Global Pulse

分类： world

  • Lockerbie bombing suspect seized from Libya in ‘cloak and dagger’ operation

    Lockerbie bombing suspect seized from Libya in ‘cloak and dagger’ operation

    More than 35 years after the deadliest terror attack on British soil that killed 270 people when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, the case has returned to legal headlines with new allegations from the only suspect currently facing trial: Abu Agila Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi claims he was illegally kidnapped from his home in Libya and forcibly rendered to U.S. authorities in a secretive overnight operation.

    Al-Marimi, who has repeatedly denied building or arming the bomb that downed the 1988 flight, has laid out his full account of his capture and transfer for the first time in legal documents submitted by his defense team to a Washington D.C. federal court. The 71-year-old Libyan national is requesting that the court dismiss the charges against him entirely, arguing the manner of his removal violates both international law and Libyan sovereignty, stripping the U.S. court of jurisdiction over the case.

    The sequence of events that brought Al-Marimi into U.S. custody begins in September 2021. At the time, Al-Marimi was serving a prison sentence in Libya for charges related to his role in attacks on rebel forces during the 2011 uprising against former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. He was granted compassionate release from prison and allowed to return to his family home in Tripoli. Approximately two weeks after his release, Al-Marimi says a group of masked armed men arrived at his residence and seized him without explanation.

    According to his defense lawyers, the abduction was carried out by a Libyan militia known for human rights abuses and brutal tactics. Al-Marimi, who suffers from pre-existing health and mobility issues, was dragged across the floor during the arrest, while his son was beaten with a rifle and his wife and daughter were physically assaulted. He was then transported to a high-security prison in Misrata, a city roughly 187 kilometers east of Tripoli, where he was held in solitary confinement for several days.

    On the morning of December 11, 2022, Al-Marimi was given food and told to pack his belongings, leading him to believe he would finally be released. Instead, he was bound, hooded, and handed directly over to waiting FBI agents. A U.S. government aircraft was already on standby at Misrata Airport, where onlookers had begun to gather, prompting Al-Marimi’s Libyan escorts to rush the handover to speed up the process. His personal belongings, including a Quran, prayer rug, medication, clothing, and toiletries, were handed over to the FBI in a simple plastic trash bag. During the flight to the U.S., Al-Marimi’s legal team says FBI agents questioned him, conducted a full medical examination, and provided basic supplies including clean clothing and blankets.

    Al-Marimi’s defense team further alleges that the abduction and handover came after diplomatic extradition negotiations stalled, and that the operation was carried out with implicit U.S. approval. They also claim that following Al-Marimi’s transfer, the Tripoli-based Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah secured significant financial benefits from the U.S., including $16 million in funding to support Libya’s democratic transition and a commercial contract with U.S. energy giant Honeywell International. In legal filings, the defense argues the entire process was a blatant violation of Libyan law and national sovereignty. They wrote, “This is not the rule of law. This is the rule of the strong. Mr Al-Marimi’s rendition sends a chilling message to the people of the world: ‘If we want you, we will take you.” Al-Marimi’s legal team is demanding that he be returned to Libya.

    The U.S. Department of Justice has pushed back against these claims, arguing that long-standing U.S. legal doctrine holds that a court’s jurisdiction over a defendant is not dependent on the legality of how that defendant was brought into the country, even in cases involving forcible abduction. Federal prosecutors argue that the limited exceptions to this doctrine do not apply to Al-Marimi’s case. They maintain that Libya was legally permitted to transfer Al-Marimi to the U.S. through any method the Libyan government chose, and that the actions of any Libyan militias cannot be legally attributed to the U.S. government, which would be required for Al-Marimi’s claim to succeed.

    Al-Marimi was originally charged by the U.S. government with destroying Pan Am Flight 103 in December 2020, three years after the first suspect in the case, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, died of cancer. At the time of the charges, U.S. authorities formally requested Al-Marimi’s extradition, expulsion, or other lawful removal from Libya to face trial. His trial has already been postponed three times, and is currently scheduled to begin in January. Al-Marimi’s defense has requested an evidentiary hearing before Judge Dabney Friedrich to argue their motion to dismiss.

    The transfer of Al-Marimi to U.S. custody sparked immediate public outrage in Libya, where many viewed the seizure as a violation of national sovereignty. Prime Minister Dbeibah has defended his administration, stating that Libya was cooperating with an established international judicial framework for the extradition of accused citizens. An Interpol red notice for Al-Marimi’s arrest and extradition was in effect at the time of his capture. Dorothy Bain KC, the then-head of Scotland’s prosecution service, told the Scottish Parliament that she had received official confirmation that Al-Marimi’s transfer to U.S. custody was carried out on a lawful basis. Al-Marimi has remained in U.S. federal custody since his arrival in December 2022.

  • Riyadh rocked by explosions as Iranian strikes in Hormuz rise

    Riyadh rocked by explosions as Iranian strikes in Hormuz rise

    On Monday night local time, Yemen’s Houthi movement launched a large-scale attack targeting Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, marking a sharp escalation of cross-border hostilities following a series of smaller strikes against the city over the preceding weekend. The Houthi group confirmed it deployed a ballistic missile to strike King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, and simultaneously claimed responsibility for a separate attack on King Khalid Air Base located near the southwestern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait.

    A Western diplomatic source based in Riyadh confirmed to independent outlet Middle East Eye that multiple explosions were detected across the capital, while unauthenticated social media footage circulating online purports to show large uncontrolled fires breaking out at impact sites. MEE has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the circulated video footage. Following the attack, Saudi aviation authorities issued a formal Notice to Airmen advisory confirming King Khalid International Airport would remain closed to all commercial and general aviation traffic through October 17.

