International

Four police, five others dead in Colombia attacks

AFP

Four policemen were among nine people killed in three separate attacks blamed on Colombian armed groups that continue to sow mayhem in the country in contravention of a peace pact, authorities said Sunday.

Three off-duty police died in an attack by armed men in the northeastern town of Pailitias in which one of the officers’ pregnant wife was injured, a police statement said.

It did not identify the attackers but the ELN, Colombia’s last active guerilla group, is known to operate in the area.

In the country’s south, five men were found murdered in San Vicente del Caguan, mayor Julian Perdomo told AFP, lamenting that “frequently, peasants are being found murdered” in the countryside there.

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Such attacks are blamed by authorities on dissidents who rejected a 2016 peace deal that led to the disarming of the FARC guerilla group.

A fourth policeman died in “an incursion by an armed group” in a neighborhood of the city of Cali in the southwest, according to mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina.

He did not identify the culprits but military intelligence says FARC dissidents and ELN guerillas are active around Cali, as well as paramilitary groups and drug traffickers.

Including the latest killings in San Vicente del Caguan, the Colombian observer group Indepaz says there have been 45 massacres — the killing of three or more people in a single event — so far this year.

President Ivan Duque’s government blames groups financed by drug trafficking and illegal mining.

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Colombia is in the midst of its worst outbreak of violence since the peace deal that ended Latin America’s most powerful insurgency.

On Friday, a helicopter carrying Duque was attacked near the Venezuela border, with several shots — apparently from rifles — fired at it.

It was the first attack on a Colombian head of state in nearly 20 years.

International

Iran Reports 201 Dead, 747 Injured After U.S. and Israeli Strikes

The Iranian Red Crescent Society reported Sunday night (local time) that at least 201 people were killed and 747 injured following attacks carried out by Israel and the United States against the Islamic Republic.

A spokesperson for the humanitarian organization said more than 220 rescue teams have been deployed across affected areas and that relief operations are continuing without interruption. The official highlighted the difficulty of treating the large number of wounded and the urgent need for additional resources in impacted provinces.

Out of Iran’s 31 provinces, 24 have reported damage, according to a statement carried by the Isna news agency. This marks the first overall casualty toll released by Iranian state-affiliated media since the launch of the offensive.

Among the dead are 85 schoolgirls from a school in the southern city of Minab, according to the country’s judiciary. “The number of martyrs at the Minab girls’ school has risen to 85,” the local prosecutor’s office said, as quoted by the judiciary’s website, Mizan Online.

Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian described the attack as a “savagery” that “constitutes a new black page in the record of countless crimes committed by the aggressors.”

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Meanwhile, the international community continues to monitor the situation closely amid concerns about possible further reprisals and the broader impact on Middle East stability, energy markets, and global security.

AFP noted that it was unable to independently verify the casualty figures or the circumstances surrounding the events.

International

Pope Leo XIV Urges End to ‘Spiral of Violence’ in Middle East

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday called for an end to the “spiral of violence” in the Middle East, following military strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran and subsequent retaliatory bombardments in the region.

“Faced with the possibility of a tragedy of enormous proportions, I urge the parties involved to assume their moral responsibility and stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” the pontiff told the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

Speaking during the Angelus prayer, the U.S.-born pope said stability and peace cannot be achieved through threats or weapons. “Stability and peace are not built with reciprocal threats or with arms that sow destruction, suffering and death, but only through reasonable, sincere and responsible dialogue,” he declared.

The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics also called for diplomacy to “regain its role” amid escalating tensions.

In addition, the pope urged Afghanistan and Pakistan to urgently resume dialogue after several days of clashes between the two countries.

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International

Security Council to Hold Emergency Meeting on Middle East Crisis

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Saturday condemned the “military escalation in the Middle East” following attacks by the United States and Israel against Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes, just hours before an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council.

“I call for the immediate cessation of hostilities and de-escalation,” Guterres said in a statement.

The Security Council is scheduled to meet on Saturday at 21:00 GMT (4:00 p.m. in New York) to address “the situation in the Middle East,” the United Nations announced.

The meeting, during which Guterres will deliver remarks, was convened at the request of France, Bahrain, Colombia, Russia and China, according to a diplomatic source.