Israel Destroyed Several Iranian Arms Convoys in Iraq

This photo released Sunday June 12, 2022 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a bulldozer work at a damaged runway of the Damascus International Airport, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Friday, in Damascus, Syria. (SANA via AP)
This photo released Sunday June 12, 2022 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a bulldozer work at a damaged runway of the Damascus International Airport, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Friday, in Damascus, Syria. (SANA via AP)
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Israel Destroyed Several Iranian Arms Convoys in Iraq

This photo released Sunday June 12, 2022 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a bulldozer work at a damaged runway of the Damascus International Airport, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Friday, in Damascus, Syria. (SANA via AP)
This photo released Sunday June 12, 2022 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a bulldozer work at a damaged runway of the Damascus International Airport, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Friday, in Damascus, Syria. (SANA via AP)

Israel has carried out numerous strikes against truck convoys smuggling Iranian weapons to the Hezbollah party in Lebanon, revealed an Israeli source.

Israel would target the convoys as they were making their way from Iraq to Syria and carry out the strike in either country.

The announcement was made after Israel last week struck Damascus' old international airport, causing "significant" damage to infrastructure and rendered the main runway unserviceable until further notice.

The airport is located south of the capital Damascus where Syrian opposition activists say Iran-backed militiamen are active and have arms depots.

Israel has staged hundreds of strikes on targets in Syria over the years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.

Israel has for years been closely monitoring the transport of weapons to Hezbollah, continued the source.

At first, Israel used to target the weapons depots in Lebanon or Syria, but the military command has since ordered that the convoys be destroyed before they reach their destination, it continued.

Several Iranian convoys would make their way to Lebanon through Iraq and Syria and Israeli commandos would lie in wait to ambush them. Some convoys were destroyed in Iraq, others in Syria and some at the Lebanese border.

Security sources in Tel Aviv revealed that the Iranians then significantly reduced the transfer of weapons by land and have resorted to transporting them through air military cargo or even by sea.

Israeli strikes on Syria would often target these shipments as soon as they are unloaded at Syrian army depots.

Iran has recently started to deliver these shipments through passenger flights to Damascus' old airport. The shipments carry less quantities of weapons, but the arms are more sophisticated than before, according to Israel's Channel 12.

Israeli military officials had previously expressed their concern over the delivery of such sophisticated weapons, including modern drones and precision-guided missiles, to Lebanon.

Israel has therefore, intensified its operations against Iran because it believes such arms would create a strategic imbalance in the region.

Israel estimates that its latest attacks have destroyed 70 percent of arms shipments smuggled from Iran to Syria and Lebanon. The 30 percent that have reached their destination "pose a major threat," warned Israeli military officials.

Channel 12 reported that Israel had informed Russia of its intended strike on Damascus airport last week to avoid a clash.

Israeli media on Monday said last week's strike was not only a message to the Iranians - that Israel is watching them - but also a strong one to Bashar al-Assad's regime that it will pay a heavy price if it continues to allow Iran to entrench itself militarily in Syria.



China Calls Taiwan's Annual Military Drills a 'Wasteful Charade'

A Taiwanese military member fires ammunition aboard an armoured vehicle during a drill as part of the annual Han Kuang military exercises in Taipei, Taiwan, August 13, 2026. REUTERS/Ann Wang
A Taiwanese military member fires ammunition aboard an armoured vehicle during a drill as part of the annual Han Kuang military exercises in Taipei, Taiwan, August 13, 2026. REUTERS/Ann Wang
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China Calls Taiwan's Annual Military Drills a 'Wasteful Charade'

A Taiwanese military member fires ammunition aboard an armoured vehicle during a drill as part of the annual Han Kuang military exercises in Taipei, Taiwan, August 13, 2026. REUTERS/Ann Wang
A Taiwanese military member fires ammunition aboard an armoured vehicle during a drill as part of the annual Han Kuang military exercises in Taipei, Taiwan, August 13, 2026. REUTERS/Ann Wang

China's defense ministry on Friday dismissed Taiwan's annual Han Kuang military drills as a "wasteful charade" that "stoked war panic", in the Chinese government's first official comment on the 10 days of war games since they began last week.