    This attack comes just three weeks before Riyadh is set to host the high-profile Future Investment Initiative (FII), the kingdom’s flagship global investment conference that draws hundreds of top business leaders and policymakers from across the world to showcase Saudi Arabia’s economic opening under its Vision 2030 reform agenda. The strike also follows the high-profile last-minute withdrawal of the chief executives of ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies from a separate major energy conference hosted in Riyadh earlier this week.

    Opening the energy conference on Monday, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman acknowledged persistent security risks while reassuring attendees of the kingdom’s commitment to their safety. “To everyone who travelled to Riyadh, thank you,” he told the gathering. “You know this country is safe and that we hold your protection at whole heart… Our gathering here does not mean the risk is gone.” Despite the security disruption, Prince Abdulaziz announced an ambitious expansion plan for Saudi oil exports that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz: the kingdom will repurpose an existing natural gas pipeline running parallel to its East-West oil pipeline to add up to 1.2 million barrels per day of additional export capacity within seven to eight weeks, bringing the kingdom’s total Hormuz-independent export capacity to as much as 10 million barrels per day.

    The Houthi attack on Riyadh unfolds against a backdrop of rapidly escalating tensions across the broader Middle East, as the region braces for a potential resumption of direct U.S.-Israeli military action against Iran. On Monday alone, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed it had targeted a commercial supertanker attempting to exit the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical chokepoint for global oil trade, marking the third vessel attack recorded in the strategic waterway over a 48-hour period.

    While Washington and Tehran have avoided direct open military confrontation in recent months, the two powers are locked in a growing standoff over control and access to the strait, with each side moving to enforce competing blockades on commercial shipping. Iranian Revolutionary Guard-linked Tasnim News has publicly called for Tehran to impose a “sovereignty fee” on all commercial vessels transiting the strait, a demand that was a core sticking point that led to the collapse of a preliminary ceasefire agreement between the U.S. and Iran reached in June.

    In a stark escalation of rhetoric published Monday, senior Iranian security official Mohsin Rezaei warned that Tehran would target critical infrastructure belonging to U.S. technology firms across the Middle East if hostilities resume. “The United States has extremely expensive assets in the UAE and around the Strait of Hormuz,” Rezaei noted. “We have not yet included these assets among our targets. But if war breaks out, many of these cables, data centres, artificial intelligence facilities and numerous other sites will be destroyed.”

    The rising geopolitical risk has already roiled global energy markets: international benchmark Brent crude rose 2% on Monday to settle at $106 per barrel. With U.S. midterm elections scheduled for November 3, sitting President Donald Trump has come under increasing pressure to rein in rising fuel prices for American consumers. Trump has blamed the ongoing conflict in Ukraine for spiking U.S. diesel prices, and last week announced a controversial deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin that waives existing U.S. sanctions on Russian diesel exports, a move that drew widespread condemnation from supporters of Ukraine.

    Analysts have noted that the sudden jump in U.S. diesel prices has aligned almost perfectly with the resumption of U.S.-Israeli military operations against Iran that began on February 28. Open-source photographs circulating online appear to show fuel trucks marked with Farsi script operating inside Russia, leading some analysts to conclude that Moscow has been forced to import diesel from Iran to offset widespread damage to Russia’s domestic energy infrastructure from months of long-range Ukrainian strikes. MEE has not yet been able to independently verify the authenticity of these images, and commentators have noted that Trump’s sanctions waiver could also open the door for Iranian diesel to enter global markets through Russia.

    The large-scale Houthi attack on Riyadh has also amplified domestic and international pressure on Trump to reverse the current U.S. ceasefire with the Houthis that has been in place since May 2025. Speaking to reporters after the attack, which Houthi sources confirm killed at least 13 people and wounded hundreds more, Trump called the strike “not acceptable” and confirmed he would soon speak to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss next steps, including the possibility of U.S. forces joining Saudi military strikes against Houthi positions in Yemen.

    The Houthi movement has issued a clear warning in response: any direct U.S. intervention in the conflict would immediately end the existing truce between the group and Washington. “If the US becomes involved in the aggression against Yemen, we will not deliberate over the decision to respond, rather, there will be a swift and painful response targeting the US and all its interests in the region,” Houthi political bureau member Mohammed al-Bukhaiti told AFP in a post-attack interview.

    Saudi Arabia is currently moving to shore up its defensive posture through new regional security partnerships: Riyadh has turned to Turkey and Pakistan to bolster security assistance under the recently signed Mecca Pact. Separately, Israeli outlet Haaretz reported Monday that Saudi Arabia has rejected a formal Israeli offer to join joint military operations against the Houthi movement in Yemen, despite efforts by U.S. mediators to broker closer security cooperation between Riyadh and Tel Aviv targeting common regional adversaries.

  • ‘Riyadh no longer feels safe’: Houthi strikes shatter Saudi capital’s aura of calm

    ‘Riyadh no longer feels safe’: Houthi strikes shatter Saudi capital’s aura of calm

    For decades, Saudi Arabia has carefully crafted a public image as a stable sanctuary amid the widespread chaos that has gripped much of the Middle East. That carefully constructed narrative has been violently torn apart, however, following a pair of deadly Houthi attacks on the kingdom’s capital that have left thousands of expatriate residents questioning their future in the country and thrown Riyadh’s ambitious economic and image-building plans into doubt.

    The first and deadliest assault came Saturday, when Houthi forces launched a strike targeting King Khalid International Airport, Riyadh’s primary international air gateway and a key hub for religious travelers bound for the holy city of Mecca. The attack left at least 12 civilians dead and more than 300 others injured, with casualties ranging from a Bangladeshi cleric and a Syrian mother of four to a United States citizen. State broadcaster Al Ekhbariya aired shocking CCTV footage from the attack showing pilgrims clad in traditional white Umrah garments scrambling for cover as ceiling panels collapsed and thick dust engulfed the airport’s main lounge.

