Members of the Iranian Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDPI) check the damage after a rocket attack inside their headquarters in Koysinjaq in September 2018. (AFP file photo)
Members of the Iranian Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDPI) check the damage after a rocket attack inside their headquarters in Koysinjaq in September 2018. (AFP file photo)
Gunmen from opposition Iranian Kurdish parties are increasing their activities on the Iranian border, prompting the army to boost its presence along the border with Kurdistan Region, according to residents of the Sidakan village, 90 kilometers northeast of Erbil in the Soran district.
Soran mayor, Kirmanj Izzat said the army has been amassing its forces there since last fall in anticipation of any military action.
He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the military has set up more surveillance points on the mountains, but has not entered the Region yet.
“We do not have accurate information on the size or strength of those forces,” he announced.
He indicated that the armed groups of the Iranian Kurdish opposition parties are still active, especially near the mountainous border.
Izzat expressed serious concerns about the possibility of an escalation in light of the ongoing operations by the gunmen, who are good at infiltrating deep into Iranian territory, despite the heavy military deployment.
He pointed out that this will negatively affect the situation in the border areas within the Kurdistan Region, calling on the opposition parties to consider the political and security conditions and withdraw from the area.
Izzat expressed concern over renewed escalation, citing Iranian artillery shelling that killed an 18-year-old girl and injured two of her brothers in the border village of Derri two months ago.
He noted that the Peshmerga forces of the Kurdish regional government are fully capable of controlling the security in the border areas, but they can not control the mountainous border.
Mayor of Derri, Sabri Kamal said that the residents had warned the gunmen against staying in their positions or launching attacks against Iran, which would provoke a response from Tehran that would harm the locals. The residents would take up arms and kick them out by force if they have to.
Derri is located at the foot of the mountainous border and sometimes comes under Iranian bombardment.
Kamal told Asharq Al-Awsat that the residents would be forced to defend themselves if the authorities continued to neglect the security of the village.
Residents were forced out of the village after the Iranian shelling burned down their farms and fields and regional authorities did not provide them with any compensation.
The opposition gunmen responded to the warnings and relocated their headquarters a few kilometers away from the village, but they are still in the area, said Kamal.
Americans Mark 25 Years Since September 11 Attacks Amid Enduring Grief, Reflectionhttps://english.aawsat.com/world/5317204-americans-mark-25-years-september-11-attacks-amid-enduring-grief-reflection
(L/R) Former US President George W. Bush, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and US Vice President JD Vance attend the 25th anniversary commemoration of the September 11, 2001 attacks at the National September 11 Memorial in New York on September 11, 2026. (AFP)
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Americans Mark 25 Years Since September 11 Attacks Amid Enduring Grief, Reflection
(L/R) Former US President George W. Bush, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and US Vice President JD Vance attend the 25th anniversary commemoration of the September 11, 2001 attacks at the National September 11 Memorial in New York on September 11, 2026. (AFP)
Twenty-five years after the deadliest attack on US soil, Americans paused on Friday to commemorate the nearly 3,000 people killed when hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania and to wrestle with the consequences of September 11 that reverberate to this day.
In New York, family members of the victims, many carrying pictures of their loved ones, joined Vice President JD Vance and four former US presidents at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan. The ceremony began, as always, at 8:46 a.m. ET (1246 GMT) with a moment of silence to remember the shocking instant when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center's North Tower.
Shortly after, victims' family members began reading aloud the names of all 2,977 people who died on September 11, as well as the six people killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a somber recitation that lasts for hours. In a reminder of the time that has passed, some readers were children who had never met the relatives they lost in 2001.
Other moments of silence followed, marking when the other three airplanes crashed and the two towers collapsed. For the first time, a seventh moment of silence was set to honor the thousands who have died since 2001 from illnesses tied to the toxic dust that poisoned the air for months afterward.
Gregory Carafello attended the ceremony to honor the memory of his lifelong friend James Martello, who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial firm that lost more than 650 employees in the attacks. Carafello was on the 18th floor of the South Tower but managed to evacuate.
"Everyone should realize that it was a very bad, catastrophic day for many families," he said. "These were not warriors. These were people like you and me going to work."
At the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, where American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building's west flank, killing 184, President Donald Trump chronicled some of the stories of those aboard who perished in the crash: a woman pregnant with her first child, a family of four headed to Australia, three sixth-graders on a field trip.
The president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who also delivered remarks, both used their speeches to make the case for the Iran war, which they have defended as necessary to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
"We salute our first responders and law enforcement, and we love them," Trump said. "And we salute the service members working right now to ensure the world's number one sponsor of terror, Iran, will never ever have a nuclear weapon."
Mourners were also gathering in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at the crash site where passengers brought down one of the four hijacked jetliners, United Airlines Flight 93, that had been headed for Washington.
US President Donald Trump (L) and First lady Melania Trump stand for the national anthem during an official 9/11 observance ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of the 11 September attacks, at the Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, USA, 11 September 2026. (EPA)
GENERATIONAL PAIN
The attacks shaped generations of Americans who lived through the day or grew up in its aftermath, influencing US foreign policy, domestic politics and public attitudes toward security.
