Global Pulse

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  • Ukraine and Russia declare separate truces

    Ukraine and Russia declare separate truces

    In a striking escalation of rhetorical and tactical posturing amid the ongoing full-scale war, Russia and Ukraine have announced competing unilateral ceasefires, even as deadly cross-border attacks left multiple civilians dead on both sides Monday. This exchange comes as U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict have stalled, with Washington redirecting its foreign policy focus to the worsening crisis in the Middle East.

    Russian authorities first announced their planned ceasefire last week via the country’s state-backed messaging platform MAX, made official Monday by the Russian Defence Ministry. The ceasefire is scheduled to run May 8 through 9, aligning with Moscow’s annual national commemoration of Victory Day, the holiday marking the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. The announcement carried an explicit threat of retaliation: if Ukraine violates the truce to disrupt the 81st anniversary celebrations, Russia will carry out a massive missile strike targeting central Kyiv. The ministry also urged Kyiv civilians and foreign diplomatic staff to evacuate the capital immediately to avoid harm. Each year, Russia marks the holiday with a high-profile military parade through Moscow’s iconic Red Square.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected Moscow’s proposal as disingenuous, countering with a separate unilateral truce scheduled to take effect May 5 through 6, three days ahead of Russia’s planned pause. Zelenskyy argued that expecting Ukraine to adhere to a ceasefire to accommodate a Russian national military holiday was unreasonable, suggesting Moscow’s proposal stemmed from fear that Ukrainian drones would disrupt the Red Square celebrations. He added that as of Monday, Ukraine had not received any formal official communication from Russia outlining the terms of the proposed ceasefire that had been circulated on Russian social media.

    Alongside the ceasefire exchange, Zelenskyy made an unannounced trip to Bahrain on Monday for bilateral talks focused on expanding security cooperation, a source within the Ukrainian delegation confirmed to Agence France-Presse.

    Even as the two sides traded truce announcements, deadly violence continued across the front lines and deep inside both countries. Ukrainian officials reported that Russian strikes across Ukrainian territory killed nine civilians on Monday. A Russian ballistic missile attack on Merefa, a town located just outside Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, left seven civilians dead and dozens more injured. AFP reporters on the scene saw multiple bodies covered by blankets and sheets strewn across the town’s street, with extensive damage to local homes, shops, and civilian vehicles. A second strike in the southern Zaporizhzhia region’s village of Vilnyansk killed a married couple, a 51-year-old man and his 62-year-old wife, and wounded their 31-year-old son along with three other bystanders, regional governor Ivan Fedorov confirmed.

    Cross-border attacks also targeted Russian territory overnight. A Ukrainian drone strike killed one civilian in Russia’s Belgorod region, a border area that has faced regular attacks throughout the war, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. In addition, a Ukrainian drone crashed into a residential high-rise building in an upscale neighborhood of Moscow, Russian capital mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed.

    An AFP analysis of data from the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) shows that April marked the first time Russia lost more territory in Ukraine than it gained since Ukraine’s 2023 summer counteroffensive. ISW data indicates Moscow ceded roughly 120 square kilometers of occupied territory between late March and April. While frontline fighting has largely reached a stalemate in recent months, relentless drone attacks on both sides have continued to claim civilian lives and damage infrastructure. Russia’s territorial advances have slowed dramatically since late 2025, as systemic communication failures within the Russian military combined with consistent Ukrainian counterattacks allowed Kyiv to secure small localized breakthroughs in Ukraine’s southeast.

    Despite these small net gains for Ukraine — the first the country has recorded in more than two years — the territorial shifts remain marginal, representing just 0.02 percent of Ukraine’s total national territory. Currently, Moscow maintains control of just over 19 percent of Ukraine. Roughly seven percent of that territory, including Crimea and large swathes of the Donbas region, was already controlled by Russia or pro-Russian separatist groups prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, with the remainder seized in the opening weeks of the 2022 invasion.

  • Sudanese military downs drone launched by paramilitary forces at the main airport, officials say

    Sudanese military downs drone launched by paramilitary forces at the main airport, officials say

    As Sudan’s brutal civil conflict enters its fourth year of sustained bloodshed, a hostile drone launched by the country’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the dominant paramilitary faction opposing the ruling national military, was intercepted and destroyed by air defenses before it could strike Khartoum International Airport on Monday, senior airport officials confirmed. This attempted strike marks the latest escalation in sporadic violence that has shaken the capital in recent weeks, after months of relative calm following the Sudanese army’s recapture of Khartoum last year.