    A second, follow-up strike the next day killed one additional person and wounded at least 11 more. Beyond the airport attack, the Houthi movement also fired cruise missiles toward key Saudi oil infrastructure and Dammam Airport in the kingdom’s eastern province. Houthi officials have framed the coordinated assaults as a direct retaliation for Riyadh’s ongoing military support for Yemeni government forces in the country’s long-running civil war, as well as a Saudi airstrike that targeted Sanaa Airport earlier this year.

    The violence has sent shockwaves through Riyadh’s large expatriate community, many of whom have built long-term lives and careers in the kingdom. Bilal, a 39-year-old British expat who has lived in the Saudi capital for seven years, condemned the attack in an interview with Middle East Eye, noting that civilian spaces and religious travelers should never be targeted. “There’s no justifying attacks on ordinary people, and no way they can defend striking a civilian facility – whatever the Saudi-led coalition did in the war years ago,” he said. While Bilal noted he has no immediate plans to abandon his well-compensated position and comfortable life in Riyadh, he acknowledged he would not hesitate to send his family back to the UK if attacks become more frequent.

    Similar concerns were echoed by Mohamed, another British national who has lived in Riyadh on and off for a decade. Mohamed told MEE he had long viewed the kingdom as a safe place to raise his children, but the failure of Saudi Arabia’s advanced missile defense systems to intercept the attack on one of the country’s most critical infrastructure sites left him deeply unsettled. “My children are also pretty scared by what’s happening,” he said. “I’ve reassured them that they will be safe, but with schools being cancelled and some foreigners openly expressing their plans to return to their home countries, it’s becoming much harder to explain Riyadh no longer feels safe.”

    Beyond the immediate human cost, the strikes have struck a severe blow to the core of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s flagship modernization agenda. In recent years, the crown prince, who launched the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen back in 2015, has worked tirelessly to rebrand the kingdom as an attractive destination for global business, tourism, and foreign direct investment. Just two weeks out from Riyadh’s high-profile Future Investment Initiative – the kingdom’s flagship investment conference that aims to draw billions in foreign pledges – a major energy conference scheduled for Sunday drew only a handful of international delegates, signaling early investor jitters over the new security risk.

    The latest attacks mark a sharp dangerous escalation in the nearly decade-long confrontation between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi movement, which controls most of northern Yemen. The conflict had been locked in a lengthy stalemate for months until Saudi-led forces launched an airstrike on Sanaa Airport in July, aimed at preventing a plane carrying Houthi officials from Iran from landing in the rebel-held capital. In response, the Houthi movement threatened reciprocal action, vowing to target core Saudi interests in response to restrictions on their access to key airspace and transport routes. The group later declared an embargo on all Saudi shipping passing through the Red Sea – a route that has grown dramatically in importance for Saudi oil exports after tensions related to the Iran conflict disrupted shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries roughly one-fifth of global oil and gas supplies.

    The long-running conflict traces its roots back to 2014, when the Houthi movement capitalized on widespread public anger over crippling fuel subsidy cuts and the failure of a UN-backed national dialogue process to resolve Yemen’s deep-seated political and economic divides. After rejecting a proposed federal governing structure, the Iran-aligned movement advanced south and seized Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile. A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in March 2015 with the stated goal of restoring Hadi’s government to power. Backed by American-made munitions and British-built fighter jets, the coalition’s military campaign has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis, most of whom have died from preventable causes including hunger, disease, and the total collapse of essential public services.

    Beyond its impact on Saudi Arabia’s domestic security and economic ambitions, the escalation has also laid bare growing strains between Gulf Arab states and their long-standing security partner, the United States. For more than 70 years, the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council – Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Oman – have hosted U.S. military bases and infrastructure, and spent hundreds of billions of dollars on American weapons systems, in exchange for Washington acting as the region’s primary security guarantor. That long-standing arrangement is now under unprecedented strain, a senior Gulf analyst told Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

    The analyst noted that Saudi leaders were already deeply concerned by former President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon diplomatic engagement with Iran in favor of a confrontational approach, which left regional allies to face the consequences of a conflict they did not choose. That frustration only deepened after the Riyadh attacks, when Trump publicly stated that Saudi Arabia was “able to defend” itself against Houthi attacks, signaling a historic retreat from long-standing U.S. security commitments. “The US has spent decades asking Gulf states to invest in American weapons and build their security around Washington. When the threat materialises, dismissing it as something Saudi Arabia can handle raises serious questions about what that partnership is actually worth,” the analyst said.

    The growing uncertainty around U.S. security commitments has increased the strategic importance of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, a new collective defense pact signed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan in August. The agreement is designed to strengthen regional deterrence against shared security threats, though questions remain over the timing and scale of any Turkish military deployment to the kingdom, as Ankara weighs its next strategic moves.

  • Australian freed from Iraq thanks family after landing in Ireland

    Australian freed from Iraq thanks family after landing in Ireland

    After five years of detention in Iraq that drew global attention over alleged violations of international law, Australian engineer Robert Pether has finally landed in Ireland, where he was joyfully reunited with his family on Monday at Dublin Airport. The 51-year-old, who had lived and worked in the Middle East for nearly a decade, was first arrested amid a bitter commercial contract dispute between his employer, Australia-based CME Consulting, and Iraq’s Central Bank. He took on the high-profile project of reconstructing the Central Bank’s Baghdad headquarters back in 2015, setting off the chain of events that would upend his life.

    In 2021, Pether was convicted of fraud alongside his Egyptian colleague, Khalid Radwan, after the Iraqi bank accused both men of embezzling $12 million from the reconstruction project. What followed, however, raised major international alarms: the pair were held without formal charges for almost six months before a rushed, expedited trial that the United Nations later ruled violated basic international legal standards. A 2022 UN report confirmed the two men were subjected to abusive and coercive interrogation tactics, a claim that Iraq’s government has repeatedly denied. Both men were sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay a combined $12 million fine. As of Pether’s arrival in Ireland, there has been no official confirmation on whether Radwan has also been granted release.

