CAIRO: Egyptian warplanes struck Islamic State targets in Libya on Monday in swift retribution for the extremists’ beheading of a group of Egyptian Christian hostages on a beach, shown in a grisly online video released hours earlier.
At the same time, Egypt called for international intervention in Libya against the Islamic State group. Loyalists of the Syria and Iraq-based group have risen to dominate several cities in the chaos-riven North African nation.
Italy, just across the Mediterranean Sea, says it is prepared to lead international action in Libya.
After the release of the beheading video Sunday night, the tiny Christian-majority home village of more than half of the 21 Egyptians believed killed by the extremists was gutted by grief. Inside the village church, relatives wept and shouted the names of the dead in shock.
“What will be a relief to me is to take a hold of his murderer, tear him apart, eat up his flesh and liver,” said Bushra Fawzi in el-Aour village, as he wept over the loss of his 22-year-old son Shenouda. “I want his body back. If they dumped it in the sea, I want it back. If they set fire to it, I want its dust.”
The 21 — mainly young men from impoverished families — had traveled to Libya for work and were kidnapped in two groups in December and January from the coastal city of Sirte. In the video, the group is marched onto what is purported to be a Libyan beach before masked militants with knives carve off the head of each. The killing of at least a dozen of them is clearly visible, though it was not clear from the video whether all 21 hostages were killed.
Two rounds of Egyptian airstrikes, several hours apart on Monday, struck targets in the eastern Libyan city of Darna, according to Egyptian and Libyan security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk the press.
Egypt’s military announced the strikes on state radio, marking the first time Cairo has publicly acknowledged military action in Libya. It said the strikes hit weapons caches and training camps “to avenge the bloodshed and to seek retribution from the killers.”
“Let those far and near know that Egyptians have a shield to protect and safeguard the security of the country and a sword that cuts off terrorism,” it said.
Libya’s air force commander, Saqr Al-Joroushi, told Egyptian state TV that the airstrikes were coordinated with the Libyan side. Libya’s air force said it also carried out strikes in Darna.
Libya has become home of the strongest presence of the Islamic State group outside its core territory in Syria and Iraq.
With almost no state control in much of Libya, extremists loyal to the Islamic State have seized control Darna and the central city of Sirte and have built up a powerful presence in the capital Tripoli and the second-largest city Benghazi. Libyan Interior Minister Omar Al-Sinki has said some 400 militants from Yemen and Tunisia are believed to make up the group in Libya, along with Libyan militias that have vowed allegiance.
Egypt appears now to be launching a push for international military intervention in Libya to curb the group.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi spoke with France’s president and Italy’s prime minister Monday about the Libya situation. He sent his foreign minister, Sameh Shukri, to New York to consult with UN officials and Security Council members ahead of a conference on terrorism opening Wednesday in Washington.
“What is happening in Libya is a threat to international peace and security,” said el-Sissi.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said the international community must adopt “immediate and effective” moves against terror groups in Libya. “Leaving things in Libya as they are without decisive intervention to suppress these terror groups constitutes a clear danger to international peace and security,” it said.
It also called on the US-led coalition staging airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria to offer Egypt political and material support to counter the group in Libya.
The idea of intervention has gained traction with Italy, whose southern tip is less than 500 miles (800 kilometers) from the Libyan coast. One of the militants in the video boasted the group plans to “conquer Rome.”
Italian Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti said in an interview published Sunday in the Il Messaggero daily that her country was ready to lead a coalition of countries — European and North African — to stop the militants’ advance.
“If in Afghanistan we sent 5,000 men, in a country like Libya which is much closer to home, and where the risk of deterioration is much more worrisome for Italy, our mission and commitment could be significant, even numerically,” she was quoted as saying.
Italy, she said, would gladly take a lead role “for geographic, economic and historic reasons,” but she stressed that so far such an intervention was only theoretical. Asked if ground troops were a possibility, she said it would depend on the scenario.
Egypt is already battling an Islamist insurgency in the strategic Sinai Peninsula, where militants have recently declared their allegiance to the Islamic State and rely heavily on arms smuggled from Libya.
Libya, on Egypt’s western border, has slid into chaos since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi.
Islamist-allied militias seized the capital Tripoli last year, and the internationally recognized government has been confined to the country’s far east since, while Islamist politicians set up a rival government in Tripoli.
Last year, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates carried out airstrikes against Islamist-allied forces last year, according to US officials.
The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, called the new mass killing an “ugly crime” and said it was “devoting all its resources to support the efforts of Egypt to eradicate terrorism and the violence directed against its citizens.”
He added that the killing highlights the need to help the Libyan government “extend its sovereign authority over all of Libya’s territory.”
