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12 killed in blast at plant in northwest Turkiye

12 killed in blast at plant in northwest Turkiye
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Updated 1 min 2 sec ago
AFP
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12 killed in blast at plant in northwest Turkiye

12 killed in blast at plant in northwest Turkiye
Updated 1 min 2 sec ago
AFP
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Istanbul: A powerful blast on Tuesday ripped through an explosives plant in northwest Turkiye killing 12 people and injuring three others, the local governor said.
“According to preliminary information, 12 people died in the explosion” in the Karesi district of Balikesir, Ismail Ustaoglu told the private NTV broadcaster.
Footage showed shards of glass and metal scattered outside the plant.
The blast took place at 8:25 am (0525 GMT) at a section of the plant, the governor said, adding that that part of the building collapsed.
Prosecutors have launched an investigation.

Topics: Turkiye

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UN investigative team says Syria’s new authorities ‘very receptive’ to probe of Assad war crimes

UN investigative team says Syria’s new authorities ‘very receptive’ to probe of Assad war crimes
Updated 24 December 2024
AP
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UN investigative team says Syria’s new authorities ‘very receptive’ to probe of Assad war crimes

UN investigative team says Syria’s new authorities ‘very receptive’ to probe of Assad war crimes
  • International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria, was the first since the organization was established by the UN General Assembly in 2016
Updated 24 December 2024
AP

UNITED NATIONS: The UN organization assisting in investigating the most serious crimes in Syria said Monday the country’s new authorities were “very receptive” to its request for cooperation during a just-concluded visit to Damascus, and it is preparing to deploy.
The visit led by Robert Petit, head of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria, was the first since the organization was established by the UN General Assembly in 2016. It was created to assist in evidence-gathering and prosecution of individuals responsible for possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide since Syria’s civil war began in 2011.
Petit highlighted the urgency of preserving documents and other evidence before it is lost.
Since the rebel overthrow of Syria’s President Bashar Assad and the rebel opening of prisons and detention facilities there have been rising demands from Syrians for the prosecution of those responsible for atrocities and killings while he was in power.
“The fall of the Assad rule is a significant opportunity for us to fulfill our mandate on the ground,” Petit said. “Time is running out. There is a small window of opportunity to secure these sites and the material they hold.”
UN associate spokesperson Stephane Tremblay said Monday the investigative team “is preparing for an operational deployment as early as possible and as soon as it is authorized to conduct activities on Syrian soil.”
The spokesperson for the organization, known as the IIIM, who was on the trip with Petit, went further, telling The Associated Press: “We are preparing to deploy on the expectation that we will get authorization.”
“The representatives from the caretaker authorities were very receptive to our request for cooperation and are aware of the scale of the task ahead,” the spokesperson said, speaking on condition of not being named. “They emphasized that they will need expertise to help safeguard the newly accessible documentation.”
The IIIM did not disclose which officials in the new government it met with or the site that Petit visited afterward.
“Even at one facility,” Petit said, “the mountains of government documentation reveal the chilling efficiency of systemizing the regime’s atrocity crimes.”
He said that a collective effort by Syrians, civil society organizations and international partners will be needed, as a priority, ” to preserve evidence of the crimes committed, avoid duplication, and ensure that all victims are inclusively represented in the pursuit of justice.”
In June 2023, the 193-member General Assembly also established an Independent Institution of Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic to clarify the fate and whereabouts of more than 130,000 people missing as a result of the conflict.

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria UN

US military says it conducts airstrike in Syria, killing two Daesh operatives

US military says it conducts airstrike in Syria, killing two Daesh operatives
Updated 24 December 2024
Reuters
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US military says it conducts airstrike in Syria, killing two Daesh operatives

US military says it conducts airstrike in Syria, killing two Daesh operatives
  • The Daesh operatives were moving a truckload of weapons in Dayr az Zawr Province
Updated 24 December 2024
Reuters

WASHINGTON: The US military said on Monday it conducted an airstrike in Syria that killed two Islamic State operatives and wounded one.
The Daesh operatives were moving a truckload of weapons in Dayr az Zawr Province, an area formerly controlled by the Syrian government and Russians, when they were targeted with the airstrike, US Central Command said in a statement on social media platform X.