    Pether was granted conditional release from Iraqi prison last year, but he remained trapped in the country, barred from leaving and facing ongoing threats of additional legal action. Multiple international bodies and government authorities had pushed for his full release for years: the UN formally declared Pether’s detention illegal, and in 2023 the International Chamber of Commerce’s Court of Arbitration issued a landmark ruling that cleared CME Consulting of any wrongdoing in the contract dispute, finding Iraq’s Central Bank entirely at fault and ordering the bank to pay $13 million in damages to the Australian firm.

    Speaking to reporters shortly after landing in Dublin local time, a tearful Pether expressed profound gratitude to his family, who have resided in Ireland throughout his detention. “Our children lost years with their dad,” he said. “They watched their mum fight every day to try and bring me home. They grew up with uncertainty, fear and circumstances that no child should ever have to carry.” He praised his wife Desree as “incredible”, noting that her tireless years of advocacy for his release, paired with her work holding their family together amid constant crisis, had taken an enormous emotional toll. Desree had described the entire ordeal as “an absolute nightmare” in a statement to the BBC ahead of her husband’s arrival, adding that countless obstacles and unexpected last-minute setbacks had stretched the years of waiting into an agonizing experience.

    Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong confirmed that Pether’s release came after years of coordinated, persistent diplomatic advocacy by both the Australian government and Irish authorities. “I spoke to Mr Pether shortly before his departure from Baghdad and am pleased he is now free to move forward with his life,” Wong said in a statement shortly after Pether crossed into Irish airspace. For Pether and his family, Monday’s reunion marked the end of a half-decade-long fight for justice and freedom, and the start of a long-awaited chance to rebuild their lives together.

  • British man in Israeli army posed in front of burning Gaza school, new film reveals

    British man in Israeli army posed in front of burning Gaza school, new film reveals

    An in-depth investigation by independent UK-based investigative outlet Declassified UK has exposed that a British-born citizen served as a soldier in the Israeli military during the 2023-2024 Gaza campaign and posed for a photograph in front of a destroyed, burning school in the enclave. The findings, which were presented in a YouTube documentary released Tuesday titled *”We Exposed a British-Israeli Who Fought in Gaza”*, center on Jonathan Burman, a British national who posted the image of himself in uniform on his private Instagram account before it was obtained by investigators.

    Independent transparency monitoring non-profit Airwars cross-referenced geographic details of the photo to confirm the structure in the background is Madrasa al-Farabi, a school located in Bani Suheila, a town east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The site was attacked by Israeli forces on December 12, 2023, more than two months after the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza launched following the October 7 2023 Hamas attack.

    When contacted for comment by Declassified, the Israeli military referenced a December 2023 statement claiming its forces had eliminated a Hamas terrorist cell operating from a school in the area. But Airwars investigators confirmed that the incident the IDF cited occurred at a different campus located two kilometers from Madrasa al-Farabi, the site where Burman posed for the viral photo.

    According to Declassified’s reporting, Burman attended the elite Manchester Grammar School in northwest England before taking a gap year in Israel, after which he formally enlisted in the Israeli Defense Forces. The IDF confirmed to investigators that Burman served in the 55th Brigade, an elite reserve paratrooper unit, with Declassified’s reporting indicating he was most likely assigned to the brigade’s 66th Battalion. Burman also shared additional photos from his deployment on his personal account, including images of himself in heavily damaged areas of Khan Younis, on deployment in Lebanon, and posing with other soldiers in military uniform.

    The documentary includes an interview with Yuval Green, a former medic who served in the 66th Battalion, who described extreme ideological motivations among some members of the unit. Green stated, “Some of the people are really driven by crazy insane religious ideas. This [fighting in Gaza] was just an opportunity for them to kill as many Gazans as they can and kick them out and get their lands.”

    Research from the Hind Rajab Foundation, a Palestinian casualty documentation organization, was also cited in the investigation, which linked Burman to a company within the battalion that the foundation says was involved in intense close-quarters combat and the demolition of hundreds of residential structures across Khan Younis, leaving large swathes of the southern Gaza city in ruins.

    Chris Sidoti, a sitting member of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, appeared in the documentary and endorsed the rigor of Declassified’s investigative work. He noted that while the reporting does not itself prove Burman committed war crimes, the evidence collected is substantial enough to require formal follow-up. Sidoti called on London’s Metropolitan Police War Crimes Unit to open a formal investigation into Burman’s actions during his deployment in Gaza.

    To date, Burman has not responded to multiple requests for comment from Declassified UK on the investigation’s findings.

    Estimates indicate that approximately 2,000 dual British-Israeli nationals have served in the Israeli military during the ongoing Gaza campaign, which a separate UN Commission of Inquiry concluded last year constituted an act of genocide against the Palestinian people. Since the start of the campaign, Israeli forces have killed more than 74,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, with an additional 170,000 wounded. Thousands more Palestinians remain missing, presumed dead under rubble destroyed by Israeli air strikes and ground operations. For context, the October 7 2023 Hamas attack that precipitated the Israeli campaign killed approximately 1,200 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians.

    This new call for investigation comes months after London’s Metropolitan Police announced in April 2024 that it would not open probes into 10 other British nationals accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity while serving with the IDF in Gaza. That decision followed the submission of a 240-page evidence dossier by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and the Public Interest Law Centre to the Met’s War Crimes Team in 2023. Police at the time said there was no realistic prospect of securing a conviction and that a full, effective investigation could not be carried out from the UK.

  • Six Ukrainian energy sites hit by Russia since Trump announced ceasefire, Zelensky says

    Six Ukrainian energy sites hit by Russia since Trump announced ceasefire, Zelensky says

    Just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a bilateral energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine that he claimed would take effect “immediately,” Moscow launched a wave of strikes targeting six Ukrainian energy facilities, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has confirmed. The attacks shattered hopes of a quick de-escalation along energy infrastructure lines, even as international leaders had signaled varying levels of support for the proposed truce.

