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Austria midfielder Marcel Sabitzer is flying to the UK to complete a loan deal from Bayern Munich to Manchester United.
The 28-year-old is available during the current transfer window, and following Christian Eriksen's long-term injury and a short-term problem for Scott McTominay, United explored the prospect of a loan move.
At Tuesday's media conference United manager Erik ten Hag said it was "difficult" to complete any deals on deadline day.
However, Ten Hag is well known at Bayern Munich because of his spell as second-team coach there, and that relationship could help speed up the process.
Without Eriksen, who has been ruled out until the end of April with an ankle injury, and McTominay, Ten Hag has only two fit central midfielders for the upcoming games against Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace over the next week.
Seventeen-year-old Kobbie Mainoo is highly thought of at United, but it is unlikely he would be risked at first-team level on a regular basis. Zidane Iqbal, 19, also plays in midfield but the Iraq international is yet to make a senior appearance this season.
Under the circumstances, a move for Sabitzer makes complete sense for United, who remain in all four competitions and hold a 3-0 lead from the first leg heading into the deciding game of their Carabao Cup semi-final with Nottingham Forest at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
Sabitzer spent six seasons at RB Leipzig, captaining the side in 2020-21, before joining Bayern on a four-year deal in August 2021.
He has also scored 12 goals in 68 appearances for Austria.
Ten Hag's problem is clear.
Eriksen's absence until the end of April is a severe blow. McTominay's compounds the issue, even though the Scotland midfielder might only be out for a couple of games.
It leaves United with just two central midfielders - Casemiro and Fred - and four competitions to play in, potentially 33 games.
United will definitely be playing twice a week into March, and it could go beyond that if they do not get knocked out of the Europa League.
Ten Hag is not prepared to risk the progress made at United this season through a lack of bodies.
So, the Dutchman has gone back to his old club to try to sign an experienced international, who seems to be capable of doing a job for United like Wout Weghorst has.
No-one can claim Sabitzer is on a list of long-term targets. However, if United can sign the 28-year-old, at least Ten Hag can feel confident in having enough players to guide him through the crucial part of the campaign without having to rely on teenagers Mainoo and Iqbal.
Credit: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/64471734
A series of powerful explosions have damaged an Iranian government weapons factory in the central city of Isfahan, according to witnesses and footage from the scene, in what officials said was a coordinated drone attack.
The overnight strikes left flames billowing from a military industrial complex thought to be a production hub for drones and missiles that have been used across the Middle East and by Russian forces in Ukraine.
There was no immediate confirmation about who was responsible, but the attacks appear to fit a pattern of strikes against strategic sites across Iran that have been attributed to Israel in recent years. A fire erupted at a fuel refinery in the north-west of Iran at about the same time as explosions were heard in Isfahan, at 11.30pm local time.
Drones have played an increasing role in a shadow war being fought between Iran and Israel over the skies of Iraq and Syria, in the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and even the eastern Mediterranean, where tankers have been set ablaze by both sides since early 2019.
However, the stakes have been highest in Iran itself, where Iran’s nuclear programme has been the target of repeated sabotage attempts. The country’s top scientist was assassinated in 2020 and the Natanz nuclear facility was struck one year later by a blast that damaged its centrifuges. The Karaj facility was struck the same year. An attack in 2022 damaged a drone facility, destroying at least 120 craft.
Iranian officials claimed on Sunday that two drones had been shot down and another had inflicted only minor damage to the factory’s roof.
“There was an unsuccessful attack by small drones against a defence ministry industrial complex and fortunately with predictions and air defence arrangements already in place, one of them [struck],” Iran’s national news agency said in a post on Twitter.
“The air defence system of the complex was able to destroy two other drones. Fortunately, this unsuccessful attack killed no one and minor damage was sustained to the roof of the complex.”
However, footage taken at the scene showed a powerful blast that was caused by either a secondary detonation or a more powerful payload than anything a drone could carry.
