MANILA, Philippines: Philippine military officials say they're checking intelligence reports that a Libya-educated commander of the Abu Sayyaf extremist group linked has died after being wounded in an artillery strike in the south.
Brig Gen. Cirilito Sobejana said Saturday that if the reported killing of Yassir Igasan in southern Sulu province turns out to be true, it would add to a leadership crisis within the Abu Sayyaf. The group has lost many commanders to combat and surrenders in recent years.
Sobejana said the military received intelligence that Igasan was seriously wounded by artillery fire in the hinterlands of Sulu's Patikul town in October and then died later.
Igasan has been regarded as a candidate to succeed an Islamic State group leader killed in battle in southern Marawi city last year.
Philippines checking reported killing of extremist leader
Philippines checking reported killing of extremist leader
Ex-Labour chief could form pro-Palestine party in UK
- Corbyn in talks with Independent Alliance MPs elected in 2024 for opposing Gaza war
- Jeremy Corbyn: That grouping will come together. There will be an alternative
LONDON: Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has suggested he could launch a political movement to provide a left-wing “alternative” to the governing party before the next general election.
Corbyn was suspended from Labour in 2020 by the UK’s current Prime Minister Keir Starmer due to a row over antisemitism.
He has since sat as an independent MP, and has hinted at a desire to form a new group centered around socialist policies with a pro-Palestine stance.
Corbyn told ITV’s “Peston” political show that he is holding discussions with members of the Independent Alliance, who were elected last year by running on pro-Palestine platforms against Labour MPs.
The alliance includes Leicester South MP Shockat Adam; Birmingham Perry Barr MP Ayoub Khan; Blackburn MP Adnan Hussain; and Dewsbury and Batley MP Iqbal Mohamed.
“That grouping will come together. There will be an alternative,” Corbyn said, adding that its foreign policy platform would be “based on peace rather than war,” and that it would seek to alleviate poverty and inequality.
Denmark vows to push EU membership for Ukraine
- "We must strengthen Ukraine. And we must weaken Russia," Frederiksen said
- Zelensky is meeting Frederiksen in the city of Aarhus, as well as European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa
AARHUS, Denmark: Denmark promised on Thursday to push for Ukraine to join the EU, as the Nordic country welcomed Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky to mark the start of its six-month EU presidency.
Ukraine launched its bid to become an EU member in the aftermath of Russia's 2022 invasion, but it has stalled because of opposition from Hungary.
"We must strengthen Ukraine. And we must weaken Russia," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement, promising to mix increased military support to Kyiv with sanctions on Moscow.
Zelensky is meeting Frederiksen in the city of Aarhus, as well as European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa.
Frederiksen has stressed the importance of European security, which she links to a strict migration policy, and the country has promised to push the agenda and champion Ukraine during its EU presidency.
The Aarhus meeting comes as the United States announced it would stop supplying some weapons to Ukraine, after President Donald Trump effectively nixed the country's attempts to join the NATO military alliance.
Russian strikes have intensified in the absence of progress on resolving the conflict, and the US moves have severely hampered Kyiv, which has relied on Western military support since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022.
"Ukraine is essential to Europe's security. Our contribution to Ukraine is also a protection of our freedom," Frederiksen said.
"Ukraine belongs in the European Union. It is in both Denmark's and Europe's interest. Therefore, the Danish EU presidency will do everything we can to help Ukraine on their way towards EU membership."
Denmark's Europe minister Marie Bjerre told reporters earlier on Thursday that Ukraine's EU membership bid was "very important for us".
"We are still trying to lift the resistance from Hungary," she said.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that Ukraine's membership of the EU would "ruin" the 27-nation bloc.
Using its veto power, Hungary has effectively frozen the accession process.
Ukraine has insisted it still hopes Budapest can be brought around, claiming intensive work is being done "behind the scenes".
The Danish government said discussions at the Aarhus meeting would include increased military support, cooperation with the Ukrainian defence industry and new sanctions against Russia.
The Nordic nation has also made repeated calls for Europe to boost defence spending.
Denmark wants to move forward on a European plan presented in March to increase the defence capabilities of EU countries using simplified procedures and loans to finance investments in the European defence industry.
The Scandinavian country has already begun increasing its own defence spending, which now exceeds three percent of GDP.
Shock in Jakarta, MPs demand action after Israel assassinates Indonesian hospital director
- Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan, renowned cardiac surgeon, was killed in targeted Israeli airstrike
- Israel has killed at least 492 doctors and health workers in Gaza since October 2023
JAKARTA/DUBAI: Israel’s assassination of Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, has sparked shock in Jakarta, with parliamentarians calling for new international accountability mechanisms to hold Israel legally responsible for its crimes in Gaza.
A renowned cardiac surgeon and one of Palestine’s most senior doctors, Dr. Al-Sultan graduated from Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences in Hyderabad, Pakistan, in 2001.
He was killed along with his wife and children in an Israeli airstrike on their temporary residence in northern Gaza on Wednesday.
His surviving daughter, Lubna, told the media that the missile “targeted his room exactly, right where he was.” Her testimony confirmed statements from the Gaza Ministry of Health and the Jakarta-based Medical Emergency Rescue Committee — which funded the Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahia — that the attack was a targeted assassination.
