Foreign News
Three US troops killed in drone strike on US base in Middle East
Three US troops have been killed and dozens injured in a drone attack on a US base near Jordan’s border with Syria.
US President Joe Biden said the attack was carried out by “radical Iran-backed militant groups”. He added: “We shall respond.”
It is the first time that a strike has killed US troops in the region since Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel. Jordan says the attack took place in Syria, not inside Jordan.
There have been other attacks on US bases in the region but so far there have been no casualties reported by the US army.
It is not clear who is behind this latest attack. President Biden said the US “will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing”.
The White House said Mr Biden was briefed Sunday morning on the attack by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and other officials. “Jill and I join the families and friends of our fallen – and Americans across the country – in grieving the loss of these warriors in this despicable and wholly unjust attack,” Mr Biden said in a statement.
The names of the servicemen killed and injured have not yet been released as officials work to notify their families.
On a visit to South Carolina, Mr Biden said “we had a tough day last night in the Middle East. We lost three brave souls”.
US officials say at least 34 military personnel were being evaluated for possible traumatic brain injury, and that some of the injured soldiers were medically evacuated from the base for further treatment.
They also say that the drone struck the living quarters, which, if confirmed, could explain the high number of casualties.
US Central Command and President Biden said the attack was on a base in northeastern Jordan, near the Syrian border. It was later named by US officials as Tower 22.
A Jordanian government spokesman, Muhannad Moubaideen, however, told state TV that the attack targeted al-Tanf base in Syria.
In December, US officials said that US bases in Iraq and Syria had been attacked at least 97 times since 17 October. Last month, the US carried out airstrikes against Iran-affiliated groups after three US servicemembers were injured, one critically, in a drone attack on a base in northern Iraq.
Earlier in January, one retaliatory US strike in Baghdad killed a militia leader accused of being behind attacks on US personnel.
In a pre-recorded interview with ABC News that aired on Sunday morning, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen CQ Brown said that America’s aim in the region is to “not have the conflict broaden”. “The goal is to deter them and we don’t want to go down a path of greater escalation that drives to a much broader conflict within the region.”
US and coalition troops are also stationed in the Red Sea after the Iran-backed Houthis began attacking commercial ships in the region. The Yemen-based group says it is targeting vessels in the region in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is fighting Hamas.
The US military has previously said “these unlawful actions have nothing to do with the conflict in Gaza”.
“The Houthis have fired indiscriminately into the Red Sea, targeting vessels impacting over 40 countries around the world,” Centcom has said.
Two Navy Seals are presumed dead after they went missing in January during an operation off the coast of Somalia to seize Iranian-made weapons bound for Houthis in Yemen.
(BBC)
More than a thousand people have been left with respiratory problems after a sandstorm swept across Iraq’s central and southern parts of the country, health officials said.
One official in Muthanna province reported to the AFP news agency at least 700 cases of what they said was suffocation.
Footage shared online showed areas cloaked in a thick orange haze, with local media reporting power cuts and the suspension of flights in a number of regions.
Dust storms are common in Iraq, but some experts believe they are becoming more frequent due to climate change.
Pedestrians and police wore face masks to protect themselves from the dust and paramedics were on site to assist people with difficulty breathing, according to AFP.
Hospitals in Muthanna province in southern Iraq received at least “700 cases of suffocation”, a local health official said.
More than 250 people were taken to hospital in Najaf province, and at least 322 patients including children were sent to hospitals in Diwaniyah province.
A further 530 people reported breathing issues in Dhi Qar and Basra provinces.
The sandstorm blanketed Iraq’s southern provinces in an orange cloud that reduced visibility to less than one kilometre (0.62 mile).
The authorities were forced to shut down airports in the provinces of Najaf and Basra.
Conditions are expected to gradually improve by Tuesday morning, according to local weather services.
Iraq is listed by the UN as one of the five countries most vulnerable to climate change as it encounters regular sandstorms, sweltering heat and water scarcity.
A severe sandstorm in 2022 left one person dead and more than 5,000 needing treatment for respiratory illnesses.
Iraq will be experiencing more “dust days” in the future, according to its environment ministry.
[BBC]
Indian businessman Mehul Choksi has been arrested in Belgium following India’s request for his extradition.
Choksi, who left India in 2018, was arrested on Saturday, his lawyer Vijay Aggarwal told the BBC on Monday.
The diamond merchant is wanted by India for allegedly defrauding one of the country’s largest banks of nearly $1.8bn (£1.3bn).
Choksi has not commented publicly on the case, but his lawyer said they would appeal against his detention and also oppose his extradition to India.
“These are the obvious grounds on which we will argue the case, that he is not a flight risk and secondly, that he is extremely sick. He is undergoing cancer treatment,” Mr Agarwal said. He added that they would “contest the extradition on grounds that there isn’t enough evidence against him and the extradition request is politically motivated and the trial in India may not be fair”.
The BBC has reached out to India’s foreign ministry and financial crimes agency – the Enforcement Directorate (ED) – for comment.
According to a Times of India report, Choksi was arrested on the basis of two non-bailable warrants issued by an Indian court in 2018 and 2021 – although it’s not clear why the action came now.
Mehul Choksi and his nephew, Nirav Modi, are wanted by Indian authorities in connection with a $1.8bn fraud case at Punjab National Bank (PNB).
Niray Modi, who’s also been living abroad since 2018, is lodged in a prison in London and is awaiting extradition to India.
Both were high-profile diamond traders. Modi’s jewellery was worn by several Hollywood celebrities such as Naomi Watts and Kate Winslet. One of the biggest Bollywood stars, Priyanka Chopra, was his company’s brand ambassador. Choksi, meanwhile, was the owner of Gitanjali Gems, an Indian jewellery retailer which once had about 4,000 stores across India.
The ED has accused Choksi and Modi of colluding with some employees of PNB’s Brady House branch in Mumbai city to get fraudulent advances for payments to overseas suppliers of jewels.
These funds were then allegedly diverted and laundered.
Choksi and Modi have denied the allegations against them.
After leaving India, Choksi reportedly travelled to the US and later to Antigua – where he has citizenship. In 2021, he was reportedly arrested in Dominica and deported back to Antigua.
Hariprasad SV, a Bengaluru-based entrepreneur who had in 2016 alerted authorities about the alleged scam at PNB, said Choksi’s arrest was “great news”. “Apart from bringing him back, the most important thing is to get back all those billions of dollars he looted from India,” he told ANI news agency.
[BBC]
US President Donald Trump’s administration has exempted smartphones, computers and some other electronic devices from “reciprocal” tariffs, including the 125% levies imposed on Chinese imports.
US Customs and Border Patrol published a notice late on Friday explaining the goods would be excluded from Trump’s 10% global tariff on most countries and the much larger Chinese import tax.
The move comes after concerns from US tech companies that the price of gadgets could skyrocket, as many of them are made in China.
This is the first significant reprieve of any kind in Trump’s tariffs on China, with one trade analyst describing it as a “game-changer scenario”.
[BBC]
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