5 wounded in Seattle parking lot shooting

UN investigating explosion that wounded three of its personnel, translator in Lebanon

The United Nations is investigating an explosion that wounded three of its personnel and a translator Saturday in southern Lebanon.

“This morning, three OGL (UNTSO) military observers and one Lebanese language assistant on a foot patrol along the Blue Line were injured when an explosion occurred near their location,” the statement from Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), said.

“We are investigating the origin of the explosion,” Tenenti continued, after explaining the injured were evacuated for medical treatment.

The personnel were members of Observer Group Lebanon (OGL), which works with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO).

UNTSO military observers in the Middle East “monitor ceasefires, supervise armistice agreements, prevent isolated incidents from escalating and assist other United Nations peacekeeping operations in the region,” according to the organization’s mandate.

Observers are “un-armed and are trained to observe and report violations of the agreements of ceasefire, disengagement, etc., relevant to their areas of operation.” UNTSO military observers also support UNIFIL, a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, according to a page on UNTSO’s website describing its operations.

“Safety and security of UN personnel must be guaranteed,” Tenenti said in the statement. “All actors have a responsibility under international humanitarian law to ensure protection to non-combatants, including peacekeepers, journalists, medical personnel, and civilians.”

The explosion comes just days after UNIFIL released a statement calling for a cease-fire amid escalating violence along the Blue Line, a U.N.-drawn boundary between Lebanon and Israel.

“UNIFIL is very concerned over the surge of violence occurring across the Blue Line right now. This escalation has caused a high number of of civilian deaths and the destruction of homes and livelihoods,” the Thursday statement read.

“It is imperative that this escalation cease immediately. We urge all sides to put down their weapons and begin the process toward a sustainable political and diplomatic solution,” UNIFIL’s previous statement continued.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

Source link

UN observers wounded by shelling in southern Lebanon

Three United Nations observers and a translator have been wounded by shelling in Rmeish, southern Lebanon, the UN peacekeeping mission said.

Lebanon’s state news agency reported that an Israeli drone strike was behind the explosion, but the Israeli military denied it was responsible.

The UN mission, Unifil, said those hurt were receiving treatment and that it was investigating the blast’s origin.

It comes after rising tensions along the unofficial Israel-Lebanon border.

In a statement, Unifil said a shell had exploded near the group who had been on a foot patrol along the UN-demarcated Blue Line that divides southern Lebanon from Israel.

It described the targeting of peacekeepers as “unacceptable”.

No details have been given about the nationality of the observers or their condition. The Lebanese translator is reported to be stable.

Lebanon’s state run National News Agency said Israeli “enemy drones” raided the area in southern Lebanon where the observers were wounded.

Israel’s military denied this, saying in a statement: “Contrary to the reports, the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] did not strike a Unifil vehicle in the area of Rmeish this morning.”

In recent days, tensions have again picked up along the unofficial border between Israel and Lebanon, with casualties on both sides.

Israel and the armed group Hezbollah trade almost daily strikes across the border, which began with the start of the Israel-Gaza war following the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel.

Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia Muslim militant group with close ties to Iran and an ally of Hamas.

On Friday, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the IDF would increase its attacks against the group in Lebanon, “shifting from repelling to actively pursuing Hezbollah”.

“Wherever they are hiding we will reach them,” he said.

Source link

U.N. military observers wounded while patrolling southern Lebanese border after shell explodes, officials say

Fears of widening conflict in the Middle East

The fears of a widening conflict in the Middle East

02:07

Four United Nations military observers were wounded Saturday while patrolling the southern Lebanese border after a shell exploded near them, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said.

The military observers are part of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, which supports the U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL.

Local Lebanese media, citing security officials, said an Israeli drone strike targeted the observers in the southern village of Wadi Katmoun near the border town of Rmeich. Hezbollah-run television station Al-Manar said the drone strike wounded three officers from Australia, Chile, and Norway, as well as a Lebanese interpreter.

The Israeli military on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, said: “Contrary to the reports, the IDF did not strike a @UNIFIL —vehicle in the area of Rmeish this morning.”

UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said they are “investigating the origin of the explosion.”

