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Tag: Drones

  • US warns ships to stay out of parts of Red Sea as Houthi rebels vow retaliation for US, UK strikes

    US warns ships to stay out of parts of Red Sea as Houthi rebels vow retaliation for US, UK strikes

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    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. Navy on Friday warned American-flagged vessels to steer clear of areas around Yemen in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden for the next 72 hours after the U.S. and Britain launched multiple airstrikes targeting Houthi rebels.

    The warning in a notice to shippers came as Yemen’s Houthis vowed fierce retaliation for the U.S.-led strikes, further raising the prospect of a wider conflict in a region already beset by Israel’s war in Gaza.

    U.S. military and White House officials said they expected the Houthis to try to strike back. And President Joe Biden warned on Friday that the group could face further strikes.

    The U.S.-led bombardment — launched in response to a recent campaign of drone and missile attacks on commercial ships in the vital Red Sea — killed at least five people and wounded six, the Houthis said. The U.S. said the strikes, in two waves, took aim at targets in 28 different locations across Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

    “We will make sure that we respond to the Houthis if they continue this outrageous behavior along with our allies,” Biden told reporters during a stop in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.

    Asked if he believes the Houthis are a terrorist group, Biden responded, “I think they are.”

    The White House said in November that it was considering redesignating the Houthis as a terrorist organization after they began their targeting of civilian vessels. The Biden administration formally delisted the Houthis as a “foreign terrorist organization” and “specially designated global terrorists” in 2021, undoing a move by President Donald Trump

    Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, director of the Joint Staff, said that the new U.S. strikes were largely in low-populated areas, and the number of those killed would not be high. He said the strikes hit weapons, radar and targeting sites, including in remote mountain areas.

    As the bombing lit the predawn sky over multiple sites held by the Iranian-backed rebels, it forced the world to again focus on Yemen’s yearslong war, which began when the Houthis seized the country’s capital.

    Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea, saying they were avenging Israel’s offensive in Gaza against Hamas. But they have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a key route for global trade and energy shipments.

    The Houthis’ military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, said in a recorded address that the strikes would “not go unanswered or unpunished.”

    Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat and former U.S. intelligence official, welcomed the U.S. strikes but expressed concern Iran was aiming to draw the U.S. deeper into conflict.

    “We should be worried about regional escalation,” Slotkin wrote on X. “Iran uses groups like the Houthis to fight their battles, maintain plausible deniability and prevent a direct conflict with the U.S. or others. … It needs to stop, and my hope is they’ve gotten the message.”

    The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which oversees Mideast waters, reported on Friday evening a new missile attack off Yemen. The missiles caused no injures or damage, the organization said.

    “Vessels are advised to transit with caution,” it warned.

    Though the Biden administration and its allies have tried to calm tensions in the Middle East for weeks and prevent any wider conflict, the strikes threatened to ignite one.

    Saudi Arabia — which supports the government-in-exile that the Houthis are fighting — quickly sought to distance itself from the attacks as it seeks to maintain a delicate détente with Iran and a cease-fire it has in Yemen. The Saudi-led, U.S.-backed war in Yemen has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands more.

    It remained unclear how extensive the damage was, though the Houthis said at least five sites, including airfields, had been attacked. The White House said Friday the U.S. military was still assessing the extent the militants’ capabilities might have been degraded.

    U.S. Air Forces Central Command said the strikes focused on the Houthi’s command and control nodes, munition depots, launching systems, production facilities and air defense radar systems. The strikes involved more than 150 precision-guided munitions including air-launched missiles by F/A-18 Super Hornets based on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Tomahawk missiles from the Navy destroyers USS Gravely and USS Mason, the Navy cruiser USS Philippine Sea, and a U.S. submarine.

    The United Kingdom said strikes hit a site in Bani allegedly used by the Houthis to launch drones and an airfield in Abbs used to launch cruise missiles and drones.

    Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department on Friday announced it imposed sanctions on two firms in Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates for allegedly shipping Iranian commodities on behalf of Iran-based Houthi financial facilitator Sa’id al-Jamal. Four vessels owned by the firms were also identified as blocked property.

    In separate development, Iran released footage of its seizure of an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman that once had been at the center of a dispute between Tehran and Washington.

    In the footage, a helicopter hovers over the deck of the St. Nikolas. Iran’s navy seized the vessel Thursday. The vessel had been known earlier as the Suez Rajan. The U.S. seized 1 million barrels of sanctioned Iranian oil off the vessel last year.

    In Yemen, Hussein al-Ezzi, a Houthi official in their Foreign Ministry, that “America and Britain will undoubtedly have to prepare to pay a heavy price and bear all the dire consequences of this blatant aggression.”

    The Red Sea route is a crucial waterway, and attacks there have caused severe disruptions to global trade. Benchmark Brent crude oil traded up some 4% Friday at over $80 a barrel. Tesla, meanwhile, said it would temporarily halt most production at its German factory because of attacks in the Red Sea.

    In Saada, the Houthis’ stronghold in northwest Yemen, hundreds gathered for a rally Friday, denouncing the U.S. and Israel. Another drew thousands in Sanaa, the capital.

    Houthis now control territory that is home to some two-thirds of Yemen’s population of 34 million. War and misgovernment have made Yemen one of the poorest countries in the Arab world, and the World Food Program considers the vast majority of Yemen’s people as food-insecure.

    Yemen has been targeted by U.S. military action over the last four American presidencies. A campaign of drone strikes began under President George W. Bush to target the local affiliate of al-Qaida, attacks that have continued under the Biden administration. Meanwhile, the U.S. has launched raids and other military operations amid the ongoing war in Yemen.

    That war began when the Houthis swept into Sanaa in 2014. A Saudi-led coalition including the United Arab Emirates launched a war to back Yemen’s exiled government in 2015, quickly morphing the conflict into a regional confrontation as Iran backed the Houthis with weapons and other support.

    The conflict, however, has slowed as the Houthis maintain their grip on the territory they hold. In March, Saudi Arabia reached a Chinese-mediated deal to restart relations with Iran in hopes of ultimately withdrawing from the war.

    Iran condemned the attack in a statement from Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani.

    “Arbitrary attacks will have no result other than fueling insecurity and instability in the region,” he said.

    In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning called on nations not to escalate tensions in the Red Sea. And Russia on Friday condemned the strikes as “illegitimate from the point of view of international law.”

    ___

    AP writer Aamer Madhani reported from Washington. AP writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Jill Lawless in London, Nasser Karimi in Tehran; Lolita C. Baldor, Tara Copp, Fatima Hussein, Ellen Knickmeyer and Chris Megerian in Washington, and Seung Min Kim in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.

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  • Middle East braces for chaos as Iran and West square up

    Middle East braces for chaos as Iran and West square up

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    Western warplanes and guided missiles roared through the skies over Yemen in the early hours of Friday in a dramatic response to the worsening crisis engulfing the region, where the U.S. and its allies are facing a direct confrontation with Iranian-backed militants.

    The strikes against Houthi fighters are a response to weeks of fighting in the Red Sea, where the group has attempted to attack or hijack dozens of civilian cargo ships and tankers in what it calls retribution for Israel’s military offensive in Gaza. Washington launched the massive aerial bombardment of the group’s military stores and drone launch sites in partnership with British forces, and with the support of a growing coalition that includes Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, South Korea and Bahrain.

    Tensions between Tehran and the West have boiled over in the weeks since its ally, Hamas, launched its October 7 attack on Israel, while Hezbollah, the military group that controls much of southern Lebanon, has stepped up rocket launches across the border. Along with Hamas and Hezbollah, the Houthis form part of the Iranian-led ‘Axis of Resistance’ opposed to both the U.S. and Israel.

    Now, the prospect of a full-blown conflict in one of the most politically fragile and strategically important parts of the world is spooking security analysts and energy markets alike.

    Escalation fears

    Houthi leaders responded to the strikes, which saw American and British forces hit more than 60 targets in 16 locations, with characteristic bravado. They warned the U.S. and U.K. will “have to prepare to pay a heavy price and bear all the dire consequences” for what they called a “blatant aggression.”

    “We will confront America, kneel it down, and burn its battleships and all its bases and everyone who cooperates with it, no matter what the cost,” threatened Abdulsalam Jahaf, a member of the group’s security council.

    However, following the overnight operation, Camille Lons, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said there may now be “a period of calm because it may take Iran some time to replenish the Houthis stocks” before they are able to resume high-intensity attacks on Red Sea shipping. But, she cautioned, their motivation to continue to target shipping will likely be unaltered.

    The Western strikes are “unlikely to immediately halt Houthi aggression,” agreed Jonathan Panikoff, a former U.S. national intelligence officer for the Near East. “That will almost certainly mean having to continue to respond to Houthi strikes, and potentially with increasing aggression.”

    “The Houthis view themselves as having little to lose, emboldened militarily by Iranian provisions of support and confident the U.S. will not entertain a ground war,” he said.

