Category: 2. World

Russia and Ukraine will hold a new round of peace talks in Istanbul on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

“Today, I discussed with [Ukrainian Security Council chief] Rustem Umerov the preparations for a prisoner exchange and another meeting in Turkey with the Russian side,” Zelensky said in his daily address on Monday. “Umerov reported that the meeting is scheduled for Wednesday.”

Zelensky proposed fresh talks at the weekend, days after US President Donald Trump threatened Russia with “severe” sanctions if there was no ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv within 50 days.

Washington has also pledged new weapons for the Ukrainian military, after Russia intensified attacks.

A child was killed overnight into Tuesday, when a Russian glide bomb hit an apartment block in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, local officials said. Six areas of the capital Kyiv had earlier come under a combined drone and missile attack.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces said they had pushed back more than 50 attacks in the Pokrovsk area of eastern Ukraine, where Russia has concentrated much of its firepower in recent months. Russian sabotage groups have already tried to enter the city, according to Ukraine’s military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi.

Moscow has not commented on the peace talks planned to take place in Istanbul. Two rounds took place in the city in May and June and led to a series of prisoner exchanges.

Russia’s RIA news agency, quoting a source, said the latest round of talks would take place over two days, on Thursday and Friday.

A Turkish government spokesperson said Wednesday’s talks would take place in the same venue where previous negotiations in May and June failed to work towards a ceasefire, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported.

This week’s talks will be yet another attempt to bring an end to the war that has been going on for more than three years, and will come after Trump expressed frustration with Vladimir Putin. The US president told the BBC he was “disappointed” but “not done” with the Russian leader.

The Istanbul talks could focus on further prisoner exchanges and a possible meeting between Zelensky and Putin, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP.

Moscow, however, has downplayed the likelihood of reaching any concrete outcome anytime soon.

Commenting on the prospects for a breakthrough, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that the two sides were “diametrically opposed” and “a lot of diplomatic work lies ahead”.

Russia has intensified its drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, causing record civilian casualties. It launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour in 2022.

According to Al Jazeera, US President Donald Trump has again made a threatening statement regarding Iran’s nuclear program, saying that if necessary, Iran’s nuclear facilities will be attacked.

His remarks come as Iranian officials have warned that any new US or Israeli aggression will be met with a firm and crushing response.

Tehran and Washington were engaged in negotiations led by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US President Donald Trump’s foreign envoy Steve Witkoff and had conducted five rounds of indirect talks mediated by Oman when Israel launched a series of unprovoked aggressions, which upended the process.

While the Zionist regime waged a war of aggression against Iran on June 13 and struck Iran’s military, nuclear, and residential areas for 12 days, the US stepped in and conducted military attacks on three nuclear sites in Iran’s Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan on June 22.

The Iranian military forces conducted powerful counterattacks immediately after the aggression. The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Aerospace Force carried out 22 waves of retaliatory missile strikes against the Zionist regime as part of Operation True Promise III, which inflicted heavy losses on cities across the occupied territories.

Also, in response to the US attacks, Iranian armed forces launched a wave of missiles at al-Udeid air base in Qatar, the largest American military base in West Asia.

A ceasefire that came into force on June 24 has brought the fighting to a halt.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the Israeli military attacked its staff residence and main warehouse in Deir al-Balah on Monday, compromising its operations in Gaza.

The WHO said its staff residence was attacked three times, with airstrikes causing a fire and extensive damage, and endangering staff and their families, including children.

On Monday, Israeli tanks for the first pushed into southern and eastern districts of Deir al-Balah, an area where Israeli sources said the military believes hostages may be held. Tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others, local medics said.

In its daily update, Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday at least 130 Palestinians had been killed and more than 1,000 wounded by Israeli gunfire and military strikes across the territory in the past 24 hours, one of the highest such totals in recent weeks.

“Israeli military entered the premises, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward al-Mawasi amid active conflict. Male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot, and screened at gunpoint,” the WHO said.

Two WHO staff and two family members were detained, it said in a post on X. It said three were later released, while one staff member remained in detention. Its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “WHO demands the immediate release of the detained staff and protection of all its staff.”

