BEIRUT: Israel struck an apartment belonging to Hezbollah in a stronghold of pro-Iran groups south of Damascus on Sunday, killing nine people including a commander, a war monitor said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one of the dead was a Lebanese commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Syria.
Israel has increased strikes on Syria since an all-out war with Hezbollah in Lebanon erupted on September 23.
Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based monitor, told AFP that the commander “was active in Syria and held Lebanese nationality.” The man’s name is not yet known.
The monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria, said that “nine people lost their lives — four civilians (a woman and her three children) of Syrian nationality, and five others, including a Hezbollah commander.”
It said the strike hit “an apartment in a building in the Sayyida Zeinab area” south of the Syrian capital.
According to the monitor, 14 others were wounded in the strike which “targeted individuals in an apartment inhabited by Lebanese families and Hezbollah members.”
Some of those killed in the strike “remain unidentified,” the Observatory said.
Syria’s official SANA news agency reported an “Israeli aggression targeting a residential building in the Sayyida Zeinab” area, home to a major Shiite shrine.
It later reported a death toll of “seven civilians, including children and women,” and 20 wounded.
On Saturday, four pro-Iran fighters were among five people killed in Israeli strikes in north and northwest Syria, the Observatory reported.
Since Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria, mainly targeting army positions and fighters including from Hezbollah.
Israeli authorities rarely comment on the strikes, but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence in Syria.
Israel strike on Syria kills 9 including Hezbollah commander: monitor
https://arab.news/m2e4j
Israel strike on Syria kills 9 including Hezbollah commander: monitor
- Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one of the dead was a Lebanese commander of Hezbollah in Syria
- Monitor said “nine people lost their lives — four civilians of Syrian nationality, and five others, including a Hezbollah commander”
Droughts in Iraq endanger buffalo, and farmers’ livelihoods
Buffalo have been farmed for centuries in Iraq for their milk
DHI QAR, Iraq: Iraq’s buffalo population has more than halved in a decade as the country’s two main rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, suffer severe droughts that endanger the livelihood of many farmers and breeders.
“People have left ... We are a small number of houses remaining,” said farmer Sabah Ismail, 38, who rears buffalo in the southern province of Dhi Qar.
“The situation is difficult ... I had 120 to 130 buffalo; now I only have 50 to 60. Some died, and we sold some because of the drought,” said Ismail while tending his herd.
Buffalo have been farmed for centuries in Iraq for their milk, and are mentioned in ancient Sumerian inscriptions from the region.
According to Iraqi marshland experts, the root causes of the water crisis driving farmers out of the countryside are climate change, upstream damming in Turkiye and Iran, outdated domestic irrigation techniques and a lack of long-term management plans.
The country has also endured decades of warfare, from conflict with Iran in the 1980s, through two Gulf Wars to the recent rise and fall of the Daesh group.
Located within the cultivable lands known as the Fertile Crescent that have been farmed for millennia, the Iraqi landscape has suffered from upstream damming of the Tigris and Euphrates and lower rainfall, threatening the lifestyle of farmers like Ismail and leading many to move to the cities.
Iraqi marshland expert Jassim Assadi told Reuters that the number of buffalo in Iraq had fallen since 2015 from 150,000 to fewer than 65,000.
The decline is “mostly due to natural reasons: the lack of needed green pastures, pollution, illness ... and also farmers refraining from farming buffalos due to scarcity of income,” Assadi said.
A drastic decline in crop production and a rise in fodder prices have also left farmers struggling to feed their animals.
The difficulty of maintaining a livelihood in Iraq’s drought-stricken rural areas has contributed to growing migration toward the country’s already-choked urban centers.
“This coming summer, God only knows, the mortality rate may reach half,” said Abdul Hussain Sbaih, 39, an Iraqi buffalo breeder.
UAE, Ecuador presidents discuss trade, regional issues in Abu Dhabi
- Talks also cover renewable energy, tourism, agriculture
- Daniel Noboa reaffirms Ecuador’s commitment to strengthening ties with UAE
LONDON: UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and his Ecuadorian counterpart, Daniel Noboa, discussed strengthening cooperation in various fields during a meeting in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
Noboa, who won reelection earlier this month, reaffirmed his country’s commitment to strengthening ties with the UAE.
The discussions focused on cooperation on trade, renewable energy, sustainability, investment, tourism and agriculture, the Emirates News Agency reported.
The two sides emphasized the importance of leveraging opportunities for mutual growth and shared views on regional and international issues to ensure stability and prosperity, the report said.
