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Iran warns will defend itself after Israeli strikes

By - Oct 26,2024 - Last updated at Oct 26,2024

Commuters drive along a street in Tehran on October 26, 2024. Residents of Tehran awoke and went about their business as planned on October 26 after their sleep was troubled by Israeli strikes that triggered blasts that echoed across the city (AFP photo)

TEHRAN — Iran warned on Saturday it would defend itself after Israeli air strikes killed at least two soldiers and further stoked fears of a full-scale war in the Middle East.
 
Israel warned Iran would "pay a heavy price" if it responded to the strikes, and the United States, Germany and Britain demanded Tehran not escalate the conflict further.
 
The European Union called for all parties to exercise utmost restraint to avoid an "uncontrollable escalation" in the Middle East, warning: "The dangerous cycle of attacks and retaliations risks causing a further expansion of the regional conflict."
 
Other countries, including many of Iran's neighbours, condemned Israel's strikes and some, such as Russia, urged both sides to show restraint and avoid what Moscow dubbed a "catastrophic scenario".
 
The Islamic republic insisted it had the "right and the duty" to defend itself, while its Lebanese ally Hizbollah said it had already launched rocket salvos targeting five residential areas in northern Israel. 
 
The Israeli army said 80 projectiles were fired across the border on Saturday.
 
Confirming its own strikes after explosions and anti-aircraft fire echoed around Tehran, the Israel military said it had hit Iranian missile factories and military facilities in several regions.
 
The "retaliatory strike has been completed and the mission was fulfilled", while Israeli aircraft "returned safely", a military spokesman said.
 
Iran confirmed Israel had targeted military sites around the capital and in other parts of the country, saying the raids caused "limited damage" but killed two soldiers.
 
Direct attack 
 
Israel had vowed to retaliate after October 1, when Iran fired around 200 missiles in only the second ever direct attack against its arch-foe. Most of those missiles were intercepted but one person was killed.
 
The Israeli retaliation drew condemnation from Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, which warned against further escalation. Jordan said Israeli jets had not used its airspace. Turkey was one of the most outspoken critics, calling for an end to "terror created by Israel".
 
Israel is already engaged in combat on two fronts.
 
Since last month, it has been fighting a war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, including strikes that have killed the group's senior leadership and ground incursions seeking to destroy missile sites. 
 
And, for more than a year since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, Israel has been fighting a war in Gaza that has caused mass civilian casualties in the densely populated Palestinian territory. 
 
The United Nations has warned the "darkest moment" of that conflict is unfolding, with Palestinians facing a dire humanitarian crisis and daily Israeli bombing. 
 
Along with Hizbollah and Hamas, Iranian-allied groups in Yemen, Iraq and Syria, have carried out attacks during the fallout from the Gaza war.
 
At roughly the same time as Israel struck targets in Iran, the Syrian state news agency SANA said an Israeli air attack targeted military positions in central and southern Syria.
 
 'Iranian proxies' 
 
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose network of pro-Iran factions, claimed responsibility before dawn Saturday for a drone attack against a "military target" in northern Israel.
 
On Friday, two people died from shrapnel wounds after a Hizbollah rocket barrage into Israel's north, Israeli officials said.
 
Hezbollah said it had also fired rockets at Israeli soldiers near the south Lebanon village of Aita Al Shaab and launched drones against an Israeli air base south of Tel Aviv.
 
On Saturday, Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike had killed a Hizbollah-affiliated medic in Bazuriyeh in the south of the country.
 
US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said Israel's response to Iran was "an exercise in self-defence".
 
He urged Iran to "cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of fighting can end without further escalation".
 
The Israeli military has blamed "Iran and its proxies" in the region for "relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7", when Hamas's attack against Israel triggered the Gaza war.
 
That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
 
Dozens of hostages seized on that day are still held by militants in Gaza.
 
Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed 42,924 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.

