Latest news with #rocketattack
The National
3 days ago
- Politics
- The National
Hezbollah splinter group in Syria risks confrontation with Israel after rare rocket attack
A small group in southern Syria that once formed part of a Hezbollah network is suspected of carrying out an overnight rocket attack on an Israeli-occupied area in the Golan Heights, sources said on Wednesday as Syrian authorities denied Israeli claims that Damascus was responsible. The two rockets hit an open area and caused no casualties, according to the Israeli military, which responded with air raids on several Syrian military sites. The US envoy to Syria, Thomas Barack, visited the Golan Heights on Wednesday, indicating the seriousness of the incident. It was the first such attack on Israel from Syria since rebels led by the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham group toppled former president Bashar Al Assad in December. New President Ahmad Al Shara has sought to consolidate control of the country in the face of sectarian violence, and now faces the fresh challenge of handling Israel's response. A previously unknown group calling itself the Martyr Mohammed Deif Brigades claimed responsibility. Mr Deif was the military chief of Hamas who was killed by Israel last year in its war to eliminate the Palestinian militant group from Gaza. Two sources in Jordan, which borders the Golan Heights, said the attack appeared to be the work of a local group with 12 members comprising Palestinian refugees and Syrians from the district of Nawa in Deraa governorate. The rockets were fired from the Sahm Al Golan area, south of Nawa, they said. It is one of many of small groups that Hezbollah and Iran set up in southern Syria around 2018, three years after Russia's intervention in the Syrian civil war caused significant defeats for rebels fighting the former regime. Tehran and Moscow were the main backers of Mr Al Assad's 24-year rule. "These groups were designed to be small, nimble and hard to detect," one of the sources said, adding that many of them had kept open lines of communications with Hezbollah and Hamas. "The Israelis have reacted strongly because they don't want the south to become a launch pad against them again," the source said. In the final year of the Assad regime, Israeli troops faced increasing rocket and drone attacks that Israel blamed on Iran and its militia allies. Israel does not trust the HTS-led government that replaced Mr Al Assad and is upset about the support it has received from countries in the region and the West, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the US and the EU. HTS, a group formerly linked with Al Qaeda, was allied with Turkey when it launched the offensive that ended five decades of Assad family rule on December 8. "We will not allow a return to the reality of October 7," said Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, referring to the surprise Hamas attack on Israel that started the present war in GAz Israel responded to the regime change by sending its troops into Syrian territory across the UN buffer zone in the Golan Heights, south-west of Damascus, and bombing military and militia installations across Syria, particularly in southern areas. This has vastly curbed the ability of the new Syrian government to deploy troops and military hardware in the south as it seeks to establish control over the entire country. Israel's attacks on Syria have subsided in recent weeks, with reports emerging that the two sides had engaged in talks. On Wednesday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said Syria does not "pose a threat to anyone in the region" and that "peaceful solutions" are needed across the region. "The utmost priority in Syria's south is to spread the authority of the state and end the presence of non-state arms," a ministry statement said.
The National
3 days ago
- General
- The National
Israel-Syria tensions spike after rocket attack in Golan Heights
A small group in southern Syria that once formed part of a Hezbollah network is suspected of carrying out an overnight rocket attack on an Israeli-controlled area in the Golan Heights, sources said on Wednesday as Syrian authorities denied Israeli claims that Damascus was responsible. The two rockets hit an open area and caused no casualties, according to the Israeli military, which responded with air raids on several Syrian military sites. The US envoy to Syria, Thomas Barack, visited the Golan Heights on Wednesday, indicating the seriousness of the incident. It was the first such attack on Israel from Syria since rebels led by the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham group toppled former president Bashar Al Assad in December. New President Ahmad Al Shara has sought to consolidate control of the country in the face of sectarian violence and now faces the fresh challenge of Israel's response. A previously unknown group calling itself the Martyr Mohammed Deif Brigades claimed responsibility. Mr Deif was the military chief of Hamas who was killed by Israel last year in its war to eliminate the Palestinian militant group from Gaza. Two sources in Jordan, which borders the Golan Heights, said the attack appeared to be the work of a local group with 12 members comprising Palestinian refugees and Syrians from the district of Nawa in Deraa governorate. The rockets were fired from the Sahm Al Golan area, south of Nawa, they said. It is one of many of small groups that Hezbollah and Iran set up in southern