    Iran also upped the ante earlier this week by boarding and commandeering a Greek-operated oil tanker that was loaded with Iraqi crude destined for Turkey, intercepting it as it transited the Strait of Hormuz. The vessel, the St. Nikolas, was previously apprehended for violating sanctions on Iranian oil and its cargo was confiscated and sold off by the U.S. Treasury Department. Its Greek captain and crew of 18 Filipino nationals are now in Iranian custody, with the incident marking a sharp escalation in the threats facing maritime traffic.

    Israeli connection

    Washington and London are striving to distinguish their bid to deter the Houthis in the Red Sea from the war in Gaza, fearful that merging the two will hand Tehran a propaganda advantage in the Middle East. The Houthis and Iran are keen to accomplish the reverse.

    The Houthi leadership claims its attacks on maritime traffic are aimed at pressuring Israel to halt its bombing of the Gaza Strip and it insists it is only targeting commercial vessels linked to Israel or destined to dock at the Israeli port of Eilat, a point contested by Western powers.

    “The Houthis claim that their attacks on military and civilian vessels are somehow tied to the ongoing conflict in Gaza — that is completely baseless and illegitimate. The Houthis also claim to be targeting specifically Israeli-owned ships or ships bound for Israel. That is simply not true, they are firing indiscriminately on vessels with global ties,” a senior U.S. official briefing reporters in Washington said Friday.

    Wider Near East crisis

    The Red Sea isn’t the only hotspot where American and European forces and their allies are facing off against Iran and its partners.

    In November, U.S. F-15 fighter jets hit a weapons storage facility in eastern Syria that the Pentagon says was used by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Shia militants it supports in the war-torn country. The response came after dozens of American troops were reportedly injured in attacks in Iraq and Syria linked back to Tehran.

    Israel’s war with Hamas has also risked spreading, after a blast killed one of the militant group’s commanders in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, earlier in January. Hezbollah vowed a swift response and tensions have soared along the border between the two countries, with Israeli civilians evacuated from their homes in towns and villages close to the frontier.

    All of that contributes to an increasingly volatile environment that has neighboring countries worried, said Christian Koch, director at the Saudi Arabia-based Gulf Research Center.

    “There’s a lot at stake at the moment and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and others are extremely worried about further escalation and then being subject to retaliation,” he said. “Now, the danger of regional escalation has been heightened further, which could mean that Iran will get further involved in the conflict, and this is a dangerous spiral downwards.”

    While long-planned efforts to normalize ties between the Saudis and Israel collapsed in the wake of the October 7 attack and the subsequent military response, Riyadh has pushed forward with a policy of de-escalation with the Houthis after a decade of violent conflict, and sought an almost unprecedented rapprochement with Iran.

    “Saudi Arabia has had one objective, which is to prevent this from escalating into a wider regional war,” said Tobias Borck, an expert on Middle East security at the Royal United Services Institute. “It has attempted over the last few years to bring its intervention in the war in Yemen to a close, including through negotiations with the Houthis and actually from all we know from the outside, [they] are reasonably close to an agreement.”

    The Western coalition is therefore a source of anxiety, rather than relief, for Gulf States.

    “Saudi Arabia and UAE are staying out of this coalition because mainly they don’t want to have the Houthis attack them as they had been for years and years with cruise missiles,” said retired U.S. General Mark Kimmitt, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs. However, American or European boots on the ground are unlikely to be necessary, he added, because “our capabilities these days to find, fix and attack even mobile missile launchers is pretty well refined.”

    Far-reaching consequences

    At the intersection of Europe and Asia, the Red Sea is a vital thoroughfare for energy and international trade. Maritime traffic through the region has already dropped by 20 percent, Rear Admiral Emmanuel Slaars, the joint commander of French forces in the region, told reporters on Thursday.

    According to data published this week by the German IfW Kiel institute, global trade fell by 1.3 percent from November to December, with the Houthi attacks likely to have been a contributing factor. 

    The volume of containers in the Red Sea also plummeted and is currently almost 70 percent below usual, the institute said. In December, that caused freight costs and transportation time to rise and imports and exports from the EU to be “significantly lower” than in November.

    In one indication of the impact on industrial supply chains, U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla said Friday it would shut its factory in Germany for two weeks.

    Around 12 percent of the world’s oil and 8 percent of its gas normally flow through the waterway, as well as hundreds of cargo ships. Oil prices climbed more than 2.5 percent following the strikes, fueling market concerns of the impact a wider conflict could have on oil supplies from the region, especially those being shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, linking the Persian Gulf with the Indian Ocean and the world’s most important oil chokepoint. 

    The Houthi attacks on the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest waterways, have already caused major shipping companies, including oil giant BP, to halt shipments through the Red Sea, opting for a lengthy detour around the Cape of Good Hope instead. 

    According to Borck, the impact on energy prices has been limited so far but will depend on what happens next.

    “We need to look for two actors’ actions here. One is the Houthis, how they respond, and the other one is, of course, looking at how Iran responds,” he said. While Tehran has the “nuclear option” of closing the Strait of Hormuz altogether, it’s unlikely to do so at this stage. 

    “I don’t think the Strait of Hormuz is next. I think there would be quite a few steps on the escalation ladder first,” he added.  

    But Simone Tagliapietra, an energy expert at Brussels’ Bruegel think tank, warned that a growing confrontation with Iran could lead to tougher enforcement of sanctions on its oil exports. The West has turned a blind eye to Tehran’s increasing sales to China in the wake of the war in Ukraine, which has relieved some pressure on global energy markets. 

    A crackdown, he believes, “could see global oil prices rising substantially, pushing inflation higher and further complicating the efforts of central banks to bring it under control.”

    However, Saudi Arabia and the UAE could help compensate for such a move by ramping up their own production — provided they’re willing to risk the ire of Iran.

    Gabriel Gavin reported from Yerevan, Armenia. Antonia Zimmermann from Brussels and Jamie Dettmer from Tel-Aviv.

    Laura Kayali contributed reporting from Paris.

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    Gabriel Gavin, Antonia Zimmermann and Jamie Dettmer

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  • Iran seizes Greek tanker, escalating tensions with West

    Iran seizes Greek tanker, escalating tensions with West

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    Iran’s navy on Thursday boarded and seized a Greek-operated oil tanker, the St. Nikolas, off the coast of Oman.

    The high seas seizure heightens tensions with the West, not far from where Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been attacking merchant ships and facing off with American and British naval vessels in the Red Sea.

    The tanker was transiting through the Strait of Hormuz en route to Turkey when the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported hearing “unknown voices” on board. Iranian news agency IRNA later confirmed its navy had seized the ship.

    The St. Nikolas, operated by Greek shipping venture Empire Navigation, was previously known as the Suez Rajan. It was at the center of a dispute between Washington and Tehran in April last year after U.S. authorities seized the ship, loaded with 1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil.

    The oil was ultimately ordered to be discharged in Houston by the U.S. Department of Justice. The Greek company pleaded guilty to smuggling sanctioned Iranian oil in September and paid a $2.4 million fine. The oil was sold at auction and profits were earmarked as compensation for American victims of terrorism.

    Empire Navigation confirmed to AP that a crew of 18 Filipinos and the Greek captain are on board the vessel which is now in Iranian hands.

    Speaking to POLITICO, Mark Wallace, former American ambassador to the U.N. and CEO of the United Against Nuclear Iran pressure group, said he was “extremely” concerned about the welfare of the crew and criticized the failure of Washington to respond to the seizure, despite the ship being under the protection of the U.S. Department of Justice.

    Following the ship being boarded, he said, “we had about five hours until it got into Iranian territorial waters and the U.S. took no action … it looks like the U.S. and its allies have lost control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Strait of Hormuz.”

    Tehran’s move elevates the risk of wider conflict erupting in the region, where a U.S.-led coalition is currently patrolling the Red Sea to safeguard commercial ships from Houthi attacks.

    On December 31, the U.S. navy engaged the Shia militant group and destroyed three boats that were harassing a Maersk ship. Just days later, Iran dispatched a warship to the Red Sea to back the Houthis.

    On Tuesday, British and American navy forces thwarted the largest Houthi attack yet on vessels in the Red Sea. A total of 21 drones and various types of ballistic missiles were downed. No damage to ships was reported.

    “Watch this space,” warned U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps after the military action, vowing to step up retaliation against Houthi militants if they didn’t back down.

    This story has been updated.

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    Jeremy Van Der Haegen and Gabriel Gavin

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  • Walmart debuts generative AI search and AI replenishment features at CES | TechCrunch

    Walmart debuts generative AI search and AI replenishment features at CES | TechCrunch

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    In a keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Walmart president and CEO Doug McMillon is offering a glimpse as to how the retail giant was putting new technologies, including augmented reality (AR), drones, generative AI, and other artificial intelligence tech to work in order improve the shopping experience for customers.