The oil-rich Emirates, along with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, has given billions of dollars in aid to Egypt since el-Sissi, who was then military chief, overthrew Islamist President Muhammad Mursi in July 2013 amid massive protests against his yearlong rule.
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Michael reported from el-Aour, Egypt. Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield in Rome, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Adam Schreck in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.
Egypt urges global action to wipe out IS scourge
Egypt urges global action to wipe out IS scourge
Lebanon ministry says one dead in Israeli strike on south
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said at least one person was killed Sunday in an Israeli strike on the country’s south, as Israel said it targeted two Hezbollah operatives.
“The strike launched by the Israeli enemy in the town of Zibqin today led to a preliminary toll of one dead,” the health ministry said in a statement.
Israeli military changes initial account of Gaza aid worker killings
- The 15 aid and emergency workers were shot dead on March 23
- Israeli military initially said soldiers opened fire on vehicles without lights and markings
- UN and Red Cross demand independent inquiry into incident
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military has provided new details that changed its initial account of the killing of 15 emergency workers near the southern Gaza city of Rafah last month but said investigators were still examining the evidence.
The 15 paramedics and emergency responders were shot dead on March 23 and buried in a shallow grave where their bodies were found a week later by officials from the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent. Another man is still missing.
The military initially said soldiers had opened fire on vehicles that approached their position “suspiciously” in the dark without lights or markings. It said they killed nine militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad who were traveling in Palestinian Red Crescent vehicles.
But video recovered from the mobile phone of one of the dead men and published by the Palestinian Red Crescent showed emergency workers in their uniforms and clearly marked ambulances and fire trucks, with their lights on, being fired on by soldiers.
The only known survivor of the incident, Palestinian Red Crescent paramedic Munther Abed, also said he had seen soldiers opening fire on clearly marked emergency response vehicles.
An Israeli military official said late on Saturday the investigators were examining the video and conclusions were expected to be presented to army commanders on Sunday.
Israeli media briefed by the military reported that troops had identified at least six of the 15 dead as members of militant groups. However, the official declined to provide any evidence or detail of how the identifications were made, saying he did not want to share classified information.
“According to our information, there were terrorists there but this investigation is not over,” he told reporters at the briefing late on Saturday.
The UN and the Palestinian Red Cross have demanded an independent inquiry into the killing of the paramedics.
Red Crescent officials have said 17 paramedics and emergency workers from the Red Crescent, the Civil Emergency service and the UN had been dispatched to respond to reports of injuries from Israeli air strikes.
Apart from Abed, who was detained for several hours before being released, another worker is still missing.
OPENED FIRE
The military official said initial findings from the investigation showed troops had opened fire on a vehicle at around 4 a.m., killing two members of the Hamas internal security forces, and taking another prisoner, who the official said had admitted under interrogation to being in Hamas.
As time passed, several vehicles passed along the road until, at around 6 a.m., he said troops received word from aerial surveillance that a suspicious group of vehicles was approaching.
“They feel this is another incident like what happened at 4 a.m. and they opened fire,” the official said.
He said aerial surveillance footage showed the troops were at some distance when they opened fire, and he denied reports that the troops handcuffed at least some of the paramedics and shot them at close range.
“It’s not from close. They opened fire from afar,” he said. “There’s no mistreatment of the people there.”
He said the soldiers had approached the group they had shot, identifying at least some of them as militants. However he did not explain what evidence had prompted the assessment.
“And in their eyes they had an encounter with terrorists, that is a successful encounter with terrorists.”
He said the troops had informed the UN of the incident on the same day and initially covered the bodies with camouflage netting until they could be recovered. UN officials did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
“There was no incident where the IDF tried to cover up. On the contrary, they called the UN immediately.”
Later, when the UN did not immediately come to take the bodies, the soldiers covered them with sand to stop animals from getting at them, the official said.
He said the vehicles were pushed out of the way by a heavy engineering vehicle to clear the road but he could not explain why the vehicles were crushed by the engineering vehicle and then buried.
Yemen’s Houthis say US airstrikes kill 2 as Trump’s bombing video suggests higher death toll
- Footage aired by the Houthis’ Al-Masirah satellite news channel showing a strike collapsing what appeared to be a two-story building
- The Iranian-backed Houthis aired no footage from inside the building, which they described as a solar power shop
DUBAI: Suspected US airstrikes killed at least two people overnight in a stronghold of Yemen’s Houthi militants, the group said Sunday, as a bombing video posted by US President Donald Trump suggested casualties in the campaign may be higher than the militants acknowledge.
