Suspected gang leader shot dead in flower bouquet ambush at airport

Just nowChris EwokorBBCExplosions and gunfire have been heard coming from the airport in Niger's capital, Niamey, residents have told the BBC."I heard the first gunshots at 06:00 (05:00 local time) while I was at the mosque. But the current situation is under control," one person said.The gunfire, which lasted for two hours, came from the entrance to the airport, a witness told the AFP news agency.Niger has been fighting a militant Islamist insurgency for a decade and in January suspected jihadists launched an attack on the same airport. Like its neighbours, Burkina Faso and Mali, Niger is run by a military junta that came to power in part because of the failure to deal with the violence. Residents have told the BBC that Thursday's attack was repelled by the army, which is now hunting down the fleeing assailants who reportedly abandoned their weapons.The authorities have not yet commented and no group has said it was responsible. But an affiliate to the Islamic State group said it had carried out January's assault.This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.BBC Africa podcasts

Emergency Lawyers said dozens were also wounded in the strike that came less than 24 hours after similar drone attacks.A drone strike on a market in central Sudan has killed at least 11 people and injured dozens more, according to a local rights group, as escalating aerial attacks further increase the death toll of one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.The attack on Saturday targeted the main market in Abu Zaeima, a paramilitary-controlled town in North Kordofan state, according to Emergency Lawyers, which has documented abuses since fighting erupted in April 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Sudanese army captures key town near Ethiopian border from RSFlist 2 of 3Acute hunger grips nearly 20 million people in war-battered Sudan, says IPClist 3 of 3Why have peace efforts failed to end conflict in Sudan?end of listThe group said the casualty figures could rise, but did not specify who carried out the attack. Neither side has claimed responsibility.Emergency Lawyers said the strike came less than 24 hours after similar drone attacks struck nearby villages and a civilian vehicle.Condemning the attack, it said the repeated targeting of civilians, villages and public transport reflected a blatant disregard for human life and the basic principles of international humanitarian law.The group added that the continued loss of civilian life should not be treated as routine and called for an end to such attacks, as well as accountability for those responsible.Two witnesses told the AFP news agency that another drone hit a fuel station later on Saturday in el-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, which the RSF has partially encircled for months.A medical source at a hospital there said four wounded civilians had been brought to the facility.Drone warfareNearly 70 people were killed in two separate drone strikes in the West and North Kordofan states over the past week, according to Emergency Lawyers and a local leader.Drone warfare has become increasingly more common in Sudan’s conflict.The United Nations said in May that at least 880 civilians were killed in drone strikes nationwide between January and April.Fighting has intensified in Kordofan and Blue Nile State near the Ethiopian border since the RSF captured el-Fasher last October, the military’s last major stronghold in western Darfur.Since then, more than 300,000 people have fled front-line areas, including el-Fasher and parts of Kordofan and Blue Nile, according to the UN.Kordofan, rich in oil and arable land, is strategically significant, linking RSF strongholds in the neighbouring Darfur region to the country’s army-controlled east. The region remains largely contested between the army and the RSF.Now entering its fourth year, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly 13 million others, creating what the UN describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises.

S.-Iran Skirmish Spurs Deadly Drone Attack on Kuwait Airport WSJ

NewsFeedKuwait has released surveillance footage of what it says shows an Iranian drone strike on Terminal 1 at Kuwait International Airport. The attack killed one person, injured dozens and caused significant damage to the terminal. Iran’s IRGC had claimed a wayward US Patriot missile caused the damage.Published On 3 Jun 2026

NewsFeedKuwait’s defence ministry has labelled an attack on the country’s international airport as ‘heinous Iranian aggression’. One person was killed and dozens were injured after Iranian drones struck a terminal on Wednesday, causing ‘significant material damage’.Published On 3 Jun 2026

14 minutes agoDavid GrittenReutersSmoke billows from the Nabatieh area in southern Lebanon following an Israeli strike on WednesdayIsraeli strikes killed at least nine people in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, authorities said, as the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah said it fired rockets into northern Israel.Lebanon's health ministry said the dead included two paramedics whose ambulance was hit in a strike in the southern Chehour area. A car was also struck just south of the capital Beirut.Meanwhile, Israel's military said it intercepted a drone and two projectiles that crossed the border. Hezbollah said it targeted a gathering of Israeli troops.The incidents tested a partial ceasefire agreed on Monday, which Lebanon said would see Israel refrain from bombing Beirut, in exchange for Hezbollah not attacking Israel.Israeli and Lebanese diplomats held a second day of talks in Washington on Wednesday to discuss ways to shore up the deal.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that he hoped they would produce "an action plan on a track for security in [Lebanon], independent from Hezbollah".Lebanon was drawn into the war between the US, Israel and Iran on 2 March, when Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel in retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed Iran's supreme leader. Israel responded with an air campaign across Lebanon and a ground invasion in the south.A US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon on 16 April failed to stop the fighting, and last week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to intensify its strikes on Hezbollah and advance deeper into Lebanon in response to drone and rocket attacks on communities in northern Israel.At least 3,516 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the war, according to the country's health ministry. Its figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.The UN says more than one million people have also registered themselves as displaced in Lebanon, where Israeli evacuation orders cover more than an eighth of the country.Israel says 26 of its soldiers and four Israeli civilians have been killed on both sides of the border during the war.ReutersA funeral was held in Wardaniyeh, southern Lebanon, for six members of the same family who were killed in an Israeli strikeLebanese media reported Israeli strikes across the south of the country on Wednesday.The health ministry said four Syrians and two Palestinians were killed in a strike in the al-Housh area, which is just south of the coastal city of Tyre.The ministry also said that two paramedics were killed and a third was seriously wounded when Israeli forces "directly targeted an ambulance" in the Chehour area, which is about 14km (9 miles) to the east. The ambulance belonged to the Risala Scouts Association, which is affiliated with the Amal movement, an ally of Hezbollah.The ministry accused the Israeli military of "demonstrating contempt for international humanitarian law", which specifically protects medical personnel.At least 128 paramedics and healthcare workers have been killed in Israeli attacks on ambulances and medical facilities over the past three months, according to the ministry.There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. In the past, it has claimed that ambulances are being used for military purposes, without providing any evidence.The Lebanese army, meanwhile, said that one of its soldiers was killed in an Israeli air strike on the road between Nabatieh and Kfar Tebnit, about 27km north-east of Tyre. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that his motorbike was targeted by a drone.The army said another two Lebanese soldiers were injured in a separate Israeli strike on their vehicle on the road between Deir Zahrani and Nabatieh.It denounced what it called "a pattern of deliberate strikes targeting army personnel, vehicles and positions" by Israeli forces.NNA also reported an Israeli strike on a car on the busy coastal highway in th

S. strikes, as Trump says talks ongoing CBS News Iran war live: US strikes, Kuwait airport attack as Gulf turmoil spreads Al Jazeera