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☆ Isfahan, Iran: Iran’s air defense activated after explosions heard close to Isfahan airport and military base, reports say
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Hamdi Alkhshali | Artemis Moshtaghian | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Israel has carried out a strike inside Iran, a US official told CNN Friday, a move that threatens to push the region deeper into conflict. Iran’s air defense systems were activated in several locations after three explosions were heard close to the airport and an army base in the Iranian city of Isfahan, state media reported early Friday morning. Three explosions were heard near a military base where fighter jets are located in the northwest part of Isfahan, Iran’s semi-official FARS news agency reported. Renée Rigdon/CNNOutgoing flights from several Iranian airports have been cancelled, according to an Iranian official, Iranian state media Press TV reported. FARS reported that the explosion was heard in the city of Ghahjaworstan, northwest of Isfahan, citing local sources.

Persons: CNN —, Renée Rigdon, Hossein Amir, Abdollahian, Israel Organizations: CNN, Press, Mehr, Army Air Force, Iranian Press, Iran’s Locations: CNN — Israel, Iran, Iranian, Isfahan, Iran’s, FARS, Israel, “ Tehran, Shiraz, West, North West, South West, Ghahjaworstan, Isfahan Airport, Tehran, Syria

☆ Hossein Amir-Abdollahian: Iran’s response will be “immediate and at a maximum level,” foreign minister warns Israel
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Simone Mccarthy | Tara John | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Iran’s response if Israel takes any further military action against it would be “immediate and at a maximum level,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told CNN Thursday, as fears rise of an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East. The tit-for-tat strikes have brought a decades long shadow war between Israel and Iran out in the open and sent fear coursing through the Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said Israel will make its “own decisions” when responding to Iran’s airstrikes. The details of a potential “maximum response” have been planned by Iran’s armed forces, he added. “Our operations in response were carried out at a minimum because we were not seeking to hit multiple targets,” he said.

Persons: Hossein Amir, Abdollahian, adventurism, ” Amir, CNN’s Erin Burnett, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, ”, Amir, “ Organizations: CNN, Amir, Palestinian, Hamas, Wednesday, Iranian, United Nations, White, Swiss Embassy Locations: Israel, Iran, New York, Tehran, Syria, Iranian, Isfahan, Iran’s, FARS, Damascus, United States, Gaza, Israeli, “, America

☆ Blinken holding crucial meetings in Israel as efforts to free hostages and halt Gaza fighting intensify
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Jennifer Hansler | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel Wednesday for meetings with key government officials to press for a “humanitarian pause” as international and domestic US pressure to end the conflict in Gaza continues to mount. Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a little over an hour. He is meeting with Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Herzi Halevi and set to meet with other key officials. “There’s still a lot of work to be done, but we continue to believe that an agreement is possible and, indeed, essential. And we will continue to work relentlessly to achieve it,” Blinken said at a news conference in Doha Tuesday.

Persons: Antony Blinken, Blinken, Benjamin Netanyahu, Herzi Halevi, “ There’s, ” Blinken, Biden, Joe Biden, ”, Netanyahu, ’, “ We’re, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Prince, Israel, we’ll Organizations: CNN, Israeli, Israel Defense Forces, Hamas, Doha Tuesday, State Department, Monday, Palestinian Authority, Saudi Crown, Doha Locations: Israel, Gaza, Tel Aviv, Iranian, Iraq, Syria, United States, Rafah, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, ”, Palestinian

The alleged strike targeted the Mazzeh neighborhood in Syria’s capital, home to several diplomatic missions including the Iranian embassy, according to Syrian authorities. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) identified the four others killed as military advisors Ali Aghazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi, Saeed Karimi and Mohammad Amin Samadi. Their presence in Syria had been “at the official invitation of the Syrian government,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanaani, noted in a statement on social media. Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty ImagesRegional spillover fearsThe attack in Damascus comes amid concerns that Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza is spiraling into a regional war. Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday vowed to “punish” Israel for the Damascus missile strike.

