Turkiye arrests suspected Istanbul church attack planner linked to Daesh

Turkiye arrests suspected Istanbul church attack planner linked to Daesh
An undated handout picture obtained by Reuters on September 14, 2024 shows Daesh militant, identified as Viskhan Soltamatov, who is believed to be involved in planning an attack on the Santa Maria Italian Church in Istanbul (Reuters)
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Updated 14 September 2024
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Turkiye arrests suspected Istanbul church attack planner linked to Daesh

Turkiye arrests suspected Istanbul church attack planner linked to Daesh
  • One Turkish citizen was killed by two Daesh gunmen at the Italian Santa Maria Catholic Church in Istanbul in January

ANKARA: Turkish authorities have arrested a Daesh militant believed to be involved in planning an attack on the Santa Maria Italian Church in Istanbul earlier this year, the country’s intelligence agency said on Saturday.
The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) said the suspect, whom it identified as Viskhan Soltamatov, was believed to be the key figure behind the Jan. 28, 2024 attack. He was detained by MIT and police during a joint operation in Istanbul, the agency said.
MIT said Soltamatov was also believed to have supplied the weapon used in the assault.
One Turkish citizen was killed by two Daesh gunmen at the Italian Santa Maria Catholic Church in Istanbul in January.
The church attack was orchestrated by Daesh-linked operatives from the group’s Khorasan Province, a faction active in Afghanistan. In April, Turkiye had arrested 48 people believed to be linked to the attack.


Hamas, Fatah leaders to hold Palestinian unity talks in Cairo

Updated 5 sec ago
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Hamas, Fatah leaders to hold Palestinian unity talks in Cairo

Hamas, Fatah leaders to hold Palestinian unity talks in Cairo
CAIRO: Leaders from the Islamist group Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement will hold further unity talks in Cairo on Wednesday, a Hamas official told Reuters.
According to Taher Al-Nono, the media adviser of the Hamas political chief, the Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Tuesday. It was led by Khalil Al-Hayya, the group’s chief negotiator and Hamas’ second-in-command, currently based in Qatar.
“The meeting will discuss the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, and the challenges facing the Palestinian cause,” Nono said.
There was no immediate comment from Fatah.
The meeting will be the first in months since the two groups held talks in the Chinese capital in July, agreeing on steps to form a unity government. Similar rounds in the past have so far failed to make progress.
The issue of the post-war Gaza administration is one of the thorniest issues facing the Palestinians, and both factions have said it was an internal affair, rejecting any Israeli conditions.
Israel vowed it would not accept any role for Hamas in post-war Gaza. It says it doesn’t trust the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority to do the job either.

Israel carries out new strikes in Gaza, UN chief says many trapped in north

Israel carries out new strikes in Gaza, UN chief says many trapped in north
Updated 30 min 59 sec ago
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Israel carries out new strikes in Gaza, UN chief says many trapped in north

Israel carries out new strikes in Gaza, UN chief says many trapped in north
  • Israel says it is rooting our Hamas militants
  • Israel presses on with raid on Jabalia refugee camp

CAIRO: At least 18 people were killed in overnight military strikes on Gaza, Palestinian medics said on Wednesday, as Israeli forces pressed on with a raid on the Jabalia refugee camp in the enclave’s north.
The Israeli military says the raid, now in its fifth day, is intended to stop Hamas fighters staging further attacks from Jabalia and to prevent them regrouping.
It has repeatedly issued evacuation orders to residents of Jabalia and nearby areas, but Palestinian and UN officials say there are no safe places to flee to in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said it had received unconfirmed reports that dozens of Palestinians may have been killed in Jabalia and other areas of northern Gaza, but is unable reach them because of Israeli bombardments.
“At least 400,000 people are trapped in the area,” Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Palestinian refugee Agency (UNRWA), posted on X on Wednesday.
“Recent evacuation orders from the Israeli Authorities are forcing people to flee again & again, especially from Jabalia Camp. Many are refusing because they know too well that no place anywhere in #Gaza is safe.”
Lazzarini said some UNRWA shelters and services were being forced to shut down for the first time since the war began and that with almost no basic supplies available, hunger was spreading again in northern Gaza.
“This recent military operation also threatens the implementation of the second phase of the #polio vaccination campaign for children,” he said.
Israel did not immediately comment on Lazzarini’s remarks. Israeli authorities have previously said they facilitate food deliveries to Gaza despite challenging conditions.
Overnight strikes 
Israel’s military, which is also in conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, says Hamas militants use residential areas as cover in the densely populated territory, including schools and hospitals. Hamas denies this.
In one Israeli strike overnight on a house in Shejaia, a suburb of Gaza City, nine people of the same family were killed, medics said. The rest of the dead from the overnight strikes were killed in central areas of the Gaza Strip.
Nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, the Gaza health ministry says. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced and much of the enclave has been laid to waste.