But for many whom the attacks directly affected — the victims' families and friends, first responders and rescue workers — the anniversary is a tribute to the lives lost on a clear blue day a quarter century ago and the heartbreak that followed.
Caroline Ogonowski's father, John, was the captain of Flight 11, which took off from Boston 47 minutes before striking the North Tower.
Ogonowski, now 39, had her first baby this year and named him after her father. She brought him to her father's grave last week and attended a memorial ceremony in Boston on Friday.
"This year, there's this new sadness in knowing that they won't ever get to know each other," Ogonowski, who has worked in disaster relief and humanitarian assistance, said in a phone interview. "My father will never know his grandson. And my son will never know his grandfather.
"We owe it to my father and all the others that we lost on that day to make sure that we continue to teach future generations about what happened, about who these people were, who these heroes were, how our country came together and became stronger because of it," she added.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani listens to names of victims is read on the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in New York. (AP)
LASTING LEGACY
A generation of Americans has grown up since 2001 who are too young to remember the attacks, but whose lives were fundamentally altered by them.
The attacks initiated the "war on terror," which led to the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq that lasted years. The resulting public backlash helped fuel Trump's rise a decade ago, when he vowed not to start new foreign entanglements — a promise being tested by the Iran war.
At home, Americans expressed deep solidarity and patriotism, as well as sorrow, in the immediate wake of the attacks.
At the same time, however, Muslim Americans and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries faced a rise in prejudice and hate crimes. Public polls have found 9/11 colors Americans' perceptions of Muslims to this day. Zohran Mamdani, New York's first Muslim mayor, faced calls from some Republicans to skip Friday's ceremony, which he rejected.
Casualties were not limited to those who perished on September 11. Many rescue workers who spent weeks or months at the site afterward, as well as nearby residents and others, were sickened by toxins in the air and eventually died.
The New York City Fire Department lost 343 members on September 11. More than 600 additional firefighters, including some retired members who took part in the rescue effort, have died of 9/11-related illnesses since then, department figures show.
Twenty-six have died this year alone.
Iran Says to Discuss Hormuz with Gulf States in Oman on Mondayhttps://english.aawsat.com/world/5317190-iran-says-discuss-hormuz-gulf-states-oman-monday
Iran Says to Discuss Hormuz with Gulf States in Oman on Monday
US and Iran flags are seen in this illustration taken June 18, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran's foreign ministry said the country would meet with Gulf states in Oman on Monday to discuss the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which the Islamic republic has blockaded during the Middle East war.
"This meeting is intended to promote better understanding among the countries of the region and help strengthen shared regional security," the ministry said in a statement on Friday.
"Iraq and other littoral Persian Gulf states" will participate, it added, AFP reported.
Iran has been at war since February 28, when US-Israeli strikes killed its supreme leader.
Iran retaliated with attacks across the region and blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of world oil supplies previously flowed.
More than six months into the Middle East war, the blockade continues to drive up oil prices, which soared past $100 a barrel this week.
Oman and Iran, which both border the Strait of Hormuz, have been discussing for several weeks how the crucial waterway will be managed in the future.
The strait was free to transit before the war, but Iran now requires vessels to obtain permission and is considering a mechanism to impose service fees.
Ships that do not comply are regularly targeted by Iranian strikes, while the United States periodically bombs the Iranian coastline to challenge the Islamic republic's control of the strait.
Nepal Flood Reconstruction Bill to be $4.78 Bnhttps://english.aawsat.com/world/5317105-nepal-flood-reconstruction-bill-be-478-bn
A man carrying his belongings walks past a damaged house in the aftermath of flash floods at Trishuli in Nepal's Nuwakot district on September 11, 2026. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)
A man carrying his belongings walks past a damaged house in the aftermath of flash floods at Trishuli in Nepal's Nuwakot district on September 11, 2026. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)
The reconstruction bill after deadly floods sparked by a glacial mountain collapse that hit Nepal last month would amount to $4.78 billion, the foreign ministry said on Friday.
"The total estimated requirement for reconstruction is approximately $4.78 billion," foreign ministry spokesman Lok Bahadur Chhetri told reporters.
Nepali rescuers clung to hopes of finding survivors trapped in hydropower tunnels on Wednesday.
The August 26 tsunami-like surge of water, mud and debris, which began on the China-Nepal border, has killed more than 1,410 people and left 5,651 missing.
"The rescue and search work in the tunnels at Trishuli 3A, 3B and Chilime hydropower projects is ongoing," Nepal Army spokesman Raja Ram Basnet told AFP.
In Nepal, 1,367 bodies have been recovered and 5,132 people are missing, its disaster authority said on Wednesday.
In China, 43 people are dead and 519 are missing, according to state media.
Hundreds of foreigners are among the missing, as well as hundreds of hydropower workers.
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