11/01/2026

theSun on Sunday JAN 11, 2026

WORLD 8

Seize city centres, says son of ousted Iran shah

Hamas alleges ‘American cover’ GAZA CITY: A Hamas official said on Friday Israeli strikes on Gaza “cannot happen without American cover”, the day after attacks killed at least 13 people. Since Oct 10, a fragile US sponsored truce in Gaza has largely halted the fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas, but both sides have alleged frequent violations. Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli attacks across the territory on Thursday killed at least 13 people, including five children. “Thirteen people were killed on Friday in different areas of the Strip on fabricated pretexts, in addition to the hundreds killed and wounded who preceded them after the ceasefire,” said Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim. “This cannot happen without American cover or a green light.” He accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of evading commitments and escalating attacks to sabotage the agreement. Bassem said the Palestinian movement had “complied with all its obligations” and was “ready to engage constructively with the next steps of the plan”. Israel has previously said it is awaiting the return of the last hostage body before beginning talks on the second phase of the ceasefire and has insisted that Hamas disarm. – AFP Greenlanders defy US threats NUUK: “We don’t want to be Americans,” Greenland’s political parties said after US President Donald Trump again suggested using force to seize the mineral-rich Danish autonomous territory. The statement on Friday came after Trump repeated that Washington was “going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not”. “We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danish, we want to be Greenlanders,” the leaders of five parties in Greenland’s parliament said. “The future of Greenland must be decided by Greenlanders.” Denmark and other European allies have voiced shock at Trump’s threats to take control of Greenland, where the United States has a base. Trump says controlling the strategic island is crucial for US national security given the rising military activity of Russia and China in the Arctic. “We’re not going to have Russia or China occupy Greenland. That’s what they’re going to do if we don’t. So, we’re going to be doing something with Greenland, either the nice way or the more difficult way,” Trump said on Friday. – AFP

CARACAS: When explosions boomed in the night and US warplanes roared over Caracas, Jorge Suarez and his companions rushed for their guns. For these members of the “colectivos”, armed loyalists of the leftist leadership, the US raid that ousted Nicolas Maduro as their president was the most dramatic challenge yet. “We took to the streets, waiting for instructions from our leaders,” Suarez said. As proud defenders of the Venezuelan leadership’s socialist “Bolivarian revolution”, the ousting of Maduro convinced them that he was betrayed. Willians, a 43-year-old member of one collective, the Boina Roja, which translates to Red Beret, said: “What is clear is that there were many betrayals. “We don’t understand how the anti-aircraft system failed. We don’t know what happened with the rocket-launch system.” Established in their current form under Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez, the collectives are tasked with keeping social order on the streets but they are accused by opponents of beating and intimidating rivals. They have closed ranks behind Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s former deputy who took over as interim president. She has pledged to cooperate with US President Donald Trump over his demand for access to Venezuela’s huge oil reserves but has insisted the country is not “subordinate” to Washington. Willians said the collectives were resisting certain post-Maduro narratives, which he dismissed as PARIS: Major Iranian cities were gripped by new mass rallies on Friday night, as the son of the ousted shah urged protesters to seize city centres. The two weeks of protests have posed one of the biggest challenges to the theocratic authorities who have ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has blamed the United States. Following the movement’s largest protests yet on Thursday, new demonstrations took place on Friday, according to images verified by AFP and other videos published on social media. This was despite an internet shutdown imposed by the authorities, with monitor Netblocks saying early yesterday that “metrics show the nationwide internet blackout New rallies flare up

Authorities several members of the security forces have been killed, and Khamenei in a defiant speech on Friday lashed out at “vandals” and vowed the Islamic republic would “not back down”. He blamed the US for stoking the unrest in comments echoed by several other Iranian officials. US President Donald Trump again refused on Friday to rule out new military action against Iran after Washington backed and joined Israel’s 12-day war against the Islamic republic in June. “Iran’s in big trouble. It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago,” Trump said. Asked about his message to Iran’s leaders, Trump said: “You better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too.” – AFP say

in the Vakilabad district of Mashhad, a city home to one of the holiest shrines in Shiite Islam, people marched down an avenue chanting slogans. It was not possible to immediately verify the videos. Reza Pahlavi (pic) , the targeted protests. “Our goal is no longer just to take to the streets. The goal is to prepare to seize and hold city centres,” Pahlavi said in a video message on social media. Pahlavi, whose father Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was ousted by the 1979 revolution and died in 1980, added he was also “preparing to return to my homeland” at a time that he believed was “very near”. US-based son of Iran’s ousted shah, hailed the “magnificent” turnout on Friday and urged Iranians to stage more

remains in place at 36 hours”. In Tehran’s Saadatabad district, people banged pots and chanted anti

government slogans as cars honked in support, a video verified by AFP showed. Other images disseminated on social media and by Persian language television channels based outside Iran showed similar large protests

elsewhere in the capital, as well as in the eastern city of Mashhad, Tabriz in the north and the holy city of Qom. In the western city of Hamedan, a man was shown waving a shah-era Iranian flag featuring the lion and the sun amid fires and people dancing. In the Pounak district of northern Iran, people were shown dancing round a fire in the middle of a highway, while

Maduro loyalists suspect betrayal

Venezuela’s Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez (right) presenting an award on Friday to Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Padilla in honour of Cubans in Maduro’s security detail who were killed during the US raid. – REUTERSPIC

he said. The collectives also claim to run sports programmes, coordinate with hospitals and transport networks, and visit traders to keep price speculation in check. Fiercely committed to the “Chavista” cause, they felt the sting of betrayal in Maduro’s capture. “The betrayal must have come from someone very close to Maduro,” said Canchica. “Despite all the support Putin, China and North Korea have given us militarily, how can we react in real time when (the US) has more advanced technology than we do?” – AFP

that the Americans are going to come, dig in and take us out,” said Canchica. “They’ll have to kill us first.” Feared by opponents as a rifle wielding, motorcycle-mounted shock force, the collectives are welcomed in some neighbourhoods where they are credited with preventing crime and where authorities hand out subsidised food parcels. Canchica rejected the negative image they have gained. When demonstrators and some world powers were accusing Maduro of stealing an election in July 2014, “we stopped the shantytowns from rising up”,

mind games – such as “that Trump might bomb again, or that Delcy Rodriguez is with the US”. They respect her ideological pedigree. Rodriguez is the daughter of a far-left activist who died in the custody of the intelligence services in 1976. “I don’t think anyone would betray her father,” said Alfredo Canchica, leader of another collective, the Fundacion 3 Raices. “You can betray the people, but not your father.” However, collective members declined to be drawn out on how the post-Maduro phase might play out under Trump and Rodriguez, . “We don’t believe the threats