“The targeting of peacekeepers is unacceptable,” Tenenti told The Associated Press. “We repeat our call for all actors to cease the current heavy exchanges of fire before more people are unnecessarily hurt.”

This came as clashes between the Israeli military and Hezbollah militants escalated in recent weeks. Both sides have been exchanging fire since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza broke out, propelling concerns that the near-daily clashes along the border could escalate into a full-scale war as tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the violence.

UNIFIL was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion. The U.N. expanded its mission following the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to deploy along the Israeli border to help the Lebanese military extend its authority into the country’s south for the first time in decades.

Source link

Three U.N. observers and a translator wounded in south Lebanon, peacekeeping mission says

BEIRUT — A blast injured several United Nations technical observers outside a southern Lebanese border town on Saturday, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the area said — an incident two security sources told Reuters was the result of an Israeli strike.

The Israeli military’s spokesman, Avichay Adraee, denied that Israeli forces hit a vehicle belonging to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL, near the town of Rmeish.

When asked to clarify whether its forces had hit any non-U.N. vehicles, the IDF told NBC News, “We did not strike in the area.”

In a statement, UNIFIL said that three military observers from the U.N. technical observer mission, UNTSO, and one Lebanese language assistant on a foot patrol along the Blue Line were injured “when an explosion occurred near their location.”

“They have now been evacuated for medical treatment,” the statement added. UNIFIL said it was now investigating the origin of the explosion, and has so far not attributed the strike to Israel.

UNTSO, which monitors the demarcation line between Lebanon and Israel is unarmed. UNIFIL is an armed peacekeeping mission.

“All actors have a responsibility under international humanitarian law to ensure protection to non-combatants, including peacekeepers, journalists, medical personnel, and civilians,” UNIFIL said. “We repeat our call for all actors to cease the current heavy exchanges of fire before more people are unnecessarily hurt.”

Israel has been trading fire with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon for nearly six months, in parallel with its war with Hamas in Gaza.

Hostilities between Israel and Lebanon have been escalating in recent days. Wednesday became the deadliest day in more than five months of fighting along the border, after a series of Israeli airstrikes killed 16 people in Lebanon, and a barrage of Hezbollah rockets killed one Israeli man.

Israel’s shelling of Lebanon has killed nearly 270 Hezbollah fighters, but has also killed around 50 civilians — including children, medics and journalists — and hit both UNIFIL and the Lebanese army.

In November, UNIFIL said one of its patrols was hit by Israeli gunfire in southern Lebanon, without leaving casualties.

UNIFIL last month said that the Israeli military violated international law by firing on a group of clearly identifiable journalists, killing a Reuters journalist. Israel denies targeting the reporters.

Source link

3 UN military observers, a Lebanese interpreter wounded in blast while patrolling southern border

BEIRUT (AP) — Three United Nations military observers and a Lebanese interpreter were wounded Saturday while patrolling the southern Lebanese border after a shell exploded near them, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said.

The military observers are part of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, which supports the U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL.

The blast came as clashes between the Israeli military and Hezbollah militants escalated in recent weeks. Both sides have been exchanging fire since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza broke out, propelling concerns that the near-daily clashes along the border could escalate into a full-scale war.

The Israeli military on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, said: “Contrary to the reports, the IDF did not strike a @UNIFIL —vehicle in the area of Rmeish this morning.”

UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said they are “investigating the origin of the explosion.”

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikat condemned the incident in a statement.

Source link

High school teacher stabbed in South Korea a day after attack wounded 14

South Korean police detained a man suspected of stabbing a high school teacher with a knife Friday in the city of Daejeon. The stabbing follows a separate, apparently random attack on Thursday in which 14 people were wounded near a busy subway station in Seongnam.

Officials at the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency didn’t immediately release the personal details of the suspect in the Friday morning attack on the teacher at Songchon High School, describing him only as a man in his late 20s.

According to police, the suspect waited for the teacher to step out of a classroom before stabbing him and fleeing the scene, which, according to officials, suggests they were acquaintances.

Police and fire department authorities did not specify the teacher’s health condition.

The attack in Daejeon, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Seongnam, came hours after President Yoon Suk Yeol called for “ultra-strong” law enforcement measures to restore faith in public safety after Thursday’s violence, which he described as a “terrorist attack on innocent citizens.”

