Israeli military announces first combat death after hitting Lebanon – Newstrends
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Israeli military announces first combat death after hitting Lebanon

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Israeli military announces first combat death after hitting Lebanon

BEIRUT: The Israeli military has announced its first combat death since launching ground operations in Lebanon this week.

The military said Wednesday that a 22-year-old in a commando brigade was killed in combat in Lebanon.

Hezbollah said its fighters were engaging Israeli forces inside Lebanon on Wednesday, reporting ground clashes for the first time since Israel began pushing into its northern neighbor in a campaign to hammer the Iran-backed armed group.

The Israeli military said regular infantry and armored units were joining its ground operations in Lebanon, a day after Israel was attacked by Iran in a strike that raised fears the oil-producing Middle East could be engulfed in a wider conflict.

An Israeli team commander was killed in Lebanon, the Israeli military said.

Iran said on Wednesday the attack — its biggest assault on Israel — was over barring further provocation, but Israel and the United States promised to hit back.

The violence, meanwhile, continued on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Hezbollah said it was clashing with Israeli troops in the border town of Maroun el-Ras after it had pushed back forces near another border town. The group said it had also fired rockets at military posts inside Israel.

The group’s media chief Mohammad Afif said those battles were only “the first round” and that the group had enough fighters, weapons and ammunition to push back Israel.

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There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Israel’s addition of infantry and armored troops from the 36th Division, including the Golani Brigade, the 188th Armored Brigade and 6th Infantry Brigade, suggests that the operation may move beyond limited commando raids.

The military has said its incursion is largely aimed at destroying tunnels and other infrastructure on the border and there were no plans for a wider operation targeting Beirut or major cities in southern Lebanon.

Nevertheless it issued new evacuation orders for around two dozen towns along the southern border, instructing inhabitants to head north of the Awali River, which flows east to west some 60 km (37 miles) north of the Israeli border.

Border clashes

Despite calls for a ceasefire from the United Nations, the United States and the European Union, fighting between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah has continued.

Israel renewed its bombardment early on Wednesday of Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of the Iran-backed group, with more than a dozen airstrikes against what it said were targets belonging to Hezbollah.

Nearly 1,900 people have been killed and more than 9,000 wounded in Lebanon in almost a year of cross-border fighting, with the most in the past two weeks, according to Lebanese government statistics. More than a million people have been forced to flee their homes.

Malika Joumaa, from Sudan, was forced to take shelter in Saint Joseph’s church in Beirut after being forced from her house near Sidon with her husband and two children.

“It’s good that the church offered its help. We were going to stay in the streets, where would we have gone? We were (sheltering) under the bridge, it is not safe, if we go back home, it is not safe, they are striking everywhere.”

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The Islamic Republic described Tuesday’s assault as a response to Israeli killings of militant leaders, including Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, and attacks in Lebanon against the group and in Gaza.

Iran’s ally, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in Tehran on July 31. The attack was widely blamed on Israel, which has not claimed responsibility

Like a similar attack in April, the latest strikes caused minimal damage. One Palestinian was killed.

The general staff of Iran’s armed forces said any Israeli response would be met with “vast destruction” of the latter’s infrastructure.

US news website Axios reported that a retaliation within days that could target oil production facilities inside Iran and other strategic sites.

On social media, Iranians were apprehensive about Israeli retaliation and said past wars, such as the eight-year conflict with Iraq in the 1980s that killed about one million people, would only bring more suffering.

Fears of further violence

“The destruction of generations, young people being cannon fodder, the enrichment of generals and elites, and the empowerment of extremists? Leaders will not pay for dragging Iran into war,” said Nima Mokhtarian, who works at an NGO.

Iran’s missile strikes and Israel’s operations in Lebanon have caused alarm around the world, as Tehran’s Middle East proxies — Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and armed groups in Iraq — show no let up in attacks in support of Hamas.

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“It’s time for the entire axis to enter the battle, from Iran to Iraq to Yemen to Syria to Lebanon to Gaza, it’s time. Because it’s clear that nothing can stop Israel, not international laws,” said Lebanese resident Amal.

Israel’s foreign minister said that he was barring UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from entering the country because he had not “unequivocally” condemned Iran’s missile attack on Israel.

Airlines around the world have canceled flights to Israel and Lebanon in the wake of the escalating conflict, with many saying they won’t resume until at least mid-October, depending on the security situation.