    The foiled attack comes just three days after an RSF drone strike on a civilian passenger convoy traveling on the outskirts of Khartoum left at least five people dead, a massacre that underscored the persistent threat to civilian life across the war-torn nation. According to anonymous airport officials, who were not cleared to speak to international media outlets, the Monday drone approached the airport from the southern corridor before it was shot down by military air defenses. The interception caused no infrastructure damage and no reported injuries or fatalities, a statement from the Sudanese military government later confirmed. A senior military source also told the Associated Press that the drone was launched from territory in a neighboring country, though no additional details about the nation or cross-border involvement were provided.

    Flights at Khartoum International Airport were temporarily suspended immediately after the interception, but aviation authorities announced that full operations would resume following standard security inspections. The site’s gradual reopening over the past year had been hailed as a critical milestone in efforts to restore a semblance of normalcy to the capital, which has been the epicenter of the conflict since open fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and the RSF in April 2023. Prior to Monday’s attempted strike, the capital had seen very little large-scale RSF attacks after the army retook full control of Khartoum, though small, intermittent strikes have become more common in recent weeks.

    As of the latest updates from independent monitors, the four-year conflict has already killed at least 59,000 people across Sudan, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a leading independent organization that tracks global conflict casualties. International aid organizations warn that the true death toll is almost certainly far higher, as restricted access to active combat zones across the large country makes full casualty counting impossible. The United Nations estimates that the war has displaced more than 12 million Sudanese people both internally and across international borders, and has pushed multiple regions of the country into full-scale famine, creating what aid groups have widely called an “abandoned global crisis.”

  • US downs Iran missiles and drones, destroys six of Tehran’s boats

    US downs Iran missiles and drones, destroys six of Tehran’s boats

    Fresh clashes between United States and Iranian forces have sent tensions soaring in the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz, with a top American military commander confirming that US forces have shot down multiple Iranian missiles and drones and destroyed six small Iranian boats targeting commercial and military shipping. The outbreak of hostilities unfolded as Washington deployed forces to reopen the key oil and gas transit chokepoint under a newly launched initiative dubbed ‘Project Freedom’, announced by former President Donald Trump just one day prior.

    Admiral Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), outlined the details of the confrontation to reporters on Monday. He confirmed that American Apache attack helicopters and Seahawk maritime helicopters engaged and destroyed six small Iranian craft that had been posing a direct threat to commercial vessels transiting the waterway. Beyond the destruction of the boats, Cooper added that US forces successfully intercepted and eliminated every incoming missile and drone launched toward both American naval assets and civilian commercial ships passing through the strait.

    According to Cooper, most of the Iranian cruise missiles and multiple combat drones were aimed at commercial shipping, with only a smaller number targeting US Navy vessels. “We defended both ourselves and, consistent with our commitment, we defended all the commercial ships,” the CENTCOM chief told reporters. The official account from the admiral contradicts a post Trump made on his Truth Social platform, which put the number of destroyed Iranian boats at seven and noted that one South Korean-flagged ship had been hit, though no further details on that incident were provided. Trump also claimed there had been no other major damage to vessels transiting the strait as of his post.

    The current escalation comes against a backdrop of open conflict that began in late February, when US and Israeli forces launched military operations against Iran. In response, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, the passage through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas exports move daily. American forces subsequently imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports in the aftermath of the closure.

    Earlier on Monday, Iranian state television reported that the country’s navy had fired cruise missiles, rockets and combat drones near US destroyers moving through the strait, framing the action as a deliberate warning shot. For its part, CENTCOM confirmed that two US guided-missile destroyers had completed a transit of the strait into the Persian Gulf as part of Project Freedom, while two US-flagged commercial ships moved in the opposite direction and are now continuing their voyages without incident.

    Cooper clarified that the US military operation is not traditional direct escorting of commercial vessels. Instead, Washington has assembled a multi-layered defensive framework that includes surface warships, attack helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, airborne early warning systems, and electronic warfare capabilities, creating what he described as a much more comprehensive defensive umbrella than simple escort missions would provide. Over the preceding two weeks, Cooper said, US forces used advanced, unspecified “exquisite technology” to clear a transit corridor through the strait, and the current defensive operation is meant to protect that cleared path.

