Latest news with #defenseministry
LBCI
a day ago
- Politics
- LBCI
Attacks on Syrian security forces sent to quell sectarian clashes leave 16 dead
Sixteen members of Syria's security forces have been killed in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, the defense ministry said, after they deployed to quell deadly sectarian clashes that local media reported had resumed on Monday. Sunday's fighting between Druze militiamen and Bedouin tribal fighters was the first time that sectarian violence erupted inside the city of Sweida itself, following months of tensions in the broader province. In a statement to Reuters, the defense ministry said "outlawed groups," which it did not identify further, had attacked a number of its units at dawn. It said its forces responded to the attack and had pursued those groups that refused to halt hostilities and continued to target security forces.
LBCI
5 days ago
- Politics
- LBCI
Ukraine drone attacks kill two in Russia, target Moscow, Russia says
Ukraine's overnight and early Friday morning drone attacks killed two people in Russia and attempted to hit targets in Moscow, Russian authorities said. Russian air defenses downed 155 Ukrainian drones between 11 p.m. on Thursday (2000 GMT) and 7 a.m. on Friday, including 11 bound for Moscow, Russia's defense ministry said on the Telegram messaging app. Three of the four airports serving the Russian capital, Domodedovo, Vnukovo, and Zhukovsky, temporarily suspended operations but later resumed, Russia's aviation authority Rosaviatsia said late on Thursday. Reuters
Asharq Al-Awsat
6 days ago
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Russia Says It Struck Military-industrial Facilities in Kyiv
Russia's defense ministry said on Thursday that its forces had successfully carried out strikes on military-industrial facilities in Kyiv and on a military airfield in Ukraine. "The armed forces of the Russian Federation launched a group strike with high-precision long-range weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles against enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine in Kyiv and on the infrastructure of the military airfield," the ministry said. Reuters could not independently verify battlefield reports.
Irish Times
15-06-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Latest Iranian strikes on Israel kill at least eight, Tehran oil depot struck
Israel and Iran exchanged another round of air strikes late on Saturday and into Sunday, with at least eight people killed in Israel. Iranian missiles penetrated air defences in the north and centre of the country as well as hitting a science institute near Tel Aviv. The latest wave of Iranian attacks began shortly after 11pm on Saturday, when air raid sirens blared in Jerusalem and Haifa. Israeli media said at least 35 people were missing after a strike hit Bat Yam, a city south of Tel Aviv, in a second wave of strikes for the night, which began after 2am. READ MORE A spokesperson for the emergency services said a missile hit an eight-storey building there and while many people were rescued, there were at least four fatalities. At least four people were killed in an Iranian strike on the Palestinian majority town of Tamra, in Israel's north. All four were reported to be from the same family, including a woman and her two daughters aged 13 and 20. In Iran, Shahran oil depot in Tehran was targeted and set ablaze in an Israeli attack, Iran said, but added the situation was under control. 'Tehran is burning,' Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said on social media. Israeli strikes also targeted Iran's defence ministry building, causing minor damage, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said on Sunday. Iran has said 78 people were killed there on Friday, the first day of Israel's shock attack, and scores more on the second, including 60 when a missile brought down a 14-storey apartment block in Tehran, where 29 of the dead were children. Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel's strikes have set Iran's nuclear programme back, possibly by years, and that heavier blows were yet to come. 'We will hit every site and every target of the Ayatollahs' regime and what they have felt so far is nothing compared with what they will be handed in the coming days,' Mr Netanyahu said in a video message. Israeli medics carry a person wounded in Iran's missile attack in Bat Yam, a suburb of Tel Aviv, on June 15th, 2025. Photograph: FAIZ ABU RMELEH/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images Hours after presiding over a military parade in Washington, DC, Donald Trump has threatened that if Iran attacks the United States in any way, it would face the might of the US military 'at levels never seen before.' In a post on his Truth Social platform, the US president also said the US had nothing to do with Israel's latest attack on Iran overnight and that 'we can easily get a deal done' to end the conflict. He wrote: 'The US had nothing to do with the attack on Iran, tonight. If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the US Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before. However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!' Amid the continued conflict, planned negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran's nuclear programme were cancelled, throwing into question when and how an end to the fighting could come. Both Israel's military and Iran's state television announced the latest round of Iranian missiles as explosions were heard near midnight, while the Israeli security cabinet met. Israel launches strikes on Iran - clip Israel's ongoing strikes across Iran have left the country's surviving leadership with the difficult decision of whether to plunge deeper into conflict with Israel's more powerful forces or seek a diplomatic route. World leaders made urgent calls to de-escalate and avoid all-out war. The attack on nuclear sites set a 'dangerous precedent', China's foreign minister said. The region is already on edge as Israel makes a new push to eliminate the Iranian-backed militant group Hamas in Gaza after 20 months of fighting. Israel – widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East – said its hundreds of strikes on Iran over the past two days have killed a number of top generals, nine senior scientists and experts involved in Iran's nuclear programme. – Agencies