    At the trade show, the company revealed a handful of new products, including two AI-powered tools for managing product search and replenishment, as well as a new beta AR social commerce platform called “Shop with Friends.” It also highlighted how it was using AI in other areas of its business, including within Sam’s Club and in apps used by store associates.

    Most notably, Walmart is launching a new generative AI search feature on iOS that will allow customers to search for products by use cases, instead of by product or brand names. For example, you could ask Walmart to return search results for things needed for a “football watch party,” instead of specifically typing in searches for chips, wings, drinks, or a 90-inch TV. These enhanced search results will span categories, rivaling Google’s SGE (Search Generative Experience), which can recommend products and show various factors to consider, along with reviews, prices, images, and more.

    Image Credits: Walmart

    Ahead of CES, the company had demonstrated an AI shopping assistant that would let customers interact with a chatbot as they shopped, to ask questions and receive personalized product suggestions, as well. At the time, Walmart teased that a generative AI-powered search feature was also in the works. It suggested customers could ask for things like a “unicorn-themed birthday party” and get results like unicorn-themed napkins, balloons, streamers, and more. Now the feature is rolling out on mobile devices, iOS first.

    Another potentially promising use of AI involves the replenishment of frequently ordered items.

    Walmart will initially test this use case with Walmart InHome Replenishment, which will use AI and its existing replenishment expertise combined to create online shopping carts for customers with items they regularly order. Because it’s only available through the InHome program, these items are then delivered to a customer’s fridge in their kitchen or garage using the smart lock-powered InHome delivery service.

    Image Credits: Walmart

    However, if the feature works well, it’s not hard to imagine how it could be put to use to offer replenishment of other household items as well, similar to Amazon’s Subscribe-and-Save.

    Surprisingly, Amazon has not yet leveraged AI to do the same (i.e. to augment or replace Dash Replenishment). However, the online retailer has been putting AI to work in other ways, including by helping connect customers with the right product by summarizing product reviews, highlighting key attributes, or helping them find clothes that fit. 

    Another new Walmart product making a debut at CES is “Shop with Friends,” an AR shopping tool that lets customers share virtual outfits they create with their friends and then get feedback on their finds.

    Image Credits: Walmart

    CEO Doug McMillon referred to the suite of new products as something he called “adaptive retail” — that is, retail experiences that are personalized and flexible.

    “While omnichannel retail has been around for decades, this new type of retail – adaptive retail – takes it a step further, said Suresh Kumar, global chief technology officer, and chief development officer, Walmart Inc., in a statement shared ahead of the CES keynote. “It’s retail that is not only e-commerce or in-store, but a single, unified retail experience that seamlessly blends the best aspects of all channels. And for Walmart, adaptive retail is rooted in a clear focus on people,” he said. 

    The company touched on other ways it’s employing AI, as well. Walmart’s Sam’s Club will introduce an AI and computer vision-powered technology that helps solve the problem of waiting in line for receipt verification when exiting the store. The pilot, currently running in 10 locations, will confirm members have paid for their items without requiring a store associate to check their charts. Instead, computer vision tech will capture images of customers’ carts and AI will speed the process of matching cart items to sales. Walmart expects to bring the tech to its nearly 600 clubs by year-end.

    In another area, Walmart’s generative AI tool for store associates, My Assistant, will be expanded to 11 countries outside the U.S. in 2024, where it will work in employees’ native languages. Already, the tool has become available in Canada, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua and is on track for launches in India and South Africa. My Assistant helps employees with writing, summarizing large documents, and offering “thought starters” to spark creativity, Walmart says.

    Image Credits: Walmart

    On the matter of AI, McMillon stressed that the company wouldn’t prioritize the technology without considering the potential implications. Instead, Walmart’s “underlying principle is that we should use technology to serve people and not the other way around,” he said.

    Still, he admitted that AI will mean some jobs will be eliminated.

    ” No doubt some tasks will go away and some roles will change. And some of them should, like the ones that involve lifting heavy weights or doing repetitive tasks,” the exec explained. “As that’s happening, we’re designing new roles that our associates tell us are more enjoyable and satisfying, and also often result in higher pay. So we’re investing to help our associates transition to this shared future,” McMillon added.

    Outside of AI, Walmart is looking to other new technology for faster deliveries. The company announced it’s expanding its drone delivery service in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metro to 1.8 million households, or 75% of the metroplex area. The deliveries, which take place in 30 minutes or less, are powered by Wing and Zipline. Walmart also notes that 75% of the 120,000 items in a Walmart Supercenter meet the size and weight requirements for drone delivery. To date, Walmart has done over 20,000 drone deliveries in its two-year trial.

    This story is developing…

    Read more about CES 2024 on TechCrunch

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  • The Gaza war is escalating. How bad will the Middle East crisis get?

    The Gaza war is escalating. How bad will the Middle East crisis get?

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    On October 7, Hamas fighters launched a bloody attack against Israel, using paragliders, speedboats and underground tunnels to carry out an offensive that killed almost 1,200 people and saw hundreds more taken back to the Gaza Strip as prisoners. 

    Almost three months on, Israel’s massive military retaliation is reverberating around the region, with explosions in Lebanon and rebels from Yemen attacking shipping in the Red Sea. Meanwhile, Western countries are pumping military aid into Israel while deploying fleets to protect commercial shipping — risking confrontation with the Iranian navy.

    That’s in line with a grim prediction made last year by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who said that Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza meant an “expansion of the scope of the war has become inevitable,” and that further escalation across the Middle East should be expected. 

    What’s happening?

    The Israel Defense Forces are still fighting fierce battles for control of the Gaza Strip in what officials say is a mission to destroy Hamas. Troops have already occupied much of the north of the 365-square-kilometer territory, home to around 2.3 million Palestinians, and are now stepping up their assault in the south.

    Entire neighborhoods of densely-populated Gaza City have been levelled by intense Israeli shelling, rocket attacks and air strikes, rendering them uninhabitable. Although independent observers have been largely shut out, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry claims more than 22,300 people have been killed, while the U.N. says 1.9 million people have been displaced.

    On a visit to the front lines, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that his country is in the fight for the long haul. “The feeling that we will stop soon is incorrect. Without a clear victory, we will not be able to live in the Middle East,” he said.

    As the Gaza ground war intensifies, Hamas and its allies are increasingly looking to take the conflict to a far broader arena in order to put pressure on Israel.

    According to Seth Frantzman, a regional analyst with the Jerusalem Post and adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, “Iran is certainly making a play here in terms of trying to isolate Israel [and] the U.S. and weaken U.S. influence, also showing that Israel doesn’t have the deterrence capabilities that it may have had in the past or at least thought it had.”

    Northern front

    On Tuesday a blast ripped through an office in Dahieh, a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut — 130 kilometers from the border with Israel. Hamas confirmed that one of its most senior leaders, Saleh al-Arouri, was killed in the strike. 

    Government officials in Jerusalem have refused to confirm Israeli forces were behind the killing, while simultaneously presenting it as a “surgical strike against the Hamas leadership” and insisting it was not an attack against Lebanon itself, despite a warning from Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati that the incident risked dragging his country into a wider regional war. 

    Tensions between Israel and Lebanon have spiked in recent weeks, with fighters loyal to Hezbollah, the Shia Islamist militant group that controls the south of the country, firing hundreds of rockets across the frontier. Along with Hamas, Hezbollah is part of the Iranian-led “Axis of Resistance” that aims to destroy the state of Israel.

    In a statement released on Tuesday, Iran’s foreign ministry said the death of al-Arouri, the most senior Hamas official confirmed to have died since October 7, will only embolden resistance against Israel, not only in the Palestinian territories but also in the wider Middle East.

    The Israel Defense Forces are still fighting fierce battles for control of the Gaza Strip in what officials say is a mission to destroy Hamas | Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images

    “We’re talking about the death of a senior Hamas leader, not from Hezbollah or the [Iranian] Revolutionary Guards. Is it Iran who’s going to respond? Hezbollah? Hamas with rockets? Or will there be no response, with the various players waiting for the next assassination?” asked Héloïse Fayet, a researcher at the French Institute for International Relations.

    In a much-anticipated speech on Wednesday evening, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah condemned the killing but did not announce a military response.

    Red Sea boils over

    For months now, sailors navigating the narrow Bab-el-Mandeb Strait that links Europe to Asia have faced a growing threat of drone strikes, missile attacks and even hijackings by Iran-backed Houthi militants operating off the coast of Yemen.

    The Houthi movement, a Shia militant group supported by Iran in the Yemeni civil war against Saudi Arabia and its local allies, insists it is only targeting shipping with links to Israel in a bid to pressure it to end the war in Gaza. However, the busy trade route from the Suez Canal through the Red Sea has seen dozens of commercial vessels targeted or delayed, forcing Western nations to intervene.

