SRINAGAR, India: Five Indian soldiers were killed in a fierce gunbattle with militants fighting against Indian rule in the Himalayan region of Kashmir on Monday, officials said, as violence in the disputed region has increased in recent weeks.
Police and soldiers cordoned off a forested area in southern Surankote area following an intelligence report that militants were present there, said Lt. Col. Devender Anand, an Indian army spokesman.
As troops launched a search operation, militants opened heavy gunfire that critically wounded an army officer and four soldiers, Anand said. They were evacuated to a nearest medical facility but died there, he said.
A reinforcement of soldiers and police was sent to the area, Anand said, adding that the fighting was ongoing.
No rebel group has immediately issued any statement.
India and Pakistan claim the divided territory of Kashmir in its entirety. Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebel goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict since 1989.
Monday’s fighting comes amid a sweeping crackdown by government forces in the Kashmir Valley following a string of targeted killings in the region’s main city of Srinagar last week. Police detained over 500 people for questioning after suspected militants shot and killed a prominent Kashmiri Hindu chemist, two schoolteachers of the Hindu and Sikh faiths, and a Hindu street food vendor from India’s eastern state of Bihar.
The killings appeared to have triggered widespread fear among minority communities, with many Hindu families opting to leave the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley.
5 Indian soldiers killed in gunfight with rebels in Kashmir
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5 Indian soldiers killed in gunfight with rebels in Kashmir
- India and Pakistan claim the divided territory of Kashmir in its entirety
- Monday’s fighting comes amid a sweeping crackdown by government forces in the Kashmir Valley
Elon Musk addresses German far-right rally by video link
“The German people are really an ancient nation which goes back thousand of years“
HALLE, Germany: US tech billionaire Elon Musk gave a video address to a campaign rally of Germany’s anti-immigration AfD party Saturday, his latest show of support ahead of the country’s election next month.
Musk told a gathering of thousands of AfD supporters in the eastern city of Halle that their party was “the best hope for the future of Germany.”
Musk has raised concern from some mainstream leaders who have accused him of interfering in European politics with comments on his social platform X about politicians in countries including Germany and Britain.
He also drew criticism this week for making a public hand gesture that was seen by some as resembling a straight-armed Nazi salute.
“The German people are really an ancient nation which goes back thousand of years,” he said in Saturday’s address.
“I even read Julius Caesar was very impressed (by) the German tribes,” he said, urging the supporters to “fight, fight, fight” for their country’s future.
He said the AfD wanted “more self-determination for Germany and for the countries in Europe and less from Brussels,” a reference to European Union authorities.
Musk is a close associate of US President Donald Trump, who has appointed him to head a new department of “government efficiency” in his administration.
Like Trump, the AfD opposes immigration, denies climate change, rails against gender politics and has declared war on a political establishment and mainstream media it condemns as censorious.
Ahead of Germany’s February 23 elections, it is polling at around 20 percent, a new record for a party that has already shattered a decades-old taboo against the far right in post-war Germany.
The mainstream conservative grouping CDU/CSU leads on about 30 percent.
Hegseth sworn in as US defense secretary
- Hegseth pledges to “restore the warrior ethos” in the Pentagon
- Former Fox News personality narrowly won Senate confirmation amid concerns over inexperience
WASHINGTON: Former infantryman and Fox News personality Pete Hegseth was sworn in as US defense secretary Saturday, having narrowly won Senate confirmation despite allegations of alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct and concerns over inexperience.
Pledging to “restore the warrior ethos” in the Pentagon, Hegseth in brief remarks thanked President Donald Trump for selecting him and Vice President JD Vance for his tie-breaking vote in the Senate that allowed his nomination to pass.
Vance’s vote Friday evening was only the second time in history a vice president had to intervene to save a cabinet nominee and came after three Republicans — including former leader Mitch McConnell — cast ballots against Hegseth.
The razor-edge result underscored concerns about Hegseth, who takes over the Pentagon with war raging in Ukraine, the Middle East volatile despite ceasefires in Lebanon and Gaza, and as Trump expands the military’s role in security on the US-Mexico border.
The 44-year-old is a former Army National Guard officer and Bronze Star recipient with previous deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Until recently, he worked as a co-host for Fox News — one of Trump’s favored television channels.
Hegseth has a combative media personality, fierce loyalty and telegenic looks — common hallmarks in Trump’s entourage.
