Sudan paramilitaries shell el-Obeid, hospitals hit: Witnesses
Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces shelled El-Obeid on Friday, hitting two hospitals and residential neighborhoods of the key southern city, witnesses and an army source said.
'The militia attacked residential areas of the city with heavy artillery,' an army source told AFP, adding that they had hit the Social Insurance Hospital and the city's army hospital.
Witnesses close to the Social Insurance Hospital confirmed it had come under bombardment.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
7 hours ago
- Arab News
Suicide blast kills 20 anti-jihadist fighters in Nigeria: militia leader
KANO: A suicide attack in Nigeria's Borno state by a woman allegedly acting for Boko Haram has killed at least 20 anti-jihadist fighters, militia fighters said AFP on Saturday. Police have confirmed 10 people have been killed and said the overall toll could be higher. Late on Friday, a woman allegedly detonated explosives strapped to her body at a haunt for vigilantes and local hunters assisting the Nigerian military in fighting 'jihadists' in the town of Konduga, the militia told AFP. 'We lost 20 people in the suicide attack which happened yesterday around 9:15 p.m. (2015 GMT) while our members were hanging out near the fish market,' said Tijjani Ahmed, the head of an anti-jihadist militia in Konduga district. Konduga is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Maiduguri, the capital of the northeastern state of Borno. Surrounding villages have been repeatedly targeted by suicide bombers said to be acting for Boko Haram, a group of armed Islamic militants that has been active in the area for at least 16 years. Konduga town itself had seen a lull in such attacks in the past year. 'Eighteen people died on the spot, while 18 others were injured. Two more died in hospital, raising the death toll to 20,' Ahmed said. A mass burial was held on Saturday, an AFP reporter saw. The alleged bomber was dressed as a local heading to the crowded nearby fish market. She detonated her explosives as soon she reached the shed used by the militia fighters as a hangout, said militia member Ibrahim Liman. He gave the same toll as Ahmed. Borno state police spokesman Nahum Daso told AFP 10 bodies had been recovered from the 'suicide attack.' He said the toll could be higher as 'details are sketchy.' Konduga fish market, which is usually busy at night, has been the target of a series of suicide attacks in the past. The conflict between the authorities and Boko Haram has been ongoing for 16 years. In that time, more than 40,000 people have dioed and around two million been displaced from their homes in the northeast, according to the United Nations. The violence has spread to neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a regional military coalition to fight armed militant Islamic groups.
Al Arabiya
10 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Battle of Bunker Hill: US commemorates 250th anniversary of ‘great American battle'
As the US marks the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, it might take a moment — or more — to remember why. Start with the very name. 'There's something percussive about it: Battle of Bunker Hill,' says prize-winning historian Nathaniel Philbrick, whose 'Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution' was published in 2013. 'What actually happened probably gets hazy for people outside of the Boston area, but it's part of our collective memory and imagination.' 'Few 'ordinary' Americans could tell you that Freeman's Farm, or Germantown, or Guilford Court House were battles,' says Paul Lockhart, a professor of history at Wright University and author of a Bunker Hill book, 'The Whites of Their Eyes,' which came out in 2011. 'But they can say that Gettysburg, D-Day, and Bunker Hill were battles.' Bunker Hill, Lockhart adds, 'is the great American battle, if there is such a thing.' Much of the world looks to the Battles of Lexington and Concord, fought in Massachusetts on April 19, 1775, as the start of the American Revolution. But Philbrick, Lockhart and others cite Bunker Hill and June 17 as the real beginning, the first time British and rebel forces faced off in sustained conflict over a specific piece of territory. Bunker Hill was an early showcase for two long-running themes in American history — improvisation and how an inspired band of militias could hold their own against an army of professionals. 'It was a horrific bloodletting, and provided the British high command with proof that the Americans were going to be a lot more difficult to subdue than had been hoped,' says the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Rick Atkinson, whose second volume of a planned trilogy on the Revolution, 'The Fate of the Day,' was published in April. The battle was born in part out of error; rebels were seeking to hold off a possible British attack by fortifying Bunker Hill, a 110-foot-high (34-meter-high) peak in Charlestown across the Charles River from British-occupied Boston. But for reasons still unclear, they instead armed a smaller and more vulnerable ridge known as Breed's Hill, 'within cannon shot of Boston,' Philbrick says. 'The British felt they had no choice but to attack and seize the American fort.' Abigail Adams, wife of future President John Adams, and son John Quincy Adams, also a future president, were among thousands in the Boston area who looked on from rooftops, steeples and trees as the two sides fought with primal rage. A British officer would write home about the 'shocking carnage' left behind, a sight 'that never will be erased out of my mind 'till the day of my death.' The rebels were often undisciplined and disorganized and they were running out of gunpowder. The battle ended with them in retreat, but not before the British had lost more than 200 soldiers and sustained more than 1,000 casualties, compared to some 450 colonial casualties and the destruction of hundreds of homes, businesses and other buildings in Charlestown. Bunker Hill would become characteristic of so much of the Revolutionary War: a technical defeat that was a victory because the British needed to win decisively and the rebels needed only not to lose decisively. 'Nobody now entertains a doubt but that we are able to cope with the whole force of Great Britain, if we are but willing to exert ourselves,' Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend in early July. 'As our enemies have found we can reason like men, now let us show them we can fight like men also.'
Asharq Al-Awsat
10 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Trump Confirms DR Congo-Rwanda Peace Deal
US President Donald Trump took credit Friday for a peace deal negotiated in Washington between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda and complained that he would not get a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. The warring African nations said in a joint statement on Wednesday that they had initialed an agreement aimed at ending the conflict in eastern DRC to be formally signed in the US capital next week. "This is a Great Day for Africa and, quite frankly, a Great Day for the World!" Trump said in a Truth Social post confirming the breakthrough. But his triumphant tone darkened as he complained that he had been overlooked by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for his mediating role in conflicts between India and Pakistan, as well as Serbia and Kosovo. He also demanded credit for brokering the Abraham Accords, a series of agreements aiming to normalize relations between Israel and some Arab nations. Trump campaigned for office as a "peacemaker" who would use his negotiating skills to quickly end wars in Ukraine and Gaza, although both conflicts are still raging five months into his presidency. Indian officials have denied that he had any role in its ceasefire with Pakistan. The government of Pakistan, meanwhile, said Friday it would formally recommend Trump for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize "in recognition of his decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership" during the recent conflict. However, Trump's claims for the Abraham Accords being able to "unify the Middle East" have yet to be realized, with war breaking out between Israel and Iran, and no end in sight to the conflict in Gaza. And critics say the Republican greatly exaggerated the significance of the 2020 Serbia-Kosovo agreements, which were statements of intent that were thin on details and quickly unraveled. The president said officials from DR Congo and Rwanda would be in Washington on Monday for the signing, although their joint statement said they would put pen to paper on June 27. The resource-rich eastern DRC, which borders Rwanda, has been plagued by violence for three decades, with a resurgence since the anti-government M23 armed group went on a renewed offensive at the end of 2021. The deal, which builds on a declaration of principles signed in April, was reached during three days of talks between the neighbors in Washington, according to their statement. Trump has received multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations from supporters and loyal lawmakers over the years. He has made no secret of his irritation at missing out on the prestigious award, bringing it up as recently as February during an Oval Office meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. President Barack Obama won the prize soon after taking office in 2009, and Trump complained during his 2024 election campaign that his Democratic predecessor was not worthy of the honor.
