Blast kills hundreds at Gaza hospital; Hamas and Israel trade blame

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — A massive blast rocked a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter Tuesday, killing hundreds of people, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said. Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military said the hospital was hit by a rocket misfired by Palestinian militants.

The health ministry said at least 500 people had been killed. Video that The Associated Press confirmed was from the hospital showed fire engulfing the building and the hospital’s grounds strewn with torn bodies, many of them young children. Around them in the grass were blankets, school backpacks and other belongings.

‘They believed it was safe’: death toll rising after blast at Gaza hospital

Hundreds of people are reported to have been killed in a massive explosion at a crowded hospital in Gaza City, in the biggest single loss of life in the blockaded territory in all the five wars between Hamas and Israel since the militants took over the strip in 2007.

The Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said at least 500 people were killed on Tuesday night in what it said was an Israeli airstrike on al-Ahli al-Arabi, also known as the Baptist hospital. A spokesperson for the Gaza civil defence put the number of killed at about 300.

Gaza authorities say hundreds killed in Israeli air raid on hospital

Hundreds of people have been killed in an Israeli air raid on a hospital in the besieged Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian authorities.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said on Tuesday that at least 500 people were killed in the attack on al-Ahli Arab Hospital in central Gaza.

The Hamas group, which governs the Palestinian territory, said the attack was a “war crime”.

Images shared on social media appeared to show fire engulfing the building, widespread damage and bodies scattered in the wreckage.

Nato vows to respond if Finland-Estonia gas pipeline damage is deliberate

Nato has promised a “determined” response if damage to an undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia proves deliberate, as investigators said traces of an “external, mechanical force” had been found on the seabed.

Amid widespread media speculation about the likelihood of Russian sabotage, Risto Lohi of the Finnish national bureau of investigation told a press conference in Helsinki on Wednesday: “There is reason to suspect an external force … caused the damage.” The force, he added, “appears to have been mechanical, not an explosion”.

Key details behind Nord Stream pipeline blasts revealed by scientists

Scientists investigating the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines have revealed key new details of explosions linked to the event, which remains unsolved on its first anniversary.

Researchers in Norway shared with the Guardian seismic evidence of the four explosions, becoming the first national body to publicly confirm the second two detonations, as well as revealing a detailed timeline of events.

Ukraine claims Sevastopol strike hit navy commanders

Ukraine says Friday's missile strike on the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea fleet in Crimea was timed to coincide with a meeting of naval officials.

In a short statement, the Ukrainian military claimed the strike had caused deaths and injuries but did not provide more details.

On Friday Moscow said one serviceman was missing after the attack.

‘I couldn’t take it any more’: holdouts quit Kupiansk after renewed Russian shelling

Antonina Sanina, 75, had spent the last two nights hiding in the basement of her apartment block in Kupiansk. She had endured six and a half months of Russian occupation last year, but now the renewed shelling of the city had prompted her to abandon her home. “I couldn’t take it any more,” she said a few minutes after local volunteers had driven her to safety.

She said eight neighbours hid in the cellar with her as the Russians targeted what they thought, wrongly, was a barracks nearby. “You could barely sleep. It would be on and off. Then you’d just wake up and you wouldn’t know – was that an actual hit or was it a dream?” A day before she took flight, one civilian was killed and 11 injured in a daytime artillery strike on the city centre.

Ukraine intelligence agency says sea drones carried out Kerch Bridge attack

Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service has claimed responsibility for an attack on the Russian-built Kerch strait Bridge connecting Crimea to the mainland last month, saying it had been conducted by remotely controlled sea drones.

Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the agency, told CNN the drone, called “Sea Baby”, was developed internally and that two were packed with 850kg warheads when they exploded and damaged the road and rail bridge on 17 July. Two people were killed in the attack.

Syria bombardment resumes after ceasefire deal breaks down

The Syrian government and its closest military ally, Russia, have intensified their bombing campaign in the southern province of Deraa, after ceasefire deal between rebels and Russians broke down on Wednesday.

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said that had air raids intensified on Thursday as government troops advanced steadily to recapture lost territory.

'More than 90%' of Russian airstrikes in Syria have not targeted Isis, US says

A large majority of Russia’s military strikes in Syria have not been aimed at the Islamic State group or jihadists tied to al-Qaida, and have instead targeted the moderate Syrian opposition, the US State Department said on Wednesday.

“Greater than 90% of the strikes that we’ve seen them take to date have not been against Isil or al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists,” said spokesman John Kirby.

Deadly Airstrikes In Syria Hit Hospital Tied To Doctors Without Borders

Three died and six were wounded Friday when airstrikes in southern Syria hit a hospital supported by the international aid group Doctors Without Borders, the organization said Tuesday.

