Kategori: NEWS

VIENNA — Austria’s conservative-led government said on Friday it is offering Syrian refugees a “return bonus” of 1,000 euros ($1,050) to move back to their home country after the fall of Bashar Assad.

Conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer reacted quickly to Assad’s overthrow on Sunday, saying the same day that the security situation in Syria should be reassessed so as to allow deportations of Syrian refugees.

Deporting people against their will is not possible until it becomes clearer what direction Syria is taking. For now, Austria’s government has said it will focus on voluntary deportations. It has also stopped processing Syrians’ asylum applications, as have more than a dozen European countries.

Like many conservatives in Europe, Nehammer is under pressure from the far right, with the two groups often seeming to try to outbid each other on tough-sounding immigration policies. Syrians are the biggest group of asylum-seekers in Austria, a European Union member state.

“Austria will support Syrians who wish to return to their home country with a return bonus of 1,000 euros. The country now needs its citizens in order to be rebuilt,” Nehammer said in an English-language post on X.

How many Syrians will take up the offer remains to be seen. With national flag-carrier Austrian Airlines having suspended flights to the Middle East because of the security situation, the Austrian bonus may not even fully cover travel.

An economy class one-way ticket in a month’s time to Beirut, a common starting point for those heading overland to Damascus, currently costs at least 1,066.10 euros ($1,120.58) on Turkish Airlines, according to the company’s website.

Austria’s far-right Freedom Party came first in September’s parliamentary election with around 29 percent of the vote but, as no potential coalition partner was forthcoming, Nehammer is leading coalition talks with the Social Democrats and liberal Neos.

AN-REUTERS

MOSCOW — Russia has carried out a massive attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in retaliation for Kyiv’s use of US-supplied ATACMS missiles, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.

The ministry said that air- and sea-based long-range precision weapons and drones were used against “critical facilities of Ukraine’s fuel and energy infrastructure that support the military-industrial complex.”

Earlier on Friday Ukraine said that Russia had launched a large-scale missile attack on Ukrainian energy facilities during the morning rush hour on Friday.

AN-REUTERS

KHARTOUM — Nine people were killed and more than 20 others injured on Friday in a missile attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a hospital in El Fasher, the capital city of North Darfur State in western Sudan, according to a local government official.

“The militia launched four guided missiles from a drone early today, targeting areas of patients’ companions in the Saudi Hospital, which killed nine of the patients’ companions, injured more than 20 others,” Ibrahim Khatir, director-general of North Darfur State’s health ministry, told Xinhua.

The Saudi hospital is the only health facility still operating in El Fasher with surgical and therapeutic capacities.

The RSF has not commented on the incident yet.

Fierce clashes have been raging in El Fasher between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF since May 10.

XINHUA

AMMAN — Six residents died and dozens were injured after a fire broke out a nursing home in Jordan, state news agency Petra reported.

The fire at the White Beds Society’s, or Al-Asirra Al-Baydaa, elderly home killed six elderly, badly injuring five and moderately injuring fifty-five more, according to Wafa Bani Mustafa, Minister of Social Development.

The fire spread engulfed the entire 80-square-meter center, which houses 111 people, the minister added.

The injured were taken to government hospitals for treatment, while the remaining elderly were moved to other centers.

An investigation was being conducted to identify the cause of the blaze, the minister said.

AN

CAIRO — An Israeli strike killed at least 30 Palestinians and wounded 50 others who were sheltering in a post office in central Gaza Strip, bringing the death toll on Thursday in the enclave to 66.

With no sign of let-up in the 14-month-old conflict, the strike hit a postal facility in Nuseirat camp where displaced families had sought refuge and also damaged several nearby houses, medics told Reuters.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nuseirat is one of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic camps originally for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war around the establishment of Israel. Today, it is part of a dense urban area crowded with displaced people from throughout the enclave.

Earlier on Thursday, two Israeli strikes in southern Gaza killed 13 Palestinians who Gaza medics and Hamas said were part of a force protecting humanitarian aid trucks. Israel’s military said they were Hamas militants trying to hijack the shipment.

Many of those killed in the attacks on Rafah and Khan Younis had links to Hamas, according to sources close to the group.