Iran rejects UK security official’s ‘accusations against Iran’, foreign ministry says

Iran rejects UK security official’s ‘accusations against Iran’, foreign ministry says
Updated 22 min 20 sec ago
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Iran rejects UK security official’s ‘accusations against Iran’, foreign ministry says

Iran rejects UK security official’s ‘accusations against Iran’, foreign ministry says

DUBAI: Tehran rejects “accusations” put forward by a British security official, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Wednesday, a day after UK’s MI5 spy chief said 20 Iran-backed potentially lethal plots had been disrupted in Britain since January 2022.
In a wide-ranging speech on Tuesday outlining the current threat picture, Security Service (MI5) Director General Ken McCallum accused Iran of being behind “plot after plot” on British soil.
McCallum said state threat investigations were up 48 percent in the last year as Russia and Iran turned to criminals, drug traffickers and proxies to carry out their “dirty work.”
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson dismissed what he described in a statement as repetitive accusations over the last two years by the British security official, whom he did not name.
Baghaei accused the British of hosting “terrorist” groups that take advantage of free speech to promote violence, according to the statement and asked London to reconsider its policies toward “the nation of Iran and West Asia.”


Iran warns Israel not to attack its infrastructure

Iran warns Israel not to attack its infrastructure
Updated 09 October 2024
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Iran warns Israel not to attack its infrastructure

Iran warns Israel not to attack its infrastructure
  • Israel said it was preparing a response to Iran’s October 1 missile attack on its arch-enemy
  • On Friday US President Joe Biden cautioned Israel against attacking oil installations in Iran

TEHRAN: Iran warned Israel on Tuesday against attacking any of its infrastructure amid fears of a possible Israeli assault on oil or nuclear sites following Iran’s missile barrage last week.
“Any attack against infrastructure in Iran will provoke an even stronger response,” state television quoted Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying.
He spoke after Israel said it was preparing a response to Iran’s October 1 missile attack on its arch-enemy, its second on the country in six months.
On Monday, an official statement quoted Araghchi as saying Iran did not seek war in the region.
On Friday US President Joe Biden cautioned Israel against attacking oil installations in Iran, one of the world’s top 10 producers of crude.
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps General Rassul Sanairad warned Israel on Sunday any attack on nuclear or energy sites would cross a “red line.”
The Fars news agency quoted him as saying following the Israeli threat: “Some political leaders have spoken of a possible change in Iran’s nuclear policy.”
In 2022, after an official said Iran had the technical capability to produce a nuclear weapon, the country stressed there had been no change in its nuclear ambitions.
Last year Iran slowed the pace of its uranium enrichment, but then in late 2023 accelerated the production of 60 percent enriched uranium, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Enrichment levels of around 90 percent are required for military use.
Iran has always denied any ambition to develop a nuclear weapons capability, insisting its activities are entirely peaceful.
Any attack on Iranian nuclear sites “would have an impact on the kind of response by Iran,” General Sanairad said.
Tehran says its attack on Israel, when some 200 missiles were fired, was a response to the death in a Beirut air strike of Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iran-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah, and of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Iran blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s death, but Israel has not commented.


