Up to 1,200 Civilians May Be in Plant in Eye of Ukraine Battle, Separatist Says https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3704516/1200-civilians-may-be-plant-eye-ukraine-battle-separatist-says
Up to 1,200 Civilians May Be in Plant in Eye of Ukraine Battle, Separatist Says
Buildings destroyed by Russian military strike, amid Russia's invasion on Ukraine, are seen in the town of Dobropillia, in Donetsk region, Ukraine June 14, 2022.. (Reuters)
Up to 1,200 Civilians May Be in Plant in Eye of Ukraine Battle, Separatist Says
Buildings destroyed by Russian military strike, amid Russia's invasion on Ukraine, are seen in the town of Dobropillia, in Donetsk region, Ukraine June 14, 2022.. (Reuters)
Up to 1,200 civilians may be holed up in the shelters of the Azot chemical plant in the eastern Ukrainian city where one of the fiercest battles of the war has been raging between Russian and Ukrainian forces, a Russian-backed separatist said.
Russian forces are trying to grind down Ukrainian resistance in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, part of a wider push to drive Kyiv's forces out of two separatist regions which Russia backs and has recognized as independent states.
Russia on Wednesday said it had opened a humanitarian corridor out of the sprawling ammonia factory founded under Soviet leader Josef Stalin, to a separatist-controlled town.
"About 1,000 to 1,200 civilians of Sievierodonetsk may still be on the territory of the Azot chemical plant," Rodion Miroshnik, an official in the Russian-backed self-styled separatist administration of the Luhansk People's Republic, said on Telegram.
Miroshnik said the civilians are in part of the plant that is still controlled by Ukrainian forces, which he said numbered up to 2,000 people including Ukrainian and foreign fighters.
Russia on Tuesday said it dismissed a Ukrainian request for a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians from the plant to Kyiv-controlled territory, citing the destruction of the last bridge across the Siverskyi Donets river which blocks the city's eastern exits.
"We offer the militants of nationalist battalions and foreign mercenaries located at the Azot plant to cease any hostilities," the defense ministry said.
Russia's defense ministry said what it said were Ukrainian "militants" had deliberately led civilians into the Azot plant and was using them as human shields.
Reuters was unable to verify that claim. Ukraine has denied Russian claims that it uses civilians as human shields.
Russia's humanitarian corridor northwards to the city of Svatove will be open until Wednesday evening, the defense ministry said.
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that the main immediate reason for what he casts as a "special military operation" was to protect the Russian-speakers of Donbas from persecution and attack by Ukraine.
Ukraine and its Western backers say Russia is waging an unprovoked war against a sovereign state which is fighting for its existence. Kyiv says Russia's claim of persecution of Russian-speakers is a baseless pretext for the invasion.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed forces fighting Ukraine's armed forces. About 14,000 people were killed there between 2014 and 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Iran President Says Pressure on Country at Critical, Dangerous Stage https://english.aawsat.com/world/5317209-iran-president-says-pressure-country-critical-dangerous-stage
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their bilateral meeting ahead of BRICS Summit in New Delhi, India, September 11, 2026. (India's Press Information Bureau/Handout via Reuters)
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Iran President Says Pressure on Country at Critical, Dangerous Stage
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their bilateral meeting ahead of BRICS Summit in New Delhi, India, September 11, 2026. (India's Press Information Bureau/Handout via Reuters)
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Friday that pressure on his country from the United States had reached a critical and dangerous stage.
Speaking in India ahead of a BRICS summit, Pezeshkian suggested that "the world today is going through a period of unprecedented complexity", adding the use of economic levers of pressure only served to exacerbate that.
"Iran has been subjected to heavy sanctions in recent years; this pressure has reached a critical and dangerous stage in recent months following the military aggression by the United States and Israel," he said.
The US and Israel sparked the Middle East war in late February with strikes on Iran, whose economy had already been weakened by decades of international sanctions.
Tehran retaliated by choking off the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for energy transit, causing global energy prices to surge.
"When a country is subjected to political and military pressure on its trade, energy, infrastructure and financial system, the repercussions extend beyond its borders," Pezeshkian said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with Pezeshkian on Friday and underscored the need to protect the freedom of navigation and commerce, and the safety and well-being of seafarers, India's foreign ministry said.
He also emphasized the need for continued efforts to ensure lasting peace and stability in the region, the ministry said in a statement.
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.
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