Since May 2024, heavy fighting has been going on near the village of Hlyboke, some 30 kilometers from Kharkiv, and animals are the victims of active fighting just as much as locals. Volunteers recently rescued four ponies from Hlyboke, and now these horses are giving back… in their own way. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story.
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More relief for hurricane victims under way as campaigns spar over misinformation
On Sunday, President Joe Biden visited areas affected by Hurricane Milton in Florida and announced a half-billion dollars in new funding to improve electric grid resilience. But even as relief and recovery efforts continue, officials warn that misinformation is spreading rapidly as Election Day draws near. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the details, with reporting from Patrick Bresnan in North Carolina.
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Iran condemns ‘illegal, unjustified’ US sanctions on oil industry
Tehran, Iran — Iran condemned Sunday what it called an “illegal and unjustified” expansion of U.S. sanctions targeting its oil industry following Tehran’s missile attack on Israel earlier this month.
In a statement, foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei defended Iran’s attack on Israel and “strongly condemned” the sanctions, saying they were “illegal and unjustified.”
The United States on Friday slapped Iran with a spate of new sanctions on the country’s oil and petrochemical industry in response to Tehran’s October 1 attack against Israel.
Baghaei defended Iran’s attack on Israel as being legal and insisted on Iran’s right to respond to the new sanctions.
The U.S. Treasury Department said it targeted Iran’s so-called shadow fleet of ships involved in selling Iranian oil in circumvention of existing sanctions.
It said it had designated at least 10 companies and 17 vessels as “blocked property” over their involvement in shipments of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products.
The State Department also announced it was placing sanctions on six further firms and six ships for “knowingly engaging in a significant transaction for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, or marketing of petroleum or petroleum products from Iran”.
Baghaei said “the policy of threats and maximum pressure” had no impact on “Iran’s will to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity, national interests and citizens against any violation and foreign aggressions.”
He said the sanctions would enable Israel “to continue killing innocents and pose a threat to the peace and unity of the region and the world”.
The new wave of sanctions comes as the world awaits Israel’s promised response to Tehran’s missile attack, with oil prices hitting their highest levels since August.
Earlier this month, U.S. President Joe Biden advised Israel against targeting oil infrastructure in Iran, one of the world’s 10 largest producers.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi last Tuesday warned that “any attack against infrastructure in Iran will provoke an even stronger response.”
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Macron calls on Iran’s president to back Mideast ‘de-escalation’
Paris — French President Emmanuel Macron called on Iran’s leader Masoud Pezeshkian to support a “general de-escalation” in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon in a telephone conversation Sunday, his office said.
Macron stressed “the responsibility of Iran to support a general de-escalation and to use its influence in this direction with the destabilizing actors that enjoy its support.” Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters are fighting Israeli troops in Lebanon.
The Iranian presidential website said that in his conversation with Macron, Pezeshkian had called for an end to “crimes” in Lebanon and Gaza.
They discussed ways to secure a “cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel,” a statement on the website said.
Pezeshkian “asked the French president to work together with other European countries to force the Zionist regime to stop the genocide and crimes in Gaza and Lebanon,” the statement added.
The Israeli army is engaged in close combat with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon this Sunday, where it announced for the first time the capture of an enemy fighter. It is also intensifying its airstrikes against the pro-Iranian formation.
For its part, the Lebanese Islamist movement said it was fighting Israeli soldiers at the end of the afternoon “with automatic weapons” and “rockets” in at least four villages bordering Israel, with the Israeli army doing “face to face combat.”
After having weakened the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza, Israel moved the front of the war to Lebanon, saying it wanted to allow the return to northern Israel of some 60,000 inhabitants, displaced by the rocket attacks carried out for a year by Hezbollah in support for Hamas.
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Thousands march in Spain to demand affordable housing
Madrid — Thousands protested Sunday in Madrid to demand more affordable housing amid rising anger from Spaniards who feel they are being priced out of the market.
Under the slogan “Housing is a right, not a business,” residents marched in the Spanish capital to demand lower housing rental prices and better living conditions.
Twelve thousand people took to the streets, according to the Spanish government.
“Spaniards cannot live in their own cities. They are forcing us out of the cities. The government has to regulate prices, regulate housing,” said nurse Blanca Prieto, 33.
In July, Spain’s government announced a crackdown on short-term and seasonal holiday lettings. It plans to investigate listings on platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com to verify if they have licenses.
Spain is struggling to balance promoting tourism, a key driver of its economy, and addressing citizens’ concerns over unaffordable high rents due to gentrification and landlords shifting to more lucrative tourist rentals.
In a separate demonstration in Barcelona on Sunday against the America’s Cup yachting race, protesters blamed the international sporting event for pushing up rental prices and bringing more tourists into an overcrowded city.
Residents of the Canary Islands and Malaga have also staged protests this year against the rise in tourist rentals. Seasonal hospitality workers struggle to find accommodation in these tourism hot spots, with many resorting to sleeping in caravans or even their cars.
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US will send air defense battery and American troops to Israel to bolster defenses against Iran
Washington — The United States will send a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery and troops to Israel, the Pentagon said Sunday, even as Iran warned Washington to keep American military forces out of Israel.
Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin authorized the deployment of the THAAD battery at the direction of President Joe Biden.
Ryder said the system will help bolster Israel’s air defenses following Iran’s missile attacks on Israel in April and October.
“This action underscores the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran,” Ryder said.
The Iranian warning came in a post on the social platform X long associated with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who noted the reports that the U.S. was considering the deployment.
Israel is widely believed to be preparing a military response to Iran’s Oct. 1 attack when it fired roughly 180 missiles into Israel.
It was not immediately clear where the THAAD battery was coming from. The U.S. deployed one of the batteries to the Middle East along with additional Patriot battalions to bolster protections for U.S. forces in the region late last year after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas militants. Ryder also said that the U.S. sent a THAAD battery to Israel in 2019 for training.
According to an April report by the Congressional Research Service, the Army has seven THAAD batteries. Generally each consists of six truck-mounted launchers, 48 interceptors, radio and radar equipment and required 95 soldiers to operate.