Syria around 2018, three years after Russia's intervention in the Syrian civil war caused significant defeats for rebels fighting the former regime. Tehran and Moscow were the main backers of Mr Al Assad's 24-year rule. "These groups were designed to be small, nimble and hard to detect," one of the sources said, adding that many of them had kept open lines of communications with Hezbollah and Hamas. "The Israelis have reacted strongly because they don't want the south to become a launch pad against them again," the source said. In the final year of the Assad regime, Israeli troops faced increasing rocket and drone attacks that Israel blamed on Iran and its militia allies. Israel does not trust the HTS-led government that replaced Mr Al Assad and is upset about the support it has received from countries in the region and the West, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the US and the EU. HTS, a group formerly linked with Al Qaeda, was allied with Turkey when it launched the offensive that ended five decades of Assad family rule on December 8. Israel responded to the regime change by sending its troops into Syrian territory across the UN buffer zone in the Golan Heights, south-west of Damascus, and bombing military and militia installations across Syria, particularly in southern areas. This has vastly curbed the ability of the new Syrian government to deploy troops and military hardware in the south as it seeks to establish control over the entire country. Israel's attacks on Syria have subsided in recent weeks, with reports emerging that the two sides had engaged in talks. On Wednesday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said Syria does not "pose a threat to anyone in the region" and that "peaceful solutions" are needed across the region. "The utmost priority in Syria's south is to spread the authority of the state and end the presence of non-state arms," a ministry statement said.
CTV News
4 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Russian rockets kill 3 in a Ukrainian city as Kyiv claims it damaged a key bridge
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 127th Separate Brigade of the Territorial Defence press service, soldiers fire a canon towards Russian army positions near Kharkiv, Ukraine, Monday, June 2, 2025. (Anatolii Lysianskyi/Ukraine's 127th Separate Brigade via AP) KYIV, Ukraine -- A Russian rocket attack targeted the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Tuesday, killing at least three people and injuring 25, officials said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the assault, saying it underscored that Moscow has no intentions of halting the three-year war. The attack came a day after direct peace talks in Istanbul made no progress on ending the three-year war. Local authorities said the barrage of rockets struck apartment buildings and a medical facility in the centre of Sumy. Meanwhile, Ukraine's secret services said they struck again inside Russia, two days after a spectacular Ukrainian drone attack on air bases deep inside the country. A vital bridge to Crimea The Ukrainian Security Service, known by its acronym SBU, claimed it damaged the foundations of the Kerch Bridge linking Russia and illegally annexed Crimea -- a key artery for Russian military supplies in the war. The SBU said it detonated 1,100 kilograms (2,400 pounds) of explosives on the seabed overnight,in an operation that took several months to set up. It was the third Ukrainian strike on the bridge since Russia's invasion of its neighbour in February 2022, the SBU said. 'The bridge is now effectively in an emergency condition,' the SBU claimed. It said no civilians were killed or injured in the operation. It was not possible to independently confirm the claims. Traffic across the Kerch Bridge was halted for three hours early Tuesday but reopened at 9 a.m., official Russian social media channels said. It closed for a second time at 3:20 p.m. Zelenskyy appeals for pressure on Moscow The Ukrainian president called the attack on Sumy a 'completely deliberate' strike on civilians. 'That's all you need to know about Russia's `desire' to end this war,' the Ukrainian president wrote on social media. Zelenskyy appealed for global pressure and 'decisive action from the United States, Europe and everyone in the world who holds power.' Without it, he said, Russian President Vladimir Putin 'will not agree even to a ceasefire.' The war has killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations, as well as tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides along the roughly 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) front line where the war of attrition grinds on despite U.S.-led efforts to broker a peace deal. A stunning Ukrainian drone attack Though Russia has a bigger army and more economic resources than Ukraine, the Ukrainian drone attack over the weekend damaged or destroyed more than 40 warplanes at air bases deep inside Russia, Ukrainian officials said, touting it as a serious blow to the Kremlin's strategic arsenal and military prestige. The Russian Defence Ministry acknowledged that the Ukrainian attack set several planes ablaze at two air bases but said the military repelled attempted attacks on three other air bases. Both Zelenskyy and Putin have been eager to show U.S. President Donald Trump that they share his ambition to end the fighting -- and avoid possible punitive measures from Washington. Ukraine has accepted a U.S.