There was no immediate Palestinian confirmation of the death of Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, a commander in the Islamic Jihad militant group
Published Date – 29 August 2024, 12:07 PM
A youth rides his bicycle past an Israeli armoured vehicle during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin. — Photo:AP
Jerusalem: The Israeli military says it has killed five more militants in a large-scale operation in the occupied West Bank, including a well-known local commander.
There was no immediate Palestinian confirmation of the death of Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, a commander in the Islamic Jihad militant group in the Nur Shams refugee camp.
The military said he was killed along with four other militants in a shootout with Israeli forces early Thursday after the five had hidden inside a mosque. It said Abu Shujaa was linked to numerous attacks on Israelis, including a deadly shooting in June, and was planning more.
He was reported killed earlier this year, but then made a surprise appearance at the funeral of other militants, where he was hoisted onto the shoulders of a cheering crowd.
The military said another militant was arrested in the operation in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, and that a member of Israel’s paramilitary Border Police was lightly wounded.
Israel launched a large-scale operation in the West Bank overnight into Wednesday. Hamas said 10 of its fighters were killed in different locations, and the Palestinian Health Ministry reported an 11th casualty, without saying whether he was a fighter or a civilian. Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’ October 7 attack out of Gaza ignited the war there.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Iran is after disposal of tensions in the West Asia region, while the Israeli regime has been contributing to intensification of regional tensions.
The top diplomat made the remarks in a telephone conversation with his Dutch counterpart Caspar Veldkamp on Wednesday.
“The Islamic Republic is after de-escalation of tensions in the West Asia region,” Araghchi said, adding, “This is while the Zionist regime’s killing and violence machine has contributed to escalation of tension and violence in the region.”
The official was referring to the regime’s October-present war against the Gaza Strip, Tel Aviv’s intensified deadly attacks on Lebanon and the occupied West Bank, and its assassination of senior resistance figures across the region.
He laid emphasis on the need for immediate cessation of the war that has so far claimed the lives of 40,534 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
For his part, the Dutch official expressed concern regarding the spiraling crises throughout the region, urging all concerned parties to exercise restraint.
“The Netherlands hopes that the cycle of violence and tension is stopped across the region, and the ground is prepared for cessation of the Palestinian people’s suffering and transfer of humanitarian aid to them,” he said.
The officials, meanwhile, addressed various issues of common interest. They underlined the need for continuation of political consultations, with Araghchi saying it was possible for the countries to expand their relations on the basis on mutual respect.
In a separate telephone conversation with his Japanese counterpart Yoko Kamikawa, Araghchi likewise described the Israeli regime’s “provocative measures” as the “main reason behind intensification of regional tensions.”
He cited the regime’s assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas’ Political Bureau chief, in the Iranian capital Tehran late last month, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “approach of [trying to] expand the war [on Gaza]” as cases in point.
“As we have stated repeatedly, we are not afraid of [potential] increase in regional tensions, but, unlike the Zionist regime, the Islamic Republic is not after expansion of tension and conflict in the region,” he said.
Kamikawa, for her part, voiced concern regarding the dangerous regional situation that has followed Haniyeh’s assassination, underscoring the need for restoration of calm.
She, meanwhile, said Tokyo was inclined to expand its mutual relations with Tehran and continue regional cooperation with the Islamic Republic.
Araghchi also stressed the need for continuation of negotiations and consultations between the countries towards further promotion of both their relations and regional cooperation.
He noted that the country’s foreign policy under its current administration featured endeavor towards development of relations with the entire world, especially the East Asian nations.
The Dutch and Japanese officials also congratulated Araghchi for his recent appointment as Iran’s top diplomat, for which he expressed his gratitude.
Secretary General of Yemen’s Ansarullah Movement Abdul-Malik al-Houthi delivered a speech on Thursday about the latest developments in the region, especially the continued aggression of the Zionist regime in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
The developments in the Gaza Strip and its expansion to the West Bank are solid evidence that once again showed the true nature of the Zionist enemy, he said, adding that Israeli invasion of the West Bank in the occupied territories and Gaza Strip shows the real process of drawing a new scene in Palestine with the support of the United States.
