标签： Asia

Deep in the village of Ittefaq, on the eastern outskirts of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, the mud-caked rubble of a collapsed wall still holds the traces of a recently shattered life. Piles of salvaged blankets, dented cooking utensils and scattered personal belongings sit alongside broken bricks, a quiet marker of the tragedy that unfolded late Friday, when a 5.8 magnitude earthquake ripped through northern Afghanistan.

For Mohibullah Niazi, the neighbor who led early rescue efforts, the sounds of that disaster will linger. For three full minutes after the wall collapsed onto the refugee family camped next to his property, Niazi told reporters Saturday, he could hear the trapped family screaming for help. By the time a larger group of rescuers could clear the heavy mud and rock, the screams fell silent.

Eight members of the family, all Afghan refugees who had just returned to their home country 15 days earlier after being pushed out of neighboring Iran, were killed. The only survivor is 3-year-old Aarash, who was pulled from the rubble with a severe head injury and airlifted to a hospital in central Kabul for emergency care.

This small, already vulnerable family was among millions of Afghans forced to return to their unstable homeland in 2023, after neighboring Iran and Pakistan launched harsh crackdowns on undocumented foreign residents, most of whom are Afghan refugees who fled years of conflict and economic collapse. Najibullah, the 50-year-old head of the killed family, had nowhere else to go after crossing back into Afghanistan: the family set up a makeshift tent on empty low-lying land adjacent to Niazi’s home, because he could not afford permanent shelter. Just 30 minutes before the earthquake struck, Niazi said he offered the family space in his guest room to escape cold, heavy rains that had soaked the region for days. They declined his invitation.

Days of heavy rainfall had already softened the sodden earth holding the adjacent retaining wall in place, local residents explained. When the earthquake hit, the wall crumbled directly onto the family’s tent, trapping everyone inside before they could escape. Niazi and a handful of nearby neighbors immediately began digging by hand and with small spades, but the weight of the rock and mud was too much for their small group. “We tried our best,” Niazi recounted Saturday, standing at the disaster site. “But for two or three people, this was impossible work.”

Local authorities were alerted quickly, and Taliban-led rescue teams and ambulances arrived within an hour to continue recovery efforts. By Saturday morning, all eight bodies had been recovered, and the injured toddler had been transported for care. On Saturday, Health Ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman confirmed the boy remained hospitalized for his head injury, saying medical teams were monitoring his condition closely.

In the wake of the quake, official death toll numbers have seen a small discrepancy: Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat released an updated count Saturday putting the total national death toll at 12, with four additional people injured across the affected regions. Fitrat added that five full homes had been completely destroyed, and another 33 suffered major damage, impacting 40 families across six provinces: Kabul, Panjshir, Logar, Nangarhar, Laghman, and Nuristan. The Afghanistan Disaster Management Authority has meanwhile put the total death toll at nine, and officials have not yet explained the gap between the two counts.

Friday’s earthquake originated in the seismically active Hindu Kush mountain range, roughly 150 kilometers east of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan, and 290 kilometers northeast of Kabul, according to data from both the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center and the U.S. Geological Survey. Afghanistan sits on one of the world’s most active tectonic fault zones, and major earthquakes have killed thousands of Afghans in just the last two years, as poorly constructed, informal housing across much of the country leaves communities extremely vulnerable to seismic activity.

Just last August 2023, a 6.0 magnitude quake struck a remote mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 2,200 people. In October that same year, a 6.3 magnitude quake and subsequent powerful aftershocks hit western Afghanistan, leaving thousands dead. Two months later, a 6.3 magnitude quake hit Samangan province in the north, killing 27 people, injuring more than 950, and damaging iconic cultural sites including the historic Blue Mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif.

After a month of open conflict between Iran and a US-Israeli coalition, the regional crisis shows no sign of de-escalation, with attacks expanding from military targets to critical civilian infrastructure amid stark new threats from Washington.

On Friday, cross-border exchanges of fire continued between Iran, Israel and the United States, just days after the war entered its sixth week. Warnings of incoming missile strikes were activated across Israel, Bahrain and Kuwait, even as US and Israeli officials have repeatedly claimed Iran’s core military capabilities have nearly been eliminated. Local Iranian witnesses also confirmed fresh airstrikes hit areas within and around Tehran and the central Iranian city of Isfahan.

