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Terrorist Attacks Escalate in Niger, Dozens Killed This Week

A US Army Special Forces weapons sergeant observes a Nigerien soldier while practicing buddy team movement drills in Diffa, Niger, March 11, 2017. (US Army)
A US Army Special Forces weapons sergeant observes a Nigerien soldier while practicing buddy team movement drills in Diffa, Niger, March 11, 2017. (US Army)
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Terrorist Attacks Escalate in Niger, Dozens Killed This Week

A US Army Special Forces weapons sergeant observes a Nigerien soldier while practicing buddy team movement drills in Diffa, Niger, March 11, 2017. (US Army)
A US Army Special Forces weapons sergeant observes a Nigerien soldier while practicing buddy team movement drills in Diffa, Niger, March 11, 2017. (US Army)

Terrorist attacks have escalated in Niger, with more than 20 people, mostly civilians, reportedly killed this week.

“Two soldiers and a civilian have been killed in Niger in a fresh suspected terrorist attack in the restive region of Tillaberi,” the country’s defense ministry said.

The attack was carried out by “terrorists on some 20 motorcycles” in the Tabala village, some 100 kilometers east of the capital Niamey, according to a ministry statement released late on Wednesday.

Three attackers were killed in the clash and authorities were searching for the rest, the statement added.

Meanwhile, another terrorist group killed around 20 people in the Tillaberi village near the borders with Mali earlier this week, local newspapers reported on Wednesday.

The victims included women and children, they said.

“The Tillaberi region is in a state of mourning after the attack,” the newspapers wrote.

The military junta, which has ruled Niger since last year, sent a delegation from the transitional government to the village to offer condolences to the families of the victims.

On Monday night, the Support for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), affiliated to Al-Qaeda group, attacked an army position in a village near the border with Burkina Faso, and killed at least seven soldiers.

The Nigerian Defense Ministry said the army had successfully repelled the attack and killed dozens of terrorists.

The statement, broadcast on Nigerian state television, added that the transitional government and the ruling junta in Niger assured citizens that “the security and defense forces are moving forward in the fight against terrorism until it is eliminated.”

The latest security developments came as US troops will complete their withdrawal from Niger by the middle of September, the Pentagon said last Sunday.

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World

Israel Preparing for Two Weeks of Escalation with Iran

Israeli security forces inspect damage at an apartment building struck by an Iranian missile in Petah Tikva, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP)
Israeli security forces inspect damage at an apartment building struck by an Iranian missile in Petah Tikva, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP)
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Israel Preparing for Two Weeks of Escalation with Iran

Israeli security forces inspect damage at an apartment building struck by an Iranian missile in Petah Tikva, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP)
Israeli security forces inspect damage at an apartment building struck by an Iranian missile in Petah Tikva, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP)

Israel is prepared for another two weeks of war with Iran and has planned a list of targets for attacks, including infrastructure and economic facilities, while continuing to hit Iran's defense industries.

“The Iranian economy would be Israel’s next target,” the Kan public broadcaster reported.

Security officials told the channel that Israel has prepared a list of targets for attacks in the coming weeks, including infrastructure and bridges, as well as less frequently targeted sites such as energy and oil facilities.

Kan said Israeli officials believe the war could last longer than two weeks, and Israel is preparing accordingly.

The new timeframe extends past the four to six weeks initially set by the White House.

Meanwhile, Israel’s i24NEWS quoted senior Israeli officials as saying there is no expectation of a slowdown in operations in Iran, quite the opposite. The campaign to dismantle key infrastructure is intensifying, as this remains the primary arena shaping wider regional developments.

Sources said Israeli high-ranking military officials and US Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander Brad Cooper agreed in a meeting to continue strikes on Iran for another two to three weeks with a bank of targets including economic centers and banks.

Israel’s second phase represents a major strategic shift in the bank of targets against Iran, setting the military’s sights on the country’s economy, according to Kan.

In addition to the ongoing attacks on military facilities, Israel and the United States plan to hit Iran’s economic sectors, including financial institutions, banks, energy infrastructure, and petrochemical facilities that form the regime’s main “lifeline”.

According to the plan, the United States will operate in the designated areas under its responsibility, while the Israeli army will deepen its attacks on Iran’s basic infrastructure in various regions.

The new decisions were taken as US President Donald Trump told Tehran that his latest deadline for a deal to end the war was fast approaching.

“Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign (sic) down on them,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Trump's messaging about the war has veered between hinting at diplomatic progress and making threats to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages.”

Kan noted that the new target list awaits Trump’s approval as the US President has not yet given up on negotiations with Iran.

