International
Israeli strikes kill at least 40 in east Lebanon – health ministry
Israeli strikes kill at least 40 in east Lebanon – health ministry
At least 40 people were killed in Israeli strikes in eastern Lebanon on Wednesday, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
An Israeli official said the strikes, in the governorates of Baalbek and Bekaa, targeted operatives of the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s culture minister said one of the strikes also seriously damaged an Ottoman-era building in the vicinity of the Roman ruins in the city of Baalbek, which is a Unesco World Heritage site.
Israeli strikes also hit southern Beirut on Wednesday, after the IDF issued evacuation warnings. The military said it struck Hezbollah command centres, weapons stores and other infrastructure.
A later IDF warning covered four neighbourhoods in southern Beirut including an area near Lebanon’s international airport, which has continued to operate despite Israel’s air strikes on the capital city.
Soon after, pictures showed a large fireball and thick black smoke rising into the night sky above Beirut.
Meanwhile, a rocket fired by Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon killed an Israeli man near a kibbutz in northern Israel, paramedics said.
Lebanon’s Civil Defence agency has also said the bodies of 30 people were recovered from a four-storey apartment building hit by an Israeli strike on Tuesday evening that destroyed one side of the building and sparked a fire.
The building, in Barja, a predominantly Sunni Muslim coastal town south of Beirut, was reportedly housing displaced people.
The Israeli military said it had struck “terror infrastructure” belonging to Hezbollah.
A man who lived on one of the upper floors of the apartment building that was hit said his son and wife were injured by falling masonry.
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“These rocks that you see here weigh 100kg, they fell on a 13kg kid,” Moussa Zahran told Reuters news agency as he surveyed the damage.
“I removed [the rocks] and… handed my son to the civil defence through the window. I carried my wife and came downstairs and got out behind the building… I thank God, glory be to Him, for this miracle.”
An Irish Times correspondent cited a member of the civil defence at the scene as saying that those killed whose bodies were found complete included seven women and three children – a seven-month-old baby and two girls aged seven and 12.
Neighbours also said the building was housing displaced people who had fled from other areas, she added.
There was no evacuation warning ahead of the strike, according to Reuters.
The Lebanese health ministry gave a preliminary death toll of 20 from the strike on Barja late on Tuesday but did not provide an updated figure on Wednesday.
On Wednesday evening, the ministry said 40 people had been killed and 53 others injured in a series of Israeli strikes in Bekaa and Baalbek governorates, which make up most of the eastern Bekaa Valley. They included 16 people killed in the village of Nasriyah and 11 in Baalbek city, it added.
Lebanese Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada also told the director-general of Unesco that one of the strikes had “caused serious damage to the ancient Manshiya building” in Baalbek city, which he said dated back to the Ottoman period and was located in the vicinity of the ruins of several Roman temples.
“The destruction of this exceptional monument next to a Unesco World Heritage site is an irremediable loss for Lebanon and for world heritage,” he warned.
An AFP news agency correspondent also reported that the famous 19th Century Palmyra Hotel near the Roman ruins was damaged by nearby strikes, which the health ministry said killed two people.
An Israeli military official said its aircraft had carried out strikes based on precise intelligence indicating the presence of Hezbollah operatives in the Baalbek area.
The military also said it had killed the commander of Hezbollah’s forces in the southern border region of Khiam, and that a number of other Hezbollah fighters had been killed by air strikes and by troops operating inside southern Lebanon over the past day.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s new secretary general, Naim Qassem, said in a speech that the group had “tens of thousands of trained resistance combatants” ready to fight and that nowhere in Israel was “beyond the reach of our drones and missiles”.
“I will tell you very clearly, our conviction is that only one thing can stop this war of aggression, and that is the battlefield,” he declared, adding that he did not believe “political action” would end the conflict.
The Israeli military said Hezbollah fired about 170 rockets into northern and central Israel on Wednesday.
In the evening, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said a man was killed by a rocket near the kibbutz of Kfar Masaryk, which is south of the coastal town of Acre.
Paramedics said the man was found in a field with severe shrapnel wounds and that he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Later, Israeli media identified him as Sivan Sade, an 18-year-old resident of Kfar Masaryk who had been working in the field.
Also on Wednesday, Israeli media said one rocket hit a car park near Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, but the Israel Airport Authority said its operations were not affected. Hezbollah said it targeted the Tzrifin military base near the airport.
A large section of a rocket also hit a parked car in the town of Raanana, just north of Tel Aviv.
Since the escalation of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah six weeks ago, at least 2,400 people have been killed and more than 1.2 million displaced across Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities.
Israeli air strikes have eliminated most of the group’s leadership, including Qassem’s predecessor Hassan Nasrallah, and caused widespread destruction in parts of southern and eastern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs – areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence.
Israel went on the offensive against Hezbollah after almost a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza.
