Crisis in Iraq Tests its Stability and Iran’s Sway

Supporters of the Coordination Framework, a grouping of Shiite parties, gather during a protest, amid a political crisis, near Green Zone, in Baghdad, Iraq August 1, 2022. (Reuters)
Supporters of the Coordination Framework, a grouping of Shiite parties, gather during a protest, amid a political crisis, near Green Zone, in Baghdad, Iraq August 1, 2022. (Reuters)
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Crisis in Iraq Tests its Stability and Iran’s Sway

Supporters of the Coordination Framework, a grouping of Shiite parties, gather during a protest, amid a political crisis, near Green Zone, in Baghdad, Iraq August 1, 2022. (Reuters)
Supporters of the Coordination Framework, a grouping of Shiite parties, gather during a protest, amid a political crisis, near Green Zone, in Baghdad, Iraq August 1, 2022. (Reuters)

A power struggle in Iraq between the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and rivals aligned with Iran is testing Tehran's ability to stave off a conflict that could damage its interests and further destabilize the oil-rich country.

With Sadr supporters camped out in parliament and his opponents protesting in the streets, the tussle over a new government has put fresh strain on a political system that has been buffeted by crises since US-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein two decades ago.

It adds another destabilizing factor to a belt of fragile Arab states between Iran and the Mediterranean - Iraq, Syria and Lebanon - all of which fall within Iran's sphere of influence and have suffered major conflict or crisis over the last decade, including the battle with ISIS.

So far, neither side seems ready to give ground in the 10-month-old standoff, which began when Sadr emerged victorious from an October election and sought to form a government on his terms, only to be stymied by his foes.

For now, the sides - both heavily armed - appear to be avoiding violence, aware of the impact this would have on Iraq and the Shiite majority that was empowered by the political system the United States built after ousting Saddam.

But amid dramatic scenes in Baghdad, where Sadr supporters overran the fortified Green Zone that houses state buildings and embassies at the weekend, many Iraqis are concerned about possible violence.

In a sign of Iran's concern, head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani, visited Baghdad in recent days in an effort to keep tensions from escalating, a Western diplomat said.

An Iraqi official in the Coordination Framework, an alliance of Iran-aligned factions, confirmed the visit but said Ghaani didn't appear to have succeeded, without giving details.

Iran's embassy in Baghdad didn't respond to a request for comment.

Ghaani has struggled to wield the influence of his predecessor, Qassem Soleimani, killed by a US attack in 2020.

"Iranian influence has had its ups and downs and has been waning to some extent," said Renad Mansour of Chatham House, a think tank. "This election and government formation process has exposed fragmentation ... among the political parties which makes it very complicated for Iran."

The crisis comes at a difficult moment for Iran elsewhere. The heavily armed Hezbollah and its allies lost a parliamentary majority in Lebanon in a May, though they still have big sway.

‘No revolutionary’

Sadr, heir to a prominent clerical dynasty who fought US forces after the invasion, has long opposed foreign influence.

He raised the stakes in June when he instructed his lawmakers to quit parliament, ceding dozens of seats to the Iran-aligned factions. Their subsequent moves towards forming a government without Sadr prompted the parliament takeover.

Sadr's recent call for unspecified changes to the constitution may indicate he wants to upend the entire system.

But some analysts question how much he really wants to change a system that has served him well: Sadr dominates much of the state which employs many of his followers.

"Sadr is no revolutionary. He wants the system to go on but with him in a more dominant position," said Toby Dodge, a London School of Economics professor.

Dodge described the standoff as "a squabble within an increasingly unpopular elite" in a country where poor governance and corruption has inflicted power and water cuts, poverty and unemployment on Iraqis, despite enormous oil wealth.

Those same conditions fueled mass protests across Baghdad and southern Iraq in 2019 in which security forces killed hundreds of protesters.

"There could be miscalculations and mistakes. But it seems to me that in every stage in this process, either one side or the other has taken steps to avoid violence," Dodge said.

A game changer?

The United States maintains around 2,000 troops in Iraq to fight ISIS remnants, far fewer than the 170,000 US troops there at the height of the occupation.