Tehran presses on, uneasy after Israeli strikes

By - Oct 26,2024 - Last updated at Oct 26,2024

Part of the city skyline is pictured at dawn after several explosions were heard in Tehran on Saturday (AFP photo)

TEHRAN — Tehran carried on largely as normal on Saturday after a night of explosions from Israeli strikes reverberating across the city, accompanied by criss-crossing trails from air defences.
 
By mid-morning the bustling capital had resumed its usual rhythm as buses wove their way through the streets, taking troubled Iranians to work.
 
Iranian officials and media have played down the attack, but on the streets of Tehran many were concerned that it had marked a new escalation and a step towards all-out war.
 
Hooman, a 42-year-old factory employee, was on a night shift when he heard the blasts.
 
"It was an echoing sound... terrible and horrifying," he told AFP. "Now that there is war in the Middle East, we are afraid that we will be dragged into it."
 
Saturday's Israeli attack came in response to Iran's missile strike on October 1, itself a retaliation for the killing of Iran-backed militant leaders and a Revolutionary Guards commander.
 
The latest tit-for-tat moves take place against a backdrop of the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, and which has expanded to include Lebanon's Hezbollah in recent weeks.
 
On Saturday, the Israeli military said it had conducted "precise strikes on military targets in Iran", in response to what it said were "months of continuous attacks from the regime in Iran".
 
It warned Tehran against responding.
 
Iran confirmed Israel targeted military sites in Tehran province as well as other areas, saying the blasts heard were the "activation of the air defence system" intercepting the Israeli attack.
 
At least two Iranian soldiers died in the strikes.
 
 'War is frightening' 
 
Some in Tehran voiced fears over an escalation of the conflict.
 
"If they attack, it will be us who will be crushed," said Moharam, a 51-year-old day labourer.
 
Others, however, said they were entirely unaware an attack had even happened.
 
Iranian media has downplayed the attack, which also targeted areas in the border provinces of Khuzestan and Ilam, and reported it caused "limited damage" thanks to Iran's air defence forces.
 
State media carried footage showing traffic flowing normally in several cities as people went about their daily business.
 
Other TV footage showed Iranians singing, dancing and mocking Israel from a Tehran rooftop during the strikes.
 
Iranian officials emphasised that all school activities and sport events were to be held as scheduled.
 
Flights over Iran were briefly suspended for a few hours following the attack, but later resumed as scheduled.
 
Sepideh, a 30-year-old insurance manager, said she woke up Saturday and hurried to work like usual despite her worries.
 
"War is frightening... but I don't think a terrible war will happen in Iran," she said.
 

Israel army says struck Iran's missile manufacturing facilities

By - Oct 26,2024 - Last updated at Oct 26,2024

A man walks past a mural painting of Iranian flags in a street in Tehran on October 26, 2024. Residents of Tehran awoke and went about their business as planned on October 26 after their sleep was troubled by Israeli strikes that triggered blasts that echoed across the city (AFP Photo)

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM  — The Israeli military said on Saturday it had completed its air attack on Iran, saying it hit the Islamic republic's missile manufacturing facilities, surface-to-air missile arrays and other aerial capabilities across several areas of the country.
 
"Based on intelligence, IAF (air force) aircraft struck missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the State of Israel over the last year," the military said in a statement. 
 
Israeli strikes on military targets in Iran are "an exercise of self-defense" following Tehran's ballistic missile attack earlier this month, the United States said late Friday, adding it was informed ahead of the strikes.
 
White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said the "targeted strikes on military targets" are "an exercise of self-defense and in response to Iran's ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1."
 
The United States was "informed beforehand and there is no US involvement," a US defense official told AFP, under the condition of anonymity.
 
The official did not say how far in advance the United States had been informed or what had been shared by Israel.
 
The Iranian army said two soldiers were killed in Israeli air strikes on military installations in the Islamic republic on Saturday, according to a statement carried by state television.
 
"The army of the Islamic Republic of Iran lost two of its fighters during the night when they faced projectiles from the criminal Zionist regime in defence of its territory," the statement said.

