Mass drone attack hits several Kyiv districts, up to nine injured
Mass drone attack hits several Kyiv districts, up to nine injured
A mass drone attack struck several districts of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Tuesday, damaging an apartment building and injuring up to nine people, city officials said.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a strike had damaged the top floor of an apartment block as well as non-residential areas in the Solomianskyi district near the centre of the capital. He said nine people were injured, including four receiving treatment in hospital.
Rescue teams were also headed for sites of strikes in three other districts and air defence units were in operation.
"A large group of enemy drones is still headed for the city centre," Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city's military administration, said fallen drone fragments had hit two sites and triggered a fire in the Darnitskyi district on the eastern edge of the capital. He put the number of injured at five. REUTERS
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Straits Times
11 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Trump's Iran choice: Last-chance diplomacy or a bunker-busting bomb
If US President Donald Trump decides to go ahead, the US will become a direct participant in a new conflict, taking on Iran. PHOTO: REUTERS WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is weighing a critical decision in the four-day-old war between Israel and Iran: whether to enter the fray by helping Israel destroy the deeply buried nuclear enrichment facility at Fordo, which only US 'bunker busters,' dropped by US B-2 bombers, can reach. If he decides to go ahead, the United States will become a direct participant in a new conflict in the Middle East, taking on Iran in exactly the kind of war Mr Trump has sworn, in two campaigns, he would avoid. Iranian officials have warned that US participation in an attack on its facilities will imperil any remaining chance of the nuclear disarmament deal that Mr Trump insists he is still interested in pursuing. Mr Trump has encouraged Vice-President JD Vance and his Middle East envoy, Mr Steve Witkoff, to offer to meet the Iranians this week, according to a US official. The offer may be well received. Mr Trump, at the Group of 7 (G-7) summit in Canada, said late on June 16 , 'I think Iran basically is at the negotiating table, they want to make a deal.' If such a meeting happened, officials say, the likely Iranian interlocutor would be the country's foreign minister, Mr Abbas Araghchi, who played a key role in the 2015 nuclear deal with the Obama administration and knows every element of Iran's sprawling nuclear complex. Mr Araghchi, who has been Mr Witkoff's counterpart in recent negotiations, signalled his openness to a deal on June 16 , saying in a statement, 'If President Trump is genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential.' 'It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu,' he said, referring to the Israeli prime minister. 'That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy.' But if that diplomatic effort fizzles, or the Iranians remain unwilling to give in to Mr Trump's central demand that they must ultimately end all uranium enrichment on Iranian soil, the president will still have the option of ordering that Fordo and other nuclear facilities be destroyed. There is only one weapon for the job, experts contend. It is called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or the GBU-57, and it weighs so much – 30,000 pounds – that it can be lifted only by a B-2 bomber. Israel does not own either the weapon or the bomber needed to get it aloft and over a target. If Mr Trump holds back, it could well mean that Israel's main objective in the war is never completed. 'Fordo has always been the crux of this thing,' said Mr Brett McGurk, who worked on Middle East issues for four successive US presidents, from Mr George W. Bush to Mr Joe Biden. 'If this ends with Fordo still enriching, then it's not a strategic gain.' That has been true for a long time, and over the past two years the US military has refined the operation, under close White House scrutiny. The exercises led to the conclusion that one bomb would not solve the problem; any attack on Fordo would have to come in waves, with B-2s releasing one bomb after another down the same hole. And the operation would have to be executed by an American pilot and crew. This was all in the world of war planning until the opening salvos on the morning of June 13 in Tehran, Iran's capital, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the strikes, declaring that Israel had discovered an 'imminent' threat that required 'preemptive action'. New intelligence, he suggested without describing the details, indicated that Iran was on the cusp of turning its fuel stockpile into weapons. US intelligence officials who have followed the Iranian program for years agree that Iranian scientists and nuclear specialists have been working to shorten the time it would take to manufacture a nuclear bomb, but they saw no huge breakthroughs. Yet they agree with Mr McGurk and other experts on one point: If the Fordo facility survives the conflict, Iran will retain the key equipment it needs to stay on a pathway to the bomb, even if it would first have to rebuild much of the nuclear infrastructure that Israel has left in ruins over four days of precision bombing. There may be other alternatives to bombing it, though