Once involved in backroom dealings over Iraqi government formations, US officials have largely stayed out of such contacts in recent years, according to Iraqi officials.

Vali Nasr, a Middle East expert at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, said Iraq did not appear to be a big US priority.

"It (Iraq) was not treated as a game-changer for the region, which it could end up being if Iraq loses the modicum of stability it had," he said.

"It is too soon to call this a loss for Iran, it may end up being a loss for everybody, and then the question becomes who picks up the pieces afterwards," he said.

The US State Department did not immediately respond to questions for this story.

The US embassy has urged calm and for Iraqi parties to avoid violence and work peacefully to resolve their differences.

Hamdi Malik of the Washington Institute think tank noted signs of restraint by both sides, but said conflict was a risk.

"Any civil war between Shiite groups will have a profound impact not only on ... people in Iraq, but the wider region and even other parts of the world, not least because of the possible disruption in oil supplies, as much of Iraq's oil wealth is located in predominantly Shiite parts of the country," he said.



Iran Sentences Police Officer to Death for Killing Man During 2022 Protests

Protests following the killing of Samak in the city of Bandar Anzali (Fars news agency)
Protests following the killing of Samak in the city of Bandar Anzali (Fars news agency)
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Iran Sentences Police Officer to Death for Killing Man During 2022 Protests

Protests following the killing of Samak in the city of Bandar Anzali (Fars news agency)
Protests following the killing of Samak in the city of Bandar Anzali (Fars news agency)

An Iranian court has sentenced a police chief in northern Iran to death after he was charged with the killing of a man during the widespread demonstrations sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022, local media reported Wednesday.

Rights groups based outside of Iran said Mehran Samak, 27, was shot dead by Iranian security forces after honking his car horn in celebration of Iran's loss to the United States in the 2022 World Cup held in Qatar.

According to AFP, Samak succumbed to injuries he sustained after being hit by shotgun pellets during a rally in the northern city of Bandar Anzali on Nov. 30, 2022.

Local police chief Jafar Javanmardi was arrested in December 2022 following Samak’s death. At the time, the lawyer for the victim's family, Majid Ahmadi, said that the police official was charged with “violating the rules for firearms usage, resulting in the death of Samak.”

He said this is the third time a military court sentences the official to death “in accordance with the Islamic law of retribution, known as the 'qisas' law.”

In mid-January, the judiciary's Mizan Online website said the Supreme Court had annulled two initial death sentences and referred Javanmardi’s case to another court.

At the time, Gilan province, where Bandar Anzali is located, was a flashpoint of the nationwide protest movement that shook Iran after Amini, 22, died in custody in September 2022 following her arrest for allegedly violating the country's strict dress code for women.

On March 8, a report by the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission said Iran’s “repression of peaceful protests” and “institutional discrimination against women and girls” has led to human rights violations, some of which amount to crimes against humanity.

“The mission has established that many of the serious human rights violations amount to crimes against humanity – specifically those of murder; imprisonment; torture; rape and other forms of sexual violence; persecution; enforced disappearance and other inhumane acts,” it said.

The Fact-Finding Mission also found that Tehran arbitrarily executed at least nine young men from December 2022 to January 2024, after summary trials which relied on confessions extracted under torture and ill-treatment.

Credible figures suggest that as many as 551 protesters were killed by the security forces, among them at least 49 women and 68 children. Most deaths were caused by firearms, including assault rifles.


Rouhani Reveals Details of Meeting Aimed at Easing Tension with IRGC Leaders

Rouhani meets with the leaders of the Revolutionary Guards after winning a second presidential term. (Archives - Iranian Presidency website)
Rouhani meets with the leaders of the Revolutionary Guards after winning a second presidential term. (Archives - Iranian Presidency website)
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Rouhani Reveals Details of Meeting Aimed at Easing Tension with IRGC Leaders

Rouhani meets with the leaders of the Revolutionary Guards after winning a second presidential term. (Archives - Iranian Presidency website)
Rouhani meets with the leaders of the Revolutionary Guards after winning a second presidential term. (Archives - Iranian Presidency website)

Former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani revealed the circumstances of a meeting aimed at “calming tensions” with five senior leaders of the Revolutionary Guards, two weeks before the start of his second presidential term in early August 2017, following the defeat of the current president, Ebrahim Raisi, in his first electoral race.