    Over the weekend, the U.S. Navy said it had intercepted two anti-ship missiles and sunk three boats carrying Houthi fighters in what it said was a hijacking attempt against the Maersk Hangzhou, a container ship. Danish shipping giant Maersk said Tuesday that it would “pause all transits through the Red Sea until further notice,” following a number of other cargo liners; energy giant BP is also suspending travel through the region.

    On Wednesday the Houthis targeted a CMA CGM Tage container ship bound for Israel, according to the group’s military spokesperson Yahya Sarea. “Any U.S. attack will not pass without a response or punishment,” he added. 

    “The sensible decision is one that the vast majority of shippers I think are now coming to, [which] is to transit through round the Cape of Good Hope,” said Marco Forgione, director general at the Institute of Export & International Trade. “But that in itself is not without heavy impact, it’s up to two weeks additional sailing time, adds over £1 million to the journey, and there are risks, particularly in West Africa, of piracy as well.” 

    However, John Stawpert, a senior manager at the International Chamber of Shipping, noted that while “there has been disruption” and an “understandable nervousness about transiting these routes … trade is continuing to flow.”

    “A major contributory factor to that has been the presence of military assets committed to defending shipping from these attacks,” he said. 

    The impacts of the disruption, especially price hikes hitting consumers, will be seen “in the next couple of weeks,” according to Forgione. Oil and gas markets also risk taking a hit — the price of benchmark Brent crude rose by 3 percent to $78.22 a barrel on Wednesday. Almost 10 percent of the world’s oil and 7 percent of its gas flows through the Red Sea.

    Western response

    On Wednesday evening, the U.S., Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom issued an ultimatum calling the Houthi attacks “illegal, unacceptable, and profoundly destabilizing,” but with only vague threats of action.

    “We call for the immediate end of these illegal attacks and release of unlawfully detained vessels and crews. The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways,” the statement said.

    The Houthi movement insists it is only targeting shipping with links to Israel in a bid to pressure it to end the war in Gaza | Houthi Movement via Getty Images

    Despite the tepid language, the U.S. has already struck back at militants from Iranian-backed groups such as Kataeb Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria after they carried out drone attacks that injured U.S. personnel.

    The assumption in London is that airstrikes against the Houthis — if it came to that — would be U.S.-led with the U.K. as a partner. Other nations might also chip in.

    Two French officials said Paris is not considering air strikes. The country’s position is to stick to self-defense, and that hasn’t changed, one of them said. French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu confirmed that assessment, saying on Tuesday that “we’re continuing to act in self-defense.” 

    “Would France, which is so proud of its third way and its position as a balancing power, be prepared to join an American-British coalition?” asked Fayet, the think tank researcher.

    Iran looms large

    Iran’s efforts to leverage its proxies in a below-the-radar battle against both Israel and the West appear to be well underway, and the conflict has already scuppered a long-awaited security deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

    “Since 1979, Iran has been conducting asymmetrical proxy terrorism where they try to advance their foreign policy objectives while displacing the consequences, the counterpunches, onto someone else — usually Arabs,” said Bradley Bowman, senior director of Washington’s Center on Military and Political Power. “An increasingly effective regional security architecture, of the kind the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are trying to build, is a nightmare for Iran which, like a bully on the playground, wants to keep all the other kids divided and distracted.”

    Despite Iran’s fiery rhetoric, it has stopped short of declaring all-out war on its enemies or inflicting massive casualties on Western forces in the region — which experts say reflects the fact it would be outgunned in a conventional conflict.

    “Neither Iran nor the U.S. nor Israel is ready for that big war,” said Alex Vatanka, director of the Middle East Institute’s Iran program. “Israel is a nuclear state, Iran is a nuclear threshold state — and the U.S. speaks for itself on this front.”

    Israel might be betting on a long fight in Gaza, but Iran is trying to make the conflict a global one, he added. “Nobody wants a war, so both sides have been gambling on the long term, hoping to kill the other guy through a thousand cuts.”

    Emilio Casalicchio contributed reporting.

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  • Russia launches record number of drones across Ukraine

    Russia launches record number of drones across Ukraine

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched a record 90 Shahed-type drones over Ukraine during the early hours of the new year, the Ukrainian air force said Monday, while Russia also reported Ukrainian attacks.

    A 15-year-old boy was killed and seven people wounded after falling debris from one of 87 downed drones hit a residential building in the city of Odesa, the head of the region’s military administration, Oleh Kiper, said. Debris also sparked a number of small fires, including at the city’s port.

    In the western city of Lviv, Russian attacks severely damaged a museum dedicated to Roman Shukhevych, a controversial Ukrainian nationalist and military commander who fought for Ukrainian independence during World War II. University buildings in the town of Dubliany were also damaged, although no casualties were reported.

    Writing on social media, Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi described the strike as “symbolic and cynical,” adding, “this is a war for our history.”

    Meanwhile, four people were killed and 13 more wounded following Ukrainian shelling on Russian-occupied areas of Donetsk, according to the area’s Russian-installed leader, Denis Pushilin. Russian state media reported that a journalist was among the victims, but provided no further details.

    One person was also killed and another wounded in shelling on the Russian border town of Shebekino, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

    The aerial strikes follow a series of heavy aerial bombardments that began on Friday, when Russia unleashed an 18-hour attack that one air force official described as the biggest aerial barrage of the war.

    At least 49 people were killed in the bombardment, with rescuers in Kyiv reporting Monday that they had recovered at least eight more bodies from underneath the rubble.

    Shelling blamed on Ukraine in the center of the Russian border city of Belgorod Saturday killed 21 people, including three children, local officials reported.

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  • A Russian drone, artillery attack kills 6 in Ukraine; knocks out power in major city

    A Russian drone, artillery attack kills 6 in Ukraine; knocks out power in major city

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Russia fired almost 50 Shahed drones at targets in Ukraine and shelled a train station where more than 100 civilians were gathered to catch a train to Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday. The barrages killed at least five people and knocked out power in most of the southern city of Kherson.

    The aerial barrage came a day after Ukrainian warplanes damaged a Russian ship moored in the Black Sea off Crimea as both sides’ soldiers struggle to make much progress along the front line of the 22-month war.

    Overnight, the Kremlin’s forces launched an artillery and drone bombardment of the Kherson region just as some 140 civilians were waiting for a train at the region’s capital city of the same name, according to Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. The shelling killed one policeman and injured two other police officers, as well as two civilians.

    More than 100 people who were waiting for the train at the time of the attack arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday morning, national rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia said.

    The attack on the Kherson region and its capital hit residential areas and a mall as well as striking the power grid, leaving around 70% of households in Kherson city without electricity during the winter cold, regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said.

    It was not immediately possible to estimate when power might be restored, he said.

    Targeting energy infrastructure was also a Russian tactic last winter, when it tried to break Ukrainians’ spirit by denying them heating and running water.

    In Odesa, another major city in southern Ukraine, the drone assault killed two people and wounded three, including a 17-year-old man, regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said.

    Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted 32 out of the 46 drones that Russia fired overnight.

    A Western military assessment, meanwhile, reckoned that Russia’s capture this week of a city in eastern Ukraine would not provide it with a springboard for major battlefield gains.

    Ukrainian commander-in-chief Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi said Tuesday that his troops had retreated to the northern outskirts of the city of Marinka, which sits about 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of Donetsk, the largest city in Russian-held territory.

    Zaluzhnyi said his troops had held Marinka for almost two years but Russians “were destroying it street by street, house by house.”

    The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank, said, “Russian forces are highly unlikely to make rapid operational advances from Marinka.”

    But it noted that “localized Russian offensive operations are still placing pressure on Ukrainian forces in many places along the front in eastern Ukraine.”

    Amid concerns that weapons supplies from abroad could diminish as allies become fatigued with the war, Ukraine’s minister of strategic industries told a briefing on Wednesday that the defense sector aims to increase production significantly next year and that production was three times higher in 2023 than in the previous year.

    Oleksandr Kamyshin said Ukraine is now producing six Bohdana self-propelled artillery units per month. Bohdanas are a strategically important weapon for the Ukrainian defense industry as they are the only Ukrainian-produced self-propelled gun using NATO-standard 155mm rounds instead of the 152mm rounds used by artillery based on Soviet technology.

    Kamyshin also said the country next year aims to produce up to 1,000 long-range strike drones — which have a range of about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) — an increase from only a few dozen a month currently. It is also targeting production of 10,000 middle-range and 1,000 long-range strike drones.

    —-

    Illia Novikov in Kyiv contributed to this report.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Merchant vessel linked to Israel damaged in a drone attack off India's west coast

    Merchant vessel linked to Israel damaged in a drone attack off India's west coast

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    NEW DELHI — A drone hit an Israeli-affiliated merchant vessel off the coast of India in the Arabian Sea on Saturday, a British maritime security firm said, damaging the vessel but causing no casualties.

    The incident on the Liberian-flagged chemical product tanker occurred 120 miles (200-kilometers) southwest of the Indian port of Veraval, said Ambrey. It gave no further details about the vessel’s Israeli links.

