clinch a ceasefire deal in Gaza. Hamas wants an agreement that ends the war while Israel says fighting can end only when Hamas is eradicated.

Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election

Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
Updated 06 October 2024
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Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election

Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
  • Three years after a sweeping power grab by Saied, the election is seen as a closing chapter in Tunisia’s experiment with democracy
  • After rising to power in a landslide in 2019, Saied, now 66, led a sweeping power grab that saw him rewrite the constitution

TUNIS: Tunisia holds a presidential election Sunday with no real opposition to incumbent Kais Saied, widely tipped to win as his most prominent critics, including a key contender, are behind bars.
Three years after a sweeping power grab by Saied, the election is seen as a closing chapter in Tunisia’s experiment with democracy.
The North African country had prided itself for more than a decade for being the birthplace of the Arab Spring uprisings against dictatorship.
Polling stations open at 8 a.m. (0700 GMT) and close at 6 p.m. (1700 GMT). Preliminary results should come no later than Wednesday but may be known earlier, according to ISIE, the electoral board.
In the lead-up to polling day, there have been no campaign rallies or public debates — and nearly all of the campaign posters in city streets have been of Saied.
With little hope for change in a country mired in economic crisis, the mood among much of the electorate has been one of resignation.
“We have nothing to do with politics,” Mohamed, a 22-year-old who gave only his first name for fear of retribution, told AFP in Tunis.
Neither he nor his friends planned to vote, he said, because they believed it was “useless.”
After rising to power in a landslide in 2019, Saied, now 66, led a sweeping power grab that saw him rewrite the constitution.
A burgeoning crackdown on dissent ensued, and a number of Saied’s critics across the political spectrum were jailed, sparking criticism both at home and abroad.
New York-based Human Rights Watch has said that more than “170 people are detained in Tunisia on political grounds or for exercising their fundamental rights.”
Jailed opposition figures include Rached Ghannouchi, head of the Islamist-inspired opposition party Ennahdha, which dominated political life after the revolution.
Also detained is Abir Moussi, head of the Free Destourian Party, which critics accuse of wanting to bring back the regime that was ousted in 2011.

ISIE said about 9.7 million people are expected to turn out, but the near certainty of a Saied win and the country’s mounting hardships have inspired little to no eagerness to vote.
The International Crisis Group think tank said on Friday that “the president’s nationalist discourse and economic hardship” have “corroded any enthusiasm ordinary citizens might have felt about the election.”
“Many fear that a new mandate for Saied will only deepen the country’s socio-economic woes, as well as hasten the regime’s authoritarian drift,” it said.
Voters are being presented with almost no alternative after ISIE barred 14 hopefuls from standing in the race, citing insufficient endorsements among other technicalities.
Hundreds of people protested in the capital on Friday, marching along a heavily policed Habib Bourguiba Avenue as some demonstrators bore signs denouncing Saied as a “Pharaoh manipulating the law.”
Standing against him Sunday are former lawmaker Zouhair Maghzaoui, a supporter of the power grab Saied staged in 2021, and Ayachi Zammel, a little-known businessman who has been in jail since his bid was approved by ISIE last month.
Zammel currently faces more than 14 years in prison on accusations of having forged endorsement signatures to enable him to stand in the election.
In a speech on Thursday, Saied called for a “massive turnout to vote” and usher in what he called an era of “reconstruction.”
He cited “a long war against conspiratorial forces linked to foreign circles,” accusing them of “infiltrating many public services and disrupting hundreds of projects” under his tenure.
The International Crisis Group said that while Saied “enjoys significant support among the working classes, he has been criticized for failing to resolve the country’s deep economic crisis.”
 


At least 18 killed in Israeli air strike on Gaza mosque

At least 18 killed in Israeli air strike on Gaza mosque
Updated 47 min 37 sec ago
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At least 18 killed in Israeli air strike on Gaza mosque

At least 18 killed in Israeli air strike on Gaza mosque
  • Israeli military says the target once served as the ‘Shuhada Al-Aqsa’ Mosque but was being as Hamas command and control center
  • Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly all of the enclave’s 2.3 million people

GAZA/CAIRO: At least 18 people were killed and dozens of others wounded in an Israeli air strike on a Gaza mosque early on Sunday, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
The strike on the mosque, near the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, came as the war between Israel and Hamas in the Palestinian enclave approaches its first anniversary.
Eyewitnesses said the number of casualties could rise as the mosque was being used to house displaced people.
The Israeli military said in a statement it “conducted a precise strike on Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control center embedded in a structure that previously served as the ‘Shuhada Al-Aqsa’ Mosque in the area of Deir al Balah.”
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. It has also displaced nearly all of the enclave’s 2.3 million people, caused a hunger crisis and led to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.


Hezbollah says repelled ‘attempted’ Israeli infiltration at border village

Hezbollah says repelled ‘attempted’ Israeli infiltration at border village
Updated 06 October 2024
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Hezbollah says repelled ‘attempted’ Israeli infiltration at border village

Hezbollah says repelled ‘attempted’ Israeli infiltration at border village

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Hezbollah said its fighters pushed away Israeli troops that attempted to storm into a Lebanese border village early Sunday, in the latest clashes after Israel announced ground operations earlier this week.
The fighters launched “artillery shells” at “Israeli enemy soldiers who attempted to infiltrate from... Blida... forcing (them) to retreat,” the Iran-backed group said in a statement.

 

 


Iran ‘ongoing threat’ to Israel, says president

Iran ‘ongoing threat’ to Israel, says president
Updated 06 October 2024
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Iran ‘ongoing threat’ to Israel, says president

Iran ‘ongoing threat’ to Israel, says president
  • Since late September the conflict with Hezbollah has escalated into full-on war

JERUSALEM: President Isaac Herzog said on Saturday that Iran remains an “ongoing threat” to Israel, a year after the unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants.
“In many senses we are still living the aftermath of October 7... It is in the ongoing threat to the Jewish State by Iran and its terror proxies, who are blinded by hatred and bent on the destruction of our one and only Jewish nation state,” Herzog said in a statement to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas onslaught.
On October 1, Iran struck Israel with about 200 missiles in what was its second direct attack in less than six months during the ongoing wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
US officials told American news outlets after Iran’s earlier strike in April that Israel in turn carried out a retaliatory strike on the Islamic republic.
Iran had targeted Israel with drones and missiles after a deadly strike, which it blamed on Israel, against Tehran’s embassy consular annex in Syria.
The latest missile barrage from Iran came, it said, in retaliation for the killings of top militant leaders.
In response to the missile fire, most of which was intercepted, Iran and much of the international community is now bracing for a potential Israeli attack on the Islamic republic.
The attack by Palestinian militants Hamas almost a year ago triggered war with Israel that continues in the Gaza Strip, as well as supporting fire from Iran-backed groups in the Middle East, mainly Lebanon’s Hezbollah which is armed and financed by Iran.
Since late September the conflict with Hezbollah has escalated into full-on war.