标签： Europe

A violent shooting incident has shaken a southeastern Turkish community, after a former high school student opened fire on campus Wednesday, leaving at least 16 people wounded before taking his own life. Local authorities confirmed the details of the attack, which unfolded on the grounds of Ahmet Koyuncu Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School in Siverek District at approximately 9:30 a.m. local time, or 6:30 a.m. GMT.

Local governor Hasan Şıldak, the region’s top local official, told reporters that the attacker was in his late teens, who carried an illegally obtained shotgun onto the campus and began firing indiscriminately at people inside the school grounds before turning the weapon on himself. Among the 16 injured victims are 10 students, four teachers, one cafeteria employee and one responding police officer. Five of the wounded have been transferred to larger medical facilities in other regions for more advanced treatment, while the remaining injured receive care at local hospitals. Immediately after the shooting, authorities ordered a full evacuation of the entire campus, and have launched a formal criminal investigation into the circumstances of the attack.

In a surprising statement, Şıldak noted that the 17 to 18-year-old attacker had no prior criminal record on file with Turkish law enforcement, and that the school had long been classified as a safe facility by local police. Witness testimony collected by Turkish news agency IHA has painted a chaotic picture of the attack. One unnamed witness described the gunman entering the school’s front gate without warning, pulling out a long, pump-action shotgun and immediately opening fire in all directions.

“He immediately started shooting left and right. Then he fired towards the main school building. Then he ran inside. He started shooting at anyone who came in front of him, and then with the students’ screams, the teachers’ screams, everyone immediately scattered,” the witness recalled in their account.

One injured student, Ömer Furkan Sayar, spoke to Turkey’s state-owned public broadcaster TRT from his hospital bed, describing how the gunman moved through at least two occupied classrooms during the rampage, including his own. “First we threw ourselves to the ground, then two of us jumped out of the window. He didn’t say anything to us, he just came in and started shooting,” Sayar said.

As of Thursday morning, authorities have not released a possible motive for the attack, and the investigation is ongoing.

Escalating tensions between the United States and Iran reached a new critical juncture this Tuesday, after Washington announced a full blockade of Iranian ports, Tehran issued sharp threats of retaliation across the Middle East, and Pakistan has ramped up urgent diplomatic outreach to bring the two warring parties back to the negotiating table.

While a fragile ceasefire reached last week has so far held across most frontlines, the escalating standoff centered on the strategic Strait of Hormuz has stoked widespread fears that open hostilities could reignite, worsening the already devastating economic shockwaves the seven-week conflict has sent across the global economy.

The conflict, which erupted on February 28 when the U.S. and Israel launched coordinated strikes against Iranian targets, saw an initial round of peace talks held last weekend fail to reach a breakthrough agreement. Pakistan, which led the first mediation effort, has tabled a proposal to host a second round of negotiations in the coming days. Two Pakistani officials, speaking on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to media about the sensitive diplomatic process, confirmed the first round of talks was never intended as a one-off attempt, but rather the opening step of a sustained diplomatic push.

U.S. officials confirmed Monday that internal discussions over scheduling a new negotiating round are still ongoing, and a diplomat from a third-party mediating country confirmed that both Tehran and Washington have formally agreed to participate in the next talks. According to two U.S. officials, the most likely target date for the new negotiations is Thursday, though final details on venue, timing, and delegation composition have not been locked in. Both Islamabad and Geneva are currently under consideration as potential host cities. All parties involved have requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of ongoing private negotiations.

Over its seven weeks, the conflict has already caused massive disruption to global markets and sent shockwaves through the world economy, as key shipping lanes have been cut off and widespread airstrikes have destroyed critical military and civilian infrastructure across the region. The human cost of the fighting has been staggering: at least 3,000 people have been killed in Iran, more than 2,000 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel, over a dozen in Gulf Arab states, and 13 U.S. service members have also lost their lives.

The newly imposed U.S. port blockade is designed to cut off a key source of revenue for Iran, which has exported millions of barrels of oil largely to Asian markets since the conflict began. Most of these exports have moved via so-called “dark transit” operations that evade international sanctions and oversight, generating critical cash flow that keeps the Iranian government functioning.