US President Donald Trump has ramped up aggressive rhetoric in recent days as diplomatic negotiations with Iran have stalled with little to no progress. “The US military hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran,” Trump posted on social media late Thursday. “Bridges next, then electric power plants.”

Alongside the statement, Trump shared footage of a US airstrike on Tehran’s under-construction B1 bridge, a critical planned arterial traffic route that was scheduled to open to the public later this year. Iran’s state media reported the attack left eight civilians dead and another 95 injured.

But Iranian officials have refused to back down, even in the face of threats to civilian infrastructure. “Striking civilian structures, including unfinished bridges, will not compel Iranians to surrender,” Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in response to the attack.

Iran’s armed forces have vowed to retaliate with even greater force, promising future attacks will be “more crushing, broader and more devastating”. Iran’s Fars news agency later published a list of potential target bridges across Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan — all nations that host US military facilities on their territory.

In a separate development, Iran’s Tasnim news agency, citing the Revolutionary Guards navy command, reported that Iranian forces targeted US tech giant Oracle’s data center in Dubai on Thursday. The Dubai Media Office quickly dismissed the claim as unfounded “fake news”. The Revolutionary Guards have previously warned that major US technology firms would be added to the target list if tensions with Washington escalate, noting more than a dozen US companies are considered valid potential targets.

The conflict has also drawn in other regional actors, with Yemen’s Houthi militia announcing Thursday it had launched its fourth attack on Israel, firing a barrage of ballistic missiles toward targets in Tel Aviv, expanding its direct involvement in the escalating regional conflict.

The war began on February 28, when US and Israeli forces launched a preemptive large-scale attack on Iran. Tehran responded with its own strikes against Israel and Gulf states hosting US military installations. Joint US-Israeli airstrikes across Iran and separate Israeli attacks in Lebanon have so far killed thousands of people and displaced millions across the Middle East.

Beyond the immediate human cost, the conflict has severely disrupted global commerce, with the Strait of Hormuz — one of the world’s most critical chokepoints for global energy trade — effectively closed to commercial shipping. This disruption has sent shockwaves through global financial markets, leaving investors scrambling to assess the long-term risks of the prolonged crisis.

“The key question in all investors’ minds is, ‘When is this going to be over?’” said Russel Chesler, head of investments and capital markets at VanEck Australia.

International efforts to resolve the closure of the strait have so far failed to yield concrete results. The United Kingdom chaired a virtual meeting of roughly 40 nations on Thursday to discuss pathways to restore freedom of navigation through the waterway, but the meeting concluded without any binding or specific agreements.

Trump struck a defiant tone on Friday, claiming the US could reopen the strait unilaterally with a small amount of additional time. “With a little more time, we can easily open the Hormuz Strait, take the oil, and make a fortune,” he wrote on social media.

Iran has put forward an alternative framework for controlling access to the strait, announcing it is drafting a new transit protocol with neighboring Oman that would require all commercial ships to obtain official permits and licenses before passing through the waterway.

Bahrain has submitted a draft United Nations Security Council resolution that would authorize the use of military force to guarantee free transit through the strait. The US-backed proposal has deepened divisions among Security Council members, forcing a delay to the scheduled vote on the measure.

The UAE’s Minister of State Khalifa Shaheen Al Marar said in an interview Thursday that his country is prepared to contribute to international efforts to secure maritime routes through the strait amid ongoing tensions.

However, French President Emmanuel Macron pushed back against the idea that military force could successfully reopen the strait, calling the expectation unrealistic. A large-scale military operation “would take an infinite amount of time and would expose anyone passing through the strait to coastal threats from Revolutionary Guards”, Macron noted. He added that the reopening of the strait “can only be done in coordination with Iran” through negotiations that would follow a ceasefire agreement.

In a sharp escalation of military tensions between the United States and Iran on Friday, two American military aircraft were downed in Iranian airspace and near the Strait of Hormuz, sending already fraught diplomatic efforts for a de-escalation into further chaos. The first incident, confirmed by multiple anonymous U.S. officials cited by The New York Times, involved the crash of an A-10 Thunderbolt II, commonly known as the Warthog, a single-seat ground-attack jet. Iranian state media reported that its domestic air defense systems engaged and targeted the hostile A-10 near the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz, the world’s busiest oil shipping chokepoint. Fortunately, the lone pilot of the downed A-10 was successfully rescued by U.S. forces, per the NYT report. However, NBC News, also quoting an anonymous U.S. official, added that two U.S. military helicopters participating in the rescue operation were struck by Iranian gunfire; all service members onboard emerged unharmed.