Taiwan, a democratically governed island that rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, began the exercise last week, as China ramps up its military presence around the island. The exercises rehearsed various scenarios should China ever make good on threats to try to seize the island by force, including how to break a maritime blockade and, for the first time, slowing mobile internet.

"The so-called 'Han Kuang exercise' has always been a posturing, wasteful charade," Chinese defense ministry spokesperson Chen Xi said in a statement, Reuters reported.

"The Democratic Progressive Party authorities have also recklessly stoked war panic, accelerating efforts to turn cities into battlefields and push ordinary people to the front lines," he added, referring to Taiwan's ruling party.

The People's Liberation Army remains on high alert and is fully prepared, continuously enhancing its real-combat capabilities to "counter separatism and external interference", Chen said.

"This remains the solid trump card for safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and for maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait."

Writing on his Facebook page, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said while the drills has come to a close, government efforts to strengthen defense and enhance the resilience of society as a whole will not cease.

"The government, together with the national military and all citizens, will make every necessary preparation to safeguard our democratic and free way of life through our strength, and maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," he added. While China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, it says it would prefer "peaceful reunification".

Taiwan's government says only the island's people can decide their future, and regularly criticises China's pressure campaign.

The Chinese military operates almost daily in the skies and waters around Taiwan.


US Deportees Face Escalating Police Violence, Intimidation in Eq.Guinea

Handout picture released by Guatemalan Migration Institute shows Guatemalan migrants descending from an US military plane after being deported from US at the Guatemalan Air Force Base in Guatemala City on January 24, 2025. Guatemalan Migration Institute via AFP
Handout picture released by Guatemalan Migration Institute shows Guatemalan migrants descending from an US military plane after being deported from US at the Guatemalan Air Force Base in Guatemala City on January 24, 2025. Guatemalan Migration Institute via AFP
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US Deportees Face Escalating Police Violence, Intimidation in Eq.Guinea

Handout picture released by Guatemalan Migration Institute shows Guatemalan migrants descending from an US military plane after being deported from US at the Guatemalan Air Force Base in Guatemala City on January 24, 2025. Guatemalan Migration Institute via AFP
Handout picture released by Guatemalan Migration Institute shows Guatemalan migrants descending from an US military plane after being deported from US at the Guatemalan Air Force Base in Guatemala City on January 24, 2025. Guatemalan Migration Institute via AFP

The masked police officers burst into Ahmed Soliman's hotel room in Equatorial Guinea and dragged him and two dozen other US deportees outside, guns drawn, to deliver a message: go home.

"I have police officers yanking on my neck, trying to throw me on the ground, I have officers elbowing me in my back," Soliman, 30, told AFP of the incident, which occurred two weeks ago.

"Machine guns pointed at our faces, all this just so that they can tell us they're tired of us here in this country," he recalled, saying he and four others were handcuffed and hit by police, in an incident confirmed by two other deportees.

Authorities are ratcheting up pressure on deportees held at the hotel, which has become a dumping ground for expelled US immigrants, including Soliman, who arrived in April, said AFP.

The deportees say they're facing verbal and physical abuse from police, meagre rations and constantly being pushed to return home.

The authoritarian petro-state in central Africa has become a key transit point in President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, which involves shipping people that the United States can't legally send home to "third countries" like Equatorial Guinea instead.

As their stay at the hotel, under watch from armed guards, drags on for months, authorities are getting impatient, deportees told AFP. A local lawyer also confirmed that deportees are facing pressure to return to their home countries.

"Anytime a problem happens, anytime we're asking for our rights for something, they say, 'Hey, if you don't like it, go back to your country,'" Soliman, who had lived in the United States since he was three and fears returning to his native Egypt because he is gay, told AFP.

The deportees cannot claim asylum in Equatorial Guinea.

But they say they can't leave, because they fear for their lives in their home countries -- and because they were deported without passports.

Soliman said authorities are pressuring him to accept a government-issued travel document instead.

Washington has expelled at least 50 people, mostly Africans, to Equatorial Guinea since November.

Twenty-seven remain in the hotel as Equatorial Guinea has deported people to their home countries, or onward to "fourth" countries.

- 'They're trying to intimidate you' -

At the hotel, the deportees are held on the premises by armed guards.

"They threaten you each and every day," said another deportee, who gave her first name, Petagaye, and has been held in the hotel since June.

