TEHRAN — A top Iranian military commander said on Saturday his country had, some time ago, hit 12 Israeli vessels north of the Indian Ocean and elsewhere in response to Israel’s attacks on 14 Iranian ships, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.
Hossein Salami, chief commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), made the remarks during a meeting in the capital Tehran between Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and commanders of the Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, an Iranian firm controlled by the IRGC.
He was detailing a maritime battle between Iran and Israel that occurred sometime after the reimposition of U.S. sanctions on Tehran in 2018, though he did not specify the exact dates of the battle or related events.
According to Salami, Israel hit 14 Iranian ships to disrupt Iran’s oil exports. “Initially, we did not realize who or which country was targeting the ships, but we eventually found out that it was Israel that had done it in a secretive and vague manner.”
“North of the Indian Ocean and in different places, we hit 12 Israeli ships. After hitting the fifth vessel, they raised their hands in surrender and said they would cease the war between the ships,” he said.
CAIRO — Three Lebanese paramedics were killed and two others wounded, one critically, in an Israeli attack while they were extinguishing fires in the southern town of Faroun, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Saturday.
“Israeli forces targeted a team from the Lebanese Civil Defence as they responded to fires sparked by recent Israeli airstrikes,” a ministry statement said, specifying that the strike hit a fire truck.
It condemned the attack as a “blatant strike” on an official Lebanese state apparatus, marking the second such attack on an emergency team in less than 12 hours.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
Hezbollah issued a statement late on Saturday, saying they launched a “squadron of missiles” in response to the attack, targeting the headquarters of Israel’s 91st Division, which is responsible for its northern border, “hitting offices and soldiers with precision.”
The intensity of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel has ratcheted up steadily, displacing tens of thousands of people on either side of the Lebanese-Israeli frontier.
The conflict erupted after Hamas launched an attack on Israeli territory on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages into the Gaza Strip. Since then, Hezbollah has been drawn into cross-border clashes in southern Lebanon.
NEW DELHI — At least four people died and nearly 20 others were injured when a three-storey building collapsed in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, a local official said.
The accident occurred in Transport Nagar area of the state capital Lucknow, the official said.
Rescue work was ongoing at the spot. So far, nearly 25 people have been rescued from under the debris of the collapsed building. A few people were still feared to be trapped under the rubble.
NEW DELHI — At least six people were killed in fresh violence in the northeastern state of Manipur, the state-run broadcaster All India Radio said Saturday.
According to the broadcaster, a civilian was killed Saturday in sleep at home in Nungchappi village of Jiribam district, about 229 km west of Imphal, the capital city of Manipur.
Later, a gunfight took place in Nungchepi area between two groups. In the gunfight, four persons including three suspected militants were killed, the report said.
On Friday, a civilian was killed and six others wounded in a bomb blast in Moirang town of Bishnupur district.
On Friday night, a large number of people gheraoed two Manipur Rifles battalions situated at different places and tried to loot arms and ammunition. However, government forces controlled the situation and dispersed the public.
Police in Manipur deployed an anti-drone system nearly a week after suspected Kuki insurgents attacked villages in Imphal West district with weaponized drones.
Manipur has been on edge since May 3 last year when large-scale violence broke out in the state during a tribal protest over the inclusion of the non-tribal Meitei community for a scheduled tribe status, which is designated for disadvantaged socio-economic groups and gives them reservations in education and government jobs.
Last year, ethnic clashes between the majority Meitei group and the tribal Kuki minority displaced over 60,000 people.
More than 5,000 pieces of weapons were taken away from various police stations and other places in the state following violence.
From both communities, armed men calling themselves “village defense volunteers” are often attacking each other and government forces.
Violence in the state between the rival armed groups has so far claimed over 200 lives and injured over 1,100 others.
DHAKA — The death toll from dengue fever in Bangladesh so far this year is nearing the 100 mark, official figures showed.
The Bangladeshi government Saturday confirmed another 3 deaths from dengue fever, bringing the total number of fatalities in the country since January to 95.
According to the Ministry of Health, the deaths included 12 in September, 27 in August, 12 in July and 8 in June.
From Sept. 1 to Sept. 7, 2,366 more dengue cases were recorded after 6,521 people were infected last month.
A total of 403 fresh dengue cases were reported in the 24 hours till 8:00 a.m. local time Saturday, the data showed.
The total number of dengue fever cases reported since the start of January reached 15,207.
The June-September monsoon period is the season of dengue fever in Bangladesh, which is considered a high-risk country prone to the mosquito-borne disease.
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by dengue virus. Symptoms may include high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pain and characteristic skin rash.
A French Gendarmerie vehicle is parked near a building complex where an individual killed his partner and their two children and injured two pedestrians in a nearby street during knife attack before being arrested shortly after, in the town of Mormant, on Sept. 7, 2024. (AFP)
PARIS — A French man with a history of mental illness on Saturday fatally stabbed his partner and their two children and injured two pedestrians in a small town outside Paris, officials said.
