NEWS

ISTANBUL – Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators rallied Saturday in Istanbul in defense of democracy after the arrest of mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkiye’s worst street unrest in over a decade.

Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkiye’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid Al-Fitr celebration which starts Sunday, marking the end of Ramadan.

Ozgur Ozel, leader of the main opposition party CHP which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but AFP was unable to independently confirm the figure.

The mass protests, which began with Imamoglu’s March 19 detention on contested fraud and “terror” charges, have prompted a repressive government response that has been sharply condemned by rights groups and drawn criticism from abroad.

Widely seen as the only politician capable of challenging President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the ballot box, Imamoglu was elected as CHP’s candidate for the 2028 race on the day he was jailed.

As his wife, Dilek, arrived on stage, massive applause arose from the crowd which was a sea of Turkish flags and pictures of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, modern Turkiye’s founding father.

Imamoglu was resoundingly re-elected mayor for the third time last year. The anger over his arrest which began in Istanbul quickly spread across Turkiye.

Nightly protests outside Istanbul City Hall drew vast crowds and often degenerated into running battles with riot police, who used teargas, pepper spray and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters.

“We are here today for our homeland. We, the people, elect our rulers,” insisted 17-year-old Melis Basak Ergun, a young protester who vowed they would never be cowed “by violence or tear gas.”

“We stand behind our mayor, Imamoglu.”

Turkish authorities did not comment on the latest mass protest. Erdogan has previously branded the demonstrations “street terror.”

In a letter read out to the crowd, Imamoglu addressed Turkiye’s youngsters, saying: “If young people are on the front line, it’s because they’re the ones who feel most anxiety about the future.

“The youth are telling Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Show the people respect. Don’t touch the nation’s will. Don’t cheat — compete fairly. But Erdogan is closing his ears to these voices,” he wrote.

“This is not about Ekrem Imamoglu, it’s about our country… It is about justice, democracy and freedom,” he said, as the crowd roared back: “Rights! Law! Justice!”

“Everywhere is Taksim, resistance is everywhere!” they chanted, referring to Istanbul’s iconic Taksim Square, site of the last massive wave of protests in 2013.

The last major demonstration called by CHP was Tuesday ahead of Saturday’s big rally, although students have continued to protest throughout the week.

Speaking to French newspaper Le Monde, Ozel said there would be weekly rallies every Saturday in different cities across Turkiye as well as a weekly Wednesday night demo in Istanbul.

“If we don’t stop this attempted coup, it will mean the end of the ballot box,” he said.

“I joined the rallies outside City Hall for four days together with university students. I told them not to give in,” protester Cafer Sungur, 78, told AFP.

“There is no other way than to keep fighting,” he said.

“I was jailed in the 1970s but back then there was justice. Today we can’t talk about justice anymore.”

Student groups have kept up their own protests, most of them masked, in the face of a police crackdown that has seen nearly 2,000 people arrested.

The authorities have also cracked down on media coverage, arresting 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deporting a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arresting a Swedish reporter who flew into Istanbul to cover the unrest.

Eleven journalists were freed Thursday, among them AFP photographer Yasin Akgul.

Swedish journalist Joakim Medin was jailed on Friday, his employer Dagens ETC told AFP.

Reporters Without Borders’ Turkiye representative Erol Onderoglu said Medin had been charged with “insulting the president” — a charge often use to silence Erdogan’s critics.

“The judicial pressure systematically brought to bear on local journalists for a long time is now being brought to bear on their foreign colleagues,” he told AFP, two days after the deportation of BBC correspondent Mark Lowen.

He said authorities had accused him of being “a threat to public order.”
Baris Altintas, co-director of MLSA, a legal NGO helping many of the detainees, told AFP the authorities seem to be very determined to limit coverage of the protests.

“We fear the crackdown on the press will not only continue but increase,” she said.

AN-AFP, 29.3.2025

GENEVA, March 29 – Humanitarian operations in Myanmar have been hindered by damaged roads and infrastructure, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Saturday.

A 7.7 magnitude earthquake on Friday severely damaged critical infrastructure including major bridges and roads, making it difficult for humanitarian operations to access areas in need, OCHA said.

“Damage to the Yangon-Nay Pyi Taw-Mandalay expressway led to service disruptions, with cracks and surface distortions forcing highway buses to halt operations”, the UN agency said in a statement.