"They tell you, 'oh, you need to go back to your country'. Or they tell you, 'oh, just kill yourself, because America don't care'," the 35-year-old said.

Deportees used to be able to walk around the hotel grounds, and sometimes get a police escort to a nearby corner store -- often in exchange for a few dollars -- but that too has seen a crackdown, a deportee who gave the name Him, a pseudonym, told AFP.

"They're trying to intimidate you," said Him, who fled what is now Eritrea during that country's war for independence from Ethiopia, and arrived in the United States as a refugee when he was 13.

"Even though you know you could go back and get killed, even though you ran away from a country and proved it in a federal court of law that we can't go back," said Him, 47.

Neither the US State Department nor Equatorial Guinea's national security minister responded to a request for comment.

- Ebola scare -

In July, deportees were sent into a panic when a guard told them an Ebola patient was being housed in the hotel.

Videos shared with AFP showed men in hazmat suits walking through the building.

Authorities have not commented on the incident and Equatorial Guinea has not reported any Ebola cases.

The three deportees interviewed by AFP had been in the United States since they were children, and spoke with American accents.

All three had won deportation protections preventing them from being sent to their home countries after judges found their lives would be in danger.

Under previous administrations, people with such protections, though legally weaker than asylum, have been allowed to legally work and live in the United States.

The Trump administration has argued that it can still deport people with such protections, as long as it doesn't send them to their home country.

A lawsuit was filed in June at the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, the continent's top human rights body, to try to halt US deportations to Equatorial Guinea.

For now, the deportations continue: 10 more people arrived on July 30, US and local lawyers said.


Heavy Rain Causes Flooding Near Tokyo, At Least 5 Dead and Travelers Stranded

A view of a flooded road following heavy rain in Ichikawa, Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo, Japan, late 13 August 2026 (issued 14 August 2026). EPA/JIJI PRESS
A view of a flooded road following heavy rain in Ichikawa, Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo, Japan, late 13 August 2026 (issued 14 August 2026). EPA/JIJI PRESS
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Heavy Rain Causes Flooding Near Tokyo, At Least 5 Dead and Travelers Stranded

A view of a flooded road following heavy rain in Ichikawa, Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo, Japan, late 13 August 2026 (issued 14 August 2026). EPA/JIJI PRESS
A view of a flooded road following heavy rain in Ichikawa, Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo, Japan, late 13 August 2026 (issued 14 August 2026). EPA/JIJI PRESS

Record-breaking rainfall that pounded cities east of Tokyo overnight flooded roads and dozens of homes, stranded thousands of people, caused power outages and left at least five people dead and one missing.

The Japan Meteorological Agency downgraded its most severe warning for heavy rain in more than a dozen municipalities in Chiba prefecture as rain subsided Friday morning but forecast more rain later in the day.

Photos and television footage showed widespread damage after daylight with homes, cars and parts of railway tracks flooded with muddy water.

The Ground Self-Defense Force said it dispatched buses to pick up about 4,000 stranded people who stayed overnight at the Soga train station, a local route that also serves Tokyo Disney, an operation finished later Friday. The theme park did not report any damage.

Thousands of people who were stuck overnight at the Narita airport serving the Tokyo region gradually left as train service partially resumed Friday morning with delays. Flights in and out of Narita were operating normally Friday, with many people returning home at the end of Japan's Bon Buddhist holiday week.

Hundreds of people took shelter overnight at the Chiba prefectural government building, The Associated Press reported.

The prefecture said five people were found dead and another person was missing. The victims included a man found floating on a flooded road in Ichikawa city and a woman who had been stuck in a flooded car in Sakura city. Two people were presumed dead after being pulled from flooded cars in Kashiwa city and in Chiba.

More than 170 homes were flooded in the prefecture and more than 300 people were taking shelter at public facilities as of Friday afternoon, Chiba officials said.

The torrential rain and flooding also knocked out power to about 18,000 homes Friday morning, down from 68,000 earlier, according to the TEPCO Power Grid.

Record-breaking rainfall of 11.5 centimeters (4.5 inches) fell in just one hour in Chiba City and 9.7 centimeters (3.8 inches) fell in one hour in Sakura, which was also a record. JMA forecast official Takuya Hosomi told a televised emergency news conference that unprecedented levels of rainfall were recorded.