Pope's Africa trip spotlights conflict, and church's future - The Associated Press

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Pope Francis began a six-day visit to Congo and South Sudan on Tuesday, aiming to bring a message of peace to two countries riven by poverty, conflict and what Francis has called a lingering “colonialist mentality” that still considers Africa ripe for exploitation.

Francis landed at Kinshasa’s airport and was greeted by tens of thousands of Congolese who lined the main road into the city, some standing three or four deep, with children in school uniforms taking the front row.

“The Pope is 86 years old but he came anyway. It is a sacrifice and the Congolese people will not forget it,” Sultan Ntambwe said as he waited for Francis’ arrival.

Aid groups are hoping Francis’ trip will shine a spotlight on two of the world’s forgotten conflicts and rekindle international attention on some of Africa’s worst humanitarian crises, amid donor fatigue and new aid priorities in Ukraine.

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But Francis’ trip will also bring him face-to-face with the future of the Catholic Church: Africa is one of the only places in the world where the Catholic flock is growing, in terms of practicing faithful as well as fresh vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

That makes his trip, his fifth to the African continent in his 10-year pontificate, all the more important as Francis seeks to make his mark on reshaping the church as a “field hospital for wounded souls” where all are welcome and poor people have a special pride of place.

“Yes, Africa is in turmoil and is also suffering from the invasion of exploiters,” Francis told The Associated Press in an interview last week. But he said the church can also learn from the continent and its people.

“We need to listen to their culture: dialogue, learn, talk, promote,” Francis said, suggesting that his message would differ from the scolding tone St. John Paul II used in 1980 and 1985 when he reminded Congolese priests and bishops of the need to stick to their celibacy vows.

Congo, Francis’ first stop, stands out as the African country with most Catholics hands down: Half of its 105 million people are Catholic, the country counts more than 6,000 priests, 10,000 nuns and more than 4,000 seminarians — 3.6% of the global total of young men studying for the priesthood.

Congolese faithful were flocking to Kinshasa for Francis’ main event, a Mass on Wednesday at Ndolo airport that is expected to draw as many as 2 million people in one of the biggest gatherings of its kind in Congo and one of Francis’ biggest Masses ever.

Banners emblazoned with the pope’s image carried messages including “Pope Francis, the city of Kinshasa welcomes you with joy.”

Jean-Louis Mopina, 47, said he walked about 45 minutes to Kinshasa’s airport before the pope’s arrival on Tuesday.

“He has come like a pilgrim sent by God,” Mopina said. “His blessing will give us peace in our hearts.”

Inniance Mukania, who traveled to Kinshasa from the Kolwezi diocese in southern Congo, marveled at the efforts undertaken by some of the faithful.

“There are people who chartered planes to come here because there were so many of them!” Mukania said.

On the eve of the pope’s visit, President Felix Tshisekedi met with foreign diplomats in Kinshasa and told them the visit was a sign of solidarity “particularly with the battered populations of the eastern part of the country, prey to acts of violence and intolerance that you are witnessing.”

The trip was originally scheduled for July, but was postponed because of Francis’ knee problems. It was also supposed to have included a stop in Goma, in eastern Congo, but the surrounding North Kivu region has been plagued by intense fighting between government troops and the M23 rebel group, as well as attacks by militants linked to the Islamic State group.

The fighting has displaced some 5.7 million people, a fifth of them last year alone, according to the World Food Program.

Instead, Francis will meet with a delegation of people from the east who will travel to Kinshasa for a private encounter at the Vatican embassy. The plan calls for them to participate in a ceremony jointly committing to forgive their assailants.

While the people of Goma were saddened that Francis won’t be visiting the east, “we hope with the visit that the pope can bring a message of peace to the people of Congo who need it,” said Providence Bireke, a Goma-based manager with AVSI, an Italian aid group active in the area.