The strikes in Saada killed two people and wounded nine others, with footage aired by the Houthis’ Al-Masirah satellite news channel showing a strike collapsing what appeared to be a two-story building. The Iranian-backed Houthis aired no footage from inside the building, which they described as a solar power shop.
The intense campaign of airstrikes in Yemen under Trump targeting the militants over their attacks on shipping in Mideast waters stemming from the Israel-Hamas war has killed at least 69 people, according to casualty figures released by the Houthis.
However, the Houthis have not acknowledged any casualties from their security and military leadership — something challenged after an online video posted by Trump.
Trump bombing footage suggests rebel leaders targeted
Early Saturday, Trump posted what appeared to be black-and-white video from a drone of a group of several dozen people gathered in a circle. An explosion detonates during the 25-second video, with a massive crater left in its wake.
“These Houthis gathered for instructions on an attack,” Trump claimed, without offering a location for the attack or any other details about the strike. “Oops, there will be no attack by these Houthis! They will never sink our ships again!”
The US military’s Central Command, which oversees America’s Mideast military operations, has not published the video, nor offered any specific details about the strikes it has conducted since March 15. The White House has said there have been over 200 strikes so far targeting the Houthis.
The rebel-controlled SABA news agency in Yemen, citing an anonymous source, described the bombing as targeting “a social Eid visit in Hodeida governorate.” Muslims across the world just celebrated Eid Al-Fitr, the festival at the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. SABA had published images of other commanders meeting fighters during the holiday, though not any high-level Houthi officials.
“Those present at that gathering had no connection to the operations carried out by the (Houthis), which are implementing the decision to ban navigation on ships linked to the American and Israeli enemy,” the SABA report said, adding that the attack killed and wounded “dozens.”
However, the Houthis previously have not acknowledged any strike on Hodeida during that time with such a high casualty count. The SABA report also did not describe those killed as civilians, suggesting those killed had ties to the militants’ security or military forces.
Mohammed Al-Basha, a Yemen expert of the Basha Report risk advisory firm, cited social media condolence notices suggesting a colonel overseeing police stations for the Houthis in Hodeida had been killed in the strike Trump highlighted alongside his two brothers.
“The strikes have expanded significantly, hitting multiple goveronates simultaneously, alongside telecommunications infrastructure, command nodes, properties tied to senior Houthi leadership and previously untouched tunnel networks in mountainous areas,” Al-Basha told The Associated Press.
“We’ve also seen direct targeting of Houthi force gatherings, indicating a more aggressive and evolving shift in the targeting strategy,” Al-Basha said.
Intense US bombings began nearly a month ago
An AP review has found the new American operation against the Houthis under Trump appears more extensive than those under former US President Joe Biden, as Washington moves from solely targeting launch sites to firing at ranking personnel and dropping bombs on cities.
The new campaign of airstrikes started after the militants threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip. The militants have loosely defined what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning many vessels could be targeted.
The Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors from November 2023 until January of this year. They also launched attacks targeting American warships without success.
The attacks greatly raised the profile of the Houthis, who faced economic problems and launched a crackdown targeting dissent and aid workers in Yemen amid a decadelong stalemated war that has torn apart the Arab world’s poorest nation.
The campaign shows no signs of stopping as the Trump administration repeatedly has linked its airstrikes on the Houthis to an effort to pressure Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.
Palestinian teenager who died in Israeli prison showed signs of starvation, medical report says
- Starvation was likely the leading cause of death for a Palestinian teenager who died in an Israeli prison, according to an Israeli doctor who observed the autopsy
- Ahmad, who was held for six months without being charged, is the youngest Palestinian prisoner to die in an Israeli prison since the start of the Gaza war
TEL AVIV: Starvation was likely the leading cause of death for a Palestinian teenager who died in an Israeli prison, according to an Israeli doctor who observed the autopsy.
Seventeen-year-old Walid Ahmad, who had been held for six months without being charged, suffered from extreme malnutrition, and also showed signs of inflammation of the colon and scabies, said a report written by Dr. Daniel Solomon, who watched the autopsy, conducted by Israeli experts, at the request of the boy’s family.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of Solomon’s report from the family. It did not conclude a cause of death, but said Ahmad was in a state of extreme weight loss and muscle wasting. It also noted that Ahmad had complained to the prison of inadequate food since at least December, citing reports from the prison medical clinic.
Ahmad died last month after collapsing in Megiddo Prison and striking his head, Palestinian officials said, citing eyewitness accounts from other prisoners. Israel’s prison service said a team was appointed to investigate Ahmad’s death and its findings would be sent to the authorized authorities.