The Israeli military said in a statement the two airstrikes aimed to ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian aid and accused Hamas members of planning to prevent the aid from reaching Gaza civilians who need it.

The statement said the Hamas members aimed to hijack the aid “in support of continuing terrorist activity”.

Armed gangs have repeatedly hijacked aid trucks, and Hamas has formed a task force to confront them. The Hamas-led forces have killed over two dozen members of the gangs in recent months, Hamas sources and medics said.

Hamas said Israeli military strikes have killed at least 700 police tasked with securing aid trucks in Gaza since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023. It has accused Israel of trying to protect looting and “creating anarchy and chaos to prevent aid from reaching the people of Gaza”.

Separately, the Israeli military on Thursday ordered residents of several districts in the heart of Gaza City to evacuate, saying it would respond to rockets launched from those areas.

“This is a pre-warning before an attack,” read a military statement posted on X that some residents also received as text and audio alerts on their mobile phones.

The evacuation orders caused a new wave of displacement. At nightfall, dozens of families streamed out of the areas heading toward the centre of the city.

ISRAELI STRIKES IN GAZA CITY, CENTRAL GAZA

Israeli bombings of a residential building in Gaza City’s al-Jalaa Street and a house west of Nuseirat killed 22 people, medics and the Palestinian news agency WAFA said.

In the northern Gaza refugee camp of Jabalia, where the army has operated since October, health officials said an orthopaedic doctor, Saeed Judeh, was shot dead by Israeli forces while on his way to Al-Awda Hospital where he usually treated patients.

The health ministry said his death raised to 1,057 the number of healthcare workers killed since the war began.

Months of ceasefire efforts by Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, have failed to conclude a deal between the two warring sides.

On Wednesday, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to demand an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire and the immediate release of all hostages seized in Israel in October 2023 and held by Hamas in Gaza.

The war in the Palestinian enclave began after Hamas gunmen stormed into Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages back to Hamas-run Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, Israel’s military has levelled swathes of Gaza, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing more than 44,800 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.

REUTERS

MEXICO CITY — A fireworks explosion in Mexico injured at least 30 people on Thursday during the Virgin of Guadalupe festivities at a church in the state of Guerrero, local authorities said.

Three children, who were seriously injured in the explosion in the town of Tlalchapa, were airlifted to a specialized hospital.

On Dec. 12 every year, Mexico celebrates the day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, a national religious icon. While millions of Catholic pilgrims converge on the Basilica in Mexico City, most local churches also hold individual celebrations.

Guerrero’s civil protection said at least 30 people were injured in the explosion in Tlalchapa.

“The state government is providing facilities to airlift three minors who were seriously injured in the massive pyrotechnics explosion,” it added in a statement.

State Governor Evelyn Salgado said on X she was monitoring the children’s transfer to a specialized hospital.

People who suffered minor burns and hearing damage were also transferred to different hospitals in the region.

Mexican celebrations are commonly accompanied by use of fireworks and other pyrotechnics. Health officials have warned residents to take precautions, particularly with children.

REUTERS

MOSCOW — Russia hopes to keep its military bases in Syria as they are important in the fight against terrorism, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Thursday.

“I think there is general agreement that the fight against terrorism and the IS is not over, it requires collective efforts. In this regard, our presence played an important role in the fight against international terrorism,” state-run RIA news agency reported, citing Bogdanov.

The Russian diplomat added that Moscow has established contacts with the political committee of Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and discussed issues of ensuring the security of the Russian diplomatic mission and citizens in the country.

Russia is ready to provide assistance to those Russian citizens who want to leave Syria, he said.

Bogdanov also noted that Russia is in contact with Israel regarding the Syrian situation.

XINHUA

GAZA STRIP — Gaza’s civil defense agency said a series of Israeli air strikes on Thursday killed at least 58 people, including 12 guards securing aid trucks, while the military said it targeted militants planning to hijack the vehicles.

The latest bloodshed came despite growing optimism that negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal might finally succeed, with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan saying on Thursday that the regional “context” had changed in favor of an agreement.

Seven guards were killed in a strike in Rafah, in southern Gaza, while another attack left five guards dead in nearby Khan Yunis, agency spokesman Mahmud Basal said.

“The (Israeli) occupation once again targeted those securing the aid trucks,” Basal told AFP, though the military said it “does not strike humanitarian aid trucks.”