The second leg of Francis’ trip will bring him to South Sudan, the world’s youngest country where continued fighting has hampered implementation of a 2018 peace deal to end a civil war. Francis first voiced his hope of visiting the majority Christian country in 2017, but security concerns prevented a visit and only contributed to worsening a humanitarian crisis that has displaced more than 2 million people.

The South Sudan stop also marks a novelty in the history of papal travel, in that Francis will be joined on the ground by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Rt. Rev. Iain Greenshields.

The aim of the three-way visit is to show a united Christian commitment to helping South Sudan make progress on the implementation of the 2018 accord. Francis presided over a similar joint initiative in 2019 in the Vatican when he famously got down on hands and knees and kissed the feet of South Sudan’s rival leaders, begging them to make peace.

Since then, progress on implementing the accord — in particular creating a unified army comprised of government forces and opposition fighters — has been “painfully slow,” said Paolo Impagliazzo of the Sant’Egidio Community, which has spearheaded an initiative to bring the groups that didn’t sign onto the 2018 accord into the process.

“The visit will bring hope to the people,” Impagliazzo said in an interview in Rome. “And I believe the visit will strengthen the churches — the Anglican Church, the Catholic Church, the local church — that are playing a critical role in bringing about peace and dialogue in South Sudan.”

___

Christina Malkia contributed to this report from Kinshasa.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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Blinken visit reaches new urgency as Israeli, Palestinian tensions boil - CNN

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in today’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, CNN’s three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here.

Jerusalem CNN  — 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Israel and the West Bank may have been in the works for weeks, but it couldn’t come at a more pressing time.

Both Palestinians and Israelis have suffered terrible bloodshed in the last few days, and fears are growing that the situation will spiral out of control. Thursday was the deadliest day for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in nearly two years, followed by a shooting near a Jerusalem synagogue Friday night, which Israel has deemed one of its worst terror attacks in recent years.

Even before the latest flare-up, the trip was expected to be prickly, as Blinken’s first visit to Israel since the installation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government – widely considered the most far-right and religious in Israeli history.

Now hope hinges on the arrival of the US top diplomat on Monday to help cool the rising temperatures on the ground.

Security coordination crisis

Aside from trying to calm the situation through dialogue, one of Blinken’s main priorities will likely be to try to restore crucially important security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).

The PA announced it was severing the coordination on Thursday, following a deadly Israeli military raid in the West Bank which killed 10 people, among them militants and at least one civilian woman, according to both Israeli and Palestinian officials. The US immediately said ending security cooperation was not “the right step to take at this moment.”

The coordination is seen by many Israeli and American officials as a vital part of maintaining some level of calm, as it involves sharing of intelligence on militant activity, and also links between Israeli and Palestinian security forces. Without that coordination, Israel may not be able to tell Palestinian security forces where and when they will be operating in the West Bank, which could lead to dangerous mistakes or clashes between the two.

But the PA has been under pressure for months to cut off the coordination, often seen by Palestinians as forcing them to do Israel’s bidding on occupied territory. It has taken such steps in the past, in 2020 severing coordination for six months when Israel announced ultimately unfulfilled plans to annex parts of the West Bank, and in 2017 briefly after Israeli police placed metal detectors at the entrances to the Haram Al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary, known to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem.

“This security coordination is both humiliating and ineffective,” Nour Odeh, a former spokeswoman for the PA, told CNN. “The PA right now is losing, not just losing control, but losing face. It has no money to pay salaries. It has no control, no ability to protect its citizens, and yet it is expected from the world to protect the occupier and coordinate with them.”

Retired Israeli Col. Michael Milshtein, former head of the Department for Palestinian Affairs in Israel Defense Intelligence, said he hopes Blinken will “leverage or pressure the PA to renew the security coordination,” adding that it would be even better if the “Egyptians and the Jordanians put their pressure on (PA President Mahmoud) Abbas.”

