Drone Attack Strikes Sudan Capital 

A shelter where displaced people protect themselves from the shelling in El-Fasher, Sudan, October 7, 2025. (Reuters)
A shelter where displaced people protect themselves from the shelling in El-Fasher, Sudan, October 7, 2025. (Reuters)
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Drone Attack Strikes Sudan Capital 

A shelter where displaced people protect themselves from the shelling in El-Fasher, Sudan, October 7, 2025. (Reuters)
A shelter where displaced people protect themselves from the shelling in El-Fasher, Sudan, October 7, 2025. (Reuters)

A series of drone attacks targeted the Sudanese capital Khartoum for multiple hours on Wednesday, eyewitnesses and an army source told AFP.

A military official said the army had shot down "most of the drones", which targeted two army bases in the capital's northwest.

Sudan's army has been at war since April 2023 with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who have regularly attacked army positions using drones.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people and created the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.

The capital has been mostly calm since the army regained control earlier this year, with fighting for territory now concentrated in the country's south and west.

But the RSF has been repeatedly accused of carrying out long-range drone attacks on military and civilian infrastructure.

Eyewitnesses in Omdurman, part of greater Khartoum, said they saw drones flying over the city and heard "loud explosions coming from the north" throughout the night on Wednesday.

It was the second day in a row drone strikes targeted the capital, according to the Sudan Shield Forces.

The armed group, an ally of the army, said two of its members were killed on Tuesday by a drone in the East Nile district of Khartoum.

The Sudan Shield Forces are commanded by Abu Aqla Kaykal, who last year defected from the RSF to the army, helping pave the way for the military's gains. His forces have been accused of atrocities on both sides.

Following the army's offensive and recapture of Khartoum, over 800,000 people have returned to their homes.

The army-backed government has launched a vast reconstruction program and is looking to move its officials back from the wartime capital of Port Sudan.

Vast swathes of Khartoum are still devastated and lack reliable access to services, with millions of people regularly experiencing blackouts as a result of the RSF's long-range drone attacks.

The paramilitary's fiercest attacks are in the western region of Darfur, where RSF fighters have surrounded and attempted to seize the city of El-Fasher for close to 18 months.

If it succeeds, the RSF will control all of Darfur and, with its allies, parts of Sudan's south, while the army holds the center, east and north.

El-Fasher is Darfur's last major city to elude the RSF's grasp, and has become the war's most important strategic front.

The UN says over 400,000 civilians are trapped in the city, where mass starvation has taken hold and daily attacks rip through mosques and hospitals.

The RSF has attacked multiple famine-hit displacement camps, and the UN has warned of mass ethnic killing.



Rescue Teams Search for Survivors in Building Collapse that Killed at Least 2 in Northern Lebanon

A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
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Rescue Teams Search for Survivors in Building Collapse that Killed at Least 2 in Northern Lebanon

A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
A Lebanese flag is pictured, in the aftermath of a massive explosion, in Beirut's damaged port area, Lebanon August 17, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

At least two people were killed and four rescued from the rubble of a multistory apartment building that collapsed Sunday in the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, state media reported.

Rescue teams were continuing to dig through the rubble. It was not immediately clear how many people were in the building when it fell.

The bodies pulled out were of a child and a woman, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Dozens of people crowded around the site of the crater left by the collapsed building, with some shooting in the air.

The building was in the neighborhood of Bab Tabbaneh, one of the poorest areas in Lebanon’s second largest city, where residents have long complained of government neglect and shoddy infrastructure. Building collapses are not uncommon in Tripoli due to poor building standards, according to The AP news.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry announced that those injured in the collapse would receive treatment at the state’s expense.

The national syndicate for property owners in a statement called the collapse the result of “blatant negligence and shortcomings of the Lebanese state toward the safety of citizens and their housing security,” and said it is “not an isolated incident.”

The syndicate called for the government to launch a comprehensive national survey of buildings at risk of collapse.


Israel to Take More West Bank Powers and Relax Settler Land Buys

A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)
A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)
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Israel to Take More West Bank Powers and Relax Settler Land Buys

A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)
A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)

Israel's security cabinet approved a series of steps on Sunday that would make it easier for settlers in the occupied West Bank to buy land while granting Israeli authorities more enforcement powers over Palestinians, Israeli media reported.

The West Bank is among the territories that the Palestinians seek for a future independent state. Much of it is under Israeli military control, with limited Palestinian self-rule in some areas run by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA).

Citing statements by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz, Israeli news sites Ynet and Haaretz said the measures included scrapping decades-old regulations that prevent Jewish private citizens buying land in the West Bank, The AP news reported.

They were also reported to include allowing Israeli authorities to administer some religious sites, and expand supervision and enforcement in areas under PA administration in matters of environmental hazards, water offences and damage to archaeological sites.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the new measures were dangerous, illegal and tantamount to de-facto annexation.

The Israeli ministers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The new measures come three days before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet in Washington with US President Donald Trump.

Trump has ruled out Israeli annexation of the West Bank but his administration has not sought to curb Israel's accelerated settlement building, which the Palestinians say denies them a potential state by eating away at its territory.

Netanyahu, who is facing an election later this year, deems the establishment of any Palestinian state a security threat.

His ruling coalition includes many pro-settler members who want Israel to annex the West Bank, land captured in the 1967 Middle East war to which Israel cites biblical and historical ties.

The United Nations' highest court said in a non-binding advisory opinion in 2024 that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements there is illegal and should be ended as soon as possible. Israel disputes this view.


Arab League Condemns Attack on Aid Convoys in Sudan

A general view shows the opening session of the meeting of Arab foreign ministers at the Arab League Headquarters (Reuters)
A general view shows the opening session of the meeting of Arab foreign ministers at the Arab League Headquarters (Reuters)
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Arab League Condemns Attack on Aid Convoys in Sudan

A general view shows the opening session of the meeting of Arab foreign ministers at the Arab League Headquarters (Reuters)
A general view shows the opening session of the meeting of Arab foreign ministers at the Arab League Headquarters (Reuters)

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit strongly condemned the attack by the Rapid Support Forces on humanitarian aid convoys and relief workers in North Kordofan State, Sudan.

In a statement reported by SPA, secretary-general's spokesperson Jamal Rushdi quoted Aboul Gheit as saying the attack constitutes a war crime under international humanitarian law, which prohibits the deliberate targeting of civilians and depriving them of their means of survival.

Aboul Gheit stressed the need to hold those responsible accountable, end impunity, and ensure the full protection of civilians, humanitarian workers, and relief facilities in Sudan.