The second downing, which occurred earlier the same day, involved a more advanced U.S. fighter jet over southwestern Iranian territory. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) initially claimed the downed aircraft was a stealth F-35, but U.S. military sources later corrected the record to confirm it was an F-15E Strike Eagle, a twin-seat, all-weather attack jet that carries a price tag of approximately $31 million per unit, far more expensive than the $11.4 million A-10. A spokesperson for Iran’s supreme military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, told the semi-official Tasnim News Agency that the F-15E was completely destroyed in the engagement. Local Iranian state television reported the jet was targeted over central Iran, with wreckage believed to have fallen in the mountainous, rural Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province. The outlet aired footage it claimed showed scattered remnants of the downed jet, and its anchor issued a public call for local residents to turn over any captured enemy pilots to law enforcement, offering a cash bounty for any U.S. service member taken into custody. The IRGC also claimed the downed F-15E belonged to a squadron stationed at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, a U.S. military base in eastern England. As of Friday, U.S. forces had rescued one member of the jet’s two-person crew, while search operations for the second pilot remain ongoing.

This is not the first reported engagement between Iranian air defenses and U.S. aircraft in recent months. In late March, Iran claimed it had shot down a U.S. F-35, a claim that Washington immediately rejected. At the time, the U.S. military only acknowledged that an F-35 had made an emergency landing following a combat mission over Iranian territory, adding that the pilot was in stable condition.

Beyond the military clashes, diplomatic efforts to broker a ceasefire between the two nations have hit repeated snags, according to multiple regional and international media reports. On Friday, Iran rejected a U.S.-proposed 48-hour temporary ceasefire, Iranian state-owned Fars News Agency reported, quoting an unnamed official source. The proposal was delivered via an unnamed third-party mediator on Wednesday, and it remains unclear whether Israel, which has joined the U.S. in its ongoing campaign against Iran, would have been a party to the agreement. The announcement comes after a public back-and-forth: earlier in the week, former U.S. President Donald Trump claimed Iran had requested a ceasefire, a charge Tehran immediately denied.

The Wall Street Journal also reported Friday that earlier mediation efforts led by Pakistan have collapsed entirely. Talks were set to be held in Islamabad, but Tehran refused to send representatives, citing what it calls unacceptable American negotiating demands. Iran’s core terms for any lasting peace agreement include a full U.S. military withdrawal from all bases across the Middle East, and financial compensation from the U.S. for widespread destruction to Iranian civilian infrastructure including schools and hospitals. Multiple other regional powers, including Turkey, Egypt, and Qatar, have been approached to lead new mediation efforts due to their established ties to the Trump administration, but progress has stalled. The WSJ added that Qatar has specifically resisted U.S. and regional pressure to take on the mediator role, declining the offer thus far.

A recent declassified U.S. intelligence assessment, first reported by CNN Thursday, suggests Iran has prepared for a protracted conflict, and retains significant military capability more than a month into the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign. The assessment found that roughly half of Iran’s original missile launchers and kamikaze drone fleet remain operational, contradicting repeated public claims from Trump and Israeli government leaders that Iran’s military capabilities have been completely obliterated.

First entering U.S. military service in 1977, the A-10 Warthog is purpose-built for close air support of ground troops. A total of just over 700 A-10s were built between 1972 and 1984, and the jet has seen action in nearly every major U.S. military campaign of the past 40 years, including the 1991 Gulf War, the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, and the 2003 Iraq War. The F-15E, by contrast, entered production later, with 435 units built between 1985 and 2017; the latest variant of the F-15 family, the F-15EX, costs between $90 million and $100 million per aircraft. In recent weeks, the U.S. has deployed thousands of additional troops to the Persian Gulf region, a move that U.S. officials have acknowledged sets the stage for a potential ground operation to seize key Iranian-held islands bordering the Strait of Hormuz.

Diplomatic efforts to end the more than month-long U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran have hit a major impasse this week, after an Iranian official confirmed Friday that Tehran has formally turned down a U.S.-brokered proposal for a 48-hour bilateral ceasefire. Iranian state-aligned Fars News Agency, quoting an anonymous senior official source, announced the rejection, adding the U.S. had tabled the offer Wednesday through an unspecified third-party intermediary. It remains unclear whether the proposed truce would have also required Israel, a key U.S. partner in the ongoing campaign, to halt military operations.

