World
U.N. says recorded civilian toll of 8,000 in Ukraine is ‘tip of the iceberg’
More than 8,000 civilians have been recorded killed in Ukraine since Russia invaded nearly a year ago, the U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday, describing the figure as only the “tip of the iceberg” with thousands more thought to have died, Reuters reported.
The latest toll represents a significant upward revision from the previous tally, released earlier this month, of 7,199 recorded killed since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. Around 90% of the victims were killed by explosive weapons, it added.
“Our data are only the tip of the iceberg. The toll on civilians is unbearable,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement.
Matilda Bogner, head of United Nations Human Rights Mission in Ukraine, said it believes thousands of civilian deaths remained to be counted, many of them in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, now under Russian control, read the report.
The U.N. tally includes 2,000 civilian deaths in Mariupol, which was home to around 450,000 people before Russia laid siege to it for three months and blasted it to the ground.
“We have uncorroborated information indicating that the numbers are thousands higher than we have documented and a huge number of those are from Mariupol,” Bogner told reporters.
Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians in what it calls a “special military operation”, read the report.
World
Ukraine’s Zelenskiy says it is ‘painful’ when Trump chooses a different side
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview on Wednesday that it was “painful” when Donald Trump took another side in Ukraine’s ongoing war with Russia, after the US President said Zelenskiy should be replaced.
Zelenskiy told Piers Morgan Uncensored: “It’s painful when President Trump chooses one side, not our side.”
He also said that he was OK with Trump being in the middle of Ukraine and Russia, but added: “If you are in the middle, you have to stay in the middle.”
Asked if he felt betrayed by Trump, who at the weekend called for Ukraine to get a new president having agreed to lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports, Zelenskiy replied: “Really, yes … but it’s a little bit more complicated than just my emotions or my feelings.”
“It’s a pity we are losing (a) strong partner,” he added.
Zelenskiy also said: “We are not selling our country … it’s not about business for us, it’s just our life and this is our country.”
World
Yemen hospitals overwhelmed by surge in war casualties, Red Cross warns
Hospitals across Yemen are struggling to cope with a sharp rise in war casualties as intensified fighting along multiple front lines strains its already fragile health system, the Red Cross said on Wednesday.
Front-line hospitals in areas including Marib, Taiz and Yemen’s Red Sea coast were seeing unprecedented numbers of weapon-wounded patients, with some facilities admitting more than 700 casualties in a single week, according to the humanitarian agency, Reuters reported.
More than 200,000 people have been displaced from their homes since fighting in the country began in recent weeks, sparked by renewed fighting between the Iran-backed Houthi group and Saudi-backed government forces in Yemen, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration.
“Trauma care staff are under enormous pressure,” ICRC health coordinator Feras Abusamra said in a statement. Only a small proportion of Yemen’s functioning health facilities are capable of providing comprehensive trauma care, he said, while hospitals face large numbers of wounded people amid shortages of surgical supplies, anesthesia, oxygen and medicines.
Yemen’s health services, battered by more than a decade of conflict, economic crisis, displacement and disease outbreaks, may have limited capacity to absorb a new surge in mass casualties if fighting intensifies further, the ICRC warned.
World
One dead in new attack on Saudi airport, a day after Houthi strike kills 13
US aviation authorities issued a notice to US airlines to use caution while flying to or over the kingdom, Reuters reported.
One person was killed and nearly a dozen hurt in a new attack Riyadh’s international airport on Sunday, Saudi authorities reported, a day after a strike claimed by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis that killed 13 people and wounded more than 300, Reuters reported.
Saudi-led coalition forces in Yemen said an unidentified projectile had targeted Riyadh’s international airport Terminal 4 on Sunday, causing a fire. Eleven people were wounded in addition to the fatality, the Saudi civil aviation authority said.
Coalition forces also said Saudi air defences had intercepted a cruise missile in the vicinity of King Khalid International Airport. They later added that a drone had been intercepted and destroyed in the country’s Eastern Province, and a ballistic missile launched towards Khamis Mushait had been intercepted. Emergency alerts were also issued in Abha, in the south, early on Monday but the danger had since passed, the Saudi Civil Defense said.