At least two people were in life-threatening conditions after Thursday’s attack in Seongnam, in which a car rammed onto a sidewalk before the driver stepped out and began stabbing people at random at a shopping mall linked to the Seohyeon subway station at the heart of a bustling leisure and business district.

Among the five people who were hurt by the car, at least two were hospitalized in critical condition. Among the nine who were stabbed, eight were being treated for serious injuries, according to Gyeonggi Province fire department officials.

Police are questioning the 22-year-old suspect. They did not identify the suspect or offer any immediate information about a potential motive.

During police interviews, the suspect talked incoherently and said he was being stalked by an unspecified source, said Park Gyeong-won, an official at Gyeonggi’s Bundang district police station.

The suspect purchased the two knives he used in the stabbings from a different shopping mall on Wednesday, Park said, but there isn’t clear evidence he planned the attack in advance.

Photos from the scene showed forensic units examining the halls of the AK Plaza, where the attack took place Thursday. A white Kia hatchback with a broken front window and ruptured front tire could be seen on a sidewalk near the subway station.

A witness named Hwang Hee-woon told YTN television that he “heard a sound from the first floor that seemed like a scream, so customers and shop workers were gathering on the rails of the second floor near the escalator to see what was happening below.”

“Suddenly, someone told us the person who committed the crime was coming up to the second floor, so we ran away in panic,” he said. He ended up hiding inside a refrigerated storage room with some mall employees.

Thursday’s attack was the country’s second mass-stabbing case involving random targets in a month.

In July, a knife-wielding man stabbed at least four pedestrians on a street in the capital, Seoul, killing one person. Attacks by firearms are rare in South Korea, which tightly controls gun possession, but there aren’t meaningful restrictions applying to knives, including kitchen tools that are often used for attacks.

In response to Thursday’s attack, Yoon called for closer monitoring of social media to detect threats, deploying more law enforcement officers for prevention and equipping them with better suppression gear, according to his office.

In response to the president’s comments, National Police Agency Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun declared in a televised statement the start of an indefinite “special surveillance” period, during which police officers will step up patrols and stop-and-search activities to guard against “people suspected of carrying weapons or acting abnormally.”

Yoon said police officers will also be instructed to actively use firearms or taser guns to suppress suspects when violent crimes occur.

Source link

Arrest made in Indiana shooting that killed 1, wounded 17

Police have arrested a suspect in the shooting at a street party in Muncie, Indiana, that left one person dead and 17 others wounded.

John L. Vance, 36, was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon and preliminarily charged with “several felonies,” a spokesperson for the city of Muncie said in a statement. The statement did not specify what the charges were or how many Vance was facing.

The arrest was being forwarded to the Delaware County Prosecutor’s office for review and consideration of additional charges, the statement said.

“This doesn’t solve the pain, but we hope this can move our community towards some closure,” Mayor Dan Ridenour said at a vigil Tuesday.

The shooting early Sunday unfolded at a block party attended by hundreds of revelers as police were calling the venue’s owner to shut down the gathering, authorities said Monday.

The shooting killed 30-year-old Joseph E. Bonner III, whom Muncie Police Chief Nathan Sloan said was among those attending the large party in the city about 60 miles northeast of Indianapolis.

Sloan said police were aware that the owner of a business that periodically rents out space for events was hosting a block party that got “out of control,” with between 500 and up to 1,000 in attendance. Photos of the scene showed police tags marking what appeared to be dozens of bullets on the street.

Sloan said police were not at the scene at the time of the shooting just after 1 a.m. Sunday, but they were trying to get the business owner to end the party.

“We made a phone call to the owner and asked him to get things shut down. The streets were packed. Before we could make contact and get something done, before we could get that shut down, the gunfire erupted,” Sloan said during a news conference Monday.

Police asked for any witnesses to the shooting or people with pictures or video of the incident to contact the Muncie Police Department, he said. Sloan said some people at the scene refused to tell officers what had happened.

He declined to provide details of the investigation, including how many people may have fired weapons but described a scene of chaos as officers and first responders arrived at the location on Muncie’s east side.

“Our people were applying tourniquets, administering first aid, providing CPR. And they were rushing people to the hospital in our police cars because we didn’t have time to wait,” Sloan said.