Hospitals in central and northwestern Myanmar are struggling to cope with the influx of people injured in the earthquake, the agency stated. Seventeen cargo trucks of shelter and medical supplies are due to arrive on March 30, to address current shortages of medicines including blood bags and anaesthetics.

Myanmar’s military rulers let in hundreds of foreign rescue personnel on Saturday after the earthquake killed more than 1,600 people, the deadliest natural disaster to hit the impoverished, war-torn country in years.

Friday’s quake, among the biggest to jolt the Southeast Asian nation in the last century, crippled airports, bridges and highways amid a civil war that has wrecked the economy and displaced millions.

REUTERS

GENEVA – Funding cuts are threatening the health of nearly 13 million displaced people, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR warned Friday, with the financial uncertainty already having an impact.

Humanitarian organizations worldwide have been reeling since US President Donald Trump returned to office in January, pushing an anti-refugee and anti-migrant agenda and immediately freezing most US foreign aid funding.

The United States has traditionally been UNHCR’s top donor, making up more than 40 percent of total contributions received.

“Without adequate resources, an estimated 12.8 million displaced people, including 6.3 million children, could be left without life-saving health interventions in 2025,” said UNHCR’s public health chief Allen Maina.

“The current humanitarian funding crisis, exacerbated by declining health spending in hosting countries, is affecting the scope and quality of public health and nutrition programs for refugees and host communities, disrupting access to essential services and increasing the risk of disease outbreaks, malnutrition, untreated chronic conditions and mental health issues.”

Citing examples of cutbacks, Maina said around a million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh were facing a severe health crisis with funding freezes threatening access to medical services.

In Burundi, the suspension of nutrition programs in several camps means thousands of refugee children under five may not receive adequate treatment for malnutrition, he added.

And in the Democratic Republic of Congo, UNHCR’s 2025 health budget has been cut by 87 percent compared to 2024.

In the DRC, “the health consequences of funding cuts are expected to be devastating, putting over 520,000 refugees at heightened risk of infectious diseases and death,” said Maina.

And in Egypt, all UNHCR’s medical treatment for refugees has been suspended, except emergency life-saving procedures.

The estimate of 12.8 million displaced people potentially being left without health support was based on a survey by UNHCR’s health team of all the global operations where the agency has health programs.

UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said other traditional top donors were also reducing their funding.

AN-AFP, 29.3.2025

BANGKOK – Myanmar’s military rulers let in hundreds of foreign rescue personnel on Saturday after an earthquake killed more than 1,600 people, the deadliest natural disaster to hit the impoverished, war-torn country in years.

Friday’s 7.7 magnitude quake, among the biggest to jolt the Southeast Asian nation in the last century, crippled airports, bridges and highways amid a civil war that has wrecked the economy and displaced millions.

The death toll in Myanmar climbed to 1,644, the military government said on Saturday, according to BBC Burmese news service.

In neighbouring Thailand, where the quake rattled buildings and brought down a skyscraper under construction in the capital Bangkok, at least nine people were killed.

Survivors in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-biggest city, dug with their bare hands on Friday in desperate attempts to save those still trapped, lacking heavy machinery and with authorities absent.

In Bangkok on Saturday, rescue operations continued at the site of the 33-story tower’s collapse, where 47 people were missing or trapped under the rubble – including workers from Myanmar.

The U.S. Geological Service’s predictive modelling estimated Myanmar’s death toll could exceed 10,000 and losses could exceed the country’s annual economic output.

A day after making a rare call for international assistance, Myanmar’s junta chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, travelled to hard-hit Mandalay near the epicentre of the quake, which brought down buildings and triggered fires in some areas.

“The Chairman of the State Administration Council instructed authorities to expedite search and rescue efforts and address any urgent needs,” the junta said in a statement on state media, referring to Min Aung Hlaing.

REUTERS

BANGKOK – Myanmar’s military rulers let in hundreds of foreign rescue personnel on Saturday after an earthquake killed more than 1,000 people, the deadliest natural disaster to hit the impoverished, war-torn country in years.

Friday’s 7.7 magnitude quake, among the biggest to jolt the Southeast Asian nation in the last century, crippled airports, bridges and highways amid a civil war that has wrecked the economy and displaced millions.

The death toll in Myanmar climbed to 1,002, the military government said on Saturday.

In neighbouring Thailand, where the quake rattled buildings and brought down a skyscraper under construction in the capital Bangkok, at least nine people were killed.

Survivors in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-biggest city, dug with their bare hands on Friday in desperate attempts to save those still trapped, lacking heavy machinery and with authorities absent.

