(AFP) – The latest developments in the Middle East war:
– **Pope urges peace**
Pope Leo XIV urged “those who have the power to unleash wars” to “choose peace” in his first Easter blessing. “We are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent. Indifferent to the deaths of thousands of people,” he told a crowd in St Peter’s Square.
– **US rescue mission**
Iran’s military said a US operation to rescue a missing airman from a downed fighter jet had been “completely foiled,” hours after President Donald Trump announced the crew member had been recovered in a “daring” operation. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for the Iranian military’s central command, said two C-130 military transport planes and two helicopters were destroyed during the operation. Trump, in a social media post, said “dozens” of US aircraft took part in the rescue operation and that the crew member was injured “but he will be just fine.” The other crew member from the downed warplane was rescued on Saturday.
– **Iran, Oman talk Hormuz**
Oman and Iran held talks on easing passage through the Strait of Hormuz, the Omani state news agency reported Sunday. “The experts from both sides put forward a number of visions and proposals regarding it,” the news agency said.
– **Israel targets Beirut**
The Israeli military said it had begun striking Lebanon’s capital Beirut to take out “Hezbollah infrastructure sites.” Shortly after, an AFP photographer in Beirut saw a missile hit a building and Israeli warplanes flying low over the city. Lebanese state media reported that a building in south Beirut was hit.
– **Israeli strike kills family**
An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed seven people, including a family of six, a source from the Lebanese civil defence told AFP. The family had been waiting for a relative to pick them up in Kfar Hatta, a town around 70 kilometres (45 miles) from the border that Israel had ordered to be evacuated.
– **Iran Guards killed**
US-Israeli strikes killed five fighters with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the northwestern Ardabil province, the official IRNA news agency quoted the Guards as saying.
– **Record web blackout**
Iran’s internet blackout has reached 37 days, making it the longest nationwide shutdown on record for any country, according to the monitor NetBlocks.
– **Lebanon urges Israel talks**
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun renewed a call for negotiations with Israel, saying he wanted to spare south Lebanon from destruction on the scale seen in Gaza. “It is true that Israel might want to do in southern Lebanon what it did in Gaza,” Aoun said in a televised address after Israel launched airstrikes and a ground offensive.
– **Bahrain blaze**
An Iranian drone attack sparked a fire at a storage tank belonging to Bahrain’s state energy firm, the company said in a statement. The blaze had been “fully extinguished,” and no injuries were reported, Bapco Energies said, adding that the damage was still being assessed.
– **Israeli warship targeted**
Hezbollah said it had targeted an Israeli warship off the Lebanese coast with a cruise missile, the first such claim by the group since the start of the war. The Israeli military said it was “not aware” of the attack.
– **Abu Dhabi plant ablaze**
Authorities in Abu Dhabi said they were battling fires at a petrochemical facility caused by falling debris, as Iran pressed an aerial campaign against its Gulf neighbours. The emirate’s media office said work at the plant had been suspended to allow for damage assessment, but there were no reports of injuries.
– **Aluminium threat**
The UAE’s defence ministry said its air defences were responding to missile and drone attacks after Iran said it was targeting “aluminium industries.”
– **Strikes on Kuwait**
Two Kuwaiti power and water desalination plants were damaged by a drone attack from Iran, the electricity and water ministry said. The attack caused “the shutdown of two electricity generating units,” but there were no reports of casualties, the ministry said.
© 2024 AFP