Deir al-Balah is packed with Palestinians displaced during more than 21 months of war in Gaza, hundreds of whom fled west or south after Israel issued an evacuation order, saying it sought to destroy infrastructure and the capabilities of the militant group Hamas.

But the area is also the main hub for humanitarian efforts in the devastated territory and Gaza health officials have warned of potential “mass deaths” in coming days from hunger.

The WHO describes the health sector in Gaza as being “on its knees”, with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent mass casualty influxes from Israeli attacks.

It said its main warehouse, located within an evacuation zone, was damaged on Sunday by an attack that triggered explosions and a fire inside. It said it would remain in Deir al-Balah and expand its operations despite the attacks.

UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, who earlier said two UN guesthouses had been struck, said the attacks had happened “despite parties having been informed of the locations of UN premises, which are inviolable. These locations – as with all civilian sites – must be protected, regardless of evacuation orders.”

UN secretary-general António Guterres was appalled by an accelerating breakdown of humanitarian conditions in Gaza “where the last lifelines keeping people alive are collapsing,” Dujarric said.

“Israel has the obligation to allow and facilitate by all the means at its disposal the humanitarian relief provided by the United Nations and by other humanitarian organizations,” he said.

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said the agency’s local head in Gaza, Jonathan Whittall, had decided to remain in Deir al-Balah. Last week Israel said it would not renew Whittall’s visa beyond August, claiming he was biased against Israel.

In a series of posts on X early on Tuesday, Whittall said the territory was witnessing “conditions of death” and that “This death and suffering is preventable. And if it’s preventable, but still happening, then that suggests to me that it’s intentional.”

Unrwa, the UN refugee agency dedicated to Palestinians, said on X it was receiving desperate messages from Gaza warning of starvation, including from its own staff, as food prices have soared.

“Meanwhile, just outside Gaza, stockpiled in warehouses, Unrwa has enough food for the entire population for over three months. Lift the siege and let aid in safely and at scale,” it said.

Deir el-Balah resident Abdullah Abu Saleem, 48, told AFP on Monday that “during the night, we heard huge and powerful explosions shaking the area as if it were an earthquake”.

He said this was “due to artillery shelling in the south-central part of Deir el-Balah and the south-eastern area”.

The spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence agency, Mahmud Bassal, told AFP it had “received calls from several families trapped in the Al-Baraka area of Deir el-Balah due to shelling by Israeli tanks”.

Early on Tuesday health authorities said at least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured when Israeli tanks fired on tents housing displaced families at al-Shati camp in western Gaza City. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

In southern Gaza, the health ministry said an Israeli undercover unit had on Monday detained Marwan Al-Hams, head of Gaza’s field hospitals and the health ministry spokesperson, in a raid that killed a local journalist, Tamer al-Zaanein, and wounded another outside a field medical facility run by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

An ICRC spokesperson said the ICRC had treated patients injured in the incident, but did not comment further on their status. It said it was “very concerned about the safety and security” around the field hospital.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Monday more than two dozen western countries called for an immediate end to the war, saying suffering there had “reached new depths”.

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar condemned the countries’ statement, saying any international pressure should be on Hamas, while US ambassador Mike Huckabee called the joint letter “disgusting”.

With Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse

HODEIDA (Yemen) (AFP) – Israel pounded Yemen’s Huthi-held port of Hodeida with air strikes on Monday for the second time in a month, stoking fears of escalation as it warned Yemen could face the same fate as Iran.

Huthi-controlled areas of Yemen have come under repeated Israeli strikes since the Iran-backed rebels began launching missile and drone attacks on Israel, declaring they act in solidarity with Palestinians over the Gaza war.

In its latest raids, Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel struck “targets of the Huthi terror regime at the port of Hodeida” and aimed to prevent any attempt to restore infrastructure previously hit.

The renewed strikes on Yemen are part of a year-long Israeli bombing campaign against the Huthis, but the latest threats have raised fears of a wider conflict in the poverty-stricken Arabian Peninsula country.

“Yemen’s fate will be the same as Tehran’s,” Katz said.

His warning was a reference to the wave of suprise strikes Israel launched on Iran on June 13, targeting key military and nuclear facilities.

During the 12-day war, the United States carried out its own attacks on Iran’s nuclear programme on June 22, striking facilities at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.