The continuation of the Zionist regime’s crime with all their assertiveness and genocide is a disgrace for the mankind, al-Houthi emphasized.
He also referred to the desecration of the Holy Quran by the Zionist forces in one of the mosques in the north of Gaza Strip and stated, “Whoever remains indifferent towards the Zionist forces’ tearing the Holy Quran, has no faith. Anyone who neglects the holy things and neglects them may also neglect their reputation, honor and country, and this is a dangerous situation that Muslims should reconsider it.”
The Secretary General of Yemen’s Ansarullah Movement pointed out that the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip are suffering from severe and continuous hunger and famine, while some Arab regimes are providing food to the enemy.
In order to deceive public opinion, the US government claims to support the ceasefire negotiations in the Gaza Strip, but its deception is evident and it [US] does not stop providing Israeli regime with the most lethal types of weapons to kill children and women in Gaza, the leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah Resistance Movement added.
Al Houthi further said that the Yemeni armed forces will continue to increase their military capabilities, warning the Zionist regime to await big surprises.
He further said that the sailing of the ships related to the Zionist regime, the UK, and the US in the Red Sea has decreased significantly, adding that the Yemeni armed forces will see no limit to the extent of their operations in support of Palestinians.
“Big surprises are on the way that the enemy does not expect,” the Ansarullah leader further stressed.
Al Houthi further said that Iran’s response to the martyrdom of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political chief, is definite, adding that preparations for the retaliation agains tthe Israeli enemy is underway and the response time will be surprising to the regime.
“The President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with the Acting Head of the Executive Branch of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mohammad Mokhber. Issues of further mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation in all key areas were discussed,” the statement said, Sputnik reports.
The leaders said that the bilateral energy cooperation and the implementation of large-scale infrastructure projects are developing successfully.
In addition, it is noted that Putin wished the people of Iran a successful presidential election and expressed confidence that friendly relations would develop.
All you need to know about Julian Assange and his extradinary tale of releasing classified information about US operations in Wikileaks
Published Date – 26 June 2024, 02:38 AM
File photo of Julian Assange
Washington: A plea deal with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will bring a stunning conclusion to an international saga of the quixotic hacker who exposed government secrets. The deal reached with the U.S. Justice Department will lead to freedom for Assange after spending 12 years either in self-exile or prison. A look at Assange, the case and the latest developments:
Who is Julian Assange?
An Australian editor and publisher, he is best known for having founded the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, which gained massive attention — and notoriety — for the 2010 release of almost half a million documents relating to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His activism made him a cause célèbre among press freedom advocates who said his work in exposing U.S. military misconduct in foreign countries made his activities indistinguishable from what traditional journalists are expected to do as part of their jobs. But those same actions put him in the crosshairs of American prosecutors, who released an indictment in 2019 that accused Assange — holed up at the time in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London — of conspiring with an Army private to illegally obtain and publish sensitive government records.“Julian Assange is no journalist,” John Demers, the then-top Justice Department national security official, said at the time. “No responsible actor, journalist or otherwise, would purposely publish the names of individuals he or she knew to be confidential human sources in war zones, exposing them to the gravest of dangers.”
2. What is WikiLeaks?
Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006 as a place to post confidential documents exposing corruption and revealing secret government workings behind warfare and spying.It has gone well beyond that, though, in publishing everything from Church of Scientology records to Sarah Palin’s emails to a membership list of the far-right British National Party.
It released more than 570,000 pages of messages sent on Sept. 11, 2001, that showed users frantically trying to reach loved ones near the World Trade Center or warning them not to go downtown after jets struck the towers.In 2008, a federal judge in San Francisco briefly shuttered the site after a Swiss bank accused it of posting stolen account information. The judge reversed the decision just over a week later after protests by free-speech advocates and news media organizations.