Supporters say Hegseth’s deployments give him the insight to run the Defense Department better than more experienced officials who would normally be considered for the job.
Speaking Saturday after his swearing in, Hegseth said he was thinking of “the guys that I served with on the battlefield, the men and women who I locked shields with and put my life on the line with.”
“We’re going to think about those warriors with every single decision that we make,” he said.
In confirming him, Republicans brushed aside his lack of experience leading an organization anywhere near the size of the Defense Department — the country’s largest employer with some three million personnel.
They also approved Hegseth despite allegations of financial mismanagement at veterans’ nonprofits where he previously worked, reports of excessive drinking, and allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman in California.
Trump has stood by him, telling reporters on Friday that he’s “a very, very good man.”
Asked during his confirmation hearing last week about criticism he has faced, Hegseth said there was a “coordinated smear campaign” against him, and that he is “not a perfect person, but redemption is real.”
The thrice-married father of seven has frequently proclaimed his Christian faith, and began his remarks Saturday by saying “All praise and glory to God, his will be done.”
He credited his successful nomination to “Jesus and Jenny” — his wife.
Rescue teams empty 1,500 tons of oil from Russian tanker
- The mishap resulted in a devastating oil spill that damaged miles (kilometers) of coastline along the Black Sea
- Two Russian ships, the Volgoneft-239 and the Volgoneft-212, were badly damaged in stormy weather in December
MOSCOW: Rescue workers have successfully removed almost 1,500 tons of oil left onboard a tanker that ran aground last year in southern Russia, officials said Saturday.
The mishap resulted in a devastating oil spill that damaged miles (kilometers) of coastline along the Black Sea.
Two Russian ships, the Volgoneft-239 and the Volgoneft-212, were badly damaged in stormy weather in December resulting in thousands of tons of low-grade fuel oil called mazut spilling into the Kerch Strait.
A crew from Russia’s Marine Rescue Service siphoned away the remaining 1,488 tons of oil left in the grounded Volgoneft-239 in a six-day operation, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev said Saturday in a post on the Russian government’s official Telegram channel.
Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov announced that the damaged tanker would be drained earlier this month but workers found it was continuing to leak oil into the water.
The Volgoneft-239 will now be cleaned and prepared for being dismantled, Savelyev said. The fate of the second tanker, the Volgoneft-212, remains undecided after the boat sank beneath the waves.
So far, oil from the spill has washed up along beaches in Russia’s Krasnodar region, as well as in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions of Crimea and the Berdyansk Spit, some 145 kilometers (90 miles) north of the Kerch Strait. President Vladimir Putin earlier in January called the spill “one of the most serious environmental challenges we have faced in recent years.”
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said Saturday that more than 173,000 tons of contaminated sand and soil have so far been collected by the weekslong cleanup effort, with thousands of volunteers joining the operation.
Zelensky expresses hopes US, Europe will be involved in Ukraine peace talks
- Zelensky said Ukraine also needed to be involved in any talks about ending the war
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hopes Europe and the United States will be involved in any talks about ending his country’s war with Russia, he told reporters on Saturday.
At a joint news conference with Moldovan President Maia Sandu, Zelensky said Ukraine also needed to be involved in any talks about ending the war for such negotiations to have any meaningful impact.
Ukrainian hit on occupied southern village kills 3: Moscow-installed official
- “Ukrainian terrorists shelled Oleshky with cluster munitions and remote mine-clearing systems,” Saldo said
- “At the moment, we know about three killed civilians”
MOSCOW: Russian occupational authorities in southern Ukraine said Saturday that a Ukrainian strike on a Moscow-held village in the Kherson region killed three people.
Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-installed leader of the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson region, accused Kyiv of using cluster munitions in a strike on the village of Oleshky.
Oleshky lies close to the city of Kherson and near the Dnipro river, which forms the frontline in southern Ukraine.
“Ukrainian terrorists shelled Oleshky with cluster munitions and remote mine-clearing systems,” Saldo said in a post on Telegram.
“At the moment, we know about three killed civilians,” he added, saying the victims are being identified.
He called on villagers to stay in their homes or in shelters.
Both sides in the almost three-year war have accused each other of using cluster munitions.
The US has supplied cluster munitions — which rights groups say are particularly deadly and have long-term effects — drawing criticism even from its allies.
Kyiv, meanwhile, said that four people were wounded by Russian attacks in the Kherson region on Saturday.