A Gulf official told AFP there were “serious concerns in Riyadh… that the Israeli strikes on the Huthis could turn into a large, sustained campaign to oust the movement’s leaders”.

The Huthis withstood more a decade of war against a well-armed, Saudi-led international coalition, though fighting has died down in the past few years.

Any Israeli escalation could “plunge the region into utter chaos”, said the official, requesting anonymity because he cannot brief the media.

‘HEAVY EQUIPMENT’

The Huthis’ Al-Masirah television reported “a series of Israeli air strikes on the Hodeida port”.

A Huthi security official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP that “the bombing destroyed the port’s dock, which had been rebuilt following previous strikes.”

On July 7, Israeli strikes hit Hodeida and two nearby locations on the coast, with targets including the Galaxy Leader cargo ship, captured in November 2023, which the Israelis said had been outfitted with a radar system to track shipping in the Red Sea.

A Yemeni port employee in Hodeida said the strikes targeted “heavy equipment brought in for construction and repair work after Israeli airstrikes on July 7… and areas around the port and fishing boats”.

An Israeli military statement said that the targets included “engineering vehicles… fuel containers, naval vessels used for military activities” against Israel and “additional terror infrastructure used by the Huthi terrorist regime”.

It said the port had been used to transfer weapons from Iran, which were then used by the Huthi rebels against Israel.

The statement added that Israel had identified efforts by the Iran-backed rebels to “re-establish terrorist infrastructure at the port”.

The Huthis recently resumed deadly attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, targeting ships they accuse of having links to Israel.

 

SWEIDA (Syria) (AFP) – Syrian authorities evacuated Bedouin families from the Druze-majority city of Sweida on Monday, after a ceasefire in the southern province halted a week of sectarian bloodshed that a monitor said killed more than 1,260 people.

The violence, which followed massacres of Alawites in March and clashes involving the Druze in April and May, has shaken the Islamist rule of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has pledged to protect minorities in a country devastated by 14 years of war.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said the ceasefire was largely holding despite isolated gunfire in areas north of Sweida city, with no new reports of casualties.

An AFP correspondent saw a convoy of buses and other vehicles enter the provincial capital and exit carrying civilians, including women and children.

State news agency SANA quoted the governor of neighbouring Daraa, Anwar al-Zubi, as saying his province had “received about 200 Bedouin families who had been detained in Sweida”, sending them to local shelters.

The ceasefire announced on Saturday put an end to the sectarian violence that killed more than 1,260 people — about 800 of them Druze fighters and civilians, including nearly 200 noncombatants “summarily executed” by government forces, according to the Observatory. The toll also includes more than 400 government security personnel.

Fatima Abdel-Qader, 52, a Bedouin who was leaving the city on foot, said her family had been surrounded during the fighting, “unable to leave or come back — anyone who wanted to go out risked gunfire and clashes”.

“We were afraid that someone would come to our home and kill us all,” she told AFP, adding they had no way of getting food or water.

Damascus has accused Druze groups of attacking and killing Sunni Bedouins during the clashes, which broke out on July 13 after a Druze vegetable seller was kidnapped by local Bedouins, according to the Observatory.

The Observatory’s toll includes 35 Bedouins, three of them civilians executed by Druze fighters.

The Druze and Bedouin tribes have had tense relations for decades.

‘UNTHINKABLE’

Witnesses, Druze factions and the Observatory have accused government forces of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses when they entered Sweida last week. Sunni Arab tribes also converged on the area in support of the Bedouin.

The ceasefire effectively began on Sunday after Bedouin and tribal fighters withdrew from Sweida city and Druze groups regained control.

The US special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said on Monday that what had happened in Sweida was “unthinkable”.

“You have a Syrian government in effect. They need to be held accountable,” he told a press conference on a visit to neighbouring Lebanon.

The weekend ceasefire announcement came hours after Barrack said the United States had negotiated a truce between Syria’s Islamist authorities and Israel, which had bombed government forces in both Sweida and Damascus earlier in the week.

Israel, which has its own Druze community, has said it was acting in defence of the group, as well as to enforce its demands for the total demilitarisation of Syria’s south.

The deal allowed the deployment of government security forces in Sweida province but not its main city.

An AFP correspondent said security forces had erected sand mounds to block some of Sweida’s entrances.