-proposed ceasefire, but the Kremlin effectively rejected it. Putin has made it clear that any peace settlement has to be on his terms. Delegations from the warring sides agreed Monday to swap dead and wounded troops, but their terms for ending the war remained far apart. Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president who now serves as deputy head of the country's Security Council chaired by Putin, indicated on Tuesday that there would be no let-up in Russia's invasion. 'The Istanbul talks are not for striking a compromise peace on someone else's delusional terms but for ensuring our swift victory and the complete destruction of (Ukraine's government),' he said. In an apparent comment on the latest Ukrainian strikes, he declared that 'retribution is inevitable.' A Putin-Zelenskyy-Trump meeting `unlikely' soon, Moscow says Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to suggestions that a face-to-face meeting between Putin, Trump and Zelenskyy could break the deadlock, saying the possibility was 'unlikely in the near future.' Meanwhile, a senior Ukrainian delegation led by First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko has traveled to Washington for talks about defence, sanctions and postwar recovery, said Andrii Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential office. The delegation will meet with representatives from both major U.S. political parties, as well as with advisors to Trump, Yermak added. Ukrainians in Kyiv welcomed the strikes on Russian air bases but were gloomy about prospects for a peace agreement. 'Russia has invested too many resources in this war to just ... stop for nothing,' said serviceman Oleh Nikolenko, 43. His wife, Anastasia Nikolenko, a 38-year-old designer, said diplomacy can't stop the fighting. 'We need to show by force, by physical force, that we cannot be defeated,' she said. Russia recently expanded its attacks on Sumy and the Kharkiv region following Putin's promise to create a buffer zone along the border that might prevent long-range Ukrainian attacks hitting Russian soil. Sumy, about 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the border, had a prewar population of around 250,000. Russia's Defence Ministry claimed its troops had taken the Ukrainian village of Andriivka, close to the border in the Sumy region. Ukraine made no immediate comment on the claim, which could not be independently verified. Russia also fired rocket artillery at Chystovodivka village in the Kharkiv region, killing two people and injuring three others, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. By Illia Novikov
Free Malaysia Today
4 days ago
- General
- Free Malaysia Today
Russian rocket attack kills 2 in Ukraine's Sumy
More than 30 people were killed in a Russian ballistic missile strike on Sumy in April. (AP pic) KYIV : A Russian rocket attack on the northeastern city of Sumy killed two people today, Ukrainian officials said, the latest in a series of escalating attacks on the border region. The city has come under intense Russian bombardment as Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his troops to create a 'buffer zone' inside the Sumy region, which borders Russia. Russia fired five rockets from an MLRS system on the city at around 9am, the head of the city administration Oleg Grygorov said on social media. 'Unfortunately two people were killed,' and 20 more wounded, he said. 'The hits damaged a medical facility, cars and houses,' he added. The regional prosecutor's office posted photos showing burned out cars on a road in the city centre after the attack. Sumy is around 30km from the Russian border, and was a vital logistics hub for Ukraine's months-long offensive into Russia's Kursk region. Attacks on the city have escalated since Moscow said in April it had fully recaptured the Kursk region. More than 30 were killed there in a Russian ballistic missile strike on the city centre in April, one of the deadliest single attacks of the three-year war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that Russia was amassing some 50,000 troops for an offensive on the region. A separate Russian drone attack on Kharkiv killed one person, the prosecutor's office said, while the cities of Odesa and Chernigiv were also hit in overnight attacks.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Israeli military says it has intercepted another rocket from Yemen
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it has once again intercepted a rocket fired from Yemen. Officials said there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Alarm sirens had sounded earlier in several areas of Israel, including the coastal city of Tel Aviv and the area around Jerusalem, as well as in the occupied West Bank. For weeks, there have been repeated alarms in various locations in Israel due to rockets launched from Yemen. Most of the projectiles from the country in the south of the Arabian Peninsula have been intercepted in the air. However, three weeks ago, a projectile hit near the international airport outside Tel Aviv for the first time, resulting in several injuries. Since the beginning of the Gaza war in October 2023, the pro-Iranian Houthi militia has been regularly attacking Israel with rockets and drones in solidarity with the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement. After the end of the ceasefire in mid-March, the attacks increased. Israel responded with airstrikes on militia targets, most recently on the airport in Yemen's capital, Sanaa.
