International News

Iran Fires Missiles At Israel In New Escalation

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1 year ago

October 1, 2024

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Iran launched a barrage of missiles at Israel on Tuesday in response to the killings of Iran-backed militant leaders, sending Israelis to shelters and prompting alarm across the region.

“A short while ago, missiles were launched from Iran towards the State of Israel,” the Israeli military said in a statement, as sirens sounded across Israel.

After about an hour, the military announced there was no longer a threat and “it was decided that it is now permitted to leave protected spaces in all areas across the country”, with a “large number” of Iranian missiles intercepted.

Reports said between 150 and 200 missiles had been fired in the attack.

It was Iran’s second on Israel after a missile and drone attack in April in response to a deadly Israeli air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damasc

AFP journalists reported hearing explosions over Jerusalem, while rescuers said two people were lightly injured by shrapnel in central Israel.

Iran’s official news agency IRNA said the Islamic republic had launched “a missile attack on Tel Aviv”, Israel’s commercial hub.

Its Revolutionary Guards Corps said the attack was in response to Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week as well as the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a Tehran bombing widely blamed on Israel.

UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned the “broadening conflict in the Middle East”, adding in a statement: “This must stop. We absolutely need a ceasefire.”

Israeli airspace was closed with all flights diverted, a spokesman for the airport authority said.

Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan, which lie between Iran and Israel, closed their airspace too.

As the missiles made their way to Israel from the east, blasts were heard over the Jordanian capital Amman, as Israel’s allies moved to intercept them, an AFP correspondent said.

This picture taken from the West Bank city of Hebron shows projectiles above the Israeli city of Ashdod on October 1, 2024. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP)

Jordan said its air defences responded to missiles and drones.

US President Joe Biden ordered the military to “aid Israel’s defence” and shoot down Iranian missiles, the White House said.

While Iran-backed groups across the region had already been drawn into the Gaza war, sparked by Palestinian group Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, Tehran had largely refrained from direct attacks on its regional foe.

Lebanon raids

Early Tuesday, the Israeli military said troops had started “targeted ground raids” in south Lebanon, across Israel’s northern border, though officials have provided few details of the scale of the operation or its timeframe.

The Israeli ground offensive came despite growing calls for de-escalation after a week of air strikes that killed hundreds in Lebanon, including Hassan Nasrallah, the powerful leader of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Iran has said Nasrallah’s killing will bring about Israel’s “destruction”, though the foreign ministry said Monday that Tehran would not deploy any troops to confront Israel.

The Pentagon said the United States was boosting its forces in the Middle East by a “few thousand” troops.

In Lebanon, the UN peacekeeping mission said the Israeli offensive did not amount to a “ground incursion” and Hezbollah denied any troops had crossed the border.

A Lebanese army source told AFP the force had “not observed any penetration by Israeli enemy forces”.

There was no way to immediately verify the claims, which came as Israel struck south Beirut, Damascus and Gaza, despite international calls for restraint to avoid a regional conflagration.

“We fear a large-scale ground invasion by Israel into Lebanon would only result in greater suffering,” said UN human rights office spokeswoman Liz Throssell.

Israel’s defence minister warned the fight was far from over, even after a massive strike on Beirut killed Nasrallah on Friday.

Israel seeks to dismantle Hezbollah’s military capabilities and restore security to the north, where tens of thousands have been displaced by nearly a year of cross-border fire.

This picture shows projectiles being intercepted by Israel above Jerusalem on October 1, 2024. (Photo by Menahem Kahana / AFP)

The Iran-backed group, which suffered heavy losses in a spate of attacks last month, said it targeted an Israeli intelligence base near Tel Aviv and other military facilities on Tuesday, as air raid sirens sounded and blasts rang out in the coastal city.

Separately, a suspected shooting attack in Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening killed at least four people, police said.

‘Cease hostilities’

World leaders called for de-escalation after Israel announced the launch of its ground operation.