Basal added that around 30 people, most of them children, were wounded in the two strikes.

“The trucks carrying flour were on their way to UNRWA warehouses,” Basal noted, referring to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

Witnesses later told AFP that residents looted flour from the trucks after the strikes.

The military said its forces “conducted precise strikes” overnight on armed Hamas militants present in an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in southern Gaza.

“All of the terrorists that were eliminated were members of Hamas and planned to violently hijack humanitarian aid trucks and transfer them to Hamas in support of continuing terrorist activity,” a military statement said.

The United Nations and aid agencies have repeatedly warned about the acute humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip, exacerbated by the war that has persisted for more than 14 months.

“Conditions for people across the Gaza Strip are appalling and apocalyptic,” UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge told journalists during a visit to Nuseirat in central Gaza.

She added that life-saving aid to “besieged areas in north Gaza governorate has been largely blocked” since the Israeli military launched a sweeping assault there in early October.

In southern Gaza, UNRWA said earlier this week it had successfully delivered enough food aid for 200,000 people.

But on Thursday it said “a serious incident” meant that only one truck out of a convoy of 70 traveling along Gaza’s southern border reached its destination.

The agency did not provide any details on the incident, but called on “all parties to ensure safe, unimpeded and uninterrupted” aid deliveries.

As diplomacy aimed at ending the war appeared to be gaining pace again, the violence continued.

The civil defense agency said Israeli air strikes on two homes, near Nuseirat refugee camp — which was again hit later in the evening — and Gaza City killed 21 people.

Fifteen people, at least six of them children, died “as a result of an Israeli bombing” of a building sheltering displaced people near Nuseirat, Bassal said.

Bassam Al-Habash, a relative of the dead in Nuseirat said: “These people are innocent, they are not wanted. They have nothing to do with the war.”

“They are civilians, and this is not a war between two armies, but a war armed with weapons, planes and Western support against a defenseless people who own nothing.”

Another strike late on Thursday killed at least 25 people and wounded 50 others in the Nuseirat refugee camp, the civil defense said.

In the latest diplomatic effort to secure an end to the violence, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on Wednesday calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.

The non-binding resolution was rejected by the United States, Israel’s main military backer.

However, in recent days, there have been indications that previously stalled ceasefire negotiations could be revived.

Families of the 96 hostages still in Gaza since the Hamas attack that triggered the war, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead, are pressing for their release.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who visited Israel on Thursday and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said he “got the sense” that the Israeli leader was “ready to do a deal.”

He also said that the Hamas approach to negotiations had changed, attributing it to the overthrow of their ally Bashar Assad in Syria and the ceasefire that went into effect in the war between Israel and another ally, Lebanese group Hezbollah.

AN-AFP

JERUSALEM — The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Thursday that it has “severely damaged” Syria’s air defenses, destroying over 90 percent of identified strategic surface-to-air missile systems.

In a statement, the IDF revealed that it had been conducting a comprehensive assessment of Syria’s situation, taking into account the potential downfall of Bashar al-Assad. “In preparation for such a scenario, the Air Force has developed an extensive strike plan aimed at neutralizing Syria’s military capabilities, including strategic weaponry,” the statement read.

Over the past several days, hundreds of Israeli fighter jets and aircraft have launched coordinated strikes, delivering significant blows to Syria’s most strategic weapons, including fighter jets, helicopters, missiles, UAVs, radars, and rockets.

The strikes also targeted several key Syrian air bases. The T4 Airport, near northern Damascus, was significantly damaged, with the complete destruction of the SU-22 and SU-24 fighter squadrons stationed there. The “Ble” Airport, housing three additional fighter squadrons, and a nearby weapons storage site were also hit in the Israeli strikes.

In addition, manufacturing and storage facilities, including a critical one in Syria’s Homs area, which was identified as a pivotal component of Syria’s Scud missile program, were targeted.

The IDF statement highlighted that these operations aimed to degrade Syria’s advanced military capabilities amid escalating tensions in the region.

XINHUA

JERUSALEM — A chief of Hamas’ weapons manufacturing division has been killed in an Israeli drone attack in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s military and Shin Bet internal security agency announced Thursday in a joint statement.