    While the long-term goal is to establish a fully open two-way transit route through the strait, Cooper noted that the immediate priority is extracting commercial vessels that have been stuck in the Persian Gulf since the closure. Maritime intelligence firm AXSMarine data as of April 29 shows more than 900 commercial vessels have been stranded in the Gulf during the closure.

  • Spain seizes record amount of cocaine in Atlantic Ocean, authorities say

    Spain seizes record amount of cocaine in Atlantic Ocean, authorities say

    In a landmark operation that marks a massive blow to international drug trafficking networks, Spain’s Civil Guard has intercepted a cargo freighter in international waters off the Canary Islands and seized what officials confirm is the largest cocaine haul in the country’s modern history.

    According to announcements from the AUGC, the main union representing Civil Guard personnel, the intercepted shipment contained between 30,000 and 45,000 kilograms, or 33 to 50 metric tonnes, of cocaine. Around 20 crew members and suspected traffickers were taken into custody following the Friday interception, the union confirmed to AFP. The vessel had departed Sierra Leone and was en route to Libya when it was stopped.

    Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska emphasized the scale of the operation during a press briefing in Madrid, noting that the seizure ranks among the largest not just in Spain, but across the entire world. Law enforcement has not released further details on the ongoing investigation to preserve investigative integrity, as required by Spanish legal procedure.

    The Civil Guard shared visual evidence of the seizure on social platform X, showing large quantities of cocaine packed into the freighter’s cargo hold. In its post, the agency wrote, “Today history is being written in the Maritime Service of the Civil Guard. Intercepted in international waters the largest known seizure: between 30,000 and 45,000 kg of cocaine on board a freighter.”

    Though the ship’s stated final destination was Libya, industry observers and law enforcement patterns point to a planned diversion for European distribution. Per AFP reporting, it is standard for trafficking networks to use large bulk cargo vessels to move drug shipments across the Atlantic, before transferring cargo to smaller speedboats that offload the contraband into European ports across the Iberian Peninsula and beyond.

    Prior to this operation, Spain’s largest at-sea cocaine seizure stood at just under 10 tonnes, a haul intercepted back in January 2024. This new record is more than three times the size of that previous capture, underscoring both the scale of drug trafficking activity across the Atlantic and the expanding reach of Spanish law enforcement counter-narcotics operations.

  • War in the Middle East: latest developments

    War in the Middle East: latest developments

    Tensions across the Middle East have surged dramatically in the last 24 hours, with a series of interconnected clashes, competing claims from Tehran and Washington, and spillover violence hitting regional states that has sent global energy markets into a sharp upward swing. The escalation centers on the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical chokepoint for global oil supplies, where U.S. and Iranian forces have exchanged hostile actions and conflicting accounts of what unfolded.

    Admiral Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, confirmed to reporters that American military forces destroyed six small Iranian boats that posed a direct threat to commercial shipping moving through the strategic waterway. The operation, carried out by U.S. Apache and Seahawk helicopters, was paired with a successful defense against a barrage of projectiles: all missiles and drones launched by Iranian forces at both U.S. Navy vessels and nearby commercial shipping were intercepted and neutralized, Cooper said.

    Iran has quickly and categorically rejected the U.S. claims. A statement from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards dismissed the assertion that any Iranian boats were sunk as entirely false. The Guards also pushed back on a separate U.S. announcement that two U.S.-flagged merchant vessels had passed through the strait under American military escort, calling that report “baseless and completely false” in a Telegram statement and denying any commercial ships had transited the waterway following the clashes.

    Former U.S. President Donald Trump, commenting on the situation on his Truth Social platform, sought to downplay the severity of the escalation. He acknowledged that Iran had fired on vessels moving through the Strait of Hormuz after U.S. warships entered the area, but claimed that only a South Korean vessel suffered any damage, with no other harm reported as of his statement.