Rouhani recounted that the former head of foreign operations in the IRGC, Qassem Soleimani, asked him at the end of the meeting to name a defense minister from among the officers of the Corps.

However, a month after the meeting, Rouhani presented Brigadier General Amir Hatami, an Iranian army officer, as Minister of Defense, excluding his first Defense Minister, Hossein Dehghan, who belonged to the IRGC. It was the first time that the Iranian president appointed an army leader as minister of Defense, after merging the Ministry of the Revolutionary Guard with the Ministry of Defense in 1989.

Rouhani’s words confirm the various reports about Dehghan’s continuation or departure from the ministerial lineup and the Iranian president’s desire to transfer the position to an army commander.

He said that he chose his entire ministerial team after seeking the advice of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. It is known that the president is obliged to obtain prior approval from the spiritual leader in naming five ministers. Those include the ministers of Defense, Interior, Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, Culture and Information.

The new account of the tense relationship between the IRGC and the previous government comes days after the publication of a book by former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in which he revealed that he and Rouhani were not informed of the attack on the Ain al-Assad base, while former Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi and American leaders received messages from Tehran regarding intentions to bomb US forces with ballistic missiles.

Tension reached its peak during the 2017 presidential elections, when Rouhani described the Revolutionary Guards as “the government that owns the gun”, criticizing in particular the IRGC missile activities a few months after the signing of the nuclear agreement in July 2015.


US Doesn't Support Pakistan-Iran Gas Pipeline Project Going Forward

Iranian welders work on the pipeline to transfer natural gas from Iran to Pakistan, in Chabahar, near the Pakistani border, southeastern Iran (Iranian Oil Ministry)
Iranian welders work on the pipeline to transfer natural gas from Iran to Pakistan, in Chabahar, near the Pakistani border, southeastern Iran (Iranian Oil Ministry)
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US Doesn't Support Pakistan-Iran Gas Pipeline Project Going Forward

Iranian welders work on the pipeline to transfer natural gas from Iran to Pakistan, in Chabahar, near the Pakistani border, southeastern Iran (Iranian Oil Ministry)
Iranian welders work on the pipeline to transfer natural gas from Iran to Pakistan, in Chabahar, near the Pakistani border, southeastern Iran (Iranian Oil Ministry)

The US said on Tuesday it does not support a Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project from going forward and cautioned about the risk of sanctions in doing business with Tehran.
The Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline, known as the Peace Pipeline, is a long-term project between Tehran and Islamabad, and has faced delays and funding challenges for several years. The pipeline would transport natural gas from Iran in the Arabian Gulf to neighboring Pakistan and India.
Iran and Pakistan had signed a five-year trade plan in August 2023 and set a bilateral trade target at $5 billion.
Pakistan's Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik said this week that his country was seeking a US sanctions waiver for the gas pipeline from Iran, according to Reuters.
Earlier, the spokesperson for Pakistan's Foreign Ministry, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, said that it is the sovereign decision of the Pakistani government to move forward on the project.
She said Pakistan has also conveyed to the US authorities the importance of this project for its energy security.
On Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller told reports, “We always advise everyone that doing business with Iran runs the risk of touching upon and coming in contact with our sanctions, and would advise everyone to consider that very carefully.”
He added, “The assistant secretary made clear last week, we do not support this pipeline going forward.”
Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia told the House Foreign Affairs committee last Wednesday in a hearing that importing gas from Iran would expose Pakistan to US sanctions.
A few weeks ago, Pakistan and Iran engaged in tit-for-tat strikes when they exchanged drone and missile strikes on militants bases on each other's territory.
Washington's relations with Iran have been thorny for a long time and the US has issued multiple rounds of sanctions on Iranian entities.
Pakistan and the US have had a complicated relationship over the years, bound by Washington's dependence on Pakistan to supply its troops during its long war in Afghanistan but plagued by accusations Islamabad played a double game.
Some Pakistani politicians have also accused Washington of meddling in Pakistan's domestic politics, charges that Washington denies.