On Tuesday, the first full day of the blockade, key details remained unclear about how the measure will be enforced and how commercial shipping operators will comply. Tankers approaching the strait on Monday turned around shortly after the blockade took effect, though one vessel reversed course again and successfully transited the waterway early Tuesday. That tanker, the Rich Starry, had been waiting off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, according to shipping data from Lloyd’s List, which drew on tracking information from energy cargo monitoring firm Vortexa. While it was not immediately confirmed if the vessel had previously docked at an Iranian port, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control already lists the Rich Starry as linked to Iranian shipping interests. Lloyd’s List data, pulled from ship registry and tracking records, shows the tanker is owned by a Chinese shipping firm and is ultimately bound for a Chinese port. U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the region, has not yet responded to requests for comment on the Rich Starry’s passage. A day before the transit, Central Command confirmed the blockade applies to all vessels traveling to and from Iranian ports.

Even before the formal U.S. blockade, the conflict had severely curbed maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, with most commercial ships choosing to avoid the waterway entirely. Iran’s de facto closure of the strait, which normally carries one-fifth of all globally traded oil during peacetime, has already caused global crude oil prices to skyrocket, driving up the cost of gasoline, food, and other essential commodities far beyond the Middle East.

U.S. President Donald Trump framed Iran’s control over the strait as “blackmail and extortion” in comments Monday, as the U.S. blockade went into effect. In a social media post, Trump claimed Iran’s navy had been “completely obliterated” while acknowledging the country still retains fast attack craft. He issued a stark warning: “if any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED.”

Iran quickly responded with threats of retaliation against ports across the Persian Gulf if the country comes under further attack. “If you fight, we will fight,” Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said in a direct statement addressing Trump.

In a separate diplomatic development, France and the United Kingdom announced Tuesday that French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will co-host a conference this Friday for nations willing to deploy warships to escort commercial oil tankers and container ships through the Strait of Hormuz. A spokesperson for Macron said the escort deployment will move forward “when security conditions allow.”

Parallel to the U.S.-Iran negotiations, long-awaited direct talks between Israel and Lebanon are set to get underway Tuesday in Washington, marking the first formal direct negotiations between the two countries in decades.

Israel has continued its air and ground offensive in Lebanon even after last week’s ceasefire deal with Iran, with Israeli officials emphasizing the truce does not apply to operations against Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Israel has however halted airstrikes on central Beirut since April 8, after a deadly bombardment hit multiple crowded commercial and residential areas in the capital. That attack sparked international condemnation and a threat from Iran that it would exit the ceasefire agreement if strikes on Beirut resumed.

Hezbollah launched daily rocket attacks into northern Israel starting more than a year ago, and Israel dramatically escalated its ground and air offensive in southern Lebanon in the opening days of the broader U.S.-Iran war. According to Lebanese government data, the fighting has left a trail of destruction from border agricultural towns all the way to Beirut, killing more than 2,000 people and displacing over 1 million others.

Tuesday’s opening talks are expected to be preliminary, focused on setting negotiating parameters rather than resolving long-standing core disputes. Lebanese officials have made a full ceasefire their top priority, while Israel has framed the negotiations around demands for Hezbollah’s full disarmament and a potential long-term peace deal, without publicly committing to a permanent halt to hostilities or a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory.

Israel is demanding that the Lebanese government take formal responsibility for disarming Hezbollah, a framework originally outlined in a 2024 November ceasefire agreement. But the militant group, which has survived decades of international and regional efforts to curb its power, issued a statement Monday confirming it will not be bound by any agreements that emerge from the Washington talks.

A years-long joint investigation by the BBC and the Consolidated Rescue Group (CRG) has uncovered explosive evidence of systematic illegal pushbacks at Greece’s Evros land border with Turkey, revealing that Greek police have been recruiting migrant mercenaries to carry out violent, unlawful expulsions of asylum seekers and irregular migrants since at least 2020. The 200-kilometer Evros border forms the European Union’s eastern external frontier, a heavily militarized restricted zone dotted with watchtowers that has been a key entry point for more than 1 million migrants arriving in Greece since 2015. What the investigation uncovered is a shadowy, officially overseen system that violates both international and European Union human rights law.

The inquiry began in autumn 2024, after a disgruntled smuggler shared graphic footage purporting to show migrants being abused by masked, third-country men at the border. While the BBC could not independently verify the footage’s content, its accounts aligned with testimony gathered from more than a dozen independent sources, including current and former Greek border guards, migrant victims, former mercenaries, leaked official disciplinary documents, and independent human rights investigations. Internal police documents reviewed by the BBC confirm that senior Greek police officers ordered and oversaw the recruitment of mercenaries, who are themselves migrants from countries including Pakistan, Syria, and Afghanistan. Recruits are compensated with cash, stolen mobile phones and valuables from other migrants, and unofficial permission to travel onward through Greece. In some cases, recruitment has happened under duress: Marwan, a Moroccan former mercenary who spoke to the BBC from Paris under a pseudonym, said he was pulled from a migrant detention cell in 2020 and given no choice but to agree to work. He described being held in an abandoned prison with other recruits, and told the BBC he witnessed routine brutal violence against migrants at the hands of Greek officers and other mercenaries, leaving him “completely destroyed” by trauma. “I am deeply sorry… I was under threat,” he said of his involvement.

