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US says killed senior Daesh element in Syria strike

Daesh

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said the airstrike killed Usamah Jamal Muhammad Ibrahim al-Janabi.

“His death will disrupt ISIS’s ability to resource and conduct terror attacks,” CENTCOM said in a statement on the social platform X.

“CENTCOM, alongside allies and partners in the region, will continue to execute operations to degrade ISIS operational capabilities and ensure its enduring defeat,” it added.

CENTCOM noted there was no indication that any civilians were harmed in the strike.

The U.S. has continued to target leaders of Daesh, the terrorist group that has recently resurged and bombed Iran and Russia this year, killing dozens of people.

At the end of May, U.S. African Command announced an airstrike in Somalia targeted Daesh militants, killing at least three fighters.

Israel should be ‘scared’ of all-out war against Lebanon: Hezbollah chief

Hezbollah

Nasrallah’s remarks on Wednesday come amid soaring tensions at the Lebanon-Israel border after Israeli officials reiterated that Tel Aviv is ready for an all-out war against the armed group.

“All what the enemy says and the threats and warnings the mediators bring – and what is being said in the Israeli media – about a war in Lebanon does not scare us,” Nasrallah said in a speech via video feed.

He added that Israel is the party that should be “scared”.

Israeli Foreign Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday raised the prospect of a major conflict with the Lebanese group after Hezbollah released surveillance drone footage showing major infrastructure and military sites in northern Israel.

“We are very close to the moment of decision to change the rules against Hezbollah and Lebanon. In an all-out war, Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will be severely hit,” Katz wrote in a social media post.

“The State of Israel will pay a price on the front and home fronts, but with a strong and united nation, and the full power of the [Israeli military], we will restore security to the residents of the north.”

On Wednesday, Nasrallah stressed Hezbollah’s military capabilities, saying that the group has acquired new weapons and has an abundance of drones that it manufactures locally.

“The enemy knows well that we have prepared ourselves for the most difficult days,” he continued, adding, “The enemy knows well what awaits it, and that’s why it has been deterred so far. And it knows that there will be no place in the [country] that would be spared our rockets and drones. And it won’t be indiscriminate bombing: every rocket – a target.”

Nasrallah also suggested that Hezbollah may send ground forces into Israeli-occupied territories.

“There is a lot of fear from the enemy that the resistance would invade northern Israel, and this is a standing possibility that remains present in the context of any war imposed on Lebanon,” he stated.

The Iran-aligned Lebanese organisation started attacking military bases in northern Israel on the day after the outbreak of the war on Gaza on October 7 in what it says is a “support front” to back Palestinian armed groups.

Nasrallah stressed that the Lebanese front is making a difference in the broader confrontation against Israel and drawing Israeli military resources away from Gaza.

Nasrallah also issued a warning to Cyprus, a European Union member that sits in the eastern Mediterranean west of the Lebanese and Israeli coasts.

He said the group has information that Israel is conducting military exercises in Cyprus in similar terrains to south Lebanon.

Nasrallah added that Israel plans to use airports and bases in Cyprus for military purposes if its military infrastructure is attacked during a major war.

“Opening Cypriot airports and bases for the Israeli enemy to target Lebanon means the Cypriot government has become part of the war, and the resistance will deal with it as part of the war,” he stated without elaborating.

Nasrallah also warned that the group would open a naval front against Israel in the Mediterranean.

He added that Hezbollah will continue its continuing attacks against Israeli targets, saying that the solution to the crisis is “clear”: ending the Israeli war on Gaza.

More than 37,000 people have been killed in the Israeli assault on Gaza since October, according to Palestinian health officials.

Israel launched the war on October 7 after Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza, led an attack on southern Israel, killing at least 1,200 people and seizing about 250 others as captives.

Nasrallah defended Hamas for making its own demands on a multiphased United States-led proposal that Washington says would lead to an “enduring ceasefire”.

He said the US plan has an “obvious” gap that would allow Israel to resume the war after the first stage of the proposal, which would see the release of some Israeli captives held by Hamas.

Hundreds of Hajj pilgrims die of extreme heat

Hajj

At least 550 people have died on haj, diplomats told French outlet Agence France Presse (AFP). Three hundred and twenty-three of the dead were Egyptians, most of whom perished due to heat-related illness, AFP reported, citing two Arab diplomats.

Stampedes, tent fires and other accidents have caused hundreds of deaths during haj to Saudi Arabia in the past 30 years.

Saudi state TV said temperatures rose on Monday as high as 51.8 degrees Celsius (125.2 Fahrenheit) in the shade at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

A 2024 study by the Journal of Travel and Medicine found that rising global temperatures may outpace strategies to deal with the heat. A 2019 study by Geophysical Research Letters said that as temperatures rise in arid Saudi Arabia due to climate change, pilgrims performing haj will face “extreme danger”.

Thirty-five Tunisian citizens have died during the haj, Tunisian news agency Tunis Afrique Presse said on Tuesday.

Many of those deaths were due to extreme heat, family members said on social media, as other families continued to search for missing relatives in Saudi hospitals.

