Seven US personnel injured in rocket attack on Iraqi base, officials say
(WASHINGTON) — Seven U.S. personnel were injured following a suspected rocket attack Monday against U.S. and Coalition forces at Al-Assad Air Base in western Iraq, U.S. officials said.
Five U.S. service members and two U.S. contractors were injured in the attack, according to a defense official. All are in stable condition, officials said Tuesday.
Five of the injured personnel are receiving care at the air base and two have been evacuated for further care, the defense official said.
Post-strike assessments are still ongoing, according to the defense official.
A U.S. official confirmed to ABC News on Monday that two rockets were launched at the base.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were briefed Monday on the attack, according to a White House readout of a Situation Room meeting on Monday amid the ongoing tension in the Middle East.
(LONDON) — Russian missiles struck the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv early on Monday, injuring at least two people, the city’s administration said.
Moscow fired cruise and ballistic missiles at the city beginning about 3 a.m., officials said in a message posted on the Telegram messaging app.
At least two people were injured, including one who was hospitalized, according to Serhiy Popko, head of the city’s administration.
About 34 cruise and ballistic missiles were fired, along with about 23 Shahed drones, the Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security of Ukraine said.
Air defenses in Ukraine destroyed at least nine ballistic and 13 cruise missiles, the government group said. Twenty of the drones were destroyed and three “did not reach their targets,” it added.
A Russian missile struck one of the city’s Islamic Cultural Centers, located in a mosque, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, adding that “Russia has no regard for spiritual or human values, and no respect for any religion or faith.”
“The world must see that Russia’s war is not only against Ukraine, but also against humanity, dignity, and human life,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “Such barbaric acts have no place in our modern world. They must be strongly condemned and met with firm action by the international community.”
The early morning attack arrived a week after Russia launched a countrywide assault on Ukraine, strikes that were among the largest such aerial attacks since the war began in 2022, according to Zelenskyy.
Russia last Monday fired at least 127 missiles and 109 drones in an attack that lasted over eight hours.
The strikes on Monday arrived on the first day of a new school year for children throughout Ukraine, “despite the war and all the challenges,” Zelenskyy said.
“Ukraine is doing everything possible to provide children with maximum opportunities,” he said on social media. “All of our schools and higher education institutions that are operating today are a testament to our people’s resilience and Ukraine’s strength.”
Monday’s attack on Kyiv came a day after Russia hammered Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine, with ballistic missiles and glide bombs, injuring dozens of people.
At least 47 people, including seven children, were injured in the Kharkiv strikes, according to Ukrainian emergency services officials. Three people were rescued after being buried by rubble, officials said.
The Russian strikes on Kharkiv followed a wave of drone strikes launched by Ukraine inside Russia over the weekend that damaged an oil refinery near Moscow.
Zelenskyy said the purpose of the drone strikes inside Russia is to bring home the war to Russia.
“The terrorist state must feel what war is. We are working to ensure that as many Russian military facilities, logistics hubs, and critical components of their war economy as possible fall within the reach of our weapons,” Zelenskyy said in a Sunday evening address. “With our drones and missiles, we can accomplish part of the missions. But true peace — a real end to this war — is a complex task. To force Russia into peace, to move them from deceitful rhetoric about negotiations to taking steps to end the war, to clear our land of occupation and occupiers, we need effective tools.”
ABC News’ Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Anti-government demonstrators are gathering in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv for a second day of protests demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conclude a cease-fire and hostage-release deal with Hamas.
Street protests are expected to resume across the country on Monday, coinciding with a general strike called by Israel’s largest trade union — Histadrut, or the General Organization of Workers in Israel, which has hundreds of thousands of members — which has caused disruptions to services in some areas of the country.
Airlines operating out of Ben-Gurion International Airport, for example, temporarily halted some flights on Monday morning due to the strike, according to the airport. The union said Sunday the strike was only expected to affect some departing flights. The general strike was expected to last until Monday at about 2:30 p.m. local time, according to union Chairman Arnon Bar-David.
The current wave of demonstrations was sparked by the recovery of the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday — among them American Israeli citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin. The Israel Defense Forces said the captives were killed by militants “shortly” before their discovery.
The killings prompted fury in Israel, where some place blame for the deaths on Netanyahu’s months-long failure to reach a cease-fire deal with Hamas.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a statement while expressing his support for the general strike: “They were alive. Netanyahu and the death cabinet decided not to save them. There are still live hostages there, a deal can still be made. Netanyahu is not doing it for political reasons.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, meanwhile, posted on X linking the deaths of the six captives to Netanyahu’s reported decision last week to retain military control of the Philadelphi Corridor — the strip of land running along the Gaza-Egypt border — despite Hamas objections. Gallant called for the security cabinet to immediately reverse the decision in order to save the remaining hostages.