    On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov openly stated that Ukraine did not deserve the “respite” a ceasefire would provide, a comment that came alongside multiple confirmed strikes across Ukrainian territory. Ukraine’s state news agency Ukrinform reported that Russian strikes destroyed power grids in the eastern city of Izyum, leaving residents completely without electricity. Overnight attacks also targeted energy and railway infrastructure in western Ukraine, expanding the scope of the damage. By Monday afternoon, Ukraine’s state-owned grid operator Ukrenergo confirmed that new power outages were in effect across Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia after Russian attacks damaged critical energy equipment. To prevent total system failure, electricity rationing has been rolled out across multiple regions of the country.

    The attacks also extended beyond energy infrastructure: on Monday evening, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko announced that a Russian drone had struck a 25-story residential building in the capital’s Darnytskyi district. Klitschko reported that multiple parked cars in the building’s courtyard caught fire, the attack killed one person and injured 11 others. Emergency services were also dispatched to Kharkiv to respond to damage from a drone strike on a residential building in the northeastern city earlier the same day. Zelenskyy confirmed that 33 people total were injured in the nationwide strikes on energy facilities.

    Speaking to Fox News, Zelenskyy emphasized that Ukraine had held its fire under the terms of the proposed ceasefire, while Russia deliberately targeted civilian energy sites. “We did not attack, while Russia attacked our gas stations, energy infrastructure, and other facilities,” he said, adding that “I think it was Putin’s answer to President Trump.” In a post on X, Zelenskyy further noted that the strikes were clear proof Russia remained “unwilling to accept an energy ceasefire.” When the ceasefire was first announced by Trump on Sunday, Zelenskyy acknowledged that the proposal was “news to him” but expressed cautious support, framing it as a “major step toward ending the war” if the U.S. could guarantee Russian compliance.

    Trump, for his part, defended the ceasefire announcement on Monday, saying “I said you agree” when asked how the deal was reached, and adding that the war “has to get settled.” “That war is a disaster if you see the numbers,” he told reporters. The proposed energy ceasefire comes as Trump has pushed for Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, clearing the way for a new deal that would allow Russian diesel exports to enter the U.S. market, temporarily rolling back existing U.S. sanctions on Russian energy imports. Zelenskyy has characterized this deal as a “gift” to Russian President Vladimir Putin, as the move comes ahead of U.S. midterm elections where rising global fuel prices driven by the ongoing conflict have become a key political issue.

    For months, both Russia and Ukraine have exchanged reciprocal strikes on energy infrastructure, disrupting energy supplies across the region. Moscow has consistently justified its attacks by claiming the targeted installations support Ukraine’s military operations, while Zelenskyy has framed Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russian territory as a necessary measure to “reduce Russia’s ability to finance the war.” Analysis from BBC Verify shows that both sides have ramped up their attacks on energy infrastructure in the months ahead of the winter heating season, when demand for energy peaks across Eastern Europe. In 2026 to date, BBC Verify has recorded 273 strikes on Russian-controlled oil and gas facilities, more than double the 124 strikes recorded over the same period in 2025. Data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a global conflict monitoring group, further confirms that reported Russian attacks targeting Ukraine’s energy network have increased 2.4 times so far this year compared to 2025.

    International reaction to the proposed ceasefire has been mixed. UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Britain “strongly supports President Trump’s call today for a sustained energy ceasefire to start now,” and France, Canada, and the European Union have also issued statements of general support. But European officials have expressed skepticism about Russian compliance. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday that the bloc would welcome an energy ceasefire “when it holds,” noting that “We haven’t yet seen that also Russia will stick to it.” Estonia’s foreign minister went further, stating outright that the ceasefire was “not working.”

  • ‘No military solutions’: Iran offers to mediate as Saudi-Houthi conflict escalates

    ‘No military solutions’: Iran offers to mediate as Saudi-Houthi conflict escalates

    Fresh deadly attacks targeting major Saudi Arabian airports have sent regional tensions soaring, prompting Iran to publicly urge Riyadh to abandon military escalation and pursue a negotiated political resolution to its long-running conflict with Yemen’s Houthi movement, with Tehran offering to mediate talks between the two parties.

    The diplomatic outreach took shape during a Sunday phone call between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, according to official statements released by both Saudi state media and Iranian journalistic outlets.

    “Insisting on a military approach and disregarding a political solution would only further complicate the situation,” Araghchi stressed during the conversation, adding that none of the ongoing crises across the Middle East could be resolved through military force. He confirmed that Tehran stands ready to support and facilitate negotiations between Saudi leadership and Yemeni stakeholders to reach a durable political settlement.

    Iran’s call for dialogue comes in the immediate aftermath of a sharp escalation in Houthi attacks on Saudi territory. On Saturday, a strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport left 12 people dead and more than 300 others injured, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation confirmed. By Monday, the death toll rose to 13 after an injured Indian national succumbed to their wounds, Reuters reported. A separate Houthi attack a day later killed a Pakistani resident and wounded 11 more people, Saudi authorities confirmed.

    On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei doubled down on Tehran’s position, telling reporters that the Islamic Republic has no interest in seeing continued hostilities between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis. “We do not want hostilities to continue between two Muslim countries, especially as the region is already facing tensions caused by the United States and Israel,” Baghaei said. He reaffirmed Iran’s longstanding stance that the Yemeni people are entitled to live with dignity, free from external pressure, economic sanctions and the regional blockade imposed on Yemen, and reiterated Iran’s willingness to support a dialogue-led resolution to the crisis.

    The escalating attacks have had immediate operational impacts on international travel: multiple major global airlines have suspended flights to the Saudi capital. Lufthansa has canceled all Riyadh services through October 16, while Air France-KLM has extended its suspension of flights to the city through the end of October, Reuters reported.