Rescuers say halting work in north Gaza after Israel threats

By - Oct 24,2024 - Last updated at Oct 24,2024

Palestinians transport their belongings as they flee areas north of Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on October 12, 2024 (AFP photo)

GAZA - Palestinian Territories — Gaza's civil defence agency said Thursday it can no longer provide first responder services in the north of the territory, accusing Israeli forces of threatening to "bomb and kill" its crews.
 
Since October 6, the Israeli military has mounted a sweeping air and land assault on north Gaza, initially focused on the Jabalia area, describing it as an operation aimed at preventing Hamas militants from regrouping.
 
"We are unable to provide humanitarian services to citizens in the northern governorate of the Gaza Strip due to threats from Israeli occupation forces, who have threatened to kill and bomb our teams if they remain inside Jabalia camp," said Mahmud Bassal, the agency's spokesman.
 
First responders had been "targeted" on several occasions, leaving "several members injured, and others are left bleeding on the streets with no one able to rescue them", he told AFP.
 
Bassal published a photograph of a burnt truck on social media, saying it was "the only civil defence vehicle in the northern Gaza Strip governorate", which includes Gaza City.
 
The truck, he said, was "targeted by the Israeli army" in the northern city of Beit Lahia, just north of Jabalia and near Gaza's northern border with Israel.
 
The Israeli army said it was conducting operations in the Jabalia area and had "eliminated dozens of terrorists".
 
Military activity in adjacent Beit Lahia has also forced Palestinians to flee, including Raghib Hamuda, who moved his family to Gaza City after Israeli forces issued call for the evacuation of a shelter last week.
 
"The military bulldozers demolished the school after evacuating all the displaced people," he told AFP by phone, adding his family faced "checkpoints and gunfire along the way" to Gaza City, where they found shelter in another school.
 
"The shelling is intense, and the army has demolished dozens of houses," he said.
 
Intensified operation 
 
The Israeli army announced it would intensify operations in Gaza's ravaged north on October 6, with troops even encircling Jabalia and adjacent areas.
 
Since then, the military has steadily expanded its assault to other parts in northern Gaza, and just days ago a strike on a residential complex in Beit Lahia killed at least 73 people, according to Gaza's civil defence agency.
 
The military said it had targeted a Hamas command centre.
 
The stated goal of the military's overall assault it says is to destroy the operational capabilities Hamas is trying to rebuild in the north.
 
It has repeatedly told people to evacuate, and to do so they must pass through army-manned checkpoints.
 
Images posted online and verified by AFP show crowds of Palestinians waiting to cross such checkpoints often supported by tanks, and several Palestinians reported mistreatment or detention during the process.
 
The UN refugee agency, UNRWA, says 400,000 people remain in Gaza's north including Gaza City, and that within the governorate, tens of thousands have fled the northernmost areas subject to intensified Israeli operations, most to Gaza City.
 
The Israeli defence ministry body that manages civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, COGAT, says 250,000 people remain in Gaza's north.
 
The United States has pressured its ally Israel to allow more aid into north Gaza, saying the amount sent so far has "not been sufficient".
 
Israeli officials meanwhile have denied charges Israel was implementing a plan to starve out northern Gaza.
 
The Gaza war began with Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people on Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
 
Israel's retaliatory offensive has until now killed at least 42,847 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry which the United Nations has described as reliable.
 

Kurdish-led Syria force says Turkish strikes kill 12 civilians

By - Oct 24,2024 - Last updated at Oct 24,2024

BEIRUT, LEBANON — The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Thursday that Turkish air strikes killed 12 civilians in northeastern Syria, following a deadly attack on a defence firm near Ankara.

"Over the past hours... a new wave of [Turkish] attacks on northern and eastern Syria" killed "12 civilians, including two children", and wounded 25 others, a statement from the US-backed force said.

"In addition to populated areas, Turkish warplanes and UAVs [drones] targeted bakeries, power stations, oil facilities and [Kurdish] Internal Security Force checkpoints," the statement added, also reporting Turkish shelling.