The site — and Assange — became best known in 2010 with the release of the classified U.S. military information, including chilling footage from an Apache helicopter showing people being gunned down in Baghdad as American airmen can be heard laughing about the “dead bastards.” Two Reuters journalists were among the dead and the wounded included children.
3. What is Assange accused of?
The Trump administration’s Justice Department accused Assange of directing former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in one of the largest compromises of classified information in U.S. history. The charges relate to WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of leaked military and diplomatic documents, with prosecutors accusing Assange of helping Manning steal classified diplomatic cables that they say endangered national security and of conspiring together to crack a Defense Department password.
Reports from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq published by Assange included the names of Afghans and Iraqis who provided information to American and coalition forces, prosecutors said, while the diplomatic cables he released exposed journalists, religious leaders, human rights advocates and dissidents in repressive countries.
Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted of violating the Espionage Act and other offenses for leaking classified government and military documents to WikiLeaks. President Barack Obama commuted her sentence in 2017, allowing her release after about seven years behind bars.
4. Why wasn’t he already in U.S. custody?
Assange has spent the last five years in a British high-security prison, fighting to avoid extradition to the U.S. and winning favorable court rulings that have delayed any transfer across the Atlantic. He was evicted in April 2019 from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had sought refuge seven years earlier amid an investigation by Swedish authorities into claims of sexual misconduct that he has long denied and that was later dropped. The South American nation revoked the political asylum following the charges by the U.S. government.
Despite his arrest and imprisonment by British authorities, extradition efforts by the U.S. had stalled prior to the plea deal. A U.K. judge rejected the U.S. extradition request in 2021 on the grounds that Assange was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions.
Higher courts overturned that decision after getting assurances from the U.S. about his treatment. The British government signed an extradition order in June 2022.
Then, last month, two High Court judges ruled that Assange can mount a new appeal based on arguments about whether he will receive free-speech protections or be at a disadvantage because he is not a U.S. citizen. The date of the hearing has yet to be determined.
5. What will the deal require?
Assange will have to plead guilty to a felony charge under the Espionage Act of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States, according to a Justice Department letter filed in federal court.
Rather than face the prospect of prison time in the U.S., he is expected to return to Australia after his plea and sentencing. Those proceedings are scheduled for Wednesday morning, local time in Saipan, the largest island in the Mariana Islands.
The hearing is taking place there because of Assange’s opposition to traveling to the continental U.S. and the court’s proximity to Australia.
On Monday evening, he left a British prison ahead of a court hearing expected to result in his release.
6. Is the case connected to the 2016 presidential election?
It’s not, but beyond his interactions with Manning, Assange is well-known for the role WikiLeaks played in the 2016 presidential election, when it released a massive tranche of Democratic emails that federal prosecutors say were stolen by Russian intelligence operatives.
The goal, officials have said, was to harm the electoral effort of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and boost her Republican challenger Donald Trump, who famously said during the campaign: “WikiLeaks, I love WikiLeaks.”
Assange was not charged as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. But the investigation nonetheless painted an unflattering role of WikiLeaks in advancing what prosecutors say was a brazen campaign of Russian election interference.
Assange denied in a Fox News interview that aired in January 2017 that Russians were the source of the hacked emails, though those denials are challenged by a 2018 indictment by Mueller of 12 Russian military intelligence officers.
“In order to maintain the unity of the forces of the revolution i withdraw from the election,” Ghazizadeh wrote on his X account.
“I hope that my other three brothers will also agree in the remaining time so that the front of the revolution will be strengthened,”he added.
“I am grateful to the honorable nation of Iran, the honorable Guardian Council, the Ministry of Interior and all the members of my election headquarters. May the way of dear martyr Raeisi continue in the best way,”he said.
Former justice minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi, former health minister Massoud Pezeshkian, Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf are running for president.
While expressing his deep regret for the terrorist attack on Tuesday in the Tillaberi region of Niger, which led to the death and wounding of a number of soldiers and civilians, Kan’ani expressed his condolences to the government and the Muslim nation of Niger, especially the families of the victims of this painful incident, and expressed his sympathy with them.
