Police in Australia have arrested a 15-year-old boy over a knife attack on a bishop and his followers at an Orthodox Assyrian church in Sydney, declaring the assault a “terrorist” act motivated by suspected religious extremism. The attack, which took place as a service at Christ The Good Shepherd Church and was being livestreamed on Monday evening, wounded Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and a priest. Both are expected to survive. Police arrested the teenager at the scene and were forced to hold him at the church for his own safety as an angry crowd of the bishop’s followers gathered outside. The crowd went on to clash with the police for more than three hours, demanding that the attacker be handed over to them. Emergency crews said they treated 30 people for riot-related injuries. New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, said the suspect’s comments pointed to a religious motive for the attack. “We’ll allege there’s a degree of premeditation on the basis that this person has travelled to that location, which is not near his residential address, he has travelled with a knife and subsequently the bishop and the priest have been stabbed,” Webb said. “They’re lucky to be alive.” She added, “After consideration of all the material, I declared that it was a terrorist incident.” The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the nation’s main domestic spy agency, and Australian Federal Police have joined state police in a counterterrorism task force to investigate whether anyone else was involved. Mike Burgess, the director-general of ASIO, in rare public comments said that the boy appeared to have acted alone and there was no immediate need to raise the country’s terror threat level. Police officers hospitalised after riot The church in a message on social media said the bishop and priest were in stable condition and asked for people’s prayers. “It is the bishop’s and father’s wishes that you also pray for the perpetrator,” it added. Bishop Emmanuel has a significant following online with his livestreamed sermons attracting a global audience and his video clips racking up hundreds of thousands of views. He became well known for his hardline views during the COVID pandemic when he described lockdowns as “mass slavery”, media reported at the time. During Monday’s service, worshippers watched in horror as a person in black clothes approached the altar and stabbed the bishop and priest Isaac Royel. Police said the congregation overpowered the suspect after the attack. A crowd of hundreds seeking revenge gathered outside the church later, hurling bricks and bottles, wounding police officers and preventing them from taking the teen outside, officials said. He was only brought out after more than 100 police reinforcements arrived at the church. Acting Assistant Police Commissioner Andrew Holland said the teen suspect and at least two police officers were admitted to hospital. When asked if the teen’s fingers had been severed, he said the hand injuries were “severe”. Several police vehicles were also damaged, he said. “A number of houses have been damaged. They’ve broken into a number of houses to gain weapons to throw at the police. They’ve thrown weapons and items at the church itself. There were obviously people who wanted to get access to the young person who caused the injuries to the clergy people,” he said. Responding to the attack, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, “There is no place for violence in our community. There’s no place for violent extremism.” He added, “We’re a peace-loving nation. This is a time to unite, not divide, as a community, and as a country.” The attack came two days after a man with a knife killed six people and wounded more than a dozen others at a shopping mall in Sydney’s Bondi Junction, before being shot dead by police. The attacker mostly targeted women. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns issued a joint statement with Christian and Muslim leaders calling for calm. “We’re calling on everyone to act with kindness and respect for each other”, the statement said. “Now is the time to show that we are strong and united.” Minns, speaking at a news conference later, also urged people to not take the law into their hands after the attack on police. “You will be met by the full force of the law if there’s any attempt for tit-for-tat violence in Sydney over the coming days,” he said. Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/16/knife-attack-at-church-in-australias-sydney-a-terrorist-act-police-say

Source: https://aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/16/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-vows-response-to-iran