Saudi Gazette
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Saudi Gazette
Syria condemns 'unjustified' Israeli strikes as tensions rise over Turkey
DAMASCUS — Syria has strongly condemned a fresh wave of Israeli strikes on airbases and other military sites overnight as an "unjustified escalation". The foreign ministry said the attacks almost destroyed Hama airbase and injured dozens of people. A monitoring group reported that four defense ministry personnel were killed. Israel's military said it hit "capabilities that remained" at the western Hama and central T4 airbases, along with military infrastructure in Damascus. It also said Israeli forces killed gunmen during a ground operation in Deraa province, where authorities put the death toll at nine. It came amid reports that Turkey was moving to station jets and air defences at Syrian airbases. Israel's defence minister warned Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Thursday that he would "pay a very heavy price" if he allowed "forces hostile to Israel" to enter the country. The Israeli military has carried out hundreds of strikes across Syria to destroy military assets - including jets, tanks, missiles, air defence systems, weapons factories and research centres - since former president Bashar al-Assad's regime was overthrown by rebel forces in December after 13 years of civil war. The rebels were led by Sharaa's Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate that is still designated as a terrorist organization by the UN, the US, the EU and the UK. Israel has also sent troops into the UN-monitored demilitarised buffer zone in the Golan Heights, as well as several adjoining areas and the summit of Mount Hermon. And it has demanded the complete demilitarisation of the three neighboring southern provinces of Deraa, Quneitra and Suweida, saying it would not accept the presence of the forces of Sharaa's government there. The Syrian foreign ministry said Wednesday night's air strikes targeted "five locations across the country within 30 minutes, resulting in the near-total destruction of Hama Military Airport and injuring dozens of civilians and military personnel". The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said there were at least 18 strikes that targeted planes, rail tracks and towers at Hama airbase. Israel also hit T4 airbase, which is near Palmyra, and a branch of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre (SSRC) in the Barzeh neighborhood of Damascus, it added. "This unjustified escalation is a deliberate attempt to destabilize Syria and exacerbate the suffering of its people," the Syrian foreign ministry said. It called the strikes "a blatant violation of international law and Syrian sovereignty", and urged the international community to "exert pressure on Israel to cease its aggression". Syria may have been the location for these strikes, but the real target was Turkey. Israel has been nervously eyeing a joint defense pact Turkey is negotiating with Syria's transitional government, and these latest air strikes come amid Turkish reports of military equipment being moved to Syrian airbases, including T4. In a statement on Thursday morning, Israeli defense minister Israel Katz warned President Sharaa: "If you allow forces hostile to Israel to enter Syria and endanger Israeli security interests — you will pay a very heavy price." "Yesterday's air force activity... is a clear message and a warning to the future - we will not allow the security of the State of Israel to be harmed." Katz did not elaborate on what forces he considered "hostile", but foreign minister Gideon Saar separately said that Israel was concerned at the "negative role" that Turkey was playing in Syria. "They are doing their utmost to have Syria as a Turkish protectorate. It's clear that is their intention," he told a news conference in Paris. The SOHR also reported that Israeli ground forces shelled a national park west of the southern city of Deraa on Wednesday night, killing nine gunmen who attempted to confront them. Prior to the shelling, dozens of Israeli military vehicles had entered the al-Jabaliya Dam area near Nawa and taken up positions there, prompting "calls from the mosques in the area [to wage] jihad against the Israeli incursion", it added. Deraa province's government warned that the "massacre" of nine people had sparked widespread public anger. It has not so far identified those killed. The Israeli military confirmed that its forces had operated in Deraa overnight, "seizing weapons and destroying terrorist infrastructure". "Several armed men fired at our forces in the area. The forces responded with gunfire and eliminated several armed militants from the ground and air," it added. The military said it would "not allow a military threat to exist in Syria". However, Turkey's growing investment in Syria is seen by Israel as another level of threat. The risk of regional confrontation is growing, and with it the risk of Syria once again becoming host to the conflicts of outside powers. — BBC