In Bangkok on Saturday, rescue operations continued at the site of the 33-story tower’s collapse, where 47 people were missing or trapped under the rubble – including workers from Myanmar.

The U.S. Geological Service’s predictive modelling estimated Myanmar’s death toll could exceed 10,000 and losses could exceed the country’s annual economic output.

A day after making a rare call for international assistance, Myanmar’s junta chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, travelled to hard-hit Mandalay near the epicentre of the quake, which brought down buildings and triggered fires in some areas.

“The Chairman of the State Administration Council instructed authorities to expedite search and rescue efforts and address any urgent needs,” the junta said in a statement on state media, referring to Min Aung Hlaing.

AIRPORTS CLOSED

An initial assessment by Myanmar’s opposition National Unity Government said at least 2,900 buildings, 30 roads and seven bridges had been damaged by the quake.

“Due to significant damage, Naypyitaw and Mandalay international airports are temporarily closed,” said the NUG, which includes remnants of the elected civilian government ousted by the military in a 2021 coup that triggered the civil war.

The control tower at the airport in Naypyitaw, Myanmar’s purpose-built capital city, collapsed, rendering it inoperable, a person with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.

A Myanmar junta spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment.

A Chinese rescue team arrived at the airport in Myanmar’s commercial capital of Yangon, hundreds of kilometres from Mandalay and Naypyitaw, and will travel upcountry by bus, state media said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone with the junta chief, China’s embassy in Myanmar said on Saturday, and said Beijing would provide $13.77 million worth of aid, including tents, blankets and emergency medical kits.

The United States, which has a testy relationship with the Myanmar military and has sanctioned its officials, including Min Aung Hlaing, has said it would provide some assistance.

Relief supplies from India on a military aircraft also landed in Yangon, according to Myanmar state media, and India’s government said it was also dispatching ships with 40 tonnes of humanitarian aid.

Russia, Malaysia and Singapore were also sending planeloads of relief supplies and personnel.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a 10-country bloc that includes Myanmar, said that it recognised the urgent need for humanitarian assistance. “ASEAN stands ready to support relief and recovery efforts,” the group said a statement.

South Korea said it would provide an initial $2 million in humanitarian aid to Myanmar through international organisations.

‘NO HELP COMING’

Residents in the hardest-hit areas are desperate for the help.

The quake, which hit around lunchtime on Friday, affected wide swathes of Myanmar, from the central plains around Mandalay to the hills of Shan in the east, parts of which are not completely under the junta’s control.

Rescue operations in Mandalay could not match the scale of the disaster, one resident said by phone, asking not to be named because of security concerns.

“Many people are trapped but there is no help coming just simply because there isn’t manpower or equipment or vehicles,” he said.

In Bangkok, 1,000 km (620 miles) from the epicentre, authorities on Saturday pushed ahead with efforts to find construction workers trapped under the rubble of the collapsed tower, using excavators, drones and search-and-rescue dogs.

Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said all possible resources had been deployed to search for survivors and to bring out bodies of the deceased.

“We always have hope,” he told reporters. “We’re still working around the clock.”

Chanpen Kaewnoi, 39, said she rushed over on Friday afternoon after seeing news reports that the under-construction building where her mother and younger sister were working had collapsed.

“I called my sister, but no matter how many times I tried to call her there was no connection,” she said after a sleepless night at the site.

“I want to wait for my mother and sister,” said Chanpen, herself a construction worker, “I want to see their faces again.”

Across the sprawling metropolis, where such quakes are rare, there may be up to 5,000 damaged buildings, including residential towers, said Anek Siripanichgorn, a board member of Council of Engineers Thailand, which is helping municipal authorities.

“We are going through hundreds of cases,” he said. “If we see cases where there is potential danger, we will immediately send engineers.”

REUTERS

ANKARA, March 28 – Swedish journalist Kaj Joakim Medin, who was in Turkey to cover protests against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu’s arrest, was jailed pending trial on terrorism charges, Turkey’s Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said on Friday.

Medin was detained in Istanbul as part of an investigation launched after a protest in Stockholm in January 2023, where a mannequin resembling President Tayyip Erdogan was hung outside the city hall.

Authorities said Medin was among 15 suspects identified for organizing, promoting, or being linked to the demonstration.

Medin was charged with “insulting the president” and “membership in a terrorist organization.”

His employer, Dagens ETC newspaper, had raised concerns over his whereabouts after he was unreachable for two days.