Sunni tribal fighters were sitting on the roadside beyond the checkpoints.

AID CONVOY

At the main hospital in Sweida city, dozens of bodies were still waiting to be identified, with a forensic medicine official at the facility saying “we still have 97 unidentified corpses”.

According to the United Nations, the violence has displaced more than 128,000 people, an issue that has also made collecting and identifying bodies more difficult.

More than 450 of the dead had been brought to the Sweida national hospital by Sunday evening, with more still being recovered from the streets and homes.

“The dead bodies sent a terrible smell through all the floors of the hospital,” said nurse Hisham Breik, who had not left the facility since the violence began.

“The situation has been terrible. We couldn’t walk around the hospital without wearing a mask,” he said, his voice trembling, adding that the wounded included women, children and the elderly.

The United Nations’ humanitarian office said hospitals and health centres in Sweida province were out of service, with “reports of unburied bodies raising serious public health concerns”.

Humanitarian access to Sweida “remains highly constrained”, it said in a statement late Sunday.

On Sunday, a first humanitarian aid convoy entered the city, which has seen power and water cuts and shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies.

A Red Crescent official told AFP the supplies included body bags.

 

When the preliminary report into the crash of Air India Flight 171 – which killed 260 people in June – was released, many hoped it would bring some measure of closure.

Instead, the 15-page report further stoked speculation. For, despite the measured tone of the report, one detail continues to haunt investigators, aviation analysts and the public alike.

Seconds after take-off, both fuel-control switches on the 12-year-old Boeing 787 abruptly moved to “cut-off”, cutting fuel to the engines and causing total power loss – a step normally done only after landing.

The cockpit voice recording captures one pilot asking the other why “did he cut-off”, to which the person replies that he didn’t. The recording doesn’t clarify who said what. At the time of take-off, the co-pilot was flying the aircraft while the captain was monitoring.

The switches were returned to their normal inflight position, triggering automatic engine relight. At the time of the crash, one engine was regaining thrust while the other had relit but had not yet recovered power. The plane was airborne for less than a minute before crashing into a neighbourhood in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad.

Several speculative theories have emerged since the preliminary report – a full report is expected in a year or so.

The Wall Street Journal and Reuters news agency have reported that “new details in the probe of last month’s Air India crash are shifting the focus to the senior pilot in the cockpit”.

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera claimed that its sources had told them the first officer repeatedly asked the captain why he “shut off the engines”.

Sumeet Sabharwal, 56, was the captain on the flight, while Clive Kunder, 32, was the co-pilot who was flying the plane. Together, the two pilots had more than 19,000 hours of flight experience – nearly half of it on the Boeing 787. Both had passed all pre-flight health checks before the crash.

Understandably, the wave of speculative leaks has rattled investigators and angered Indian pilots.

Last week, India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), the lead investigator, stated in a release that “certain sections of the international media are repeatedly attempting to draw conclusions through selective and unverified reporting”. It described these “actions [as] irresponsible, especially while the investigation remains ongoing”.

Jennifer Homendy, chairwoman of the US’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is assisting the investigation, said on X that the media reports were “premature and speculative” and that “investigations of this magnitude take time”.

Back in India, the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association condemned the rush to blame the crew as “reckless” and “deeply insensitive”, urging restraint until the final report is out.

Sam Thomas, head of the Airline Pilots’ Association of India (ALPA India), told the BBC that “speculation has triumphed over transparency”, emphasising the need to review the aircraft’s maintenance history and documentation alongside the cockpit voice recorder data.

At the heart of the controversy is the brief cockpit recording in the report – the full transcript, expected in the final report, should shed clearer light on what truly happened.

A Canada-based air accident investigator, who preferred to remain unnamed, said that the excerpt of the conversation in the report presents several possibilities.

For example, “if pilot ‘B’ was the one who operated the switches – and did so unwittingly or unconsciously – it’s understandable that they would later deny having done it,” the investigator said.

“But if pilot ‘A’ operated the switches deliberately and with intent, he may have posed the question knowing full well that the cockpit voice recorder would be scrutinised, and with the aim of deflecting attention and avoiding identification as the one responsible.

“Even if the AAIB is eventually able to determine who said what, that doesn’t decisively answer the question ‘Who turned the fuel off?’”.