Multiple witnesses and documents corroborate allegations of widespread brutality against migrants subjected to pushbacks. Testimony collected by the BBC includes accounts of migrants being stripped, beaten until unconscious, robbed, subjected to invasive and degrading body searches, and sexually assaulted. One Syrian migrant, Amal (using a pseudonym for security), described how her family was detained by Greek police in Orestiada in 2025 while traveling to reunite with relatives who had already been granted asylum in Greece. She said police handed the group over to masked mercenaries, who removed her young daughter’s diaper during a search for valuables, leaving the child screaming in fear, and beat a young migrant so severely he lost consciousness. Another Syrian migrant, Ahmad, said he was beaten unconscious by Greek police, then loaded into an overcrowded truck where many passengers struggled to breathe before being handed over to mercenaries who stripped him, beat anyone hiding money, and forced migrants into dinghies half-way across the Evros River, throwing those who refused to jump overboard despite the risk of drowning.

Official investigations and disciplinary records support these accounts. Excerpts from a 2024 Greek border guard disciplinary hearing reviewed by the BBC show multiple guards openly acknowledged the use of “boatmen” – the coded term for mercenary recruiters – for pushbacks. One guard told the hearing he was ordered to find recruits in 2020, when COVID-19 restrictions and heightened tensions with Turkey made direct police involvement too risky, and that the program was already active in southern Evros. Guards used coded language on the Viber messaging app to coordinate pushbacks, referencing “Special Team” operations, and told the hearing they had reported to senior officers that mercenaries were raping female migrants and stealing valuables, but no action was taken. Five border guards are currently awaiting trial on corruption charges related to the program, all of which they deny.

A 2023 investigation by Frontex’s own independent Fundamental Rights Office into one ambush of a group of asylum seekers near Evros found that between 10 and 20 third-country nationals were acting under direct instruction of Greek officers. The report confirmed the group was subjected to death and rape threats, invasive sexualized body searches, beatings, stabbings, theft, and forced expulsion back to Turkey, in clear violation of EU human rights law. Greek authorities have denied any migrants were present in the area that day. The Greek National Commission for Human Rights (GNCHR) has itself documented more than 100 alleged forced pushback incidents in Evros dating back to 2020, dozens of which involved third-country mercenaries, with the most recent incident recorded in October 2025. GNCHR president Maria Gavouneli called the BBC’s findings “extremely significant” evidence of widespread human rights abuse.

When confronted with the allegations by the BBC in March 2026, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he was “totally unaware” of any program using migrant mercenaries for pushbacks. He defended Greece’s border protection policies, adding that European leaders have made clear they will not repeat past “mistakes” of allowing a “massive influx” of migrants and refugees. Greek national authorities have not responded to the BBC’s detailed written requests for comment on the investigation’s findings. Frontex, the EU’s border and coast guard agency, has rejected claims it turns a blind eye to human rights violations, saying it works to ensure lawful border management and supports frontline states under pressure. A regional police source told the BBC that every uniformed officer serving in Evros – including Greek police, soldiers and Frontex staff – is aware pushbacks are taking place, with mercenaries pushing back as many as hundreds of migrants every week.

The investigation also identified a leading former mercenary, a Syrian man known as “Mike”, who is referenced in internal police documents and confirmed by five separate sources to have held a senior role in the program. A photo provided by the smuggler shows a group of masked men in a van, and facial recognition analysis found a 90% match between the right-most individual in the photo and publicly available images of Mike. When contacted via social media, Mike did not respond directly, and his lawyer sent a warning letter opposing publication of the image and what he called “unproven allegations”. A lawyer has also confirmed she has filed a case before the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of an Afghan woman who alleges she was raped by a Farsi-speaking masked mercenary during a 2023 pushback.

Pushbacks – the forced expulsion of migrants and asylum seekers across international borders without formal due process or access to asylum claims – are universally recognized as illegal under international law. Claims of masked third-country men carrying out pushbacks in Evros were first reported in 2022 by Dutch-based independent news outlet Lighthouse Reports. The BBC’s investigation provides the most comprehensive evidence to date of official involvement in the program, spanning more than five years and continuing into 2025.