Israel hits Iran with airstrikes in retaliation for prior missile attack

Israel hits Iran with airstrikes in retaliation for prior missile attack

Israel pounded Iran with a series of airstrikes early Saturday, saying it was targeting military sites in retaliation for the barrage of ballistic missiles the Islamic Republic fired upon Israel earlier in the month. Explosions could be heard in the Iranian capital, Tehran, though the Islamic Republic insisted they caused only “limited damage.”

The attack risks pushing the archenemies closer to all-out war at a time of spiralling violence across the Middle East, where militant groups backed by Iran — including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon — are already at war with Israel.

Saturday marked the first time Israel’s military has openly attacked Iran, which hasn’t faced a sustained barrage of fire from a foreign enemy since its 1980s war with Iraq.

Israel’s hours-long attack ended just before sunrise in Tehran, with the Israeli military saying it targeted “manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the state of Israel over the last year.” It also said it hit surface-to-air missile sites and “additional Iranian aerial capabilities.”

The Israeli military said Saturday it had launched “precise strikes on military targets in Iran,” and, according to two Israeli officials, it was not targeting nuclear or oil facilities. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the ongoing operation with the media.

“The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since Oct. 7 … including direct attacks from Iranian soil,” Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a pre-recorded video statement early Saturday.

“Like every other sovereign country in the world, the state of Israel has the right and the duty to respond.”

Initially, nuclear facilities and oil installations all had been seen as possible targets for Israel’s response to Iran’s Oct. 1 attack, but in mid-October the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden believed it had won assurances from Israel that it would not hit such targets.

Sound of explosions heard

Iran’s state-run media acknowledged blasts could be heard, and said some of the sounds came from air defence systems around the city. 

But beyond a brief reference, Iranian state television offered no other details and even began showing what it described as live footage of men loading trucks at a vegetable market in Tehran in an attempt to downplay the assault. 

A Tehran resident told The Associated Press that at least seven explosions could be heard, which rattled the surrounding area. The resident spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

People in Tehran could see what appeared to be tracer fire light up the sky as the blasts could be heard. Other footage showed what appeared to be surface-to-air missiles launching up to the sky, along with other detonations.

Iran temporarily closed the country’s airspace early Saturday, and flight-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed commercial airlines had broadly left the skies over Iran, and across Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Iraq announced the reopening of its airspace and the resumption of flights hours later.

Missiles also reportedly hit Syria

The United States warned against further retaliation, indicating that the overnight strikes should end the direct exchange of fire between the Israel and Iran.

The White House said President Biden had been briefed and would continue to receive updates.

In Syria, the state news agency SANA, citing an unnamed military official, reported that “barrages of missiles from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan and Lebanese territories targeted some military sites in the southern and central regions” of Syria early Saturday.

It said that Syria’s air defences had shot some of the missiles down. There was no immediate information on casualties.

Escalating regional violence

Iran fired a wave of missiles and drones at Israel last April after two Iranian generals were killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike on an Iranian diplomatic post in Syria. The missiles and drones caused minimum damage, and Israel — under pressure from Western countries to show restraint — responded with a limited strike.

But after Iran’s early October missile strike, Israel promised a tougher response. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately said Iran had “made a big mistake.”

Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel on the evening of Oct. 1, sending Israelis scrambling into bomb shelters but causing only minimal damage and a few injuries. Iran said the barrage was retaliation for attacks in recent months that killed leaders of Hezbollah, Hamas and the Iranian military.

A forceful Israeli strike on Iran risks further entangling the U.S., which maintains a large troop presence in the Persian Gulf and has helped Israel defend itself against attacks by Iran and its proxies.

Blows against Hezbollah

Before Iran’s October attack, Israel had landed a series of devastating blows against Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets into Israel near-daily for over a year — ever since the deadly Hamas attack against Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.

Dozens were killed and thousands wounded in September when pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah exploded in two days of attacks attributed to Israel. A massive Israel airstrike the following week outside Beirut killed Hezbollah’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.

Israel then ratcheted up the pressure on Hezbollah by launching a ground invasion into southern Lebanon. More than a million Lebanese people have been displaced, and the death toll has risen sharply as airstrikes continue to hit in and around Beirut.

Israel has said it will continue to strike Hezbollah until it is safe for Israeli citizens displaced from their homes near the Lebanon border to return. Hezbollah has vowed to keep firing rockets into Israel until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

When Hamas and other militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, they killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 hostages into Gaza. In response, Israel launched a devastating air and ground offensive against Hamas, and Netanyahu has vowed to keep it up until all of the hostages are freed. Some 100 remain and roughly a third are believed to be dead.

More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to local health officials who don’t delineate between civilians and combatants but say more than half of the dead are women and children.

The strike on Iran happened just as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was arriving back in the U.S. after a tour of the Middle East where he and other U.S. officials had warned Israel to tender a response that would not further escalate the conflict in the region.

Two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing operation, said the U.S. was notified by Israel in advance of the strikes. They said there was no U.S. involvement in the operation.

Published at Tue, 17 Sep 2024 18:38:40 +0000

In the Arizona desert, there’s a race to help migrants who have just crossed the border

In the Arizona desert last week, just north of the U.S. border with Mexico, a group of volunteers helped newly arrived migrants call the family and friends they had left behind in other parts of the world.

“[I’m] in America, in America,” an Egyptian man excitedly told loved ones over a video call.

The migrants had crossed the border illegally hours before, hoping to claim asylum when they encountered U.S. officials. But the volunteers found them first — huddled around a fire before sunrise, wrapped in coats and towels against the frigid night air.

“There’s so much hope and excitement in their eyes,” said Margaret Coffran, a volunteer with the Green Valley-Sahuarita Samaritans (GVSS). 