Turkey launched air strikes on Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria Wednesday blaming them for an attack that killed five people at a defence firm near Ankara.

A further 22 people were wounded in the attack, which the government said was "very likely" carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Hours later, "an air operation was carried out against terrorist targets in the north of Iraq and Syria", the defence ministry said in a statement.

"A total of 32 targets belonging to the terrorists were successfully destroyed."

The US-backed SDF spearheaded the campaign that dislodged Daesh terrorists from their last scraps of Syrian territory in 2019.

Turkey sees the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which dominate the SDF, as an offshoot of the PKK.

 

Turkish troops and allied rebel factions control swathes of northern Syria following successive cross-border offensives since 2016, most of them targeting the SDF.

 

Hizbollah says clashing with Israeli forces in Lebanon border village

By - Oct 24,2024 - Last updated at Oct 24,2024

This photo taken from Lebanon's Marjayoun shows smoke clouds rising amid ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hizbollah in the village of Kafarkila on Thursday (AFP photo)

BEIRUT, LEBANON— Hizbollah said its fighters were clashing at close range with Israeli forces in a south Lebanon border village on Thursday, weeks after Israel said it launched ground operations against the Iran-backed group.

Hizbollah fighters were engaged in "heavy clashes in the village of Aita al-Shaab" at close range, the Shiite Muslim movement said in a statement, adding that fighters hit a Merkava tank that came to assist the Israeli forces.

A short time earlier, Hizbollah said its fighters had "destroyed" another Israeli tank in the same village.

The group also said its fighters attacked Israeli forces near the border village of Aitarun, after saying a day earlier they repelled soldiers attempting to infiltrate in the area.

After nearly a year of war with Hamas in Gaza, Israel shifted its focus to Lebanon last month, vowing to secure its northern border under fire from Hizbollah.

It has ramped up air strikes on the group's strongholds and sent in ground troops to south Lebanon, in a war that has displaced more than a million people and killed at least 1,580, according to Lebanese authorities.

Hizbollah on Wednesday said the Israeli forces "have not been able to fully establish its control or completely occupy any village" in southern Lebanon.

Footage last week showed an Israeli flag flying over Aita Al Shaab.

A source close to Hizbollah said the village had come under some of the heaviest Israeli fire in a year of confrontations, and also denied Israeli troops had managed to establish positions inside Lebanon.

On Monday, Lebanon's official National News Agency said the Israeli forces blew up houses in Aita Al Shaab, while Hizbollah said its fighters launched "a rocket salvo" at Israeli enemy soldiers near the municipality.

Broadcaster Al Jazeera showed footage of Israeli tanks on the village's outskirts.

Last week, Hizbollah also said its fighters were battling Israeli troops in Aita Al Shaab.

It was across the border from the village that Hizbollah fighters captured two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid in July 2006, provoking a devastating month-long war that killed around 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 160 in Israel, most of them soldiers.

Aita Al Shaab was heavily damaged in the 2006 conflict.

US, Qatar announce new Gaza talks as Blinken eyes new options

By - Oct 24,2024 - Last updated at Oct 24,2024

Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Jassim Al Thani receives US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Doha on Thursday (AFP photo)

DOHA — The United States and Qatar on Thursday announced a resumption of negotiations on a Gaza ceasefire, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said mediators were exploring new options after months of failing to seal a US-led plan.
With less than two weeks before US elections, Blinken is paying his 11th trip to the region since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which last week killed Yahya Sinwar.
Blinken said negotiators would resume talks "in the coming days" on ways to end the year-long Gaza war and free hostages seized in the October 7 attack.
 
"We talked about options to capitalise on this moment and next steps to move the process forward," Blinken said, after talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Jassim Al Thani.
He said that the two partners were seeking a plan "so that Israel can withdraw, so that Hamas cannot reconstitute, and so that the Palestinian people can rebuild their lives and rebuild their futures".
"This is a moment to work to end this war, to make sure all the hostages are home, and to build a better future for people in Gaza," he said.
The Qatari prime minister said Israeli and US delegations would meet in Doha on the ceasefire. Blinken declined to give further details on the talks.
President Joe Biden on May 31 laid out a plan that would temporarily halt fighting and seek freedom for hostages still held by militants in Gaza.
 
