Latest news with #militantgroup
Reuters
2 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Israeli military says it struck Hamas member in southern Syria
CAIRO, June 8 (Reuters) - The Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a member of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in southern Syria.
Malay Mail
4 days ago
- Politics
- Malay Mail
Israel strikes south Beirut, vows to keep hitting Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed
BEIRUT, June 6 — Israel warned today that it will keep striking Lebanon until militant group Hezbollah has been disarmed, hours after it hit south Beirut in what Lebanese leaders called a major violation of a November ceasefire. An Israeli military evacuation call issued ahead of Thursday's strikes sent huge numbers of residents of the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, long a bastion of Iran-backed Hezbollah, fleeing for their lives. The attack on what the Israeli military said was Hezbollah's underground drone factories came on the eve of Eid al-Adha, one of the main religious festivals of the Muslim calendar. The strikes came around an hour after Israel's military spokesman issued an evacuation call, and sent plumes of smoke billowing over Beirut. The attack came six months after a ceasefire agreement was sealed in a bid to end hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. 'There will be no calm in Beirut, and no order or stability in Lebanon, without security for the State of Israel,' Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. 'Agreements must be honoured and if you do not do what is required, we will continue to act, and with great force.' Under the ceasefire brokered by the United States and France, Lebanon committed to disarming Hezbollah, which was once reputed to be more heavily armed than the state itself. Hezbollah sparked months of deadly hostilities by launching cross-border attacks on northern Israel in what it described as an act of solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack. The war left Hezbollah massively weakened, with a string of top commanders including its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah killed and weapons caches dotted around Lebanon incinerated. Israel has carried out repeated strikes on south Lebanon since the truce, but strikes targeting Beirut's southern suburbs have been rare. 'Following Hezbollah's extensive use of UAVs as a central component of its terrorist attacks on the State of Israel, the terrorist organisation is operating to increase production of UAVs for the next war,' the military said, calling the activities 'a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon'. Ominous warning Under the truce, Hezbollah fighters were to withdraw north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure to its south. Israel was to withdraw all its troops from Lebanon but it has kept some in five areas it deems 'strategic'. The Lebanese army has been deploying in the south and removing Hezbollah infrastructure, with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam saying Thursday that it had dismantled 'more than 500 military positions and arms depots' in the area. Following the strike on Thursday, Lebanon's leaders accused Israel of a 'flagrant' ceasefire violation by launching strikes ahead of the Eid al-Adha holiday. President Joseph Aoun voiced 'firm condemnation of the Israeli aggression' and 'flagrant violation of an international accord... on the eve of a sacred religious festival'. The prime minister too issued a statement condemning the strikes as a violation of Lebanese sovereignty. One resident of southern Beirut described grabbing her children and fleeing her home after receiving an ominous warning before the strikes. 'I got a phone call from a stranger who said he was from the Israeli army,' said the woman, Violette, who declined to give her last name. Israel also issued an evacuation warning for the Lebanese village of Ain Qana, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the border. The Israeli military then launched a strike on a building there that it alleged was a Hezbollah base, according to Lebanon's official National News Agency. — AFP
Malay Mail
01-06-2025
- General
- Malay Mail
‘Totally unacceptable': Ceasefire talks set back as US, Israel reject Hamas demand for permanent truce
GAZA CITY, June 1 — Hamas announced yesterday that it had replied to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal, but Washington's main negotiator criticised the response as 'totally unacceptable'. The Palestinian militant group said its response was positive while emphasising the need for a permanent ceasefire — long a sticking point for Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed US envoy Steve Witkoff's assessment that the response was 'unacceptable', accusing Hamas of clinging 'to its rejectionism'. Israel on Friday warned Hamas to either accept the deal and free the hostages held in Gaza 'or be annihilated'. In a statement yesterday, Hamas said it had 'submitted its response... to the mediating parties'. 'As part of this agreement, 10 living prisoners of the occupation held by the resistance will be released, in addition to the return of 18 bodies, in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners,' it added. A source within the group's political bureau said it had offered 'a positive response to Witkoff, but with emphasis on guaranteeing a permanent ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal' from the Gaza Strip. Witkoff said Hamas's response was 'totally unacceptable and only takes us backward', urging the group to 'accept the framework proposal we put forward'. 'That is the only way we can close a 60-day ceasefire deal in the coming days in which half of the living hostages and half of those who are deceased will come home to their families and in which we can have... substantive negotiations in good-faith to try to reach a permanent ceasefire,' he added in a post on X. Hamas alleges negotiation 'bias' A member of Hamas's political bureau, Bassem Naim, later told AFP the group 'responded positively and responsibly' to Witkoff's proposal. He alleged there was a 'complete bias' in the negotiating process in favour of Israel, accusing it of disagreeing with 'provisions we had agreed upon' earlier with the US envoy. Hamas has long maintained that any deal should lay out a pathway to a permanent end to the war. Israel has balked at that prospect, insisting on the need to destroy the group to prevent a repeat of the October 2023 attack that sparked the war. It recently stepped up its campaign in Gaza in a bid to defeat Hamas. 