The THAAD is considered a complementary system to the Patriot, but it can defend a wider area. It can hit targets at ranges of 150 to 200 kilometers.
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Ukraine’s human rights envoy urges response to alleged killings of Ukrainian POWs in Kursk
Kyiv — Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman urged international organizations Sunday to respond to a claim that several Ukrainian prisoners of war were executed in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv had launched an incursion in August.
DeepState, a Ukrainian battlefield analysis site close to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, said Russian troops shot and killed nine Ukrainian “drone operators and contractors” on Oct. 10 after they had surrendered.
Dmytro Lubinets said on Telegram that he sent letters to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross regarding the claim, calling it “another crime committed by the Russians.”
Earlier this month, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine said Russian troops had killed 16 captured Ukrainian soldiers in the partially occupied Donetsk region.
There was no immediate response from Russian officials.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force said Sunday that its air defenses had shot down 31 of 68 drones launched at Ukraine by Russia overnight into Sunday in the regions of Kyiv, Poltava, Chernihiv, Sumy and Cherkasy. A further 36 drones were “lost” over various areas, it said, likely having been electronically jammed.
The air force added that ballistic missiles struck Odesa and Poltava while Chernihiv and Sumy came under attack by a guided air missile. Local authorities didn’t report any casualties or damage.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Russia had launched around 900 guided aerial bombs, more than 40 missiles and 400 drones against Ukraine over the past week.
Zelenskyy appealed on social platform X to Ukraine’s allies to “provide the necessary quantity and quality of air defense systems” and “make decisions for our sufficient range”. Kyiv is still awaiting word from its Western partners on its repeated requests to use the long-range weapons they provide to hit targets on Russian soil.
In Russia, the Defense Ministry said that 13 Ukrainian drones were shot down over three regions of Russia: six each in the Belgorod and Kursk regions, and one in the Bryansk region, all of which border Ukraine.
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Biden will view Hurricane Milton damage in Florida; Harris plans to go to church in North Carolina
Washington — President Joe Biden on Sunday will survey the devastation inflicted on Florida’s Gulf Coast by Hurricane Milton as he urges Congress to approve additional emergency disaster funding. Vice President Kamala Harris will spend a second day in North Carolina, hard-hit by Hurricane Helene, to attend a Black church and hold a campaign rally.
Biden’s visit to the St. Petersburg area offers him another chance to press House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for congressional approval of more aid money before the Nov. 5 election. Johnson has said the issue will be dealt with after then.
“I think Speaker Johnson is going to get the message that he’s got to step up, particularly for small businesses,” Biden told reporters as he and Harris met with aides on Friday to discuss the federal response to Hurricanes Milton and Helene. Biden and Johnson have yet to discuss the matter directly.
In Florida, Biden was set to announce $612 million for six Department of Energy projects in areas affected by the hurricanes to improve the resilience of the region’s electric grid, the White House said. The funding includes $94 million for two projects in Florida: $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million for Switched Source to partner with Florida Power and Light.
Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, visited Raleigh on Saturday to meet with Black elected and religious leaders and help volunteers package personal care items for delivery to victims of Helene in the western part of the state.
She was spending Sunday in Greenville, with plans to speak during a church service as part of her campaign’s “Souls to the Polls” effort to help turn out Black churchgoers before Election Day. She was also scheduled to hold a rally to talk about her economic plans and highlight Thursday’s start of early voting in the state, her campaign said.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will spend the coming week campaigning in the competitive states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina, according to a Harris campaign official who was not authorized to publicly discuss details not yet made public and spoke on condition of anonymity.
With less than four weeks to go before Election Day, the hurricanes have added another dimension to the closely contested presidential race.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said the Biden administration’s storm response had been lacking, particularly in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene. Biden and Harris have hammered Trump for promoting falsehoods about the federal response.
Trump made a series of false claims after Helene struck in late September, including incorrectly saying that the federal government is intentionally withholding aid to Republican disaster victims. He also falsely claimed the Federal Emergency Management Agency had run out of money because all of it had gone to programs for immigrants in the country illegally.
Biden said Trump was “not singularly” to blame for the spread of false claims in recent weeks but that he has the “biggest mouth.”
The president is pressing for swift action by Congress to make sure the Small Business Administration and FEMA have the money they need to get through hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30 in the Atlantic. He said Friday that Milton alone had caused an estimated $50 billion in damages.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week that FEMA will be able to meet “immediate needs” caused by the two storms. But he warned in the aftermath of Helene that the agency does not have enough funding to make it through the hurricane season.
But Johnson has pushed back, saying the agencies have enough money for the time being and that lawmakers will address the funding issue during the lame-duck session after the election.
Also percolating in the background are tensions between Harris and Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla. As Helene barreled toward Florida, the two traded accusations that the other was trying to politicize the federal storm response.
Harris’ office last week suggested that DeSantis was dodging her phone calls. DeSantis responded that he was unaware she had called and he grumbled that she hadn’t been involved in the federal government’s response before she became the Democratic nominee.
Biden, for his part, said he hoped to see DeSantis on Sunday, if the governor’s schedule permitted.
“He’s been very cooperative,” Biden said about DeSantis. He added, “We got on very, very well.”
DeSantis said Saturday that he had no details about the president’s visit.
Biden was scheduled to survey damage during an aerial tour between Tampa and St. Pete Beach, where he will be briefed on the storm by federal, state and local officials. He also will residents and first responders.
Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday evening. At least 10 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of residents remain without power.
Officials say the toll could have been worse if not for widespread evacuations. The still-fresh devastation wrought by Helene just two weeks earlier probably helped compel many people to flee.
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Ukrainian move to ban Moscow-linked church stirs anger in Russia
moscow — Speaking behind the thick white walls of Moscow’s ancient Danilov Monastery, Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk is adamant: People must not be forbidden to pray in their chosen branch of Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
He speaks calmly, but Yakimchuk is one of many Orthodox Christians in Russia who are angry about a law passed by Kyiv in August that targets a Russia-linked Orthodox church that long dominated religious life in Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s administration accuses the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of spreading pro-Russian propaganda in time of war and of housing spies, charges it denies.