But talks bogged down, with a major sticking-point being Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's insistence on an Israeli troop presence on the Gaza-Egypt border.
Blinken, on the third stop of a tour that took him to Israel and Saudi Arabia, repeated his assertion that Sinwar was the main impediment and that his death offers an opportunity.
Sheikh Mohammed said there was so far "no clarity what will be the way forward" from Hamas but that Qatari mediators had "re-engaged" with the group since Sinwar's death.
"There has been an engagement with the representatives from the political office in Doha. We had some meetings with them in the last couple of days," he said, adding that Egypt has "ongoing" discussions with Hamas.
US officials had described Sinwar as intransigent in negotiations brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt on a ceasefire that would also see the release of hostages from Gaza.
Critics say the issue was not just Hamas but the Biden administration's failure to secure the support of Israel, which has received a near continuous flow of billions of dollars in US weapons.
 
'Different options' 
 
Hamas has yet to choose a successor to Sinwar.
Two Hamas sources told AFP this week that the group was leaning towards appointing a Doha-based leadership committee rather than an individual leader.
 
Blinken said the United States was ready to explore "new frameworks" on Gaza.
 
"We're looking at different options, but as you heard the prime minister say, we haven't yet really determined whether Hamas is prepared to engage," Blinken said.
"But the next step is getting the negotiators together... we'll certainly learn more in the coming days."
Blinken is also looking for greater clarity on a plan for reconstruction and post-war governance of Gaza, seeing it as a vital component of efforts to end the war.
 
He announced another $135 million of aid to the Palestinians, bringing the total since the start of the war to some $1.2 billion.
Hamas seized full control of Gaza in 2007, and for more than a decade has maintained an office in Qatar, initially with the blessing of Israel and the United States.
The office has allowed communication with the group, whose main patron is US arch-foe Iran, with Qatar -- a nimble regional player which also hosts a major US base -- channelling money to support Hamas governance of impoverished Gaza.
 
After the October 7 attack, Israel vowed to eradicate Hamas and bring the hostages home. It stands accused of killing Hamas' Qatar-based political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, while he was visiting Iran in July.

US says 'now is the time' to end Gaza war

By - Oct 23,2024 - Last updated at Oct 23,2024

Tents sheltering people displaced by conflict are pictured with the Mediterranean sea in the background in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 23, 2024 amid the ongoing Israeli war on the tiny Palestinian territory (AFP photo)

JERUSALEM — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday "now is the time" to end the conflict in Gaza, and urged Israel to avoid further escalation with Iran.
 
In southern Lebanon, AFP correspondents reported several Israeli air strikes on Tyre, after the military warned residents of parts of the city to flee ahead of operations targeting Hizbollah.
 
The warning sparked a new exodus from the once vibrant city, which is perched on the Mediterranean coast, and AFPTV footage showed plumes of thick black smoke rising after the strikes.
 
"The situation is very bad, we're evacuating people," said Mortada Mhanna, who heads Tyre's disaster management unit.
 
"You could say that the entire city of Tyre is being evacuated," said Bilal Kashmar, the unit's media officer.
 
Blinken's visit to the region is his 11th since the start of the war in Gaza and his first since Israel's war on Lebanon escalated to all-out war last month.
 
Previous US efforts to end the Gaza war and contain the regional fallout have failed.
 
The war in Gaza began with Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed 42,792 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from territory's health ministry which the UN considers reliable.
 
The ministry added that more than 100,000 have been wounded, which represents over four percent of Gaza's 2.4 million population.
 
"Since October 7 a year ago, Israel has achieved most of its strategic objectives when it comes to Gaza... Now is the time to turn those successes into enduring, strategic success," Blinken said as he left Israel, following meetings with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials.
 