'While Israel has agreed to the updated Witkoff framework for the release of our hostages, Hamas continues to cling to its rejectionism,' Netanyahu's office said in a statement, adding the group's reply was 'unacceptable and sets the process back'. 'Israel will continue its efforts to bring our hostages home and to defeat Hamas.' A breakthrough in negotiations has been elusive ever since a previous ceasefire fell apart on March 18 with the resumption of Israeli operations. US President Donald Trump had said on Friday that the parties were 'very close to an agreement'. Two sources close to the negotiations said Witkoff's proposal involved a 60-day truce, potentially extendable to 70 days. It would include the release of five living hostages and nine bodies in exchange for a number of Palestinian prisoners during the first week, followed by a second exchange the following week, the sources said. Gaza 'hungriest place on Earth' Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead. 'After 603 days of war, we wish to remind everyone that war is a means, not an end in itself,' the main group representing the hostages' families said in a statement. Israeli society was 'united around one consensus', bringing home all the remaining hostages 'even at the cost of ending the war', the Hostages and Missing Families Forum added. Israel has come under increasing international criticism over the dire humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, where the United Nations warned in May that the entire population was at risk of famine. A spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency has called the territory 'the hungriest place on Earth'. Aid is only trickling into Gaza after the partial lifting by Israel of a more than two-month total blockade, and the UN has recently reported looting of its trucks and warehouses. The World Food Programme has called on Israel 'to get far greater volumes of food assistance into Gaza faster', saying desperation was 'contributing to rising insecurity'. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said yesterday that at least 4,117 people have been killed in the territory since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 54,381, mostly civilians. Hamas's attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. — AFP
Washington Post
29-05-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Family of an Israeli held hostage in Iraq for 800 days hangs on to hope for her freedom
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — With the world's attention fixed on efforts to free Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, talks are quietly continuing to liberate an Israeli hostage held in Iraq by a different Iranian-backed militant group. A 38-year-old Middle East scholar from Israel was kidnapped in 2023 while doing research in Iraq, and officials from several countries say progress is being made to secure her release.
Daily Mail
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
What happened to Joseph Kony? From altar boy to warlord who abducted tens of thousands of boys and girls to become child soldiers or sex slaves but somehow evades justice
From farmer's son and altar boy to self-proclaimed messiah, zealous rebel, ruthless warlord - and perhaps most frustrating of all for those seeking justice - master of evasion. For the tens of thousands of Ugandans whose lives he decimated, Joseph Kony was - and remains - a loathsome figure, but without doubt his life now is a far cry from his more wholesome roots. As the leader of The Lord's Resistance Army, a cultish militant group that operates in central Africa, he was said to be responsible for mass rape, kidnapping and murder - as well as the military enslavement of more than 30,000 children. In 2005, he was indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for a variety of war crimes and crimes against humanity. But despite endless efforts by skilled military personnel, Kony has continuously escaped capture and remains on the run as one of Africa's most wanted men. Sources say that Kony is so adept at keeping out of the way of authorities that he has ditched satellite phones in favour of runners for communication with his supporters, while at times he has lived in the bush, surviving off wild roots and animals. But life was not always this way. Kony was born in 1961 as a member of Uganda's northern Acholi ethnic group to a family of six children. Both his parents were farmers and regular churchgoers, with his father being a Catholic, and his mother an Anglican. He served as an altar boy until the age of 15, before rising to prominence in the Holy Spirit Movement, a rebel group led by Alice Auma Lakwena, a former prostitute believed to have been his aunt. The movement was formed after Ugandan president Tito Okello, an Acholi, was overthrown in January 1986 by the National Resistance Army (NRA). Lakwena, who died in exile in Kenya in early 2007, believed she could channel the spirits of the dead, and also told her followers that the holy oil she gave them could stop bullets. The rebellion - which Kony eventually went on to lead - claimed to defend the Acholi people against NRA President Yoweri Museveni. But when army troops crushed the movement and Lakwena fled into Kenya, Kony founded the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and proclaimed himself as the people's prophet. Despite widespread northern resentment against Museveni, Kony's extremist policies - which were designed to terrify his subordinates into obedience - made him a figure of fear rather than admiration among his people. Aspiring to rule Uganda according to a mix of mysticism, Acholi nationalism and Christian fundamentalism, Kony - a self-proclaimed spokesperson of God with more than 60 wives - turned against his supporters to 'purify' his people and carried out a series of horrific assaults, including rape and indiscriminate killings. Kony forcibly recruited young boys to serve as his next generation of soldiers, while girls were kidnapped and kept as sex slaves. His terrifying rule over Ugandans inspired a bloody rebellion that spread to Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic. Tens of thousands of atrocities were carried out in the names of the LRA for more than two decades, but following the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, the