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Iran Launches Fresh Retaliatory Attack On lsrael

Published

10 months ago

June 14, 2025

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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Israel initiated a war

Iran launched a fresh barrage of retaliation strikes on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, killing one woman, injuring dozens and sending terrified civilians into shelters.

Israel said the military’s defense systems have been intercepting the missiles throughout the day Friday, and that most were intercepted or fell short. Air raid sirens could once again be heard across Israel as the sun began to rise on Saturday.

The strikes were in retaliation to Israel’s blistering attacks on the heart of Iran’s nuclear and military structure overnight Friday, a barrage it said was necessary before Iran got any closer to building an atomic weapon.

At least 78 people were killed and more than 300 wounded in the strikes on Iran, the country’s ambassador told the U.N. Security Council. He said “the overwhelming majority” of victims were civilians.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel initiated a war and it would not be allowed to do “hit and run” attacks without grave consequences. He vowed not to let Israel “escape safely from this great crime.”

Earlier on Friday, Israel said 200 fighter jets took part in strikes on more than 100 targets in Iran overnight in an escalation that threatens to spark a wider conflict in the Middle East.

Aerial bombardment rocks Tel Aviv as Israel-Iran conflict escalates

Fears of all-out war in Middle East rise after Israel strike Iran’s nuclear sites

Israel has long threatened to carry out military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, claiming Tehran was secretly building an atomic bomb.

The strikes were carried out Friday, raising the prospect of a regional war between the longtime foes over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country had started a “targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival.”

“This operation will take as long as is needed to complete the task of fending off the threat of annihilation against us,” he added.

World

Iran reports 3,468 dead in war with US, Israel

Published

5 days ago

April 19, 2026

Top News Nigeria

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Iran’s state-run Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs said on Saturday that the war with the United States and Israel had killed more than 3,400 people in the Islamic republic.

The announcement comes in the midst of a two-week ceasefire in the conflict, which erupted in late February with US-Israeli strikes on Tehran.

Foundation head Ahmad Mousavi was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying that 3,468 “martyrs… fell during the recent conflict”.

A previous toll from the head of the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization issued on April 12 said 3,375 people in Iran had been killed in the war.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said on April 7 that at least 3,636 people had been killed, including 1,701 civilians — among them at least 254 children — as well as 1,221 military personnel and 714 people whose status had not been classified.

Due to reporting restrictions, AFP is not able to access the sites of strikes nor to independently verify tolls in Iran.

World

Trump says ‘not a big fan’ of Pope Leo after his anti-war message

Published

2 weeks ago

April 13, 2026

Top News Nigeria

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US President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday that he is “not a big fan” of Pope Leo XIV, after the global leader of Catholics made a plea for peace.

“I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person, and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

He accused the pontiff of “toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon.”

On Saturday, the 70-year-old American pope publicly implored leaders to end the violence, telling worshippers at St. Peter’s Basilica: “Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”

US President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday that he is “not a big fan” of Pope Leo XIV, after the global leader of Catholics made a plea for peace.

“I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person, and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

He accused the pontiff of “toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon.”

US President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday that he is “not a big fan” of Pope Leo XIV, after the global leader of Catholics made a plea for peace.

“I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person, and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

He accused the pontiff of “toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon.”

Trump reiterated his comments to reporters with a post on Truth Social saying: “I don’t want a Pope who think it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”

Washington and the Vatican have recently denied reports of a rift.

On Friday, a Vatican official denied reports that a top Pentagon official gave the church’s envoy to the United States a “bitter lecture” over Pope Leo’s criticisms of the Trump administration.

The military official reportedly told the cardinal that the United States “has the military power to do whatever it wants — and that the Church had better take its side.”

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement, “The account presented by certain media outlets regarding this meeting does not correspond to the truth in any way.”

While both parties insist the meeting was cordial, the Holy See and the White House have openly been at odds over the Trump administration’s hardline mass deportation campaign — which the pope called “inhuman” — and the use of military force in the Middle East and Venezuela.

When Trump made genocidal threats against Iran on Tuesday, saying “A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again” — the pontiff slammed the “truly unacceptable” statement and urged parties to “come back to the table” for negotiations.

Earlier this month, Pope Leo hailed the news of a ceasefire between the United States and Iran as a “sign of real hope.”

But peace talks between the United States and Iran, held in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, ended abruptly Saturday with US Vice President JD Vance telling reporters after a marathon session of talks that Washington has delivered its “final and best offer.”

World

China rejects claims of supplying weapons to Iran

Published

2 weeks ago

April 13, 2026

Top News Nigeria

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China on Monday called reports it had supplied or intended to supply weapons to Iran “baseless smears”, after several outlets quoted US intelligence sources to that effect.

On Sunday, US President Donald Trump threatened Beijing with a “staggering” new tariff of 50 percent if it were to provide military assistance to Tehran.

His comments came the same day US outlet CNN reported that US intelligence indicated China was preparing to deliver new air defence systems to Iran within the next few weeks, citing three people familiar with the assessments.

Over the weekend, The New York Times quoted US officials as saying US intelligence suggested Beijing might have already sent a shipment of shoulder-fired missiles.

China denied the reports, saying Monday it had “always adopted a cautious and responsible attitude towards the export of military items, implementing strict controls in accordance with its own export control laws and regulations and its international obligations”.

“We oppose baseless smears or malicious association,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a regular news briefing.

China is a key economic partner of Iran — it buys most of the Middle Eastern country’s oil.

The countries have no formal military pact, though, and many analysts say Beijing largely sees the relationship between the two as transactional.

China also has strong economic ties to the Gulf countries and has criticised Iran’s attacks on them over the course of the war.