“They finally are standing on U.S. soil,” she told The Current’s Matt Galloway, who joined GVSS on this trip into the desert last week. 

“This is a big day for them.” 

WATCH | Going into the desert to help migrants at a dangerous border:

The volunteers met at 4 a.m. and drove two hours into the desert in SUVs loaded with food, water and medical supplies. They’re not trying to circumvent the work of border patrol officials but work to “relieve the suffering” of migrants, offering sustenance, advice or even simple kindnesses — like paper and pens for kids to draw with. 

They found this group of migrants at the beginning of a 15-kilometre gap in the border wall, a known drop-off point for criminals who traffic people to the border. Those crossings have become a political flashpoint in Arizona, a swing state that could play a decisive role in the looming U.S. election.

Arriving as the sun rose, the volunteers met 33 migrants from places as far-flung as Egypt, Turkey, Nepal and Cameroon. Many refused to share their full names with CBC, fearing for their asylum claims or repercussions for family back home.

By the fire, a young woman sat on a milk crate, her four-year-old daughter fast asleep in her lap. Through a translator, she gave her name as America and said they’d left their home in Guanajuato, central Mexico, a week ago. They left to escape violent gangs, she said, and were trying to reach her spouse, who was already in the U.S. 

A 29-year-old man from Rwanda said his three-week journey was a “horrible … very difficult experience.” He said he fled military conscription at home and wouldn’t share his name out of concern for his family’s safety.

He said he never imagined making this journey. 

“You leave your loved ones,” he said. “You don’t know when you’re going to see them.”

Ranchers says thousands cross his land

The migrants crossed on to Jim Chilton’s 20,000-hectare ranch, which runs along the border for almost nine kilometres just south of Arivaca, Ariz.

“I have five motion-activated cameras … [and] I have gotten over 3,550 images of people in camouflage and carpet shoes and backpacks since [U.S] President [Joe] Biden was elected,” said Chilton, whose experiences at the border earned hima speaking spot at the Republican National Convention in July. 

Chilton has a pile of those carpet shoes, found discarded on his land. They’re slip-on shoes with soles made of soft material that helps to conceal footprints. Chilton said officials have intercepted criminals crossing his land ferrying drugs and weapons — and some of those encounters have been violent.

“I dislike the idea that people are coming through my ranch to poison our people and take it all the way to Canada,” he said, referencing drug smuggling and the fentanyl crisis. 

Migrants coming to claim asylum, meanwhile, “don’t bother me as much,” Chilton said.

Biden initially promised a more welcoming approach to immigration when he was elected. But after monthly border encounters grew — reaching 249,741 last December — Biden imposed fresh restrictions on asylum seekers in June. Those encounters dropped 77 per cent — to 58,038 people — by August, according to the Pew Research Center. 

Democratic nominee Kamala Harris visited Arizona last month, where she pledged to toughen the asylum laws enacted earlier this year, as well as crack down on drug smuggling. 

The Republican nominee, Donald Trump, said he’ll secure the border by completing the wall he started building in his first term — and conducta mass deportation of undocumented migrants. 

Chilton said he’s praying for a Trump victory.

“He’ll finish the wall, he’ll put the trenches in and he’ll put the personnel that are needed at the border,” he said.

“People coming in the country should come in legally, not illegally.”

Coffran, the GVSS volunteer, thinks the idea of completing the wall is “silly.”

“There’s no way to physically close off our whole border unless you want to spend another couple billion dollars doing it, blowing through mountains,” she said.

She said most of the migrants she meets in the desert are families, looking to start new lives and contribute.

“They have gifts to bring to our country and we have gifts to share with them,” she said. “America’s definition for existence is diversity. And now we’re shutting that part of us away.” 

Both parties engaged in ‘political theatre’

Back in the desert, U.S. officials arrive and organize the migrants into groups. America and her daughter climb into the back of a truck and are driven away to start their asylum claim.

Mark Gerrish, a border agent, installs a sign with an emergency number that migrants can call if they need help. He’s familiar with the work of GVSS, and thinks, “If people are trying to help people, that’s generally a good thing.”

“[But] sometimes it’s complicated around here,” he added. “Not everyone realizes how complicated; they try to make it simpler than it really is.”

By 8 a.m., the volunteers are packing up tables, stoves and coffee, ready to return the next day.

Randy Mayer, who runs GVSS, says he finds it frustrating that he can’t help with whatever comes next for these migrants, some of whom may face deportation within days. 

“Middle America thinks that immigration is a bad thing for the United States, and they think it’s all about criminals,” said Mayer, a pastor at a local church. 

“But the reality is all these people are escaping really bad situations. They should be given the opportunity to at least prove that.”

Mayer has been doing humanitarian work on the border for almost 30 years. He believes there isn’t much difference in how the Republicans or Democrats approach the problem, even ifone candidate engages more in “ugly rhetoric.”

“Every single administration has put more militarization, more agents — and then the next administration just builds on top of that,” he said.

“It’s just political theatre, is what it is. It’s not a solution to anything and it just makes people’s lives miserable.”

Mayer pointed to how treacherous crossing the Arizona desert can be. More than 4,300 people have died since 2000, with the remains of 114 people presumed to be trying to reach the border discovered in the first eight months of 2024, according to the non-profit Humane Borders. 

Mayer said GVSS has saved thousands of lives over the years, but in some ways these migrants saved him too. 

“My life is completely changed … it’s softened my heart,” he said.

“It’s shown me that compassion and love are a much more meaningful pathway than to build walls and barriers and make the world all about me.”

Published at Wed, 31 Jul 2024 21:58:04 +0000