Israel army says killed Hezbollah militant in south Lebanon strike

Update Israel army says killed Hezbollah militant in south Lebanon strike
Israel's military said it killed a Hezbollah militant in a strike on south Lebanon on Wednesday, the latest attack despite a ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group. (X/@BlueSky63520368)
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Israel army says killed Hezbollah militant in south Lebanon strike

Israel army says killed Hezbollah militant in south Lebanon strike
  • Israeli military said they eliminated a “Hezbollah terrorist” in southern Lebanon
  • Lebanon’s health ministry reported one person killed in an Israeli drone strike targeting a car

JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said it killed a Hezbollah militant in a strike on south Lebanon on Wednesday, the latest attack despite a ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group.

“Earlier today (Wednesday), the IDF (military) struck in the area of Qaaqaaiyet El Jisr in southern Lebanon, eliminating a Hezbollah terrorist who held the position of the commander of the Qabrikha area within the Hezbollah terrorist organization,” a military statement said.

Lebanon’s health ministry reported one person killed in an Israeli drone strike targeting a car.

Israel has continued to launch strikes on its neighbor despite the November 27 truce which sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah including two months of full-blown war.

Under the deal, Hezbollah was to pull back its fighters north of Lebanon’s Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure to its south.

Israel was to withdraw all its forces from Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five areas that it deems “strategic.”

Lebanon says it has respected its ceasefire commitments and has called on the international community to pressure Israel to end its attacks and withdraw all its troops.


Libya fighting calms after truce announced

Libya fighting calms after truce announced
Updated 32 min 5 sec ago
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Libya fighting calms after truce announced

Libya fighting calms after truce announced
  • “Regular forces, in coordination with the relevant security authorities, have begun taking the necessary measures to ensure calm,” the defense ministry said
  • UNSMIL said it was “deeply alarmed by the escalating violence in densely populated neighborhoods of Tripoli“

TRIPOLI: The worst fighting in Libya’s capital for years calmed on Wednesday an hour after the government announced a ceasefire, Tripoli residents said, with no immediate statement from authorities on how many people had been killed.

Clashes broke out late on Monday after the killing of a major militia leader. After calming on Tuesday morning, the fighting reignited overnight, with major battles rocking districts across the entire city.

“Regular forces, in coordination with the relevant security authorities, have begun taking the necessary measures to ensure calm, including the deployment of neutral units,” the government’s defense ministry said.

The ministry said the neutral units it was deploying around sensitive sites were from the police force, which does not carry heavy weapons.

The United Nations Libya mission UNSMIL said it was “deeply alarmed by the escalating violence in densely populated neighborhoods of Tripoli” and urgently called for a ceasefire.

Monday’s clashes had appeared to consolidate the power of Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah, prime minister of the divided country’s Government of National Unity (GNU) and an ally of Turkiye.

However, any prolonged fighting within Tripoli risks drawing in factions from outside the capital, potentially leading to a wider escalation between Libya’s many armed players after years of relative calm.

The main fighting on Wednesday was between the Dbeibah-aligned 444 Brigade and the Special Deterrence Force (Rada), the last major armed Tripoli faction not currently in his camp, the English-language Libyan Observer reported.

Fighting also erupted in western areas of Tripoli that have historically been a gateway for armed factions from Zawiya, a town to the west of the capital.

WEEKS OF GROWING TENSIONS
Tripoli residents trapped in their homes by the fighting voiced horror at the sudden eruption of violence, which had followed weeks of growing tensions among armed factions.

“It’s terrorizing to witness all this intense fighting. I had my family in one room to avoid random shelling,” said a father of three in the Dahra area by phone.

In the western suburb of Saraj, Mohanad Juma said fighting would pause for a few minutes before resuming. “Each time it stops we feel relieved. But then we lose hope again,” he said.

Libya has had little stability since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising ousted longtime autocrat Muammar Qaddafi and the country split in 2014 between rival eastern and western factions, though an outbreak of major warfare paused with a truce in 2020.

A major energy exporter, Libya is also an important way station for migrants heading to Europe and its conflict has drawn in several foreign powers including. Its main oil facilities are located in southern and eastern Libya, far from the current fighting in Tripoli.

While eastern Libya has been dominated for a decade by commander Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA), control in Tripoli and western Libya has been splintered among numerous armed factions.

Dbeibah on Tuesday ordered the dismantling of what he called irregular armed groups.

That announcement followed Monday’s killing of major militia chief Abdulghani Kikli, widely known as Ghaniwa, and the sudden defeat of his Stabilization Support Apparatus (SSA) group by factions aligned with Dbeibah.