    Houthi military officials have issued a formal warning to aviation firms, shipping operators, airport workers and passengers to avoid all Saudi airports and airspace, with the only exceptions being the airports serving the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. In a Sunday post on X, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree announced that the group’s armed forces were renewing this public warning. “The airports and airspace are exposed to targeting and constitute a theatre of operations for our forces, with the exception of the airports of Makkah and Madina,” Saree said, urging all parties to “take our warnings seriously” and holding Saudi Arabia responsible for any harm resulting from failed interception of Houthi strikes.

    The Iran-aligned Houthi movement, officially known as Ansar Allah, has already claimed full responsibility for the Riyadh airport attack, as well as additional strikes on Dammam Airport and facilities operated by Saudi energy giant Saudi Aramco, per Reuters. The Saudi-led coalition that has fought the Houthis in Yemen since 2015 has labeled the deadly Riyadh attack a “full-fledged war crime.”

    This diplomatic exchange comes two years after Iran and Saudi Arabia restored full diplomatic relations under a China-brokered agreement, ending a seven-year diplomatic rupture between the two major regional powers. Despite decades of strategic rivalry across the Middle East, the two governments have maintained open diplomatic channels since the 2023 re normalization, creating a framework for this latest outreach over the Yemeni conflict.

  • ‘Except Mecca and Medina’: Chaos across Saudi airports as Houthis claim Riyadh strikes

    ‘Except Mecca and Medina’: Chaos across Saudi airports as Houthis claim Riyadh strikes

    A wave of deadly attacks by Yemen’s Houthi movement on Saudi airports has thrown the kingdom’s entire aviation network into chaos, forcing mass flight cancellations, prompting global airlines to suspend services and stoking fears of a dangerous escalation in the long-running Yemen conflict.

    The violence began Saturday with a direct strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, one of Saudi Arabia’s busiest international gateways. According to Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation, the initial attack left 12 people dead and 309 more injured. That death toll climbed to 13 the following day after an injured Indian national succumbed to their wounds, Reuters reported. A separate Houthi attack on Sunday killed a Pakistani resident and wounded 11 others, Saudi authorities confirmed.

    In the wake of these attacks, aviation operations across Saudi Arabia have been severely disrupted. Data from aviation analytics firm Cirium, cited by Reuters, shows that 60% of scheduled departures from Riyadh’s main airport were canceled on Monday, following a 99.7% cancellation rate just one day prior. Flightradar24 reported that both Riyadh and Dammam airports were fully closed to commercial traffic on Sunday. In Jeddah, airport officials canceled 156 scheduled flights, equal to 20% of the day’s total operations, while another 49% of flights—374 total—were pushed into delays. The widespread disruptions have left thousands of passengers stranded across the kingdom, with no clear timeline for a full return to normal operations.

    Multiple international airlines have moved quickly to suspend services to the Saudi capital in response to the security threat. Germany’s Lufthansa has canceled all flights to Riyadh through October 16, while Air France-KLM has extended its suspension of Riyadh services through the end of October. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has also issued an advisory urging American carriers to exercise extreme caution when operating in or over Saudi Arabian airspace.

    The Houthi movement, officially known as Ansar Allah, has claimed full responsibility for the attacks on King Khalid International Airport, as well as additional strikes on Dammam airport and facilities operated by Saudi energy giant Saudi Aramco. Over the weekend, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree issued a renewed public warning on the social platform X, cautioning airlines, shipping companies, aviation workers and travelers against using Saudi airports and airspace—with the sole exception of the airports serving the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. “The airports and airspace are exposed to targeting and constitute a theatre of operations for our forces, with the exception of the airports of Makkah and Madina,” Saree said in the statement, adding that Saudi Arabia would bear full responsibility for any harm that results from failed interceptions of Houthi strikes.

    The Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting the Houthi movement in Yemen since 2015 has labeled the deadly Riyadh attack a “full-fledged war crime.” The attack has drawn widespread condemnation from the international community, with nations including Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Germany, France and the United Kingdom all issuing statements rejecting the targeting of civilian infrastructure. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres have also added their voices to those denouncing the attacks.

    UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting described the strike as “contemptible” and a “dangerous escalation” in an interview with Sky News over the weekend, noting that the attack underscores why the UK is supporting Saudi Arabia with air defense systems and air-to-air refueling capabilities. When asked whether the UK would expand its support for the kingdom, Streeting told the BBC that further support was “potentially” on the table.

    This latest round of violence marks the deadliest escalation in the ongoing tit-for-tat exchange of strikes between the Houthi movement and Saudi Arabia. The Houthi group, which controls Yemen’s capital Sanaa, has repeatedly targeted Saudi infrastructure in response to a years-long Saudi-led blockade of Houthi-held Yemeni territory. Houthi-affiliated media reported last Friday that Saudi airstrikes on Sanaa’s international airport killed two people, coming just one day after Houthi strikes on Riyadh airport killed three. The Houthi leadership has framed its recent attacks as a “blockade for a blockade,” demanding that Saudi Arabia lift its restrictions on land, air and sea access to Houthi-held Yemeni territory in exchange for an end to strikes on Saudi targets.

    Despite repeated airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition on Yemeni civilian infrastructure including airports, the Houthi movement has retained the capability to launch missile and drone strikes deep into Saudi Arabian territory, keeping the kingdom under constant threat of attack and prolonging one of the world’s most devastating humanitarian crises.

  • Who are Yemen’s Houthis and what do they want?

    Who are Yemen’s Houthis and what do they want?

    A series of coordinated Houthi attacks on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport have left at least 14 people dead and more than 300 injured, marking the deadliest assault on Saudi territory in over a decade and escalating a regional conflict that has already plunged Yemen back into large-scale hostilities. The first strike, carried out on Saturday, killed 13 people and left 309 others wounded. A follow-up attack the next day claimed one additional life, sending shockwaves across the kingdom and the broader Middle East.

