International
Inside Israel’s combat zone in southern Lebanon
Inside Israel’s combat zone in southern Lebanon
Israeli army vehicles had already pounded the dirt road into dust where we crossed into Lebanon, breaking through a hole in the fence that marks the ceasefire line drawn between the two countries a generation ago.
The ceasefire itself is already in tatters.
Israel’s ground invasion along this border last week was launched, it said, to destroy Hezbollah weapons and infrastructure in “limited, localised, targeted raids”.
Ten days on, the army was taking us to a village a couple of miles into Lebanese territory, where it had just established “some level of control”.
We were told not to reveal where it is, for military reasons, and our movements were restricted.
Israeli artillery was blasting through the air as we arrived. The brigade commander, Col Yaniv Malka, told us the area was still not clear of Hezbollah fighters.
Bursts of small-arms fire were from fighting that was taking place 500m away, he said, describing “face-to-face combat” with Hezbollah fighters inside the village just a couple of days before – meaning, he said, “my troops seeing in their eyes, and fighting them in the streets”.
All along the central path through the village, houses lay demolished; piles of rubble leaching glimpses of family life. Buildings left standing were shot through with artillery, missing corners or walls and peppered with gunshot and shrapnel holes.
Two tanks sat in churned up earth near what was once a village square. The level of destruction around them is reminiscent of Gaza.
Our movements on the ground were restricted by the army to a limited area of the village, but neighbouring buildings and communities appeared, from a distance, to be untouched.
These incursions seem – so far – to be more “limited and targeted” geographically than militarily.
The graffiti on a building commandeered by troops read: “We wanted peace, you wanted war”.
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“Most of the terrorists ran away,” Col Malka told me. “[But] dozens of houses were booby-trapped. When we went house to house, we discovered booby-traps and weapons. We had no choice but to destroy them.”
We only have the army’s account of what happened here.
I asked an army spokesman whether any women or children were present when the operation here began. He replied that all civilians had been given ample warning to leave.
The human rights group Amnesty International this week described Israel’s evacuation warnings in southern Lebanon as inadequate and overly general, and said they did not absolve the country of its obligations under international law.
We were also shown three caches of weapons it said were found inside civilian homes here, including boxes of brand-new mortars, new anti-tank missiles and mines, as well as sophisticated shoulder launched rockets and night-scopes.
One anti-tank missile we saw was already semi-assembled.
The chief of staff for the 91st Division, Roy Russo, also showed us a garage he said had been used as an equipment warehouse, with sleeping bags, body armour, rifles and ammunition hidden in a large barrel.
“This is what we call an exchange zone,” he said. “They’re morphing from civilians into combatants. All this gear is designed to manoeuvre into [Israel] and conduct operations on the Israeli side. This is not defensive equipment.”
This, Israel says, is why it launched its invasion of southern Lebanon; that Hezbollah’s stockpiles of weapons and equipment along this border were planning for a cross-border attack similar to last year’s 7 October attacks by Hamas in southern Israel.
At the start of this invasion, the army revealed that Israeli special forces had been operating across the Lebanese border in small tactical units for almost a year, conducting more than 70 raids to find and destroy Hezbollah infrastructure, including underground tunnels – one of which, it said, stopped 30m (100ft) before the ceasefire line with Israel and was unfinished.
Col Malka showed me some of the weapons he said the army found on the day we arrived. They include a large IED, an anti-personnel mine, and a high-tech night-scope.
He said troops were finding “two to three times” the number of weapons they found in Gaza, with “thousands” of weapons and thousands of pieces of ammunition found in this village alone.
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“We don’t want to hold these places,” he told me. “We want to take all the ammunition and fighting equipment out. After that, we expect the people will come back, and understand that peace is better for them, and terrorist control over them in a bad thing.”
“But I’ll leave that to the diplomats to solve,” he smiled.
After the last ground war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, the UN ruled that Hezbollah must pull back north of the Litani River. A previous resolution also ordered its disarmament. Neither decision has been enforced.
That ground war in 2006 was a wake-up call for Israel. The Iran-backed militia fought its army to standstill. For almost 20 years, both sides have been avoiding – and preparing for – the next one.
Col Malka fought in Lebanon during that war. “This one is different,” he said.
When I asked why, he replied: “Because of 7th October.”
As we were speaking, the sound of small-arms fire grew louder. He gestured towards it. “That’s my guys fighting in the casbah,” he said.
Israel’s ground invasion is part of a dramatic escalation against Hezbollah over the past three weeks that has also seen it intensify air strikes on southern Lebanon and parts of Beirut.
Lebanon says more than 2,200 people have been killed, mainly during the recent escalation, and more than a million people displaced.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel on 8 October last year, the day after Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel. The Iran-backed group says it is acting in solidarity with the Palestinians and has said it will stop firing if there is a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Israel accuses Hezbollah of using civilians as human shields. One commander described the ground war as an offensive operation to defend Israeli citizens – an invasion to stop an invasion, in other words.
But the speed with which Israel’s forces have been moving through villages along this border may only be the first chapter in this story.
Hezbollah tactics have shifted since the ground invasion began, with Israeli towns like Metula – surrounded on three sides by Lebanon – reporting a drop in direct fire from anti-tank missiles, and a rise in rockets fired out of sight from further away.
The assessment of many is that Hezbollah fighters have not run away, but simply withdrawn further back into Lebanon.
Israel already has four divisions lined up at this border – and a growing chorus of voices inside the country who say this is the moment, not just to push back Hezbollah, but to remake the Middle East.
As the fighting near the village intensified, we were told to leave immediately, hurried out to the waiting convoy.
Under the shadow of a growing conflict with Iran, Israel’s small successes along this frontier don’t change one key fact: this is not actually a border war, it’s a regional war being fought along a border.