Ammar Daloul, a department head of Hamas’ weapons manufacturing headquarters, was killed earlier this week in a strike on the Al-Hurriya School in Gaza City, according to the statement.

The strike also killed Jihad Yassin, a company commander in Hamas’ Zeitoun Battalion, along with six other militants. Yassin “was responsible for attacks on IDF (Israel Defense Forces) troops operating in Gaza,” the statement added.

The military and Shin Bet emphasized that they would continue targeting individuals involved in what they termed “terrorist activities against Israeli civilians.”

XINHUA

AQABA, Jordan — The United States is working to get a U.S. citizen found on Thursday in Syria out of the country and bring him home, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Jordan, where he held meetings to discuss the situation in Syria.

In media reports, the man was identified as Travis Timmerman.

Blinken said he had no update on American journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria in 2012, but said the U.S. was continuing work to find him.

AN-REUTERS

DAMASCUS — Syria’s new government thanked eight countries on Thursday for swiftly reviving their diplomatic missions after a lightning militant offensive ousted president Bashar Assad at the weekend.

The offensive, which took less than two weeks to sweep across Syria and take the capital Damascus, stunned the world and brought an end to more than a half a century of brutal rule by the Assad clan.

The militants, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), appointed an interim prime minister on Tuesday to lead the country until March.

The new government’s department of political affairs issued a statement thanking Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman and Italy “for resuming the activities of their diplomatic missions in Damascus.”

Italy had reopened its embassy in Damascus before Assad’s fall.

After the militants took Damascus, an “armed group” entered the residence of Italy’s ambassador in Damascus and stole three cars, the Italian government said on Sunday.

The new government also said it had received “direct promises” from Qatar and Turkiye “to reopen their embassies in Syria” adding it hoped to “build good relations with all countries that respect the will of the people, the sovereignty of the Syrian state.”

Many embassies had shut their doors as militants advanced toward Damascus.

Gulf states had severed diplomatic ties with Syria, closing their embassies in the aftermath of Assad’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 2011 that triggered the civil war.

Most have restored relations since 2018, with the exception of Qatar.

Qatar announced on Wednesday it would “soon” reopen its embassy in Damascus, closed in 2011.

The move aimed to “strengthen the close historical fraternal ties between the two countries,” Qatar’s foreign ministry said.

The Gulf country also sought to “enhance coordination with relevant authorities to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid currently provided by Qatar to the Syrian people” via an air bridge, it added.

Doha had supported opposition factions early in the war and remained a fierce critic of Assad while also calling for a diplomatic solution.

Turkiye has backed some Syrian militant groups since the start of the civil war.

The war killed more than 500,000 people and forced half the population to flee their homes, with six million of them seeking refuge abroad.

AN-AFP

LONDON — The Irish government will ask the International Court of Justice to expand its definition of genocide over Israel’s “collective punishment” of civilians in the Gaza Strip, Sky News reported on Thursday.

Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin said his government is “concerned” that a “narrow interpretation of what constitutes genocide” is leading to a “culture of impunity in which the protection of civilians is minimized.”

He added that there has been “collective punishment of the Palestinian people through the intent and impact of military actions of Israel in Gaza,” and that the Irish government “prioritizes the protection of civilian life.”

Ireland is set to link the request to the case brought by South Africa to the ICJ under the UN Genocide Convention, as well as a case brought by Gambia against Myanmar.

“By legally intervening in South Africa’s case, Ireland will be asking the ICJ to broaden its interpretation of what constitutes the commission of genocide by a state,” Martin said.

“Intervening in both cases demonstrates the consistency of Ireland’s approach to the interpretation and application of the Genocide Convention.”

The convention identifies the practice as the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” by killing, inflicting physical and mental harm, and imposing destructive conditions. Collective punishment is not currently part of the criteria.

Israel has also been accused of committing genocide by Amnesty International, which said the country has repeatedly attacked Palestinians, destroyed infrastructure and limited civilians’ access to food, water and medicine.

Amnesty’s executive director in Ireland, Stephen Bowen, called Dublin’s actions a “glimmer of hope,” adding: “Those like Ireland who have called for a ceasefire must join with other like-minded states to create this common platform to end the genocide.

“They must be resolute; they must be relentless; they must be loud, clear, visible. This is genocide. This must stop.”