Report: Nearly 100 People Still Missing after Moscow Attack

Cadets of the Fire and Rescue College stand in front of at a makeshift memorial near the Crocus City Hall following a deadly attack on the concert venue in the Moscow Region, Russia, March 27, 2024. (Reuters)
Cadets of the Fire and Rescue College stand in front of at a makeshift memorial near the Crocus City Hall following a deadly attack on the concert venue in the Moscow Region, Russia, March 27, 2024. (Reuters)
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Report: Nearly 100 People Still Missing after Moscow Attack

Cadets of the Fire and Rescue College stand in front of at a makeshift memorial near the Crocus City Hall following a deadly attack on the concert venue in the Moscow Region, Russia, March 27, 2024. (Reuters)
Cadets of the Fire and Rescue College stand in front of at a makeshift memorial near the Crocus City Hall following a deadly attack on the concert venue in the Moscow Region, Russia, March 27, 2024. (Reuters)

As many as 95 people are still missing after last week's attack near Moscow when gunmen sprayed concertgoers with automatic weapons and set the venue on fire, a Russian news outlet reported on Wednesday.

The official toll from the attack on Crocus City Hall now stands at 140 dead and 182 wounded. But the Baza news service, which has good contacts in Russian security and law enforcement, said 95 more people appeared in lists compiled by the emergency services based on appeals from people about missing relatives.

"These lists include people with whom relatives have not been able to get in touch since the terrorist attack, but who are not on the lists of wounded and dead," Baza said. "Some of these people died, but have not yet been identified."

Russian investigators said the attack was carried out by four shooters using Kalashnikov automatic weapons. More than 500 rounds were found at the scene.

The shooting began shortly before the Soviet-era rock group "Picnic" was set to play to a full house of 6,200 people. More than 200 people could have been in the blazing building moments before the roof collapsed, Baza reported on Saturday, citing emergency service sources who reviewed surveillance footage.

Russian social media channels have been flooded in the days since the shooting with appeals to help find victims.

Gathering in a Telegram chat called "Crocus. Help Center," friends and relatives shared names of missing concertgoers and offered support.

"Was there anyone on the list named Igor Valentinovich Klimenchenko?," one user wrote on Saturday night. "Can someone send the list of victims?"

The name Klimenchenko was not on the list of confirmed dead published by Russia's emergencies ministry.

'Very worried'

Another person wrote in the same chat that their uncle worked not far from Crocus and hadn't been in touch since the attack. "I'm very worried," the nephew wrote on Saturday night.

Local media in the Bryansk region, southwestern Russia, reported on Wednesday that a woman was still searching for her son, Dmitry Bashlykov, a schoolteacher in Moscow who went to the "Picnic" concert with a friend who managed to escape.

Bashlykov's name was not on the emergencies ministry list.

Several missing persons have since been confirmed dead, like 15-year-old Arseny, who went to the concert with his mother, Irina Vedeneyeva.

The SHOT Telegram channel on Sunday published a photo of Arseny that it said he sent his grandmother shortly before the concert began, along with appeals from the "grief-stricken pensioner" to help find him. His mother had already been confirmed dead, SHOT said.

In the photo, Arseny stands in a black hooded sweatshirt in front of a poster for Picnic, which SHOT said was his favorite band. On Monday, the channel wrote that Arseny's body had been found and identified by his relatives.

The names of both mother and son are on the list of confirmed dead published by Russia's emergencies ministry.


Turkish Relief Agency Presents Two Ships to Take Aid Direct to Gaza

Palestinians sit amid debris following overnight Israeli bombardment in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 27, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Palestinians sit amid debris following overnight Israeli bombardment in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 27, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Turkish Relief Agency Presents Two Ships to Take Aid Direct to Gaza

Palestinians sit amid debris following overnight Israeli bombardment in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 27, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Palestinians sit amid debris following overnight Israeli bombardment in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on March 27, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Turkish aid agency Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) presented two new vessels on Wednesday meant to take aid directly to Gaza where Palestinians face famine almost six months into Israel's devastating military campaign.