    Beyond the direct U.S.-Iran confrontation, spillover attacks have been reported across the Gulf region. The United Arab Emirates confirmed it was targeted by Iranian strikes, including an attack on the key Fujairah energy infrastructure hub that left three Indian nationals wounded. The UAE Foreign Ministry condemned the strikes as a dangerous escalation and an unacceptable violation of the country’s sovereignty, noting that it reserves the full right to respond to the aggression. A senior Iranian military official denied the claim, saying Iran had no plans to attack the UAE.

    Neighboring Oman also reported casualties from an attack on a coastal residential building in Bukha, a town located along the Strait of Hormuz. Oman’s state news agency confirmed two expatriate workers suffered moderate injuries in the strike, with four additional vehicles damaged in the incident.

    The sudden escalation has already roiled global energy markets, as nearly 20% of global oil supplies pass through the Strait of Hormuz annually. The Brent crude contract for July delivery jumped more than 5% within minutes of news of the clashes breaking, reflecting widespread investor concern over potential disruptions to global oil supplies.

    The United States has confirmed that it deployed destroyers to the Gulf to carry out escort missions for commercial shipping transiting the strait. Following that deployment, Iranian state television reported that the Iranian Navy launched cruise missiles, rockets, and combat drones near the U.S. vessels after firing multiple warning shots.

    Tensions also remain high along the Israel-Lebanon border, where a fragile ceasefire that has held since mid-April is facing new strains. Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group, announced that its fighters had engaged in heavy clashes with Israeli troops in southern Lebanon near the border. The clash followed an attempted advance by Israeli forces near the town of Deir Seryan, located inside an Israeli-declared “yellow line” zone where Lebanese residents have been ordered not to return. Israeli military officials confirmed that the Israel Defense Forces remain on high alert and are closely monitoring all developments across the region following the U.S.-Iran confrontation.

    Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has pushed back on U.S. calls for a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that any such summit can only take place after a comprehensive security deal is reached and all Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory end. Aoun’s office added that the current moment is not appropriate for any meeting between the two leaders, given the ongoing volatility.

  • Mali junta leader names himself defence minister after predecessor killed

    Mali junta leader names himself defence minister after predecessor killed

    Mali, the West African nation grappling with a decade-long Islamist insurgency, has entered a new phase of political and security upheaval after a devastating large-scale coordinated attack by an insurgent alliance left its sitting defense minister dead and triggered a major cabinet shakeup.

    The violence that unfolded across the country starting on April 25 marked one of the most sweeping insurgent offensives in recent years. Residents of towns and cities from the northern desert regions to areas near the capital Bamako awoke that morning to the sound of sustained gunfire and explosions, as two disparate armed groups — the separatist Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadist organization — launched synchronized raids targeting military and government positions across the country.

    Among the highest-profile casualties of the offensive was Sadio Camara, Mali’s then-defense minister, who died in a suicide truck bombing targeting his residence just outside Bamako. More than a week after the initial attacks began, the country remains mired in a spiraling security crisis that has called into question the capability of Mali’s ruling military government to contain the decade-long insurgency.

    In an official decree broadcast on Malian state television Monday, junta leader General Assimi Goïta announced he would step into the vacant defense minister role to lead the government’s counter-insurgency response. General Oumar Diarra, the Malian army chief of staff, was appointed to support Goïta as a delegate minister, according to the announcement.

    Goïta, who first seized power in a 2020 military coup, initially rose to prominence on a promise to resolve Mali’s long-running security crisis and restore stability to the conflict-torn nation. But the recent offensive has delivered a major blow to the junta’s credibility: the coordinated attacks forced Malian government forces and their Russian allied fighters to withdraw from Kidal, a key strategic city in northern Mali, a retreat that has fueled widespread public and international skepticism about the government’s military hold on the country.

    In the days following the offensive, Malian authorities have moved to crack down on alleged internal complicity in the attacks. Over the weekend, security services announced the arrest of a group of active and retired Malian soldiers suspected of providing support to the insurgents. The public prosecutor for a Bamako military court confirmed that an ongoing investigation has confirmed links between both serving and former military personnel and the planning and execution of the April 25 raids.

    To ramp up counter-insurgency operations, Mali has partnered with military forces from neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso to launch joint air strikes against the insurgent alliance. Officials from Niger confirmed that the coordinated cross-border operation began just hours after the initial insurgent attacks were launched. All three Sahel nations are currently led by military governments, and together they formed the Alliance of Sahel States in recent years after expelling French counter-insurgency troops, the former colonial power that had deployed to the region to combat the insurgency. The three governments instead turned to Russian military fighters to support their counter-insurgency campaigns.