“We may even never know the answer to that question.”

Investigators told the BBC that while there appeared to be strong evidence the fuel switches were manually turned off, it’s still important to keep “an open mind”.

A glitch in the plane’s Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) system – which monitors engine health and performance – could, in theory, trigger an automatic shutdown if it receives false signals from sensors, some pilots suggest.

However, if the pilot’s exclamation – ‘why did you cut-off [the fuel]?’ – came after the switches moved to cut-off (as noted in the preliminary report), it would undermine that theory. The final report will likely include time-stamped dialogue and a detailed analysis of engine data to clarify this.

Speculation has been fuelled less by who said what, and more by what wasn’t said.

The preliminary report withheld the full cockpit voice recorder (CVR) transcript, revealing only a single, telling line from the final moments.

This selective disclosure has raised questions: was the investigation team confident about the speakers’ identities but chose to withhold the rest out of sensitivity? Or are they still uncertain whose voices they were hearing and needed more time to fully investigate the matter before publishing any conclusions?

Peter Goelz, former NTSB managing director, says the AAIB should release a voice recorder transcript with pilot voices identified.

“If any malfunctions began during take-off, they would be recorded in the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and would likely have triggered alerts in the flight management system – alerts the crew would almost certainly have noticed and, more importantly, discussed.”

Investigators are urging restraint in drawing conclusions.

“We have to be cautious because it’s easy to assume that if the switches were turned off, it must mean intentional action – pilot error, suicide, or something else. And that’s a dangerous path to go down with the limited information we have,” Shawn Pruchnicki, a former airline accident investigator and aviation expert at Ohio State University, told the BBC.

At the same time, alternative theories continue to circulate.

Indian newspapers including the Indian Express flagged a possible electrical fire in the tail as a key focus. But the preliminary report makes clear: the engines shut down because both fuel switches were moved to cut-off – a fact backed by recorder data. If a tail fire occurred, it likely happened post-impact, triggered by spilled fuel or damaged batteries, an independent investigator said.

Last week, AAIB chief GVG Yugandhar stressed that the preliminary report aims to “provide information about ‘WHAT’ happened”.

“It’s too early for definite conclusions,” he said, emphasising the investigation is ongoing and the final report will identify “root causes and recommendations”. He also pledged to share updates on “technical or public interest matters” as they arise.

Summing up, Mr Pruchnicki said the probe “boils down to two possibilities – either deliberate action or confusion, or an automation-related issue”.

“The report doesn’t rush to blame human error or intent; there’s no proof it was done intentionally,” he added.

In other words, no smoking gun – just an uneasy wait for answers that may never even fully emerge.

MUMBAI: An Indian court acquitted on Monday 12 men previously convicted for a series of bomb blasts that ripped through packed commuter trains in Mumbai in 2006 that killed 187 people.

The men were convicted in 2015 of murder, conspiracy, and waging war against the country over the attacks during the evening rush hour of July 11, 2006 that also injured more than 800 people. Five were sentenced to death, while the other seven were given life imprisonment.

But, 10 years later, the Bombay High Court set aside a lower court’s verdict and acquitted the 12 men. Justices Anil Kilor and Shyam Chandak said in their judgement, the prosecution had “utterly failed to establish the offence beyond the reasonable doubt against the accused on each count”.

The men were ordered to be released from jail “if they are not required to be detained in any other case”. The prosecution can appeal against the order in the Supreme Court.

A total of seven blasts ripped through the trains after the bombs, packed into pressure cookers, were placed in bags

and hidden under newspapers and umbrellas. Prosecutors said the devices were assembled in Mumbai and deliberately placed in first-class coaches to target the city’s wealthy Gujarati community.

They said the bombings were intended as revenge for the riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002, which left some 2,000 people dead, most of them Muslims. Prosecutors accused Lashkar-e-Taiba of being behind the attacks, although a little-known outfit called the Lashkar-e-Qahhar later claimed responsibility.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2025

SWEIDA: Syrian authorities evacuated Bedouin families from the Druze-majority city of Sweida on Monday, after a ceasefire in the southern province halted a week of sectarian bloodshed that a monitor said killed more than 1,260 people.

