US diplomatic facility attacked in Baghdad, no casualties, embassy says

US diplomatic facility attacked in Baghdad, no casualties, embassy says
Iraq, a rare regional partner of both the United States and Iran, hosts 2,500 US troops and also has Iran-backed armed factions linked to its security forces. (File/AFP)
Short Url
Updated 11 September 2024
Follow

US diplomatic facility attacked in Baghdad, no casualties, embassy says

US diplomatic facility attacked in Baghdad, no casualties, embassy says
  • Two rockets had fallen at around 11 p.m. on Tuesday near US forces stationed near Baghdad airport

BAGHDAD: A United States diplomatic facility in Baghdad came under attack late on Tuesday but there are no reports of casualties and a damage assessment is underway, a US embassy spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.
Security sources told Reuters two rockets had fallen at around 11 p.m. on Tuesday near US forces stationed near Baghdad airport at the Camp Victory base.
“At approximately 23:00 on Tuesday, September 10, there was an attack at the Baghdad Diplomatic Services Compound, a US diplomatic facility,” the US embassy statement said.
“Fortunately, there are no reported casualties, and we are assessing the damage and its cause. Our assessment is ongoing,” it said.
Kataib Hezbollah, one of Iraq’s Iran-backed armed factions, said the timing of the attack was clearly designed to disrupt a visit to Iraq by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian that began on Wednesday.
The group called on Iraqi security forces in a statement issued early on Wednesday to investigate the attack and to determine who was responsible.
Pezeshkian, on his first foreign trip since being elected in July, is expected to sign a number of bilateral agreements with Baghdad and to discuss the Gaza war and the wider situation in the Middle East with Iraqi leaders.
Iraq, a rare regional partner of both the United States and Iran, hosts 2,500 US troops and also has Iran-backed armed factions linked to its security forces.
Iran-aligned armed groups in Iraq have repeatedly attacked US troops in the Middle East since the Gaza war began.


Hezbollah threatens Israel with more attacks if Lebanon assault continues

Israel's Iron Dome air defence system intercepts rockets fired from Lebanon, near Acre in northern Israel on October 11, 2024.
Israel's Iron Dome air defence system intercepts rockets fired from Lebanon, near Acre in northern Israel on October 11, 2024.
Updated 7 sec ago
Follow

Hezbollah threatens Israel with more attacks if Lebanon assault continues

Israel's Iron Dome air defence system intercepts rockets fired from Lebanon, near Acre in northern Israel on October 11, 2024.
  • After claiming the Binyamina attack, Hezbollah said it had launched missiles at a “maintenance and rehabilitation base” of the army, also south of Haifa

BEIRUTU, Lebanon: Lebanese militant group Hezbollah threatened Israel with more attacks if its offensive in Lebanon continued, after a drone attack on a base near Israel’s Haifa Sunday killed four soldiers.
Israel’s military said four soldiers were killed in the attack, the deadliest such assault on an Israeli base since September 23, when Israel increased its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Hezbollah “promises the enemy that what it witnessed today in southern Haifa is nothing compared to what awaits it if it decides to continue its aggression against our... people,” it said.
In what it described as a “complex” operation, the Iran-backed group said it had launched dozens of missiles toward Nahariya and Acre north of Haifa “with the goal of keeping Israeli defense systems busy.”
At the same time, it launched “squadrons of various drones, some of which were being used for the first time, toward various areas in Acre and Haifa, where they were able to get past Israeli air defense radars without being detected” and hit the training camp in Binyamina south of Haifa, it added.
They “exploded in the rooms where dozens of officers and soldiers of the Israeli enemy were present.”
After claiming the Binyamina attack, Hezbollah said it had launched missiles at a “maintenance and rehabilitation base” of the army, also south of Haifa.
The incident comes two days after air raid sirens sounded in central Israel after two aerial drones entered the country from Lebanon. At least one building north of Tel Aviv was damaged during the incident.
Hezbollah has been regularly firing rockets and drones into Israel for more than a year, but has reached further since the fighting escalated in late September.
Israel’s air defenses, including the Iron Dome system, have intercepted most of the projectiles, with few casualties caused by strikes or falling debris.
The escalation in Lebanon has killed more than 1,300 people and displaced over a million more from their homes, according to official figures.
 

 


Israel military shows journalists area of operations in south Lebanon

Israel military shows journalists area of operations in south Lebanon
Updated 37 min 48 sec ago
Follow

Israel military shows journalists area of operations in south Lebanon

Israel military shows journalists area of operations in south Lebanon
  • The military has escorted staff from several media organizations into southern Lebanon since Israel began its ground assault on September 30

EBANON-ISRAEL BORDER, Lebanon: The Israeli military on Sunday took a group of journalists across the border into south Lebanon, and showed what it claimed were three Hezbollah positions including two tunnels, just a few hundred meters from the border.
The Israeli soldiers escorting the media team, which included an AFP photographer, through the mountainous and densely forested terrain said they were near the Lebanese town of Naqura near the border.
The soldiers did not specify how far they were inside southern Lebanon, nor did the journalists see any other people in the area during their brief embed that lasted for about 90 minutes.
The movement of journalists was restricted by the military to a limited area, while the photos and video footage taken during the embed had to be approved by the military before publication.
One of the tunnels was, according to the military, just a few hundred meters (yards) from a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) post.
Israel has repeatedly asked UNIFIL, deployed along Lebanon’s southern border since 1978, to abandon its positions since it escalated its campaign against Hezbollah in September.
UNIFIL has rejected the requests.
“This is how you build an operational attack outpost. And that’s what we found here, just 300 yards from the UN post,” said Lt. Col. Rotem, an Israeli commander accompanying the journalists, who gave only one name for operational purposes.
The journalists were also shown a ditch located amid a cluster of trees, which the military claimed was a Hezbollah post.
The AFP photographer saw Israeli military vehicles crossing the border into Lebanon near Naqura, where troops had cut down trees near the entrance to one of the tunnels.
The military has escorted staff from several media organizations into southern Lebanon since Israel began its ground assault on September 30.
Israel stepped up its campaign in Lebanon on September 23, nearly a year after Hezbollah began launching cross-border attacks in what it said was support for its Palestinian ally, Hamas.


