19/06/2025

THURSDAY | JUNE 19, 2025

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Iran fires hypersonic missiles at Tel Aviv o Israel warplanes target nuclear site

drones launched from Iran. It said one of its own drones had been shot down over Iran. Trump fuelled speculation about US intervention when he made a hasty exit from the G7 summit in Canada, where the leaders of the club of wealthy democracies called for de escalation but backed Israel’s “right to defend itself”. Back in Washington on Tuesday, Trump demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender”. He also boasted that the United States could easily assassinate Khamenei. “We know exactly where he is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. Trump met with his National Security Council to discuss the conflict. There was no immediate public statement after the hour and 20 minute meeting. US officials stressed Trump has not yet made a decision about any intervention. Hours later, Khamenei responded with a post on X, saying: “We must give a strong response to the terrorist Zionist regime. We will show the Zionists no mercy.” – AFP

SLOVAK POLICE SEEK EX-MINISTER OVER AID BRATISLAVA: Slovak police attempted to detain a former defence minister and other former officials yesterday as part of investigations into how military aid was given to Ukraine. Police said the case was initiated by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said a team was investigating ammunition donations to Ukraine under the former government. News website Dennik N said police had sought to detain former defence minister Jaroslav Nad, who is out of the country, and another former ministry official. Nad has denied allegations of wrongdoing. – Reuters OVER 700 FOREIGNERS FLEE TEHRAN BAKU: More than 700 foreigners living in Iran have crossed into Azerbaijan and Armenia recently. “Since the start of the military escalation, more than 600 citizens of 17 countries have been evacuated via Azerbaijan,” said a government source. The evacuees, who crossed the border via the Astara checkpoint on the Caspian Sea coast, are being transported to Baku airport and “flown to their home countries”, the source said. India evacuated 110 of its citizens through Armenia, said Ani Badalyan, Yerevan’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman. Iran’s ambassador to Armenia, Mehdi Sobhani, said “many Iranian citizens who had previously been in Turkiye and Russia have returned to Iran via Armenia”. – AFP KNEECAP FANS CRASH COURT HEARING LONDON: Hundreds of people gathered outside a London court yesterday to support a member of the Irish rap group Kneecap who was due to appear over a terrorism charge for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah. Liam O’Hanna, whose stage name is Mo Chara, is alleged to have waved the flag of banned group Hezbollah during a gig in London in November 2024. The 27-year-old was charged last month under the Terrorism Act. Hundreds of supporters gathered outside Westminster Magistrates Court ahead of the hearing, including some politicians and musicians, singing and waving Irish and Palestinian flags. O’Hanna had to push past photographers when he arrived. – Reuters G7 ABANDONS JOINT UKRAINE STATEMENT KANANASKIS: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy left the Group of Seven summit on Tuesday with new aid from host Canada but without a joint statement of support. The G7 nations struggled to find unity over the conflict in Ukraine after President Donald Trump expressed support for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Canada dropped plans for the G7 to issue a strong statement on the war after resistance from the United States, a Canadian official said. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Ottawa would provide C$2 billion (RM6.2 billion) in new military assistance for Kyiv. – Reuters

BR I E F S

form, the core of a nuclear reactor. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had launched hypersonic Fattah-1 missiles at Tel Aviv. “The 11th wave of the proud Operation Honest Promise 3 using Fattah-1 missiles” was carried out, the Guards said in a statement broadcast on state television. Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound and can manoeuvre mid flight, making them harder to track and intercept. No missile struck Tel Aviv on Tuesday night, despite Iran’s claims that its attacks were “repeatedly shaking the shelters”, though AFP photos showed Israel’s air defence systems activated to intercept missiles over the commercial hub. Iran also sent drones towards Israel, while the Israeli military said it had intercepted a total of 10

TEHRAN: Israel said it struck a nuclear site near Tehran yesterday, while Iran said it fired hypersonic missiles as the foes traded fire for a sixth day. Hours after US President Donald Trump demanded Iran’s surrender, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed his country would show “no mercy” towards Israel’s leadership. Trump insists the United States has played no part in Israel’s bombing campaign but warned his patience was wearing thin. The long-range blitz began on Friday, when Israel launched a bombing campaign that prompted Iran to respond with missiles and drones.

After the Israeli military issued a warning for civilians to leave one district of Tehran for their safety, Israeli warplanes hit the capital early yesterday. “More than 50 fighter jets ... carried out a series of airstrikes in the Tehran area over the past few hours,” the Israeli military said, adding that several weapons manufacturing facilities were hit. “As part of the broad effort to disrupt Iran’s nuclear weapons development programme, a centrifuge production facility in Tehran was targeted.” Centrifuges are vital for uranium enrichment, the sensitive process that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors or, in highly extended

Palestinians crowding onto whatever transport vehicles available while others walk carrying sacks of flour in western Jabalia on

Tuesday. – AFPPIC

We are being forgotten, says Gaza resident

CAIRO: Israeli gunfire and strikes killed at least 30 people across the Gaza Strip yesterday, health authorities said, as some Palestinians said their plight was being forgotten as attention shifted to the conflict between Israel and Iran. The deaths included the latest in near daily killings of Palestinians seeking aid in the three weeks since Israel partially lifted a blockade. Medics said separate airstrikes on homes in the Maghazi refugee camp and Zeitoun neighbourhood in central and northern Gaza killed at least 14 people, while five others were killed in an airstrike on a tent encampment in Khan Younis. Eleven others were killed in Israeli fire at crowds of displaced

has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, displaced almost all the territory’s residents and caused a hunger crisis. The assault has led to accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies. Palestinians in Gaza have been following Israel’s air war with Iran, long a major supporter of Hamas. “We are maybe happy to see Israel suffer from Iranian rockets, but at the end of the day, one more day in this war costs the lives of tens of innocent people,” said 47-year-old Shaban Abed, a father of five from northern Gaza. “We just hope that a comprehensive solution could be reached to end the war in Gaza, too. We are being forgotten.” – Reuters

“Whoever doesn’t die from Israeli bombs dies from hunger. People risk their lives every day to get food, and they also get killed and their blood smears the sacks of flour they thought they had won,” he said. Israel has been channelling much of the aid through a US- and Israeli-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces. It has said it will continue to allow aid into Gaza, home to more than 2 million people, while ensuring aid doesn’t get into the hands of Hamas. Hamas denies seizing aid, saying Israel uses hunger as a weapon against the population in Gaza. Israel’s military offensive on Gaza

Palestinians awaiting aid trucks brought in by the United Nations along the Salahuddin road in central Gaza, medics said. On Tuesday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said 397 Palestinians among those trying to get food aid had been killed and more than 3,000 wounded since aid deliveries restarted in late May. Some in Gaza expressed concern that the latest escalations in the war between Israel and Hamas that began in October 2023 would be overlooked as the focus moved to Israel’s conflict with Iran. “People are being slaughtered in Gaza but attention has shifted to the Iran-Israel war. There is little news about Gaza these days,” said Adel, a resident of Gaza City.