The US is on high alert over the possibility of significant retaliation from Iran following a deadly airstrike in Syria, according to American officials.
It comes after the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard vowed “our brave men will punish the Zionist regime” after an airstrike on a building next to Iran’s embassy in Damascus killed seven members of the group on Monday.
Tehran has blamed Israel for the strike, though the Israeli military has refused to comment either to confirm or deny involvement.
US officials have said they are now concerned that Iran may be planning to hit targets inside Israel in retaliation, sparking another expansion of hostilities in the Middle East.
Speaking to NBC News – the US partner of Sky News – on condition of anonymity, two officials said any retaliation inside Israel was likely to focus on military or intelligence targets rather than civilians.
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2:48
From Monday: Iran blames Israel for deadly strike
One official said that Washington received a message from Iran following the strike, and “made clear” to Tehran in response that “we were not behind the strike”.
“We also warned Iran to not use the strike as a pretext to further escalate in the region or attack US facilities or personnel,” they added.
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The two officials also told NBC News that Iran could carry out an attack using a swarm of drones or land-attack cruise missiles against an Israeli diplomatic or consular facility.
Another official separately told CNN that “we’re definitely at a high state of vigilance” over the threat of retaliation.
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Iran said Monday’s strike targeted a consular building and therefore was considered an attack on Iran itself.
It said seven Iranian military advisers died in the attack, including Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in its Quds Force, which is an elite foreign espionage and paramilitary arm.
Image: Mohammad Reza Zahedi and several other top Iranian military officials were killed in the strike in Damascus. Pic: Reuters
Image: The US officials are concerned retaliation from Iran could lead to a further escalation of conflict in the Middle East
On Thursday, the White House said US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the threat from Iran in a phone call.
“Our teams have been in regular and continuous contact since then. The United States fully supports the defence of Israel against threats from Iran,” a senior Biden administration official said.
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Mohammad Jamshidi, a top aide to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, said on Friday that Tehran sent a message warning the US not to get involved in the fight between Israel and Iran.
He wrote on X that, in response, the US asked Iran not to target American facilities.
However, a US spokesperson for the National Security Council said the reports were “simply wrong” and “Iranian spin”.
The biggest city in the Sahel has been ransacked and left in ruins.
War erupted in Sudan’s capital Khartoum in April 2023 and sent millions searching for safety.
The city was quickly captured by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) after a power struggle with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for total control.
At least 61,000 people were killed from the fighting and siege conditions in Khartoum state alone.
Thousands more were maimed and many remain missing.
The empty streets they left behind are lined with charred, bullet-ridden buildings and robbed store fronts.
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The once shiny skyscrapers built along the confluence of the River Nile are now husks of blackened steel.
The neighbourhoods are skeletal. Generational homes are deserted and hollow.
Image: Damage from fighting around Khartoum
Trenches snake the streets where copper electric cables were ripped out of the ground and pulled out of lampposts now overridden with weeds.
The majority of the 13 million people displaced by this war fled Khartoum. Many left in a rush, assuming it would only take a few weeks for peace to be restored.
My parents were among those millions and in the midst of the abandoned, looted homes is the house where I grew up.
Image: Yousra Elbagir’s family home was left in ruins by RSF troops
Image: Yousra said it was likely a bomb had previously fallen nearby and shaken the house at its base
A shell of a home
I have to strain my eyes to see the turn to my house. All the usual markers are gone. There are no gatherings of young people drinking coffee with tea ladies in the leafy shade – just gaping billboard frames that once held up advertisements behind cars of courting couples parked by the Nile.
Our garden is both overgrown and dried to death.
The mango, lemon and jasmine trees carefully planted by my mother and brother have withered.
Image: Structural damage to the outside of the home
The Bougainvillea has reached over the pathway and blocked off the main entrance. We go through the small black side door.
Our family car is no longer in the garage, forcing us to walk around it.
It was stolen shortly after my parents evacuated.
The two chairs my mum and dad would sit at the centre of the front lawn are still there, but surrounded by thorny weeds and twisted, bleached vines.
Image: How the home looked before Sudan’s war
Image: And how it looks now
The neighbour’s once lush garden is barren too.
Their tall palm trees at the front of the house have been beheaded – rounding off into a greyish stump instead of lush fronds.