AN

LONDON — UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged an additional £13 million ($16.56 million) to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

The announcement followed a meeting between him and UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini in London on Wednesday.

Starmer gave his condolences to the agency for the deaths of staff members killed in Gaza. The pair agreed that more needs to be done to protect aid workers in the Palestinian enclave, and reiterated their calls for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages held by Hamas.

The money will come on top of the £21 million per year already given to UNRWA by the UK, which was temporarily suspended by the former government after Israel accused 12 agency members of taking part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in 2023.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he was “reassured” that UNRWA met UK government standards for vetting employees following an independent review of the situation.

UNRWA was established in 1949 to help Palestinian refugees. In October, Israel banned it from operating in its territory, hampering its ability to operate in the Occupied Territories.

Starmer condemned the decision, saying it had left him “gravely concerned” and would make it “impossible” for vital work to be done helping displaced and vulnerable Palestinian civilians.

AN

TAIPEI — Taiwan said Thursday it detected 16 Chinese warships in waters around the island, one of the highest numbers this year, as Beijing intensifies military pressure on Taipei.

The navy vessels, along with 34 Chinese aircraft, were spotted near Taiwan in the 24 hours to 6:00 a.m. Thursday, according to the defense ministry’s daily tally.

Beijing has been holding its biggest maritime drills in years from near the southern islands of Japan to the South China Sea, Taiwan authorities said this week.

Around 90 Chinese warships and coast guard vessels have been involved in the exercises that include simulating attacks on foreign ships and practicing blockading sea routes, a Taiwan security official said Wednesday.

There has been no announcement by Beijing’s army or Chinese state media about increased military activity in the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait, South China Sea or Western Pacific Ocean.

AN-AFP

RAIPUR, India — Indian troops shot dead seven Maoist rebels in a fierce gunbattle on Thursday, as security forces step up efforts to crush the long-running armed conflict.

More than 10,000 people have died in the decades-long insurgency waged by the Naxalite movement, as the Maoist insurgents are known, who say they are fighting for the rights of marginalized Indigenous people in India’s resource-rich central regions.
The insurgency has drastically shrunk in recent years and a crackdown by security forces has killed over 200 rebels this year, according to government data.

The latest gunbattle took place in a remote forested area of Bastar region in Chhattisgarh state, the heartland of the insurgency.

“So far seven bodies of Maoists, who were in their uniforms, have been recovered during search operations,” police inspector general P. Sunderraj said, adding that the toll was likely to rise.

Indian home minister Amit Shah warned the Maoist rebels in September to surrender or face an “all-out” assault, saying the government expected to quash the insurgency by early 2026.

The Naxalites, named after the district where their armed campaign began in 1967, were inspired by the Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.

They demanded land, jobs and a share of the region’s immense natural resources for local residents, and made inroads in a number of remote communities across India’s east and south.

The movement gained in strength and numbers until the early 2000s when New Delhi deployed tens of thousands of security personnel against the rebels in a stretch of territory known as the “Red Corridor.”

Authorities have since invested millions of dollars in local infrastructure and social projects.

AN-AFP

MOSCOW — Russia will “definitely” respond to a Ukrainian attack on a southern airfield using US-supplied ATACMS missiles, the Kremlin said Thursday.

President Vladimir Putin has previously threatened to launch its new hypersonic ballistic missile, named Oreshnik, at the center of Kyiv if Ukraine does not halt its attacks on Russian territory using US-supplied ATACMS missiles.

Russia’s defense ministry on Wednesday accused Ukraine of firing the missiles in an overnight attack on an airfield in the port city of Taganrog in the southern Rostov region.

A response “will follow when, and in a way that is deemed, appropriate. It will definitely follow,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

He did not provide details of how Russia might retaliate.

Washington only recently gave Kyiv permission to fire ATACMS on Russian territory, following months of requests.

The United States warned Wednesday that Russia could be preparing to fire Oreshnik missiles at Ukraine again.

The US warning was “based on an intelligence assessment that it’s possible that Russia could use this Oreshnik missile in the coming days,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists.

Both sides have escalated aerial attacks in recent months as Russia’s troops advance on the battlefield.

