19 killed in Mexican gang fight

Mexican officials investigating footages shared on social media showing bodies in a dumper truck have found 19 corpses in La Concordia, in the southern state of Chiapas.

The victims were all male, clad in black, and wearing tactical vests similar to those worn by Mexico’s strong criminal organisations.

The majority of the dead were recovered inside the truck’s rear, with three more discovered on a nearby dirt track. Everyone had bullet wounds.

Crime gangs have infiltrated the region, which is crisscrossed by transit routes used by migrants making their way north to the United States.

Criminal groups extort money from migrants and utilise the routes to transfer firearms, ammunition, and drugs from adjacent Guatemala into Mexico.

Officials discovered Guatemalan identity papers on four of the deceased. Members of the Chiapas prosecutor’s office were alerted to a video posted on social media on June 28.

READ ALSO:

• Bandits kill lecturer in Katsina, kidnap his children
• National Assembly members now Tinubu’s puppets, destroying democracy – APC chieftain
• Borno suicide bombing meant to cover terrorists’ weakness – DHQ

In it, individuals acting as Sinaloa cartel members reveal the victims in the truck, alleging they are from a rival group operating on the Guatemala-Mexico border.

The next day, neighbours discovered the dead near the village of La Concordia and reported their whereabouts to the police.

The Chiapas prosecutor’s office stated that the deceased were likely part of an organisation known as the “Chiapas and Guatemala cartel.”.

The terrible discovery comes amid a spate of gang-related violence in La Concordia and surrounding areas. Last month, gunmen shot and killed a woman campaigning for mayor of La Concordia, along with five other individuals.

Locals have recalled having to hide in their homes for days as gun battles raged on the streets as different gangs competed for territory.

Hundreds have left their houses. The Mexican government says it has sent members of the National Guard and the army to the area.

However, people have previously stated that they feel abandoned and that the cartels will return as soon as the federal forces depart.

19 killed in Mexican gang fight

Kuwait flight hostages sue British Airways, UK govt

Passengers and crew held hostage after a 1990 British Airways flight landed are suing the airline and the UK government for “deliberately endangering” them.

They claim BA and the government knew Iraq had invaded Kuwait before the plane they were travelling on landed in the country.

The 367 passengers and crew of BA Flight 149 were taken hostage, and some were mistreated, seriously sexually assaulted and kept in near-starvation conditions.

The claimants believe those on board were put at risk so an intelligence-gathering mission could take place, an allegation which has been denied for 30 years.

Ninety-four people, either passengers or crew on board Flight 149 or BA crew already in Kuwait awaiting deployment, are behind the civil action alleging the UK government and BA were guilty of negligence and joint misfeasance in public office.

It is the latest step in a long battle to get answers as to what happened during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

On the evening of 1 August 1990, BA Flight 149 took off from London’s Heathrow Airport with a planned stop in Kuwait on its way to Malaysia.

Iraqi troops were already massing on the border with Kuwait ahead of an invasion of the country that night. But the flight was not diverted from stopping in Kuwait.

The claimants say no other airline allowed its planes to land after the invasion began. By the time Flight 149 landed on the morning of 2 August, there was rocket fire near the airport as Iraqi forces took control.

READ ALSO:

• BREAKING: Pilot survives as NAF helicopter crashes in Kaduna
• UK cab driver confesses still getting paid in Nigeria as civil servant
• Police rescue 2 kidnapped victims in Abuja

The plane was evacuated and unable to take off. Those on board were taken hostage.

Some were released quickly, but others suffered mistreatment and were used by Iraq as human shields at key facilities to try to prevent Western forces bombing them.

Passengers and crew held hostage after a 1990 British Airways flight landed are suing the airline and the UK government for “deliberately endangering” them.

They claim BA and the government knew Iraq had invaded Kuwait before the plane they were travelling on landed in the country.