Dagens ETC Editor-in-Chief Andreas Gustavsson told Swedish TV4 that Medin had done nothing wrong and was merely being punished for doing his job as a reporter.

Turkish authorities also cited Medin’s past reporting from conflict zones in Syria, Iraq and southeastern Turkey between 2014 and 2017.

He was formally arrested via video conference by an Ankara court after being questioned in Istanbul.

Sweden has asked the Turkish ambassador to Stockholm to clarify the allegations against Medin and to demand that he receive urgent access to consular services, Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard told public broadcaster SVT.

REUTERS

KATMANDU – Nepal police fired tear gas and water cannon on Friday to disperse thousands of people gathered in Katmandu demanding the restoration of the monarchy, prompting authorities to impose a curfew in the area.

The Himalayan nation adopted a federal and republican political system in 2008 after parliament abolished the monarchy as part of a peace deal that ended a decade-long civil war responsible for more than 16,000 deaths.

Support for the restoration of the monarchy re-enshrining Hinduism as the state religion has grown in tandem with popular dissatisfaction over political instability, corruption and lackluster economic development.

“The country should have developed significantly. People should have had better job opportunities, peace and security and good governance. We should have been corruption-free,” Mina Subedi, 55, who joined the demonstration, told AFP.

“But things have only deteriorated.”
Protesters gathered near the national parliament chanting that the king and country were “dearer to us than life.”

Police spokesman Dinesh Kumar Acharya told AFP that police fired tear gas and water cannon to clear the demonstrators after they broke into a restricted area and vandalized buildings.

Local authorities announced a curfew in the area after the clash.

Opposition parties marshalled thousands more people at a counter-demonstration elsewhere in the capital to “safeguard the republican system.”

“Nepalis will not return to the past,” said Pushpa Kamal Dahal, a former guerrilla chief who led the decade-long Maoist insurgency before entering politics and has since served as prime minister three times.

“Maybe they have dared to raise their heads because us republic supporters have not been able to deliver as per the wishes and wants of the people.”

Abdicated king Gyanendra Shah, 77, had largely refrained from commenting on Nepal’s fractious politics, but recently made several public appearances with supporters.

Shah was crowned in 2001 after his elder brother king Birendra Bir Bikram Shah and his family were killed in a palace massacre that wiped out most of the royal family.

His coronation took place as the Maoist insurgency was raging in far-flung corners of Nepal.

Shah suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament in 2005, triggering a democratic uprising in which the Maoists sided with Nepal’s political establishment to orchestrate huge street protests.

That eventually precipitated the end of the conflict, with parliament voting in 2008 to abolish Nepal’s 240-year-old Hindu monarchy.

AN-AFP, 28.3.2025

PABRADE, Lithuania – Lithuania’s defense minister said on Friday that rescuers faced “another long night” in their operation to recover the submerged vehicle of four missing US soldiers.

Authorities from the Baltic state received a report on Tuesday that the soldiers had disappeared during a military drill on a training ground in the eastern city of Pabrade, near the border with Belarus.

Search and rescue teams were at the scene on Friday, using heavy military equipment and excavators to remove silt from the body of water where the vehicle had been located.

“Another long night ahead,” Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene said on social network X.

The Lithuanian army said earlier they were “moving forward” on their goal to “turn the swamp into water so divers can jump in.”

The US army said on Friday it was sending a specialized US Navy dive crew that was “expected to arrive on site within the next 24 hours.”

Local and foreign troops, along with helicopters from the air force and the state border guard service, have been deployed in the search effort.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said he was “still hoping for a miracle.”

“Although many skeptics would probably say that there is nothing to hope for in these circumstances, I want to believe,” he told reporters.

The M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle the missing US soldiers had been operating was found several meters deep in a swamp connected to a nearby lake.

“The area around the site is incredibly wet and marshy and doesn’t support the weight of the equipment,” US Army Europe and Africa’s public affairs office said in a statement.

“Draining the area has been slow and difficult due to ground water seepage,” it added.

“This will be a long and difficult recovery operation, but we are absolutely committed to bringing our soldiers home,” said Curtis Taylor, Commanding General of the 1st Armored Division.

The main goal was to remove the mud from the submerged vehicle and identify possible attachment points for extraction, Lithuanian Armed Forces chief General Raimundas Vaiksnoras said.

Lithuania, a NATO and EU member, hosts more than 1,000 American troops stationed on a rotational basis.