they are hardly a sure thing. If the power to Fordo gets cut, by saboteurs or bombing, it could damage or destroy the centrifuges that spin at supersonic speeds. Mr Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on J une 1 6 that this might have happened at the country's other major uranium enrichment center, Natanz. Israel took out the power supplies to the plant on June 13, and Mr Grossi said that the disruption probably sent them spinning out of control. Mr Trump rarely talks about Fordo by name, but he has occasionally alluded to the GBU-57, sometimes telling aides that he ordered its development. That is not correct: The United States began designing the weapon in 2004, during the Bush administration, specifically to collapse the mountains protecting some of the deepest nuclear facilities in Iran and North Korea. It was, however, tested during Mr Trump's first term, and added to the arsenal. Mr Netanyahu has pressed for the United States to make its bunker busters available since the Bush administration, so far to no avail. But people who have spoken to Mr Trump in recent months say the topic has come up repeatedly in his conversations with the prime minister. When Mr Trump has been asked about it, he usually avoids a direct answer. Now the pressure is on. Former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who resigned in a split with Mr Netanyahu, told CNN's Bianna Golodryga on June 16 that 'the job has to be done, by Israel, by the United States,' an apparent reference to the fact that the bomb would have to be dropped by an American pilot in a US airplane. He said that Mr Trump had 'the option to change the Middle East and influence the world'. And Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who often speaks for the traditional, hawkish members of his party, said on CBS on Ju ne 15 that 'if diplomacy is not successful' he will 'urge President Trump to go all in to make sure that, when this operation is over, there's nothing left standing in Iran regarding their nuclear programme'. 'If that means providing bombs, provide bombs,' he said, adding, in a clear reference to the Massive Ordinance Penetrator, 'whatever bombs. If it means flying with Israel, fly with Israel'. But Republicans are hardly united in that view. And the split in the party over the decision of whether to make use of one of the Pentagon's most powerful conventional weapons to help one of America's closest allies has highlighted a far deeper divide. It is not only about crippling the centrifuges of Fordo; it is also about MAGA's view of what kinds of wars the United States should avoid at all costs. The anti-interventionist wing of the party, given its most prominent voice by influential podcaster Tucker Carlson, has argued that the lesson of Iraq and Afghanistan is that there is nothing but downside risk in getting deeply into another Middle East war. On J une 1 3, Mr Carlson wrote that the United States should 'drop Israel' and 'let them fight their own wars.' 'If Israel wants to wage this war, it has every right to do so,' he continued. 'It is a sovereign country, and it can do as it pleases. But not with America's backing.' At the Pentagon, opinion is divided for other reasons. Mr Elbridge A. Colby, the under-secretary of defense for policy, the Pentagon's No. 3 post, has long argued that every military asset devoted to the wars of the Middle East is one diverted from the Pacific and the containment of China. (Mr Colby had to amend his views on Iran somewhat to get confirmed.) For now, Mr Trump can afford to keep one foot in both camps. By making one more run at coercive diplomacy, he can make the case to the MAGA faithful that he is using the threat of the Massive Ordnance Penetrator to bring the conflict to a peaceful end. And he can tell the Iranians that they are going to cease enriching uranium one way or the other, either by diplomatic agreement or because a GBU-57 imploded the mountain. But if the combination of persuasion and coercion fails, he will have to decide whether this is Israel's war or America's. NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
AsiaOne
32 minutes ago
- AsiaOne
US official says Trump not signing G7 statement on Israel-Iran de-escalation, World News
CALGARY, Alberta — A US official said on Monday (June 16) that President Donald Trump would not sign a draft statement from Group of Seven leaders calling for de-escalation of the Israel-Iran conflict. The draft statement, seen by Reuters, also commits to safeguarding market stability, including energy markets, says Iran must never have a nuclear weapon, and that Israel has the right to defend itself. Canadian and European diplomats said G7 attendees are continuing discussions on the conflict at the summit in Canada, which ends on Tuesday. [[nid:719159]]
AsiaOne
an hour ago
- AsiaOne
Iranian state broadcaster hit as Iran urges Trump to make Israel halt war, World News