Milshtein said resuming security coordination would not only “reduce the general tension,” but send a signal to Palestinian militant groups that rival the PA.

“It’s also going to signal to other organizations, players like (militant groups) Hamas and Islamic Jihad, that there is no vacuum that they can get in and use it to promote their terror attacks. And that the old rules of the game are preserved,” he said.

But Odeh said pushing the Palestinians back toward coordination “won’t be an easy sell, because that will mean a loss… in the eyes of Palestinians.”

Pressure on Netanyahu

Blinken’s first stop is in Israel, where he will meet with Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials.

It’s during these meetings, both Milshtein and Odeh said, that Blinken should put the pressure on Netanyahu to resist the more extremist wings of his cabinet, some of whom have called for the dismantling of the PA, while others have called for the death penalty for those Israel accuses of terrorism.

The Israeli government, in response to two shooting attacks in Jerusalem that killed seven civilians and injured five, rolled out a series of measures including plans to demolish the homes of the attackers and drafting legislation to revoke Israeli identity cards and residency of families of those Israel has accused of terrorism, practices critics say are forms of collective punishment proscribed by international law.

“I know how complex is the current government, it’s not easy to promote strategy or promote even negotiations with the Palestinians. But in the end of the day, (Netanyahu) should understand that we’re standing between bad and worse alternatives,” Milshtein said.

Blinken should also demand Israel changes its policies toward the PA, Milshtein said, especially moves that negatively impact the economic health of the territories.

“I think that right now the PA is in a very fragile and very weak status, every punishment or economic punishment, will actually undermine and damage more the stability of the PA,” Milshtein said. “Although the PA causes a lot of problems to Israel… we have much more profits from the existence of the PA than from its vanishing.”

Odeh said Blinken needs to show Netanyahu that Israeli military operations in the West Bank, which have increased over the past year in response to a series of attacks targeting Israelis, are only making things worse. Last year was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and for Israelis, in nearly two decades.

“They can tell this government that this modus operandi doesn’t work. You can’t keep pushing Palestinians like that. You can’t have more than 30 Palestinians killed in less than a month [as has happened in January]. You can’t demolish homes – that will expel families – and [impose] collective punishment measures,” Odeh said.

“It won’t be long before Palestinians say, ‘You know what, we have to also organize and defend ourselves … nobody’s there to help us. So we’re going to do it ourselves.’ When you get there, nobody can put a lid on that,” Odeh said.

Hopes are not high that Blinken’s visit will dampen the smoldering embers in Israel and the Palestinian territories, especially as the Ramadan and Passover holidays approach, traditionally a period that has led to clashes in Jerusalem.

“Right now, the temperature, the atmosphere on the ground is very high. So you need only one spark to really bring a broad explosion,” Milshtein said.

Nic Robertson and Vasco Cotovio contributed to this report.

The digest

Iran summons Ukraine diplomat over comments on drone strike

Iran summoned Ukraine’s charge d’affaires in Tehran on Monday over his country’s comments on a drone strike on a military factory in the central Iranian province of Isfahan, according to state-backed Press TV. An adviser to Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy linked the incident directly to the war in Ukraine. “Explosive night in Iran,” Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted on Sunday. “Did warn you.”

• Background: Iran’s Ministry of Defense said that the Saturday attack took place using “small drones against a defense ministry industrial complex,” adding that there were no casualties and only “minor damage was sustained to the roof of the complex.” Russia on Monday condemned the strike and warned against “provocative” actions that could trigger an escalation in an already tense situation. Oil prices climbed on Monday.
• Why it matters: Ukraine accuses Iran of supplying hundreds of drones to Russia which are used to attack civilian targets in its cities. Iran has acknowledged sending drones to Russia but says they were sent before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year. Moscow denies its forces use Iranian drones in Ukraine, although many have been shot down and recovered there. US media outlets reported that US officials believe the attacks were carried out by Israel. CNN has not independently confirmed that information.