Sheikh Mohamed said the UAE-Ecuador relationship aimed to enhance economic growth and that Abu Dhabi was eager to strengthen its economic partnerships with Latin American countries.
Israeli wildfires force evacuations, road closures on Memorial Day
- The main Route 1 Jerusalem to Tel Aviv highway was closed near the fire site
- TV footage showed fires along the highway and people abandoning cars and running from the fires
JERUSALEM: Wildfires due to extreme heat and winds broke out near Jerusalem on Wednesday, forcing the evacuation of communities and the closure of a main highway, as the country was observing Memorial Day and many Israelis visited gravesites.
The main Route 1 Jerusalem to Tel Aviv highway was closed near the fire site and police said three communities had been evacuated.
“Based on assessments of the fire’s spread, the district commander has instructed teams to prepare for the potential evacuation of additional communities, including deploying buses in case they are needed,” the police said in a statement.
TV footage showed fires along the highway and people abandoning cars and running from the fires.
Israel’s Fire and Rescue service said on Tuesday that due to extreme conditions that were increasing the likelihood of fires spreading and developing, it had prohibited the lighting of bonfires through May 7.
Israel’s 77th Independence Day begins tonight and there is a widespread custom to build bonfires and have barbecues. The rescue service said barbecues should only be lit in authorized areas.
Israeli media reported that 120 fire and rescue services had mobilized dozens of firefighting teams, aircraft and helicopters to try to contain the fires. They noted that 12 people were injured from smoke inhalation while Israel has asked at least five countries for help — Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy and Cyprus.
The military’s chief of staff said he had ordered Home Front Command, the Air Force and all IDF units to assist as needed to support the Israeli Police and Fire and Rescue Services.
Search and Rescue forces from the IDF Search and Rescue Brigade and Air Force fire trucks have been assisting in efforts to extinguish the fires in the Jerusalem Hills area and evacuate residents.
Sirens sounded at 0800 GMT on Memorial Day to commemorate fallen soldiers in Israel’s many wars since becoming a state in 1948.
UAE, Egypt sign MoU in ‘significant milestone’ for Arab space cooperation
- Agreement covers joint projects and knowledge exchange in areas such as satellite technology, earth observation and space research
- Signing coincided with the African Space Agency’s headquarters opening in Cairo
DUBAI: The UAE and Egypt have signed a memorandum of understanding to boost collaboration in peaceful space activities, marking what Emirati officials described as a “significant milestone” in Arab space cooperation, state news agency WAM reported on Wednesday.
The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the 11th meeting of the Arab Space Cooperation Group and the “NewSpace Africa” conference in Cairo, with the UAE delegation led by Salem Butti Al-Qubaisi, director-general of the UAE Space Agency.
“The MoU represents a significant milestone in Arab space cooperation and reflects the UAE’s strategic vision, which sees space as a gateway to sustainable development, knowledge exchange and innovative solutions to shared challenges,” Al-Qubaisi said.
He highlighted that partnering with Egypt reinforced the UAE’s commitment to investing in people, localizing scientific expertise and developing a competitive, innovation-driven knowledge economy. He said that these goals aligned with broader regional ambitions for prosperity and stability.
The MoU establishes a long-term framework for cooperation in civil space programs, including the exchange of expertise, research and technology, and the implementation of joint projects supporting both countries’ sustainable development goals.
Planned areas of collaboration include communications technologies, satellite navigation and timing, Earth observation, remote sensing, space situational awareness, remote asset management and R&D in emerging and advanced technologies.
The UAE delegation also attended the opening ceremony of the African Space Agency’s new headquarters at Egyptian Space City, an event that drew senior officials, ministers and space-sector leaders from across Africa.
At least 12 killed overnight by Israeli strikes in Gaza
- The pre-dawn strikes hit three houses in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp
- Israel has carried out daily strikes on Gaza since ending its ceasefire with Hamas last month
At least 12 people including children were killed overnight in Gaza by Israeli strikes, hospital workers said Wednesday.
The pre-dawn strikes hit three houses in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, according to staff at the Al-Aqsa hospital, which received the bodies. Among the dead were three children, including two brothers whose bodies arrived in pieces, according to the hospital’s morgue.
Israel has carried out daily strikes on Gaza since ending its ceasefire with Hamas last month. It has cut off the territory’s 2 million Palestinians from all imports, including food and medicine, since the beginning of March in what it says is an attempt to pressure the militant group to release hostages.
The strikes come after more than two dozen people were killed earlier this week in Gaza City and Beit Lahiya.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.