    Despite this shift in military partnerships, the insurgency has continued to expand across the Sahel region. Large swathes of territory in all three countries remain outside of government control, and coordinated attacks on military and civilian targets have become increasingly frequent, leaving local populations trapped between ongoing violence and ineffective government security provision.

  • Two dead as car ploughs into crowd in Germany’s Leipzig

    Two dead as car ploughs into crowd in Germany’s Leipzig

    On a bustling Monday in eastern Germany, a violent incident has left the nation reeling: a car drove into a crowd of pedestrians on a central Leipzig street, claiming at least two lives and wounding multiple other people, local law enforcement and emergency authorities confirmed.

    This attack marks the latest in a string of high-profile car-ramming attacks that have shaken German public life over the past decade, following similar incidents in Berlin, Munich, and most recently Magdeburg just months prior. In this new event, the suspect driver was taken into custody shortly after the vehicle careened off a central city square and onto Grimmaische Street, a busy pedestrian corridor in Leipzig’s historic old town. The tree-lined thoroughfare is lined with popular shops and centuries-old buildings, located steps away from some of the city’s most famous cultural and tourist landmarks.

    As of early official updates, key details surrounding the attack remain unconfirmed. Leipzig Mayor Burkhard Jung told reporters that authorities have not yet established a clear motive for the violence, and have not released public information about the background of the perpetrator. Both Jung and local police have confirmed the fatality count stands at two. Local fire chief Axel Schuh added that at least two of the wounded are in critical condition, while an additional 20 people sustained minor injuries in the incident.

    Law enforcement officials confirmed the driver was arrested without further confrontation, noting that there is no ongoing threat to the public stemming from the attack. Authorities also shared that the driver brought the vehicle to a stop on his own accord before being taken into custody.

    Television footage from the scene shows a white passenger car with severe damage to its front end and windshield, with the entire street cordoned off by law enforcement. Scores of emergency response vehicles, including police cruisers, fire trucks, and ambulances, surrounded the crash site, with two medical helicopters also deployed to airlift critically wounded victims to local hospitals.

    The attack comes against a longer backdrop of repeated vehicle ramming attacks that have reshaped German security and political discourse over the past eight years. The first major modern incident occurred in December 2016, when a Tunisian man motivated by jihadist ideology drove a hijacked truck into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 13 people and injuring dozens more.

    More recently, a string of high-profile attacks has kept the issue at the top of public concern. In 2024, a Saudi man with documented anti-Islam views drove into a crowded Magdeburg Christmas market, killing six people and wounding more than 300. Just two months ago in February 2025, an Afghan driver rammed his vehicle into a public march in central Munich, killing a mother and her young daughter and injuring roughly 30 other attendees.

    These attacks have coincided with growing tensions around immigration in German society, which first flared after a massive influx of migrants and refugees to the country in 2015. The issues of border security and immigration control have risen to the top of national political debate, a shift that has contributed to a significant surge in support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in recent years.

  • Three Russian diplomats expelled from Austria over spying accusations

    Three Russian diplomats expelled from Austria over spying accusations

    In a sharp escalation of diplomatic tensions between Vienna and Moscow, Austria has ordered the expulsion of three Russian diplomats over allegations of unauthorized espionage activity carried out from official Russian diplomatic sites within the country. The expelled personnel have already departed Austrian territory, according to top government officials.

    Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger confirmed that the intelligence gathering operation relied on an extensive network of surveillance antennas, described as a “forest of antennas,” installed across the rooftops of Russian diplomatic properties — including the main Russian embassy in central Vienna and a separate Russian diplomatic compound outside the capital. Initial reporting by Austria’s national public broadcaster ORF, which was later formally verified by the Austrian foreign ministry, first brought the existence of the antenna network to public attention.

    Long a source of friction for Austrian domestic intelligence agencies, the antennas have enabled Russian operatives to intercept satellite internet data from a wide range of organizations, including multiple international bodies based in Vienna, ORF reported. In an official statement shared with the BBC, Meinl-Reisinger framed the expulsion as a decisive break from past policy under Austria’s new governing coalition. “Espionage is a security issue for Austria,” she said. “We have brought about a change of course in this government and are taking decisive action against it. We have made this clear to the Russian side, particularly with regard to the forest of antennas at the Russian embassy.” The foreign minister added that the misuse of diplomatic immunity to conduct spying operations was completely unacceptable under international norms.

