Extremist rebels capture remote but key town in central Somalia
Mahaas, in the central region of Hiraan, is located about 350 kilometers (220 miles) north of the federal capital, Mogadishu. The town is a key government outpost and a critical center in the fight against al-Shabab, which for years has been fighting to overthrow the federal government and impose Islamic law.
The rebels entered the town after federal and local forces withdrew, according to residents and local officials.
'There were multiple suicide blasts just outside the town early this morning, and heavy gunfire followed," said Ahmed Abdulle, an elder in Mahaas, speaking to local media.
Government troops and allied militias, known as Ma'awisley, pulled back shortly before al-Shabab fighters entered the town, he said.
Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack on Mahaas through its affiliated media channels, saying it was now in control there.
There was no firm word on casualties, but a provincial representative of the National Intelligence and Security Agency was among the victims, Isse Abdi Wayel, the district commissioner of Mahaas, told reporters. The federal government has yet to release an official statement.
The capture of Mahaas underscores the resilience of al-Shabab, which faces a renewed offensive from federal troops and others. The U.S. routinely carries out airstrikes targeting al-Shabab, and African Union troops back up government troops in different parts of the Horn of Africa nation.
Still, al-Shabab has been losing ground in recent months, facing a campaign of 'total war' declared by authorities. Somali forces have recaptured several towns and villages in remote areas over the past year.
Mahaas had been under government control for more than a decade and served as a so-called forward operating base in offensives targeting al-Shabab strongholds in parts of Hiraan and neighboring Galgaduud.
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The Hill
27 minutes ago
- The Hill
A settler allegedly killed a Palestinian, and there's video. Israel released him to house arrest
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A radical Israeli settler accused of shooting and killing a Palestinian activist during a confrontation with unarmed Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and who was filmed firing a pistol during the incident, was released under house arrest on Tuesday. Witnesses say Yinon Levi, who was previously under U.S. sanctions that were lifted by the Trump administration, killed Awdah Hathaleen, an activist, English teacher and father of three. The shooting occurred Monday night in Umm al-Khair, a village that has long weathered settler violence in an area profiled in an Oscar-winning film. The Israeli military said an Israeli civilian had opened fire toward 'terrorists' who hurled rocks at Israelis. Israeli police said they detained an Israeli for questioning 'on suspicion of reckless conduct resulting in death and unlawful use of a firearm,' as well as five Palestinians and two foreigners. Police said Tuesday that a court denied their request to extend the detention of the Israeli and ordered the suspect's release to house arrest. The police did not identify the suspect, but Israeli media ran photos of a smiling Levi inside a courthouse on Tuesday. Multiple calls placed to Levi's phone were not answered, and it was not known if he had hired an attorney. Meanwhile, residents said four of the five arrested Palestinians remained in Israeli custody. Umm al-Khair is in Masafer Yatta, the focal point of the Oscar-winning documentary 'No Other Land,' which chronicles the Palestinians' effort to remain on their land in the face of violence and the expansion of Jewish settlements considered illegal by most of the international community. Hathaleen, whose footage appears in the documentary, was outspoken about life under Israeli occupation. His death sparked an outpouring of grief from family, international activists and rights groups. 'They took the other half of my heart,' his brother-in-law, Tariq Hathaleen, wrote on Instagram. 'You were always telling the story, and now you've become the story.' Video shows shots fired The encounter in which witnesses said Hathaleen was shot was caught on video in footage obtained by The Associated Press. The video shows Levi waving a pistol during a standoff with a group of Palestinians on a dusty road, a yellow excavator visible in the background. Witnesses said Levi was there to protect the excavator, which had rolled down from a nearby settlement and damaged Palestinian property earlier in the day. Alaa Hathaleen, a cousin who filmed the encounter, said he approached Levi 'face to face, filming him with my phone, telling him that we don't have weapons and we were trying to stop him.' In the video, a Palestinian shouts that Levi is a 'bastard and a thief.' Levi shoves someone just out of the frame and shouts: 'Who threw stones?' Another Palestinian shouts 'Shoot me! Shoot!' and Levi fires a shot, seemingly away from the crowd. He then glances back at the excavator and fires again. 