airstrikes

Israel launches strikes on Tehran as regional conflict widens; U.S. says it sank Iranian warship near Sri Lanka Israel said it launched a wave of strikes on Tehran before dawn Friday, escalating a fast-spreading conflict that has rippled across the Middle East and beyond, disrupted vital energy routes and drawn in global powers. The Israel Defense Forces said it began a “large-scale wave of strikes against infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime across Tehran,” while also hitting targets in Lebanon and intercepting…

Pakistan bombed Taliban government forces in Kabul and Kandahar overnight in the first direct strikes on Taliban military sites since the group returned to power in 2021, a sharp rupture between the neighboring Islamic nations that Islamabad’s defense minister described as “open war.” The escalation raises the risk of a broader conflict along the 2,600-kilometer (1,615-mile) frontier and deepens a crisis already fueled by cross-border militant attacks. “Our cup of patience has overflowed. Now it is open war between us and…

Pakistan said it launched multiple overnight airstrikes against militants inside eastern Afghanistan, prompting condemnation from Kabul after Afghan authorities reported children among the dead and wounded. The cross-border operation was the most extensive since October, when border clashes left more than 70 people dead on both sides and hundreds injured. Islamabad said its military hit seven sites along the frontier targeting Afghanistan-based militant groups “in the aftermath of recent suicide bombing incidents in…

An Israeli strike in eastern Lebanon killed eight Hezbollah members during a meeting in the Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah official said, as Israel broadened its operations hours after announcing strikes on Hamas targets in the country’s south. Lebanon’s health ministry reported 12 deaths across two regions where Hezbollah holds sway. The Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said all eight members were gathered near the town of Riyak in the Baalbek-Hermel governorate when the strike hit. A statement from the…

US defends increased Somalia airstrikes as ‘critical support’ backing ISIS pressure in Puntland State Thursday, February 5, 2026 The United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) has defended a rise in airstrikes in Somalia, calling them “critical support” that has helped Somali partner forces weaken ISIS-linked militants and hold strategic ground in the country’s northeast. In a digital press briefing, AFRICOM Commander General Dagvin Anderson said the operations are coordinated with Somali forces and designed to deliver…

US airstrikes in Somalia shrink ISIS territory, push leaders underground, AFRICOM says WASHINGTON — U.S. Africa Command says its stepped-up airstrikes in Somalia have tightened the noose on Islamic State-linked militants, shrinking their operating space and forcing leaders into hiding as Somali forces press ground operations in the country’s volatile northeast. In a digital press briefing, AFRICOM leaders described the strikes as “critical support” coordinated closely with Somali partner forces and designed to provide…

Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes killed 24 Palestinians, including seven children, across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, health officials said, in a surge of violence that threatens to further unravel a nearly four-month-old ceasefire. Among the dead was a medic who had rushed to treat casualties in the southern city of Khan Younis and was killed by a subsequent strike on the same location, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which operates under Hamas authorities. In Gaza City, health officials said a five-month-old boy…

The United States has sharply escalated airstrikes and partner operations in Somalia, pushing the fight against the Islamic State group and al-Shabab deeper into militant strongholds to blunt plots aimed at the U.S. and Europe, according to Lt. Gen. John Brennan, deputy commander of U.S. Africa Command. Brennan, a former Special Forces leader who served in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, said the tempo is designed to deny militants time, space and capability to plan attacks. “There’s ISIS-inspired threats. They plot against the…

MOGADISHU, Somalia — U.S. Africa Command says it has carried out 23 airstrikes in Somalia so far this year targeting Al-Shabaab and ISIS, underscoring a stepped-up counterterrorism tempo that U.S. officials say is coordinated with partners across the continent. AFRICOM spokesperson Maj. Mahalia Frost said Wednesday the increase is part of a broader U.S. effort against ISIS in Africa, noting recent American strikes in Nigeria. She said instability in Somalia and Nigeria is intertwined, arguing that regional cooperation and…

Israel struck targets across Gaza in what it called a response to a “blatant violation” of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, as Washington moved to stand up a new “board of peace” to steer the next phase of a fragile plan for the war-battered territory. The Israeli military said it hit “several terrorists, including commanders from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organisations across the Gaza Strip,” saying the operation answered an incident in western Rafah earlier this week in which “armed terrorists fired at IDF troops.”…