Russia’s defense ministry said Thursday its troops had captured the tiny settlement of Zarya in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

AN-AFP

PARIS — Fifty-four journalists were killed worldwide while carrying out their work or because of their profession in 2024, a third of them by the Israeli army, according to an annual report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published Thursday.

According to the press freedom NGO, Israeli armed forces were responsible for the deaths of 18 journalists this year — 16 in Gaza and two in Lebanon.

“Palestine is the most dangerous country for journalists, recording a higher death toll than any other country over the past five years,” RSF said in its annual report, which covers data up to December 1.

The organization has filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “war crimes committed against journalists by the Israeli army.”

It said that in total “more than 145” journalists had been killed by the Israeli army in Gaza since the start of the war there in October 2023, with 35 of them working at the time of their deaths, RSF said.

It described the number of killings as “an unprecedented bloodbath.”

In a separate report published Tuesday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reported that 104 journalists were killed worldwide in 2024, with more than half of them in Gaza.

The figures differ between the IFJ and RSF due to two different methodologies used in calculating the toll.

RSF only includes journalists whose deaths have been “proven to be directly related to their professional activity.”

Israel denies that it intentionally harms journalists but admits that some have been killed in air strikes on military targets.

“We don’t accept these figures. We don’t believe they are correct,” Israeli government spokesman David Mercer told a press conference on Wednesday.

After Gaza, the deadliest places for journalists in 2024 were Pakistan with seven deaths, followed by Bangladesh and Mexico with five each.

In 2023, the number of journalists killed worldwide stood at 45 in the same January-December period.

As of December 1, there were 550 journalists imprisoned worldwide, compared to 513 last year, according to RSF figures.

The three countries with the highest numbers of detained journalists are China (124, including 11 in Hong Kong), Myanmar (61), and Israel (41).

Furthermore, 55 journalists are currently being held hostage, including two abducted in 2024.

Nearly half — 25 in total — are in the hands of the Daesh group.

In addition, 95 journalists are reported missing, including four new cases reported in 2024.

AN-AFP

MEXICO CITY — A judge was shot dead Wednesday in Mexico’s once-thriving beach city of Acapulco, local media and the state prosecutor’s office said.

Local press identified the slain judge as Edmundo Roman Pinzon, president of the Superior Court of Justice in Guerrero state, saying he was shot at least four times in his car outside an Acapulco courthouse.

The southern state of Guerrero is one the areas hardest hit in Mexico by violence linked to organized crime, and has seen a string of deadly attacks this year.

In October, the mayor of the state capital Chilpancingo was killed and decapitated just days after taking office.

Weeks later, armed clashes between alleged gang members and security forces left 19 people dead in the state. Last month, a dozen dismembered bodies were discovered in vehicles in Chilpancingo.

Acapulco, the state’s most populous city, was once a playground for the rich and famous, but has lost its luster over the last decade as foreign tourists have been spooked by bloodshed that has made it one of the world’s most violent cities.

On Wednesday, the Guerrero state prosecutor’s office said in a statement that it was “investigating the crime of aggravated homicide against Edmundo N,” in line with the usual practice of not giving full names.

The killing comes just over a week after President Claudia Sheinbaum led a meeting of the National Public Security Council in Acapulco, with state governors in attendance.

Spiraling violence, much of it linked to drug trafficking, has seen more than 450,000 people murdered in Mexico since 2006, when the government launched an offensive against organized crime.

Sheinbaum, who took office in October as Mexico’s first woman president, has ruled out launching a new “war on drugs,” as the controversial program was known.

She has pledged instead to stick to her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s “hugs not bullets” strategy of using social policy to address the causes of crime.

Last year, 1,890 murders were recorded in Guerrero.

AN-AFP

CAIRO — At least eight Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a group of Palestinians tasked with securing aid trucks into the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said.

Medics said at least 30 people were wounded and with several in critical condition, they feared the death toll may rise. The strike took place in western area of Rafah City, in the south of the enclave, medics and residents said.

Armed gangs have repeatedly hijacked aid trucks shortly after they roll into the enclave, prompting the Islamist Hamas group to form a task-force to confront them. The Hamas-led forces have killed over two dozen members of the gangs in recent months, according to Hamas sources and medics.

Hamas said Israeli military strikes have killed at least 700 police tasked with securing aid trucks into Gaza since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023.

AN-REUTERS