China called on global powers to play a constructive role to avoid escalation, while Saudi Arabia is hoping for de-escalation and dialogue, Economy Minister Faisal Al-Ibrahim said.

Egypt condemned what it called a dangerous Israeli escalation in Lebanon and rejected any attempts to impose a “new situation” on the ground that violates Lebanese sovereignty.

Washington said it would work with longtime ally Israel to ensure Iran faced “severe consequences” for Tuesday’s attack, which Israel said involved more than 180 ballistic missiles.

Israel activated air defenses against Iran’s bombardment on Tuesday and most missiles were intercepted “by Israel and a defensive coalition led by the United States,” Israeli Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a video on X.

 

Israeli military announces first combat death after hitting Lebanon

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US strikes in Yemen kill 31 as Trump vows to end Huthi attacks

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US strikes in Yemen kill 31 as Trump vows to end Huthi attacks

The first US strikes against Yemen’s Huthis since Donald Trump took office killed 31 people, the rebels said Sunday, with the US president warning “hell will rain down upon” the Iran-backed group if it did not stop attacking shipping.

The Huthis, who have attacked Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war, said children were among those killed.

An AFP photographer in the rebel-held capital Sanaa heard explosions and saw plumes of smoke rising.

Attacks on Sanaa, as well as on areas in Saada, Al-Bayda and Radaa, killed at least 31 people and wounded 101, “most of whom were children and women”, Huthi health ministry spokesperson Anis Al-Asbahi said.

Footage on Huthi media showed children and a woman among those being treated in a hospital emergency room, including a dazed girl with blackened legs wrapped in bandages.

Trump, in a post on social media, vowed to “use overwhelming lethal force” to end the Huthi attacks, which the rebels say are in solidarity with Palestinians amid the Gaza war.

“To all Huthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!” he said.

Trump also issued a stern warning to the group’s main backer.

“To Iran: Support for the Houthi terrorists must end IMMEDIATELY!” he said.

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“Do NOT threaten the American People, their President… or Worldwide shipping lanes. If you do, BEWARE, because America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!”

The Huthis vowed the strikes “will not pass without response”, while Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi condemned the deaths and said Washington had “no authority” to dictate Tehran’s foreign policy.

The Huthi Ansarullah website slammed what it called Washington’s “criminal brutality”.

US Central Command, which posted videos of fighter jets taking off and a bomb demolishing a compound, said “precision strikes” were launched to “defend American interests, deter enemies, and restore freedom of navigation”.

  • ‘Escalation with escalation’ –

“Our Yemeni armed forces are fully prepared to confront escalation with escalation,” the Huthi political bureau said.

The rebels, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, are part of the “axis of resistance” of pro-Iran groups staunchly opposed to Israel and the United States.

They have launched scores of drone and missile attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the Huthis had “attacked US warships 174 times and commercial vessels 145 times since 2023”.

The campaign put a major strain on the vital route, which normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic, forcing many companies to take a costly detour around southern Africa.

The Palestinian group Hamas, which has praised the Huthi support, lashed out at the US strikes, branding them “a stark violation of international law and an assault on the country’s sovereignty and stability”.

Iran “strongly condemned the brutal air strikes” in a statement, denouncing them as a “gross violation of the principles of the UN Charter”.

The head of the country’s Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, said: “Iran will not wage war, but if anyone threatens, it will give appropriate, decisive and conclusive responses.

  • ‘Political dialogue’ –

The United States has launched several rounds of strikes on Huthi targets.

After halting their attacks when a ceasefire took effect in Gaza in January, the Huthis announced on Tuesday that they would resume them until Israel lifted its blockade of aid to the devastated Palestinian territory.

Trump’s statement did not reference the dispute over Israel, but focused on previous Huthi attacks on merchant shipping.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration reclassified the Huthis as a “foreign terrorist organisation”, banning any US interaction with it.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also spoke to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Moscow is close to Tehran.

“Continued Huthi attacks on US military and commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea will not be tolerated,” Rubio told Lavrov, according to the State Department.

Russia’s foreign ministry said that “Lavrov stressed the need for an immediate cessation of the use of force and the importance for all sides to engage in political dialogue… (to) prevent further bloodshed”.

The Huthis captured Sanaa in 2014 and were poised to overrun most of the rest of the country before a Saudi-led coalition intervened.

The war devastated the already impoverished nation.

Fighting has largely been on hold since a 2022 ceasefire, but the promised peace process has stalled in the face of Huthi attacks on Israel and Israel-linked shipping.