Israel is known to be training pilots of its most advanced jet fighter, the F35, for a possible attack on Iran. It has used the warplanes to attack Iranian interests in Syria, including deliveries of drone parts to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
The attack comes at a deeply sensitive time for Iran, which continues to battle a homegrown uprising led by citizens who have turned outrage over the death of a Kurdish woman in custody four months ago into a rolling series of protests that have exposed the susceptibility of the autocratic state to sustained popular revolt.
At the same time, talks to revive a nuclear deal with the Biden administration have stalled as the country’s nuclear programme edges closer to the production of weapons-grade levels, a threshold Israel has vowed to prevent it from reaching. Tehran had agreed to limit its nuclear work in return for an easing of sanctions.
Israel remained silent on Sunday in the aftermath of the Isfahan attack, though the Jerusalem Post newspaper noted that “there are also few organisations globally besides the Mossad which are reported to have the advanced and surgical strike capabilities displayed in the operation”.
Iran has previously claimed that saboteurs were working to attack the military complex in Isfahan, and in July it arrested Kurds who it said had been working with Israel to prepare such an operation.
Since the start of the uprising, Iran has launched two rounds of ballistic missile and drone attacks into neighbouring Iraqi Kurdistan, where it claims exiled Iranian Kurdish militias are stirring dissident acts at home. The Kurdish groups have denied any involvement in the protests.
Last summer, Iranian troops fired a salvo of missiles at a residence of a Kurdish businessman near Erbil, which it claims was being used by Mossad officials to direct drone attacks inside Iran. The Kurdish regional government strongly denied the claims and the house targeted appeared to have been empty at the time.
Credit: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/29/drone-attack-hits-iran-ammunition-factory-reports
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Bomb-carrying drones targeted an Iranian defense factory in the central city of Isfahan overnight, authorities said early Sunday, causing some damage at the plant amid heightened regional and international tensions engulfing the Islamic Republic.
The Iranian Defense Ministry offered no information on who it suspected carried out the attack, which came as a refinery fire separately broke out in the country’s northwest and a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck nearby, killing three people.
However, Tehran has been targeted in suspected Israeli drone strikes amid a shadow war with its Mideast rival as its nuclear deal with world powers collapsed. Meanwhile, tensions also remain high with neighboring Azerbaijan after a gunman attacked that country’s embassy in Tehran, killing its security chief and wounding two others.
Details on the Isfahan attack, which happened around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, remained scarce. A Defense Ministry statement described three drones being launched at the facility, with two of them successfully shot down. A third apparently made it through to strike the building, causing “minor damage” to its roof and wounding no one, the ministry said.
Iranian state television’s English-language arm, Press TV, aired mobile phone video apparently showing the moment that drone struck along the busy Imam Khomeini Expressway that heads northwest out of Isfahan, one of several ways for drivers to go to the holy city of Qom and Tehran, Iran’s capital. A small crowd stood gathered, drawn by anti-aircraft fire, watching as an explosion and sparks struck a dark building.
“Oh my God! That was a drone, wasn’t it?” the man filming shouts. “Yeah, it was a drone.”
Those there fled after the strike.
That footage of the strike, as well as footage of the aftermath analyzed by The Associated Press, corresponded to a site on Minoo Street in northwestern Isfahan that’s near a shopping center that includes a carpet and an electronics store.
Iranian defense and nuclear sites increasingly find themselves surrounded by commercial properties and residential neighborhoods as the country’s cities sprawl ever outward. Some locations as well remain incredibly opaque about what they produce, with only a sign bearing a Defense Ministry or paramilitary Revolutionary Guard logo.
The Defense Ministry only called the site a “workshop,” without elaborating on what it made. Isfahan, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) south of Tehran, is home to both a large air base built for its fleet of American-made F-14 fighter jets and its Nuclear Fuel Research and Production Center.
The attack comes after Iran’s Intelligence Ministry in July claimed to have broken up a plot to target sensitive sites around Isfahan. A segment aired on Iranian state TV in October included purported confessions by alleged members of Komala, a Kurdish opposition party that is exiled from Iran and now lives in Iraq, that they planned to target a military aerospace facility in Isfahan after being trained by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service.
Activists say Iranian state TV has aired hundreds of coerced confessions over the last decade. Israeli officials declined to comment on the attack.