Everyone in Khartoum is coming back to a game of Russian roulette. Searching out their houses to confirm suspicions of whether it was blasted, burned or punctured with bullets.
Many homes were looted and bruised by nearby combat but some are still standing. Others have been completely destroyed.
Image: How the home looked before the war
Image: And how it looks now
The outside of our house looks smooth from the street but has a crack in the base of the front wall visible from up close.
It is likely a bomb fell nearby and shook the house at its base – a reminder of the airstrikes and shelling that my parents and their neighbours fled.
Inside, the damage is choking.
Most of the furniture has been taken except a few lone couches.
The carpets and curtains have been stripped. The electrical panels and wiring pulled out. The appliances, dishes, glasses and spices snatched from the kitchens.
Image: Yousra shows her mother pictures found in the home
The walls are bare apart from the few items they decided to spare. Ceilings have been punctured and cushions torn open in their hunt for hidden gold.
The walls are marked with the names of RSF troops that came in and out of this house like it was their own.
The home that has been the centre of our life in Sudan is a shell.
Image: Sudan’s war has left the country fractured
Glimmers of hope
The picture of sheer wreckage settles and signs of familiarity come into focus.
A family photo album that is 20 years old.
The rocking chair my mother cradled me and my sister in. My university certificate.
Image: Yousra finds her university certificate in the wreckage
Celebratory snaps of my siblings’ weddings. Books my brother has had since the early nineties.
The painting above my bed that I have pined over during the two years – custom-made and gifted to me for my 24th birthday and signed by my family on the back.
There are signs of dirt and damage on all these items our looters discarded but it is enough.
Image: Yousra’s parents pictured at home before they fled Khartoum
Evidence of material destruction but a reminder of what we can hope will endure.
The spirit of the people that gathered to laugh, cry and break bread in these rooms.
Image: A portrait of Yousra’s grandmother damaged by RSF troops
The hospitality and warmth of a Sudanese home with an open door.
The community and sense of togetherness that can never truly be robbed.
What remains in our hearts and our city is a sign of what will get us through.
A few days later, I spoke to Mr Zelenskyy in person when he confided to me that maybe he would have to step down if NATO could guarantee Ukraine membership – a man who perhaps sensed he could never win against a hostile Mr Trump.
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5:07
Sky News meets Zelenskyy: The key moments
Yet, fast-forward to last weekend in Rome, and an iconic picture of the two men in close conversation at the Pope’s funeral.
This time round, it is Russian President Vladimir Putin on the receiving end of the presidential anger, blaming him for the fact that “too many people are dying!”
Image: Trump and Zelenskyy talk in the Vatican. Pic: AP
To Trump’s supporters, this is the smart negotiator, constantly repositioning himself as new information comes in, prior to pulling off a spectacular deal.
To his many detractors, it indicates a dangerous incoherence that is replicated in other key areas, including tariffs as well as his relationship with his allies in Europe and his foes in Beijing.
Flexible or fallible; in control or all at sea? In the fast and furious world of Donald Trump, it’s almost impossible to call.
The only constants are his unwavering self-belief, or as the man himself says: “I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I’m after.”
A paramedic in Gaza who was detained for more than five weeks following an Israeli attack that killed 15 aid workers has been released, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said.
Asaad al Nsasrah was one of 17 aid workers who were attacked in Tel al Sultan in southern Gaza by Israeli forces on 23 March.
Asaad was one of two first responders who survived – the other 15 were killed.
He was initially thought to be missing, as his body was not among the dead. It was not until 13 April, three weeks after the attack, that Israel confirmed Asaad was alive and in Israeli detention.
The PRCS announced Asaad’s release on X and shared a video of him reuniting with colleagues.
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Sky News has seen images showing Asaad, among other released Palestinians, in a grey tracksuit at al Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, where he is undergoing medical examination, according to the PRCS.
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19:54
How two hours of terror unfolded
The PRCS claimed the Israeli military’s investigation was “full of lies”.
Asaad’s voice can be heard in a video, initially published by the New York Times, that shows the moments leading up to the attack on the aid workers.
The video was discovered on Rifaat Radwaan’s phone, which was found on his body by rescue workers five days after the attack.
Among those killed were one UN worker, eight paramedics from the PRCS and six first responders from Civil Defence – the official fire and rescue service of Gaza’s Hamas-led government.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.