World
Israeli jets strike Houthi targets in Yemen after Tel Aviv attack
Israel’s military spokesperson said the port had been used by the Houthis to receive weapons shipments from Iran. The targets, more than 1,700 km (1,056 miles) from Israel, included dual-use sites such as energy infrastructure, he said.
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Israeli fighter jets struck Houthi military targets near Yemen’s Hodeidah port on Saturday, killing at least three people and wounding 87, a day after a drone launched by the Iranian-backed group hit Israeli economic hub Tel Aviv.
Most of the wounded suffered severe burns in air strikes that targeted oil facilities and a power station, Al-Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by Yemen’s Houthi movement, quoted the health ministry as saying.
Hodeidah residents told Reuters by phone that explosions were heard throughout the city during an intensive bombardment, and Al-Masirah TV said civil defence forces and firefighters were trying to extinguish fires in the port’s oil tanks.
Israel’s military spokesperson said the port had been used by the Houthis to receive weapons shipments from Iran. The targets, more than 1,700 km (1,056 miles) from Israel, included dual-use sites such as energy infrastructure, he said.
Israel had informed allies before the strike, which the military said was carried out by Israeli F-15 fighters that all returned safely.
The Houthis’ Supreme Political Council said there would be an “effective response” to the strikes. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the Houthis “will not hesitate to strike vital targets of the Israeli enemy.”
The strike on Yemen, which Israeli officials said came after more than 200 Houthi attacks on Israel, underlined fears that the Gaza war, triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, could spiral into a regional conflict.
“The fire that is currently burning in Hodeidah is seen across the Middle East and the significance is clear,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement.
“The Houthis attacked us over 200 times. The first time that they harmed an Israeli citizen, we struck them. And we will do this in any place where it may be required.”
On Friday, a long-range Iranian-made drone launched from Yemen hit the centre of Tel Aviv in an attack claimed by the Houthis, killing one man and wounding four others.
That attack followed an escalation in the daily exchange of fire between Israeli forces and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon and came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to travel to Washington, where he is due to address the U.S. Congress.
Netanyahu called on the international community to step up pressure on Tehran and its proxies – the Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah – and in so doing help secure international trade routes.
“Whoever wants to see a stable and safe Middle East needs to stand against Iran’s axis of evil, and support Israel’s struggle against Iran and its proxies,” Netanyahu said.
Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanaani, condemned the Israeli attacks and “warned against the risk of escalation of tension and the spread of war in the region as a result of the dangerous adventurism of the Zionists,” Iranian state media reported.
In a statement, Hezbollah also condemned the attack on Hodeidah, describing it as “a foolish step … that marks a new and dangerous phase of the extremely important ongoing confrontation.”
As the war in Gaza has gone on, the Houthis have stepped up attacks against Israel and Western targets, saying they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.
They began attacking Western ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Their attacks have upended global trade by forcing ship owners to reroute vessels away from the vital Suez Canal shortcut, and drawn retaliatory U.S. and British strikes since February.
“A brutal Israeli aggression targeted civilian buildings, oil facilities and power station in Hodeidah aiming at pressuring Yemen to stop supporting Gaza,” Mohammed Abdulsalam, chief negotiator for Houthi movement, said on X.
He said the attack would “only increase our determination, steadfastness, (and) continuity”.
A Saudi ministry of defence spokesperson said that the kingdom was not involved in or participating in the targeting of Hodeidah, adding Saudi Arabia “will not allow its airspace to be infiltrated by any party” whatsoever.
Egypt, which has been trying to help broker a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, said it was following “with great concern” the Israeli strike.
Hamas stormed Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, nearly 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip, according to health authorities in the enclave.
World
Fire rips through Kenya boarding school dormitory, killing 17 boys
The blaze occurred at the Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri, a primary boarding school for young students.
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A fire raged through the dormitory of a boarding school for young children in central Kenya in the early hours of Friday, killing 17 boys sleeping there, police said.
Citizen Television said the fire had burnt the victims beyond recognition. Its footage from the scene showed collapsed iron-sheet roofing and charred metal storage boxes on top of double-decker beds in the dormitory, Reuters reported.
The blaze occurred at the Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri, a primary boarding school for young students.
“We have lost 17 pupils in the fire incident while 14 are injured,” police spokesperson Resila Onyango said. “Our team is at the scene at the moment.”
Government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura said the boys were in grades 4 to 8, putting their ages at about 9 to 13-years-old. He said in a statement the dormitory housed 156 students.
The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.
President William Ruto said he had told authorities to investigate what he called the “horrific incident” and said those responsible would be held to account.
Authorities have cordoned off the school, the Kenya Red Cross said on X. Calls by Reuters to the school’s main phone line went unanswered.
Kenya has a history of school fires, many of which have turned out to be arson.
Nine students were killed in Sept 2017 in a fire at a school in the capital Nairobi that the government attributed to arson.
In 2001, 58 schoolboys were killed in a dormitory fire at Kyanguli Secondary School outside Nairobi. In 2012, eight students were killed at a school in Homa Bay County in western Kenya.
World
Georgia high school student, 14, kills 4 and wounds 9 in campus shooting
Once under arrest the suspect was speaking with investigators, who believe he was acting alone, but they declined to say if they knew what motivated him.
![](https://www.ariananews.af/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Georgia.jpg)
A 14-year-old boy killed two fellow students and two teachers and wounded nine others in a shooting at a Georgia high school on Wednesday, jolting the United States with the first mass campus shooting since the start of the school year.