Inside Israel’s combat zone in southern Lebanon
International
Iran Threatens US-Linked Universities in Middle East Amid Escalating Tensions
Iran Threatens US-Linked Universities in Middle East Amid Escalating Tensions
March 29, 2026
Iran has issued a stark warning that American-affiliated universities operating in the Middle East could become potential targets, as tensions between Iran and the United States continue to rise.
The threat, attributed to Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), follows allegations that Iranian universities were damaged in recent strikes linked to the ongoing conflict. Iranian officials have not publicly provided detailed evidence of the alleged attacks but have condemned what they describe as violations of sovereignty and international norms.
In statements carried by international media, the IRGC warned that institutions with ties to the United States in the region could be considered “legitimate targets” if hostilities persist. Authorities also advised civilians to avoid such facilities, raising concerns about the safety of students, faculty, and staff across several countries in the Middle East.
While the rhetoric signals a dangerous expansion of potential targets beyond military installations, there has been no widely verified confirmation from major global outlets of a specific ultimatum or deadline tied to the warning. Analysts say the language used reflects an escalation in tone but stops short of confirming imminent attacks.
The development comes amid an increasingly volatile regional environment, with both nations exchanging accusations over recent incidents tied to the broader conflict. Diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions have so far yielded little progress, as global powers call for restraint.
Security experts warn that any attack on educational institutions would mark a significant shift in the conflict, potentially drawing widespread international condemnation and increasing the risk of further escalation.
Governments in the region are said to be reviewing security arrangements around foreign-linked institutions, while universities are reportedly monitoring the situation closely.
As of press time, officials from the United States had not issued a formal response specifically addressing the threat to universities, though Washington has repeatedly condemned attacks on civilian infrastructure and reiterated its commitment to protecting American interests abroad.
Iran Threatens US-Linked Universities in Middle East Amid Escalating Tensions
International
Trump Claims Iran Sent Oil Shipments Amid Backchannel Talks
Trump Claims Iran Sent Oil Shipments Amid Backchannel Talks
U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed that Iran dispatched ten oil tankers to the United States as part of indirect negotiations aimed at easing ongoing tensions between the two nations.
According to a report by Sky News on Friday, March 27, 2026, Trump made the assertion while speaking at the Future Investment Initiative in Miami. He suggested that the shipments were a gesture of goodwill, possibly intended as an acknowledgment of ongoing diplomatic engagements.
“It turned out I was right,” Trump said, referring to earlier claims that talks were underway between Washington and Tehran—claims initially denied by Iranian authorities. “They were negotiating, which they admitted two days later.”
Providing further details, Trump stated that Iran had first proposed sending eight oil ships before increasing the number to ten. “They said, ‘we’re going to send you eight ships of oil.’ They actually said, ‘we’re going to add an extra two,’ and they added an extra two,” he said. “So we had ten ships, and then people realized we were actually negotiating.”
Trump also struck a confident tone regarding developments in the Middle East, declaring that the region was “closer than ever” to being free from what he described as Iranian “terror, aggression and nuclear blackmail.”
However, Iranian officials have firmly rejected the claims of formal negotiations. Authorities in Iran insist that no direct talks are taking place with the United States, maintaining that any communication occurs strictly through third-party intermediaries, including Pakistan.
Tehran’s continued denial underscores the sensitive nature of any potential engagement with Washington, particularly amid domestic political pressures and broader regional dynamics.
The contrasting narratives highlight the uncertainty surrounding U.S.-Iran relations, with both sides presenting differing accounts of ongoing diplomatic efforts.
Trump Claims Iran Sent Oil Shipments Amid Backchannel Talks
International
Iranian Strike on Saudi Base Damages US Spy Plane, Injures 12 Troops
Iranian Strike on Saudi Base Damages US Spy Plane, Injures 12 Troops
Tensions in the Middle East have intensified following a major strike by Iranian forces on a United States military installation in Saudi Arabia, leaving several American personnel injured and damaging high-value military assets.
Iran reportedly launched a coordinated attack involving ballistic missiles and drones on the Prince Sultan Air Base on Saturday, targeting U.S. Air Force equipment stationed at the facility.
Initial reports from outlets including Daily Post Nigeria and Fox News indicated that a U.S. E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft—estimated to be worth about $700 million—was destroyed in the strike. The aircraft serves as a critical airborne radar and command center, capable of detecting threats and coordinating air operations over vast distances.
However, more recent and verified accounts suggest that the aircraft, identified as the Boeing E-3 Sentry, was damaged but not confirmed destroyed, raising questions about the accuracy of early claims surrounding the extent of the losses.
In addition to the AWACS aircraft, at least one KC-135 Stratotanker was reportedly struck during the ആക്രമation and caught fire, further compounding the scale of the incident.
U.S. officials confirmed that 12 American service members were injured in the attack. According to Fox News, two of the wounded personnel were listed in serious condition, while the remaining casualties sustained lighter injuries.
Military analysts note that the strike demonstrates Iran’s growing capability to conduct coordinated long-range attacks using a combination of drones and precision-guided missiles, posing a significant threat to U.S. assets in the region.
The latest escalation comes amid an ongoing conflict between the United States and Iran, which has persisted for approximately one month. The war has already led to significant casualties and heightened geopolitical tensions across the Middle East, particularly following reports of high-profile killings involving senior Iranian figures.
As of press time, there has been no official confirmation from the U.S. Department of Defense regarding the total extent of damage to the aircraft or whether any assets were completely destroyed.
Security experts warn that the attack could trigger further retaliation, raising fears of a broader regional confrontation involving key global powers and strategic allies in the Gulf.
Iranian Strike on Saudi Base Damages US Spy Plane, Injures 12 Troops
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