Qatar replaces Russia in three-way consortium exploring Lebanon’s offshore energy blocks

Oil companies TotalEnergies and Eni said Monday that they have transferred a 30% interest to QatarEnergy in two exploration blocks off the coast of Lebanon, Reuters reported, citing TotalEnergies chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanné. The three-way consortium deal is meant to provide TotalEnergies and Eni with a 35% interest each, with QatarEnergy holding the remaining 30% stake, which until last September belonged to Russia.

• Background: Lebanon first signed a consortium with TotalEnergies, Eni and Russia’s Novatek to begin exploration in 2017. But in September, Russia pulled out of the deal, leaving its share to the Lebanese government. A month later, Lebanon – which for years bickered with neighboring Israel over a long-disputed maritime border – finally signed a US-brokered deal with Israel to demarcate the area in the Mediterranean Sea that is believed to be rich in oil and gas.
• Why it matters: Lebanon hopes that discoveries in the potentially energy-rich blocks would help its shattered economy as well as incentivize future investors to participate.

Top US Treasury official to discuss Russian sanction evasion on trip to Oman, UAE and Turkey

Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson is traveling to Oman, the UAE and Turkey this week, where he plans to discuss Russia’s attempts to evade international sanctions amid the Ukraine war, according to a US Treasury statement on Saturday.

• Background: The US has been concerned about Russia’s attempts to evade sanctions imposed by the US and its international partners since the start of the Ukraine war in February 2022. Two main hubs hosting Russian businessmen have been Turkey and the UAE. Last year, international financial crime watchdog the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed the UAE on a “grey” money-laundering watch list in an effort to subject its finances to increased monitoring.
• Why it matters: Nelson’s trip comes amid strained ties between Turkey and NATO over Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s close ties with Moscow. It also comes as the UAE and other Gulf Arab states expand international partnerships beyond the US.

What’s trending

Saudi Arabia: #I_hate_the_niqab

A hashtag decrying the Islamic face veil, or niqab, was trending in Saudi Arabia on Monday, leading to a flood of tweets in defense of the covering.

While “I hate the niqab” was trending, few posts were seen supporting the hashtag, with most instead defending the veil. Many, particularly men, called for women to respect Islamic customs. Others saw it as an attack on their faith and called for women to keep away from feminist ideas.

“Some (women) say that the world is changing and within five years we won’t be seeing the niqab or the hijab (head covering)… that people should be judged by the Creator, not other people,” said a man in a video posted on Twitter. “It’s better for you (woman) to be quiet and not talk about religion from an ignorant perspective.”

Most Muslims don’t consider the face veil to be mandatory under Islamic law, and the covering is only worn by deeply conservative Muslims.

Saudi Arabia has been undergoing an immense social change, driven by the government, which has seen it ease restrictions on women’s dress, gender mixing and live entertainment, all of which were previously seen as taboo. The religious police, who once roamed the streets to enforce the rules, have had their coercive powers significantly reduced in recent years.

It is unclear how the hashtag was started, but bot activity to promote certain topics is not uncommon in the kingdom. Twitter has in the past shut down thousands of accounts in Saudi Arabia for bot activity.

The face veil, which is also known as the burqa in some Muslim countries, has been banned in several European countries.

Photo of the day

Yemeni farmers stack freshly picked oranges into crates during harvest season in a field on the outskirts of Yemen's northeastern city of Marib, on January 29.

-/AFP/AFP via Getty Images

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Suicide bomber breaches high security, kills 47 in Pakistani mosque - Reuters

• Summary

• Bomber breached highly fortified Red Zone compound
• Up to 400 worshippers in prayer when bomber blew up
• Majority of the dead were police officials
• No immediate claim of responsibility for attack

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jan 30 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a crowded mosque in a highly fortified security compound in Pakistan on Monday, killing 47 people, the latest attack by resurgent Islamist militants targeting police in the unstable country.

