Author: Anadolu Agency
Talib A., the suspect who rammed a vehicle into a Christmas market in Germany that killed five people Friday, was featured in a BBC interview. The Saudi-born doctor, who is accused of ramming a vehicle into a Christmas market in Germany that killed at least five people Friday and injured more than 200, spoke to the BBC in 2019 where he defined himself as an activist and said he assisted people who had left Islam and sought asylum. He noted that he had created a website to help those, particularly from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region, who reached out…
Arab countries and Islamic organizations condemned on Saturday a deadly car-ramming attack at a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg. The condemnation of the attack, which resulted in the deaths of five people and injuries to more than 200 others, came in statements from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Palestine, as well as Al-Azhar and the Muslim World League. The suspect who drove into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg is a 50-year-old Saudi doctor described as being anti-Islam and a supporter of far-right and Zionism, according to German media. The…
The city of Magdeburg is reeling in grief Saturday following a tragic attack on its Christmas market that left five dead and more than 200 injured. Locals gathered at Johannis Church across from the market to mourn and pay tribute to the victims on the day after the attack. The church, which also saw German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lay flowers, has become a center of remembrance, with many leaving flowers, lighting candles and offering condolences. Clara Schmidt, a resident who visited the church to place flowers, shared her sorrow. “The atmosphere here is very sad. What I feel is grief…
The Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip has become a “ghost town” with around 70% of homes and buildings completely destroyed in Israel’s deadly onslaught in the area, Israeli media said on Sunday. “As far as the eye can see lie miles and miles of destroyed homes. It’s hard to look away from the devastated remains of Jabalia’s refugee camp in northern Gaza,” Amos Harel, a military affairs analyst, writes in Haaretz newspaper. The Israeli army estimates that 70% of the refugee camp’s buildings were completely destroyed. “I could see that even the few buildings that are still…
Russia claimed on Sunday that it took control of two more settlements in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, where Moscow reportedly continues its advances along the front line. A statement by the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that its forces captured the village of Lozova, located about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) southeast of the city of Kupiansk, a major front in Moscow’s offensive in the Kharkiv region. The statement further claimed that Russian forces also took control of the village of Sontsivka, located about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) northwest of the city of Kurakhove, a key Ukrainian stronghold in the…
Israeli opposition leaders accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday of sabotaging negotiations to reach a hostage exchange deal with Palestinians. Yair Lapid, a former premier and leader of Yesh Atid Party, said Netanyahu’s government imposes new conditions during talks to reach a deal to return Israelis held captive in Gaza. “We have nothing left to achieve in Gaza; we need to start preparing for the day after the war and bring back 100 hostages,” he told the public broadcaster KAN. “Once the war ends, we can return to Gaza and do what we need to do,” he said. “Now,…
An ambulance helicopter crashed into a hospital in Türkiye’s southwestern Muğla province, killing four people, according to province’s Governor Idris Akbıyık. Two pilots, one doctor, and one health care worker lost their lives as the helicopter crashed into the Training and Research Hospital building in Mugla’s Mentese district. In a post on X, country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed his sorrow over the deaths and offered his condolences. Fire, health and police teams as well as personnel from Türkiye’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) were dispatched to the scene of the incident. Noting that there is heavy fog, Akbıyık…
Ukraine said on Sunday that at least two people were killed due to an overnight Russian drone attack in the country’s southern city of Kherson. Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said in an initial statement on Telegram that the overnight drone attack in the region killed a man in the city’s Dniprovskyi district after being mortally wounded. Prokudin later reported that the body of a woman was also found in the Dniprovskyi district, where search and rescue efforts are being conducted at a residential building that caught fire due to the attack. Ukraine’s Air Force claimed in a separate statement that its…
Another 17 Palestinians, including two children, were killed and others injured on Sunday in Israeli airstrikes targeting various locations across the Gaza Strip. According to a medical source at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, eight bodies, including that of two children and two women, along with several injured individuals, were brought to the hospital following an Israeli airstrike on the Musa Bin Nusair School in the Al-Daraj neighborhood in central Gaza City. Eyewitnesses reported that airstrikes on the school, which housed displaced families, caused fires and extensive damage to the building. In another attack, medical sources reported that four…
Pope Francis on Saturday condemned the recent Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, expressing sorrow over the bombing of children in the Gaza Strip the previous day. “Yesterday, children were bombed. This is not war. This is cruelty. I want to say this because it touches my heart,” he told members of the Roman Curia, the Vatican’s central administration. He also lamented that Israeli airstrikes had prevented Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the highest representative of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, from entering Gaza. Israel has killed more than 45,000 people, most of them women and children, in Gaza since the Oct.…