The suspect, who had been interviewed by law enforcement last year over online threats about committing a school shooting, was taken into custody shortly after the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, investigators said, Reuters reported.
He was identified as Colt Gray, 14, and will be charged and tried as an adult, Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, told a press conference.
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said the gunman, armed with an “AR platform style weapon,” or semiautomatic rifle, was quickly confronted by deputies assigned to the school and that the suspect immediately got on the ground and surrendered.
Once under arrest the suspect was speaking with investigators, who believe he was acting alone, but they declined to say if they knew what motivated him.
Officials identified those killed as two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and two teachers, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53. All nine of those hospitalized were expected to recover, Smith told reporters.
“Pure evil did what happened today,” Smith said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation later issued a statement revealing that it had investigated online threats to commit a school shooting in 2023 and local law enforcement interviewed a 13-year-old subject and his father in nearby Jackson County. The statement did not identify the teen, but Georgia officials said the statement was in connection to the subject in custody.
“The father stated he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them. The subject denied making the threats online. Jackson County alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the subject,” the FBI said, adding that there was no probable cause to make an arrest.
The shooting revived both the national debate about gun control and the outpouring of grief that follows in a country where such outbursts occur with some regularity.
People in Winder, a city of 18,000 some 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Atlanta, gathered in a park for a prayer vigil later Wednesday night.
Some leaned on each other or bowed their heads in prayer, while others lit candles to honor the dead.
“We are all hurting. Because when something affects one of us it affects us all,” said Power Evans, a city councilman who addressed the gathering. “I know that here tonight, all of are going to come together. We’re going to love on one another. … We’re all family. We’re all neighbors.”
BIDEN CALLS FOR GUN SAFETY LEGISLATION
The White House said in a statement that President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting “and his administration will continue coordinating with federal, state, and local officials as we receive more information.”
“Jill and I are mourning the deaths of those whose lives were cut short due to more senseless gun violence and thinking of all of the survivors whose lives are forever changed,” Biden said in a statement, calling on Republicans to work with Democrats to pass “common-sense gun safety legislation.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party nominee for president, called the shooting a “senseless tragedy.”
“We’ve gotta stop it. We have to end this epidemic of gun violence,” Harris said at the start of a campaign event in New Hampshire.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, wrote on social media that “Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event in Winder, GA. These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster.”
Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp, asked at a press conference what could be done to prevent shootings, said, “Today is not the day for politics or policy. Today is the day for an investigation, to mourn these precious Georgians that we have lost.”
The shooting was the first “planned attack” at a school this fall, said David Riedman, who runs the K-12 School Shooting Database. Apalachee students returned to school last month; many other students in the U.S. are returning this week.
The U.S. has seen hundreds of shootings inside schools and colleges in the past two decades, with the deadliest resulting in over 30 deaths at Virginia Tech in 2007. The carnage has intensified the pitched debate over gun laws and the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, which enshrines the right “to keep and bear arms.”
World
Lavrov warns US not to mock Russia’s ‘red lines’
But Washington and its allies have increased military aid to Ukraine, including by providing tanks, advanced missiles and F-16 fighter jets.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, responding to a question about the potential delivery of long-range U.S. missiles to Ukraine, warned the United States on Wednesday not to joke about Russia’s “red lines”, Reuters reported.
Lavrov said the U.S. was losing sight of the sense of mutual deterrence that had underpinned the balance of security between Moscow and Washington since the Cold War, and that this was dangerous.
He was commenting on a Reuters report that the U.S. is close to an agreement to supply Ukraine with long-range JASSM cruise missiles that could reach deep inside Russia – for which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been lobbying.
“I won’t be surprised by anything – the Americans have already crossed the threshold they set for themselves. They are being egged on, and Zelenskiy of course sees this and takes advantage of it,” Lavrov told a Russian TV interviewer.
“But they should understand – they are joking about our red lines here. They shouldn’t joke about our red lines.”
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned the West since launching what he called his “special military operation” in Ukraine in 2022 not to try to thwart Russia, which has the world’s biggest arsenal of nuclear weapons, read the report.
But Washington and its allies have increased military aid to Ukraine, including by providing tanks, advanced missiles and F-16 fighter jets.
That has prompted some Western politicians to suggest Putin’s nuclear rhetoric is a bluff and that the U.S. and NATO should go all-out to help Ukraine win the war. Zelenskiy has said Ukraine’s incursion into Russia, launched on Aug. 6, makes a mockery of Putin’s red lines.
Lavrov said Washington knew where these limits lay but was wrong if it believed the consequences of any escalation of the war in Ukraine would be suffered mainly by Europe.
“They have a genetic conviction that no one will touch them,” Lavrov said. This, he said, undermined all the principles that had underpinned strategic stability with Washington since Soviet times.
“This feeling of mutual deterrence – for some reason they are starting to lose it. This is dangerous,” he said.
Lavrov alluded to remarks by White House national security adviser John Kirby, who said in June that President Joe Biden had repeatedly said Washington was not looking for “World War Three, opens new tab”.
Kirby said a major escalation of the Ukraine war could have “disastrous consequences, potentially, across the European continent” and would not be good for U.S. interests, Reuters reported.
It was the second time in just over a week that Lavrov has cautioned the U.S. that a third world war would not be confined to Europe.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday Russia was making changes to its nuclear doctrine because Washington and its allies were threatening Russia by escalating the war in Ukraine and riding roughshod over what it called Moscow’s legitimate security interests.
It has not said how it plans to update the policy document setting out the circumstances in which it might use a nuclear weapon, or when the changes will take effect.
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