The man was arrested at around 6.30 a.m. by a police officer as he was attacking passers-by with a knife in Mormant, a small town located 60 kilometers southeast of Paris, said the local public prosecutor.
One pedestrian was wounded in the arm and another in the neck, but their injuries were not life-threatening, public prosecutor Jean-Michel Bourles told AFP.
After the attacker was apprehended he said he had killed his wife and their two children, according to the public prosecutor and sources close to the case.
At the man’s home, the police found the bodies of his partner and their two children, aged five and 22 months.
Bourles said that the man had no criminal record, but had a history of mental illness. The attacker was taken to hospital to assess his condition.
On average, a woman is killed every three days in France.
According to the justice ministry, 94 women were killed by their partner or ex-partner in France in 2023, compared with 118 in 2022.
In 2023, more than 60 children were killed by their parents, according to the La Voix de l’Enfant (Voice of the Child) association.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Islamic countries should form an alliance against what he called “the growing threat of expansionism” from Israel. (AP)
ISTANBUL — Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Islamic countries should form an alliance against what he called “the growing threat of expansionism” from Israel.
He made the comment after describing what Palestinian and Turkish officials said was the killing by Israeli troops of a Turkish-American woman taking part in a protest on Friday against settlement expansion in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“The only step that will stop Israeli arrogance, Israeli banditry, and Israeli state terrorism is the alliance of Islamic countries,” Erdogan said at an Islamic schools’ association event near Istanbul.
He said recent steps that Turkiye has taken to improve ties with Egypt and Syria are aimed at “forming a line of solidarity against the growing threat of expansionism,” which he said also threatened Lebanon and Syria.
Erdogan hosted Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Ankara this week and they discussed the Gaza war and ways to further repair their long-frozen ties during what was the first such presidential visit in 12 years.
Ties between them started thawing in 2020 when Turkiye began diplomatic efforts to ease tensions with estranged regional rivals, including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Erdogan said in July that Turkiye would extend an invitation to Syrian President Bashar Assad “any time” for possible talks to restore relations between the two neighbors, who severed ties in 2011 after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war.
Israel did not immediately comment on Erdogan’s remarks on Saturday.
Israel’s military said after Friday’s incident that it was looking into reports that a female foreign national “was killed as a result of shots fired in the area.
The details of the incident and the circumstances in which she was hit are under review.
There was no immediate comment on Friday’s incident from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
A Palestinian boy wounded in an Israeli strike receives treatment at al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 4, 2024. (REUTERS)
CAIRO — Israeli military strikes across the Palestinian Gaza Strip killed at least 61 people in the space of 24 hours, local medics said on Saturday, as Israeli forces battled Hamas-led militants in the territory.
Eleven months into the war, numerous rounds of diplomacy have so far failed to clinch a ceasefire deal to end the conflict and bring the release of Israeli and foreign hostages held in Gaza as well as many Palestinians jailed in Israel.
An Israeli air strike in on the Halima Al-Sa’diyya school compound serving as a shelter for displaced people in the Jabalia urban refugee camp killed at least eight people and wounded 15 others, medics said.
The Israeli military said the strike had targeted a Hamas command center inside the compound.
It accused Hamas of repeatedly exploiting civilians and civilian infrastructure for military purposes, an allegation Hamas denies.
Five more people were killed in a strike on a house in Gaza City.
The armed wings of the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah groups said they had fought Israeli troops in Gaza City, in central areas and in the south with anti-tank rockets and mortars, and in some incidents detonated bombs to target tanks and other army vehicles.
The two warring sides continued to blame one another for the failure of mediators, including Qatar, Egypt and the United States, to broker a ceasefire.
The US is preparing to present a new proposal, but the prospects of a breakthrough appear dim as gaps between the sides remain large. CIA Director William Burns, the chief US negotiator, told an event in London that a more detailed proposal would be made in the coming days.
PAUSES IN FIGHTING LET POLIO VACCINATIONS CONTINUE
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was incumbent on both Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which ran Gaza before the war and was responsible for the Oct. 7 killing spree against Jews in Israel that triggered it, to make concessions to reach a deal.
On Saturday, senior Hamas official Hossam Badran said the group had made no new demands and remained committed to a July 2 proposal put forward by the United States, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of attaching new conditions that would not end the war.
Netanyahu says it was Hamas that introduced unacceptable conditions.
Despite the deadlock, the United Nations, in collaboration with local health authorities, has pursued a campaign to vaccinate 640,000 children in Gaza after its first polio case in around 25 years.
Limited pauses in the fighting have allowed the campaign to proceed.
UN officials said they were making progress, having reached over half of the children needing the drops in the first two stages in the southern and central Gaza Strip.