Under the law, the Russian Orthodox Church itself was banned on Ukrainian territory and a government commission was tasked with compiling a list of “affiliated” organizations – expected to include the UOC – whose activities will be outlawed, too.
“In the 21st century, in the center of Europe, millions of people are being deprived of their basic civil rights,” Yakimchuk, wearing a black cassock and a large Orthodox cross around his neck, told Reuters in an interview.
“Because what does it mean to ban a church, which is the largest religious denomination in Ukraine, no matter how much the current Ukrainian authorities would like to downplay its scale? Everyone understands perfectly well that it is impossible to forbid people to pray.”
Whether the UOC retains the following it once did is disputed. An independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) that was set up after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 to be fully independent of Moscow has seen its popularity grow rapidly since President Vladimir Putin sent his forces into Ukraine in 2022.
Ukrainian authorities say the UOC is fair game. They have launched dozens of criminal proceedings, including treason charges, against dozens of its clergy. At least one has been sent to Russia as part of a prisoner swap.
Church divided
However, Yakimchuk’s denunciation of what he calls “absolute lawlessness” in Ukraine is a reflection of how the nearly 32-month war – which Moscow calls a “special military operation” – has divided Orthodox hierarchies in the two countries, even though they all adhere to Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
The UOC tried to distance itself from Moscow once the war was underway, condemning Russia’s actions and removing references to the “Moscow Patriarchate” from its name.
But those attempts angered clerics in Moscow, who have thrown their weight behind what they cast as Russia’s “holy war” in Ukraine against the expanding influence of what they see as a decadent, godless West. The UOC’s efforts also failed to allay Kyiv’s concerns about the church’s activities and loyalties.
The process of shutting down UOC operations in Ukraine – something one Ukrainian lawmaker called “cleansing” – is likely to be lengthy and involve court battles, but the church’s days seem numbered. Some opinion polls suggest more than 80% of Ukrainians do not trust the UOC.
The Kremlin, which has forged close ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, has described Ukraine’s new law as “an open attack on freedom of religion.”
One Russian Orthodox priest in St. Petersburg, Leonid Trofimuk, branded Ukraine’s action as “Satanism” and compared it to Soviet-era state repression of religion.
“The 20th century is behind us,” he said. “We saw the persecution of the church at that time, but we didn’t think that there would be this kind of persecution that is going on now in Ukraine.”
Ordinary Russian churchgoers interviewed by Reuters also expressed concern.
“There is a kind of total politicization of matters of faith going on,” said Sergei, a St. Petersburg resident. “I would like common sense to prevail and the international community to finally pay attention.”
His criticism of Kyiv’s moves was echoed by churchgoers leaving a golden onion-domed church more than 900 miles (1,448 km) away to the south, in Mariupol, a Ukrainian port city seized by Russian forces in 2022 after a long siege.
“This is wrong – you shouldn’t do this kind of thing,” said Olga, a Mariupol resident who was wearing a headscarf. “How can he [Zelenskyy] interfere with faith in God? This is not a matter for the state.”
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Hot days and methamphetamine are now a deadlier mix in US
PHOENIX — On just one sweltering day during the hottest June on record in Phoenix, a 38-year-old man collapsed under a freeway bridge and a 41-year-old woman was found slumped outside a business. Both had used methamphetamine before dying from an increasingly dangerous mix of soaring temperatures and stimulants.
Meth is showing up more often as a factor in the deaths of people who died from heat-related causes in the U.S., according to an Associated Press analysis of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Death certificates show about one in five heat-related deaths in recent years involved methamphetamine. In Arizona, Texas, Nevada and California, officials found the drug in nearly a third of heat deaths in 2023.
Meth is more common in heat-related deaths than the deadly opioid fentanyl. As a stimulant, it increases body temperature, impairs the brain’s ability to regulate body heat and makes it harder for the heart to compensate for extreme heat.
If hot weather has already raised someone’s body temperature, consuming alcohol or opioids can exacerbate the physical effects, “but meth would be the one that you would be most concerned about,” said Bob Anderson, chief of statistical analysis at the National Center for Health Statistics.
The trend has emerged as a synthetic drug manufactured south of the border by Mexican drug cartels has largely replaced the domestic version of meth fictionalized in the TV series Breaking Bad. Typically smoked in a glass pipe, a single dose can cost as little as a few dollars.
At the same time, human-caused climate change has made it much easier to die from heat-related causes in places like Phoenix, Las Vegas and California’s southeastern desert. This has been Earth’s hottest summer on record.
Phoenix baked in temperatures topping 37.7 Celsius for 113 straight days and hit 47.2 Celsius in late September — uncharacteristic even for a city synonymous with heat. The searing temperatures have carried into October.
“Putting on a jacket can increase body temperature in a cold room. If it’s hot outside, we can take off the jacket,” explained Rae Matsumoto, dean of the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy at the University of Hawaii in Hilo. But people using the stimulant in the outdoor heat “can’t take off the meth jacket.”
These fatalities are particularly prevalent in the Southwest, where meth overdoses overall have risen since the mid-2000s.
In Maricopa County, America’s hottest major metropolitan area, substances including street drugs, alcohol and certain prescription medicines for psychiatric conditions and blood pressure control were involved in about two-thirds, or 419 of the 645 heat-related deaths documented last year. Meth was detected in about three-quarters of these drug cases and was often the primary cause of death, public health data show. Fentanyl was found in just under half of them.
In Pima County, home to Tucson, Arizona’s second most populous city, methamphetamine was a factor in one-quarter of the 84 heat-related deaths reported so far this year, the medical examiner’s office said.
In metro Las Vegas, heat was a factor in 294 deaths investigated last year by the Clark County coroner’s office, and 39% involved illicit and prescription drugs and alcohol. Of those, meth was detected in three-fourths.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration notes in its 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment that 31% of all drug-related deaths in the U.S. are now caused by stimulants that speed up the nervous system, primarily meth. More than 17,000 people in the U.S. died from fatal overdoses and poisonings related to stimulants in the first half of 2023, according to preliminary CDC data.