WHO-Red Cross resupply 2 hospitals in north Gaza: WHO

WHO-Red Cross resupply 2 hospitals in north Gaza: WHO
Updated 14 October 2024
Follow

WHO-Red Cross resupply 2 hospitals in north Gaza: WHO

WHO-Red Cross resupply 2 hospitals in north Gaza: WHO

GENEVA: The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said late Sunday that a WHO-Red Cross operation had managed to resupply two hospitals in northern Gaza.
“WHO and partners finally managed to reach Kamal Adwan and Al-Sahaba hospitals yesterday after 9 attempts this past week,” he posted on X.

 


Iran in diplomatic push to seek halt in violence

raqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein (R) welcomes his Iranian counterpart Seyed Abbas Araghchi (C) in Baghdad on October 13, 2024.
raqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein (R) welcomes his Iranian counterpart Seyed Abbas Araghchi (C) in Baghdad on October 13, 2024.
Updated 13 October 2024
Follow

Iran in diplomatic push to seek halt in violence

raqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein (R) welcomes his Iranian counterpart Seyed Abbas Araghchi (C) in Baghdad on October 13, 2024.
  • At a joint news conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Araghchi said in Iraq that his country was “fully prepared for a war situation ... but we do not want war, we want peace”

TEHRAN: Iran held a series of diplomatic talks on Sunday, with President Masoud Pezeshkian seeking support from France’s Emmanuel Macron for a ceasefire in Lebanon, and the foreign minister visiting Iraq while on a regional tour.
According to a statement on Iran’s presidential website, Pezeshkian and Macron discussed ways to secure a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel as the Iranian leader condemned Israel’s “crimes” in Gaza and Lebanon.
Macron’s office said he called on Pezeshkian to support “a general de-escalation and to use its influence in this direction with the destabilising actors that enjoy its support.”
Iran backs Hamas, which is battling Israel in Gaza, and Hezbollah, which is fighting Israel in Lebanon.
Israel has vowed to retaliate against an Iranian missile strike on October 1, raising fears of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon morphing into an all-out regional conflict.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was meanwhile in Iraq on Sunday, a neighbor and ally of his government, as part of a series of visits in the region for talks on the wars in Lebanon and Gaza.
Araghchi said there would be “no red lines” in defending the country’s people and interests, adding that efforts would continue to “contain an all-out war in our region.”
Iran has said its launch of 200 missiles on Israel earlier this month was retaliation for the killing of Tehran-backed militant leaders in the region and a general in its Revolutionary Guards.
At a joint news conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Araghchi said in Iraq that his country was “fully prepared for a war situation ... but we do not want war, we want peace.”
He also said Iran would continue consultations “to prevent the escalation of tension in the region and to work for peace” and a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon.
After his visit to Iraq, Araghchi headed to Oman, IRNA state news agency reported.
On Thursday, he had been in Qatar, where he met Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, whose government has been mediating talks aimed at securing a Gaza ceasefire and has also called for a truce in Lebanon.
On Wednesday, Araghchi met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, during his trip to the Kingdom.

 

 


Israel rescuers say over 60 wounded in area Hezbollah claimed drone strike

An ambulance arrives at the site of a drone strike near the northern Israeli town of Binyamina, on October 13, 2024. (AFP)
An ambulance arrives at the site of a drone strike near the northern Israeli town of Binyamina, on October 13, 2024. (AFP)
Updated 13 October 2024
Follow

Israel rescuers say over 60 wounded in area Hezbollah claimed drone strike

An ambulance arrives at the site of a drone strike near the northern Israeli town of Binyamina, on October 13, 2024. (AFP)
  • Hezbollah said it launched “a squadron of attack drones” at a military training camp in Binyamina, south of Haifa, in response to Israeli air strikes on Lebanon

JERUSALEM: An Israeli volunteer rescue service on Sunday said more than 60 people were wounded south of Haifa, where Hezbollah earlier claimed a drone strike that targeted a military base.
“With the help of United Hatzalah ambulance teams, we provided assistance to over 60 wounded people with varying degrees of injuries — critical, serious, moderate and mild,” the rescue service United Hatzalah said in a statement posted on its Facebook page.
Earlier Sunday, Hezbollah, which is at war with Israel, said it launched “a squadron of attack drones” at a military training camp in Binyamina, south of Haifa, in response to Israeli air strikes on the country.
The incident comes two days after air raid sirens sounded in central Israel after two aerial drones entered the country from Lebanon, with at least one building damaged north of Tel Aviv during the incident.
Hezbollah has been regularly firing rockets and drones across the border into Israel for more than a year, but has reached further since late September when fighting escalated.
Israel’s sophisticated air defenses, including the Iron Dome system, has intercepted most of the projectiles, with few casualties caused by strikes or falling debris.