Two people have died and at least eight have been injured after a bomb exploded near a major airport in Pakistan.
The attack targeted a convoy with Chinese nationals outside Karachi Airport – Pakistan‘s largest airport – on Sunday night.
Two Chinese workers were killed and one was injured, the country’s embassy in Islamabad said. Police officers escorting the convoy were also among the wounded, authorities said.
Image: Pic: AP
Pakistani separatist militant group, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), claimed responsibility for the explosion.
A spokesperson said one of their suicide bombers targeted the convoy of Chinese engineers and investors as they left the airport.
The Chinese embassy said the convoy was carrying Chinese staff working at the Port Qasim Electric Power Company – a coal-powered plant that is a joint China-Pakistan venture.
Footage of the blast showed flames engulfing cars and a thick column of smoke rising from the scene.
Rahat Hussain, who works in the civil aviation department, said the explosion was so big it shook the buildings of the airport.
Pakistani authorities initially gave conflicting details and indicated the explosion may have been from an oil tanker but police later confirmed it was a bomb attack.
Counterterrorism officials said on Monday they were investigating how the attacker reached Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city.
Image: A member of the Airport Security Force stands guard. Pic: Reuters
Image: Pic: AP
The BLA seeks independence for the province of Balochistan, located in the southwest of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and Iran.
It specifically targets Chinese interests, including the thousands of Chinese workers in Pakistan, many of whom are involved in Beijing’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, building major projects to connect south and central Asia with the Chinese capital.
The oil and mineral-rich Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but also the least populated province. It is a hub for the country’s ethnic Baloch minority whose members say they face discrimination and exploitation by the central government.
That has fuelled a separatist insurgency demanding independence. Islamic militants also operate in the province.
Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs denounced the bombing, saying it was a “heinous terrorist attack”.
“We extend our deepest condolences and sympathies to the families of the victims, both Chinese and Pakistani, and offer prayers for the swift recovery of the injured,” said the ministry in a statement.
“We remain resolute in bringing to justice those responsible for this cowardly attack,” it added.
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Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif said he was shocked and saddened by the attack. He said the attackers were “enemies of Pakistan” and promised the perpetrators would be punished.
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Image: Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
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They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
Yemen’s Houthi rebel group has said 15 people have been injured in “US-British” airstrikes in and around the capital Sanaa.
Most of those hurt were from the Shuub district, near the centre of the city, a statement from the health ministry said.
Another person was injured on the main airport road, the statement added.
It comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” following a missile attack by the group on Israel’s main international airport on Sunday morning.
It remains unclear whether the UK took part in the latest strikes and any role it may have played.
On 29 April, UK forces, the British government said, took part in a joint strike on “a Houthi military target in Yemen”.
“Careful intelligence analysis identified a cluster of buildings, used by the Houthis to manufacture drones of the type used to attack ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, located some fifteen miles south of Sanaa,” the British Ministry of Defence said in a previous statement.
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On Sunday, the militant group fired a missile at the Ben Gurion Airport, sparking panic among passengers in the terminal building.
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly caused flights to be halted.
Four people were said to be injured, according to the country’s paramedic service.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Image: Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
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Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.