Türkiye, which has denounced Israel for its offensive in densely populated Gaza and called for an immediate ceasefire, has sent tens of thousands of tons of humanitarian aid there since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, and aims to increase it during the current Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

IHH Chairman Bulent Yildirim inspected the new ships, purchased for a Gaza aid project dubbed "International Freedom Flotilla", in Istanbul's port and said that one of the vessels, the Anadolu (Anatolia), had a capacity of 5,500 tons.

The Anadolu is to be loaded with aid items while the other vessel will carry humanitarian personnel including doctors.

It was not immediately known when the ships would depart for Gaza or where or how they would deliver aid once there. Türkiye has so far sent its aid to Gaza through neighboring Egypt.

In 2010, the IHH sent an aid vessel to Gaza in an attempt to breach an Israeli blockade, but it was intercepted by the Israeli military in a deadly offshore raid which touched off a diplomatic crisis between the two countries.

Currently, aid agencies say only about a fifth of needed supplies are entering Gaza as Israel persists with an air and ground offensive that has shattered the coastal Hamas-ruled enclave, pushing parts to the verge of famine.

They say that deliveries by air drop or by sea directly onto Gaza's beaches are no substitute for increased supplies coming in by land via Israel or Egypt.

Israel says it puts no limit on the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza and blames problems in it reaching civilians within the enclave on UN agencies, which it says are inefficient. Aid groups blame Israel's blockade and red tape.

In the 2010 incident, nine pro-Palestinian activists aboard the aid ship were killed and a tenth died in 2014 after years in a coma.

Turkish-Israeli relations have historically been rocky due to disputes over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.


Ireland to Intervene in South Africa Genocide Case against Israel

 A man walks with a bicycle loaded with blankets and cushions past destroyed buildings along a street in Gaza City on March 27, 2024 amid the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A man walks with a bicycle loaded with blankets and cushions past destroyed buildings along a street in Gaza City on March 27, 2024 amid the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Ireland to Intervene in South Africa Genocide Case against Israel

 A man walks with a bicycle loaded with blankets and cushions past destroyed buildings along a street in Gaza City on March 27, 2024 amid the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A man walks with a bicycle loaded with blankets and cushions past destroyed buildings along a street in Gaza City on March 27, 2024 amid the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Ireland said on Wednesday it would intervene in South Africa's genocide case against Israel, in the strongest signal to date of Dublin's concern about Israeli operations in Gaza since Oct. 7.

Announcing the move, Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said that while it was for the World Court to decide whether genocide is being committed, he wanted to be clear that Hamas' Oct. 7 attack and what is happening in Gaza now "represents the blatant violation of international humanitarian law on a mass scale."

"The taking of hostages. The purposeful withholding of humanitarian assistance to civilians. The targeting of civilians and of civilian infrastructure. The indiscriminate use of explosive weapons in populated areas. The use of civilian objects for military purposes. The collective punishment of an entire population," Martin said in a statement.

"The list goes on. It has to stop. The view of the international community is clear. Enough is enough."

In January the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention and to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Palestinians, after South Africa accused Israel of state-led genocide in Gaza.

Israel and its Western allies described the allegation as baseless. A final ruling in South Africa's ICJ case in The Hague could take years.

Martin did not say what form the intervention would take or outline any argument or proposal Ireland plans to put forward.

Martin's department said such third party interventions do not take a specific side in the dispute, but that the intervention would be an opportunity for Ireland to put forward its interpretation of one or more of the provisions of the Genocide Convention at issue in the case.

The Hamas-led attack killed 1,200 people and resulted in more than 250 being taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed more than 32,000 people, according to Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza.

Long a champion of Palestinian rights, Ireland last week joined Spain, Malta and Slovenia in taking the first steps toward recognizing statehood declared by the Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.

Israel told the countries that their plan constituted a "prize for terrorism" that would reduce the chances of a negotiated resolution to the conflict between the neighbors.