The violence, which followed massacres of Alawis in March and clashes involving the Druze in April and May, has shaken the rule of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has pledged to protect minorities in a country devastated by 14 years of war.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said the ceasefire was largely holding despite isolated gunfire in areas north of Sweida city, with no new reports of casualties.

A correspondent saw a convoy of buses and other vehicles enter the provincial capital and exit carrying civilians, including women and children. State news agency SANA quoted the governor of neighbouring Daraa, Anwar al-Zubi, as saying his province had “received about 200 Bedouin families who had been detained in Sweida”, sending them to local shelters.

Ceasefire holds despite isolated gunfire in areas north of Sweida

The ceasefire announced on Saturday put an end to the sectarian violence that killed more than 1,260 people — about 800 of them Druze fighters and civilians, including nearly 200 noncombatants “summarily executed” by government forces, according to the Observatory. The toll also includes more than 400 government security personnel.

Fatima Abdel-Qader, 52, a Bedouin who was leaving the city on foot, said her family had been surrounded during the fighting, “unable to leave or come back — anyone who wanted to go out risked gunfire and clashes”. “We were afraid that someone would come to our home and kill us all,” she said, adding they had no way of getting food or water.

Damascus has accused Druze groups of attacking and killing Bedouins during the clashes, which broke out on July 13 after a Druze vegetable seller was kidnapped by local Bedouins, according to the Observatory.

The Observatory’s toll includes 35 Bedouins, three of them civilians executed by Druze fighters. The Druze and Bedouin tribes have had tense relations for decades.

‘Unthinkable’

Witnesses, Druze factions and the Observatory have accused government forces of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses when they entered Sweida last week. Sunni Arab tribes also converged on the area in support of the Bedouin.

The ceasefire effectively began on Sunday after Bedouin and tribal fighters withdrew from Sweida city and Druze groups regained control.

The US special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said on Monday that what had happened in Sweida was “unthinkable”. “You have a Syrian government in effect. They need to be held accountable,” he told a press conference on a visit to neighbouring Lebanon.

The weekend ceasefire announcement came hours after Barrack said the United States had negotiated a truce between Syrian authorities and Israel, which had bombed government forces in both Sweida and Damascus earlier in the week.

Israel, which has its own Druze community, has said it was acting in defence of the group, as well as to enforce its demands for the total demilitarisation of Syria’s south.

The deal allowed the deployment of government security forces in Sweida province but not its main city.

A correspondent said security forces had erected sand mounds to block some of Sweida’s entrances. Tribal fighters were sitting on the roadside beyond the checkpoints.

Aid convoy

At the main hospital in Sweida city, dozens of bodies were still waiting to be identified, with a forensic medicine official at the facility saying “we still have 97 unidentified corpses”.

According to the United Nations, the violence has displaced more than 128,000 people, an issue that has also made collecting and identifying bodies more difficult.

More than 450 of the dead had been brought to the Sweida national hospital by Sunday evening, with more still being recovered from the streets and homes.

“The dead bodies sent a terrible smell through all the floors of the hospital,” said nurse Hisham Breik, who had not left the facility since the violence began.

“The situation has been terrible. We couldn’t walk around the hospital without wearing a mask,” he said, his voice trembling, adding that the wounded included women, children and the elderly.

The United Nations’ humanitarian office said hospitals and health centres in Sweida province were out of service, with “reports of unburied bodies raising serious public health concerns”.

Humanitarian access to Sweida “remains highly constrained”, it said in a statement late Sunday. On Sunday, a first humanitarian aid convoy entered the city, which has seen power and water cuts and shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies. A Red Crescent official said the supplies included body bags.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2025

KARACHI: The Hyderabad district administration has claimed that majority of roads and public areas in Hyderabad were effectively cleared of accumulated rainwater.

Responding to a Dawn report headlined “Six people killed during widespread rains in most districts of Sindh”, the Hyderabad deputy commissioner while mentioning the administration’s dewatering efforts, said in a statement: “A prompt and coordinated response led by DC and Hyderabad mayor was initiated at 7am during which priority was laid on restoration of electricity supply and operationalisation of all pumping stations which was completed by noon.”

“It is acknowledged that small pockets of water remain in some low-lying areas. These are being systematically addressed as of 21st July through ongoing efforts,” he added.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2025