The rejection marks the second high-profile breakdown of ceasefire efforts in recent days, following a report from The Wall Street Journal Friday that Pakistani-mediated talks had collapsed. The deadlock came after Iran refused to send delegates to meet U.S. officials in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, citing what Tehran called non-negotiable, unacceptable terms set by Washington. Iran has laid out two non-negotiable conditions for any lasting ceasefire agreement: a full withdrawal of all U.S. military forces from bases across the Middle East, and financial compensation for extensive damage to Iranian civilian infrastructure, including schools, hospitals and other critical public facilities that have been destroyed in the joint campaign.

Multiple regional states with close ties to the Trump administration—including Turkey, Egypt and Qatar—have been approached to lead new mediation efforts, but Qatari officials have so far resisted public and private pressure from Washington and regional actors to take on the mediating role, the WSJ report added.

The development comes amid a broader public dispute between U.S. and Iranian officials over ceasefire overtures: Earlier this week, former U.S. President Donald Trump claimed Iran had been the first party to request a truce, a claim Iranian officials have outright denied.

U.S. intelligence assessments suggest Iran has long prepared for a protracted conflict, retaining significant military capacity even after weeks of intensive bombardment. A U.S. intelligence review first reported by CNN Thursday found that roughly half of Iran’s original missile launcher fleet and kamikaze drone inventory remains intact after more than 30 days of fighting. That assessment directly contradicts repeated public claims from Trump and Israeli government leaders, who have consistently used rhetoric describing an effort to totally “obliterate” Iran’s military capabilities, with the most recent such comments coming as late as this Wednesday.

On Friday, the conflict escalated dramatically after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps air defenses shot down a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle over southwestern Iran. Semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim carried confirmation of the downing from a spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the country’s top military command, who said the aircraft had been “completely destroyed.” Iran initially misidentified the jet as an F-35 stealth fighter before U.S. military officials confirmed the platform to be an F-15E.

The two-person crew ejected before the crash, and CBS News reported Friday that one crew member has already been recovered by U.S. search and rescue forces, while operations to locate the second pilot remain ongoing. Iranian state-affiliated local media reports the jet was targeted over Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, a remote, mountainous rural region in central-southwestern Iran.

Shortly after the first downing was confirmed, The New York Times reported Friday that a second U.S. combat aircraft, an A-10 Warthog ground attack plane, had been shot down near the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf region. The single-seat aircraft’s pilot was successfully rescued by U.S. forces, the outlet added.

In the latest development unfolding amid already soaring Middle Eastern tensions, multiple Israeli media outlets have confirmed that a U.S. fighter pilot ejected over Iranian airspace after his aircraft was downed, and has since been safely recovered. The revelation was first shared by Israel’s Channel 12 News on Friday, with other Israeli journalistic sources corroborating the report, though key questions remain unanswered about the second crew member on the stricken jet.

According to the outlets, the status of the navigator who was also aboard the downed aircraft is still unknown, as search operations continue across central Iran to locate the missing crew member. Citing information from a senior unnamed Israeli official, Channel 12 added that the Israel Defense Forces has called off planned strikes in the Iranian region where the search for the navigator is currently underway, to avoid disrupting ongoing recovery efforts.

Israel’s state-owned public broadcaster Kan TV News further reported that Israeli intelligence bodies are actively supporting U.S. operations to track down the downed jet’s two-person crew, sharing critical reconnaissance and location data to assist in the search.

The incident traces back to earlier the same day, when Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that its aerospace division had successfully intercepted the aircraft using advanced domestic air defense systems, shooting it down over central Iranian territory. Photos circulated by Iranian state media purport to show wreckage fragments from the downed U.S. jet, captured in the area after the incident.

This downing comes against a backdrop of drastically escalated cross-border hostilities that have roiled the region since late February. On February 28, joint U.S.-Israeli military strikes targeting sites inside Iran kicked off the latest cycle of open conflict, prompting Iran to launch retaliatory missile and drone assaults against both Israeli territory and U.S. military installations positioned in neighboring Gulf states. The ongoing clashes have raised widespread international alarm over the risk of a full-scale regional war that could draw in global powers.