Police said the attacker appeared to have passed through several barricades manned by security forces to get into the "Red Zone" compound that houses police and counter-terrorism offices in the volatile northwestern city of Peshawar.

"It was a suicide bombing," Peshawar Police Chief Ijaz Khan told Reuters. At least 47 people were killed and 176 wounded, he said, many of them critically.

It came a day before an International Monetary Fund team mission to Islamabad to initiate talks on unlocking funding for the South Asian economy hit by a balance of payment crisis.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack.

Officials said the bomber detonated his load at the moment hundreds of people lined up to say their prayers.

"We have found traces of explosives," Khan told reporters, adding that a security lapse had clearly occurred as the bomber had slipped through the most secured area of the compound.

An inquiry was under way into how the attacker breached such an elite security cordon and whether there was any inside help.

Khan said the mosque hall was packed with up to 400 worshippers, and that most of the dead were police officers.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the worst in Peshawar since March 2022 when an Islamic State suicide bombing killed at least 58 people in a Shi'ite Muslim mosque during Friday prayers.

`ALLAH IS THE GREATEST`

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told Geo TV that the bomber was standing in the first row of worshippers.

"As the prayer leader said 'Allah is the greatest', there was a big bang," Mushtaq Khan, a policeman with a head wound, told reporters from his hospital bed.

"We couldn't figure out what happened as the bang was deafening. It threw me out of the veranda. The walls and roof fell on me. Thanks to God, he saved me."

The explosion brought down the upper storey of the mosque, trapping dozens of worshippers in the rubble. Live TV footage showed rescuers cutting through the collapsed rooftop to make their way down and tend to victims caught in the wreckage.

"We can't say how many are still under it," said provincial governor Haji Ghulam Ali.

"The sheer scale of the human tragedy is unimaginable," Sharif said. "This is no less than an attack on Pakistan. The nation is overwhelmed by a deep sense of grief. I have no doubt terrorism is our foremost national security challenge."

Witnesses described chaotic scenes as the police and the rescuers scrambled to rush the wounded to hospitals.

Sharif, who appealed to employees of his party to donate blood at the hospitals, said anyone targeting Muslims during prayer had nothing to do with Islam.

"The U.S. mission in Pakistan expressed deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims of the horrific attack," Washington's embassy said a statement.

Peshawar, which straddles the edge of Pakistan's tribal districts bordering Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, is frequently targeted by Islamist militant groups including Islamic State and the Pakistani Taliban.

Reporting by Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad; Writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Asif Shahzad; Editing by Miral Fahmy, Simon Cameron-Moore, Bernadette Baum and Mark Heinrich

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Iran says drone attack targets defense facility in Isfahan - ABC News

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Bomb-carrying drones targeted an Iranian defense factory in the central city of Isfahan overnight, authorities said early Sunday, causing some damage at the plant amid heightened regional and international tensions engulfing the Islamic Republic.

The Iranian Defense Ministry offered no information on who it suspected carried out the attack, which came as a refinery fire separately broke out in the country's northwest and a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck nearby, killing three people.

However, Tehran has been targeted in suspected Israeli drone strikes amid a shadow war with its Mideast rival as its nuclear deal with world powers collapsed. Meanwhile, tensions also remain high with neighboring Azerbaijan after a gunman attacked that country's embassy in Tehran, killing its security chief and wounding two others.

Details on the Isfahan attack, which happened around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, remained scarce. A Defense Ministry statement described three drones being launched at the facility, with two of them successfully shot down. A third apparently made it through to strike the building, causing “minor damage” to its roof and wounding no one, the ministry said.

Iranian state television's English-language arm, Press TV, aired mobile phone video apparently showing the moment that drone struck along the busy Imam Khomeini Expressway that heads northwest out of Isfahan, one of several ways for drivers to go to the holy city of Qom and Tehran, Iran's capital. A small crowd stood gathered, drawn by anti-aircraft fire, watching as an explosion and sparks struck a dark building.