Although overdoses have been more associated with opiates like fentanyl, medical professionals say overdosing on meth is possible if a large amount is ingested. Higher blood pressure and a quickened heart rate can then provoke a heart attack or stroke.
“All of your normal physiological ways of coping with heat are compromised with the use of methamphetamines,” said Dr. Aneesh Narang, an emergency medicine physician at Banner University Medical Center in downtown Phoenix.
Narang, who sits on a board that reviews overdose fatalities, said the “vast majority” of the heat stroke patients seen in his hospital’s emergency department this summer had used street drugs, most commonly methamphetamine.
Because of its proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border, Phoenix is considered a “source city” where large amounts of newly smuggled meth are stored and packaged into relatively tiny doses for distribution, said Det. Matt Shay, a narcotics investigator with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
“It’s an amazing amount that comes in constantly every day,” Shay said. “It’s also very cheap.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized about 74,000 kilograms of meth at the U.S.-Mexico border this last fiscal year ending September 30, up from the 63,500 kilograms captured in the previous 12 months.
And sellers often target homeless people, Shay said.
“It’s a customer base that is easy to find and exploit,” Shay said. “If you’re an enterprising young drug dealer, all you need is some type of transportation and you just cruise around and they swarm your car.”
Jason Elliott, a 51-year-old unemployed machinist, said he’s heard of several heat-related deaths involving meth during his three years on the streets in Phoenix.
“It’s pretty typical,” said Elliot, noting that stimulants enable people to stay awake and alert to prevent being robbed in shelters or outdoors. “What else can you do? You have stuff; you go to sleep, you wake up and your stuff is gone.”
Dr. Nick Staab, assistant medical director of the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, said brochures were printed this summer and distributed in cooling centers to spread the word about the risk of using stimulants and certain prescription medicines in extreme heat.
But it’s unclear how many are being reached. People who use drugs may not be welcomed at some cooling centers. A better solution, according to Stacey Cope, capacity building and education director for the harm reduction nonprofit Sonoran Prevention Works, is to lower barriers to entry so that people most at risk “are not expected to be absent from drugs, or they’re not expected to leave during the hottest part of the day.”
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Online hate against South Asian Americans rises steadily, report says
WASHINGTON — Online hate against Americans of South Asian ancestry has risen steadily in 2023 and 2024 with the rise of politicians from that community to prominence, according to a report released Wednesday by nonprofit group Stop AAPI Hate.
Why it’s important
Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris is of Indian descent, as are former Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, is also Indian American.
Harris faces Republican former President Donald Trump in the 2024 U.S. elections.
There has been a steady rise in anti-Asian hate in extremist online spaces from January 2023 to August 2024, the report said.
The nonprofit group blamed the rise on a “toxic political climate in which a growing number of leaders and far-right extremist voices continue to spew bigoted political rhetoric and disinformation.”
Key quotes
“Online threats of violence towards Asian communities reached their highest levels in August 2024, after Usha Vance appeared at the Republican National Convention and Kamala Harris was declared a presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention,” Stop AAPI Hate said.
“The growing prevalence of anti-South Asian online hate … in 2023 and 2024 tracks with the rise in South Asian political representation this election cycle,” it added.
By the numbers
Among Asian American subgroups, South Asian communities were targeted with the highest volume of anti-Asian online hostility, with 60% of slurs directed at them in that period, according to the report.
Anti-South Asian slurs in extremist online spaces doubled last year, from about 23,000 to more than 46,000, and peaked in August 2024.
There are nearly 5.4 million people of South Asian descent living in the United States, comprising of individuals with ancestry from nations including India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
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Volunteers bring solar power to Hurricane Helene’s disaster zone
BAKERSVILLE, North Carolina — Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Helene downed power lines and washed out roads all over North Carolina’s mountains, the constant din of a gas-powered generator is getting to be too much for Bobby Renfro.
It’s difficult to hear the nurses, neighbors and volunteers flowing through the community resource hub he has set up in a former church for his neighbors in Tipton Hill, a crossroads in the Pisgah National Forest north of Asheville. Much worse is the cost: he spent $1,200 to buy it and thousands more on fuel that volunteers drive in from Tennessee.
Turning off their only power source isn’t an option. This generator runs a refrigerator holding insulin for neighbors with diabetes and powers the oxygen machines and nebulizers some of them need to breathe.
The retired railroad worker worries that outsiders don’t understand how desperate they are, marooned without power on hilltops and down in “hollers.”
“We have no resources for nothing,” Renfro said. “It’s going to be a long ordeal.”
More than 43,000 of the 1.5 million customers who lost power in western North Carolina still lacked electricity on Friday, according to Poweroutage.us. Without it, they can’t keep medicines cold or power medical equipment or pump well water. They can’t recharge their phones or apply for federal disaster aid.
Crews from all over the country and even Canada are helping Duke Energy and local electric cooperatives with repairs, but it’s slow going in the dense mountain forests, where some roads and bridges are completely washed away.
“The crews aren’t doing what they typically do, which is a repair effort. They’re rebuilding from the ground up,” said Kristie Aldridge, vice president of communications at North Carolina Electric Cooperatives.
Residents who can get their hands on gas and diesel-powered generators are depending on them, but that is not easy. Fuel is expensive and can be a long drive away. Generator fumes pollute and can be deadly. Small home generators are designed to run for hours or days, not weeks and months.
Now, more help is arriving. Renfro received a new power source this week, one that will be cleaner, quieter and free to operate. Volunteers with the nonprofit Footprint Project and a local solar installation company delivered a solar generator with six 245-watt solar panels, a 24-volt battery and an AC power inverter. The panels now rest on a grassy hill outside the community building.
Renfro hopes his community can draw some comfort and security, “seeing and knowing that they have a little electricity.”
The Footprint Project is scaling up its response to this disaster with sustainable mobile infrastructure. It has deployed dozens of larger solar microgrids, solar generators and machines that can pull water from the air to 33 sites so far, along with dozens of smaller portable batteries.
With donations from solar equipment and installation companies as well as equipment purchased through donated funds, the nonprofit is sourcing hundreds more small batteries and dozens of other larger systems and even industrial-scale solar generators known as “Dragon Wings.”