It says it wants to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of residents of northern Israeli border areas displaced by rocket attacks, which Hezbollah launched in support of Palestinians the day after its ally Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
Israeli authorities say more than 70 people have been killed by Hezbollah attacks in Israel and the occupied Golan Heights over the past year.
Israeli strikes kill at least 40 in east Lebanon – health ministry
BBC
International
Israeli strikes pound central Beirut, suburbs
Israeli strikes pound central Beirut, suburbs
BEIRUT: Israeli strikes pounded a densely-populated part of the Lebanese capital and its southern suburbs on Tuesday, hours ahead of an anticipated announcement of a ceasefire ending hostilities between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
A strike on Beirut hit the Noueiri district with no evacuation warning and killed at least one person, Lebanon’s health ministry said in a preliminary toll.
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Minutes later, at least 10 Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs. They began approximately 30 minutes after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for 20 locations in the area, the largest such warning yet.
As the strikes were under way, Israel’s military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the air force was conducting a “widespread attack” on Hezbollah targets across the city.
Israeli strikes pound central Beirut, suburbs
ARAB NEWS
International
Over $100m wasted, Trump mocks Democrats for targeting him
Over $100m wasted, Trump mocks Democrats for targeting him
Former U.S. President Donald Trump has fiercely criticised the legal cases brought against him, calling them “empty and lawless”.
He accused Democrats of weaponising the judicial system to target him as a political opponent.
In a strongly worded statement, Trump alleged that over $100 million in taxpayer money had been wasted in what he described as a politically driven effort to undermine his influence.
“Nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before,” he said, pointing to high-profile prosecutors, including Georgia’s Fani Willis and New York Attorney General Letitia James, as key figures in what he called a “political hijacking.”
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Trump also accused Willis of colluding with Nathan Wade, whom he described as “her lover” and lacking the experience to handle such cases.
He claimed Wade was paid “millions,” allegedly enabling lavish trips and cruises.
Letitia James, who is pursuing a civil fraud case against Trump, was also criticised.
He claimed she had campaigned on a promise to “get Trump” in her bid for office, an action he labelled “unethical” and “probably illegal.”
Trump also mentioned Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, alleging that Bragg initially resisted prosecuting him but was pressured into action by the Justice Department and the Democratic Party.
Describing the series of legal actions as a “low point in the history of our Country,” Trump maintained his resolve, declaring: “I persevered, against all odds, and WON.”
Over $100m wasted, Trump mocks Democrats for targeting him
International
US-based Nigerians get 30-year sentence over $3.5m romance scam
US-based Nigerians get 30-year sentence over $3.5m romance scam
A United States federal jury sentenced two Nigerians, Anthony Ibekie and Samuel Aniukwu, to 30 years in prison for scamming certain US citizens $3,500,000.
This was mentioned in a news statement made public on the US Department of Justice website on Monday.
According to the statement, the Nigerians, Ibekie and Aniukwu mislead their victims by informing them that they had received big inheritances that required payment to claim.
The couple would then ask their victims to transfer money, promising to refund them after the inheritances were claimed.
It also stated that the duo carried out romance scams by establishing romantic relationships with their victims and demanding them to send money after they had built trust in their victims.
It read, “An undercover law enforcement investigation has resulted in federal prison sentences for two Nigerian nationals residing in the Chicago suburbs who conducted online inheritance scams and other fraud schemes.
“Using aliases, Anthony Emeka Ibekie and Samuel Aniukwu communicated with victims throughout the United States, convincing them they had received substantial inheritances and needed to send money to individuals associated with the defendants in order to claim it.
“In addition to the inheritance scam, the pair carried out an online romance scam that involved communicating with victims via social media and dating websites, building trust with the victims through a purported online romance, and convincing them to send money to a predetermined recipient. Aniukwu and Ibekie also orchestrated a ‘business email compromise’ scam that targeted corporate email accounts.
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“The fraud schemes were uncovered by a covert law enforcement investigation. The scams resulted in losses to victims of at least $3.5 million.”
According to the statement, after being arraigned on 14 charges, the duo pleaded guilty to their different alterations.
Following their guilty pleas, Ibekie was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday, and Aniukwu was sentenced to 10 years in prison on November 8.
The statement continued, “A federal jury earlier this year convicted Ibekie, 59, of Oswego, Illinois, on all 14 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, making false statements to a bank, and passport fraud. U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger on Thursday sentenced Ibekie to 20 years in federal prison.
“Aniukwu, 50, of Romeoville, Illinois, pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud and money laundering charges. Judge Seeger on Nov. 8, 2024, sentenced Aniukwu to 10 years in prison.”
Meanwhile, Jennifer Gosha, an accomplice of the Nigerians and a US citizen, is expected to be sentenced on December 18 after pleading guilty.
“A third defendant, Jennifer Gosha, 52, a U.S. citizen from Oak Park, Ill., pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges of wire fraud and making false statements to a federal agent. Gosha is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Seeger on December 18, 2024,” the statement concluded.
US-based Nigerians get 30-year sentence over $3.5m romance scam
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