Vessel struck in Iraq port in ‘unprovoked attack’
The world’s largest shipping group said one of its vessels was struck by two projectiles while in Iraq’s Umm Qasr port yesterday.
Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) said all crew members were safe and unharmed, adding that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had claimed responsibility.
The group described the incident as an unprovoked attack on a neutral commercial carrier, which has no affiliation either with the US or Israel.
Iranian state news agency Tasnim said in a post on X yesterday that the MSC ship has been “officially operating in Israel since 1990” and has “established its offices in Haifa and Ashdod.”
“It annually moves more than 600,000 containers (TEU) in Israeli ports,” the agency added.
In a statement, MSC said it is “deeply concerned” by the attacks and the “risk they create for its innocent seafarers and essential maritime trade in the region.”
Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a highly powerful and influential branch of the Iranian Armed Forces, says 24 ships have passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours.
Cited by Iran’s state news agency Mehr, it said the vessels were granted permission to transit the waterway under the coordination and security of the IRGC Navy.
Iran effectively closed the waterway after the US and Israel carried out strikes against the country in February, despite the shipping lane being subject to free navigation under international maritime law.
The US subsequently responded by enforcing a naval blockade of Iran.
Control of the strait has remained a major point of contention and is central to a potential agreement between Washington and Tehran, under which – as reports suggest – Iran would reopen the waterway and the US would lift its blockade. –Skynews
Rescuers pull dead from rubble after Russian strikes kill 21
A Russian missile and drone attack killed at least 21 people across Ukraine overnight, including two children, marking one of Moscow’s largest assaults in recent months.
An eight-year-old boy and three women pulled from the rubble of an apartment block were among 15 people killed in Dnipro, regional officials said. In the capital Kyiv, six people were killed.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said civilian infrastructure and energy facilities had been targeted across the country, with more than 100 people injured.
Russia’s defence ministry said the strikes had been a response to previous Ukrainian attacks, saying in a statement that the “strike objectives” had all been achieved.
The Kremlin said yesterday it was carrying out the ‘systematic strikes’ it had pledged after accusing Kyiv of a deadly attack on a student dormitory in an occupied part of eastern Ukraine in late May.
“This practice will continue,”Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters yesterday, claiming the strikes were targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure.
Zelensky had warned a “massive strike” was possible in his nightly video address on Monday, and urged residents to pay special attention to air raid alerts.
On Tuesday morning, he said Russia had launched 656 strike drones and 73 missiles of various types – ballistic, cruise, and anti-ship – in the overnight attack.
“We urgently need help from the United States in supplying missiles for Patriot systems”, the Ukrainian president said, referring to interception hardware used to intercept Russian missiles.
Patriot missiles have been in short supply, exacerbated by the US and Israeli war against Iran.
Since returning to power last year, US President Donald Trump has also stopped direct supplies to Ukraine, so Kyiv’s European allies have been buying them from the US before sending them to Ukraine. –BBC
South Africa police investigate killing of 2 Mozambicans
Two men from Mozambique were killed in South Africa’s Mossel Bay, authorities have said.
In an earlier statement, the Mozambican government said five of its nationals had been killed “as a direct consequence of xenophobic attacks”. But the police in South Africa did not give a motive and an investigation is ongoing.
Tensions have been rising in South Africa in recent weeks following protests calling for tougher action against illegal migration. Some African nations say it has resulted in violence against their citizens, which South African authorities have not confirmed.
The deaths of the men aged 27 and 43 on Saturday follows violence in the Western Cape the day before.
In releasing these details, the South African police said yesterday that they wanted to “set the record straight”.
In a separate incident, officers said an 18-year-old South African man was stabbed to death in the early hours of Sunday, in what was possibly a botched robbery. No arrests have been made.
On Friday, violent unrest swept through a settlement in KwaNonqaba, during which more than 50 shacks were set on fire.
Five people have been arrested in connection with the arson, authorities have said. –BBC
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