Separately, Iran’s state TV said a fire broke out at an oil refinery in an industrial zone near the northwestern city of Tabriz. It said the cause was not yet known, as it showed footage of firefighters trying to extinguish the blaze. Tabriz is some 520 kilometers (325 miles) northwest of Tehran.
State TV also said the magnitude 5.9 earthquake killed three people and injured 816 others in rural areas in West Azerbaijan province, damaging buildings in many villages.
Iran’s theocratic government faces challenges both at home and abroad as its nuclear program rapidly enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels since the collapse of its atomic accord with world powers.
Nationwide protests have shaken the country since the September death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman detained by the country’s morality police. Its rial currency has plummeted to new lows against the U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, Iran continues to arm Russia with the bomb-carrying drone that Moscow uses in attacks in Ukraine on power plants and civilian targets.
Israel is suspected of launching a series of attacks on Iran, including an April 2021 assault on its underground Natanz nuclear facility that damaged its centrifuges. In 2020, Iran blamed Israel for a sophisticated attack that killed its top military nuclear scientist.
Israeli officials rarely acknowledge operations carried out by the country’s secret military units or its Mossad intelligence agency. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently re-entered the premiership, long has considered Iran to be the biggest threat his nation faces. The U.S. and Israel also just held their largest-ever military exercise amid the tensions with Iran.
Meanwhile, tensions remain high between Azerbaijan and Iran as Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Iran also wants to maintain its 44-kilometer (27-mile) border with landlocked Armenia _ something that could be threatened if Azerbaijan seizes new territory through warfare.
Iran in October launched a military exercise near the Azerbaijan border. Azerbaijan also maintains close ties to Israel, which has infuriated Iranian hard-liners, and has purchased Israeli-made drones for its military.
Anwar Gargash, a senior Emirati diplomat, warned online that the Isfahan attack represented one more event in the “dangerous escalation the region is witnessing.” The United Arab Emirates was targeted in missile and drone attacks last year claimed by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
It “is not in the interest of the region and its future,” Gargash wrote on Twitter. “Although the problems of the region are complex, there is no alternative to dialogue.”
Credit: https://globalnews.ca/news/9444588/iran-drone-targeted-defense-factory-isfahan/
DUBAI/WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Israel appears to have been behind an overnight drone attack on a military factory in Iran, a U.S. official said on Sunday.
Iran claimed to have intercepted drones that struck a military industry target near the central city of Isfahan, and said there were no casualties or serious damage.
The extent of damage could not be independently ascertained. Iranian state media released footage showing a flash in the sky and emergency vehicles at the scene.
A spokesperson for the Israeli military declined to comment. Arch-foe Israel has long said it is willing to strike Iranian targets if diplomacy fails to curb Tehran's nuclear or missile programmes, but it has a policy of withholding comment on specific incidents.
Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said no U.S. military forces were involved in strikes in Iran, but declined to comment further.
That U.S. officials were pointing to an Israeli role in the attack was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, citing several unidentified sources. One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters it did appear that Israel was involved. Several other U.S. officials declined to comment, beyond saying that Washington played no role.
Tehran did not formally ascribe blame for what Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian called a "cowardly" attack aimed at creating "insecurity" in Iran. But state TV broadcast comments by a lawmaker, Hossein Mirzaie, saying there was "strong speculation" Israel was behind it.
The attack came amid tension between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear activity and its supply of arms - including long-range "suicide drones" - for Russia's war in Ukraine, as well as months of anti-government demonstrations at home.
The extent of the damage could not be independently confirmed. Iran's Defence Ministry said the explosion caused only minor damage and no casualties.
"Such actions will not impact our experts' determination to progress in our peaceful nuclear work," Amirabdollahian told reporters in televised remarks.
An Israeli strike on Iran would be the first under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since he returned to office last month at the helm of the most right-wing government in Israeli history.
In Ukraine, which accuses Iran of supplying hundreds of drones to Russia to attack civilian targets in Ukrainian cities far from the front, a senior aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy linked the incident directly to the war there.
"Explosive night in Iran," Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted. "Did warn you."