Topics: Syria US Daesh

Defense minister acknowledges Israel killed Hamas leader in Iran

Defense minister acknowledges Israel killed Hamas leader in Iran
Updated 24 December 2024
AP
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Defense minister acknowledges Israel killed Hamas leader in Iran

Defense minister acknowledges Israel killed Hamas leader in Iran
  • Minister’s comments mark first time Israel has admitted killing Ismail Haniyeh in Iran 
  • Admits Israel killed other leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, helped topple Syria’s Bashar Assad
Updated 24 December 2024
AP

JERUSALEM: Israel’s defense minister has confirmed that Israel assassinated Hamas’ top leader last summer and is threatening to take similar action against the leadership of the Houthi group in Yemen.

The comments by Israel Katz appeared to mark the first time that Israel has admitted killing Ismail Haniyeh, who died in an explosion in Iran in July.

Israel was widely believed to be behind the blast, and leaders have previously hinted at its involvement.

In a speech Monday, Katz said the Houthis would meet a similar fate as the other members of an Iranian-led alliance in the region, including Haniyeh.

He also noted that Israel has killed other leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, helped topple Syria’s Bashar Assad, and destroyed Iran’s anti-aircraft systems.

“We will strike (the Houthis’) strategic infrastructure and cut off the head of the leadership,” he said.

“Just like we did to Haniyeh, Sinwar, and Nasrallah in Tehran, Gaza, and Lebanon, we will do in Hodeida and Sanaa,” he said, referring to Hamas and Hezbollah leaders killed in previous Israeli attacks.

The Iranian-backed Houthis have launched scores of missiles and drones at Israel throughout the war, including a missile that landed in Tel Aviv on Saturday and wounded at least 16 people.

Israel has carried out three sets of airstrikes in Yemen during the war and vowed to step up the pressure on the militant group until the missile attacks stop.

Topics: Hamas Iran Israel Arab News Pakistan

Israel says intercepted projectile fired from Yemen

Israel says intercepted projectile fired from Yemen
Updated 24 December 2024
AFP
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Israel says intercepted projectile fired from Yemen

Israel says intercepted projectile fired from Yemen
  • “Rocket and missile sirens were sounded following the possibility of falling shrapnel from the interception”
Updated 24 December 2024
AFP

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said Tuesday it had intercepted a projectile fired from Yemen after air raid sirens sounded in the center and south of Israel.
“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago, a projectile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” the Israeli army said on Telegram.
“Rocket and missile sirens were sounded following the possibility of falling shrapnel from the interception.”
Israel’s emergency medical service, Magen David Adom, reported no injuries from the projectile.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday warned the Iran-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen, who last week fired two missiles at Israel, including one that injured 16 people in the commercial hub of Tel Aviv on Saturday.
“I have instructed our forces to destroy the infrastructure of Houthis, because anyone who tries to harm us will be struck with full force,” he told lawmakers, “even if it takes time.”
Israeli warplanes retaliated against ports and energy infrastructure, which the military said contributed to Houthi rebel operations, after a rebel missile badly damaged an Israeli school last week.
The Houthis said the Israeli strikes killed nine people.
 