World

Russia Says Ukraine Attack Damages Oil Pipeline

A satellite near-infrared image shows smoke rising from damaged oil storage tanks after a Ukrainian attack, in Primorsk, Russia March 29, 2026. (Vantor/Handout via Reuters)
A satellite near-infrared image shows smoke rising from damaged oil storage tanks after a Ukrainian attack, in Primorsk, Russia March 29, 2026. (Vantor/Handout via Reuters)
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Russia Says Ukraine Attack Damages Oil Pipeline

A satellite near-infrared image shows smoke rising from damaged oil storage tanks after a Ukrainian attack, in Primorsk, Russia March 29, 2026. (Vantor/Handout via Reuters)
A satellite near-infrared image shows smoke rising from damaged oil storage tanks after a Ukrainian attack, in Primorsk, Russia March 29, 2026. (Vantor/Handout via Reuters)

Russian authorities said Sunday that a Ukrainian drone attack has damaged an oil pipeline near the Baltic port of Primorsk.

Russian air defenses shot down 19 drones in the Leningrad region and debris from one "damaged a section of the oil pipeline near the port of Primorsk, and the pipeline is being safely burned out," regional governor Alexander Drozdenko said on Telegram. He said there were no casualties.

Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian infrastructure targets in recent months.

Primorsk, which is between the Finnish border and the key city of St Petersburg, was also attacked in March when an oil depot was set ablaze.

World

Spanish PM Under Fire as Ex-Top Aide Goes on Graft Trial

Former Spanish Minister of Transport Jose Luis Abalos leaves the Supreme Court following his appearance for alleged corruption in Madrid on October 15, 2025. (AFP)
Former Spanish Minister of Transport Jose Luis Abalos leaves the Supreme Court following his appearance for alleged corruption in Madrid on October 15, 2025. (AFP)
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Spanish PM Under Fire as Ex-Top Aide Goes on Graft Trial

Former Spanish Minister of Transport Jose Luis Abalos leaves the Supreme Court following his appearance for alleged corruption in Madrid on October 15, 2025. (AFP)
Former Spanish Minister of Transport Jose Luis Abalos leaves the Supreme Court following his appearance for alleged corruption in Madrid on October 15, 2025. (AFP)

A corruption trial of a former right-hand man to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez begins on Tuesday, a politically explosive case that has threatened to topple the Socialist-led minority government.

Jose Luis Abalos is a disgraced ex-Socialist heavyweight, a former transport minister who helped propel Sanchez to power in 2018. The case is one of several corruption affairs rattling the fragile coalition.

Abalos and his former adviser Koldo Garcia are suspected of having pocketed kickbacks for handing out public contracts worth millions of euros for sanitary equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Supreme Court in Madrid will judge them for alleged bribery, embezzlement, influence peddling, membership of a criminal organization and misuse of confidential information. The men deny the charges.

Prosecutors want Abalos to serve 24 years in jail. They portray him as the mastermind of a scheme of illicit enrichment. They have called for a 19-year term for Garcia, who they say was a key intermediary.

They argued in court that both men had abused their government positions and contacts to favor the interests of businessman Victor de Aldama, who has already admitted his role in the vast and complex affair.

Abalos has consistently protested that the investigation has been unfair.

"I feel like I am living in a fiction," he told the conservative daily El Mundo in November, shortly before his arrest. "I cannot believe the prosecutor's office is asking for 24 years in jail for me."

Garcia also protested in comments to an investigatory committee of the Navarre regional parliament.

"I am in jail without proof that I've committed any crime," he said, speaking by video link from his place of pre-trial detention.

More than 75 witnesses and about 20 experts are to testify during the proceedings, which are due to run through April.

- Succession of scandals -

The investigation also appears to have ensnared Abalos's successor in the powerful post of Socialist organization secretary, Santos Cerdan.

Caught up in another case of suspected corruption for public works contracts, he has been forced to step down from what is a key position in the party.

The fall from grace of Abalos and Cerdan -- two of Sanchez's closest allies -- has embarrassed a leader who took power promising to clean up Spanish politics.

He took over from the main conservative Popular Party (PP) after it had been engulfed in its own graft scandal.

Separate corruption investigations into Sanchez's wife Begona Gomez and his brother David, who faces trial later this year, have piled further pressure on the government, one of few leftist administrations in Europe.

Both the PP and far-right opposition party Vox have called for Sanchez's resignation and early elections. They argue that the scandals expose systemic Socialist corruption that reaches the premier himself.

Sanchez has always denied any illegal funding of the Socialists and rebuffed calls for polls before the next scheduled general election, due in 2027.