China said it opposed “infringements on Lebanon’s sovereignty”, while Russia said it “calls on the Israeli authorities to immediately cease hostilities”.

Austin gave Washington’s backing to Israel “dismantling attack infrastructure along the border”, though President Joe Biden had earlier said he opposed a ground invasion.

“We should have a ceasefire now,” said Biden, whose government is Israel’s top arms provider.

Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad said more than 1,000 people have been killed since September 17.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the UN humanitarian agency appealed for more than $400 million in aid for the displaced, estimating there could be as many as one million.

Hezbollah began low intensity strikes on Israeli troops a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which triggered Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza.

In central Beirut, Youssef Amir, displaced from southern Lebanon, said: “I have lost my home and relatives in this war, but all of that is a sacrifice for Lebanon, for Hezbollah”.

Beirut resident Elie Jabour, 27, told AFP that despite opposing Hezbollah “politically… I support them defending the border”.

Later, as Iran launched missiles, celebratory gunfire erupted from Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanese state media said. An AFP correspondent also reported the sound of gunfire from the Hezbollah bastion.

Gaza strikes

In Gaza, the civil defence agency said Israeli bombing killed 19 people on Tuesday.

Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,638 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

Hamas appealed for “global solidarity with Gaza and Lebanon” in rallies planned for the war’s first anniversary on Monday.

AFP

International News

Israel Says It had Struck Two Naval Missile Production Sites In Tehran

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7 hours ago

March 25, 2026

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The Israeli military announced on Wednesday it had struck two naval cruise missile production facilities operating under Iran’s ministry of defence in Tehran.

“In recent days, the Israeli air force acting on IDF intelligence struck two key naval cruise missile production sites in Tehran,” the military said.

It said the facilities were used to “develop and manufacture long-range naval cruise missiles, which are capable of rapidly destroying targets at sea and on land”.

The strikes “represent another step in deepening the damage done to the regime’s military production infrastructure”, the military added.

Last week, the military announced its fighter jets had struck several Iranian naval ships in the Caspian Sea, including vessels equipped with anti-submarine missiles.

AFP

International News

2025 ‘Deadliest Year’ Yet For Red Sea Migrants, UN Reports 922 Deaths

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7 hours ago

March 25, 2026

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The number of migrants who died on the “Eastern Route” from the Horn of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula doubled to a record high of 922 last year, the UN migration agency said Wednesday.

Tens of thousands of migrants from Ethiopia, Somalia and neighbouring countries take the route across the Red Sea each year, mostly from Djibouti to Yemen, in search of work as labourers or domestic workers in wealthy Gulf countries.

“2025 was the deadliest year ever recorded on the Eastern migration route… with 922 people dead or missing — double the number from the previous year,” Tanja Pacifico, head of mission for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Djibouti, told AFP.

The majority of victims were from Ethiopia, the second most-populous country in Africa with more than 130 million people. It is plagued by multiple internal conflicts and deep poverty.

“IOM remains fully committed to working alongside the government of Djibouti to promote safe and dignified migration pathways, in order to prevent further tragedies,” said Pacifico.

Many migrants who cross the Red Sea find themselves stuck in Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula, which has been embroiled in a civil war for nearly a decade, and some even choose to return.

Rapid economic growth in Ethiopia — estimated to reach around 10 percent in 2026 — could encourage less migration, IOM says, but that is mitigated by high inflation, also around 10 percent in February.

AFP

International News

Denmark Faces Lengthy Negotiations To Form A Government

Published

7 hours ago

March 25, 2026

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Election workers recount ballots in the Marselisborg Hallen in Aarhus, Denmark on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Mikkel Berg Pedersen / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) /

Denmark’s political parties began the thorny process of forming a government Wednesday, with the centrist Moderates as kingmaker after the prime minister’s Social Democrats scraped through a general election without a majority.