Will Heegaard and Jamie Swezey are the husband-and-wife team behind Project Footprint. Heegaard founded it in 2018 in New Orleans with a mission of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of emergency responses. Helene’s destruction is so catastrophic, however, that Swezey said this work is more about supplementing generators than replacing them.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Swezey said as she stared at a whiteboard with scribbled lists of requests, volunteers and equipment. “It’s all hands on deck with whatever you can use to power whatever you need to power.”
Down near the interstate in Mars Hill, a warehouse owner let Swezey and Heegaard set up operations and sleep inside. They rise each morning triaging emails and texts from all over the region. Requests for equipment range from individuals needing to power a home oxygen machine to makeshift clinics and community hubs distributing supplies.
Local volunteers help. Hayden Wilson and Henry Kovacs, glassblowers from Asheville, arrived in a pickup truck and trailer to make deliveries this week. Two installers from the Asheville-based solar company Sundance Power Systems followed in a van.
It took them more than an hour on winding roads to reach Bakersville, where the community hub Julie Wiggins runs in her driveway supports about 30 nearby families. It took many of her neighbors days to reach her, cutting their way out through fallen trees. Some were so desperate they stuck their insulin in the creek to keep it cold.
Panels and a battery from Footprint Project now power her small fridge, a water pump and a Starlink communications system she set up. “This is a game changer,” Wiggins said.
The volunteers then drove to Renfro’s hub in Tipton Hill before their last stop at a Bakersville church that has been running two generators. Other places are much harder to reach. Heegaard and Swezey even tried to figure out how many portable batteries a mule could carry up a mountain and have arranged for some to be lowered by helicopters.
They know the stakes are high after Heegaard volunteered in Puerto Rico, where Hurricane Maria’s death toll rose to 3,000 as some mountain communities went without power for 11 months. Duke Energy crews also restored infrastructure in Puerto Rico and are using tactics learned there, like using helicopters to drop in new electric poles, utility spokesman Bill Norton said.
The hardest customers to help could be people whose homes and businesses are too damaged to connect, and they are why the Footprint Project will stay in the area for as long as they are needed, Swezey said.
“We know there are people who will need help long after the power comes back,” she said.
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Widespread fuel shortage hampers Florida’s Hurricane Milton cleanup
CORTEZ, Florida — Floridians recovering from Hurricane Milton, many of whom were journeying home after fleeing hundreds of miles to escape the storm, spent much of Saturday searching for gas as a fuel shortage gripped the state.
In St. Petersburg, scores of people lined up at a station that had no gas, hoping it would arrive soon. Among them was Daniel Thornton and his 9-year-old daughter Magnolia, who arrived at the station at 7 a.m. and were still waiting four hours later.
“They told me they have gas coming but they don’t know when it’s going to be here,” he said. “I have no choice. I have to sit here all day with her until I get gas.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters Saturday morning that the state opened three fuel distribution sites and planned to open several more. Residents can get 37.85 liters each, free of charge, he said.
“Obviously as power gets restored … and the Port of Tampa is open, you’re going to see the fuel flowing. But in the meantime, we want to give people another option,” DeSantis said.
Officials were replenishing area gas stations with the state’s fuel stockpiles and provided generators to stations that remained without power.
Disaster hits twice
Those who reached home were assessing the damage and beginning the arduous cleaning process. Some, like Bill O’Connell, a board member at Bahia Vista Gulf in Venice, had thought they were done after the condo association hired companies to gut, treat and dry the units following Hurricane Helene. Milton undid that work and caused additional damage, O’Connell said.
“It reflooded everything that was already flooded, brought all the sand back on our property that we removed,” O’Connell said. “And also did some catastrophic wind damage, ripped off many roofs and blew out a lot of windows that caused more damage inside the units.”
The two hurricanes left a ruinous mess in the fishing village of Cortez, a community of 4,100 along the northern edge of Sarasota Bay. Residents of its modest, single-story wood and stucco-fronted cottages were working to remove broken furniture and tree limbs, stacking the debris in the street much like they did after Hurricane Helene.
“Everything is shot,” said Mark Praught, a retired street sweeper for Manatee County, who saw 1.2-meter storm surges during Helene. “We’ll replace the electrical and the plumbing and go from there.”
Praught and his wife, Catherine, have lived for 36 years in a low-lying home that now looks like an empty shell. All the furniture had to be discarded, the walls and the brick and tile floors had to be scrubbed clean of muck, and drywall had to be ripped out.
Catherine Praught said they felt “pure panic” when Hurricane Milton menaced Cortez so soon after Helene, forcing them to pause their cleanup and evacuate. Fortunately, their home wasn’t damaged by the second storm.
“This is where we live,” Catherine Praught said. “We’re just hopeful we get the insurance company to help us.”
In Bradenton Beach, Jen Hilliard scooped up wet sand mixed with rocks and tree roots and dumped the mixture into a wheelbarrow.
“This was all grass,” Hilliard said of the sandy mess beneath her feet. “They’re going to have to make 500 trips of this.”
Hilliard, who moved to Florida six months ago and lives further inland, said she was happy to pitch in and help clean up her friend’s home a block from the shore in Bradenton Beach.
Furniture and household appliances sat outside alongside debris from interior drywall that was removed after Helene sent several feet of storm surge into the house. Inside, walls were gutted up to 1.2 meters, exposing the beams underneath.
“You roll with the punches,” she said. “Community is the best part, though. Everybody helping each other.”
Milton killed at least 10 people after it made landfall as a Category 3 storm, tearing across central Florida, flooding barrier islands and spawning deadly tornadoes. Officials say the toll could have been worse if not for the widespread evacuations.
Overall, more than a thousand people had been rescued in the wake of the storm as of Saturday, DeSantis said.
Property damage and economic costs in the billions
On Sunday, President Joe Biden will survey the devastation inflicted on Florida’s Gulf Coast by the hurricane. He said he hopes to connect with DeSantis during the visit.
The trip offers Biden another opportunity to press Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to call lawmakers back to Washington to approve more funding during their preelection recess. It’s something Johnson says he won’t do.
