airstrike - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

Russia, Germany, UK urge restraint as Iranian threat puts Middle East on edge

RUSSIA, Germany and Britain urged countries in the Middle East to show restraint and Israel said it was preparing to "meet all its security needs" in a region on edge over an Iranian threat to strike Israel. The German airline Lufthansa, one of only two Western carriers flying to Tehran, extended a suspension of its flights to the Iranian capital and Russia warned against travel to the Middle East. Iran has vowed revenge for the April 1 airstrike on its embassy compound in Damascus that killed a top Iranian general and six other Iranian military officers, ratcheting up tension in a region already…

Apr

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Israel says airstrike unintentionally killed aid workers in Gaza, allies demand explanations

WORLD

PRIME Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel mistakenly killed seven people working for the aid charity World Central Kitchen in a Gaza airstrike, and the U.S. and other allies called for explanations amid widespread condemnation. Israel's military voiced "sincere sorrow" over the incident, which ratcheted up international pressure for steps to ease the disastrous humanitarian situation in Gaza nearly six months into Israel's siege and invasion of the Palestinian enclave. The strike on the World Central Kitchen convoy killed citizens of Australia, Britain and Poland as well as Palestinians and a dual citizen of the United States and Canada. WCK, which…

Oct

2023

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Gazans bombarded by Israel have no hope and no escape

WORLD

MOST of the 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip have no electricity and no water. And, with hundreds of Israeli strikes raining down on their tiny enclave, they have nowhere to run. The Palestinian territory, one of the most crowded places on Earth, has been under siege since Saturday in a near-constant bombardment that Gazan health officials say has killed more than 1,000 people. The blitz is retaliation for a devastating attack on Israel by Gaza's ruling group Hamas which the Israeli military says killed more than 1,200 people. Gaza's sole power station, which had been working intermittently for…

Jul

2023

By The African Mirror

Airstrike on Sudan’s Omdurman kills 22, health ministry says

NEWS

AT least 22 people were killed and scores injured in an air strike by Sudan's army on western Omdurman, the Khartoum state health ministry said, as the war between the country's military factions entered its 12th week. While the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) quickly dominated the capital Khartoum and its sister cities Omdurman and Bahri after fighting broke out on April 15, the army launched air and artillery strikes. The fighting, for which no mediation efforts have succeeded thus far, threatens to drag the country into a wider civil war, drawing in other internal and external actors in the…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

U.S. military carries out air strike in Somalia

WORLD

THE United States yesterday carried out an air strike against al Shabaab militants in Somalia, the first strike in the country since President Joe Biden came into office. Al Qaeda-linked insurgent group al Shabaab is seeking to topple the government and establish its own rule in Somalia based on its own strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law. In a statement, the Pentagon said the strike took place near Galkayo, Somalia. While the United States has frequently carried out air strikes in Somalia against al Shabaab, this was the first since Jan. 20 when Biden took office. The group's campaign of…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

At least one fighter killed in U.S. air strikes on Iran-backed militias in Syria

WORLD

JOHN DAVISON and MAHA EL DAHAN SYRIA yesterday condemned U.S. air strikes against Iran-backed militias in the east of the country as a cowardly act and urged President Joe Biden not to follow "the law of the jungle". An Iraqi militia official close to Iran said the strikes killed one fighter and wounded four, but U.S. officials said they were limited in scope to show Biden's administration will act firmly while trying to avoid a big regional escalation. Washington and Tehran are seeking maximum leverage in attempts to return to the Iran nuclear deal reached in 2015 but abandoned by…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

U.S. military defends air strikes as Taliban warns of ‘consequences’

WORLD

THE U.S. military has defended its air strikes against Taliban fighters as the insurgent group accused Washington of violating their signed agreement and warned of consequences if such actions continued. The Taliban launched a major offensive in the southern province of Helmand in a bid to take the provincial capital, prompting U.S. air strikes in support of Afghan security forces, which were being overrun. "American forces have violated the Doha agreement in various forms by carrying out excessive air strikes following the new developments in Helmand province," Taliban spokesman Qari Muhammad Yousuf Ahmadi said in a statement on Sunday. The…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Gaza rockets, Israeli air strikes accompany Israel-Gulf pacts

WORLD

MILITANTS in Gaza launched rockets into Israel and Israeli aircraft hit targets in the Palestinian enclave in an explosive backdrop to the signing of pacts for formal ties between Israel and two Gulf Arab countries. The Israeli military said it launched about 10 air strikes in Hamas Islamist-run Gaza early on Wednesday and that 15 rockets had been fired from the territory at Israeli communities near the border, where sirens sounded before dawn. On Tuesday, a rocket from Gaza struck the coastal Israeli city of Ashdod, wounding two people, at the same time as Israel and the United Arab Emirates…