AN-AFP, 28.3.2025

BANGKOK – A powerful earthquake killed dozens of people in Myanmar on Friday, according to state media, toppling buildings and damaging infrastructure over a wide area.

The quake also hit Thailand and an official said that at least nine people had died in the capital Bangkok.
Rescuers were searching through the rubble of a tower block that was under construction and collapsed in the quake.

Much of the destruction took place in Mandalay, which is Myanmar’s second largest city and lies only about 17 km (10 miles) from the quake epicentre.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake, which struck at lunchtime, was of 7.7 magnitude and at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles).

Mandalay, with a population of about 1.5 million, is Myanmar’s ancient royal capital and the centre of its Buddhist heartland. Buildings, bridges and roads were wrecked, residents and local media said.

State-run MRTV said at least 144 people had been killed in Myanmar and 732 injured.

“We all ran out of the house as everything started shaking,” a Mandalay resident told Reuters.

“I witnessed a five-storey building collapse in front of my eyes. Everyone in my town is out on the road and no one dares to go back inside buildings.”

A rescue worker from the Moe Saydanar charity group told Reuters it had retrieved at least 60 bodies from monasteries and buildings in Pyinmanar, near Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw, and more people were trapped.

“This 60 is only from my charity group and only at Pyinmanar town,” he said.

Myanmar’s military junta is locked in a struggle to put down insurgents fighting its rule, a situation that is likely to complicate the rescue and relief operation.

Junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing said there would be more deaths and casualties and he invited “any country” to provide help and donations. He said on state television he had opened routes for international assistance.

Zin Mar Aung, the diplomatic spokesman for the opposition National Unity Government, said fighters from the anti-junta militias known as the People’s Defence Forces would provide humanitarian help.

A United States government analysis based on the strength and depth of the quake in Myanmar estimated there could be thousands of deaths and severe economic loss, with the Sagaing and Meiktila regions worst hit.

Of the confirmed casualties in the Thai capital, eight died in the building collapse while the ninth person died in a different location, Bangkok’s Deputy Governor Tavida Kamolvej said. The rescue operation at the building site said more than 100 people were missing.

The quake was followed by a powerful aftershock and several more moderate ones.

BUILDING, BRIDGES, ROADS DAMAGED

In Myanmar the earthquake caused the collapse of buildings in five cities and towns, as well as a railway bridge and a road bridge on the Yangon-Mandalay Expressway, Myanmar state media said. Images showed the destroyed Ava Bridge over the Irrawaddy River, its arches leaning into the water.

A Mandalay resident said destruction stretched across the whole city, and one neighbourhood, Sein Pan, was on fire.

Roads were damaged, phone lines disrupted and there was no electricity, said the resident, who declined to be named.

Local media outlet Myanmar Now posted images showing a clock tower had collapsed, and part of the wall by Mandalay Palace was in ruins. A witness, Htet Naing Oo, told Reuters that a tea shop had collapsed with several people trapped inside.

“We couldn’t go in,” she said. “The situation is very bad.”

At least three people died after a mosque in Taungoo partially collapsed, two witnesses said.

“We were saying prayers when the shaking started… Three died on the spot,” one said.

Local media reported a hotel in Aung Ban, in Shan state, crumbled into rubble, with the Democratic Voice of Burma reporting two people had died and 20 were trapped.

Army-run MRTV reported that the quake toppled buildings, crushed cars and left huge fissures on roads across the capital Naypyitaw.

Amnesty International said the earthquake could not have come at a worse time for Myanmar, given the number of displaced people, the existing need for relief aid, and cuts to U.S. aid by President Donald Trump’s administration.

Restricted media access meant a clear picture of the extent of damage and loss might not emerge for some time, the group’s Myanmar researcher, Joe Freeman, said.

Since overthrowing the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, the military has struggled to run the country, leaving the economy and basic services like healthcare in tatters.

An armed opposition, comprising established ethnic armies and new resistance groups formed since the coup, has seized swathes of territory and driven the junta out of border areas, increasingly hemming it into the central lowlands.

The fighting has displaced more than three million people in Myanmar, with widespread food insecurity and over a third of the population in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations.

The country has also been hit by natural disasters in recent years, including Typhoon Yagi last year and Cyclone Mocha in 2023, and the internationally isolated junta has struggled to respond adequately.

Nyi Nyi Kyaw, a Myanmar academic at the University of Bristol, said Myanmar was “wholly unable to deal with the shock and its aftermath” due to the breakdown in civil society.