“Oh my God! That was a drone, wasn’t it?" the man filming shouts. "Yeah, it was a drone.”

Those there fled after the strike.

That footage of the strike, as well as footage of the aftermath analyzed by The Associated Press, corresponded to a site on Minoo Street in northwestern Isfahan that's near a shopping center that includes a carpet and an electronics store.

Iranian defense and nuclear sites increasingly find themselves surrounded by commercial properties and residential neighborhoods as the country's cities sprawl ever outward. Some locations as well remain incredibly opaque about what they produce, with only a sign bearing a Defense Ministry or paramilitary Revolutionary Guard logo.

The Defense Ministry only called the site a “workshop," without elaborating on what it made. Isfahan, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) south of Tehran, is home to both a large air base built for its fleet of American-made F-14 fighter jets and its Nuclear Fuel Research and Production Center.

The attack comes after Iran's Intelligence Ministry in July claimed to have broken up a plot to target sensitive sites around Isfahan. A segment aired on Iranian state TV in October included purported confessions by alleged members of Komala, a Kurdish opposition party that is exiled from Iran and now lives in Iraq, that they planned to target a military aerospace facility in Isfahan after being trained by Israel's Mossad intelligence service.

Activists say Iranian state TV has aired hundreds of coerced confessions over the last decade. Israeli officials declined to comment on the attack.

Separately, Iran’s state TV said a fire broke out at an oil refinery in an industrial zone near the northwestern city of Tabriz. It said the cause was not yet known, as it showed footage of firefighters trying to extinguish the blaze. Tabriz is some 520 kilometers (325 miles) northwest of Tehran.

State TV also said the magnitude 5.9 earthquake killed three people and injured 816 others in rural areas in West Azerbaijan province, damaging buildings in many villages.

Iran's theocratic government faces challenges both at home and abroad as its nuclear program rapidly enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels since the collapse of its atomic accord with world powers.

Nationwide protests have shaken the country since the September death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman detained by the country's morality police. Its rial currency has plummeted to new lows against the U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, Iran continues to arm Russia with the bomb-carrying drone that Moscow uses in attacks in Ukraine on power plants and civilian targets.

Israel is suspected of launching a series of attacks on Iran, including an April 2021 assault on its underground Natanz nuclear facility that damaged its centrifuges. In 2020, Iran blamed Israel for a sophisticated attack that killed its top military nuclear scientist.

Israeli officials rarely acknowledge operations carried out by the country’s secret military units or its Mossad intelligence agency. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently re-entered the premiership, long has considered Iran to be the biggest threat his nation faces. The U.S. and Israel also just held their largest-ever military exercise amid the tensions with Iran.

Meanwhile, tensions remain high between Azerbaijan and Iran as Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Iran also wants to maintain its 44-kilometer (27-mile) border with landlocked Armenia — something that could be threatened if Azerbaijan seizes new territory through warfare.

Iran in October launched a military exercise near the Azerbaijan border. Azerbaijan also maintains close ties to Israel, which has infuriated Iranian hard-liners, and has purchased Israeli-made drones for its military.

Anwar Gargash, a senior Emirati diplomat, warned online that the Isfahan attack represented one more event in the “dangerous escalation the region is witnessing.” The United Arab Emirates was targeted in missile and drone attacks last year claimed by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

It “is not in the interest of the region and its future,” Gargash wrote on Twitter. “Although the problems of the region are complex, there is no alternative to dialogue.”

___

Associated Press writer Joseph Krauss contributed to this report.

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Iran says drone attack targets defense facility in Isfahan - The Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Bomb-carrying drones targeted an Iranian defense factory in the central city of Isfahan overnight, authorities said early Sunday, causing some damage at the plant amid heightened regional and international tensions engulfing the Islamic Republic.