    The Saudi-led military coalition that has intervened in Yemen’s civil war since 2015 immediately condemned the assaults, labeling them a deliberate war crime. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree confirmed responsibility for the attacks in an official statement released Sunday, noting that the group had launched a multi-phase operation targeting the airport starting Friday evening that succeeded in closing the facility entirely. Saree issued a stark warning: all Saudi airports, with the exception of those serving the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, are now unsafe for operation. The Riyadh attacks cap months of steadily worsening violence that has unraveled a fragile peace agreement.

    A UN-brokered truce that had largely halted large-scale fighting across Yemen since 2022 collapsed in July, after Saudi coalition forces carried out airstrikes on Yemen’s capital Sanaa’s international airport. In response, the Houthi movement announced a maritime blockade of Saudi territory. By September, Houthi fighters had seized the strategic Red Sea port of Mokha and advanced toward the Bab al-Mandab strait, a critical chokepoint for global maritime trade. Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces launched a counter-offensive in early October, prompting the United Nations’ special envoy to Yemen to issue a formal warning that the country had fully returned to full-scale war.

    Heavy, sustained clashes are ongoing around Taiz, a strategically vital city overlooking the Red Sea coast. The resumption of active fighting has already forced more than 130,000 Yemeni civilians to flee their homes in search of safety.

    To understand the current escalation, it is necessary to contextualize the origins and trajectory of the Houthi movement. Officially named Ansar Allah, meaning “helpers of God”, the group emerged in Yemen’s remote northern region in the 1990s, organized around the cleric Hussein al-Houthi. It is rooted in Zaydism, a Shia Islamic branch whose followers make up a minority of Yemen’s overall population but are concentrated in the country’s northern highlands. Between 2004 and 2010, the movement fought six separate rounds of conflict with the government of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Hussein al-Houthi was killed in the first of these conflicts, and leadership passed to his brother Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, who remains the group’s head today.

    Houthi fighters seized control of Sanaa in September 2014, and in March 2015, Saudi Arabia assembled a multinational military coalition to intervene in Yemen in support of the internationally recognized Yemeni government, which has since operated mostly from Riyadh and the southern Yemeni port city of Aden. By the time the 2022 truce took effect, the Houthis controlled roughly 30 percent of Yemen’s territory — home to 80 percent of the country’s population. Domestically, the group has pushed for greater autonomy for northern Yemen and increasingly demanded formal recognition as Yemen’s legitimate governing authority. It has long called for an end to what it describes as a Saudi land, air and naval blockade of Yemen, a characterization the Saudi government rejects.

    In his Sunday statement, Saree reaffirmed the group’s commitment to its “siege for siege, escalation for escalation” doctrine, promising to continue expanding attacks deep into Saudi territory until what the Houthis call “Saudi aggression” ends and the blockade of Yemen is lifted.

    The Houthi movement’s regional ambitions extend far beyond Yemen’s borders. The group frames its political agenda around opposition to U.S. and Israeli influence in the Middle East. Since 2023, it has launched attacks on more than 100 commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, claiming the actions are in solidarity with Palestinians during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. These strikes were temporarily paused in May 2025 under a ceasefire agreement with the United States brokered by Oman. In March 2025, the group began firing missiles at Israel in a show of support for Iran following U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iranian targets.

    Iran lists Ansar Allah as a core member of its “Axis of Resistance”, an alliance of anti-Israel and anti-U.S. armed groups that also includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas. Iran has cultivated ties with the Houthis since at least the late 2000s, and the majority of the Houthi movement’s military arsenal is either designed or supplied directly by Tehran. The Houthis have repeatedly denied claims that they act as an Iranian proxy force.

    Following the Riyadh airport attacks, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei released a statement Monday saying Tehran was “deeply concerned” by the escalating conflict between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, and offered to mediate dialogue between the two sides to de-escalate tensions.

    Since the 2015 Saudi-led intervention, the Houthi fighting force has expanded dramatically: from an estimated 30,000 fighters in 2015 to roughly 350,000 by 2024, though independent estimates of troop numbers vary. While the group lacks a conventional navy and has only limited air power, it has built an extensive arsenal of advanced asymmetric weapons, including long-range drones, explosive-laden unmanned surface vessels, and medium-range ballistic missiles capable of striking targets as far as 2,000 kilometers away — a range that covers all of Israel.

    The Bab al-Mandab strait, where the Houthis have advanced in recent months, connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and serves as the southern access route to the Suez Canal, one of the world’s most important trade chokepoints. The strait’s strategic importance has grown sharply in recent months after conflict around Iran disrupted commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, pushing global oil prices higher and leaving the Red Sea route as a key alternative corridor for Saudi oil exports.

    This escalating conflict raises urgent concerns about regional stability and the safety of global commercial shipping, with potential ripple effects on energy markets and the global economy.

  • Gaza: ‘She survived the bombing, but not the blockade’

    Gaza: ‘She survived the bombing, but not the blockade’

    For 60-year-old Palestinian Suhaila al-Mabhouh, two years of relentless bombardment and forced displacement amid Israel’s military campaign in Gaza left one all-consuming desire: to return to the family home she had been forced to flee in northern Gaza. When her daughter, based in Italy, arranged an evacuation offer for al-Mabhouh to resettle in Europe, she turned it down immediately, her longing to reclaim her old life outweighing any promise of safety abroad.

    When a nominal ceasefire took effect on 10 October 2025, al-Mabhouh and her 62-year-old husband Sami wasted no time rushing back to their property in Jabalia refugee camp. With quiet determination, she began patching together the severely damaged structure, clinging to the fragile hope that she could piece her life back together after two years of upheaval.