    Ambrey said the drone attack struck the stern and caused a fire onboard that was later extinguished without any casualties among the crew. The firm said the vessel suffered some structural damage and some water was taken onboard.

    “The vessel was Israel-affiliated. She had last called in Saudi Arabia and was destined for India at the time,” Ambrey said.

    The Indian Navy responded after the shipping company requested assistance, a naval official said.

    “Indian Navy had dispatched an aircraft, which arrived overhead the MV (merchant vessel),” a statement said. “Safety of the crew and ship was ascertained. A warship has also been dispatched to provide any assistance as required.”

    Major global shipping firms have rerouted their vessels after attacks in the Red Sea since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7. Many vessels take a longer and costlier route around the southern tip of Africa.

    No one immediately claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack.

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  • A merchant vessel linked to Israel has been damaged in a drone attack off India's west coast

    A merchant vessel linked to Israel has been damaged in a drone attack off India's west coast

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    NEW DELHI — A drone hit an Israeli-affiliated merchant vessel off the coast of India in the Arabian Sea on Saturday, a British maritime security firm said, damaging the vessel but causing no casualties.

    The incident on the Liberian-flagged chemical product tanker occurred 120 miles (200-kilometers) southwest of the Indian port of Veraval, said Ambrey. It gave no further details about the vessel’s Israeli links.

    Ambrey said the drone attack struck the stern and caused a fire onboard that was later extinguished without any casualties among the crew. The firm said the vessel suffered some structural damage and some water was taken onboard.

    “The vessel was Israel-affiliated. She had last called in Saudi Arabia and was destined for India at the time,” Ambrey said.

    The Indian Navy responded after the shipping company requested assistance, a naval official said.

    “Indian Navy had dispatched an aircraft, which arrived overhead the MV (merchant vessel),” a statement said. “Safety of the crew and ship was ascertained. A warship has also been dispatched to provide any assistance as required.”

    Major global shipping firms have rerouted their vessels after attacks in the Red Sea since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7. Many vessels take a longer and costlier route around the southern tip of Africa.

    No one immediately claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack.

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  • US warship shoots down drones as Red Sea crisis deepens

    US warship shoots down drones as Red Sea crisis deepens

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    An American destroyer intercepted four drones fired by Houthi militants into the busy shipping lanes of the Red Sea, as the escalating crisis saw two commercial tankers hit in one chaotic day.

    In a statement issued Sunday, U.S. Central Command said its navy had “shot down four unmanned aerial drones originating from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen that were inbound to the USS Laboon” the day before. The American destroyer had been patrolling the area as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian, the Washington-led mission to prevent violence spilling over into the strategic waterway.

    On Saturday, the Pentagon announced that a Japanese-owned, Liberian-flagged chemical tanker, the Chem Pluto, had been struck by a drone in the Indian Ocean, stating that the attack was launched from Iran.

    According to data from analytics platform Kpler, seen by POLITICO, the Chem Pluto had been carrying almost 43,000 barrels of highly-flammable benzene en route to the port of Mangaluru at the time, but no casualties have been reported. The attack was well outside the usual area of operation for Houthi drones, around 300 nautical miles from the coast of India and it is believed to be the first time the U.S. has accused Iran directly of targeting commercial shipping since the crisis began.

    Washington has previously said intelligence revealed Iran was “deeply involved” in planning attacks on vessels, working closely with Yemen’s Houthi rebels to cause a crisis that experts fear is already threatening the world economy. Houthi forces say they are targeting vessels with links to Israel in retaliation for its war in Gaza.

    On Saturday evening, two civilian ships in the Red Sea area sounded the alarm that they were under attack. The Blaamanen, a Norwegian-flagged vessel carrying a quarter of a million tons of sunflower oil, reported it had narrowly avoided an attack drone, while Indian-flagged crude oil tanker Saibaba confirmed it had taken a direct hit.

    Close to the Suez Canal which links Europe to Asia, more than 10 percent of global trade passes through the Red Sea, with around 17,000 ships a year crossing between the Mediterranean and the Arabian Sea.

    In his first interview since being appointed as U.K. foreign secretary, former British prime minister David Cameron, told The Telegraph on Friday that the West must send “an incredibly clear message that this escalation will not be tolerated” to Tehran. Along with France, Italy and Spain, the U.K. is one of a handful of countries joining forces with the U.S. as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian.

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    Gabriel Gavin

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  • Russia bombs cities across Ukraine in ‘massive’ overnight assault

    Russia bombs cities across Ukraine in ‘massive’ overnight assault

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    Russia launched an attack on several cities in Ukraine in a “massive” assault overnight Thursday, killing more than 20 and injuring scores of people across the country.

    Missiles and drones reportedly struck the capital, Kyiv, as well the cities of Kharkiv, Lviv, Odessa, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia. Millions of citizens received air raid alerts instructing them to seek shelter.

    About a thousand kilometers separate Lviv in Ukraine’s west and Kharkiv in the east.

    “We haven’t seen so much red on our monitors for a long time,” Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said, adding that Russia used a combination of hypersonic, cruise and ballistic missiles to strike targets.

    The Ukrainian Air Force on Friday said it shot down 114 of the 158 drones and missiles fired by Russia.

    In Kyiv, an apartment building, metro station and warehouse were damaged, killing at least one person and injuring seven others, according to the city’s mayor on Telegram.

    In the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, a maternity hospital and a shopping centre were targeted, while the northeastern city of Kharkiv came under “massive rocket fire,” the cities’ mayors said on Telegram.

    “In total, 26 people were killed and more than 120 people were injured in Ukraine as a result of the mass shelling in the morning,” Oleksii Kuleba, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said Friday afternoon.

    “There are people killed by Russian missiles today that were launched at civilian facilities, civilian buildings,” presidential aide Andriy Yermak said on Telegram.

    “We are doing everything to strengthen our air shield. But the world needs to see that we need more support and strength to stop this terror,” he added.

    ‘Heinous wave of attacks’

    The assault comes days after Ukraine bombed a Russian warship in Crimea, striking a major blow against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, but amid signs of slipping Western support for Ukraine, with fierce debate in the United States about continued military aid for the country’s push-back against Russia.

    The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 114 of the 158 drones and missiles fired by Russia | Oleksandr Gimanov/AFP via Getty Images 

    “We will fight to guarantee the safety of our country, every city, and all our people. Russian terror must lose — and it will,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

    The latest assault triggered fresh international condemnation Friday. U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on X that the attacks showed Russian President Vladimir Putin “will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of eradicating freedom and democracy.”

    Denise Brown, the United Nations’ humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, issued a statement condemning “in the strongest terms” Russia’s “heinous wave of attacks on populated areas of Ukraine over the past few hours, which has left a path of destruction, death and human suffering.”

    Polish airspace incursion

    In a further development Friday, Poland — a NATO member country — said a Russian missile appeared to have briefly entered its territory.

    “Everything indicates that a Russian missile entered Polish airspace,” General Wiesław Marian Kukuła said Friday, according to Polish news outlet Onet.

    Polish authorities said the object entered the country’s territory for less than three minutes and violated its airspace for about 40 kilometers.

    Polish President Andrzej Duda discussed the incident with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg Friday. NATO “is monitoring the situation & we will remain in contact as the facts are established,” Stoltenberg said on X.

    This story has been updated with further reporting. Laura Hülsemann contributed reporting.

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  • Russia launches New Year’s Eve strikes against Ukraine

    Russia launches New Year’s Eve strikes against Ukraine

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    Russia fired off a fresh barrage of strikes at Ukraine on New Year’s Eve, launching nearly 100 Shahed loitering munitions against cities across the country. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said their air defense forces had shot down 87 of the Iranian-made drones.

    A 15-year-old boy was killed and seven people were wounded after debris from one of the drones that was downed hit a residential building in Odesa, the head of the regional administration said according to the Associated Press.

    The latest holiday launch came on the heels of an air attack on Friday, during which the Ukrainian Air Force brought down 114 of 158 projectiles fired by Russia. Kyiv said Friday’s bombardment, the biggest of the war, had killed at least 45 people.

    National unity took center stage during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s New Year address to the nation, though the president only referenced the war obliquely. He praised Russian troops — but did not mention Ukraine by name, nor did he make direct reference to the so-called special military operation, Kremlin-speak for the war in Ukraine.

    “What united us and unites us is the fate of the Fatherland, a deep understanding of the highest significance of the historical stage through which Russia is passing,” Putin said to the nation. Putin said Russia would never retreat and there was no force that could divide Russians and stop the country’s development, the AP reported citing state media.

    On Saturday, Ukrainian strikes against Belgorod, a Russian city approximately 35 kilometers from the border, killed at least two dozen and wounded more than 100, according to regional Russian authorities — but the attack did not feature in Putin’s four-minute video message.

