Latest news with #ArmedConflictLocationandEventData
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Mapping Israel's expanding air attacks across Syria
The Israeli military says it shelled targets in Syria in response to a pair of projectiles that fell in open areas in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights on Tuesday. Since December 10, 2024, just two days after the stunning collapse of more than 53 years of the al-Assad family, Israel has waged a campaign of aerial bombardment that has destroyed much of Syria's military infrastructure, including major airports, air defence facilities, fighter jets and other strategic infrastructure. Over the past six months, Israeli forces have launched more than 200 air, drone or artillery attacks across Syria, averaging an assault roughly every three to four days, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED). The map below shows the ACLED-recorded Israeli attacks between December 8 and May 30. The bulk of the Israeli attacks have been concentrated in the southern Syrian governorates of Deraa, Damascus and Quneitra, which account for nearly 60 percent of all recorded Israeli attacks. Deraa was the most targeted governorate, with 57 recorded attacks, focusing on former regime military sites and suspected arms convoys. Damascus governorate, which hosts key military highways and logistics hubs, was attacked at least 49 times. Whereas Damascus city, the capital was attacked 18 times. Quneitra, adjacent to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, was attacked at least 25 times; many attacks were aimed at radar and surveillance infrastructure. In the immediate aftermath of al-Assad's ouster, Israeli troops advanced into the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, including areas within the United Nations-monitored demilitarised zone, violating the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria. The incursion drew widespread international criticism. The UN, along with several Arab nations, condemned Israel's actions as breaches of international law and violations of Syria's sovereignty. Despite these condemnations, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in February that Israeli forces would remain in the area indefinitely to 'protect Israeli citizens' and 'prevent hostile entities from gaining a foothold' near the border. Satellite imagery captured in February and analysed by Al Jazeera's Sanad verification unit showed six military bases were being constructed in the UN-supervised buffer zone on the border with Syria. Since taking power following the overthrow of al-Assad, President Ahmed al-Sharaa has consistently stated that his government seeks no conflict with Israel and will not permit Syria to be used by foreign actors to launch attacks. He has condemned Israel's continuing strikes on Syrian territory and its gradual expansion beyond the already-occupied Golan Heights. While Israel's air attacks on Syria have escalated in recent months, Israel has been attacking targets in Syria for years. ACLED data collected since January 2017 shows how Israeli attacks have been steadily increasing. The animated chart below shows the frequency of Israeli attacks from January 2017 to May 2025.
India Today
28-05-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Is Putin deliberately defying Trump as Russian missiles pound Ukraine in biggest-ever hit?
Russia conducted one of its largest drone and missile attacks on Ukraine on May 25 and 26, after three nights of record strikes. On May 25, Russia launched 298 drones and 69 missiles across 13 Ukrainian regions, killing 14 and injuring 70 people. This was followed by 355 drones and nine missiles on May 26. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on May 26 that Russia launched over 900 drones against Ukraine in three large-scale attack prompted US President Donald Trump to lambast his Russian counterpart on his Truth Social account over the weekend, saying that Vladimir Putin had gone 'absolutely crazy'.On Tuesday, Trump wrote: 'What Vladimir Putin doesn't realise is that if it weren't for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He's playing with fire!' While the Kremlin downplayed Trump's statement suggesting that he and others might be emotionally overloaded, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned Trump about making such statements: 'Regarding Trump's words about Putin 'playing with fire' and 'really bad things' happening to Russia. I only know of one REALLY BAD thing — WWIII. I hope Trump understands this!'Regarding Trump's words about Putin "playing with fire" and "really bad things" happening to Russia. I only know of one REALLY BAD thing — WWIII.I hope Trump understands this!— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) May 27, 2025advertisementTrump's frustration is understandable, as brokering peace between Russia and Ukraine had been one of his big presidential campaign promises. Trump said repeatedly that he would end the war between Russia and Ukraine within '24 hours' of taking office. At a CNN town hall in May 2023, he stated, 'They're dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I'll have that done — I'll have that done in 24 hours.'After returning to the presidency in January 2025, Trump immediately pushed for renewed peace negotiations. He contacted both Zelenskyy and Putin, advocating for direct talks and proposing a 30-day general ceasefire as a starting point for broader negotiations. Despite these efforts, Trump's administration has not secured lasting peace. In fact, Russia's attacks on Ukraine have increased in to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, in the month prior to the recent intense attacks, between April 20 and May 16, there were 4,126 violent incidents in Ukraine, with 297 incidents targeting civilians, and resulting in at least 108 fatalities. During this period, Russia used over 80 long-range missiles and drones to attack Ukraine, and Russian forces made notable advances in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Sumy refusal to cede any ground may stem from Trump's acidic demeanour towards Zelenskyy when the latter visited the White House in February. He also rebuffed engaging in direct peace talks and sent a delegation to Turkey, which Zelenskyy called "very low-level" after several days of first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in three years were held in Istanbul on May 16, 2025. While these negotiations resulted in a significant prisoner exchange of 1,000 individuals, they failed to achieve Ukraine's primary goal of a full and unconditional ceasefire. Ukraine's proposal for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire and a direct meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin was rejected by Russia, which instead demanded Ukrainian military withdrawals from contested areas as a precondition to any ceasefire InMust Watch
India Today
21-05-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Global conflicts at a record high, half of humanity affected