    That hope was cut short almost as quickly as it emerged. Israel’s tight siege on the enclave remained in place, and daily bombardment of Gaza continued even as the ceasefire was formally observed. Within eight months of the couple’s return, al-Mabhouh began feeling unwell. A diagnosis of cancer followed, and she died before she could access life-saving care—blocked from treatment inside Gaza by a crippled health system, and barred from leaving for care abroad by Israeli movement restrictions.

    Al-Mabhouh is far from alone. She is one of thousands of Palestinians continuing to die from entirely preventable causes as Israel’s ongoing military campaign and blockade strip Gaza’s population of the basic resources needed to survive. Now, nearly a year into the formal ceasefire, conditions for Gazan civilians remain just as deadly as they were during the height of active bombardment, with critical aid, building materials, medical supplies and other essential goods still largely barred from entering the enclave.

    “About four months after we returned to our home, her health began to deteriorate rapidly, and we had no idea what was wrong with her,” Sami al-Mabhouh told Middle East Eye in an interview. The couple shuttled between overcrowded, under-resourced hospitals across Gaza City, but facilities overwhelmed by years of damage and shortages could not run the diagnostic tests al-Mabhouh needed. They eventually made the arduous journey to Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, hoping a private hospital could offer the care they needed.

    “The journey was extremely difficult, and transportation was so scarce that by the time we arrived, we were exhausted and unable to go straight to the hospital,” Sami recalled. The pair spent the night at a relative’s home in Bureij refugee camp before they could seek care the next day. “After a lengthy series of examinations, which cost us a great deal of money just to obtain a diagnosis, doctors told us she had liver cancer. By then, her health had deteriorated so severely that she could no longer sit up or walk.”

    Within two weeks, al-Mabhouh received a medical referral for treatment abroad, the formal approval needed to request exit from Gaza. But she joined a backlog of more than 20,000 other patients with referrals, all waiting for Israeli authorities to grant permission to leave. None of Gaza’s 36 hospitals operate at full capacity today, with only around 20 able to offer partial services, leaving tens of thousands of patients cut off from urgent diagnostics and care.

    Under the terms of the 2025 ceasefire agreement, Israeli authorities were required to allow medical supplies, pharmaceuticals and construction materials to repair war-damaged hospitals into Gaza. But the deal has delivered almost no tangible improvement to the enclave’s devastated health sector. Data from Physicians for Human Rights Israel shows that between October 2025 and July 2026, the total number of intensive care unit beds in Gaza increased by just one, rising from 103 to 104. Availability of dialysis units actually worsened over the same period, falling from 17 percent capacity to 12 percent.

    “As we waited for her turn to travel, we contacted doctors in Italy and Egypt and shared her medical records with them. They told us her cancer was treatable but not in Gaza,” Sami said. “We waited for three months. She didn’t survive long enough to receive treatment. The disease progressed, and on 18 June, she died.” His verdict is blunt: “She survived the bombing, but not the blockade.”

    Al-Mabhouh is one of at least 1,570 patients who have died in Gaza while waiting for medical evacuation between October 2023 and July 2026. That figure includes 505 cancer patients and 264 children, with daily evacuation rates remaining a tiny fraction of pre-war levels. Between the October 2025 ceasefire and mid-September 2026, roughly 3,423 patients were evacuated abroad for treatment, an average of just 10 people per day. Before October 2023, between 50 and 100 patients were evacuated daily, per Physicians for Human Rights Israel.

    Preventable deaths from untreated illness are just one layer of the ongoing crisis facing Gaza’s population. For those who survive bombardment and illness, the search for safe shelter carries its own deadly risks. Israeli military operations have damaged or destroyed 92 percent of all homes across Gaza, leaving most of the territory’s 2.2 million residents confined to flimsy makeshift tents or severely damaged, structurally unsound buildings. Exposed to extreme weather and constant collapse risk, these shelters offer little protection from harm.

    Last winter, when temperatures dropped sharply across the enclave, at least eight children—most of them infants living in makeshift tents—died from hypothermia. With another winter approaching, Gaza families are trapped in an impossible choice: face freezing temperatures in tents that provide almost no insulation, or risk being crushed under the rubble of a damaged residential building.

    “I sleep every day doubting that I would wake up alive the next day. I expect the building to collapse on us every single day,” said Muhammed Abujarad, a 44-year-old resident of a heavily damaged building in Tal al-Hawa, a neighbourhood in southwestern Gaza City. “I am not imagining something that would not happen. It happened several times, and I know people who died after their home collapsed on their heads last month.”

    Abujarad was referencing a September 2026 building collapse that killed 21 displaced Palestinians sheltering in the structure, 12 of them children, and injured 14 more. The building had been damaged in a previous Israeli strike, and collapsed shortly before dawn on 21 September. Since October 2023, 61 Palestinians have been killed in similar building collapses across Gaza.

    “We know it’s lethal to stay here, but there are no alternatives. We lost our home in northern Gaza and lost another home belonging to our relatives in Gaza City. We have no other choices left,” Abujarad said. “We cannot return to live in tents. We lived through our most hellish days in tents during the war. Now, as long as we have a ceiling above our heads, it’s better than dying of heat or cold in tents that don’t protect us from anything.”

    Data from the UN Satellite Centre (Unosat) shows that by August 2026, the total number of destroyed structures in Gaza had increased by 9 percent compared to when the ceasefire was declared in October 2025. Despite the ceasefire agreement, Israel continues to block the entry of tents, prefabricated mobile homes and heavy construction equipment into Gaza, leaving residents without adequate shelter and leaving damaged, dangerous buildings standing without any way to repair or demolish them.

    These restrictions have also blocked repairs to Gaza’s crippled water and wastewater infrastructure, 90 percent of which has been damaged or destroyed during the conflict. With critical utility systems in ruins, Palestinians face growing rates of contaminated water exposure and entirely preventable waterborne diseases.

    “When you are living in a damaged home with no walls or a tent in the middle of mud and wastewater, how would you protect your children?” Abujarad said. “Wherever we go to flee death, we find another. There is no refuge from death.”