group was officially designated as a terrorist group by the US governments. It spelt the beginning of the end for his reign of terror. By 2005, the self-proclaimed prophet - along with four of his deputies - were the first people indicted by the ICC in The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Support for the LRA was beginning to wane. When Sudan signed a peace deal with the southern rebels in 2005 and the group was forced into neighbouring DR Congo by the Ugandan army, Kony agreed to hold peace talks. But negotiations dragged on and, amid mutual distrust and anxiety over the ICC warrant, Kony repeatedly failed to turn up to sign a deal. He decided instead to continue living on the run - sparking a widespread and prolonged manhunt that to the dismay of the world - and his victims - has still not reaped the reward of his capture. So what has been up to since then? Kony, who is thought to be in his 50s, speaks broken English and Acholi and has only rarely met outsiders, but in an interview with a western journalist in 2006 he insisted that he was 'not a terrorist' and had not committed atrocities. 'We want the people of Uganda to be free. We are fighting for democracy,' he claimed. Nevertheless, ex-LRA abductees have a very different viewpoint. Some say they were forced to maim and kill friends, neighbours and relatives, as well as participate in gruesome rites such as drinking their victims' blood. In late 2011, following pressure from US campaigners, President Barack Obama agreed to deploy US special forces troops to help local armies track down Kony. He then surged to unexpected worldwide prominence in March 2012 on the back of a hugely popular internet video that called for his capture. Made by US-based advocacy group Invisible Children, the Kony2012 film highlighted LRA's alleged crimes, including the abduction of children for use as sex slaves or fighters. It became one of the fastest-spreading internet videos in history after more than 100 million users across the globe watched it in just a few days. The story took another strange twist later that year when Angelina Jolie, Oscar-winning film star, international humanitarian, United Nations special envoy and all-round sex bomb, offered to come to the ICC's rescue - by offering herself as a honeytrap to capture Kony. Documents leaked from the ICC show that Jolie had offered to be embedded with US Special Forces close to the warlord's stronghold in northern Uganda and 'has the idea to invite Kony to dinner and then arrest him'. The plan apparently came to nothing more than a bizarre bookmark in a tale of a rebel leader who has still not been brought to justice. Those efforts were further hampered in 2017 when Uganda's military and the United States both announced they would end their pursuit of Kony - saying its mission had been 'successfully achieved' even though the rebel leader remains at large. Uganda started pulling its forces from Central African Republic, which for years had acted as a base for troops chasing the rebels, just a day after the US said the active membership of Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) now only numbered less than 100. Before that decision, around 1,500 Ugandan troops had been deployed in Central African Republic under an African Union military mission to defeat the LRA. With the troops now withdrawn, attention turned instead to one of Kony's former commanders, Dominic Ongwen, whose nom de guerre was 'White Ant'. He was indicted by the ICC and convicted in 2021 of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Ongwen is currently serving a 25-year jail sentence for 61 charges, including murder, rape and sexual enslavement His lawyers had pleaded for mitigation considering he was one of Kony's child soldiers, having been kidnapped on the way to school by LRA militants aged just nine. In October 2024, Thomas Kwoyelo - another former child soldier who later became a rebel commander under Kony - was sentenced by a court in Uganda to 40 years in prison for his role in the LRA's brutal crimes. Kwoyelo will serve only 25 years in jail as he has been in government custody for 15 years, the court ruled. His sentencing applied to the most serious crimes he faced, including multiple counts of murder, rape, pillaging, and enslavement. Kwoyelo, who denied the charges against him, testified that only Kony could answer for LRA crimes, and said everyone in the LRA faced death for disobeying the warlord. But Grace Apio, a Ugandan victim of the LRA insurgency, said at the time that the sentencing 'is very little for us, the victims.' She added: 'We feel very sentence will encourage other people who want to start a war that in Uganda, after committing these atrocities, you will end up with a light sentence and then you come back to society and start your life again.' Kwoyelo was convicted in August 2024 on 44 of the 78 counts he faced for crimes committed during the insurgency between 1992 and 2005. News of Kony fell silent again until February of this year, when it was reported that one of his wives and three children had been repatriated from Central African Republic, Ugandan authorities said. Then in April, the ICC confirmed the award of €52 million (£45m) to victims of Ongwen, including a 'symbolic' payment of €750 (£632) for each of the near 50,000 victims identified in the case. ICC judges ruled Ongwen personally ordered his soldiers to carry out massacres of more than 130 civilians at the Lukodi, Pajule, Odek and Abok refugee camps between 2002 and 2005. While the court acknowledged he had been kidnapped as a 'defenceless child', judges said this did not mitigate his guilt. The court's Trust Fund for Victims will arrange for the reparations to be made as Ongwen - currently serving his sentence in a Norwegian prison - was unable to pay. For Kony's victims these are all small steps towards the justice they have sought for more than 30 years. But Kony himself remains at large - despite being wanted by the ICC and even with a generous $5m reward offered by US authorities. Sources say he is hiding somewhere in ungoverned territories in Central African Republic - and is more than adept at remaining hidden. For the ICC however, the charges against Kony are so horrific that they can no longer go unheard. For that reason, it plans to hold a hearing in absentia on September 9. His victims can only hope that one day Kony himself will be the one to stand in court and hear them.