The Jordanian foreign ministry announced it had issued 41 burial permits for Jordanian pilgrims on Tuesday. Earlier, the ministry said at least six Jordanian citizens died of heat stroke during the haj.

Eleven Iranians have died and 24 were hospitalized during the pilgrimage, Iranian state news outlet IRINN reported without giving the causes of death.

Three Senegalese citizens also died during haj, Agence de Presse Sénégalaise, said on Monday.

One hundred and forty-four Indonesian citizens died during the pilgrimage, Indonesian health ministry data showed on Tuesday. The data did not specify if any of the deaths were due to heat stroke.

Iran and Russia hold security consultations in Tehran

Iran and Russia Flags

ISNA news agency reported that Deputy Secretary of Russia’s National Security Council Aleksander Vendiktov arrived in Tehran to participate in a meeting with his Iranian counterpart at the head of a delegation.

Tehran and Moscow have expanded their security cooperation in recent years.

Iran’s national volleyball team climbs up 2 spots in world ranking

Iran volleyball

ISNA news agency said the third week of the 2024 Nations League’s preliminary stage started on Tuesday, June 18 in the cities of Ljubljana in Slovenia (fifth group) and Manila in the Philippines (sixth group).

The Iranian national volleyball team played in the first match on Wednesday (June 19) against the US and won 3-2.

The Iranian national team that were ranked 17th with 177.73 points before this match, gained 12.38 points after defeating the US.

Iran’s national volleyball team are currently in 15th place in the World Volleyball Federation ranking with 190.11 points and have temporarily surpassed the national teams of Turkey and Belgium.

The Iranian team will face the Netherlands at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 20, in their 10th match in the 2024 Nations League.

Russia and North Korea sign mutual defence pact during Putin visit

Putin Kim

Putin and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong-un, signed a strategic partnership which will serve as a roadmap for future cooperation in all spheres, from cultural and tourist ties, to trade, economic relations and security, the Russian leader has stated, calling it “truly a breakthrough.”

“The document on comprehensive partnership that we have signed today provides, among other things, for mutual aid in case of aggression against one of the participants,” the president added.

Moscow supports Pyongyang’s intention to protect its security and sovereignty from possible Western aggression, which is its right, Putin said. The country considers the US and its allies responsible for the increasing tensions in the region, he continued.

“Overused Western propaganda tropes can no longer hide their aggressive geopolitical intentions, including in Northwestern Asia.”

Putin noted that Western nations were supplying advanced weapons to Ukraine and have given Kiev the green light to strike Russia. Under these circumstances, “Russia does not rule out the development of military cooperation with the DPRK under the document signed today.”

He denounced the “indefinite restrictions regime” imposed on North Korea by the UN Security Council, which includes an arms embargo, as “orchestrated by the US” and urged for it to be revised.

The Russian president had previously warned the West over Kiev’s desire to use donated weapons to conduct attacks deep inside Russia. Should that happen, Moscow could send similar types of weapons to enemies of the West, which could use them to strike the military assets of the US and its allies, he stressed earlier this month.

Pyongyang has an “objective and balanced” stance on the Ukraine conflict and sees its core causes, which proves North Korea’s independence and sovereignty, Putin said. The two nations are also on the same page in supporting “a more just and democratic multipolar world” that should replace the previous Western-centric system.

”We will continue to oppose the imposition of strangling sanctions, which the West has turned into a tool of maintaining its hegemony in politics, the economy and other areas,” the president vowed.

Recalling the lengthy record of Russian cooperation with North Korea, Putin noted the role that the Soviet Union played in the fight against Imperial Japan during the Second World War and the reconstruction efforts following the Korean civil war, which split the Korean Peninsula between two rivals. Moscow was the party with which Pyongyang signed its first international agreement 75 years ago, he added.

China slams NATO as Cold War relic amid warnings on Russia aid

NATO

“China’s objective and just position and constructive role are widely recognized by the international community,” he said at a briefing, commenting on NATO Director General Jens Stoltenberg’s warnings to China not to aid Russia in the Ukrainian conflict.

According to the diplomat, the alliance is “the legacy of the Cold War,” which should “reflect on itself, rather than smear and attack China”.

“China is not a creator of or a party to the Ukraine crisis,” the diplomat recalled, reiterating that Beijing advocates for the peaceful settlement to the conflict.”

The representatives of the collective West try to accuse China of supporting Russia on a regular basis.

According to US State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller, the US is ready to adopt measures against China for allegedly supplying Russia with spare parts to help in the production of military hardware. He believes that this is a “threat not just to Ukraine but to European security.”

Israel approves plans for military operation in Lebanon

Israeli Army

A military statement said the head of Israel’s Northern Command Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin and chief of its Operations Directorate Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk approved plans for the attack in a development that comes after months of cross-border attacks between the two sides.

According to the statement, the two generals assessed and approved the “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon”.

They also made decisions on “accelerating the readiness of the forces on the ground,” it added.

This comes hours after Hezbollah published a video of what it said was footage gathered by one of its reconnaissance drones of military locations in Haifa.

The nine-minute video showed several locations of military contractor Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, air defense sites, Iron Dome batteries and David’s Sling military systems.

