DUBLIN/LONDON: Airports reopened and public transport began to grind back into service on Saturday after the worst snowstorms in nearly 30 years caused two days of major disruption in Britain and shut most of Ireland.
A blast of Siberian cold dubbed “the Beast from the East” combined with Storm Emma’s arrival from the south to ground planes, shut schools and in Ireland, knock out the entire public transport network with weather rarely seen in either country.
Flood warnings were issued on Saturday due to the melting snow, which in Scotland had led to snow drifts up to 10 feet (three meters) deep, according to ScotRail. While Ireland’s most severe weather warning was lifted, the government urged caution.
“Driving conditions remain treacherous due to ice and snow on the ground. We’re working hard to reopen roads and resume public transport. Please continue to take extreme care,” Prime Minister Leo Varadkar warned the public on Twitter.
Ireland’s main airports reopened, although over 50 flights in Dublin, mainly operated by Ryanair and IAG’s Aer Lingus, had already been canceled before snow and ice teams worked through the night to clear the airfield.
Eight men aged between 24 and 47 were due in court in Dublin on burglary charges after police said they caused substantial damage to a supermarket operated by German discount store Lidl late on Friday.
Several Irish media outlets reported that the supermarket had been looted. State broadcaster RTE showed video footage from social media of a mechanical digger pulling down part of the wall in the blizzard. Reuters was unable to verify the video.
Public transport across Ireland was due to reopen with a limited service from 1200 GMT, while train operators were running half a schedule in Scotland, which initially bore the brunt of the Siberian cold front.
According to forecasters, Scotland was expected to see more snow on Saturday while they warned that flooding and icy roads could disrupt travel across the rest of Britain.
Major roads in northern England and the south west have been badly hit by snow, trapping passengers in their vehicles for hours on end, while some trains have been stranded on tracks with hundreds of people on board.
One photograph that circulated widely on social media showed a man asleep in a carriage rack of a stationary train.
As temperatures started to recover, the country’s biggest airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, appeared to be operating a normal service while Manchester and Edinburgh reported fewer cancelations and delays to flights.
Ireland, Britain grind slowly back to normal following snowstorms
Ireland, Britain grind slowly back to normal following snowstorms
Trump urges Iranian Kurds to attack Iran as war widens
- Azerbaijan preparing unspecified retaliatory measures on Thursday
- The seven-day war has now seen Iran target Israel, the Gulf states, Cyprus, Turkiye and Azerbaijan, and spread to the Indian Ocean off Sri Lanka
DUBAI/WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump encouraged Iranian Kurdish forces in Iraq to launch attacks against Iran as the Middle East conflict widened, with Azerbaijan warning it would retaliate for being targeted by Iranian missiles.
Israel on Friday said it had started a “broad-scale” wave of attacks against infrastructure targets in Tehran, as Gulf cities came under renewed bombardment by Iran.
The seven-day war has now seen Iran target Israel, the Gulf states, Cyprus, Turkiye and Azerbaijan, and spread to the Indian Ocean off Sri Lanka where a US submarine sank an Iranian naval ship.
On the possibility of the Iranian Kurdish forces entering Iran, Trump told Reuters on Thursday: “I think it’s wonderful that they want to do that, I’d be all for it.”
Two Iranian drone attacks targeted an Iranian opposition camp in Iraqi Kurdistan on Thursday, security sources said.
Iranian Kurdish militias have consulted with the United States in recent days about whether, and how, to attack Iran’s security forces in the western part of the country, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.
The Iranian Kurdish coalition of groups based on the Iran-Iraq border in the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan has been training to mount such an attack in hopes of weakening the country’s military, as the United States and Israel pound Iranian targets with bombs and missiles. Trump, speaking with Reuters in a telephone interview, also said the United States must have a role in deciding who will be the next leader of Iran after airstrikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last week.
“We’re going to have to choose that person along with Iran. We’re going to have to choose that person,” he said.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that the US was not expanding its military objectives in Iran, despite what Trump said about choosing the country’s next leader.
“There’s no expansion in our objectives. We know exactly what we’re trying to achieve,” he said. The attack on Iran is a major political gamble for the Republican president, with opinion polls showing little support and Americans concerned about the rise in gasoline prices caused by disruption to energy supplies. Trump dismissed that concern. Shares on Wall Street fell on Thursday, weighed by surging oil prices, as the economic impact of the campaign intensified, with countries around the world cut off from a fifth of global supplies of oil and liquefied natural gas and air transport still facing chaos and global logistics increasingly snarled.
Azerbaijan prepares to retaliate
Azerbaijan was preparing unspecified retaliatory measures on Thursday after it said four Iranian drones crossed its border and injured four people in the Nakhchivan exclave.
“We will not tolerate this unprovoked act of terror and aggression against Azerbaijan,” President Ilham Aliyev told a meeting of his Security Council.
Iran, which has a significant Azeri minority, denied it targeted its neighbor.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militia warned Israeli residents to evacuate towns within 5 km (3 miles) of the border between the countries in a message posted on its Telegram channel in Hebrew early on Friday.
“Your military’s aggression against Lebanese sovereignty and safe citizens, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and the expulsion campaign it is carrying out will not go unchallenged,” Hezbollah said.
Us munitions full
Hegseth and Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads US forces in the Middle East, said during a briefing about operations that the US has enough munitions to continue its bombardment indefinitely.
“Iran is hoping that we cannot sustain this, which is a really bad miscalculation,” Hegseth told reporters at Central Command headquarters in Florida. “Our munitions are full up and our will is ironclad.”
The Pentagon earlier this week said the military campaign, known as Operation Epic Fury, is focused on destroying Iran’s offensive missiles, missile production and navy, while not allowing Tehran to have a nuclear weapon.
Cooper said the US had now hit at least 30 Iranian ships, including a large drone carrier that he said was the size of a World War Two aircraft carrier.
He added that B-2 bombers had in the past few hours dropped dozens of 2,000 penetrator bombs targeting deeply buried ballistic missile launchers, and that bombings were also targeting Iran’s missile production facilities.
Iran’s ballistic missile attacks had decreased by 90 percent since the first day of the war, while drone attacks had decreased by 83 percent in that time frame, he said. In Iran, at least 1,230 people have been killed, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, including 175 schoolgirls and staff killed at a primary school in Minab in the country’s south on the first day of the war. Another 77 have been killed in Lebanon, its Health Ministry says. Thousands fled southern Beirut on Thursday after Israel warned residents to leave.