From the Russia-Ukraine war to Israel's Gaza offensive, from Hezbollah's attacks to maritime disturbances caused by Houthis, the world seems to have no shortage of military conflicts. And the India-Pakistan skirmish only expanded the global areas of conflict. Nearly half the world's population is now exposed to conflict.A whopping 423 crore people from at least 50 countries have been exposed to conflict in the past year alone. At least 10 countries have extreme conflict situations, while 20 have high and turbulent conflict situations, respectively, according to an independent and non-profit organisation, Armed Conflict Location and Event Data or 'While Palestine had the most dangerous and diffuse conflict in 2024, in Myanmar, an average of 170 distinct non-state armed groups were active each week, and the groups changed quite frequently. Ukraine remained the deadliest conflict', ACLED noted in its December 2024 Conflict Index. And in 2025, India militarily retaliated against Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack and destroyed several terror camps operating in the country.A question now stands: how did so many conflicts erupt so suddenly? The answer is by taking advantage of opportunities presented by geopolitical shifts, interconnections across borders through contagious groups, alliances, proxy forces, and by creating divisions between neighbouring AFTER A BRIEF PAUSEThe world's ever-rising conflicts took a brief pause during the transition to the new millennium in 2000. However, the relative peace lasted for a decade before getting back to older levels. The number of state-based conflicts in 1960 was 15. This rose to 53 in 1991. It went down to 31 in 2010 but scaled to 59 in 2023. Notably, state-based conflicts are those where at least one of the parties is a of civilians and combatants in state-based conflicts followed a similar pattern. Deaths in such conflicts were 64,873 in 1960, which rose to 80,297 in 1990. It went down to 12,150 in 2005, but exponentially rose to 2.77 lakh in 2022.'Violence in the world is at an all-time high since the end of the Cold War. The figures suggest that the conflict landscape has become increasingly complex, with more conflict actors operating within the same country,' said Siri Aas Rustad, Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo, last as half the world's population is bearing the brunt of ongoing conflicts, the situation does not seem to improve. After one and a half years of war, the Israeli military on Sunday launched extensive ground operations in the northern and southern parts of the already war-torn Gaza the other front, Russia launched one of the biggest drone attacks on Ukraine after more than three years of war and at a time when the peace talks are going on. These developments are taking place when the air between India and Pakistan is still hot, and the situation is Reel
Gulf Today
20-04-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Today
Money, power and violence in Philippine elections
Cecil Morella, Agence France-Presse Philippines election hopefuls like mayoral candidate Kerwin Espinosa have to ask themselves whether the job is worth taking a bullet. The country's elections commission, Comelec, recorded 46 acts of political violence between January 12 and April 11, including the shooting of Espinosa. At a rally this month, someone from the crowd fired a bullet that went through his chest and exited his arm, leaving him bleeding but alive. Others have been less lucky. A city council hopeful, a polling officer and a village chief were among those killed in similar attacks in the run-up to mid-term elections on May 12. Comelec said 'fewer than 20' candidates have been killed so far this campaign season, which it notes is a drop. 'This is much lower, very low compared to the past,' commission spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco told AFP, citing a tally of about 100 deaths in the last general election. Analysts warned that such violence will likely remain a fixture of the Philippines' political landscape. The immense influence of the posts is seen as something worth killing for. Holding municipal office means control over jobs, police departments and disbursements of national tax funds, said Danilo Reyes, an associate professor at the University of the Philippines' political science department. 'Local chief executives have discretion when it comes to how to allocate the funding, which projects, priorities,' he said. Rule of law that becomes weaker the farther one gets from Manila also means that regional powerbrokers can act with effective impunity, said Cleve Arguelles, CEO of Manila-based WR Numero Research. 'Local political elites have their own kingdoms, armed groups and... patronage networks,' he said, noting violence is typically highest in the archipelago nation's far north and south. 'The stakes are usually high in a local area where only one family is dominant or where there is involvement of private armed groups,' Arguelles said. 'If you lose control of... city hall, you don't just lose popular support. You actually lose both economic and political power.' In the absence of strong institutions to mediate disagreements, Reyes said, 'confrontational violence' becomes the go-to. Espinosa was waiting for his turn to speak at a campaign stop in central Leyte province on April 10 when a shooter emerged from the crowd and fired from about 50 metres (164 feet) away, according to police. Police Brigadier General Jean Fajardo told reporters this week that seven police officers were 'being investigated' as suspects. Convictions, however, are hard to come by. While Comelec's Laudiangco insisted recent election-related shootings were all making their way through regional court systems, he could provide no numbers. Data compiled by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project show that in 79 per cent of violent acts targeting local government members between 2018 and 2022 the perpetrators were never identified. National-level politicians, meanwhile, reliant on local political bases to deliver votes, have little incentive to press for serious investigations, said Reyes. 'The only way you can ensure national leaders win positions is for local allies to deliver votes,' he said. 'There are convictions but very rarely, and it depends on the potential political fallout on the national leaders as well as the local leaders.' It's part of the 'grand bargain' in Philippine politics, Arguelles said. Local elites are 'tolerated by the national government so long as during election day they can also deliver votes when they're needed'. Three days after Espinosa's shooting, a district board candidate and his driver were rushed to hospital after someone opened fire on them in the autonomous area of Mindanao. Election-season violence has long plagued the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, known as the BARMM. Comelec assumed 'direct control' over the municipalities of Buluan and Datu Odin Sinsuat after municipal election officer Bai Maceda Lidasan Abo and her husband were shot dead last month. Since last year, Comelec has held the power to directly control and supervise not only local election officials but also law enforcement. Top police officials in the two municipalities were removed for 'gross negligence and incompetence' after allegedly ignoring requests to provide security details for the slain Comelec official. Their suspensions, however, will last only from 'campaigning up to... the swearing-in of the winners,' Comelec's Laudiangco said. The commission's actions were part of a 'tried and tested security plan' that is showing real results, he said. But he conceded that the interwoven nature of family, power and politics in the provinces would continue to create a combustible brew. 'You have a lot of closely related people in one given jurisdiction... That ensures polarisation. It becomes personal between neighbours. 'We all know Filipinos are clannish, that's our culture. But we're improving slowly.'