Russian Guided Bombs Hit Ukrainian City of Kharkiv, One Killed, Officials Say

Police secure the site of shelling near residential buildings in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 27 March 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
Police secure the site of shelling near residential buildings in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 27 March 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
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Russian Guided Bombs Hit Ukrainian City of Kharkiv, One Killed, Officials Say

Police secure the site of shelling near residential buildings in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 27 March 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
Police secure the site of shelling near residential buildings in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 27 March 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)

Russia used guided bombs in airstrikes on the northern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Wednesday for the first time since 2022, killing at least one person and wounding 16, local officials said. Announcing the toll, Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov described the attack as "another act of bloody terror against Ukrainians" and said four children were among the wounded.

Three residential buildings were damaged, the interior ministry said on the Telegram messenger. Terekhov said a medical facility was also damaged and local police said a school had been hit.

Police cordoned off a five-storey residential building that had been hit, its windows blown out and balconies badly damaged, Reuters television footage showed.

Debris was strewn across the area in front of the building and a covered body lay on the bloodied ground next to an abandoned bicycle.

Kharkiv and the surrounding region have frequently been attacked with missiles and drones since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022, but the use of large-caliber guided bombs was unusual.

"Kharkiv was hit by aerial bombs - for the first time since 2022," Serhiy Bolvinov, the head of the investigative department of the regional police, said on Facebook.

Regional governor Oleh Synehubov also reported the use of guided munitions on Wednesday.

Russia denies targeting civilians although the war has killed thousands of people, uprooted millions and destroyed towns and cities.


Ukraine’s President Replaces a Top Security Official 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends an interview for the representatives of Ukrainian media, as Russian's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine April 4, 2022. Picture taken April 4, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends an interview for the representatives of Ukrainian media, as Russian's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine April 4, 2022. Picture taken April 4, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters)
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Ukraine’s President Replaces a Top Security Official 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends an interview for the representatives of Ukrainian media, as Russian's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine April 4, 2022. Picture taken April 4, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends an interview for the representatives of Ukrainian media, as Russian's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine April 4, 2022. Picture taken April 4, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters)

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has replaced one of the country's top security officials in a reshuffle that comes as the war has dragged into a third year.

Zelenskyy dismissed Oleksii Danilov, who served as secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, thanking him for his service in a video address late Tuesday. He said without providing details that Danilov will be “reassigned to another area.”

Zelenskyy replaced Danilov with Oleksandr Lytvynenko, the former head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service. Zelenskyy didn't announce the reasons behind the reshuffle.

The National Security Council is a policy coordination body that includes top officials and chaired by Zelenskyy.

Danilov's dismissal comes as exhausted Ukrainian troops struggling with a shortage of personnel and ammunition are facing a growing Russian pressure along the front line that stretches over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles).

The reshuffle follows February's decision by Zelenskyy to fire the country's chief military officer, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, replacing him Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi. Tensions between Zaluzhnyi and the president grew after Ukraine’s much-touted 2023 counteroffensive failed to reach its goals.

Earlier this month, Zaluzhnyi was named Ukraine's ambassador to the United Kingdom.


Several Dead in Coach Crash on German Motorway

Emergency vehicles and a rescue helicopter work at the scene of the accident on the A9, near Schkeuditz, Germany, Wednesday, March 27. 2024. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)
Emergency vehicles and a rescue helicopter work at the scene of the accident on the A9, near Schkeuditz, Germany, Wednesday, March 27. 2024. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)
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Several Dead in Coach Crash on German Motorway

Emergency vehicles and a rescue helicopter work at the scene of the accident on the A9, near Schkeuditz, Germany, Wednesday, March 27. 2024. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)
Emergency vehicles and a rescue helicopter work at the scene of the accident on the A9, near Schkeuditz, Germany, Wednesday, March 27. 2024. (Jan Woitas/dpa via AP)

Several people were killed and more injured in a coach crash on a motorway near the eastern German city of Leipzig on Wednesday, police said.

"Several people were fatally injured in the serious accident on the A9 motorway. There are numerous casualties," police in the state of Saxony said on social media platform X.

Local media reported that five people were dead after a Flixbus veered to the right of the busy A9 motorway which connects Berlin to Munich before ending up on its side.

The road in the direction of Munich was closed, said police, as pictures showed ambulances and helicopters attending the scene.