Persons: Israel “, “, Hojjatollah Omidvar, Iran’s, Ali Aghazadeh, Hossein Mohammadi, Saeed Karimi, Mohammad Amin Samadi, Nasser Kanaani, Louai Beshara, Tehran’s, Hossein Amir, Abdollahian, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Matt Miller, ” Miller, Ebrahim Raisi, ” Israel, ”, CNN’s Kareem Khadder Organizations: CNN, Hamas, Syrian Ministry of Defense, Israel Defense Forces, Network, Quds Force, Revolutionary Guards, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Security, Getty, Economic, Israel, Palestinian Ministry of Health, State Locations: Damascus, Syria’s, Iranian, Mazzeh, Syria, AFP, Gaza, Iraq, Tehran, Lebanon, Yemen, Red, Davos, Palestinian, Ramallah, The, Israel

☆ The world’s most powerful passports for 2024
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-10 | by ( Maureen O'Hare | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —In a big shakeup of a quarterly ranking of the world’s most powerful passports, an unprecedented six countries are tied in the top spot for the hottest travel documents for 2024. The United States and Canada, meanwhile, are tied in seventh place, along with Hungary, with visa-free access to 188 destinations. “The average number of destinations travelers are able to access visa-free has nearly doubled from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024,” says Kaelin. Portugal is at No.4 on the Henley Passport Index and Arton Capital's Passport Index. Arton’s Global Passport Power Rank 2024 puts the United Arab Emirates in the top spot, with a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 180.

Persons: Christian, Kaelin, ”, Tamas Gabor, iStockphoto, It’s, Arton Capital’s, Armand Arton, that’s, Arton Organizations: CNN, Henley & Partners, International Air Transport Association, South Korea, United, United Arab Emirates, Henley, United Nations Locations: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, London, Europe, Finland, Sweden, –, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, Greece, Malta, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Czechia, Poland, United States, Canada, Hungary, United Arab, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Taiwan, Macao, Hong Kong, Kosovo, Palestinian, Territories, Monaco, Albania, South Korea, Czech Republic , New Zealand, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Iceland

☆ 900 US troops have deployed or are deploying to Middle East amid heightened tensions
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Haley Britzky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Roughly 900 US troops have been deployed or are deploying to the Middle East amid heightened tensions in the region after a series of attacks on coalition bases that resulted in minor injuries for almost two dozen troops. “These include forces that have been on prepare to deploy orders, and which are deploying from the continental United States,” Pentagon spokesman Brig. Of those, 19 — 15 at Al Assad Air Base in Syria, and four at Al-Tanf Garrison in Iraq — have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI), Ryder said. That is in addition to US troops already in Iraq and Syria – roughly 2,500 and 900, respectively – and Navy assets that were announced to be heading to the region. The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group has been directed to the Middle East, and the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group is currently in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.

Persons: Pat Ryder, Fort Bliss Texas, Fort, ” Ryder, Ryder, “, Tanf Garrison, Iraq —, ”, Sabrina Singh, Dwight D, Gerald R Organizations: CNN, Pentagon, “, Defense, Patriot, Hamas, Israel, Al Assad Air Base, Al, Erbil Airbase, Eisenhower Carrier Strike, Ford Carrier Strike Locations: United States, Fort Bliss, Fort Sill , Oklahoma, Fort Liberty , North Carolina, Cavazos , Texas, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Erbil

☆ Fact Check: 2019 image shared as October attack on US military base in Syria
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-25 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A photo of explosions from shelling by U.S.-backed forces in Syria in 2019 has been miscaptioned online as showing an October 2023 attack on a U.S. military base in Syria. However, the circulating image does not show the reported October 2023 attacks on U.S. military bases. Posts on social media shared an image of a blast from a distance claiming to show attacks on U.S. military bases in northwestern Syria, described as a “massive explosion at the base located in the Al-Omar oilfield”. The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) attacked the Islamic State’s Baghouz enclave on March 10, 2019. The image of an explosion dates back to a U.S. attack against Islamic State in Syria in 2019, not an attack on a U.S. military base in October 2023.