'Get away from here, go away!' Levi shouts. The video does not show where the bullets struck. Motasim Hathaleen, 38, another cousin who was standing a few dozen meters (yards) away, said he saw Levi fire twice and then saw Awdah fall to the ground. Local activists said they attempted CPR. Trump had lifted US sanctions Rights groups say Israeli security forces frequently ignore settler violence or intervene on the settlers' side during confrontations with Palestinians. Israel says its forces try to maintain order. The over 500,000 settlers in the West Bank have Israeli citizenship, while the territory's 3 million Palestinians live under military rule, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in towns and cities. Settler attacks on Palestinians have spiked since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, as have attacks by Palestinian militants. The military has carried out several major military operations in the West Bank that have killed hundreds of Palestinians and forced tens of thousands from their homes. Last year, the Biden administration imposed U.S. sanctions like travel bans and asset freezes on radical settlers accused of violence, including Levi. The State Department at the time accused Levi of leading settlers in attacks on Palestinians, threatening them, burning fields and destroying property. He is still sanctioned by the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada. Anti-settlement activists say Levi has led attacks that displaced more than 300 Palestinians from four nearby hamlets since establishing a settlement outpost known as Meitarim Farm in 2021. In an interview last year, after the sanctions were imposed, Levi said the land was his and that he was protecting it from encroachment by Palestinians. He denied using violence to displace people. 'Little by little, you feel when you drive on the roads that everyone is closing in on you,' he said at the time. 'They're building everywhere, wherever they want. So you want to do something about it.' U.S. President Donald Trump, who lent unprecedented support to Israel's settlement movement during his first term, lifted the sanctions after returning to the White House. 'What am I supposed to tell his kids?' The extended Hathaleen family and activists gathered at a mourning tent on Tuesday. Israeli troops arrived later, ordering all foreign passport holders and media to leave, saying the area was a closed military zone. 'He left behind three children,' Alaa, who filmed the video of Levi shooting, said. 'The oldest is only five years old. What am I supposed to tell his kids?' Basel Adra, the Palestinian co-director of 'No Other Land' who lives in a nearby village, said Awdah was a 'father, was a teacher, was an amazing activist and a close friend to us.' Umm Al-Khair was founded in the 1950s by traditionally nomadic Bedouin, who settled there after being uprooted from the Negev desert during the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war. Last year, Israel's military tore down a quarter of the homes in Umm Al-Khair, saying they had been built without Israeli authorization. The settlement of Carmel, just a few miles away, was built in the 1980s. Large homes and lush gardens sit across a barbed-wire fence from the village, whose homes of corrugated tin bake in the summer sun. On the day he died, Awdah sent an urgent call to his network of activists and reporters. 'The settlers are working behind our houses and the worst (is) that they tried to cut the main water pipe for the community,' he wrote. 'If you can reach people like the Congress, courts, whatever, please do everything. If they cut the pipe the community here will literally be without any drop of water.'
San Francisco Chronicle
27 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Gunman who killed 4 in New York was trying to get to NFL offices and claimed to have CTE: Officials
NEW YORK (AP) — A gunman who killed four people inside a Manhattan office tower blamed his mental health problems on the National Football League and intended to target the league's headquarters there but took the wrong elevator, officials said Tuesday. Investigators said Shane Tamura, a Las Vegas casino worker, was carrying a handwritten note in his wallet that claimed he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known at CTE, and accused the league of hiding the dangers of brain injuries linked to contact sports. Tamura, 27, shot several people in the skyscraper's lobby and another in a 33rd-floor office on Monday before he killed himself, authorities said. Among the victims were an off-duty New York City police officer and a security guard. The attacker's grievances with the NFL emerged as police began piecing together the details of his life and the cross-country road trip that brought him to Manhattan. Tamura, who played high school football in California a decade ago but never played in the NFL, had a history of mental illness, police said. In the three-page note found on his body, he accused the NFL of concealing the dangers to players' brains for profit. The degenerative brain disease has been linked to concussions and other repeated head trauma common in contact sports such as football, but it can only be diagnosed after someone has died. In the note, Tamura repeatedly said he was sorry and asked that his brain be studied for CTE. It also referenced former NFL player Terry Long, who was diagnosed with CTE, and the manner in which Long killed himself in 2005. The NFL long denied the link between football and CTE, but it acknowledged the connection in 2016 testimony before Congress and has paid more than $1.4 billion to retired players to settle concussion-related claims. The shooting shakes Manhattan NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who