Public anger flared on Sunday night with hundreds of thousands of Israelis taking to the streets, with some engaging in clashes with police. Authorities said 29 people were arrested in Tel Aviv, as protesters set fire to barricades and launched fireworks.
Netanyahu blamed Hamas for the continued failure of cease-fire and hostage-release talks.
“Whoever murders hostages – does not want a deal,” the prime minister said in a statement released on Sunday. “Hamas is continuing to steadfastly refuse all proposals.”
“The government of Israel is committed, and I am personally committed, to continue striving toward a deal that will return all of our hostages and ensure our security and our existence,” he added.
Hamas accused Netanyahu of intentionally sabotaging negotiations by adding unacceptable new demands, which it said were “aimed at obstructing reaching an agreement to preserve his power.”
Some of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners have pushed back on the protesters’ demands for a deal.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, for example, noted in a post on X that he was seeking legal action to break up the general strike. Its organizers, he said, “will not be allowed to turn the country upside down.”
Strikers, he added, “serve the interests of [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar and Hamas.”
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
(PARIS) — Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire CEO of the social media messaging app Telegram, was released from custody in France on Wednesday after being arrested in connection with an “ongoing judicial investigation,” the Paris Prosecutor’s Office told ABC News.
Durov will be brought to court for “questioning at first appearance, with a possible indictment,” the Paris Prosecutor’s Office said.
The office did not say when Durov would be brought to court.
Durov, 39, was arrested at Le Bourget airport outside Paris shortly after landing on a private jet late on Aug. 24. French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed his arrest two days later.
Durov is accused of allegedly being passive with regard to cyber and financial crimes being committed on the Telegram platform and is facing 12 charges, according to the Paris Prosecutor’s Office.
The charges are related to child pornography, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on the platform, prosecutors announced Monday.
In his statement, Macron maintained that Durov’s arrest was “not political,” saying, “France is more than anything attached to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation and to the spirit of enterprise. It will remain so.”
What is Telegram?
Telegram is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world, with approximately 800 million active users and a large user base in Russia and Ukraine.
Launched in 2013, Telegram was designed to address growing concerns about digital privacy and censorship. Unlike many messaging apps of the time, Telegram was built with a focus on security, offering end-to-end encryption and features that prioritized user privacy.
The rise of the app’s popularity was meteoric, making Durov among the wealthiest people in the world. He is estimated to have a net worth of approximately $15.5 billion, according to Forbes.
The app distinguished itself from competitors such as Facebook Messenger, WeChat and WhatsApp with its commitment to free speech and resistance to government censorship.
The app has positioned itself as a refuge for activists and journalists. Its features include self-destructing messages, secret chats and robust channel functionalities.
Additionally, Telegram offers a platform for larger messaging groups, allowing 200,000 users to be added to a chat.
Because of the large group sizes, Telegram has been criticized for hosting far-right and extremist groups. Most recently, the U.K. government denounced Telegram for its role in extremist groups organizing riots across the country in July.
Who is Pavel Durov?
Born in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1984, Durov began his foray into technology entrepreneurship in 2006, founding the Russian social network VKontakte (VK).
Likened to Facebook, VK quickly gained traction among Russian-speaking users, offering a platform for social interaction, content sharing and networking.
However, the platform’s success attracted scrutiny from the Russian government, and Durov faced increasing pressure to comply with government requests for user data.
In 2014, Durov was forced to leave VK after refusing to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on the platform.
He reportedly refused to block late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s page on the platform.
After leaving his position at VK, Durov left Russia and moved to Dubai, where he runs Telegram, which was founded a year prior in 2013.
Frequently traveling to Europe from the United Arab Emirates, Durov was granted citizenship in France in 2021.
Response to Durov’s arrest
In the wake of Durov’s arrest over the weekend, Elon Musk posted #FreePavel on X, sharing a clip of the Telegram founder’s previous interview with Tucker Carlson.
U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden called Durov’s arrest “an assault on the basic human rights of speech and association” in a post on X.
“I am surprised and deeply saddened that Macron has descended to the level of taking hostages as a means for gaining access to private communications. It lowers not only France, but the world,” Snowden wrote.
ABC News’ Hugo Leenhardt and Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report.