“The attack on Dr. Marwan was utterly savage and barbaric,” Dr. Sarbini Abdul Murad, chairman of MER-C’s board of trustees, told Arab News.
“It was a shock to hear the news. I couldn’t believe it. He was the only heart specialist left in the north. This is a huge loss.”
The Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahia, one of the biggest health facilities in Gaza, was one of the first targeted by Israel when it started its deadly war on the Palestinian enclave in October 2023.
Dr. Al-Sultan had never left his post, remaining with patients through multiple Israeli offensives on the hospital and personally overseeing repairs to restore essential services, MER-C said in a statement recalling how in December 2024, he evacuated the facility while under Israeli siege.
The moment was recorded on a mobile phone, showing Dr. Al-Sultan leaving only after he had ensured the safety of every patient.
The Indonesia Hospital opened in late 2015. Coordinated by MER-C, its construction and equipment were financed from donations of the Indonesian people, with dozens of engineers and builders volunteering to design and build the facility and to prepare its operations.
The killing of Dr. Al-Sultan has spurred outcry in Indonesia, with the government issuing an official condemnation and lawmakers from the Committee for Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation calling on parliamentarians around the world to “push for international accountability mechanisms” to ensure that “crimes against humanity be immediately brought to international forums, including global parliamentary bodies, so that Israel can be held legally and morally accountable for its actions in Gaza.”
Israel has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 133,000 others, since October 2023. The true death toll is feared to be much higher, with research published in The Lancet medical journal in January estimating an underreporting of deaths by 41 percent.
The study says the death toll may be even higher, as it does not include deaths caused by starvation, injury and lack of access to health care, caused by the Israeli military’s destruction of most of Gaza’s infrastructure and the blocking of medical and food aid.
Data from the UN and international health organizations shows that Israel has killed at least 492 doctors and medics in Gaza since October 2023.
Dr. Al-Sultan is the 70th health care worker to be killed in the last 50 days, according to Healthcare Workers Watch.
“He was a prominent medical figure, both as a heart specialist and director of the Indonesia Hospital,” Dr. Hadiki Habib, chairman of MER-C’s executive committee, told Arab News.
“We had feared that this could happen, but he had said that he would remain in Gaza and, if he were to be martyred, it would be in his homeland.”
Russian strikes kill eight in Ukraine
- Among the sites hit were a military enlistment office in the eastern city of Poltava and port infrastructure in the southern city of Odesa
- The Ukrainian army reported there were “dead and wounded” at a recruitment office in Poltava
KYIV: Russia launched a wave of attacks on Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens of others, Ukrainian officials said.
Among the sites hit were a military enlistment office in the eastern city of Poltava and port infrastructure in the southern city of Odesa.
Moscow has stepped up its drone and missile bombardment of Ukraine in recent weeks, with peace talks stalling and Kyiv’s key ally Washington signalling it could cut military support.
The warring sides last met for direct talks more than a month ago and no further meeting has been organized.
The Ukrainian army reported there were “dead and wounded” at a recruitment office in Poltava.
Emergency services posted images of buildings on fire and rescue workers at the scene of the strike.
“Two people were killed,” the emergency services said. The region’s police added 47 people were wounded.
In Odesa, two people were killed when “an Iskander missile” struck the seaport, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram.
He added that six people had been wounded in the strike.
In Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, strikes killed four people, the regional prosecutor’s office said.
“At least nine apartment buildings, three garages, a shop facade and a power line were damaged in the settlements,” it added.
In Russia’s Lipetsk region, debris from a Ukrainian drone killed a woman and wounded two other people, its governor said Thursday.
The debris fell on a building in Lipetsk, which lies about 400 kilometers (250 miles) southeast of Moscow, killing a woman in her seventies, Igor Artamonov wrote on Telegram.
Austria deports Syrian convict in EU first since Assad fall
- “The deportation carried out today is part of a strict and thus fair asylum policy,” Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said
- It was the first deportation of a Syrian directly to Syria in about 15 years
VIENNA: Austria on Thursday deported a Syrian criminal convict back to Syria, becoming the first EU country to do so officially “in recent years,” the interior ministry said.
Austria has been pushing to be able to deport Syrians back since the ouster of Syria’s leader Bashar Assad in December.
“The deportation carried out today is part of a strict and thus fair asylum policy,” Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said in a statement sent to AFP.
The ministry said it was the first deportation of a Syrian directly to Syria in about 15 years, and Austria was the “first European country to officially deport a Syrian criminal directly to Syria in recent years.”
Karner traveled to Syria with his German counterpart Nancy Faeser in April to discuss deportations, among other topics.
Karner, from the governing conservative People’s Party (OeVP), on Thursday vowed to “continue this chosen path with hard work and determination.”
Austria was among European Union nations that suspended all Syrian asylum applications after Assad’s ouster. It also stopped family reunifications.
Some 100,000 Syrians live in Austria, one of the biggest diaspora in Europe.
Austria’s anti-migration far right topped national elections in September though they were unable to find partners to govern, leaving the runner-up conservatives to form a new government.