Biden is making the case that Congress needs to act now to ensure the Small Business Administration and FEMA have the money they need to get through hurricane season, which stretches through November in the Atlantic.
DeSantis welcomed the federal government’s approval of a disaster declaration announced Saturday and said he had gotten strong support from Biden.
“He basically said, you know, you guys are doing a great job. We’re here for you,” he said when asked about his conversations with Biden. “We sent a big request and we got approved for what we wanted.”
Moody’s Analytics on Saturday estimated economic costs from the storm will range from $50 billion to $85 billion, including upwards of $70 billion in property damage and an economic output loss of up to $15 billion.
Safety threats remain, including rising rivers
As the recovery continues, DeSantis has warned people to be cautious, citing ongoing safety threats including downed power lines and standing water. Some 1.3 million Floridians were still without power by Saturday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Paul Close said rivers will “keep rising” for the next four or five days resulting in river flooding, mostly around Tampa Bay and northward. Those areas were hit by the most rain, which comes on top of a wet summer that included several earlier hurricanes.
“You can’t do much but wait,” Close said of the rivers cresting. “At least there is no rain in the forecast, no substantial rain. So we have a break here from all our wet weather.”
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Afghan man imprisoned in France, accused of planning ‘violent action’
paris — A 22-year-old Afghan was indicted and imprisoned in France on Saturday, accused of supporting the ideology of the Islamic State (IS) and of having “fomented” a “plan for violent action” in a football stadium or a shopping center.
His arrest, which took place Tuesday in Haute-Garonne, has “links” with the arrest of an Afghan living in the United States and charged Wednesday with planning an attack on the day of the U.S. elections, the national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office (PNAT) said, confirming a source close to the case questioned by AFP.
This 27-year-old Afghan, living in the southern U.S. state of Oklahoma, was in contact on the Telegram messaging service with a person identified by the FBI as an IS recruiter, according to American judicial authorities.
According to the source close to the case, during their investigations, the American authorities transmitted information to the French authorities, triggering the opening of an investigation in Paris and leading to three arrests.
On Tuesday morning in the southwest of France, three men, aged 20 to 31, two of whom are brothers, were arrested in Toulouse and Fronton by investigators from the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), supported by the RAID, the police intervention unit, as part of a preliminary investigation opened on September 27 for “terrorist criminal association with a view to preparing one or more crimes against persons.”
“The investigations carried out have highlighted the existence of a plan for violent action targeting people in a football stadium or a shopping center fomented by one of them, aged 22, of Afghan nationality and holder of a resident card, several elements of which also establish radicalization and adherence to the ideology of the Islamic State,” the PNAT told AFP on Saturday.
His lawyer, Emanuel de Dinechin, did not wish to comment at this stage.
In accordance with the PNAT requisitions, he was charged with terrorist criminal association by an investigating judge, then placed in provisional detention.
According to a source close to the case, this young man comes from the Tajik community in Afghanistan and his project, which he reportedly spoke about on Telegram, remained rather vague and unfinished.
According to another source close to the investigation, he has been living in France for around three years.
The other two men were released after their police custody.
Reconfiguration
The last arrests for a plan for violent action in France date back to the end of July.
Two young men, aged 18 and originally from Gironde in the southwest, were indicted on July 27, suspected of having created a group on social networks “intended to recruit” people “motivated (to) perpetrate a violent action” during the Paris Olympic Games.
Three attacks were foiled during the Olympic period, according to the authorities. In addition to the two young people from Gironde, one of the plans targeted establishments, including bars, around the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium in Saint-Etienne (southeast), and the other came from a group that had planned attacks against institutions and representatives of Israel in Paris. Five people have been charged, including a minor teenager, in these cases.
The “jihadist threat represents 80% of the procedures” initiated by the PNAT, anti-terrorism prosecutor Olivier Christen recalled in mid-September. “In the first half of 2024, there were approximately three times more procedures” of this type than in the same period in 2023, he added.
According to him, this increase is explained by the “geopolitical context,” but also by “the reconfiguration, particularly in Afghanistan” of the Islamic State group.
In September, two attacks by the Islamic State in Khorasan (IS-K) group, the regional branch of IS in Afghanistan, killed around 20 people in that country.
The deadliest attack by ISIS left 145 dead in March at a concert hall in Moscow.
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Lithuanians elect new parliament amid cost of living, security worries
VILNIUS, Lithuania — Lithuanians elect a new parliament Sunday in a vote dominated by concerns over the cost of living and potential threats from neighboring Russia, with the opposition Social Democrats tipped to emerge as the largest party but well short of a majority.
The outgoing center-right coalition of Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte has seen its popularity eroded by high inflation that topped 20% two years ago, by deteriorating public services and a widening gap between rich and poor.
Polling stations open at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) and close at 8 p.m. (1700 GMT). Results are expected after midnight local time.
Opinion polls suggest Simonyte’s Homeland Union will win just 9%, behind the Social Democrats at 18% and the anti-establishment Nemunas Dawn at 12%, though the eventual shape of a future coalition will depend on how smaller parties perform.
The Baltic state of 2.9 million people has a hybrid voting system in which half of the parliament is elected by popular vote, with a 5% threshold needed to win seats.
The other half is chosen on a district basis, a process which favors the larger parties.
If no candidate gets over 50% of the vote in a district, its top two candidates face each other in a run-off on October 27.
Domestic issues have loomed large in the election campaign, with the Social Democrats vowing to tackle increased inequality by raising taxes on wealthier Lithuanians to help fund more spending on healthcare and social spending.
But national security is also a major concern in Lithuania, which is part of the eastern flank of NATO and the European Union and shares a border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad as well as with Belarus, a close Moscow ally.
Three quarters of Lithuanians believe that Russia could attack their country in the near future, a Baltijos Tyrimai/ELTA poll found in May.
The main parties strongly support Ukraine in its war with invading Russian forces and back increased defense spending.
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US aviation authority approves SpaceX Starship 5 flight for Sunday
washington — The Federal Aviation Administration approved a license Saturday for the launch of SpaceX’s Starship 5 on Sunday after earlier saying it did not expect to make a decision until late November.