OFFICE TOWER SHAKES IN BANGKOK

In Bangkok, people ran onto the streets in panic, among them hotel guests in bathrobes and swimming costumes, as water cascaded down from an elevated pool at a luxury hotel, witnesses said.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand suspended all trading activities for the Friday afternoon session.

One office tower in downtown Bangkok swayed from side to side for at least two minutes, with doors and windows creaking loudly, witnesses said.

“At first, I didn’t realise (it was an earthquake),” office worker Varunyou Armarttayakul told Reuters.

“But then I saw the table shaking, and the chair and computer started swaying, too…Part of the ceiling even collapsed — that’s when I had to run out.”

Myanmar lies on the boundary between two tectonic plates and is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, though large and destructive earthquakes have been relatively rare in the Sagaing region.

REUTERS

SRINAGAR – At least four police personnel and two militants were killed in a gun battle in India’s restive territory of Jammu and Kashmir, an official said on Friday, as troops searched for heavily armed men who local residents had spotted in the area on Sunday.

Militants have for decades fought security forces in the region, known for its scenic lakes, lush meadows, and snow-topped mountains, resulting in the death of thousands of people, though violence has tapered off in recent years.

Government data show 14 security personnel were killed in such violence in the first half of 2024, and 30 died in 2023.

Kashmir has also been at the heart of over 70 years of hostility between India and Pakistan, both of which claim it in full but rule it in part, and have fought two of their three wars over it.

The encounter this week took place in a forested part of the Kathua area, near India’s border with Pakistan, where the men were spotted last week.

“We have recovered bodies of three police men and have also spotted the body of another cop and two militants lying in the forest,” the official, who did not want to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, told Reuters.

Arms and ammunition, including two grenades, a bulletproof jacket, empty shells and some magazines of assault rifles were also recovered from the area, the official said.

Police and the army are yet to reveal the number of those killed in the operation, but the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Manoj Sinha, said in a post on X that “several terrorists” had been “neutralised” in the encounter.

“I bow to the valorous martyrs of J&K (Jammu and Kashmir) Police, who laid down their lives for our motherland…Operation in progress,” he added.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government had, in 2019, revoked the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir – India’s only Muslim-majority region – and split it into two federally administered territories.

“No power in the world” could restore the region’s special status, Modi said in November.

REUTERS

Israel’s air force conducted a large strike on a building in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital on Friday, a Reuters reporter said, the first heavy bombardment there since a truce deal in November ended a war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israel’s military said it hit a drone storage facility in the area belonging to Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

The strike, which was heard across Beirut and produced a large column of black smoke, followed an evacuation order by the Israeli military for the neighbourhood and three smaller targeted drone strikes on the building intended as warning shots, security sources told Reuters.

The evacuation order sent residents of the area into a panic, rushing to escape on foot as traffic clogged the streets out of the area, Reuters reporters in the area said.

Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh, were pounded last year by Israeli strikes that killed many of the group’s top leaders, including its powerful chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a September air attack.

A U.S.-brokered truce in November put an end to the fighting and mandated that southern Lebanon be free of Hezbollah fighters and weapons, that Lebanese troops deploy to the area and that Israeli ground troops withdraw from the zone.

But the truce has been shaken over the last week by two cases of outgoing fire from southern Lebanon – several rockets fired on March 22 and another set fired on Friday morning.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the Lebanese government bore direct responsibility for the attack and said that as long as there was no peace in Galilee “there will be no peace in Beirut either.”

Israeli ministers have vowed to ensure that the tens of thousands of Israelis who evacuated their homes in border areas when Hezbollah began bombarding the area in 2023 would be able to return safely.

But with more Israeli units deployed around Gaza, where a separate ceasefire has also broken down, it remained unclear whether Israel was prepared for any wider intervention.

Hezbollah denied links to either attack. No other group has claimed responsibility.

But Israel’s statement confirming its raid on Dahiyeh said that the Friday morning rocket fire “constitutes a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon and a direct threat to the citizens of the State of Israel.”

It added that the Lebanese state bears responsibility for upholding the agreement.

Israel also bombarded Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon on Friday after intercepting the incoming rocket fire, the Israeli military said.

Israel has vowed a strong response to any threats to its security, prompting fears that last year’s conflict – which displaced more than 1.3 million people in Lebanon and destroyed much of the country’s south – could resume.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, in Paris to meet his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, said in a written statement from France that the onus was on the international community to “put an end to these attacks and force Israel to abide by the agreement, just as Lebanon is committed to it.”

REUTERS