Latest news with #militaryHQ
The Sun
16-07-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Dramatic moment ‘Israeli airstrike' blitzes Syrian military HQ on LIVE TV sending news reporter fleeing in panic
THIS is the terrifying moment an Israeli airstrike hits a Syrian military HQ on live TV - with a news reporter captured fleeing in panic. It's the third day in a row that Israel has hit Syria where government security forces have clashed with local fighters in the southern city of Sweida. 3 3 3 The apparent Israeli occupation airstrike targeted the Ministry of Defence building in the centre of the capital Damascus, reports claim. As the news reporter is presenting, a fiery explosion is captured erupting in the backdrop. The camera then shakes, before the news reporter jumps out of her seat to safety. A massive grey smoke cloud is captured billowing behind her following the strike. The Israeli army hit near the entrance to the Syrian Ministry of Defense in Damascus before targeting the same site several hours later with a larger strike. Israel has also launched a series of airstrikes on convoys of government forces in southern Syria since the clashes erupted a few days ago. Syrias Defense Ministry had earlier blamed militias in the Druze-majority area of Sweida for violating a ceasefire agreement that had been reached Tuesday, causing Syrian army soldiers to return fire. It said they were adhering to rules of engagement to protect residents, prevent harm, and ensure the safe return of those who left the city back to their homes. Meanwhile, reports of attacks on civilians continued to surface, and Druze with family members in the conflict zone searched desperately for information about their fate amid communication blackouts. A rebel offensive led by Islamist insurgent groups ousted Syria's longtime despotic leader, Bashar Assad, in December, bringing an end to a nearly 14-year civil war. Since then, the country's new rulers have struggled to consolidate control. The primarily Sunni Muslim leaders have faced suspicion from religious and ethnic minorities, whose fears increased after clashes between government forces and pro-Assad armed groups in March spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks. Hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority, to which Assad belongs, were killed.
Daily Mail
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
QUENTIN LETTS: The more Napoleon burbled on, the more you understood why his wife whacked him
After watching Emmanuel Macron for any length of time you understand why his wife whacked him. What an insufferable little twerp he is. The French president marked the end of his state visit to Britain with a news conference at Northwood military HQ, Herts. At his side stood Sir Keir Starmer, playing the role of spare part. The nasal knight has seldom looked so potatoey. All eyes were on Napoleon, which is just how he likes it. He was dressed in a waistcoat – odd for such a hot day – and his hairdo had been tweezered to the left, presumably to disguise a bald spot. Unless a patch of fur had been ripped out by Brigitte. He kept tilting his head to make sure we could admire his long sideburns. A good inch longer than Sir Keir's, they were. The rough format was as follows: our old pudding gave stubby answers, biting on his lower lip and telling us what a 'serious' fellow he was. Sir Keir's voice becomes plainer by the week. What a lustreless blob he is. He kept looking over to Macron in affection or envy. Then the floor was given to the mighty midget, his blue eyes suddenly dazzling like BMW headlights. Off he went, juddering his chin in an imperious manner, shoulders twitching a little as he was energised by the attention. These answers, as long as speeches in a Racine tragedy, were relayed by a simultaneous translation chap who sounded less like a Man of Destiny and more like an accountant from Penge. Macron was burbling forth about the European pillars of Nato, pragmatic roadmaps, the wickedness of demagoguery and so forth, while Brian the translator, or whatever his name was, made it sound wonderfully mundane. M Macron hogged the airtime. He was elliptical, which is to say incomprehensible, his answers full of abstract concepts. But one thing became clear: he was obsessed with Brexit. The longer the press conference lasted, the more he attacked Brexit, each time with greater vigour, almost until one of his eyelids started quivering and a tic developed in his cheeks, Herbert Lom-style. He raged that Brexit had made everything worse. Brexit had been ruinous to trade. Quite how that tallied with his boast that Anglo-French trade was now higher than it was when we were in the European Union, it was hard to say. On small boats and illegal immigration, 'the British people were sold a lie that Europe was the trouble!' And yet, and yet, Belgium has been rather brilliant at stopping small boats. Much better than France. Maybe the problem with the small-boats crisis has not been 'Europe' but 'Macron' – and all because our bolt for freedom left him with fewer opportunities to meddle in our affairs. Questions from the media were opened by our own Monsieur Chatty, ITV's Robert Peston, a man whose bulletin intros and upsums can be divided into several chapters, complete with index and footnotes. This time, in fact, he did rather well, and even spoke French, noting that France had pocketed '700 million livres' of our money to do beggar all about stopping those inflatables. Peston also observed that M Macron and Sir Keir were members of 'a slightly beleaguered class of centrist leaders' and he wondered if they were exchanging tips on how to survive. This was intended as a playful remark but they both became distinctly huffy about it. Sir Keir pushed out a pouty lip and complained that it was 'really important to show that social democracy has the answers'. As for Macron, he flew into an impenetrable riff about how his political philosophy was based on science rather than things such as… Just as he was going to say the B word, a male orderly stepped in, jabbed him in the derriere with a large sedative and sewed him into a white straitjacket, to be flown back to his home country where he is such an overwhelming failure.