Reuters first reported this week the faster than expected timetable after the FAA in September had suggested a much longer review.
SpaceX is targeting Sunday for the launch and said a 30-minute launch window opens at 7 a.m. CT (1200 GMT)
The FAA said Saturday that SpaceX had “met all safety, environmental and other licensing requirements for the suborbital test flight” for the fifth test of the Starship and has also approved the Starship 6 mission profile.
The Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket are fully reusable systems designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon and beyond.
The fifth test flight of the Starship/Super Heavy from Boca Chica, Texas, includes a return to the launch site of the Super Heavy booster rocket for a catch attempt by the launch tower, and a water landing of the Starship vehicle in the Indian Ocean west of Australia.
The FAA said if SpaceX chooses an uncontrolled entry “it must communicate that decision to the FAA prior to launch, the loss of the Starship vehicle will be considered a planned event, and a mishap investigation will not be required.”
On Friday, the FAA approved the return to flight of the SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle after it reviewed and accepted the SpaceX-led investigation findings and corrective actions for the mishap that occurred September 28.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has harshly criticized the FAA, including for proposing a $633,000 fine against SpaceX over launch issues and for the delay in approving the license for Starship 5, which the company said has been ready to launch since August. Musk has called for the resignation of FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker and threatened to sue the agency.
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Holding Super Bowl outside US is possible, says NFL’s commissioner
london — The National Football League’s aggressive international growth plan could include holding a Super Bowl outside the United States for the first time, Commissioner Roger Goodell said on Saturday.
Goodell has shot down the idea in the past, but he told a fan forum in London that it’s a possibility.
“We’ve always traditionally tried to play a Super Bowl in an NFL city — that was always sort of a reward for the cities that have NFL franchises,” he said in response to a question about moving the neutral-site game internationally. “But things change. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if that happens one day.”
Goodell floated the idea as he outlined a plan that could include playing 16 international games every year if the regular season expands to 18 games.
He added that he has “no doubt” that Ireland will host a game soon. He named Rio de Janeiro as a likely new host and said the Jacksonville Jaguars are considering increasing the number of games they play in London during their stadium renovations at home.
This season’s Super Bowl — the 59th edition — will be played in New Orleans. In 2026, Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, will host, followed by SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, in 2027. Kansas City’s 25-22 overtime victory over San Francisco in the last Super Bowl was the most-watched program in U.S. television history.
Team owners already have authorized up to eight international games, but Goodell said they could double that number — creating a scenario where all 32 teams could play an international game each year.
The key is expanding the regular season by one game and reducing the number of preseason games to two.
“If we do expand our season — our regular season — to an 18-and-two structure, I see us going to 16 of those games being in international markets,” Goodell said.
He added that the plan could include a second bye week in the schedule.
“A lot of that depends on — can we continue to make the game safer, can we continue to modify the way we conduct the offseason as well as the training camp and as well as the season, so that these guys feel comfortable being able to play that period of time,” Goodell said.
Under that scenario, he said, the season would start around Labor Day and conclude around Presidents Day — the third Monday of February.
Moving to an 18th game is seen as inevitable. The players union has indicated it is open to an agreement before the current labor deal expires after the 2030 season.
There are five international games this season, and Goodell said the league wants to increase to eight “quickly.”
Dublin has been seen as the next likely host — after Madrid gets its first game in 2025.
“I have no doubt that we’re going to be playing in Ireland. I don’t know if it will be next year, but it’s coming soon,” Goodell said at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
He cited Rio de Janeiro as the possible host of the next Brazil game — Sao Paulo staged one this season.
London, which could get a night game at some point, has hosted regular-season games since 2007 and Germany since 2022.
“We’re looking at other markets in the other direction, toward Asia,” he said. “There’s probably more interest than we can handle.”
Kickoff update
Goodell expects some offseason tweaks to the new kickoff rules but on the whole said “it’s working.”
The new rules have made kickoffs relevant again, he said, and the early data on injuries is promising.
Just over 30% of kickoffs have been returned this season compared with 20% last season, he said.
“With that increase in returns, it’s giving us more data to determine whether we can do it more safely. It actually is incredibly promising. We’re seeing lower impacts that have led to less severe injuries and less number of injuries. So, I think it’s working,” Goodell said.
On average, kickoffs drives are starting just past the 29-yard line, compared with just past the 24 previously, he said.
“I think what we’ll see ultimately is a change in the offseason,” Goodell said. “Once we know it’s a safer play, it will encourage more kickoffs. That could happen in a couple of ways. You could move the kickoff line back, so that they can’t kick it out as easily. You could also say the penalty for kicking it out is going to go to the 35 instead of where we’re at, the 30.”
He said the “great thing” about the new system is “one little crease develops and that guy is gone. That’s what I’m looking for is that long kickoff return to return to the game. I think we had four or five last year. We’re already at that number at Week 6. That’s pretty good.”
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North Kosovo ethnic tensions at risk for violence, NATO official says
PRISTINA, KOSOVO — Persistent ethnic tension in north Kosovo could trigger a repeat of violence seen in the area last year when four people died in a gun battle and NATO peacekeepers were hurt in clashes, a senior official from the military alliance warned Saturday.
Kosovo is predominantly ethnic Albanian, but about 50,000 Serbs in the north reject Pristina’s government and see Belgrade as their capital. A former Serbian province, Kosovo declared independence in 2008, a decade after a guerrilla uprising.
U.S. Navy Admiral Stuart B. Munsch, commander of the Allied Joint Force Command Naples — which oversees NATO’s peacekeeping force in Kosovo — said the alliance remained concerned about the risk of repeated violence in the volatile north.
“Heated political rhetoric could inspire some nongovernment forces to commit violence such as what happened last year,” Munsch told reporters in Pristina.
“I would not say that definitely conflict is coming; I think there is a persistent risk,” he said, referring to a lack of progress in EU-mediated talks between Kosovo’s government and Serbia.
A police officer and three gunmen were killed in September 2023 when a group of heavily armed attackers entered from Serbia and attacked police in the village of Banjska.