Addressing Israel's pledge to retaliate for Iran's October 1 attack, he said, "It is also very important that Israel respond in ways that do not create greater escalation." 
 
UN aid worker killed 
 
On aid to Gaza, Blinken said he saw "progress being made, which is good, but more progress needs to be made and, most critically, it needs to be sustained".
 
His remarks come as concerns rise for tens of thousands of civilians trapped by fighting in the hard-to-reach north.
 
Israel launched a major air and ground assault in northern Gaza this month, vowing to stop Hamas militants from regrouping in the area.
 
The only medical facility still partially functioning in the targeted area has "no medicine or medical supplies", warned Kamal Adwan Hospital director Hossam Abu Safia.
 
"People are being killed in the streets, and we can't help them. Bodies are lying on the streets."
 
The World Health Organisation  said it was forced to postpone the last phase of a polio vaccination drive in Gaza due to "intense bombardment" and violence in the north.
 
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Wednesday that another of its workers had been killed in Gaza, after an UNRWA car was hit by a strike. 
 
An AFP photographer confirmed the strike in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, with images from the scene showing a mangled aid truck and mourners gathered around two bodies.
 
 Over 800,000 displaced Lebanese 
 
After nearly a year of its war on Gaza, Israel shifted its focus to Lebanon in late September, vowing to secure its northern border under fire from Hizbollah.
 
Israel ramped up its air strikes on Hizbollah strongholds around the country and sent in ground troops late last month, in a war that has killed at least 1,552 people since September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
 
The International Organisation  for Migration said this week it had registered some 809,000 people as currently internally displaced inside Lebanon.
 
Lebanese media reported that Israeli air strikes hit areas of south and east Lebanon on Wednesday.
 
Hizbollah kept up its attacks on Israel, saying it had fired rockets at an Israeli military intelligence base in the suburbs of commercial hub Tel Aviv.
 
The group also claimed several attacks on Israeli troops in south Lebanon border villages.
 
On Tuesday, the Israeli army said it had killed the Hizbollah cleric tipped to succeed the group's leader Hassan Nasrallah, who himself was killed in an Israeli air strike three weeks ago.
 
Hizbollah has not issued a statement confirming Hashem Safieddine's death, but a high-level source close to the group had said that the militant leader had been out of contact since the strikes weeks ago.
 

4 dead, 14 hurt in attack at Turkey defence firm

By - Oct 23,2024 - Last updated at Oct 23,2024

Turkish police officers gather as an armed personnel vehicle drives along a road in Kahramankazan, some 40 kilometers north of Ankara on Wednesday (AFP photo)

ANKARA —Four people were killed and 14 others wounded in an attack on the headquarters of a top Turkish defence firm near Ankara, Turkish officials said Wednesday. 
 
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was holding talks in Russia with Vladimir Putin at the time, confirmed the toll, and condemned what he said was a "heinous terrorist attack" at state-run Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI).
 
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said three of the injured were in critical condition and that two attackers "a woman and a man, have been neutralised". 
 
He said work was under way to determine their identities but did not say whether there were any other attackers still at large. 
 
Local media broadcast footage showing clouds of smoke and a large fire raging at the site in Kahramankazan, a small town some 40 kilometres  north of Ankara. 
 
The incident happened as Erdogan was meeting Vladimir Putin at a summit in Kazan, with the Russian leader expressing his condolences over the attack. 
 
Media outlets which had been showing live footage from the scene were forced to halt their broadcasts after Turkey's media watchdog ordered a blackout of images from the site.
 
Haberturk TV said there was an ongoing "hostage situation" without giving further details, while the private NTV television spoke of gunshots after the blast, which took place around 4:00 pm (1300 GMT). 
 
There was no immediate claim for the attack but the justice minister said an investigation had been opened. 
 
NTV spoke of a suicide attack, saying "a group of terrorists" had burst into TAI's headquarters and one of them blew themself up.
 
Images shown by Haberturk suggested one attacker was a woman, while Sabah newspaper published a CCTV image from cameras at the building's entrance of a black-clad young man with a moustache carrying a rucksack and what appeared to be an assault rifle.
 