The Iranian Defense Ministry offered no information on who it suspected carried out the attack, which came as a refinery fire separately broke out in the country’s northwest and a 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck nearby, killing two people.

However, Tehran has been targeted in suspected Israeli drone strikes amid a shadow war with its Mideast rival as its nuclear deal with world powers collapsed. Meanwhile, tensions also remain high with neighboring Azerbaijan after a gunman attacked that country’s embassy in Tehran, killing its security chief and wounding two others.

Details on the Isfahan attack, which happened around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, remained scarce. A Defense Ministry statement described three drones being launched at the facility, with two of them successfully shot down. A third apparently made it through to strike the building, causing “minor damage” to its roof and wounding no one, the ministry said.

Iran

• Paris rallies demand release of Europeans imprisoned in Iran

• US charges 3 in plot to kill Iranian-American author in NYC

• Fatal shooting at Azerbaijan Embassy in Iran raises tensions

• Correction: France-Iran story

Iranian state television’s English-language arm, Press TV, aired mobile phone video apparently showing the moment that drone struck along the busy Imam Khomeini Expressway that heads northwest out of Isfahan, one of several ways for drivers to go to the holy city of Qom and Tehran, Iran’s capital. A small crowd stood gathered, drawn by anti-aircraft fire, watching as an explosion and sparks struck a dark building.

“Oh my God! That was a drone, wasn’t it?” the man filming shouts. “Yeah, it was a drone.”

Those there fled after the strike.

That footage of the strike, as well as footage of the aftermath analyzed by The Associated Press, corresponded to a site on Minoo Street in northwestern Isfahan that’s near a shopping center that includes a carpet and an electronics store.

Iranian defense and nuclear sites increasingly find themselves surrounded by commercial properties and residential neighborhoods as the country’s cities sprawl ever outward. Some locations as well remain incredibly opaque about what they produce, with only a sign bearing a Defense Ministry or paramilitary Revolutionary Guard logo.

The Defense Ministry only called the site a “workshop,” without elaborating on what it made. Isfahan, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) south of Tehran, is home to both a large air base built for its fleet of American-made F-14 fighter jets and its Nuclear Fuel Research and Production Center.

The attack comes after Iran’s Intelligence Ministry in July claimed to have broken up a plot to target sensitive sites around Isfahan. A segment aired on Iranian state TV in October included purported confessions by alleged members of Komala, a Kurdish opposition party that is exiled from Iran and now lives in Iraq, that they planned to target a military aerospace facility in Isfahan after being trained by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service.

Activists say Iranian state TV has aired hundreds of coerced confessions over the last decade. Israeli officials declined to comment on the attack.

Separately, Iran’s state TV said a fire broke out at an oil refinery in an industrial zone near the northwestern city of Tabriz. It said the cause was not yet known, as it showed footage of firefighters trying to extinguish the blaze. Tabriz is some 520 kilometers (325 miles) northwest of Tehran.

State TV also said the magnitude-5.9 earthquake killed two people and injured some 664 more in rural areas in West Azerbaijan province, damaging buildings in many villages.

Iran’s theocratic government faces challenges both at home and abroad as its nuclear program rapidly enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels since the collapse of its atomic accord with world powers. Nationwide protests have shaken the country since the September death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman detained by the country’s morality police. Its rial currency has plummeted to new lows against the U.S. dollar.

Israel is suspected of launching a series of attacks on Iran, including an April 2021 assault on its underground Natanz nuclear facility that damaged its centrifuges. In 2020, Iran blamed Israel for a sophisticated attack that killed its top military nuclear scientist.

Israeli officials rarely acknowledge operations carried out by the country’s secret military units or its Mossad intelligence agency. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently re-entered the premiership, long has considered Iran to be the biggest threat his nation faces.

Meanwhile, tensions remain high between Azerbaijan and Iran as Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Iran also wants to maintain its 44-kilometer (27-mile) border with landlocked Armenia — something that could be threatened if Azerbaijan seizes new territory through warfare.