    In his midnight address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked 676 days of war by commending the resilience of Ukraine’s citizens and soldiers and highlighting Ukraine’s invitation to join the European Union.

    “We do not know for certain what the new year will bring us,” Zelenskyy said, with Ukraine’s counteroffensive largely stalled and the increasing likelihood of stalemate across the front. “But this year we can add: whatever it brings, we will be stronger.”

    This story has been updated.

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    Caleb Larson

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  • ‘Seething’ Putin hammers Ukraine with massive missile and drone attacks

    ‘Seething’ Putin hammers Ukraine with massive missile and drone attacks

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    Russia battered Kyiv and Kharkiv with missiles and drones overnight, killing at least four people and injuring 92 more, after President Vladimir Putin said he was “seething” and would “intensify attacks” on Ukraine.

    Moscow hit the capital with a combination of Iranian-made Shahed drones and “waves” of missiles for almost six hours, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration.

    “As a result of such a massive missile attack in the capital, unfortunately, there is destruction of residential buildings, damage to infrastructure. There are victims,” said Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv military administration.

    “Since December 31st, Russian monsters have already fired 170 ‘Shahed’ drones and dozens of missiles of various types” at Ukraine, the country’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on social media. “The absolute majority of them targeted civilian infrastructure. I am grateful to all of our partners who are helping us strengthen our air shield.”

    Putin said on Monday that he was “seething” at strikes on the Russian city of Belgorod over the weekend that the Kremlin blamed on Kyiv, and vowed to “intensify strikes” on Ukraine.

    “They want to a) intimidate us and b) create instability in our country,” Putin said during a New Year’s Day visit to a military hospital, according to the Kremlin’s readout of the president’s comments. “We will intensify the strikes,” he added, saying that “no crime — and this [the attack on Belgorod] is certainly a crime against the civilian population — will go unpunished.”

    Russia blames Kyiv for the air attack on Belgorod, which killed at least 25 people and wounded more than 100, according to the Kremlin.

    Since Saturday, Moscow has hit Ukraine with nonstop drone and missile assaults.

    Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one woman from Kyiv’s Solom’yans’kyi district died and dozens more were injured.

    In Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv, strikes killed at least one person and damaged civilian infrastructure.

    The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said its air defenses had shot down all 35 of the Iranian-made drones Russia launched against several cities on Tuesday. But debris from the missiles hit several civilian facilities across the area, damaging gas pipelines and cutting off water and electricity in some areas, Klitschko said.

    “It’s probably the biggest attack on Kyiv & [Ukraine] as a whole since the start of full-scale invasion. Urgent action in providing additional air defense capabilities needed,” said Ukrainian MP Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze in a post on social media.

    This story is being updated.

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    Claudia Chiappa

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  • Ukrainian spies vow to stab Russia ‘with a needle in the heart’

    Ukrainian spies vow to stab Russia ‘with a needle in the heart’

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    KYIV — Ukraine’s spies aim to intensify intelligence operations and conduct sabotage strikes deep in Russian-controlled territory next year to bring the war as close to the Kremlin as possible, the head of Ukraine’s SBU security service told POLITICO.

    “We cannot disclose our plans. They should remain a shocker for the enemy. We prepare surprises,” Major General Vasyl Malyuk said in written responses to questions. “The occupiers must understand that it will not be possible to hide. We will find the enemy everywhere.”

    While he dodged specifics, Malyuk did give some hints. Logistics targets and military assets in occupied Ukrainian territory are likely to continue to be a focus. And then there are strikes that hit the enemy across the border.

    “We are always looking for new solutions. So, cotton will continue to burn,” Malyuk joked.

    Ukrainians use the word “cotton” to describe explosions in Russia and the occupied territories of Ukraine organized by Ukrainian special services. It came from Russian media and officials describing the growing number of such incidents with the word khlopok, which means both “blast” and “cotton” in Russian.

    With combat along hundreds of kilometers of front lines essentially stalled for much of this year, the exploits of the SBU both boost Ukrainian morale and also hurt Russia’s war fighting abilities.

    “The SBU carries out targeted point strikes. We stab the enemy with a needle right in the heart. Each of our special operations pursues a specific goal and gives its result. All this in a complex complicates the capabilities of the Russian Federation for waging war and brings our victory closer,” Malyuk said.

    One area of focus will be Crimea and the Black Sea, building on this year’s operations.

    Malyuk’s pet project is the Sea Baby drone, called malyuk in Ukrainian, which means “little guy.” The drone carries about 850 kilograms of explosives and is able to operate in stormy conditions, making it difficult to detect.

    “With the help of those little guys we are gradually pushing the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation out of Crimea,” Malyuk said.

    It’s been used to attack the Kerch Bridge that links occupied Crimea to mainland Russia in July as well as to hammer Russian ships.

    In October 2022 the SBU’s marine drones attacked Sevastopol Bay damaging four Russian warships. This year, the drones hit two missile carriers, a tanker, an amphibious assault ship and also damaged a large military tugboat and Russia’s newest reconnaissance and hydrographic ship.

    Malyuk’s pet project is the Sea Baby drone, called malyuk in Ukrainian, which means “little guy.” The drone carries about 850 kilograms of explosives and is able to operate in stormy conditions, making it difficult to detect | Courtesy of the Security Service of Ukraine

    That forced Moscow to shift much of the fleet away from its base in occupied Sevastopol in Crimea, leaving the west of the sea free of Russian vessels and allowing Ukraine to resume use of its ports for shipping.

    The Kerch Bridge is still standing after a 2022 truck bomb attack and this year’s strike, but is only partially open, Malyuk said.

    “It is a legitimate target for us, according to international law and the rules of war. Ukrainian law also allows us to attack this object. And we have to destroy the logistics of our enemy,” Malyuk added.

    Malyuk said that Kyiv carefully considers its targets before striking — an effort to stay within the rules of war in contrast with Russia, which has fired missiles, artillery and drones at both military and civilian targets.

    “When planning and preparing its special operations, the SBU carefully selects its targets. We work on military facilities or on those that the enemy uses to carry out their military tasks. We act fully by the norms of international law,” Malyuk said.

    The SBU conducts most of its operations on Ukraine’s territory — in Donbas, Crimea and the Black Sea.

    “This is our land and we will use all possible methods to free it from the occupiers,” Malyuk said.

    When it comes to planning something in Russia, SBU says it focuses only on targets used for military purposes like logistical corridors for supplying weapons — like the rail tunnel in Siberia hit with two explosions (the SBU hasn’t claimed responsibility) as well as warships, military bases and similar targets.

    “All SBU operations you hear about are exclusively our work and our unique technical development,” Malyuk said. “These operations became possible, in particular, because we develop and implement our technical solutions.”

    Russia should prepare to be hit.

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    Veronika Melkozerova

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  • US and Britain say their navies shot down 15 attack drones over the Red Sea

    US and Britain say their navies shot down 15 attack drones over the Red Sea

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    LONDON — A U.S. warship shot down 14 suspected attack drones over the Red Sea on Saturday, and a Royal Navy destroyer downed another drone that was targeting commercial ships, the British and American militaries said.

    Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched a series of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, and have launched drones and missiles targeting Israel, as the Israel-Hamas war threatens to spread.

    U.S. Central Command said that the destroyer USS Carney “successfully engaged 14 unmanned aerial systems” launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

    The drones “were shot down with no damage to ships in the area or reported injuries,” Central Command tweeted.

    U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said that HMS Diamond fired a Sea Viper missile and destroyed a drone that was “targeting merchant shipping.” The overnight action is the first time the Royal Navy has shot down an aerial target in anger since the 1991 Gulf War.

    Shapps said attacks on commercial ships in the global trade artery by Yemen’s Houthi rebels “represent a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security.”

    “The U.K. remains committed to repelling these attacks to protect the free flow of global trade,” he said in a statement.

    HMS Diamond was sent to the region two weeks ago as a deterrent, joining vessels from the U.S., France and other countries.

    Global shipping has become a target during the war between Israel and Hamas, which like the Houthis is backed by Iran.

    Houthi rebels said they fired a barrage of drones on Saturday toward the port city of Eilat in southern Israel. The announcement came hours after Egypt’s state-run media reported that Egyptian air defense had shot down a “flying object” off the Egyptian resort town of Dahab on the Red Sea.

    Israeli-linked vessels also have been targeted, but the threat to trade has grown as container ships and oil tankers flagged to countries like Norway and Liberia have been attacked or drawn missile fire while traversing the waterway between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

    Earlier this month, three commercial ships in the Red Sea were struck by ballistic missiles fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen. A U.S. warship shot down three drones during the assault, the U.S. military said.

    French container shipping line CMA CGM Group said Saturday it had ordered all its vessels scheduled to pass through the Red Sea to “pause their journey in safe waters with immediate effect until further notice.”