TEL AVIV/DUBAI — An Israeli strike hit Iran's state broadcaster on Monday (June 16) while the head of the UN nuclear watchdog indicated extensive damage to Iran's biggest uranium enrichment plant and Iran called on the US to force a ceasefire in the aerial war. Late on Monday, Israel said it hit Iran's broadcasting authority, and footage showed a newsreader hurrying from her seat as a blast struck. Israel's military said the building also served as a communications centre used by Iran's armed forces. The conflict entered its fifth day on Tuesday, with air raid sirens sounding in Tel Aviv shortly after midnight as Iran launched additional missiles toward Israel. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told four European counterparts that Iran was serious about diplomacy but its current focus was on confronting aggression, Iranian state media reported. Israel has said its goal is to eliminate Tehran's ability to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran says more than 224 Iranians have been killed, most of them civilians. Israel says 24 people have been killed, all of them civilians. Sources told Reuters that Tehran had asked Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to press US President Donald Trump to use his influence on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to push for an immediate ceasefire. In return, Iran would show flexibility in nuclear negotiations, said the two Iranian and three regional sources. "If President Trump is genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential," Araqchi said on X. "Israel must halt its aggression, and absent a total cessation of military aggression against us, our responses will continue. It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu." Asked if he would agree to talks should Trump want that, Netanyahu told reporters that Israel was committed to removing the threats of both nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. "If this can be achieved in another way — fine. But we gave it a 60-day chance," Netanyahu said. Speaking to Reuters on Friday, the first day of Israel's assault, Trump said he had given the Iranians 60 days to come to an agreement to halt uranium enrichment and that the time had expired with no deal. Talks between the United States and Iran, hosted by Oman, had been scheduled for Sunday but were scrapped, with Tehran saying it could not negotiate while under attack. Iranian media said Iran was preparing for the "largest and most intense missile attack" yet against Israel, including against military and intelligence targets. Natanz damage Israel launched its air war with a surprise attack that killed nearly the entire top echelon of Iran's military commanders and its leading nuclear scientists. It says it now has control of Iranian airspace and intends to escalate the campaign in coming days. Israel said it hit Iranian F-14 fighter planes at Tehran airport on Monday, and its airstrikes have also put at least two of Iran's three operating uranium enrichment plants out of action. Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the BBC on Monday it was very likely all the roughly 15,000 centrifuges operating at Iran's biggest uranium enrichment plant at Natanz were badly damaged or destroyed because of a power cut caused by an Israeli strike. There had been very limited or no damage at the separate Fordow plant, he said. Tehran for the first time in decades of shadow war and proxy conflict fired missiles from Iran that pierced Israeli defences in significant numbers and killed Israelis in their homes. Round-the-clock television images showed Israeli rescuers working in ruins of flattened homes. Almost 3,000 people have been evacuated from their homes since Iranian strikes began, leaving 24 buildings slated for demolition, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told reporters. Iranian state TV broadcast scenes of collapsed presidential buildings, burned-out cars, and shattered streets in Tehran. Many residents were trying to flee the capital, describing queues for petrol and bank machines that were out of cash. "I am desperate. My two children are scared and cannot sleep at night because of the sound of air defence and attacks, explosions. But we have nowhere to go. We hid under our dining table," Gholamreza Mohammadi, 48, a civil servant, told Reuters by phone from Tehran. Trump has consistently said the Israeli assault could end quickly if Iran agrees to US demands that it accept strict curbs to its nuclear programme. "As I've been saying, I think a deal will be signed, or something will happen, but a deal will be signed, and I think Iran is foolish not to sign," Trump told reporters on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada. "I think Iran is basically at the negotiating table," he said without elaborating. On Monday, Iranian lawmakers floated the idea of quitting the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, a move bound to be seen as a setback for any negotiations. Iran has always said its nuclear programme is peaceful, although the IAEA declared last week that Tehran was in violation of its obligations. 'Paying the price' Before dawn on Monday, Iranian missiles struck Tel Aviv and Haifa, killing at least eight people and destroying homes. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the latest attack employed a new method that caused Israel's multi-layered defence systems to target each other so missiles could get through. Israel's Haifa-based Bazan energy group said its power station had been significantly damaged in an attack that killed three employees and forced its refinery facilities to shut down. Oil prices slipped US$1 (S$1.28) per barrel on Monday in volatile trading after reports that Iran is seeking an end to hostilities, raising the possibility of a truce and easing fears of a disruption to regional crude supplies. The sudden killing of so many Iranian military commanders and the apparent loss of control of airspace could prove to be the biggest test of Iran's system of clerical rule since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. [[nid:719150]]
