UK, Egypt Issue Alerts for Iran, Lebanon Airspace as Risks of Military Conflict Rise

An employee of Luxor's International Airport, wearing a protective face mask, walks next to an EgyptAir plane in Luxor, Egypt April 9, 2021. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
An employee of Luxor's International Airport, wearing a protective face mask, walks next to an EgyptAir plane in Luxor, Egypt April 9, 2021. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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UK, Egypt Issue Alerts for Iran, Lebanon Airspace as Risks of Military Conflict Rise

An employee of Luxor's International Airport, wearing a protective face mask, walks next to an EgyptAir plane in Luxor, Egypt April 9, 2021. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
An employee of Luxor's International Airport, wearing a protective face mask, walks next to an EgyptAir plane in Luxor, Egypt April 9, 2021. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Britain and Egypt asked their airlines on Wednesday to avoid Iranian and Lebanese airspace amid growing fears of a possible broader conflict in the region after the killing of senior members of militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Britain's advisory to its airlines to avoid Lebanon's airspace came hours after Egypt instructed all of its airlines to avoid Iran's airspace for three hours in the early morning on Thursday, Reuters reported.

Many airlines globally are revising their schedules to avoid Iranian and Lebanese airspace while also calling off flights to Israel and Lebanon.

Flights through conflict zones became a prominent industry safety issue a decade ago after Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

US-based United Airlines (UAL.O), said on Wednesday its flights to Tel Aviv, which were paused on July 31 due to security concerns, remained suspended. "We continue to closely monitor the situation and will focus on the safety of our customers and crews as we decide when to resume service," the airline said.

Its rival Delta Air Lines (DAL.N), has paused its flights between New York and Tel Aviv through Aug. 31.

British carriers are not flying to Lebanon currently, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24.

Singapore Airlines (SIAL.SI), stopped flying through Iranian airspace last Friday and is using alternative routes, saying safety is its top priority.

Similarly, Egyptian airlines have already been avoiding Iran's airspace. The new directive applies to all Egyptian carriers, including charter operators and other smaller airlines, said Mark Zee, founder of OPSGROUP - a membership-based organization that shares flight-risk information.

I wanted to be a doctor, a manager or a teacher when I grew up.

Egypt's NOTAM, a safety notice provided to pilots, said the instruction would be in effect from 0100 to 0400 GMT on Thursday.

"All Egyptian carriers shall avoid overflying Tehran (Flight Information Region). No flight plan will be accepted overflying such territory," the notice said, referring to the three-hour period specified.

Egypt's civil aviation ministry later confirmed on Wednesday the notice was intended to reduce flight safety risks in light of a notification it received from Iranian authorities.

"Military exercises will be conducted over Iranian airspace on Aug. 7 from 11:30 to 14:30 and from 4:30 to 7:30 on Aug. 8 Tehran time," the statement said.

The ministry's press statement followed an unnamed source quoted by the state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV as saying that Iranian authorities had said to avoid flying in the country's airspace because of "military exercises."

Iran's Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani spoke with the Egyptian foreign minister by phone on Wednesday, according to Iranian foreign ministry's website.

In 2020, Iranian air defense units said they mistakenly shot down Ukrainian International Airlines flight PS752, killing all 176 people on board, shortly after it took off from Tehran airport. At the time, they were on heightened alert because of increased tensions with the United States.

On Sunday, Jordanian authorities asked all airlines landing at its airports to carry 45 minutes' worth of extra fuel.

Countries in the region, including Jordan, closed their airspace earlier this year amidst aerial attacks on Israel.



Germans Mourn the 5 Killed and 200 Injured in the Apparent Attack on a Christmas Market

21 December 2024, Bremen: Mobile barriers secure the streetcar tracks at the Christmas market in Bremen, after the Magdeburg's Christmas market attack the day before. (dpa)
21 December 2024, Bremen: Mobile barriers secure the streetcar tracks at the Christmas market in Bremen, after the Magdeburg's Christmas market attack the day before. (dpa)
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Germans Mourn the 5 Killed and 200 Injured in the Apparent Attack on a Christmas Market

21 December 2024, Bremen: Mobile barriers secure the streetcar tracks at the Christmas market in Bremen, after the Magdeburg's Christmas market attack the day before. (dpa)
21 December 2024, Bremen: Mobile barriers secure the streetcar tracks at the Christmas market in Bremen, after the Magdeburg's Christmas market attack the day before. (dpa)

Germans on Saturday mourned the victims of an apparent attack in which authorities say a doctor drove into a busy outdoor Christmas market, killing five people, injuring 200 others and shaking the public’s sense of security at what would otherwise be a time of joy and wonder.

The alleged attack Friday evening in Magdeburg, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Berlin, killed a 9-year-old and four adults and injured 41 people badly enough that authorities warned the death toll could rise.

Magdeburg marked the tragedy Saturday with the tolling church bells at 7:04 p.m., the exact time of the attack in the city of roughly 240,000 people.

The driver, a 50-year-old doctor who immigrated from Saudi Arabia in 2006, surrendered to police at the scene. He’s being investigated for five counts of suspected murder and 205 counts of suspected attempted murder, prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said at a news conference.

Among other things, investigators are looking into whether the attack could have been motivated by the suspect’s dissatisfaction with the way Germany treats Saudi refugees, Nopens said.

“There is no more peaceful and cheerful place than a Christmas market,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. “What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people there with such brutality.”

Although Nopens mentioned the treatment of Saudi immigrants angle, authorities said Saturday that they still didn't know why the suspect drove his black BMW into the crowded market.

Police haven't publicly named the suspect, but several German news outlets identified him as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect appears to have been an active user of the social media platform X, accusing German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he referred to as the “Islamification of Europe.”

The violence shocked Germany and Magdeburg, which is the capital of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring the centuries-old German tradition of Christmas markets. It led several other communities to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss. Berlin kept its many markets open but increased its police presence at them.

Germany has suffered a string of extremist attacks in recent years, including a knife attack that killed three people and wounded eight at a festival in the western city of Solingen in August.

Friday’s attack came eight years after an extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

Chancellor Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser traveled to Magdeburg on Saturday, and a memorial service is to take place in the city cathedral in the evening. Faeser ordered flags lowered to half-staff at federal buildings across the country.

Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest at a tram stop in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone, his head arched up slightly. Other officers swarmed around the suspect and took him into custody.

Thi Linh Chi Nguyen, a 34-year-old manicurist from Vietnam whose salon is in a mall across from the Christmas market, was on the phone during a break when she heard loud bangs that she thought were fireworks. She then saw a car drive through the market at high speed. People screamed and a child was thrown into the air by the car.

Shaking as she described what she had witnessed, she recalled seeing the car bursting out of the market and turning right onto Ernst-Reuter-Allee street and then coming to a standstill at the tram stop where the suspect was arrested.

The number of injured people was overwhelming.

“My husband and I helped them for two hours. He ran back home and grabbed as many blankets as he could find because they didn’t have enough to cover the injured people. And it was so cold,” she said.

The market itself was still cordoned off Saturday with red and white tape and police vans, as armed officers guarded at every entrance. Some thermal security blankets still lay on the street.