It also listed the docks and airports of the city of Haifa, along with a naval base, submarine pier and the Israeli Sa’ar 4.5 and 5-class missile boats.

Tensions have risen along Lebanon’s border with Israel amid cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and Israeli forces as Tel Aviv pressed ahead with its deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 37,300 people since last October following an attack by Palestinian group Hamas.

Biden admin. cancels meeting with Israel officials over Iran

Biden Netanyahu

President Joe Biden’s top advisers were enraged by the video — a message US envoy Amos Hochstein delivered personally to Netanyahu in a meeting hours after it was published, two US and Israeli sources say.

Then the White House decided to go a step farther by canceling Thursday’s meeting.

“This decision makes it clear that there are consequences for pulling such stunts,” a US official said.

“The Americans are fuming. Bibi’s video made a lot of damage,” a senior Israeli official stated, using a nickname for Netanyahu.

Some Israeli officials were already en route to Washington when the meeting was cancelled.

Two US officials told Axios the meeting was canceled to send a message about the video. A third claimed the meeting was postponed rather than canceled, due to a scheduling issue.

Speaking in English, Netanyahu declared in the video that it was “inconceivable that in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel”.

In public, the White House expressed bafflement. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre noted that only one weapons shipment had been paused since the war began, while billions of dollars of weapons had flowed unimpeded.

“We genuinely do not know what he is talking about,” she added.

In private, Biden’s team was angry and shocked by Netanyahu’s ingratitude, according to one US official.

Hochstein was already scheduled to meet with Netanyahu on Tuesday during a stop in Israel on the way back from Beirut, where he was trying to de-escalate the situation on the Israel-Lebanon border.

Once in the room, he told Netanyahu the accusations in the video were both inaccurate and out of line, two Israeli officials briefed on the meeting tell Axios.

In addition, Biden’s top advisers decided to cancel the strategic dialogue on Iran, which was to include hours of meetings involving officials from the State Department, Pentagon and US intelligence agencies, along with their Israeli counterparts.

An Israel official confirmed the White House notified Israel of the decision.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan will still meet his Israeli counterpart, Tzachi Hanegbi, who had already departed for the US, per the Israeli official. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is also still scheduled to visit early next week, Israeli officials say.

Relations between Biden and Netanyahu’s teams are more strained now than at any point in the eight months since the war in Gaza began on Oct. 7.

This is the second time a meeting of the Iran strategic dialogue was canceled at the last minute.

In March it was Netanyahu who pulled the plug, after the US declined to veto a UN Security Council resolution that included a reference to a ceasefire in the besieged strip.

UN warns situation in West Bank ‘dramatically deteriorating’

Israeli Forces in West Bank

“The situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is dramatically deteriorating,” Volker Turk told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday.

He said 528 Palestinians, 133 of them children, were killed by Israeli military forces or settlers from the start of the current war on Gaza in October to June 15, “in many cases raising serious concerns of unlawful killings”.

In the same period, 23 Israelis were killed in clashes with Palestinians in the West Bank, including eight members of security forces, according to the UN’s high commissioner for human rights.

Two weeks ago, Turk stated people in the West Bank were being “subjected to day after day of unprecedented bloodshed”.

Israeli soldiers have been rounding up an average of 35 Palestinians a day since the war started, with 9,112 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails as of June 1, nearly double the number of Palestinians jailed on October 1, according to tallies by Palestinian prisoners groups.

Turk also told the 47-member council that he was “appalled” by the disregard for international human rights and humanitarian law in Gaza, where “there has been unconscionable death and suffering”.

“More than 120,000 people in Gaza, overwhelmingly women and children, have been killed or injured since October 7 as a result of the intensive Israeli offensives,” the official added.

“Since Israel escalated its operations into Rafah in early May, almost one million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced yet again while aid delivery and humanitarian access deteriorated further.”

More than 37,000 people have been killed and more than 85,400 injured in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7, the Ministry of Health in the Palestinian enclave said on Tuesday. The revised death toll in Israel from the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel stands at 1,139 with dozens of people still held captive in Gaza.

Turk said he was “extremely worried about the escalating situation” between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah as at least 401 people in Lebanon have been reportedly killed in the fighting, including paramedics and journalists.

More than 90,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon, and more than 60,000 have been displaced in Israel with 25 Israeli fatalities, he added.

Israel’s permanent mission to the UN in Geneva accused Turk of “completely omitting the cruelty and barbarity of terrorism” in his address to the council.

Turk additionally stated global conflicts killed three times as many children and twice as many women in 2023 than in the previous year as the total number of civilian deaths rose by 72 percent.

Warring parties were increasingly “pushing beyond boundaries of what is acceptable – and legal”, he told the council.

“Killings and injuries of civilians have become a daily occurrence. … Children shot at. Hospitals bombed. Heavy artillery launched on entire communities. All along with hateful, divisive and dehumanising rhetoric.”

As he pointed to other conflicts – including in Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Syria – he noted that funding to help the growing numbers of people in need was dwindling.

“As of the end of May 2024, the gap between humanitarian funding requirements and available resources stands at $40.8bn,” Turk said, in contrast with “almost $2.5 trillion in global military expenditure in 2023”.