The attack drew condemnation from Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu as well as opposition leader Ozgur Ozel, who heads the CHP. 
 
"I condemn the terrorist attack against TAI facilities in Kahramankazan... I condemn terrorism, no matter who or where it comes from," Ozel wrote on X. 
 
According to TAI's website, the state-run company, which is also a major arms producer, employs 15,500 people and has a vast production site covering an area of five million square metres. 
 
Erdogan in Russia 
 
The blast occurred as Erdogan was with Putin in the Russian city of Kazan for the BRICS summit of major emerging market nations, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. 
 
"I would like to express my condolences in connection with the terror attack," Putin told him at the start of their meeting. 
 
NATO chief Mark Rutte also offered the alliance's backing to member state Turkey in a call with Erdogan following the attack. 
 
"I just spoke with (President) Erdogan about the terror attack in Ankara. My message was clear: NATO stands with Turkiye," Rutte wrote on X, using the country's official Turkish name. 
 
The Turkish city of Istanbul is currently hosting a major trade fair for the defence and aerospace industries at the moment, visited this week by Ukraine's top diplomat. 
 
Turkey's defence sector, which is known for its Bayraktar drones, accounts for some 80 percent of the nation's export revenues.
 
Contracts worth $10.2 billion were signed last year, according to Haluk Gorgun, head of Turkey's state Defence Industry Agency (SSB).
 
In the first eight months of this year, defence export revenues reached $3.7 billion, up nearly 10 percent from same period a year earlier, Gorgun said. 
 
The last attack in Turkey took place in January when a man was shot dead by two gunmen who opened fire inside a Catholic church in Istanbul. 
 
That attack was claimed by the Daesh terror group.
 
In October 2023, two policemen were injured in an attack in the government district in Ankara. 
 
Police shot dead one assailant while the other died in an apparent suicide blast outside the interior ministry.
 
That attack was claimed by the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
 

Amnesty says Israel strikes on Hizbollah-linked finance firm warrant war crime probe

By - Oct 22,2024 - Last updated at Oct 22,2024

Smoke billows from a building that was targeted by an Israeli air strike in Beirut's southern suburb of Shayah on Tuesday, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hizbollah (AFP photo)

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Human rights group Amnesty International said on Tuesday that the Israeli military's bombing of branches of a Hizbollah-linked financial firm in Lebanon should be "investigated as a war crime".

The Al Qard Al Hassan firm, a lifeline for many Shiite Muslims and other Lebanese in the face of a years-long financial crisis, is sanctioned by Washington, which accuses Hizbollah of using it as a cover to gain access to the international financial system.

Israel accuses Al Qard Al Hassan of financing "Hizbollah's terrorist operations", and the Israeli military hit branches of the organisation across Lebanon late Sunday and early Monday.

"The Israeli military's targeting of branches" of Al Qard Al Hassan "likely violates international humanitarian law and must be investigated as a war crime", Amnesty said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Under the laws of war, branches of financial institutions are civilian objects unless they are being used for military purposes. Therefore, these attacks likely constitute a direct attack on civilian objects," it added.

The financial firm, officially registered as a charity, has been offering customers credit in exchange for gold deposits on an interest-free basis since the 1980s.

The United Nations on Monday condemned the Israeli strikes targeting Al Qard Al Hassan, saying they also caused "extensive damage" to civilian property and infrastructure.

Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif told reporters on Tuesday that Al Qard Al Hassan was "a completely civilian institution registered by law, whose services are for all Lebanese without exception".

A senior Israeli intelligence official, briefing journalists on condition of anonymity, said the strikes were meant "to affect the trust between Hizbollah and a lot of the Shiite community that uses this system".

Amnesty's Erika Guevara Rosas said the Israeli military had "targeted an institution that serves as an economic lifeline for countless Lebanese civilians".

"This, along with an evacuation warning issued less than 40 minutes before the start of the strikes, shows Israel's disregard for international humanitarian law," she said in the statement.

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