Persons: Al, Omar, Zor, Delil Souleiman, Read Organizations: U.S, Hamas, Reuters, Getty, Islamic, Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF, Thomson Locations: Syria, Iran, Iraq, Iranian, Israel, Palestinian, U.S, Deir, Zor, Lebanon, Al, Deir al, AFP, Islamic State, Syrian, Baghouz

☆ Newly declassified US intel claims Russia is laundering propaganda through unwitting Westerners
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Katie Bo Lillis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Washington CNN —Russian intelligence is operating a systematic program to launder pro-Kremlin propaganda through private relationships between Russian operatives and unwitting US and western targets, according to newly declassified US intelligence. “At the end of the day, this unwitting target is disseminating Russian influence operation, Russian propaganda to their target public,” the US official said. In fact, the FSB directed his efforts and “almost certainly financed the project,” according to the declassified intelligence. The FSB does use similar tactics to influence political opinion within Russia, according to the intelligence. “The purpose of those protests really was … designed to sell it to the Russian people,” the US official said.

Persons: “, Maxim Grigoriev, Syria –, Bashar al, Assad, optees ”, Andrey Stepanenko, Natalia Burlinova, Anton Tsvetkov Organizations: Washington CNN, Russian, Russian Federal Security Service, CNN, UN, “, US, Embassy — Locations: Russian, Syria, Russia, United States, Ukraine, New York, Boston, Washington, Moscow —, Ukrainian

☆ Biden administration could soon approve sending controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Natasha Bertrand | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

“These would undoubtedly have a significant battlefield impact,” a US official told CNN. Changing battlefield conditions inside Ukraine over the last two weeks have prompted US officials to give the cluster munitions renewed and serious consideration, officials told CNN. Administration officials also believe they have managed to alleviate some allies’ concerns about the US transferring the munitions, officials said. DPICMs stands for dual-purpose improved conventional munitions, the official name for the type of cluster munitions that the US has in its stockpile. He previously told CNN that with the cluster munitions, “Ukraine will finish this war much faster, to the benefit of everybody.”“Russia is extensively using the old styles, the most barbaric styles, of cluster munitions against Ukraine,” Goncharenko told CNN in December.

Persons: Washington CNN —, Biden, Clodagh Kilcoyne, –, ” Laura Cooper, DPICMs, Cooper, ”, Joe Biden, Oleksiy Goncharenko, ” Goncharenko, “ Organizations: Washington CNN, CNN, White, Administration, Human Rights Watch, Pentagon, Foreign, Central Command, US State Department, State Department Locations: Ukraine, France, Germany, Ukrainian, Russia, Russian, Syria, Eurasia

☆ Syria's lost generation: Education and dreams deferred
▼ + stars: | 2015-03-30 | by ( Hiba As Told To Mary Kate Macisaac | As Told To Mary Kate Macisaac | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

That’s how long it takes to complete a college degree, and that’s how long Syria has been at war. Many Syrian students would be graduating from university this year, but instead they have been forced to abandon, or at least put on indefinite hold, their dreams of an education. We hope to meet our needs today, not so much to fulfill our dreams tomorrow. It’s not like sitting at home, feeling powerless, losing confidence, wondering what I can do to help my family, to help my people. Each person has the right to pursue an education, to meet their most basic needs, to express themselves.

☆ Help refugees survive the Syrian conflict
▼ + stars: | 2015-01-06 | by ( Christopher Dawson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

You can aid the civilians struggling to survive in Syria – with food, shelter, medical aid and other basic needs. The United Nations estimates that 6 million civilians are internally displaced, desperate to find safety in the destroyed cities, facing the constant threat of gunfire in the streets and bombs from the skies. Syrian refugees also attempt the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea, seeking refuge in Europe. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that in 2017, 172,301 refugees and migrants from Syria and other countries made this perilous journey. To help organizations providing life saving assistance to both migrants and refugees attempting this crossing, click here.

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