    The Russian embassy in Vienna has rejected the Austrian allegations in strong terms, denouncing the expulsion as an unjustified, politically motivated move that Moscow will not let go unanswered. “We regard this latest unfriendly move by the Austrian authorities as entirely unjustified, purely politically motivated and categorically unacceptable,” the embassy said in a formal statement. “Moscow will undoubtedly respond harshly to these completely ill-considered actions on the part of the Austrian side.”

    This latest incident comes amid a growing string of Russian espionage accusations across Central Europe, affecting both Austria and neighboring Germany. In January 2026, Vienna launched the highest-profile Austrian spy trial in decades, when former Austrian intelligence official Egisto Ott went on trial on charges that he passed classified information to Russian intelligence operatives and fugitive former Wirecard executive Jan Marsalek in exchange for payment. Ott’s legal team has vigorously denied all allegations, and the trial remains ongoing as of this reporting.

    Marsalek, an Austrian citizen who is wanted on fraud charges by German authorities and listed on an Interpol Red Notice, is widely accused of operating as an asset for Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). He fled Europe through Austria in 2020 after the collapse of Wirecard, and is currently believed to be residing in Moscow. Just weeks after Ott’s trial began, Germany also expelled a Russian individual accused of spying and summoned the Russian ambassador to Berlin to formally protest the activity. In a public social media statement, the German foreign ministry stressed that it would not tolerate espionage on German soil, especially when conducted under the protection of diplomatic status.

    Vienna’s status as a global hub for espionage stretches back decades, rooted in its Cold War history as a neutral European power located directly along the Iron Curtain, which made it an ideal listening post for both Western and Eastern bloc intelligence agencies. Today, the city hosts permanent headquarters for multiple major international bodies, including the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Most nations maintain multiple diplomatic missions in Vienna to serve these international organizations alongside their official bilateral embassies, creating a large community of diplomats who enjoy universal diplomatic immunity — a status that is frequently abused to cover unauthorized intelligence activity.

    Austria’s most recent annual Report on the Protection of the Constitution identifies Vienna as “one of the last remaining locations for Russian signals intelligence in Europe.” The report notes that the extensive signals intelligence operation has directly led to the unusually large contingent of Russian diplomatic staff accredited in the capital, which currently stands at roughly 220 personnel even after multiple expulsion actions. The document also warns that ongoing Russian intelligence activity originating from Vienna has caused measurable damage to Austria’s international reputation. Since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Austria has expelled a total of 14 Russian diplomatic staff in response to espionage-related incidents.

  • Afghanistan says cross-border attacks by Pakistan hit civilian areas and killed 3

    Afghanistan says cross-border attacks by Pakistan hit civilian areas and killed 3

    Cross-border hostilities have reignited between Afghanistan and Pakistan, marking another setback to fragile diplomatic efforts to de-escalate months of deadly confrontation between the two South Asian neighbors. On Monday, Afghanistan’s interim government issued formal accusations that Pakistan launched unprovoked cross-border artillery strikes that targeted civilian-populated areas in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar Province.

    Hamdullah Fitrat, Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesperson, announced the casualties and infrastructure damage in a post on the social platform X. According to Fitrat’s statement, the strikes left at least three civilians dead and 14 others injured. The attack also inflicted severe damage on key community infrastructure, destroying two local schools, two neighborhood mosques and a primary health care center that served residents of the affected area.

    Pakistan’s Ministry of Information swiftly rejected Kabul’s allegations in a counter-statement posted to X, pushing back against the claims and shifting blame for escalating tensions to the Afghan Taliban-led administration. The ministry noted that Afghanistan’s accusations come in direct response to a series of cross-border shootings launched from Afghan territory into Pakistan that took place in March and April. Those incursions, Pakistan says, killed nine civilian women and children in Bajaur District, located in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

    In its statement, the Information Ministry labeled the earlier cross-border attacks from Afghanistan “reckless and shameful actions” that expose the Kabul administration’s failure to control militant activity along the shared border. The ministry also questioned the veracity of the damage imagery released alongside Afghanistan’s latest accusation, pointing out that the photos show only localized structural damage with largely intact roofs, a pattern the ministry says is inconsistent with artillery impact and suggests the damage may have been deliberately staged.