works out of the offices, called the shooting 'an unspeakable act of violence in our building,' saying he was deeply grateful to the law enforcement officers who responded and to the one who gave his life to protect others. Goodell said in a memo to staff that a league employee was seriously injured in the attack and was hospitalized in stable condition. The shooting happened along Park Avenue, one the nation's most recognized streets, and just blocks from Grand Central Terminal and Rockefeller Center. It's also less than a 15-minute walk from where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed last December by a man who prosecutors say was angry over corporate greed. The attack drew a response from the White House, with President Donald Trump posting on social media, "My heart is with the families of the four people who were killed, including the NYPD Officer, who made the ultimate sacrifice.' Video shows the gunman stroll into the building Tamura, who worked security at the Horseshoe Las Vegas, drove across the country over the past few days and into New York City just before the attack, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. Detectives plan to question a man who supplied parts for the AR-15-style rifle Tamura used Monday, including the weapon's lower receiver, she said during a news conference. Surveillance video showed Tamura getting out of a BMW early Monday evening and strolling across a plaza in a button-down shirt and jacket with the rifle at his side before he entered the building, which also has offices for the investment firm Blackstone and other companies. It was closed Tuesday except to investigators. Once inside, he sprayed the lobby with gunfire, killing Didarul Islam, the off-duty police officer who was working a corporate security detail, and hitting a woman who tried to take cover, Tisch said. He then made his way to the elevator bank, shooting a guard at a security desk and another man in the lobby, she said. 'He appeared to have first walked past the officer and then he turned to his right, and saw him and discharged several rounds,' Adams said in a TV interview. Tamura took an elevator to the 33rd-floor offices of the company that owns the building, Rudin Management, and shot and killed someone there before fatally shooting himself, the commissioner said. Blackstone confirmed that one of its employees, real estate executive Wesley LePatner, was among those killed. Security officer Aland Etienne also died, according to a labor union. The off-duty officer was from Bangladesh Islam, 36, had served as a police officer in New York City for three-and-a-half years and was an immigrant from Bangladesh, Tisch said. He was working a department-approved second job, in his New York Police Department uniform, providing security Monday at the Park Avenue building. His body was draped in the NYPD flag as it was moved from the hospital to an ambulance, with fellow officers standing at attention. Islam leaves behind a pregnant wife and two children. Friends and family stopped by their Bronx home on Tuesday to drop off food and pay their respects. 'He was a very friendly guy and a hardworking guy,' said Tanjim Talukdar, who knew him best from Friday prayers. 'Whenever I see him or he sees me, he says 'How are you, my brother?' ___ This story was updated to correct that Tamura played high school football about a decade ago, not nearly two decades ago. ___ Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut, and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press reporters Mike Balsamo, Philip Marcelo and Julie Walker in New York; Rob Maaddi and Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia, Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey; and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
Hamilton Spectator
40 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
A settler allegedly killed a Palestinian, and there's video. Israel released him to house arrest
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A radical Israeli settler accused of shooting and killing a Palestinian activist during a confrontation with unarmed Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and who was filmed firing a pistol during the incident, was released under house arrest on Tuesday. Witnesses say Yinon Levi, who was previously under U.S. sanctions that were lifted by the Trump administration , killed Awdah Hathaleen, an activist, English teacher and father of three. The shooting occurred Monday night in Umm al-Khair, a village that has long weathered settler violence in an area profiled in an Oscar-winning film. The Israeli military said an Israeli civilian had opened fire toward 'terrorists' who hurled rocks at Israelis. Israeli police said they detained an Israeli for questioning 'on suspicion of reckless conduct resulting in death and unlawful use of a firearm,' as well as five Palestinians and two foreigners. Police said Tuesday that a court denied their request to extend the detention of the Israeli and ordered the suspect's release to house arrest. The police did not identify the suspect, but Israeli media ran photos of a smiling Levi inside a courthouse on Tuesday. Multiple calls placed to Levi's phone were not answered, and it was not known if he had hired an attorney. Meanwhile, residents said four of the five arrested Palestinians remained in Israeli custody. Umm al-Khair is in Masafer Yatta, the focal point of the Oscar-winning documentary 'No Other Land,' which chronicles the Palestinians' effort to remain on their land in the face of violence and the expansion of Jewish settlements considered illegal by most of the international community. Hathaleen, whose footage appears in the documentary, was outspoken about life under Israeli occupation. His death sparked an outpouring of grief from family, international activists and rights groups. 