Iran has acknowledged sending drones to Russia but says they were sent before Moscow's invasion of Ukraine last year. Moscow denies its forces use Iranian drones in Ukraine, although many have been shot down and recovered there.
"Around 23:30 (2000 GMT) on Saturday night, an unsuccessful attack was carried out using micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) on one of the ministry's workshop sites," the Defence Ministry said in a statement carried by state TV.
It said one drone was shot down "and the other two were caught in defence traps and blew up. It caused only minor damage to the roof of a workshop building. There were no casualties."
A military official in the region said given the location of the strike in central Iran and the size of the drones, it was likely that the attack was staged from within Iran's borders.
Separately, IRNA reported early on Sunday a massive fire at a motor oil factory in an industrial zone near the northwestern city of Tabriz. It later said oil leakage caused that blaze, citing a local official.
Iran has accused Israel in the past of planning attacks using agents inside Iranian territory. In July, Tehran said it had arrested a sabotage team made up of Kurdish militants working for Israel who planned to blow up a "sensitive" defence industry centre in Isfahan.
Several Iranian nuclear sites are located in Isfahan province, including Natanz, centrepiece of Iran’s uranium enrichment programme, which Iran accuses Israel of sabotaging in 2021. There have been a number of explosions and fires around Iranian military, nuclear and industrial sites in recent years.
Talks between Iran and world powers to revive a 2015 nuclear deal have stalled since September. Under the pact, abandoned by Washington in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump, Tehran agreed to limit nuclear work in return for easing of sanctions.
Iran's clerical rulers have also faced internal turmoil in recent months, with a crackdown on widespread anti-establishment demonstrations spurred by the death in custody of a woman held for allegedly violating its strict Islamic dress code.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Phil Stewart has reported from more than 60 countries, including Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, China and South Sudan. An award-winning Washington-based national security reporter, Phil has appeared on NPR, PBS NewsHour, Fox News and other programs and moderated national security events, including at the Reagan National Defense Forum and the German Marshall Fund. He is a recipient of the Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence and the Joe Galloway Award.
Credit: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/blast-heard-military-plant-irans-central-city-isfahan-state-media-2023-01-28/
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — (AP) — Bomb-carrying drones targeted an Iranian defense factory in the central city of Isfahan overnight, authorities said early Sunday, causing some damage at the plant amid heightened regional and international tensions engulfing the Islamic Republic.
The Iranian Defense Ministry offered no information on who it suspected carried out the attack, which came as a refinery fire separately broke out in the country's northwest and a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck nearby, killing three people.
However, Tehran has been targeted in suspected Israeli drone strikes amid a shadow war with its Mideast rival as its nuclear deal with world powers collapsed. Meanwhile, tensions also remain high with neighboring Azerbaijan after a gunman attacked that country's embassy in Tehran, killing its security chief and wounding two others.
Details on the Isfahan attack, which happened around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, remained scarce. A Defense Ministry statement described three drones being launched at the facility, with two of them successfully shot down. A third apparently made it through to strike the building, causing “minor damage” to its roof and wounding no one, the ministry said.
Iranian state television's English-language arm, Press TV, aired mobile phone video apparently showing the moment that drone struck along the busy Imam Khomeini Expressway that heads northwest out of Isfahan, one of several ways for drivers to go to the holy city of Qom and Tehran, Iran's capital. A small crowd stood gathered, drawn by anti-aircraft fire, watching as an explosion and sparks struck a dark building.
“Oh my God! That was a drone, wasn’t it?" the man filming shouts. "Yeah, it was a drone.”
Those there fled after the strike.
That footage of the strike, as well as footage of the aftermath analyzed by The Associated Press, corresponded to a site on Minoo Street in northwestern Isfahan that's near a shopping center that includes a carpet and an electronics store.
Iranian defense and nuclear sites increasingly find themselves surrounded by commercial properties and residential neighborhoods as the country's cities sprawl ever outward. Some locations as well remain incredibly opaque about what they produce, with only a sign bearing a Defense Ministry or paramilitary Revolutionary Guard logo.