    On Friday, Maersk, the world’s biggest shipping company, also told all its vessels planning to pass through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea to stop their journeys after a missile attack on a Liberian-flagged cargo ship. German-based shipper Hapag-Lloyd said it was pausing all of its container ship traffic through the Red Sea until Monday.

    Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Salam said Saturday that the rebels have engaged in “communications and discussions” with international parties, brokered by Oman, on the Houthis’ attacks on ships in the Red and Arabian seas.

    He tweeted that the Houthis would continue targeting Israel-linked vessels “until the aggression stops” and the siege of Gaza is lifted. He added that “any genuine steps responding to the humanitarian situation in Palestine and Gaza through bringing in food and medicine would contribute to reducing the escalation.”

    ___

    Samy Magdy contributed to this report from Cairo.

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  • U.S. military shoots down 14 drones in Red Sea—launched from areas of Yemen controlled by Iran-backed Houthis—as attacks on commercial carriers threaten havoc for world trade

    U.S. military shoots down 14 drones in Red Sea—launched from areas of Yemen controlled by Iran-backed Houthis—as attacks on commercial carriers threaten havoc for world trade

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    The US military said it shot down 14 drones in the Red Sea launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen as attacks on commercial carriers continue from the Iranian-backed group, threatening havoc for world trade.

    Major shippers MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co. SA and CMA CGM were the latest to announce on Saturday that they won’t send their vessels through the Red Sea for now in the face of rising threats.

    The unmanned aerial systems “were assessed to be one-way attack drones and were shot down with no damage to ships in the area or reported injuries,” US Central Command said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “Regional Red Sea partners were alerted to the threat.”

    The drones were struck down by the USS Carney guided missile destroyer early on Saturday. The UK navy also repelled a suspected drone attack.

    MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co. SA, the world’s largest container line, joined competitors in diverting ships away from the Red Sea.

    The MSC Palatium III was attacked on Friday in the Red Sea, the company said in a statement on its website, confirming earlier reports. There were no injuries among the crew of the container ship, though there was “limited fire damage” and the vessel has been taken out of service.

    “Due to this incident and to protect the lives and safety of our seafarers, until the Red Sea passage is safe, MSC ships will not transit the Suez Canal eastbound and westbound,” the company said in its statement.

    “Some services will be rerouted to go via the Cape of Good Hope instead,” it said, referring to the southern tip of Africa.

    Separately, the French group CMA CGM instructed its container ships scheduled to pass through the Red Sea to pause their journey in safe waters until further notice.

    UK naval forces shot down a suspected attack drone that was targeting merchant ships in the Red Sea, Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said in a post on X on Saturday. The HMS Diamond used a Sea Viper missile to down the target, he said, without giving more details.

    Flexport Inc., a freight forwarding platform based in San Francisco, said in a blog post that taking the route around Africa prolongs the journey by seven to 10 days compared with using the Suez Canal.

    Rebels in Yemen escalated a threat against ships with ties to Israel in November, calling them “legitimate targets,” and appear to be targeting vessels in the vicinity more generally.

    Rerouting the world’s container fleet around the conflict zone during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza threatens to increase freight rates and cause delays rippling across global supply chains.

    About 5% of global trade depends on the Panama Canal and 12% depends on Suez, according to Marco Forgione, director general at the Institute of Export & International Trade.

    — With assistance from Valentine Baldassar

    Subscribe to the CFO Daily newsletter to keep up with the trends, issues, and executives shaping corporate finance. Sign up for free.

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    Brendan Murray, Charles Capel, Bloomberg

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  • Israeli strike on school kills Al Jazeera cameraman in southern Gaza, network says

    Israeli strike on school kills Al Jazeera cameraman in southern Gaza, network says

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    CAIRO — An Israeli strike killed a Palestinian cameraman for the TV network Al Jazeera and wounded its chief Gaza correspondent Friday as they reported at a school in the south of the besieged territory, the network said.

    Cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa and correspondent Wael Dahdouh had gone to the school in the southern city of Khan Younis after it was hit by a strike earlier in the day. While they were there, an Israeli drone hit the school with a second strike, the network said.

    Dahdouh was heavily wounded in his arm and shoulder, while Abu Daqqa fell bleeding to the ground. Speaking from a hospital bed, Dahdouh told Al Jazeera he was able to flee, bleeding, from the school and found several ambulance workers. He asked them to look for Abu Daqqa, but they said it was too risky and promised another ambulance would come for him, Dahdouh said.

    “He was screaming, he was calling for help,” said Dahdouh, his right arm heavily bandaged.

    Later that evening, Al Jazeera reported that an ambulance tried to reach the school to evacuate Abu Daqqa, but it had to turn back because roads were blocked by the rubble of destroyed houses.

    Abu Daqqa continued to bleed for several more hours, until a civil defense crew found him dead, the network said in a statement.

    Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour told a General Assembly meeting on the war that Israel “targets those who could document (their) crimes and inform the world, the journalists.”

    “We mourn one of those journalists, Samer Abu Daqqa, wounded in an Israeli drone strike and left to bleed to death for 6 hours while ambulances were prevented from reaching him,” Mansour said.

    According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Abu Daqqa is the 64th journalist to be killed since the conflict erupted between Hamas and Israel: 57 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese journalists.

    The 45-year-old Abu Daqqa, a Khan Younis native, joined Al Jazeera in June 2004, working as both a cameraman and an editor. He leaves behind three sons and a daughter.

    The Israeli army did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment about Abu Daqqa’s death.

    Qatari-owned Al Jazeera said in a statement that it holds Israel “accountable for systematically targeting and killing Al Jazeera journalists and their families.”

    In late October, Dahdouh’s wife, son, daughter and grandchild were killed in a strike on the home where they were sheltering in central Gaza. The network at the time accused Israel of intentionally targeting his family.

    Earlier this month, a strike killed the father, mother and 20 other family members of another Al Jazeera correspondent, Momen Al Sharafi.

    Dahdouh is well known as the face of Palestinians during many wars. He is revered in his native Gaza for telling stories of suffering and hardship to the outside world.

    Israel’s air and ground assault over the past 10 weeks has killed more than 18,700 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. The war broke out following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 240 hostage.

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  • Sanctions aren’t working: How the West enables Russia’s war on Ukraine

    Sanctions aren’t working: How the West enables Russia’s war on Ukraine

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    BERLIN — At its summit this week, the European Union is threatening to name and shame more than a dozen Chinese companies that, it claims, are supplying critical technology to equip Russia’s war machine.

    But what about the Western companies that make dual-use and other advanced gear that is subject to sanctions and yet, according to an analysis of wreckage found on the Ukrainian battlefield, is used in Russian Kalibr missiles, Orlan drones and Ka-52 “Alligator” helicopters?

    Radio silence.

    So here’s a trivia question for you: Which company is the leading maker of the so-called “high-priority battlefield items” trafficked to Russia that the Western coalition wants to interdict?

    If you said Intel, then go to the top of the class: According to the sanctions team at the Kyiv School of Economics, the U.S. semiconductor giant again leads the pack this year. It’s followed by Huawei of China. Then come Analog Devices, AMD, Texas Instruments and IBM — all of which are American.

    Russian imports of microelectronics, wireless and satellite navigation systems and other critical parts subject to sanctions have recovered to near pre-war levels with a monthly run rate of $900 million in the first nine months of this year, according to a forthcoming report from the Kyiv School’s analytical center, the KSE Institute.

    All of this indicates that, while Western sanctions imposed over Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, had a temporary impact, Moscow and its helpers have largely succeeded in reconfiguring supply chains — with the help of China, Hong Kong and countries in Russia’s backyard like Kazakhstan and NATO member Turkey.

    That in turn begs the question as to whether, as the EU strives to deliver a 12th package of sanctions against Russia in time for a leaders’ summit on Thursday, the bloc is serving up yet another case study for the definition of insanity often attributed to Albert Einstein: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

    For Elina Ribakova, director of the international program at the KSE Institute, the Western private sector must also be held to account. It should, she argues, be required to track its products along the entire value chain to their final destination — just as banks were forced to tighten anti-money laundering controls and customer checks after the 2008 crash.

    “We have a policy in a void. We have put it on paper but we don’t have any infrastructure for the private sector to comply — or for us to check,” Ribakova told POLITICO. “We need to have the private sector enforce and implement this.”

    Intel, responding to a request for comment, said it had suspended all shipments to Russia and Belarus, its ally, and that it was compliant with sanctions and export controls against both countries issued by the U.S. and its allies.

    “While we do not always know nor can we control what products our customers create or the applications end-users may develop, Intel does not support or tolerate our products being used to violate human rights,” the company said in a statement. “Where we become aware of a concern that Intel products are being used by a business partner in connection with abuses of human rights, we will restrict or cease business with the third party until and unless we have high confidence that Intel’s products are not being used to violate human rights.”