Ridenour said the shooting had left the community “shaken to the core by violence,” and he choked up repeatedly during the news conference.

After the shooting, police had to separate people in a Muncie hospital’s parking lot who were arguing and officers had to clear a path at the hospital’s entrance for anyone needing medical attention to enter, Criswell said.

Criswell said that two of the people wounded in Sunday’s shooting were minors and that a nineteenth person who was injured may have been struck by a car.

Source link

Mass shooting at Muncie, Indiana street party leaves one dead, multiple people wounded, police say

A “mass shooting” at a large street party in Indiana early Sunday morning left one person dead, police said. A hospital said 19 people were being treated for injuries at its facility.

Muncie police responded to multiple reports of gunfire on the city’s east side just after 1 a.m., The Star Press reported. Police said in a news release that there was no active threat to the community and that “multiple” victims were injured, including some critically.

There was no word on whether anyone was arrested or was being sought.

“Due to the number of victims and nature of the incident, multiple agencies were contacted to assist,” Muncie police said in a statement posted on Facebook.

Many police officers from the nearby town of Eaton were among those who provided assistance, according to a post on the department’s Facebook page. Eaton Police Chief Jay Turner called the incident a “mass shooting.”

Police didn’t say how many people were injured, but officials at Indiana University Health Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie told The Associated Press that 19 victims were treated in their emergency department for injuries related to the shooting, and 13 remained at the hospital in stabilized condition Sunday morning. Criswell said some victims sustained critical injuries and were transferred by medical helicopter to other facilities.

CBS Indianapolis affiliate WTTV reported that a witness at the hospital described chaos at the emergency department chaos, with more than 100 people descending on the facility — many of whom were victims brought by private vehicles.

Delaware County Coroner Gavin Greene identified the man who died as 30-year-old Joseph E. Bonner III, The Star Press reported.

Muncie police said in the Facebook statement that, “We are heartbroken to learn of this terrible incident, and our deepest condolences go to the families of the young man who was killed and everyone who was injured.”

WTTV quotes a witness who claimed his nephew was the block party’s disc jockey as saying, “Stranger comes up and decides to take it personal on somebody he knows in the crowd. And you can’t fight against an AR. He let loose in the crowd. Everywhere in the crowd.”

According to the station, Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman said in a statement that, “There are far too many guns on the street, and I certainly question the wisdom of someone having a huge outdoor party with several hundred people, including juveniles, carrying on into the early morning hours. Let’s take a dose of reality. This is not the Vegas strip or Times Square. This is a residential neighborhood.”

But, notes WTTV, the Muncie Homecoming Festival committee issued a statement noting that the street party where the shooting happened wasn’t part of the official MHF celebration going on this week.

Source link

1 killed, 6 wounded in overnight clashes in crowded Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon

BEIRUT (AP) — Overnight clashes Sunday in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon left 1 dead and 6 others wounded, Palestinian officials said.

The clashes took place as Palestinian factions in Ein el-Hilweh cracked down on militant Islamist groups and fugitives seeking shelter in the camp’s overcrowded neighborhoods. In 2017, Palestinian factions engaged in almost a week of fierce clashes with a militant organization affiliated with the extremist Islamic State group.

The Palestinian officials, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the clashes broke out after an unknown gunman tried to assassinate Islamist militant Mahmoud Khalil, killing a companion of his instead.

According to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, six people were wounded in the clashes, including two children.

Factions used assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers in the overcrowded camp, as ambulances zoomed through its narrow streets to take the wounded to the hospital.

The clashes have mostly stopped, though state media said there was still sporadic sniper fire.

Several residents fled the crossfire to nearby neighborhoods in the camp.

Ein el-Hilweh is notorious for its lawlessness and clashes are not uncommon. The U.N. says it is home to some 55,000 people.

It was established in 1948 to host Palestinians displaced by Israeli forces during the establishment of Israel.

Source link

5 wounded in Seattle parking lot shooting

5 wounded in Seattle parking lot shooting – CBS News

Watch CBS News

Five people were injured when gunfire erupted during a community event in a parking lot in Seattle Friday night. Police are searching for at least two gunmen.

Source link