The Defense Ministry only called the site a “workshop," without elaborating on what it made. Isfahan, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) south of Tehran, is home to both a large air base built for its fleet of American-made F-14 fighter jets and its Nuclear Fuel Research and Production Center.
The attack comes after Iran's Intelligence Ministry in July claimed to have broken up a plot to target sensitive sites around Isfahan. A segment aired on Iranian state TV in October included purported confessions by alleged members of Komala, a Kurdish opposition party that is exiled from Iran and now lives in Iraq, that they planned to target a military aerospace facility in Isfahan after being trained by Israel's Mossad intelligence service.
Activists say Iranian state TV has aired hundreds of coerced confessions over the last decade. Israeli officials declined to comment on the attack.
Separately, Iran’s state TV said a fire broke out at an oil refinery in an industrial zone near the northwestern city of Tabriz. It said the cause was not yet known, as it showed footage of firefighters trying to extinguish the blaze. Tabriz is some 520 kilometers (325 miles) northwest of Tehran.
State TV also said the magnitude 5.9 earthquake killed three people and injured 816 others in rural areas in West Azerbaijan province, damaging buildings in many villages.
Iran's theocratic government faces challenges both at home and abroad as its nuclear program rapidly enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels since the collapse of its atomic accord with world powers.
Nationwide protests have shaken the country since the September death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman detained by the country's morality police. Its rial currency has plummeted to new lows against the U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, Iran continues to arm Russia with the bomb-carrying drone that Moscow uses in attacks in Ukraine on power plants and civilian targets.
Israel is suspected of launching a series of attacks on Iran, including an April 2021 assault on its underground Natanz nuclear facility that damaged its centrifuges. In 2020, Iran blamed Israel for a sophisticated attack that killed its top military nuclear scientist.
Israeli officials rarely acknowledge operations carried out by the country’s secret military units or its Mossad intelligence agency. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently re-entered the premiership, long has considered Iran to be the biggest threat his nation faces. The U.S. and Israel also just held their largest-ever military exercise amid the tensions with Iran.
Meanwhile, tensions remain high between Azerbaijan and Iran as Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Iran also wants to maintain its 44-kilometer (27-mile) border with landlocked Armenia — something that could be threatened if Azerbaijan seizes new territory through warfare.
Iran in October launched a military exercise near the Azerbaijan border. Azerbaijan also maintains close ties to Israel, which has infuriated Iranian hard-liners, and has purchased Israeli-made drones for its military.
Anwar Gargash, a senior Emirati diplomat, warned online that the Isfahan attack represented one more event in the "dangerous escalation the region is witnessing." The United Arab Emirates was targeted in missile and drone attacks last year claimed by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
It “is not in the interest of the region and its future,” Gargash wrote on Twitter. “Although the problems of the region are complex, there is no alternative to dialogue.”
Associated Press writer Joseph Krauss contributed to this report.
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Credit: https://www.wokv.com/news/world/iran-says-drone/R5ASVI6LVY4CPE57MZE7PNIGMA/
Russia has to take steps to clear Syria's Tal Rifaat and Manbij regions of terrorism, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a phone call on Thursday.
According to a statement by the Directorate of Communications of the Presidency, Erdoğan conveyed to Putin that the border regions of Türkiye must be cleared of the PKK and its Syrian wing, the YPG.
Erdogan has frequently expressed that Russia did not fulfill its commitments to provide a safe zone in the border region. In October 2019, Russia expressed its commitment to eliminate the Tal Rifaat and Manbij terrorist group after reaching an agreement with Türkiye during Operation Peace Spring. Moscow also promised that the terrorists would be withdrawn 30 kilometers (18.64 miles) from the border on the M4 highway and in the area outside the Operation Peace Spring zone.
The president's words come as Türkiye recently launched Operation Sword-Claw, a cross-border air campaign against the PKK terror group and its Syrian wing, the YPG, which have illegal hideouts on the Iraqi and Syrian borders where they plan attacks on Turkish soil.
The country's airborne operation followed a November 13 PKK/YPG terror attack on Istanbul's busy Istiklal Street that killed six people and injured 81.