    Anecdotal evidence

    The KSE Institute’s findings bear out, in a systematic way, the anecdotal findings of POLITICO’s own reporting this year: In our investigations, we showed how U.S.-made sniper ammunition finds its way into Russian rifles, and how China has positioned itself as Russia’s go-to supplier of nonlethal, but militarily useful, equipment. 

    As for Europe, while its companies may not feature among the top makers of critical technology sold to Russia, its industrial businesses are facing growing scrutiny over the supply of machinery and spare parts — often via third countries like Kazakhstan that have seen suspicious surges in imports.

    It’s here, also, that Europe has fallen down.

    In imposing sanctions, it’s a case of “all for one” — the bloc has jointly agreed on and implemented measures affecting everything from energy to banking.

    But enforcement is a matter for individual member countries. Some are on board with the program. Others, like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, overtly sympathize with Russia. And others, still, are conflicted — as when it emerged that the husband of hawkish Estonian premier Kaja Kallas owned a stake in a freight firm that still did business in Russia.

    Then there are countries like neutral Austria, with historical ties to the Soviet military-industrial complex that have left politicians and law enforcement with a huge blind spot.

    That’s important because, as independent researcher Kamil Galeev put it to POLITICO, Russia today still upholds an organizing principle dating back to the early Soviet era that civilian industry should “be able to switch 100 percent to military production should the need arise.”

    Justice delayed

    Despite evidence of widespread breaches, only a handful of sanctions cases are being pursued by European law enforcement. Among them, German prosecutors have secured the arrest of a businessman suspected of supplying precision lathes to two Russian companies that make sniper rifles.

    But the wheels of justice turn slowly: The arrest in August of Ulli S. — prosecutors, following German tradition, have not published his full name — relates to the initial imposition of Western sanctions over Russia’s occupation of Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014.

    The press had already cracked the case by the time the suspect appeared in court, naming DMG Mori — a Japanese-German joint venture — as the supplier. One customer was Kalashnikov, maker of the famed AK-47 rifle. The other was Promtekhnologia, which has been sanctioned by the U.S. and featured in POLITICO’s sniper bullets investigation. Promtekhnologia makes the Orsis sniper rifle promoted by action movie actor Steven Seagal — now a Russian citizen — and used by President Vladimir Putin’s men in Ukraine.  

    DMG Mori, formerly called Gildemeister, suspended sales to Russia after the full-scale invasion. But, because it has closed down its operations in the country, it says it is no longer able to keep control over its machines made there (although an internal probe did find that they were being used for civilian purposes). The German Federal Prosecutor did not respond to a request for comment.

    The real bad actors 

    It’s not just in stopping imports to Russia that sanctions are falling short of their stated intention.

    Vladimir Putin’s former wife, Lyudmila (left), and her new partner have splashed the cash on luxury property investments in Spain, Switzerland and France a POLITICO investigation found | Yuri Kochetkov/EPA

    Russians with close ties to Putin — and their money — continue to be more than welcome in Europe despite the death and destruction his regime has unleashed. His former wife, Lyudmila, and her new partner have splashed the cash on luxury property investments in Spain, Switzerland and France, as a POLITICO investigation found at the start of the year.

    And when the European Council — the intergovernmental branch of the EU — does sanction Russian business leaders suspected of aiding and abetting the Putin regime, it has often relied on slipshod evidence that makes the decisions easy to challenge in court, POLITICO has also found.

    Nearly 1,600 Western multinationals continue, meanwhile, to do business in Russia. Many that announced they would pull out have struggled to do so, as POLITICO discovered when it investigated Western liquor companies that said they had quit Russia — only to find that their booze was still freely available. And some companies that did stay, like Danone and Carlsberg, have been shaken down by Putin and his cronies — a case of Russian roulette, if ever there was one.

    With the EU apparently lacking the means, or the political will, to do more to economically isolate Russia, the bloc is sending its sanctions envoy, David O’Sullivan, on a mission to apply moral suasion to countries that are, as he diplomatically puts it, “not aligned” on sanctions.

    On the high-priority battlefield technology, Sullivan told POLITICO’s EU Confidential podcast last month that the EU has had “a limited success — but in an area which is absolutely critical to the defense of Ukraine.”

    More broadly, he said: “The sanctions are a sort of slow puncture of the Russian economy. Perhaps not the blowout that some people initially predicted, but … the air is escaping from the tire and sooner or later the vehicle is going to become impossible to drive.”

    To be fair, O’Sullivan isn’t overselling the efficacy of sanctions. And he may ultimately be proven right. 

    But he only will be vindicated if Western governments do a better job of holding their own businesses to account in stemming the flows of technology, equipment and spare parts that sustain Putin and his war of aggression.

    That will come down to whether they have the will to enforce their decisions. And the evidence so far is that they don’t.

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    Douglas Busvine

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  • Black Friday Must-Get: Save 36% on This 4K Drone | Entrepreneur

    Black Friday Must-Get: Save 36% on This 4K Drone | Entrepreneur

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    Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

    As an entrepreneur, you’ve got to be savvy with money. Yahoo Finance estimates that Americans will spend $1,100 this year on gifting, but if you want to lower that number, taking advantage of great Black Friday deals is an ideal way to combat that financial crunch. And if you’re looking for something that will delight loved ones, both young and old, you can’t go wrong with a drone.

    If you want to gift a drone this holiday season, the ProVision Foldable 4K HD Camera Drone makes an excellent choice. And if you take advantage of this Black Friday sale, you can score one for only $69.97 — nearly $40 off the usual price — now through December 3, with no coupon code required.

    Give your giftee the chance to see the world from new heights with the ProVision Drone, a drone equipped with a high-resolution 4K camera that can capture stunning images from above. And when it comes time to actually record those memories, the ProVision lets you do it simply by making a hand motion — if you throw up a victory gesture, it takes a photo, and if you show a palm gesture, you’ll record a video.

    For those totally new to drones, there shouldn’t be any fear of crashing once they take flight. This model offers three-way environmental perception capabilities and infrared obstacle avoidance sensing, so you don’t need to worry about run-ins with nature.

    Give the gift of a ProVision Foldable 4K HD Camera Drone with Gesture Control and Two Batteries, on sale for just $69.97 (reg. $109) with no coupon code required for Black Friday, now through December 3 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

    Prices subject to change.

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    Entrepreneur Store

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  • An Israeli-owned ship was targeted in suspected Iranian attack in Indian Ocean, US official tells AP

    An Israeli-owned ship was targeted in suspected Iranian attack in Indian Ocean, US official tells AP

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    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A container ship owned by an Israeli billionaire came under attack by a suspected Iranian drone in the Indian Ocean as Israel wages war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, an American defense official said Saturday.

    The attack Friday on the CMA CGM Symi comes as global shipping increasingly finds itself targeted in the weekslong war that threatens to become a wider regional conflict — even as a truce has halted fighting and Hamas exchanges hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

    The defense official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said the Malta-flagged vessel was suspected to have been targeted by a triangle-shaped, bomb-carrying Shahed-136 drone while in international waters. The drone exploded, causing damage to the ship but not injuring any of its crew.

    “We continue to monitor the situation closely,” the official said. The official declined to elaborate on what intelligence the U.S. military gathered to assess Iran was behind the attack.

    Al-Mayadeen, a pan-Arab satellite channel that is politically allied with the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, reported that an Israeli ship had been targeted in the Indian Ocean. The channel cited anonymous sources for the report, which Iranian media later cited.

    CMA CGM, a major shipper based in Marseille, France, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, the vessel’s crew had been behaving as though they believed the ship faced a threat.

    The ship had its Automatic Identification System tracker switched off since Tuesday when it left Dubai’s Jebel Ali port, according to data from MarineTraffic.com analyzed by the AP. Ships are supposed to keep their AIS active for safety reasons, but crews will turn them off if it appears they might be targeted. It had done the same earlier when traveling through the Red Sea past Yemen, home to the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

    “The attack is likely to have been targeted, due to the vessel’s Israeli affiliation through Eastern Pacific Shipping,” the private intelligence firm Ambrey told the AP. “The vessel’s AIS transmissions were off days prior to the event, indicating this alone does not prevent an attack.”

    The Symi is owned by Singapore-based Eastern Pacific Shipping, which is a company ultimately controlled by Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer. A phone number for Eastern Pacific Shipping in Singapore rang unanswered Saturday, while no one responded to a request for comment sent by email. The Israeli military referred questions to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which did not immediately respond.

    In November 2022, the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Pacific Zircon, also associated with Eastern Pacific, sustained damage in a suspected Iranian attack off Oman.

    Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment. However, Tehran and Israel have been engaged in a yearslong shadow war in the wider Middle East, with some drone attacks targeting Israeli-associated vessels traveling around the region.

    In the Israel-Hamas war, which began with the militants’ Oct. 7 attack, the Houthis seized a vehicle transport ship in the Red Sea off Yemen. Iranian-backed militias in Iraq also have launched attacks on American troops in both Iraq and Syria during the war, though Iran itself has yet to be linked directly to an attack.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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