 

Topics: War on Gaza Palestine Gaza US Yemen Houthis

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Sudan drops out of hunger-monitor system on eve of famine report

Children ride in a small canoe around the area where they live in Jonglei state, South Sudan, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP)
Children ride in a small canoe around the area where they live in Jonglei state, South Sudan, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP)
Updated 24 December 2024
Reuters
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Sudan drops out of hunger-monitor system on eve of famine report

Children ride in a small canoe around the area where they live in Jonglei state, South Sudan, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP)
  • Sudan’s withdrawal from the IPC system could undermine humanitarian efforts to help millions of Sudanese suffering from extreme hunger, said the leader of a non-governmental organization operating there, speaking on condition of anonymity
Updated 24 December 2024
Reuters

KHARTOUM: The Sudanese government has suspended its participation in the global hunger-monitoring system on the eve of a report that’s expected to show famine spreading across the country, a step likely to undercut efforts to address one of the world’s largest hunger crises.
In a letter dated Dec. 23, the government’s agriculture minister said the government is halting its participation in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system. The letter accused the IPC of “issuing unreliable reports that undermine Sudan’s sovereignty and dignity.”
On Tuesday, the IPC is expected to publish a report finding that famine has spread to five areas in Sudan and could expand to 10 by May, according to a briefing document seen by Reuters. “This marks an unprecedented deepening and widening of the food and nutrition crisis, driven by the devastating conflict and poor humanitarian access,” the document stated.
A spokesperson for the Rome-based IPC declined to comment.
Sudan’s withdrawal from the IPC system could undermine humanitarian efforts to help millions of Sudanese suffering from extreme hunger, said the leader of a non-governmental organization operating there, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Withdrawal from the IPC system won’t change the reality of hunger on the ground,” the NGO source said. “But it does deprive the international community of its compass to navigate Sudan’s hunger crisis. Without independent analysis, we’re flying blind into this storm of food insecurity.”
A diplomat with Sudan’s mission to the United Nations in New York didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the move to cut off the IPC.
The IPC is an independent body funded by Western nations and overseen by 19 large humanitarian organizations and intergovernmental institutions. A linchpin in the world’s vast system for monitoring and alleviating hunger, it is designed to sound the alarm about developing food crises so organizations can respond and prevent famine and mass starvation.
IPC analysts typically partner with national governments to analyze data related to food insecurity and to report on conditions within a country’s borders. The government has headed the IPC’s analysis group in Sudan. But the system has increasingly struggled to function since civil war erupted in April 2023.
The fighting between the army-backed government and its foe, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary, has disrupted data collection in areas held by both sides.
A recent Reuters investigation found that the Sudanese government obstructed the IPC’s work earlier this year, delaying by months a famine determination for the sprawling Zamzam camp for internally displaced people where some have resorted to eating tree leaves to survive.
Monday’s letter was addressed to the IPC and it s Famine Review Committee, which vets and verifies a famine finding, as well as to diplomats. It says the forthcoming IPC report lacks updated malnutrition data and assessments of crop productivity during the recent summer rainy season.
The growing season was successful, the letter says.
It also notes “serious concerns” about the IPC’s ability to collect data from territories controlled by the RSF.
The IPC’s struggles go beyond Sudan. In a series of reports this year, Reuters has reported that authorities in Myanmar and Yemen have also tried to thwart the global hunger-monitoring process by blocking or falsifying the flow of data to the IPC or suppressing its findings.
In Myanmar, the IPC recently scrubbed from its website its assessment on hunger there, fearing for the safety of researchers. Reuters recently reported that representatives of the country’s ruling military junta have warned aid workers against releasing data and analysis showing that millions in Myanmar are experiencing serious hunger.
In Ethiopia, the government disliked an IPC finding in 2021 that 350,000 people were experiencing catastrophic acute food insecurity – so it stopped working with the IPC.
Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University’s Fletcher School, called Sudan’s move to stop cooperating with the IPC “both pathetic and tragic.”
“It’s part of a long history of the government of Sudan denying famine going back more than 40 years,” said de Waal, a leading specialist on famine. “Whenever there’s a famine in Sudan, they consider it an affront to their sovereignty, and they’re more concerned about their pride and their control than they are over the lives of their citizens.”

 

Topics: Sudan conflict Sudan rapid support forces (RSF)

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