    The latest exchange of accusations comes amid a months-long cycle of deadly cross-border clashes that has killed hundreds of people on both sides. The current spiral of violence began in late February, when Afghanistan launched a retaliatory cross-border strike against Pakistan after Pakistani warplanes carried out airstrikes inside Afghan territory that targeted militant groups Islamabad says operate from Afghan soil.

    Pakistan has long maintained that the Afghan Taliban government allows the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, to use Afghan territory as a base to plan and launch deadly attacks inside Pakistan. The TTP is a separate militant organization from the Afghan Taliban, but the two groups share close ideological and organizational ties and have remained allied since the Afghan Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 2021 during the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led international forces. Afghan officials have repeatedly denied Pakistan’s accusations that they harbor TTP militants.

    In early April, senior officials from both countries met in western China for peace talks mediated by the Chinese government. Following the negotiations, Beijing announced that the two sides had reached a preliminary agreement to avoid further escalation of hostilities and committed to work toward exploring a comprehensive, long-term solution to their border disputes. Despite that diplomatic breakthrough, low-level cross-border clashes have continued intermittently in the weeks since the talks, failing to cement a lasting ceasefire along the 2,640-kilometer shared border.

  • Israel seizes nearly 60 percent of Gaza as it plans to resume war, report says

    Israel seizes nearly 60 percent of Gaza as it plans to resume war, report says

    Even with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire currently in place to de-escalate hostilities in the Gaza Strip, Israel has steadily extended its territorial control across nearly 60% of the enclave as it finalizes military plans for a potential full resumption of war, Israel’s Army Radio reported Sunday.

    Citing senior Israeli military officials, the state-run broadcaster confirmed that top defense commanders are pushing for an immediate return to offensive operations, framing the current moment as a strategic window to achieve their stated goal of dismantling Hamas. Full operational plans for renewed attacks have already been finalized by military planners, with only a final greenlight from Israel’s civilian political leadership still pending.

    As part of this military redeployment, the Israeli Defense Forces have drawn down troop presence in southern Lebanon to reposition multiple combat brigades to both Gaza and the occupied West Bank, the report added. Senior officials also noted that the IDF has recorded a gradual uptick in armed clashes and hostile actions across the frontlines in recent weeks.

    The expansion of Israeli control centers on the so-called “Yellow Line,” a unilateral demarcation Israel established to mark the territory under its military control. When the ceasefire took effect, Israel already held roughly half of Gaza’s total territory; it has since pushed this boundary deeper into the enclave, forcing the entire remaining Palestinian population to crowd into just 40% of Gaza’s original land mass, with Israeli troops permanently stationed across the 60% of territory spanning the enclave’s north, south and eastern sectors.

    The current ceasefire was mediated by the United States in October 2024, designed to end more than a year of full-scale Israeli military operations in Gaza that the text refers to as genocide. The deal’s core terms called for a halt to offensive attacks, the opening of border crossings to allow life-saving humanitarian aid into the blockaded territory, and a phased withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza in later stages of the agreement.

    But Israel has violated the ceasefire agreement repeatedly from its start, according to data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which records that near-daily Israeli shelling and raids have killed at least 832 Palestinians since the truce went into effect. Overall, the death toll from Israeli operations in Gaza since October 2023 has surpassed 72,000 Palestinians, with thousands more still unaccounted for and trapped under rubble from destroyed residential and infrastructure buildings.

    The ceasefire agreement also required Israel to remove entry restrictions to allow a minimum of 600 aid trucks carrying food, fuel, medical equipment, emergency shelter materials and commercial goods to enter Gaza daily. But local Gaza authorities report that Israeli bureaucratic and security limits have kept average daily aid deliveries to just over 200 trucks, far below the agreed-upon threshold, worsening a already catastrophic humanitarian crisis for the 2 million Palestinians crowded into the shrinking enclave.

    This report comes from Middle East Eye, an outlet that provides independent, specialized coverage of developments across the Middle East, North Africa and surrounding regions.