Ahmad is the youngest Palestinian prisoner to die in an Israeli prison since the start of the Gaza war, according to Physicians for Human Rights Israel, which has documented Palestinian prisoner deaths. He was taken into custody from his home in the occupied West Bank during a pre-dawn raid in September for allegedly throwing stones at soldiers, his family said.
The autopsy was conducted on March 27 at Israel’s Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, which has not released a report of its findings and did not respond to requests for comment. The Ahmad family’s lawyer, Nadia Daqqa, confirmed Solomon, a gastrointestinal surgeon, was granted permission to observe the autopsy by an Israeli civil court.
Widespread abuse in Israeli prisons, rights groups say
Rights groups have documented widespread abuse in Israeli detention facilities holding thousands of Palestinians who were rounded up after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority says Israel is holding the bodies of 72 Palestinian prisoners who died in Israeli jails, including 61 who died since the beginning of the war. Israel often holds on to bodies of dead Palestinians, citing security grounds or for political leverage.
Conditions in Israeli prisons have worsened since the start of the war, former detainees have told the AP. They described beatings, severe overcrowding, insufficient medical care, scabies outbreaks and poor sanitary conditions.
Megiddo Prison, a maximum security facility where many Palestinian detainees, including teens, are held without charge, is regarded as one of the harshest, said Naji Abbas, head of the Prisoners and Detainees Department at Physicians for Human Rights Israel.
Israel’s prison service said it operates according to the law and all prisoners are given basic rights.
Ahmad’s lawyer, Firas Al-Jabrini, said Israeli authorities denied his requests to visit his client in prison, but three prisoners held there told him Ahmad suffered from severe diarrhea, vomiting, headaches and dizziness before he died. They suspected it was caused by dirty water, as well as cheese and yogurt prison guards brought in the morning and that sat out all day while detainees were fasting for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the lawyer said.
Malnourished and frail
According to Dr. Solomon’s report the autopsy showed that Ahmed likely suffered from inflammation of the large intestine, a condition known as colitis that can cause frequent diarrhea and can in some cases contribute to death.
But medical experts said colitis usually doesn’t cause death in young patients and was likely exacerbated by severe malnutrition.
“He suffered from starvation that led to severe malnutrition and in combination with untreated colitis that caused dehydration and electrolyte levels disturbances in his blood which can cause heart rate abnormalities and death,” said Dr. Lina Qasem Hassan, the head of the board for Physicians for Human Rights Israel who reviewed the report at the request of the AP.
She said the findings indicated medical neglect, exacerbated by Ahmad’s inability to fight disease or infection because of how malnourished and frail he was.
Dr. Arne Stray-Pedersen, a professor of forensic medicine at the University of Oslo in Norway who was not involved in the autopsy, said the report suggests there was a period of prolonged malnutrition and sickness lasting at least a few weeks or months. “Based on the report, I interpret the underlying cause of death to be emaciation-wasting,” he said.
Scabies rashes were also noted on his legs and genital area, the report said. There was also air between his lungs that expanded into his neck and back, it said, which can cause infection. Air can come from small tears in the lungs, which can occur from severe vomiting or coughing, it said.
Ahmad’s family said he was a healthy high schooler who enjoyed playing soccer before he was taken into custody. His father, Khalid Ahmad, said his son sat through four brief court hearings by videoconference, and he noticed at one of them, in February, that his son appeared to be in poor health.
The family hasn’t yet received a death certificate from Israel, the elder Ahmad said Friday, and are hoping Dr. Solomon’s report will help bring his son’s body home.
“We will demand our son’s body for burial,” he said “What is happening in Israeli prisons is a real tragedy, as there is no value for life.”
Two British lawmakers detained by Israel are traveling home, minister says
- “I have made clear to my counterparts in the Israeli government that this is no way to treat British Parliamentarians, and we have been in contact with both MPs tonight to offer our support,” Lammy said
LONDON: Two British members of parliament who were refused entry to Israel and briefly detained are traveling back to London, a British minister said on Sunday.
Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed from Britain’s governing Labour Party visited as part of a parliamentary delegation and were barred because they were suspected of plans to “document the activities of security forces and spread anti-Israel hatred,” Sky News reported, citing the Israeli immigration ministry.
“They are on their way home now,” Britain’s deputy finance minister Darren Jones told BBC television.
“The way that my colleagues have been treated is unacceptable, as the foreign secretary has said.”
Both MPs had flown to Israel from Luton on Saturday, Sky News said.
“I have made clear to my counterparts in the Israeli government that this is no way to treat British Parliamentarians, and we have been in contact with both MPs tonight to offer our support,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a statement released late on Saturday.
“The UK government’s focus remains securing a return to the ceasefire and negotiations to stop the bloodshed, free the hostages and end the conflict in Gaza,” he added.
Israel’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