Hezbollah strikes Israel, says it foiled Israeli incursions

Hezbollah strikes Israel, says it foiled Israeli incursions
Updated 23 min 56 sec ago
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Hezbollah strikes Israel, says it foiled Israeli incursions

Hezbollah strikes Israel, says it foiled Israeli incursions
  • Hezbollah said it repelled two Israeli attempts to breach border areas, using rocket-propelled weapons

BEIRUT: Hezbollah fired projectiles into Israel on Wednesday and said it foiled ground incursions, a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanon could face destruction like Gaza.
Netanyahu is set to speak with US President Joe Biden on Wednesday about Israel’s response to last week’s missile attack by Iran, Hezbollah’s main backer, US news outlet Axios reported, citing US officials.
Hezbollah said it repelled two Israeli attempts to breach border areas, using rocket-propelled weapons and engaging in ground combat with Israeli soldiers.
Israel said its air defenses intercepted two projectiles fired from Lebanon, setting off sirens around Caesarea, south of Haifa.
On Tuesday, the military said Hezbollah had fired 180 projectiles at Israel, mainly around Haifa, as Israel escalated its ground offensive along Lebanon’s southern coast.
Netanyahu’s stark warning came a year and a day after the start of Israel’s war against Hezbollah ally Hamas in Gaza.
“You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,” he said in a video address.
“I say to you, the people of Lebanon: Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end.”
As Israel battles Hamas in Gaza, it also aims to secure its northern border to allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by the cross-border fire to return home.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah have vowed to keep up their attacks, with Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem on Tuesday saying the group would make it impossible for Israelis to return to the north.
Israel has intensified strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon since September 23, leaving more than 1,150 people dead and forcing more than a million to flee.
Most of its strikes have targeted southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as south Beirut.
More troops
Israel’s military said Tuesday it was broadening its offensive.
On its Telegram channel, the military said its 146th Division began “limited, localized, targeted operational activities” against Hezbollah in Lebanon’s southwest.
A day earlier, it had warned people to stay away from the southern part of Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast, with a spokesman saying Israel would “soon operate in the maritime area against Hezbollah’s terrorist activities” south of the Awali river.
In Sidon, fishermen stayed ashore and the seafood market was unusually quiet.
“If we don’t go out to sea, we won’t be able to feed ourselves,” said one of them, Issam Haboush.
The Israeli military on Tuesday said it hit Hezbollah’s south Beirut bastion, where a strike last month killed the militant group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah.
It later said it dismantled a Hezbollah tunnel leading from Lebanon into Israel.
Hezbollah said it repelled Israeli troops who “infiltrated from behind” a UN peacekeepers’ position in the southern border village of Labboune.
Hezbollah pledges victory
Hezbollah’s deputy leader said that despite Israel’s “painful” strikes, the group’s leadership was in order and its military capabilities were “fine.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Hezbollah was ” a battered and broken organization, without significant command and fire capabilities, with a disintegrated leadership following the elimination of Hassan Nasrallah.”
Gallant had been due to visit Washington for talks on Wednesday that were expected to focus on Israel’s response to Iran’s missile attack last week.
But the Pentagon confirmed the visit had been postponed, after Israeli media reported Netanyahu had demanded that the cabinet decide on the action to be taken before Gallant’s departure.
Tuesday’s increased fighting came a day after Israelis and people around the world marked the first anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.
For families of the bereaved and relatives of 251 people taken hostage into Gaza, the pain was especially acute.
Of the total number, 97 hostages are still being held, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures, which include hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed 41,965 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations has described as reliable.
Regional escalation
The conflict has since spread across the wider region, with Israel battling Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Yemen and Syria.
The Syrian government said seven civilians were killed in an Israeli air strike in Damascus Tuesday, that a war monitor said targeted a building used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah.
Electrician Adel Habib, 61, who lives in the building, said he was on his way home when the strike hit.
“These were the longest five minutes of my life until I heard the voices of my wife, children and grandchildren.”
A year after Israel’s military offensive began in Gaza, swathes of the territory have been reduced to rubble, and nearly all its 2.4 million residents have been displaced at least once.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, posted on X Wednesday that there was “no end to hell” in northern Gaza.
He criticized Israeli evacuation orders ahead of pending military operations, saying: “Many are refusing because they know too well that no place anywhere in Gaza is safe.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross said that after a year of war, civilians in Gaza were still living in ramshackle shelters and struggling to find food.
On Tuesday, the territory’s civil defense agency said an Israeli strike on a refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least 17 people.