Four months earlier, more than 90 soldiers were injured when Serb protesters attacked NATO peacekeepers.
Kosovo has accused Serbia of being behind the Banjska attack, but Belgrade has denied the accusations.
The U.S. and the European Union, Kosovo’s leading global allies, have criticized the Pristina government for taking unilateral actions in the north that could spark ethnic violence and risk the lives of some 4,000 NATO troops on duty there.
Kosovo rejects such criticism, and the issue has strained Pristina’s ties with its Western supporters.
As part of the EU-mediated dialogue, Kosovo and Serbia have been holding talks for more than a decade to normalize their relations, but there has been little progress.
Like the Serbs living in north Kosovo, Belgrade also considers Kosovo to be part of Serbia and refuses to recognize it as an independent state.
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Iran sends satellites to Russia for rocket launch, Tasnim reports
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — Iran has sent two locally made satellites to Russia to be put into orbit by a Russian space vehicle, the semi-official news agency Tasnim reported Saturday, in the latest space cooperation between the two U.S.-sanctioned countries.
The development of Kowsar, a high-resolution imaging satellite, and Hodhod, a small communications satellite, is the first substantial effort by Iran’s private space sector, the report said.
Russia sent Iranian satellites into orbit in February and in 2022, when U.S. officials voiced concern over space cooperation between Russia and Iran, fearing the satellite will not only help Russia in Ukraine but also help Iran monitor potential military targets in Israel and the wider Middle East.
Kowsar could be used in agriculture, natural resource management, environmental monitoring and disaster management, Tasnim said. Hodhod is designed for satellite-based communications and could be used in remote areas with little access to terrestrial networks.
In September, Iran carried out its second satellite launch this year using a rocket built by its Revolutionary Guards. The launch came as the United States and European countries accuse Tehran of transferring ballistic missiles to Russia that could be used in its war with Ukraine. Iran has denied this.
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Poland to suspend asylum rights amid pressure on Belarusian border
WARSAW, POLAND — Poland’s leader said Saturday that he plans to temporarily suspend the right to asylum as part of a new migration policy, pointing to its alleged abuse by eastern neighbors Belarus and Russia.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that “the state must regain 100% of the control over who enters and leaves Poland,” and that a territorial suspension of the right to asylum will be part of a strategy that will be presented to a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Polish news agency PAP reported.
He didn’t give details but said at a convention of his Civic Coalition that “we will reduce illegal migration in Poland to a minimum.”
Poland has struggled with migration pressures on its border with Belarus since 2021. Successive Polish governments have accused Belarus and Russia of luring migrants from the Middle East and Africa there to destabilize the West.
Tusk pointed to alleged misuse of the right to asylum “by [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko, by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, by smugglers, human smugglers, human traffickers. How this right to asylum is used is in exact contradiction to the idea of the right to asylum.”
He said that he would demand recognition of the decision on the right to asylum from the European Union, PAP reported.
Tusk’s comments came after Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said Thursday that Poland will tighten its visa regulations, stepping up the vetting of applicants. That decision follows an investigation into a cash-for-visas scandal under the country’s previous government.
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Harris’ doctor reports she’s in ‘excellent health’
WASHINGTON — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and “possesses the physical and mental resiliency” required to serve as president, her doctor said in a letter released Saturday that summarizes her medical history and status.
Dr. Joshua Simmons, a U.S. Army colonel and physician to the vice president, wrote that Harris, 59, maintains a healthy, active lifestyle and that her most recent physical, in April, was “unremarkable.”
She “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief,” he wrote in a two-page letter.
Harris’ campaign hopes to use the moment to draw a contrast with Republican Donald Trump, who has released only limited information about his health over the years, and raise questions about his fitness to serve, according to a campaign aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Trump has released very little health information, including after his ear was grazed by a bullet during an assassination attempt in July.
Simmons, who said he has been Harris’ primary care physician for the past 3½ years, said the vice president has a history of allergies and urticaria, also known as hives, for which she has been on allergen immunotherapy for the past three years.
Simmons said Harris’ latest blood work and other test results were “unremarkable.”
Also in the report: Harris wears contact lenses for mild nearsightedness; her family history includes maternal colon cancer; she is up to date on preventive care recommendations, including having a colonoscopy and annual mammograms.
As Harris’ office released the medical report, her campaign highlighted recent media reports raising questions about Trump’s health and mental acuity and his failure to provide information about health status and medical history.
Trump, 78, eagerly questioned President Joe Biden’s health when the 81-year-old president was seeking reelection. Since Biden was replaced on the ticket with Harris, Trump’s own health has drawn more attention.
Last November, Trump marked Biden’s birthday by releasing a letter from his physician that reported the former president was in “excellent” physical and mental health.
The letter, posted on Trump’s social media platform, contained no details to support its claims — measures such as weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, or the results of any test.
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US airstrikes target multiple militant camps in Syria
BEIRUT — A series of U.S. airstrikes targeted several camps run by the Islamic State group in Syria in an operation the U.S. military said will disrupt the extremists from conducting attacks in the region and beyond.
The U.S. Central Command said the airstrikes were conducted Friday, without specifying in which parts of Syria. About 900 U.S. troops have been deployed in eastern Syria alongside the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that were instrumental in the fight against IS militants.
Despite their defeat, attacks by IS sleeper cells in Iraq and Syria have been on the rise over the past years, with scores of people killed or wounded.
The Islamic State group seized territory at the height of its power and declared a caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014 but was defeated in Iraq in 2017. In March 2019, the extremists lost the last sliver of land they once controlled in eastern Syria.
The U.S. military said the strikes will disrupt the ability of the Islamic State group to plan, organize and conduct attacks against the United States, its allies and partners, as well as civilians throughout the region and beyond.
It said battle damage assessments were underway and there were no civilian casualties.
Last month, Iraq’s military said that Iraqi forces and American troops killed a senior IS commander who was wanted by the United States, as well as several other prominent militants.
At its peak, the group ruled an area half the size of the United Kingdom where it enforced its extreme interpretation of Islam, which included attacks on religious minority groups and harsh punishment of Muslims deemed to be apostates.
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