The seizure of SSA territory in Libya by the Dbeibah-allied factions, the 444 and 111 Brigades, indicated a major concentration of power in the fragmented capital, leaving Rada as the last big faction not closely tied to the prime minister.


Strong earthquake hits close to Egypt

Strong earthquake hits close to Egypt
Updated 14 May 2025
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Strong earthquake hits close to Egypt

Strong earthquake hits close to Egypt

CAIRO: A strong earthquake was recorded 431 km off the coast of northern Egypt on Wednesday, according to the country’s National Institute for Astronomical and Geophysical Research.

The earthquake measured 6.4 on the Richter scale, at a depth of 76 km.

It was felt throughout the Mediterranean, with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency stating that tremors were experienced in the Dodecanese islands and eastern Crete.

There have been no reports of loss of lives or property damage.


Pope urges Middle East Christians not to abandon homelands

Pope urges Middle East Christians not to abandon homelands
Updated 14 May 2025
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Pope urges Middle East Christians not to abandon homelands

Pope urges Middle East Christians not to abandon homelands

VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday hailed Christian communities in the Middle East who “persevere and remain in their homelands, resisting the temptation to abandon them” despite war, marginalization or persecution.
“Christians must be given the opportunity, and not just in words, to remain in their native lands with all the rights needed for a secure existence. Please, let us strive for this!” he told a meeting of Eastern Catholic Churches at the Vatican.
The pope also offered on Wednesday to mediate between leaders of countries at war, saying that he himself “will make every effort so that this peace may prevail.”
“The Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face to face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve, the dignity of peace. The peoples of our world desire peace, and to their leaders I appeal with all my heart: Let us meet, let us talk, let us negotiate!” he told a meeting of Eastern Catholic Churches.

Pope Leo XIV, the first American to head the global Catholic Church, pledged to make "every effort" for peace and offered the Vatican as a mediator in global conflicts, saying war was "never inevitable".
Leo, who was elected last week to succeed the late Pope Francis, has made repeated calls for peace in the early days of his papacy. His first words to crowds in St Peter's Square were "Peace be with all you".
He returned to the issue while addressing members of the Eastern Catholic Churches, some of which are based in conflict-ridden places such as Ukraine, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq and often face persecution as religious minorities.
"The Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face-to-face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve, the dignity of peace," Leo said.
"War is never inevitable. Weapons can and must be silenced, for they do not resolve problems but only increase them. Those who make history are the peacemakers, not those who sow seeds of suffering," he added.
Pope Leo warned against the rise of simplistic narratives that divide the world into good and evil. "Our neighbours are not first our enemies, but fellow human beings," he said.
On Sunday, the pontiff called for an "authentic and lasting peace" in Ukraine, a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all Israeli hostages held by militant group Hamas, and welcomed the fragile ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
Leo spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday in his first known conversation with a foreign leader as pope. He offered to facilitate peace talks as world leaders come to his inauguration mass, the Ukrainian leader said.
Zelenskiy hopes to be present for the event in St Peter's Square on May 18 and is ready to hold meetings on the sidelines, the Ukrainian leader's chief of staff Andriy Yermak told Reuters on Tuesday.


Trump meets new Syria leader after lifting sanctions

Trump meets new Syria leader after lifting sanctions
Updated 40 min 52 sec ago
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Trump meets new Syria leader after lifting sanctions