A nurse was among those wounded at the field hospital in Tafas, a town roughly 10 miles from the Jordanian border. The nighttime raid partially damaged the hospital building and took the "heavily used" ambulance service entirely out of commission, the group said.

Syria: Angela Merkel 'horrified' by suffering under Russian airstrikes

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has said she is “horrified” by the suffering caused by Russian bombing in Syria as pro-government forces backed by airstrikes came closer to encircling Aleppo.

Opposition activists and state media on Monday said Syrian army troops had taken the village of Kfeen, north of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, while rebel forces have also withdrawn under bombing from three Kurdish villages.

Arguments against Canada's bombing mission exist, but Trudeau hasn't uttered then

There are serious moral and strategic concerns about civilian deaths on the ground in Iraq and Syria. These lie at the heart of lively peace rallies in the UK over David Cameron's decision to participate in the coalition aerial bombing campaign against the forces of the Islamic State.

There has not been a similar upsurge of protesters on Canadian streets calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to keep his election promises and withdraw the six CF-18s from their current mission, which is entirely in Iraq. Canada has, up to now, stayed out of the Syrian portion of the campaign.

Did Harjit Sajjan read his mandate letter?

In Justin Trudeau's mandate letter to defense minister Harjit Sajjan he ordered him to "end Canada's combat mission in Iraq and Syria." But as former defense minister Jason Kenney, who has bravely served this country as a four-star collector of World War II paraphernalia, pointed out with this graphicon Twitter, our airstrikes continue. 

France Bombs ISIS Headquarters In Syria

French warplanes pounded Islamic State positions in Syria on Sunday as police in Europe widened their investigations into coordinated attacks in Paris that killed more than 130 people.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for Friday's suicide bombings and shootings, which have re-ignited a row over Europe's refugee crisis and drawn calls to block a huge influx of Muslim asylum-seekers.

Pace of Canadian airstrikes against ISIL picks up despite Trudeau’s vow to end mission

The pace of Canada’s aerial bombardments against ISIL has picked up since Justin Trudeau became prime minister, a curious scenario given his campaign pledge to withdraw from the U.S.-led mission in Iraq and Syria.

Since Trudeau’s swearing-in five days ago on Nov. 4, Canada’s CF-18 jets conducted five airstrikes, hitting seven targets identified as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant assets, according to information from the Department of National Defence.

There were 14 airstrikes in all of October, 10 in September and 11 in August. The busiest the CF-18 crews have been recently was in July, when there were six airstrikes in a five-day period.

Critics are calling Trudeau's Syrian withdrawal 'un-Liberal.' And they're right.

Right-wing commentators are calling Justin Trudeau's decision to withdraw fighter jets from Syria-Iraq "un-Liberal" and unfortunately they're right.

But, by citing the Liberal sponsored Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to justify Canadian participation in the U.S.-led bombing, these pundits are revealing the essence of this "humanitarian imperialist" doctrine.

Last week senior Maclean's writer Michael Petrou called on Trudeau to rethink his commitment to stop Canadian bombing raids, writing "reasons for confronting Islamic State with force are decidedly Liberal. Your party pioneered the notion of 'responsibility to protect'." For his part, National Post columnist Matt Gurney bemoaned how "the Liberal Party of Canada once championed, at least with words, the so-called Responsibility to Protect doctrine."

Justin Trudeau Tells Obama He Plans To Wind Down Mideast Combat

WASHINGTON — Justin Trudeau's first-day foray into international relations included informing the U.S. president that he'll carry out his campaign promise to withdraw from Canada's combat mission in the Middle East.

Without offering details on the timing of the bombing-mission scaledown or what role Canada might play next, Trudeau said the country would remain involved in other aspects of the fight against Islamist rebels.

Russian Air Assault Hits Rebels, Helps Assad Regain Lost Ground

SOCHI, Russia/AMMAN, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Russian war planes pounded Syrian rebels unaffiliated with Islamic State on Sunday, insurgents said, helping Moscow's ally Bashar al-Assad reclaim territory and dealing a fresh setback to the strategy of Washington and its allies.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the 4-year-old conflict, said the Syrian military and its Lebanese Hezbollah militia allies had taken control of Tal Skik, a highland area in Idlib province, after fierce Russian bombing.

ISIS Makes Gains in Syria Territory Bombed by Russia

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Islamic State registered significant gains on Friday in the area of northwestern Syria that Russian warplanes have been bombing, taking six villages near Aleppo and threatening to cut off an important route north to the Turkish border. Late in the day, there were reports that rebels had reasserted control in one village.

The Kremlin has said its military had entered Syria to fight the Islamic State, but the Russian forces have concentrated much of their firepower on insurgent groups aligned against President Bashar al-Assad, including the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, and relatively secular groups like the Free Syrian Army. Rival insurgents say that the Islamic State, also called ISIS or Daesh, is taking advantage.