Kan’ani emphasized that the Islamic Republic of Iran considers terrorism a serious threat to human society and international security and emphasizes the need for cooperation and all-round efforts of the international community to deal with this common threat.
Las Vegas shooting suspect shot himself and authorities found five bodies later
Updated On – 26 June 2024, 03:13 AM
Las Vegas Shooting
Las Vegas: A man who fatally shot five people and critically injured a 13-year-old girl at apartments near Las Vegas has killed himself, authorities said Tuesday.
The North Las Vegas Police Department said the suspected shooter, 57-year-old Eric Adams, killed himself Tuesday morning as he was confronted by officers in a neighborhood. Authorities had been searching for him since Monday night’s shootings in separate apartment units.
Efforts to locate relatives of Adams for comment weren’t immediately successful.
Police said initially they found two women dead while investigating reports of a shooting late Monday at an apartment in North Las Vegas. One of them was in her early 40s and the other in her late 50s, according to the department.
While officers were investigating, the department said, they learned a teen girl had been taken to a hospital with critical gunshot wounds and that there could be more victims in a nearby apartment.
Officers then found the bodies of two women in their mid-20s and a man in his early 20s. All five victims had been shot, police said. They weren’t immediately identified.
The discovery led to an overnight search for Adams, who authorities had described as “armed and dangerous.” Just after 10 a.m. Tuesday, police learned that the suspect had been seen at a business in North Las Vegas.
As officers arrived in the area, they saw the suspect with a firearm, running into the backyard of a nearby home. The department said officers followed him, but the suspect refused to drop his weapon and died by suicide.
Police haven’t disclosed a motive for the shootings, which they described as an “isolated incident.” A spokesperson for the police department didn’t respond Tuesday to phone and emailed requests for more information.
Mokhber made the remarks in a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mokhber considered the signing of a joint memorandum regarding the transfer of gas from Russia to Iran as a major step towards deepening the relations between the two countries and an effective measure in the direction of the economic development of the region.
“The implementation of this plan will secure not only the economic interests of the two countries, but also the interests of the entire region,” Iran’s acting president said.
Mokhber further expressed his satisfaction with the progress of the implementation of the agreements between the two countries, and called the strategic bilateral relations unchangeable. He also stressed the importance of Tehran-Moscow negotiations and common views on regional issues.
He expressed hope that the efforts of the two countries to stabilize the region would achieve the desired results.
Mokhber also condemned the recent terrorist incident in Dagestan and expressed his sympathy with the Russian government and people as well as the families of the victims of this crime.
In the telephone conversation, Russian President Vladimir Putin also expressed his satisfaction with the signing of the strategic joint memorandum of understanding on gas transmission between the two countries.
He regarded this agreement to be a great event in the direction of securing the interests of the two countries and strengthening bilateral cooperation for the benefit of the regional and international markets.
The Russian president called the increase in the level of trade exchanges between the two countries satisfactory and the exchange of diplomatic delegations as the best option to lay the groundwork for the development of relations.
Stating that the Islamic Republic of Iran has proven that bilateral cooperation with this country does not remain on paper and reaches the stage of implementation, Vladimir Putin expressed his appreciation for the efforts and seriousness of the late President Raeisi’s government to develop and implement the agreements between the two countries and for the Iranian nation in the elections.
Nasser Kan’ani said the Islamic Republic of Iran denounces the coup against the bases of democracy Thursday.
Iran also censures aggression against the democratic bodies in Bolivia and the legitimate government of that country, Kanaani noted.
He went on to say that the Islamic Republic of Iran reiterates the restoration of order and law in Bolivia and the return of power to the Bolivian legitimate government.
Bolivian President Luis Arce stared down a short-lived attempted coup on Wednesday, after calling on the public to “organize and mobilize” in defense of democracy as soldiers and armored military vehicles withdrew from surrounding government buildings in La Paz.
Bolivian police have arrested the leader of an attempted coup.