Iran in October launched a military exercise near the Azerbaijan border. Azerbaijan also maintains close ties to Israel, which has infuriated Iranian hard-liners, and has purchased Israeli-made drones for its military.

___

Associated Press writer Joseph Krauss contributed to this report.

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Even after a century, tanks still play a major role in war - WUSF Public Media

Earlier this week, it was announced that German and American tanks are headed to Ukraine to assist in the country's ongoing resistance to the Russian invasion.

Some analysts say it could be a game changer for the length and outcome of the war. And looking back at history, tanks have certainly played a significant role on other European battlefields.

Starting with World War I, when they first appeared, tanks introduced the idea that an armored all-terrain vehicle could break the stalemate of trench warfare.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly spoke with historian and former officer of the British army, Antony Beevor, to discuss the legacy of the tank, and how it has evolved until now.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

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Interview Highlights

On what early tanks were designed for in the first World War
The massacre of soldiers pouring out of trenches and going across no man's land was so horrific, that everybody was trying to think of an alternative. And so that's where the idea of an armored tank emerged — and it was because it looked almost like a water tank, but bolted together — as a project.

And Churchill, working then in the government, put as much pressure as he could to help develop it. And the British were probably just about the first, really, to get the tank going [circa 1916]. And there, they had these monsters with the tracks on the outside rather than sheltered under armor or anything like that.

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British soldiers enjoy a jaunt on a British Mark IV tank.

On the development of tanks for World War II

Stalin went in for a massive program. And, of course, actually, the Red Army had the largest tank force in the world. But they were not nearly as well trained as the German tank crews.

And in fact, the German tanks were probably inferior both to the British and the French tanks in 1940. And yet, because of speed and, above all, because of the determination to break through, not worry about the flanks and just keep going, they were far more devastating in their tactics.

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April 1942: British Valentine and Matilda tanks being loaded onto a train bound for Russia.

On Russia's recent utilization of tanks
It has been very unimpressive and quite astonishing in the way that they have repeated the mistakes of the Second World War — all of their worst mistakes — and also sending them straight down a road, where you could block off — by shooting up one or two of them, you could then basically stop the whole column and then pick them off one by one.

The Ukrainians did that and, using those British NLAW anti-tank weapons very effectively, absolutely massacred them.

On how the newly pledged German and American tanks could impact the war in Ukraine

Well, the whole advantage of the Leopard (German tank) is that so many other countries in Europe have got the Leopard. And therefore, there is less problem over spare parts, ammunition resupply and all the rest of it. And of course, it's a very, very good tank. But I mean, frankly, there isn't the number.

They need more quantity. Basically, they are talking about 300. They might get 200 with luck, which would be sort of roughly the equivalent of a proper armored division.

Many of them are — and especially the ones coming from Germany — have basically been sort of sitting around, in many cases waiting for proper repairs. This is really one of the problems. Europe especially has been sheltering under the American umbrella, and has simply allowed its military situation to deteriorate drastically over the years.

ANATOLII STEPANOV / AFP via Getty Images

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AFP via Getty Images

Ukranian tanks move on a road before an attack in Lugansk region on February 26, 2022.

It could be [a game changer]. It all depends on timing. And even a certain number will certainly help, because what they're expecting and why Zelenskyy is so desperate to have the tanks, is they know perfectly well that Putin is going to launch a major spring offensive as soon as the ground dries.

And for that, they need to be ready. But there is a fundamental paradox here, and this comes back to the beginning of the war, when the killing — the destruction of all of the Russian tanks as they advanced on Kyiv right at the beginning made everybody — every military commentator at the time say, "Right, well, this proves that the era of the tank is over." But we are all seeing, should we say, a slight U-turn, in attitudes to the tank in warfare.

This story was adapted for the web by Manuela Lopez Restrepo. contributed to this story

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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