The strikes have exposed vulnerabilities in Saudi defence capabilities as the kingdom wages an air campaign against the Houthis, who are fighting a ground war in Yemen against the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.
Footage released by Saudi state television of the Saturday attack on the Riyadh airport showed scores of religious pilgrims lined up at a gate as they prepared to travel to Islam’s two holiest sites. A bright orange flash sent people running in panic, while parts of the roof appeared to cave in, read the report.
The airport was closed after the attack, the deadliest in the kingdom in more than a decade.
In a televised speech on Sunday, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack and said the group had also struck the airport in Dammam in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province and two facilities of Saudi oil giant Saudi Aramco.
The Saudi government’s media office and Aramco did not respond to requests for comment.
The Saudi civil aviation authority confirmed the strike on Dammam’s King Fahd International Airport late on Sunday, adding that “damage assessments and safety inspections of airport facilities are under way.”
An eyewitness aboard a taxiing aircraft at Dammam told Reuters that around 8:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) on Sunday, they saw a projectile strike the tarmac beside several parked aircraft, causing a fire. The witness said the aircraft returned to the gate. Passengers disembarked and were told to leave.
Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed several delays and cancellations on Sunday for arrivals and departures at Dammam airport, the kingdom’s third-largest.
The Houthis earlier on Sunday had renewed their warning against using Saudi airports. “We urge everyone to take our warnings seriously, and Saudi Arabia bears responsibility for any failed interceptions,” the group said.
Britain’s embassy in Saudi Arabia in a post on X advised British citizens against all but essential travel to Jeddah, Dammam and all airports in the kingdom except the airport in Medina.
US aviation authorities issued a notice to US airlines to use caution while flying to or over the kingdom, Reuters reported.
Saudi Arabia has recently stepped up its military involvement in Yemen, launching strikes against the Houthis and backing a government counteroffensive after the Houthis seized strategic territory along the Red Sea coast last month.
The Houthis said on Sunday that Saudi Arabia carried out 124 air strikes in Yemen in the past 24 hours. “Unless the Saudi enemy stops its aggression and interference in Yemen, worse is yet to come, God willing,” Yemen’s Houthi-run foreign ministry said in statements carried by Al Masirah television.
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday the United States was considering joining Saudi strikes on the Houthis in the conflict, a spillover from the wider war with Iran that the US and Israel launched in February.
In a post on Telegram, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said he told his Saudi counterpart that Tehran was ready to help facilitate dialogue between Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
A five-day conference of international energy organization WPC Energy opened as planned on Sunday at a convention centre about 10 km (6 miles) from the Riyadh airport, the Saudi energy ministry said.
A ministerial meeting of the International Energy Forum also went ahead, according to a media advisory from the ministry. It was not clear which ministers attended.
Italy’s energy minister, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, whose country was co-hosting, had said on Friday he would participate remotely via video link.
German officials were trying to organise a return flight for economy minister Katherina Reiche, read the report.
She was supposed to return to Berlin from Riyadh on Monday but the ministry said it appeared likely her flight would be unable to take off.
Separately, Saudi authorities announced that in-person classes at schools in Riyadh would be shifted to remote learning from Sunday until Thursday.
Sunday’s attack brought the death toll in attacks on Riyadh’s airport to 18 for the week. In Saturday’s attack, the dead included four Saudis while the remainder were foreign nationals, Saudi authorities said.
-
Regional4 days agoHouthis warn airlines to avoid Saudi airports after deadly Riyadh attack
-
World3 days agoOne dead in new attack on Saudi airport, a day after Houthi strike kills 13
-
Sport4 days agoAfghanistan Champions League second half to kick off on October 16
-
World4 days ago14 killed in two separate mass shootings across the United States
-
Regional3 days agoPakistan deploys military to Peshawar after emergency rule declared
-
Business4 days agoAfghanistan signs nearly $400 million in regional trade and investment deals
-
Sport4 days agoBangladesh take 329-run lead against Afghanistan in one-off Test
-
Latest News4 days agoAfghan education advocate establishes $2.5 million Oxford scholarship fund for women