After the air operation was launched, Erdoğan also pointed to a ground operation in northern Iraq and northern Syria to eliminate the terrorist threat, adding that "this is not limited to just an air operation."
The president specified the PKK/YPG-controlled regions of Tal Rifaat, Manbij and Ain al-Arab (also known as Kobani) in northern Syria as possible targets to cleanse of terrorists.
Tal Rifaat is located 15 kilometers (9 miles) south of the border with Türkiye. The PKK/YPG controls the city and surrounding towns, and Russian troops are present in the area. The Syrian National Army (SNA) controls the areas surrounding Tal Rifaat from the north, while Russian-backed Syrian troops control the areas mainly to the south.
Russian troops have been deployed to some PKK/YPG-controlled border areas in northern Syria following a 2019 deal that sought to avert a threat from an earlier Turkish operation.
The statement further said that Erdoğan stated that the regime should be constructive and take some steps in the political process to get concrete results on Syria.
Russia's longstanding effort to open a channel of dialogue between Türkiye and the Bashar Assad regime bore fruit last year, when defense ministers and intelligence chiefs from Türkiye, Russia and the Assad regime met in Moscow on December 28.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said he expects to meet his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad in Moscow in the second half of January.
In mid-December, Erdogan hinted that he might meet Assad after the meeting of the defense and foreign ministers of both countries. “We want to take a step like Syria, Turkey and Russia,” he had said.
Any normalization between Ankara and Damascus would reshape the decade-long Syrian war. Turkish backing has been vital in sustaining the moderate Syrian opposition in its last significant territorial foothold in the northwest after Assad defeated his opponents in the rest of the country, with the help of Russia and Iran.
On Thursday, Erdoğan reiterated the possibility of normalization with Syria. Addressing members of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the capital Ankara, Erdoğan noted that the meeting of defense ministers and intelligence officials started a "process" and said they planned a trilateral meeting of foreign ministers. Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Syria and Russia. . "Based on events, we as leaders will come together. Our goal is to ensure calm and peace prevail in the region," he said.
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Credit: https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/diplomacy/russia-should-take-steps-to-clear-tal-rifaat-manbij-of-terrorismThe role of Algeria in the security of the Maghreb and the Sahel was relegated to the background after the signing of the Algiers Agreements in 2015. Algerian mediation was instrumental in unblocking a ceasefire in neighboring Mali between the weakened Bamako government and the Coordination of Azawad Movements, an alliance of separatist groups that had no qualms about associating with the Islamist insurgency. But the rise of Daesh in Iraq and Syria and the subsequent large-scale resurgence of jihadist groups in the Sahel region caught the North African giant off guard.
Algeria, which shares a 3,000-kilometre border with Mauritania, Mali and Niger, all affected to a greater or lesser degree by this threat, has witnessed the erosion of the Sahel countries in recent years as a result of successive social reforms, political and economic crises, which have contributed to the worrying security crisis. The strengthening of the jihadist insurgency has weakened the States and, at the same time, internally destabilized their regional neighbors, that have seen an exponential growth of fundamentalist currents.
The North African country has a record of successes in the fight against Islamic fundamentalism. During the civil war that fractured Algeria in the 1990s, the National Popular Army managed to defeat several Islamist militias, including the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), the terrorist organization that would later become Al Qaeda in the Maghreb. Islamic (AQIM), now based in Mali and active in the Sahel.
IMAGE/ALGERIA MINISTRY OF NATIONAL DEFENSE - General Saïd Chengriha, Chief of the General Staff and Strong Man of the Army"Long hailed as a key player for peace and stability in the region, Algeria has been much less engaged in the Sahel," writes analyst Kamissa Camara at The Middle East Institute (MEI). "As a result, his visibility and influence as a key player have gradually faded".
But Algeria's withdrawal into its troubled "backyard" does not coincide with its domestic anti-terror activities.. The Ministry of National Defense issued a report at the beginning of the year, in which it gave figures on the fight against terrorism, smuggling and illegal emigration in the last year. According to official figures, the National People's Army neutralized some 20 terrorists in the various operations carried out in 2022, 11 more than the previous year.