Gulf News
20-04-2025
- Politics
- Gulf News
Money, power, violence in high-stakes Philippine elections
Comelec, recorded 46 acts of political violence between January 12 and April 11 Last updated: AFP The country's elections commission, Comelec, recorded 46 acts of political violence between January 12 and April 11, including the shooting of Espinosa. At a rally this month, someone from the crowd fired a bullet that went through his chest and exited his arm, leaving him bleeding but alive. Others have been less lucky. A city council hopeful, a polling officer and a village chief were among those killed in similar attacks in the run-up to mid-term elections on May 12. Comelec said "fewer than 20" candidates have been killed so far this campaign season, which it notes is a drop. "This is much lower, very low compared to the past," commission spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco told AFP, citing a tally of about 100 deaths in the last general election. Analysts warned that such violence will likely remain a fixture of the Philippines' political landscape. The immense influence of the posts is seen as something worth killing for. Holding municipal office means control over jobs, police departments and disbursements of national tax funds, said Danilo Reyes, an associate professor at the University of the Philippines' political science department. "Local chief executives have discretion when it comes to how to allocate the funding, which projects, priorities," he said. Rule of law that becomes weaker the farther one gets from Manila also means that regional powerbrokers can act with effective impunity, said Cleve Arguelles, CEO of Manila-based WR Numero Research. "Local political elites have their own kingdoms, armed groups and... patronage networks," he said, noting violence is typically highest in the archipelago nation's far north and south. "The stakes are usually high in a local area where only one family is dominant or where there is involvement of private armed groups," Arguelles said. "If you lose control of... city hall, you don't just lose popular support. You actually lose both economic and political power." In the absence of strong institutions to mediate disagreements, Reyes said, "confrontational violence" becomes the go-to. A 'grand bargain' Espinosa was waiting for his turn to speak at a campaign stop in central Leyte province on April 10 when a shooter emerged from the crowd and fired from about 50 metres (164 feet) away, according to police. Police Brigadier General Jean Fajardo told reporters this week that seven police officers were "being investigated" as suspects. Convictions, however, are hard to come by. While Comelec's Laudiangco insisted recent election-related shootings were all making their way through regional court systems, he could provide no numbers. Data compiled by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project show that in 79 percent of violent acts targeting local government members between 2018 and 2022 the perpetrators were never identified. National-level politicians, meanwhile, reliant on local political bases to deliver votes, have little incentive to press for serious investigations, said Reyes. "The only way you can ensure national leaders win positions is for local allies to deliver votes," he said. "There are convictions but very rarely, and it depends on the potential political fallout on the national leaders as well as the local leaders." It's part of the "grand bargain" in Philippine politics, Arguelles said. Local elites are "tolerated by the national government so long as during election day they can also deliver votes when they're needed". Direct control Three days after Espinosa's shooting, a district board candidate and his driver were rushed to hospital after someone opened fire on them in the autonomous area of Mindanao. Election-season violence has long plagued the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, known as the BARMM. Comelec assumed "direct control" over the municipalities of Buluan and Datu Odin Sinsuat after municipal election officer Bai Maceda Lidasan Abo and her husband were shot dead last month. Since last year, Comelec has held the power to directly control and supervise not only local election officials but also law enforcement. Top police officials in the two municipalities were removed for "gross negligence and incompetence" after allegedly ignoring requests to provide security details for the slain Comelec official. Their suspensions, however, will last only from "campaigning up to... the swearing-in of the winners," Comelec's Laudiangco said. The commission's actions were part of a "tried and tested security plan" that is showing real results, he said. But he conceded that the interwoven nature of family, power and politics in the provinces would continue to create a combustible brew.