The 367 passengers and crew of BA Flight 149 were taken hostage, and some were mistreated, seriously sexually assaulted and kept in near-starvation conditions.

The claimants believe those on board were put at risk so an intelligence-gathering mission could take place, an allegation which has been denied for 30 years.

Ninety-four people, either passengers or crew on board Flight 149 or BA crew already in Kuwait awaiting deployment, are behind the civil action alleging the UK government and BA were guilty of negligence and joint misfeasance in public office.

It is the latest step in a long battle to get answers as to what happened during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

On the evening of 1 August 1990, BA Flight 149 took off from London’s Heathrow Airport with a planned stop in Kuwait on its way to Malaysia.

Iraqi troops were already massing on the border with Kuwait ahead of an invasion of the country that night. But the flight was not diverted from stopping in Kuwait.

The claimants say no other airline allowed its planes to land after the invasion began. By the time Flight 149 landed on the morning of 2 August, there was rocket fire near the airport as Iraqi forces took control.

READ ALSO:

• Gunmen abduct 20 travellers along Sagamu-Ijebu-Ode expressway
• Saudi club Al-Ittihad woo Ademola Lookman with €11m salary
• Six Palestinians killed as Israeli forces pound southern, northern Gaza

The plane was evacuated and unable to take off. Those on board were taken hostage.

Some were released quickly, but others suffered mistreatment and were used by Iraq as human shields at key facilities to try to prevent Western forces bombing them.

At the centre of the claim is the allegation the UK government and BA received a series of warnings during the night but did not act on them.

It is alleged that one reason for this was the desire of the government to insert a special forces team who could carry out reconnaissance within the country.

Stephen Davis wrote a book about the incident and says he has interviewed members of the team anonymously.

He believes the authorities did not expect the airport to fall to invading Iraqi forces so quickly and the intention was for the men to disembark before the plane went on to its next destination.

The BA cabin services director on the flight previously told the BBC that a British man in military uniform greeted him at the plane’s door on arrival in Kuwait.

The man said he had come to meet 10 men on the flight who had boarded at Heathrow. They were brought to the front, disembarked and were never seen again. But by then, it was too late for the plane to leave.

A UK official serving in the Kuwait embassy at the time previously said he believed there had been a “deniable” operation to hastily put boots on the ground without the full knowledge of the embassy.

Anthony Paice was responsible for political intelligence, a role widely assumed to be cover for MI6.

“I am convinced that the military intelligence exploitation of British Airways Flight 149 did take place, despite repeated official denials,” he told the BBC in his first interview in 2021.

In November 2021, the Foreign Office admitted that Parliament and the public were misled for decades about Flight 149.

Newly released files revealed the British ambassador in Kuwait did warn the Foreign Office about the invasion, but BA was not told.

However, then-Foreign Secretary Liz Truss reiterated earlier denials that the flight was being used for a secret intelligence mission.

“There must be closure and accountability to erase this shameful stain on the UK’s conscience,” said Matthew Jury, from the law firm behind the claim, McCue Jury and Partners.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said the government did not comment on ongoing legal matters. BA did not respond to a request for comment.

Kuwait flight hostages sue British Airways, UK govt

BBC

Six Palestinians killed as Israeli forces pound southern, northern Gaza

At least six Palestinians have been killed in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), and several homes have been destroyed as Israeli forces pushed deeper into the city and pressed further into Shujayea in northern Gaza.

Israeli tanks, which re-entered Shujayea four days ago, fired shells towards several houses, leaving families trapped inside and unable to leave, residents said.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that “60,000 to 80,000 people were displaced” from Shujayea in recent days.

For those who remain, “our lives have become hell”, said 50-year-old resident Siham al-Shawa.

She told the AFP news agency that people were trapped as strikes could happen “anywhere” and “it is difficult to get out of the neighbourhood under fire”.

“We do not know where to go to protect ourselves,” she said.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said residents who managed to flee the neighbourhood say the scale of destruction is “massive”.