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Conflict killed at least 43 people and forced more than 300,000 to flee their homes

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Kuwait Times
2 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Zionists strike Houthi energy site in Yemen
SANAA: A man inspects the damage at the site of a Zionist airstrike that targeted the Haziz power station south of the capital on Aug 17, 2025. - AFP SANAA: The Zionist entity said Sunday it targeted an energy infrastructure site in Yemen's capital Sanaa, linked to the Houthi rebels behind repeated attacks on the Zionist entity during the Gaza war. A military statement said Zionist forces 'struck... deep inside Yemen, targeting an energy infrastructure site that served the Houthi terrorist regime' in the area of the rebel-held capital, without naming the site. The Houthis' Al-Masirah TV, citing a civil defense source, reported 'an aggression targeting the Haziz power station' south of the city. There were no immediate reports of casualties. A photographer working with AFP reported significant damage at the site. An employee of the power station told AFP that 'two aggressive strikes by the (Zionist) enemy' hit the site in the early morning, but there were no casualties. Since the Oct 2023 start of the Zionist war in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis have repeatedly fired missiles and drones at the Zionist entity in solidarity with the Palestinians, prompting Zionist air strikes on rebel targets in Yemen. The military said its latest 'strikes were conducted in response to repeated attacks' by the Houthis. On Sunday afternoon, the Zionist military said it intercepted another missile fired from Yemen, after sirens went off in several regions. Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree later claimed the attack for the group, saying they had targeted Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport with a ballistic missile. Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X that the Houthis would 'pay with compound interest for every attempt to fire at (the Zionist entity)' and that the Zionist entity was 'imposing an air and sea blockade' on the group. In June, Katz threatened a blockade, without any notable follow up. Beyond attacks on the Zionist entity, the Houthis have also targeted ships they say are Zionist-linked in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden off Yemen. The Iran-backed group broadened its campaign to target ships tied to the United States and Britain after the two countries began military strikes aimed at securing the waterway in January 2024. In May, the rebels cemented a ceasefire with the United States that ended weeks of intense US strikes, but vowed to continue targeting Zionist ships. – AFP

Kuwait Times
2 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Iraq starts work on IS mass grave
MOSUL: Workers dig out human remains at the Khasfa mass grave site near this northern Iraqi city on Aug 17, 2025. - AFP BAGHDAD: Iraqi authorities have begun excavating the site of a mass grave believed to contain thousands of victims of the Islamic State (IS) group near Mosul city, the project's director told AFP on Sunday. The first phase, which was launched on Aug 10, includes surface-level excavation at the Khasfa site, director Ahmed Al-Assadi said. An AFP correspondent visiting the site in northern Iraq on Sunday said the team unearthed human skulls buried in the sand. Khasfa is located near Mosul, where IS had established the capital of their self-declared 'caliphate' before being defeated in Iraq in late 2017. Assadi said that there were no precise figures for the numbers of victims buried there — one of dozens of mass graves IS left behind in Iraq — but a UN report from 2018 said Khasfa was likely the country's largest. Official estimates put the number of bodies buried at the site at at least 4,000, with the possibility of thousands more. The project director said the victims buried there include 'soldiers executed by IS', members of the Yazidi minority and residents of Mosul. Exhuming the bodies from Khasfa is particularly difficult, Assadi said, as underground sulphur water makes the earth very porous. The water may have also eroded the human remains, complicating DNA identification of victims, he added. Assadi said further studies will be required before his team can dig deeper and exhume bodies at the site — a sinkhole about 150-m deep and 110-m wide. Iraqi authorities said it was the site of 'one of the worst massacres' committed by IS militants, executing 280 in a single day in 2016, many of them interior ministry employees. In a lightning advance that began in 2014, IS had seized large swathes Iraq and neighboring Syria, enforcing a strict interpretation of Islamic law and committing widespread abuses. The United Nations estimates the militants left behind more than 200 mass graves which might contain as many as 12,000 bodies. In addition to IS-era mass graves, Iraqi authorities continue to unearth such sites dating to the rule of Saddam Hussein, who was toppled in a US-led invasion in 2003. – AFP

Kuwait Times
3 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Japan's grand tea master Sen Genshitsu dies at 102
This file photo taken on April 15, 2013 shows Myanmar's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi receiving a bowl of green tea from Japanese tea master Genshitsu Sen at a tea ceremony in Kyoto, western Japan. --AFP photos Sen Genshitsu, a would-be kamikaze pilot who became a Japanese tea ceremony master preparing cups of matcha for world leaders and monarchs, died aged 102 on Thursday, reports said. With a motto of 'peacefulness through a bowl of tea', Kyoto-born Sen used ancient 'Urasenke' tea tradition rituals to spotlight his anti-war messages. The United Nations headquarters in New York and the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii -- the scene of a devastating Japanese attack that brought the US into World War II -- were among the locations for his ceremonies. His death was reported by major Japanese media, including the national broadcaster NHK and the top-selling newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun. AFP could not immediately reach the Urasenke school for comment. Born in 1923, Sen went through training as a young man to become a kamikaze pilot in World War II, but the fighting ended before he had to carry out a suicidal mission. This photo taken on April 9, 2013 shows Sen Genshitsu, former head of the "Urasenke" school of tea ceremony, performing a tea offering during a visit to the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. He later told how he used to serve tea to his fellow soldiers during military training. In a 2023 interview with NHK, Sen stressed the calming effects of tea culture. 'A bowl of tea makes spirits very peaceful. When everyone is peaceful, there will be no war,' he said. An ordained Zen monk, Sen became the 15th-generation grand master of the Urasenke school in 1964 following the death of his father who had previously headed the tradition. He offered tea to monarchs and presidents including Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and counted the former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and former Chinese president Hu Jintao as friends. He said that his wartime experience had helped shape his views on the importance of peace. In 1997, he received the Order of Culture in Japan and in 2020, he was given the Legion of Honour, France's most prestigious order of merit. He retired in 2002 as the head of the tea school, passing it to his son, but he remained active up until his death. Even after he turned 102 in April, he held more than 100 cultural and government advisory positions and gave speeches, including some lasting more than an hour, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. He also worked as a goodwill ambassador for the UN cultural and education agency, UNESCO. He was known as 'Flying Grand Master' for his busy travel schedules. — AFP