On Sunday, the campaign will move to the northern Gaza Strip. A second round of vaccination will be required four weeks after the first.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on the enclave has killed over 40,900 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while also displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations at the World Court, which Israel denies.
A vehicle removes fallen branches on a street in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province, Sept. 7, 2024. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)
HAIKOU — As of 3 p.m. Saturday, Super Typhoon Yagi has killed four people and injured 95 others in south China’s Hainan Province, local authorities said at a press conference on Saturday evening.
More than 526,000 people across Hainan have been affected by the typhoon, according to the provincial emergency management department.
Yagi, the 11th typhoon of the year, made landfall twice on Friday, first striking Hainan Province and later Guangdong Province.
Most areas in Hainan have been affected to varying degrees, resulting in losses to infrastructure, industries and agriculture, and impacting the production and lives of residents, according to the press conference.
So far, losses in highway facilities, water transportation, road transportation, civil aviation and ongoing transport projects across Hainan have climbed to a total of 728 million yuan (about 102.6 million U.S. dollars). Among these losses, 26 national and provincial trunk roads and 103 other highways, totaling more than 400 kilometers, have been damaged. Waterway passenger stations and equipment have suffered severe damage, while airports and key, ongoing related construction projects have also incurred losses.
As of 5 p.m. Saturday, the provincial capital of Haikou has evacuated some 105,500 residents due to the typhoon, and over 400 houses have collapsed and more than 32,000 houses have been damaged. Over 167,800 trees in the city have been uprooted and 56,742 hectares of crops have been affected, resulting in direct economic losses of more than 26.3 billion yuan.
Over 2,200 workers have been mobilized to restore power to more than 1.5 million affected households. By 7 a.m. Saturday, over one-fifth of affected households had been reconnected to the grid.
Road repairs are also underway, with 51 of 89 blocked main roads now cleared. High-speed rail services circling the island are expected to resume on Saturday afternoon, while ferry services across the Qiongzhou Strait are anticipated to restart by Sunday evening.
Haikou Meilan International Airport will remain closed until noon on Sunday due to the remnants of Typhoon Yagi. Sanya Phoenix International Airport began gradually resuming flights at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
Rescue teams are racing to restore communication networks after more than 12,500 base stations were damaged across Hainan, with Wenchang City suffering the worst disruption to communication facilities.
In Guangdong Province, Yagi had forced the relocation of 729,954 people by noon on Saturday, according to the provincial flood, drought and typhoon control authorities.
Yagi has also wreaked havoc in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, forcing the evacuation of about 60,000 residents. As of 11 a.m. on Saturday, over 107,000 households remained without power.
Heavy rains lashed over 30 townships and strong gales affected more than 110 townships in the region, with Jiao’an Township recording the highest rainfall at 140.6 millimeters.
Authorities have issued flood alerts as water levels in several rivers continue to rise.
On Saturday morning, China’s National Meteorological Center renewed its red alert — its highest alert level — for Yagi.
It is expected to bring torrential rain to parts of Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong and Hainan from Saturday afternoon through Sunday afternoon.
This undated family photo provided by the International Solidarity Movement on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, shows Aysenur Ezgi Eygi of Seattle. (Courtesy of the Eygi family/International Solidarity Movement via AP)
JERUSALEM — The family of a Turkish-American woman shot dead while demonstrating against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank demanded an independent investigation into her death on Saturday, accusing the Israeli military of killing her “violently.”
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was “shot in the head” while participating in a demonstration in Beita in the West Bank on Friday.
“Her presence in our lives was taken needlessly, unlawfully, and violently by the Israeli military,” Eygi’s family said in a statement. “A US citizen, Aysenur was peacefully standing for justice when she was killed by a bullet that video shows came from an Israeli military shooter.
“We call on President (Joe) Biden, Vice President (Kamala) Harris, and Secretary of State (Antony) Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a US citizen and to ensure full accountability for the guilty parties.”
The Israeli military said its forces “responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them” during the protest.
Eygi was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a pro-Palestinian organization, and was in Beita on Friday for a weekly demonstration against Israeli settlements, according to ISM.
In recent years, pro-Palestinian demonstrators have frequently held weekly protests against the Eviatar settlement outpost overlooking Beita, which is backed by far-right Israeli ministers.
During Friday’s protest, Eygi was shot in the head, according to the UN rights office and Rafidia hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Turkiye said she was killed by “Israeli occupation soldiers,” with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemning the Israeli action as “barbaric.”
Washington called it a “tragic” event and has pressed its close ally Israel to investigate.
But her family has demanded an independent probe.
“Given the circumstances of Aysenur’s killing, an Israeli investigation is not adequate,” her family said.
Her family said Eygi always advocated “an end to the violence against the people of Palestine.”
Israeli settlements in the West Bank — where about 490,000 people live — are illegal under international law.
Since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel which triggered the war in Gaza, Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 690 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
At least 23 Israelis, including security forces, have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period, according to Israeli officials.