'They took the other half of my heart,' his brother-in-law, Tariq Hathaleen, wrote on Instagram. 'You were always telling the story, and now you've become the story.' Video shows shots fired The encounter in which witnesses said Hathaleen was shot was caught on video in footage obtained by The Associated Press. The video shows Levi waving a pistol during a standoff with a group of Palestinians on a dusty road, a yellow excavator visible in the background. Witnesses said Levi was there to protect the excavator, which had rolled down from a nearby settlement and damaged Palestinian property earlier in the day. Alaa Hathaleen, a cousin who filmed the encounter, said he approached Levi 'face to face, filming him with my phone, telling him that we don't have weapons and we were trying to stop him.' In the video, a Palestinian shouts that Levi is a 'bastard and a thief.' Levi shoves someone just out of the frame and shouts: 'Who threw stones?' Another Palestinian shouts 'Shoot me! Shoot!' and Levi fires a shot, seemingly away from the crowd. He then glances back at the excavator and fires again. 'Get away from here, go away!' Levi shouts. The video does not show where the bullets struck. Motasim Hathaleen, 38, another cousin who was standing a few dozen meters (yards) away, said he saw Levi fire twice and then saw Awdah fall to the ground. Local activists said they attempted CPR. Trump had lifted US sanctions Rights groups say Israeli security forces frequently ignore settler violence or intervene on the settlers' side during confrontations with Palestinians. Israel says its forces try to maintain order. The over 500,000 settlers in the West Bank have Israeli citizenship, while the territory's 3 million Palestinians live under military rule, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in towns and cities. Settler attacks on Palestinians have spiked since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war , as have attacks by Palestinian militants. The military has carried out several major military operations in the West Bank that have killed hundreds of Palestinians and forced tens of thousands from their homes . Last year, the Biden administration imposed U.S. sanctions like travel bans and asset freezes on radical settlers accused of violence, including Levi. The State Department at the time accused Levi of leading settlers in attacks on Palestinians, threatening them, burning fields and destroying property. He is still sanctioned by the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada. Anti-settlement activists say Levi has led attacks that displaced more than 300 Palestinians from four nearby hamlets since establishing a settlement outpost known as Meitarim Farm in 2021. In an interview last year, after the sanctions were imposed, Levi said the land was his and that he was protecting it from encroachment by Palestinians. He denied using violence to displace people. 'Little by little, you feel when you drive on the roads that everyone is closing in on you,' he said at the time. 'They're building everywhere, wherever they want. So you want to do something about it.' U.S. President Donald Trump, who lent unprecedented support to Israel's settlement movement during his first term, lifted the sanctions after returning to the White House. 'What am I supposed to tell his kids?' The extended Hathaleen family and activists gathered at a mourning tent on Tuesday. Israeli troops arrived later, ordering all foreign passport holders and media to leave, saying the area was a closed military zone. 'He left behind three children,' Alaa, who filmed the video of Levi shooting, said. 'The oldest is only five years old. What am I supposed to tell his kids?' Basel Adra , the Palestinian co-director of 'No Other Land' who lives in a nearby village, said Awdah was a 'father, was a teacher, was an amazing activist and a close friend to us.' Umm Al-Khair was founded in the 1950s by traditionally nomadic Bedouin, who settled there after being uprooted from the Negev desert during the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war. Last year, Israel's military tore down a quarter of the homes in Umm Al-Khair, saying they had been built without Israeli authorization. The settlement of Carmel, just a few miles away, was built in the 1980s. Large homes and lush gardens sit across a barbed-wire fence from the village, whose homes of corrugated tin bake in the summer sun. On the day he died, Awdah sent an urgent call to his network of activists and reporters. 'The settlers are working behind our houses and the worst (is) that they tried to cut the main water pipe for the community,' he wrote. 'If you can reach people like the Congress, courts, whatever, please do everything. If they cut the pipe the community here will literally be without any drop of water.' ___ AP Senior Producer Jalal Bwaitel contributed to this report from Ramallah, West Bank. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