ISLAMABAD: The two Pakistanis, who were stranded on a ship seized by the Iranian forces, will be released after the confirmation of their nationalities and completion of legal formalities.  Speaking to Geo News, Iranian envoy to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moqadam, said that they were waiting for the confirmation of the presence of Pakistani nationals on the ship. The diplomat confirmed that the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran has shared the details with higher officials in Tehran. “If there’s a Pakistani on the ship, we will free the national after completing legal formalities considering brotherly ties,” Moqadam said. On Sunday, the Foreign Office had taken up the matter with Iranian authorities in Islamabad and shared details with them, sources told the TV channel. The development came after the family of the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Israel-linked container ship seized by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) asked the government of Pakistan for help. Family seeks Pakistani govt help Family sources told Geo News that there are two Pakistanis who were on the ship seized by the Iranian forces and one of them is Muhammad Adnan Aziz —the COO of the Portugal-flagged MSC Aries. His family lives in Karachi and Azad Kashmir and some of his relatives live in London who shared their worries with the media. They confirmed that Aziz, along with another Pakistani, was on the ship seized by Iran’s forces. “We approached the Foreign Office seeking help for the safe return of Muhammad Adnan Aziz as soon as possible. The FO has assured us of all help. We understand that the matter has been taken up with the Iranian authorities already.” The family members said they were shocked after learning that Iran had seized the ship near the Strait of Hormuz amid rising tensions across the region after a deadly Israeli attack on Iran’s consulate in Syria. They clarified that Aziz had nothing to do with the ownership of the ship or the regional issues. “He was just doing his job as a professional and was seized. We want his release and return,” shared the family members. The ship was commandeered by the IRGC, the elite force that lost seven members, including two generals, in the Syria strike. “The ship has now been guided towards the territorial waters of our country,” state-run IRNA reported. Who owns the vessel? The vessel — identified as the Portugal-flagged MSC Aries — had departed from a port in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) en route to India. It is associated with the London-based Zodiac Maritime, a part of the Zodiac Group run by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer and his family. White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the ship’s crew comprised of Indian, Filipino, Pakistani, Russian, and Estonian nationals, and pushed back against the vessel’s seizure. Footage from the deck of the vessel showed soldiers rappelling down from a helicopter. The helicopter appeared to be a Soviet-designed Mil Mi-17, which is operated by the naval forces of the IRGC. Zodiac Maritime said in a statement that MSC, an Italian-Swiss shipping group, was responsible for all vessel activities. MSC confirmed there were 25 crew members on board the ship, adding in a statement that it is “working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure their wellbeing, and safe return of the vessel”. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) had said a vessel was seized by “regional authorities” 50 nautical miles (92km) northeast of the UAE’s Fujairah in a waterway vital to world trade. Source: https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1178575-pakistanis-stranded-on-ship-seized-by-iranian-forces-to-be-released

Fighting Politics and diplomacy Weapons Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/15/russia-ukraine-war-list-of-key-events-day-781

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/15/israels-war-on-gaza-live-five-killed-in-nuseirat-as-israel-strikes-camps

The CCTV footage of the incident showed the veiled woman walking down the deserted street when suddenly a man comes running from behind and harasses the woman. Another incident of harassing a woman walking down the street has surfaced in Karachi. In the area of Old Golimar, a man sexually harassed a veiled woman walking down the street. When the woman resisted, the culprit fled. The CCTV footage of the incident showed the veiled woman walking down the deserted street when suddenly a man comes running from behind and harasses the woman. The man approached the woman from behind and cornered her. After harassing the woman, he quickly escaped from the scene. The police arrested the suspect, identified as Raza, with the help of CCTV footage. During the initial interrogation, the suspect confessed to his crime. Source: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1175759-man-held-for-sexually-harassing-woman-in-golimar

A 4.8 magnitude earthquake rattled the northeastern US Friday morning, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, sending tremors along the Atlantic coast between Boston and Philadelphia. The quake’s epicentre was about 45 miles (72km) west of New York City in Lebanon, New Jersey, rocking buildings in densely populated Manhattan and throughout the five boroughs. As many as 45 million people may have felt the shocks, according to the USGS. Still, no casualties or major structural damage were immediately reported after the 10:23am local time (14:23 GMT) earthquake, according to the New York City Fire Department. In a post on the social media platform X, the New York City mayor’s office said it was still “assessing the impact”. Authorities were scheduled to hold a news conference at 12pm local (16:00 GMT) to provide updates. Meanwhile, the NYC Emergency Management agency urged anyone “in danger” to call the emergency 911 number, and to report any other non-emergency impacts to the city’s services hotline. A spokesman for NYC Public Schools said that teams were assessing school building facilities out of “an abundance of caution”. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it was temporarily closing the Holland Tunnel, an arterial commuter route connecting New Jersey and Manhattan, for inspection. Some flights bound for New York were also diverted to other airports, according to the tracking website FlightAware. Residents of the city reported feeling their buildings shake for several minutes. “I noticed the door trembling on its frame,” India Hays, a barista in lower Manhattan, told The Associated Press news agency. “I thought surely there couldn’t be an earthquake here.” Charita Walcott, a 38-year-old resident in the Bronx borough, said the quake felt “like a violent rumble that lasted about 30 seconds or so.” “It was kind of like being in a drum circle, that vibration,” she told the Reuters news agency. At the United Nations in midtown Manhattan, Save the Children CEO Inger Ashing abruptly stopped an address to the Security Council on the war in Gaza. “You’re making the ground shake,” Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour quipped. People in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Connecticut and other areas of the Northeast also reported feeling the quake, with tremors lasting for several seconds felt more than 200 miles (322km) away near the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border. In a post on X, New York governor Kathy Hochul said she had been in touch with the White House, which said that President Joe Biden had also been briefed.Play Video For its part, the USGS noted that “earthquakes are uncommon but not unheard of along the Atlantic Coast”. There is no active tectonic plate boundary along the coast, “but there are stresses,” it said in a post on X. The earthquake evoked memories of an August 23, 2011, earthquake that jolted tens of millions of people along the Atlantic coast from Georgia to Canada. That earthquake registered at a magnitude 5.8 and was the strongest to hit the East Coast since World War II. The epicentre of that earthquake was in Virginia. It left cracks in the Washington Monument, spurred the evacuation of the White House and the US Capitol and rattled New Yorkers. Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/5/violent-rumble-4-8-magnitude-earthquake-rattles-new-york-city-northeast