"The exact circumstances of the accident are not yet known," said Flixbus, adding it was working with emergency services to find out what happened.

Some 53 passengers and two drivers were on board the coach which was travelling from Berlin to Zurich.


Baltimore Rescuers Lose Hope for More Bridge Collapse Survivors

This handout screegrab courtesy of the National Transportation Safety Board taken on March 26, 2028, shows part of the steel frame of the Francis Scott Key Bridge sitting on top of the container ship Dali after the bridge collapsed in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 26, 2024. (Photo by National Transportation Safety Board / Youtube / AFP)
This handout screegrab courtesy of the National Transportation Safety Board taken on March 26, 2028, shows part of the steel frame of the Francis Scott Key Bridge sitting on top of the container ship Dali after the bridge collapsed in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 26, 2024. (Photo by National Transportation Safety Board / Youtube / AFP)
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Baltimore Rescuers Lose Hope for More Bridge Collapse Survivors

This handout screegrab courtesy of the National Transportation Safety Board taken on March 26, 2028, shows part of the steel frame of the Francis Scott Key Bridge sitting on top of the container ship Dali after the bridge collapsed in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 26, 2024. (Photo by National Transportation Safety Board / Youtube / AFP)
This handout screegrab courtesy of the National Transportation Safety Board taken on March 26, 2028, shows part of the steel frame of the Francis Scott Key Bridge sitting on top of the container ship Dali after the bridge collapsed in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 26, 2024. (Photo by National Transportation Safety Board / Youtube / AFP)

Rescuers have lost hope of finding more survivors of the Baltimore bridge collapse, the coast guard said, as efforts switched on Wednesday to looking for bodies of the missing.

Search divers were expected to return near dawn to the waters surrounding the twisted ruins of the bridge in Baltimore Harbor to search for six workers missing and now presumed dead.

The disaster has forced the indefinite closure of the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest on the US Eastern Seaboard, and created a traffic quagmire for Baltimore and the surrounding region.

As the odds of their survival vanished, the search for the missing workers was suspended on Tuesday evening, 18 hours after they were thrown from the fallen Francis Scott Key Bridge into the frigid waters at the mouth of the Patapsco River.

"We do not believe that we're going to find any of these individuals alive," Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said at a briefing.

Starting at 6 a.m. (1000 GMT) on Wednesday, "we're hoping to put divers in the water and begin a more detailed search to do our very best to recover those six missing people," state police Colonel Roland Butler told reporters late on Tuesday.
Rescuers pulled two other workers from the water alive on Tuesday, and one of them was hospitalized. The six presumed to have perished included workers from Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador, according to the Mexican Consulate in Washington.

Officials said all eight were part of a work crew repairing potholes on Key Bridge's road surface when the Singapore-flagged container vessel Dali, leaving Baltimore bound for Sri Lanka, plowed into a support pylon of the bridge at about 1:30 a.m. (0530 GMT).

A trestled section of the 1.6-mile (2.6 km) span almost immediately crumpled into the water, sending vehicles and workers into the river.

The 948-foot (289 m) ship had reported a loss of propulsion shortly before impact and dropped anchor to slow the vessel, giving transportation authorities time to halt traffic on the bridge before the crash. That move likely prevented a higher death toll, authorities said.
It was unclear whether authorities also tried to alert the work crew ahead of the impact.

Clay Diamond, executive director of the American Pilots’ Association, said he has been in close contact with officials from the Association of Maryland Pilots who described to him what happened as the ship approached the bridge. He said when the ship was a few minutes out, it lost all power, including to its engines.

Diamond said widely circulated images show the ship’s lights turning off and then back on, sparking questions about whether the vessel had regained power. But, he said, the emergency generators that kicked in turned the lights back on but not the ship’s propulsion.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore said at a Tuesday news briefing the bridge was up to code with no known structural issues. There was no evidence of foul play, officials said.

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the path to rebuilding the collapsed bridge won’t be easy or quick.

“This is no ordinary bridge. This is one of the cathedrals of American infrastructure,” he said at a news conference in Baltimore on Tuesday afternoon. “It has been part of the skyline for this region for longer than many of us have been alive.”