12/10/2025

theSun on Sunday OCT 12, 2025

WORLD 8

Call for immediate aid

Calvert Worth, who leads the II MEF and will head the task force, suggested the focus was still operations at sea. “This is principally a maritime effort, and our team will leverage maritime patrols, aerial surveillance, precision interdictions and intelligence sharing to counter illicit traffic, uphold the rule of law and ultimately better protect vulnerable communities here at home,” Worth said. – Reuters the leaders of Qatar has raised eyebrows, especially over its gift to the president of a Boeing 747 to be used as Air Force One. The Idaho facility for Qatar had been in the works since Joe Biden’s administration. Hegseth said: “Qatar will not have its own base nor anything like a base. We control the existing base, like we do with all partners.” – AFP 19 missing after explosives plant blast WASHINGTON: Nineteen people were missing and an unspecified number were killed after a massive blast tore through a US military explosives plant on Friday, prompting emergency responders to scour the site for survivors. Aerial footage broadcast by US media showed smouldering debris at the factory in Hickman County, Tennessee, with charred and mangled vehicles strewn across the facility. “At this time, we have been able to confirm that we have 19 people whom we are looking for,” Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis told reporters. “There are fatalities. I don’t want to put a number to that. I can tell you right now we are looking for 19 individuals.” The explosion occurred at a plant run by Accurate Energetic Systems in Hickman County’s Bucksnort area, prompting official warnings for the public to avoid the area amid fears of secondary explosions. Davis said the blast engulfed an entire building at the facility, calling it “the most devastating scene that I’ve seen in my career”. The blast was so massive that it was heard across a great distance, with debris scattering across half a square mile, he said. When asked to describe the state of the building where the explosion occurred, Davis said: “There’s nothing to describe. It’s gone.” It was not immediately clear what triggered the explosion. – AFP

trafficking networks faster and at greater depth – together with our US and partner-nation counterparts,” said Admiral Alvin Holsey, who leads Southern Command. It was unclear if the creation of the task force granted the US troops in Latin America any additional authority as President Donald Trump mulls potentially striking suspected drug trafficking sites inside Venezuela. In a statement, Marine Lt- Gen hostage-prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas, and its assistance in securing the release of a US citizen from Afghanistan. The Qatari minister hailed the “strong, enduring partnership” and “deep defence relationship” shared by the two countries. The Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar is Washington’s largest military facility in the Middle East. Trump’s close relationship with humanitarian convoys. The ceasefire agreed between Israel and Hamas is intended to enable new aid deliveries. The next steps towards a lasting peace have not yet been finalised. In Gaza, the bodies of 155 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks were brought to hospitals across the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, including 135 whose bodies were recovered from under the rubble, medical sources reported. The sources said 19 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, despite the announced ceasefire agreement, while one person succumbed to wounds sustained in a previous attack. The sources said 16 people were killed when Israeli warplanes bombed a house in southern Gaza City. Two Palestinians were also killed in an airstrike south of Khan Younis, Bernama reported. Hospitals across the Strip received large numbers of victims, with 43 bodies taken to Al-Shifa Hospital, 60 to Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, four to Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat, 16 to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah and 32 to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Since October 2023, over 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, with about 170,000 wounded. Massive destruction, including the targeting of homes and infrastructure, has also led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

their homes and have immense medical, psychological and material needs,” it said. There is an urgent need for the most basic goods in the Gaza Strip – medical equipment, medicine, food, water, fuel and adequate shelter, it said. The majority of people are facing the approaching winter without a roof over their heads, the aid organisation warned. Israel controls access to the Gaza Strip and must authorise and guarantee the safety of

medical be authorised, the aid organisation said in a statement. “This ceasefire must be accompanied by an immediate massive and sustained scale-up of aid into and across the Strip, including the north,” the group said. Doctors Without Borders emphasised that the suffering of Gaza’s population is not over. “Palestinians in Gaza who survived the war are doing so amid the ruins of what was once care must

BERLIN: Without Borders has called on Israeli authorities to allow “sufficient and unimpeded flow of humanitarian assistance” into the sealed-off Gaza Strip, following the start of the ceasefire on Friday. Evacuations of patients in need of urgent specialist Agencies ready to scale up response Doctors

Palestinians displaced to the southern part of Gaza returning to the north. – REUTERSPIC

US marines to lead anti-drug strikes WASHINGTON: The Pentagon announced on Friday it is establishing a new counter narcotics joint task force overseeing operations in Latin America, a move aimed to strengthen already intensifying military operations that have raised questions among legal experts. Defence Secretary Pete America safe”. “The message is clear: if you traffic drugs towards our shores, we will stop you cold,” Hegseth said on X. The missions have focused entirely on striking suspected drug boats in the waters of the Caribbean. The US military has blown up at least four, killing 21 people.

the new task force would be led by II Marine Expeditionary Force, which is based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. The Southern Command said the II MEF, as it is known in military parlance, would “synchronise and augment counter-narcotics efforts across the Western Hemisphere”. “By forming a (task force) around II MEF headquarters, we enhance our ability to detect, disrupt and dismantle illicit pilots to enhance our combined training” as well as “increase lethality, interoperability”, he said. “It’s just another example of our partnership. And I hope you know, your excellency, that you can count on us.” The Idaho base also hosts a jet squadron from Singapore. Hegseth also thanked Qatar for its “substantial role” as a mediator in the talks that led to a truce and

The US military Southern Command, which oversees US operations in Latin America, said

Hegseth said the task force aimed “to crush the cartels, stop the poison and keep

Qatar gets air force facility in Idaho WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth

Israeli air strikes targeting Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital Doha. “We’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho,” Hegseth said at the Pentagon, with Qatari Defence Minister Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani at his side. “The location will host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and

announced on Friday that Qatar will be allowed to use an air force facility at Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho that will house F-15 fighter jets and pilots. The announcement comes soon after President Donald Trump signed an executive order vowing to defend the Gulf Arab state against attacks, following