Greenland’s Inuit Ataqatigiit party member Naaja Nathanielsen (C) looks on in a polling station in Nuuk, on March 24, 2026, during the parliamentary election in Denmark (Photo by Oscar Scott Carl / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) / Denmark OUT

Danes were braced for a weeks-long process as Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen seeks to consolidate power in the deeply splintered parliament after Tuesday’s snap vote.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen arrives at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen to inform the king about the election result one day after the parliamentary election on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Martin Sylvest / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)

A left-wing bloc made up of five parties, including Frederiksen’s Social Democrats, won 84 seats; the right-wing and far-right claimed 77; and the Moderates won 14 in the election.

The Social Democrats posted their worst election score since 1903—though they remained Denmark’s largest single party, with 38 seats in the 179-seat parliament.

Chairwoman of the Social Democrats Mette Frederiksen attends a party leader debate hosted by Publicists’ Club one the day after the parliamentary election at the Confederation of Danish Industry’s building in Copenhagen on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Liselotte Sabroe / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)

Frederiksen formally tendered her coalition government’s resignation to King Frederik on Wednesday, telling a televised party leader debate she wanted to try to form a centre-left government.

“The most realistic scenario” would be a coalition with the five parties on the left and the centre-right Moderates, she said.

But it is not certain the Moderates, led by Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, would agree to that.

“I don’t believe that Denmark needs policies aligned with” the leftist Red-Green Alliance, Lokke said.

Chairman of the Moderates Lars Loekke Rasmussen attends a party leader debate at the Confederation of Danish Industry’s building in Copenhagen on March 25, 2026, the day after the parliamentary election. (Photo by Liselotte Sabroe / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP) / Denmark OUT

King Frederik was to meet party leaders individually later Wednesday to determine who should be asked to try to form the next government.

“My expectation is that Mette Frederiksen will become prime minister,” University of Copenhagen political science professor Rune Stubager told reporters.

“But I don’t know with the backing of which parties, like the left wing or the right wing,” he said.

He noted that Lokke, a two-time former prime minister, would likely vie for the position of prime minister, even though he has adamantly denied any interest in the job.

“Danes want me and not another prime minister. I still have the backing to be able to continue on behalf of the Danish people,” Frederiksen insisted during the debate.

Frederiksen has for the past four years headed an unprecedented left-right coalition made up of her Social Democrats, the Moderates and the Liberals.

The Liberals have refused to continue in a Social Democrat-led government.

‘Too Hard To Say’

Danes are now prepared for long negotiations. After the 2022 election, the talks lasted six weeks.

“It’s a long process, which means the government won’t be formed and it will be quite difficult to pass laws during this period,” lamented Jesper Dyrfjeld Christensen, a 54-year-old engineer.

“It’s really too hard to say who will be part of the coalition,” admitted Stubager.

With 12 parties in parliament, the political landscape is jagged — though Denmark is accustomed to minority governments.

“To some extent, this is the way Danish politics works. You have a minority government in the centre which forms a majority with the left on some issues and with the right on others,” he explained.

The negotiations are expected to focus on economic and pension issues, pollution and immigration, he said.

The traditional far-right party, the Danish People’s Party, which has heavily influenced policy since the late 1990s but slumped in the 2022 election, more than tripled its result to 9.1 per cent of votes.

The three anti-immigration groups together garnered 17 per cent, a stable figure for Denmark’s populist right over the past two decades.

“If negotiations take place in the left-wing bloc with the moderates, then there will be more focus on green issues than on immigration,” Stubager said.

“But if, instead, the Moderates negotiate with the parties on the right, then the central issue will be immigration.”

Four seats in Denmark’s parliament are held by its two autonomous territories — two for Greenland and two for the Faroe Islands.

While the Faroese renewed the mandates of the two outgoing lawmakers, with one for each bloc, Greenland overwhelmingly backed the left-wing party and Naleraq, which advocates rapid independence from Denmark.

AFP