Trump meets new Syria leader after lifting sanctions
  • Al-Sharaa was named president of Syria in January, a month after a stunning offensive by insurgent groups
  • Trump said he agreed to meet with Al-Sharaa after being encouraged to do so by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Donald Trump became the first US president in 25 years to meet a Syrian leader on Wednesday after he offered sanctions relief in hopes of offering a new path to the war-battered country.
Trump, in Riyadh on the first state visit of his second term, met with Ahmed Al-Sharaa, an erstwhile Islamist guerrilla turned interim president after the December of longtime strongman Bashar Assad.
The two held brief talks ahead of a larger gathering of Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia during Trump’s tour of the region, a White House official said.
No US president has met a Syrian leader since Bill Clinton saw Hafez Assad, Bashar’s father, in Geneva in 2000 in a failed effort to persuade him to make peace with Israel.
Trump announced on Tuesday that he was lifting “brutal and crippling” Assad-era sanctions on Syria in response to demands from Sharaa’s allies in Turkiye and Saudi Arabia — in his latest step out of tune with US ally Israel.
Trump said it was Syrians’ “time to shine” and that easing sanctions would “give them a chance at greatness.”
Syrians celebrated the news, with dozens of men, women and children gathering in Damascus’s Umayyad Square.
“My joy is great. This decision will definitely affect the entire country positively. Construction will return, the displaced will return, and prices will go down,” said Huda Qassar, a 33-year-old English-language teacher.
The Syrian foreign ministry called Trump’s decision a “pivotal turning point” that would help bring stability.
The United States imposed sweeping restrictions on financial transactions with Syria during the brutal civil war and made clear it would use sanctions to punish anyone involved in reconstruction so long as Assad remained in power without accountability for atrocities.
Trump gave no indication that the United States would remove Syria from its blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism — a designation dating back to 1979 over support to Palestinian militants that severely impedes investment.
Other Western powers including the European Union have already moved to lift sanctions but the United States had earlier held firm on conditions.
A senior envoy of the Joe Biden administration met Sharaa in Damascus in December and called for commitments, including on the protection of minorities.
In recent weeks, Syria has seen a series of bloody attacks on minority groups, including Alawites — the sect of the largely secular Assad family — and the Druze.
Israel has kept up a bombing campaign against Syria both before and after the fall of Assad, with Israel pessimistic about change under Sharaa and hoping to degrade the military capacity of its longtime adversary.
Rabha Seif Allam of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo said that the easing of US sanctions would allow Syria to reintegrate with the global economy, including by allowing bank transfers from investors and some of the millions of Syrians who fled during the civil war.
“Lifting sanctions will give Syria a real opportunity to receive the funding needed to revive the economy, impose central state authority and launch reconstruction projects with clear Gulf support,” she said.


Israel warns Yemenis to avoid ports after intercepting missile

Israel warns Yemenis to avoid ports after intercepting missile
Updated 14 May 2025
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Israel warns Yemenis to avoid ports after intercepting missile

Israel warns Yemenis to avoid ports after intercepting missile
  • A missile fired by the group struck the airport in early May, gouging a hole near its main terminal building and wounding several people
  • The Israeli military issued a warning on Sunday for Yemenis to leave three Houthi-controlled ports,

JERUSALEM: Israel’s army on Wednesday urged Yemenis to stay away from Houthi-held ports, in a likely warning of retaliation after it intercepted a missile fired by the Iran-backed rebels.
The Houthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians, have repeatedly targeted Israel and shipping in the Red Sea since the October 2023 start of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted,” said the Israeli military.
AFP correspondents in Jerusalem heard explosions, likely from the interception of the missile.
The Houthis, who control large swathes of the Arabian Peninsula country, claimed responsibility for launching the missile in what they said was their third attack on Israel in less than 24 hours.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said they targeted Ben Gurion International Airport, Israel’s main gateway near Tel Aviv, using what they called “a hypersonic ballistic missile.”
The Israeli military later warned Yemenis to stay away from three Houthi-held sea ports.
“Due to the use of sea ports by the terrorist Houthi regime... we urge all people present in these ports to evacuate and stay away from them for your safety until further notice,” military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X, mentioning the Yemeni ports of Hodeida, Ras Issa and Salif.


Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, speaking at a news conference in Tokyo, said the missile threat from Yemen was disrupting daily life.
“While we handle this press conference, there are sirens in Jerusalem and the center of Israel after missiles from the Houthis in Yemen,” he said.
“Millions of Israelis are now running for shelter, and it happens during the time that all the children go to schools or to kindergartens, and this is daily life under these attacks.”
On Tuesday, the Israeli military said it intercepted another missile with which the Houthis claimed they targeted Ben Gurion.
Last month, a missile fired by the Iran-backed group struck the grounds of the airport, gouging a hole near its main terminal building and wounding several people, in a rare penetration of Israel’s air defenses.
Israel retaliated against the Houthis by striking the airport in Yemen’s rebel-controlled capital Sanaa and three nearby power stations.
The Israeli military had issued a warning on Sunday for Yemenis to leave three Houthi-controlled ports, but no strikes have been reported since.
The Houthis paused their attacks during a recent two-month ceasefire in the Gaza war, but in March threatened to renew them over Israel’s aid blockade on Gaza.
US President Donald Trump, currently in Saudi Arabia on the first leg of a tour of the Gulf, last week announced the Houthis had agreed to halt attacks on shipping.
The United States began carrying out strikes against the Houthis in early 2024 under president Joe Biden, and Trump’s administration launched renewed attacks on the rebels in March.
The Pentagon said on April 30 that US strikes had hit more than 1,000 targets in Yemen since mid-March in an operation dubbed “Rough Rider.”