Toddler who washed up in Norway is boy who drowned in Channel crossing

Published

4 years ago

June 7, 2021

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Police say a toddler’s body that washed up on the Norwegian coast on New Year’s Day is that of a boy who died along with his family as they attempted to cross the Channel.

The child has been identified as Artin Irannezhad, who was 15 months old when he drowned with his parents and two older siblings.

The Kurdish-Iranian family died when their migrant boat capsized in October while trying to cross from France to the UK.

Rasoul Iran-Nejad and his wife Shiva Mohammed Panahi, both 35, drowned along with their three children, including Anita, who was nine, and six-year-old Armin.

The body of Artin, who was wearing a blue overall and life jacket, was not found at the time and drifted across the North Sea to Norway.

His remains washed up in the municipality of Karmoey in the southwest of the country – more than two months after the tragedy.

Police were able to confirm the toddler’s identity by matching his DNA with a relative close enough in lineage who happens to live in Norway.

Camilla Tjelle Waage, head of investigations at the sheriff’s office in Karmoey, confirmed: “The boy who was found is Artin Irannezhad.

“He is of Iranian origin and disappeared during a shipwreck in the English Channel off the coast of France on 27 October.

“Both parents died, as well as Artin’s two older siblings who were found dead after the shipwreck. The rest of the family have been notified.”

She added: “This story is tragic, but at least it’s good to be able to give the relatives an answer.”

Following the sinking, a refugee who said he knew the family claimed he had warned them not to undertake the journey because of bad weather.

Choman Manish said he spoke to them most days at their makeshift home in a camp on the outskirts of Dunkirk, France.

The 37-year-old Kurd, from Iraq, told Sky News they were a “beautiful friendly family”.

Mr Manish said: “I’m really so sad because I know this family. I advised them, please don’t go by boat, it’s not good and a really bad situation if you stay in the water.

“I said, it will be bad for you. They told me God is big. I know God is big, but what can I do?

“I told them many times, but they never accepted my word… they trusted in God, they think God will protect them.”

Fifteen people were rescued following the sinking.

Thousands of migrants attempt to cross into Europe each year by land and sea from North Africa, the Middle East and beyond in search of a better life.

They often taking huge risks and pay large amounts to people smugglers.

World

Hundreds of thousands in Gaza ‘catastrophically food insecure’, says aid chief

Published

46 mins ago

June 5, 2025

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Hundreds of thousands in Gaza 'catastrophically food insecure', says aid chief

Humanitarian aid must be allowed into Gaza “at scale” by Israel to avoid a “generation of children that won’t have a chance in life,” the director of the UN’s World Food Programme has told Sky News.

In early March – before Israel resumed its military operations in the Gaza Strip – all aid was blocked from entering the region.

Despite limited aid now being distributed to Gaza through a US and Israeli-backed organisation, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire near one of the sites.

Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), has urged Israel to allow international aid to “get in and get in at scale”.

“We can’t wait for this,” she told The World with Yalda Hakim. “We need safe, unfettered, clear access all the way in and we’re not getting that right now.”

Ms McCain said people in Gaza were “starving, they’re hungry, they’re doing what they can do to feed their families”.

She added: “It’s very, very important that people realise that the only way to stave off malnutrition, catastrophic food insecurity and, of course, famine would be by complete and total access for organisations like mine.”

Ms McCain said the WFP team was “talking every day” to the Israeli government to try to resume aid deliveries.

“We’re not going to give up, we do believe that it’s not only necessary but it’s urgent that we get in and get in at scale,” she said.

“We’re looking at a generation of children that won’t have a chance in life because they haven’t had the proper nutrients.

“Right now, we’re looking at over 500,000 people within Gaza that are catastrophically food insecure.”

Ms McCain added: “I try and put myself in their situation: I’m a mother and grandmother, and I cannot imagine having my children ask me for food and me not being able to give it them.

“I don’t know what that does to a human spirit but I don’t want to see any more of that as a humanitarian aid worker.”

Ms McCain, the widow of the late US presidential candidate John McCain, said she believes in “principled, humanitarian distribution” of aid.

Asked if she thought Hamas was taking aid, she replied: “I have not seen anything like that. I have no way of knowing because I’ve not been there in person.”

Aid distribution centres in Gaza were closed on Wednesday after Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli gunfire near one of its sites.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – which is endorsed by Israel – said the centres would be shut “for renovations, organisation, and efficiency improvements”. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) warned nearby roads would be considered “combat zones”.