“2022 was distinguished by great results in the fight against terrorism, smuggling, arms trafficking, drug trafficking and organized crime, through the neutralization and arrest of a significant number of terroriststhe dismantling of various support networks and the destruction of a large number of bunkers and shelters used as hideouts by terrorist groups," read the statement from the ministry headed by General Saïd Chengriha, chief of staff and army strongman.
The Algerian armed forces also reportedly arrested 14 other terrorists in these operations. But military activity did not stop there. According to the Ministry of National Defense, The military arrested 371 people accused of acting as "elements of support to terrorist groups"a large number of which the authorities do not give further details.
IMAGE/FILE - Meraghni El-Hadj Ali, alias Akil, Algerian-born terroristThe Meraghni El-Hadj Ali case
Algerian television broadcast on Tuesday the confession and subsequent message of repentance from Meraghni El-Hadj Ali, alias Akila terrorist of Algerian origin who joined Ahrar al-Sham, a coalition of Salafist units linked to Jabhat al-Nusra, the spearhead of the jihadist insurgency against the government of Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war.
El-Hadj, born in 1986 in El Oued, a province located in the east of the country, between the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara desert, near the border with Tunisia, he had settled in Algiers after his experience in Syria to plan terrorist acts against "eminent personalities to get maximum media coverage" when he was captured by the authorities for his activities on the social network Facebook.
Akil, with a visibly emaciated face, admitted in his testimony recent contacts with the so-called Islamic State in West Africa, better known as Boko Haram., which operates in northeastern Nigeria near the borders with Niger and Chad. The Algerian claimed to have sworn allegiance to the leadership of the terrorist organization in a video in which he also detailed his plans to "attack oil fields in the south of the country and attack high-ranking state officials." Months later, he claims to be deeply sorry.
Credit: https://atalayar.com/en/content/algeria-toughens-internal-pursuit-jihadist-terrorismCountry
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Jeremy Renner poses for photographers upon arrival at the UK Fan Screening of the film Hawkeye, in London, in November 2021. Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP hide caption
toggle title Vianney Le Caer/Invision/APJeremy Renner poses for photographers upon arrival at the UK fan screening of the film Hawkeye, in London, in November 2021.
Vianney Le Caer/Invision/APLOS ANGELES (AP) — Avengers star Jeremy Renner is being treated for serious injuries that occurred while shoveling snow, the actor's rep said Sunday.
Renner, 51, is in critical but stable condition, the actor's rep said. No further details were available about the extent of Renner's injuries.
The actor has a home in Nevada, but it's unclear where he was injured. Renner stars as Hawkeye, a member of the Avengers superhero squad in the sprawling Marvel Cinematic and Television Universe.
He has been nominated twice for an Oscar for his performance, earning back-to-back nominations for The Hurt Locker and The Town. Renner's portrayal of a bomb disposal specialist in Iraq in 2008's The Hurt Locker helped make him a household name.
2012's The Avengers cemented him as part of Marvel's larger storytelling ambitions, with his character appearing in several sequels and getting his own Disney+ series, Hawkeye.
Credit: https://www.npr.org/2023/01/02/1146540622/actor-jeremy-renner-is-hospitalized-after-suffering-accident-while-plowing-snow
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Avengers star Jeremy Renner is being treated for serious injuries that occurred while shoveling snow, the actor's rep said Sunday.
Renner, 51, is in critical but stable condition, the actor's rep said. No further details were available about the extent of Renner's injuries.
The actor has a home in Nevada, but it's unclear where he was injured. Renner stars as Hawkeye, a member of the Avengers superhero squad in the sprawling Marvel Cinematic and Television Universe.
He has been nominated twice for an Oscar for his performance, earning back-to-back nominations for The Hurt Locker and The Town. Renner's portrayal of a bomb disposal specialist in Iraq in 2008's The Hurt Locker helped make him a household name.
2012's The Avengers cemented him as part of Marvel's larger storytelling ambitions, with his character appearing in several sequels and getting his own Disney+ series, Hawkeye.
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Credit: https://news.wjct.org/national-news/national-news/2023-01-02/actor-jeremy-renner-is-in-critical-but-stable-condition-from-snow-plowing-accident