US strikes in Yemen kill 31 as Trump vows to end Huthi attacks

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South African ambassador ‘no longer welcome’ in US, Rubio says

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United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio

South African ambassador ‘no longer welcome’ in US, Rubio says

The US is expelling South Africa’s ambassador to Washington, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying he is “no longer welcome in our great country”.

In a post on X, Rubio accused Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool of hating America and President Donald Trump and described him as a “race-baiting politician”.

The decision was “regrettable”, the office for South Africa’s president said on Saturday, adding that it remained committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship with America.

The rare move by the US marks the latest development in rising tensions between the two countries.

In his post on Friday, Rubio linked to an article from the right-wing outlet Breitbart that quoted some of Rasool’s recent remarks made during an online lecture about the Trump administration.

“What Donald Trump is launching is an assault on incumbency, those who are in power, by mobilising a supremacism against the incumbency, at home… and abroad,” Rasool said at the event.

He added that the Maga movement was a response “to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in the USA in which the voting electorate… is projected to become 48 percent white”.

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In response, Rubio called Rasool “PERSONA NON GRATA,” referencing the Latin phrase for “unwelcome person”.

The post from Rubio came as he departed Canada from a meeting with foreign ministers.

Ties between the US and South Africa have been deteriorating since Trump took office.

The US president signed an executive order last month that freezes assistance to South Africa. The order references “egregious actions” by South Africa and cites “unjust racial discrimination” against white Afrikaners – those who descended from Dutch settlers.

The South African government has repeatedly denied this.

The order also references a new law, the Expropriation Act, that the order claims targets Afrikaners by allowing the government to take away private land.

“As long as South Africa continues to support bad actors on the world stage and allows violent attacks on innocent disfavored minority farmers, the United States will stop aid and assistance to the country,” according to a statement from the White House.

The government in South Africa denies its law is related to race, the Associated Press reported.

A fact sheet from the White House states the country “blatantly discriminates against ethnic minority descendants of settler groups”.

While lower-ranking diplomats are sometimes expelled, it’s highly unusual in the US for it to happen to a more senior official like a foreign ambassador, the Associated Press reported, noting neither the US nor Russia took such actions against one another even amid tensions during the Cold War.

Rasool previously served as the country’s ambassador to the US from 2010 to 2015 before being tapped again for the post in 2025.

He was born and grew up in Cape Town. When he was nine, he and his family were forcibly removed from an apartment that was declared only for white people. As he grew older, he became more interested in politics and said the eviction was a significant moment in his upbringing that guided his future.

South African ambassador ‘no longer welcome’ in US, Rubio says

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US court to Trump: Return workers fired across agencies

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US court to Trump: Return workers fired across agencies

A federal judge in San Francisco has ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to rehire thousands of workers involved in mass firings across multiple agencies.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup said that the terminations were directed by the Office of Personnel Management and its acting director, Charles Ezell, who lacked the authority to do so.

The administration immediately filed an appeal of the injunction with the Ninth Circuit Court. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt earlier Thursday cast the ruling as an attempt to encroach on executive power to hire and fire employees. “The Trump Administration will immediately fight back against this absurd and unconstitutional order,” she said in a statement.

Alsup’s order tells the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury to immediately offer job reinstatement to employees terminated on or about Feb. 13 and 14. He also directed the departments to report back within seven days with a list of probationary employees and an explanation of how the agencies complied with his order as to each person.

The temporary restraining order came in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions and organizations as the Republican administration moves to reduce the federal workforce.

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“These mass-firings of federal workers were not just an attack on government agencies and their ability to function, they were also a direct assault on public lands, wildlife, and the rule of law,” said Erik Molvar, executive director of Western Watersheds Project, one of the plaintiffs.

Alsup expressed frustration with what he called the government’s attempt to sidestep laws and regulations governing a reduction in its workforce — which it is allowed to do — by firing probationary workers who lack protections and cannot appeal.

He was appalled that employees were told they were being fired for poor performance despite receiving glowing evaluations just months earlier.

“It is sad, a sad day, when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” he said. “That should not have been done in our country.”

Lawyers for the government maintain the mass firings were lawful because individual agencies reviewed and determined whether employees on probation were fit for continued employment.

But Alsup, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, has found that difficult to believe. He planned to hold an evidentiary hearing Thursday, but Ezell, the OPM acting director, did not appear to testify in court or even sit for a deposition, and the government retracted his written testimony.

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US court to Trump: Return workers fired across agencies

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