It came after 27 Palestinians were killed while waiting for aid to be distributed in the Rafah area of southern Gaza on Tuesday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The IDF said it fired “near a few individual suspects” who left the designated route, approached its forces and ignored warning shots, about half a kilometre from the aid distribution site of the GHF. It denied shooting at civilians at the aid centre.

That incident came two days after reports that 31 people were killed as they walked to a distribution centre run by the GHF in the Rafah area.

However the IDF said its forces “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site and that reports to this effect are false”.

World

Why Putin is in ‘victim mode’ over Ukraine’s airbase drone attack

Published

2 hours ago

June 4, 2025

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Why Putin is in 'victim mode' over Ukraine's airbase drone attack

It’s only been ten days since Donald Trump called Vladimir Putin crazy following a series of Russian attacks on Ukraine.

But now the attacks have been flowing in the opposite direction, it feels like the Russian president has seen an opportunity to win back Washington’s affections.

It involves playing the victim.

Ukraine war latest: Putin wants revenge for airbase attacks, says Trump

The Kremlin, for example, said the leaders’ call was focussed on Ukrainian attacks “on Russian civilians”.

And before it, Putin accused Ukraine’s leadership of being a “terrorist organisation”, in his first comments since the spate of assaults began.

He was referring to Saturday’s bombing of a highway bridge in the Bryansk region, which left seven dead and dozens injured after part of a passenger train was crushed.

No one has claimed responsibility but Russia blames Ukraine.

“The current Kyiv regime does not need peace at all,” said President Putin.

“What is there to talk about? How can we negotiate with those who rely on terror?”

It’s exactly what Ukraine has been saying about Russia for the last three years, but there was no mention of that. The Kremlin is in full-on victim mode.

The aim, I think, is to turn the tables on Ukraine, cast itself as the injured party and make Donald Trump believe that Russia has a right to respond to the drone attack on its long-range bombers.

The tactic may well have worked.

“President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,” Trump wrote on social media after the call.

Did he try to talk Putin out of responding? We don’t know, but it doesn’t sound like it. If anything, Trump actually announced Russia’s retaliation himself.

And even though Putin discussed the drone attack with Trump, he still hasn’t commented on it in public – four days on.

Russia wants to be seen as the victim, but it doesn’t want to look weak, so an embarrassing episode like that is kept out of the headlines.

World

Putin ‘very strongly’ vowed revenge against Ukraine for drone strike on airbases, Donald Trump says

Published

3 hours ago

June 4, 2025

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Putin 'very strongly' vowed revenge against Ukraine for drone strike on airbases, Donald Trump says

Donald Trump has said Vladimir Putin “very stongly” told him he “will have to respond” to Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russia’s airfields.

More than a hundred Ukrainian drones were deployed inside Russia over the weekend, destroying more than 40 warplanes in an attack Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “will undoubtedly be in history books”.

Posting on Truth Social on Wednesday, the US president said that he discussed the attack with Mr Putin during an hour and 15 minute long phone call.

“It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace,” he wrote after their first call since 19 May.

“President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.”

Read our Q&A: Would Putin go nuclear after Ukraine’s daring attacks?

The Russian president’s foreign affairs adviser added Mr Trump told Mr Putin that the US did not have advance notice of the operation.

Analysis: Putin is playing the victim to get the US back onside

An aide to Mr Putin also told reporters that they vowed to stay in constant contact, with the Russian president telling Mr Trump that recent talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Istanbul were useful.

The US president added that he and Mr Putin also discussed “the fact that time is running out on Iran’s decision pertaining to nuclear weapons, which must be made quickly,” before accusing Tehran of “slow-walking their decision”.

Russia ‘giving the finger’ – Zelenskyy

Later, Mr Zelenskyy, in a social media post, called for more pressure on Russia to end the war, saying: “Many have spoken with Russia at various levels.

“But none of these talks have brought a reliable peace, or even stopped the war. Unfortunately, Putin feels impunity.”

The Ukrainian leader added that “with every new strike, with every delay of diplomacy, Russia is giving the finger to the entire world – to all those who still hesitate to increase pressure on it”.

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It comes after Russia’s foreign minister claimed that Mr Zelenskyy refused a proposal for a pause lasting two to three days to pick up the bodies of dead servicemen.