The ongoing investigation into suspected anthrax-laced letters sent to judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and Supreme Court has hit a brick wall after investigators discovered that the majority of CCTV cameras surrounding the post boxes in which the envelopes were likely deposited were non-functional, it was revealed on Thursday. On March 3, just a day after the Supreme Court of Pakistan took suo motu notice over the allegations of six IHC judges against intelligence agencies, the IHC chief justice among eight judges received suspected letters. The CTD team is racing against time to collect facts and ascertain the chemical nature of the powdery substance after the eight IHC judges received “letters containing suspected anthrax powder along with a threatening message”. According to sources, the case of suspicious letters is being investigated by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Islamabad police and a report on the progress made so far has been communicated to the Registrars of the Supreme Court and the IHC. Sources indicate that an examination of post boxes located within Satellite Town, Rawalpindi, is ongoing, with many CCTV cameras surrounding the post boxes found to be inoperative. Islamabad police have expanded the scope of the investigation using alternative means, including questioning individuals working in shops and offices in the area of post boxes. Furthermore, all staff at the Satellite Town, Rawalpindi post office have been included in the inspection. According to sources, the letters were sent by a woman named Resham without mentioning her address. They added that a staffer of a judge accidentally dropped the envelope containing the suspicious powdery substance and later felt extreme irritation in their eyes and burns on the skin around his lips. Following the incident, Islamabad Inspector General (IG) and Deputy Inspector General (DIG) police were summoned to the IHC. All the suspicious letters were handed over to the police for further investigation. It is noteworthy that initially, eight judges of the Islamabad High Court received suspicious letter, later judges of the Lahore High Court and even judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan also got similar mail. Source: https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1175631-anthrax-letters-probe-hits-brick-wall-as-cctv-cams-near-post-boxes-found-faulty

At least 11 Iranian security force members have been killed in an attack on an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) headquarters in the southeastern border province of Sistan-Baluchestan, state media reported. In the ensuing overnight clashes with security forces, 16 members of Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) – a Sunni armed group – were killed, Iranian state TV reported on Thursday. The attack took place in the towns of Chabahar and Rask in Sistan-Baluchestan which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan. Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari said it was one of the deadliest attacks carried out by Jaish al-Adl. “Gunmen stormed various security and military compounds simultaneously … and they also had suicide vests on,” Jabbari said, adding that the fighting continued for several hours. “The terrorists failed to succeed in achieving their goal of seizing the Guards headquarters in Chabahar and Rask,” Deputy Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi told state TV. Ten security officers were injured in the fighting in the impoverished region, which has a predominantly Sunni Muslim population.Play Video Jabbari said the attack took place at a very “critical time” for Iran, coming days after its consulate in Damascus, Syria, was hit in a suspected Israeli missile strike for which Iran pledged revenge. Brigadier-General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the IRGC’s Quds Force, and his deputy, General Mohammad Hadi Hajriahimi, were killed in Monday’s attack. “Many questions will be asked about how this attack was able to be carried out at this time,” Jabbari said. Jaish al-Adl was formed in 2012 and is blacklisted by Iran as a “terror” group. The group claimed responsibility for an attack in December that killed 11 officers, one of the deadliest assaults in years, at a police station in Sistan-Baluchestan’s city of Rask, about 1,400km (875 miles) southwest of the capital, Tehran. It also said it was behind a strike on a police station in Rask that killed one officer on January 10. Later that month, Iran struck two bases of the group in Pakistan with missiles, prompting a rapid military riposte from Islamabad targeting what it said were separatist armed rebels in Iran. Jaish al-Adl says it seeks greater rights and better living conditions for ethnic minority Baluchis in Shia-dominated Iran. It has claimed responsibility for several attacks in recent years on Iranian security forces in Sistan-Baluchestan. The area has long been plagued by unrest and the site of frequent clashes between Iranian security forces and Sunni fighters, as well as drug traffickers. Iran is a key transit route for narcotics smuggled from Afghanistan to the West and elsewhere. Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/4/at-least-11-killed-in-attack-on-irans-irgc-in-border-province-state-media