WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on a China-based network over accusations it has shipped aerospace parts to an Iranian company involved in the production of drones that Tehran has used to attack oil tankers and exported to Russia.
The US Treasury Department in a statement said it imposed sanctions on the China-based network of five companies and one person it accused of supporting Iran’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) procurement efforts.
The Treasury said the network is responsible for the sale and shipment of thousands of aerospace components, including those that can be used for UAV applications, to the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company.
The company has been involved in the production of the Shahed-136 UAV model that Iran has used to attack oil tankers and has exported to Russia, the Treasury said.
“Iran is directly implicated in the Ukrainian civilian casualties that result from Russia’s use of Iranian UAVs in Ukraine,” Treasury’s Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, said in the statement.
“The United States will continue to target global Iranian procurement networks that supply Russia with deadly UAVs for use in its illegal war in Ukraine.”
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in January that Iran could be contributing to war crimes in Ukraine by providing drones to Russia.
Iran has acknowledged sending drones to Russia but said they were sent before Russia’s February 2022 invasion. Moscow has denied its forces used Iranian drones in Ukraine.
US targets China-based network supporting Iran’s drone procurement efforts
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US targets China-based network supporting Iran’s drone procurement efforts
- Treasury Department said it imposed sanctions on the China-based network of five companies and one person it accused of supporting Iran’s UAV procurement efforts
Drone strike in southern Sudan kills 6 UN peacekeepers
- UNISFA said “six troops were killed and six injured,” including four seriously, when a drone hit their camp in Kadugli
- Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus said in a statement that he was “deeply saddened“
PORT SUDAN: Six United Nations peacekeepers from Bangladesh were killed on Saturday in a drone strike on Sudan’s southern Kordofan region, the UN mission said, with Dhaka sharply condemning the attack.
The United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) said “six troops were killed and six injured,” including four seriously, when a drone hit their camp in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state.
All the victims are from Bangladesh, it said.
Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus said in a statement that he was “deeply saddened” by the attack, putting the toll at six dead and eight wounded.
He asked the UN to ensure that his country’s personnel were offered “any necessary emergency support.”
“The government of Bangladesh will stand by the families in this difficult moment,” he added.
Dhaka’s foreign ministry said it “strongly condemned” the attack.
A medical source had earlier told AFP that the strike on a United Nations facility in Kadugli killed at least six people, with witnesses saying they were UN employees.
“Six people were killed in a bombing of the UN headquarters while they were inside the building,” the medical source at the city’s hospital said.
Eyewitnesses said a drone had struck the UN facility.
The army-aligned government based in Port Sudan issued a statement condemning the attack and accusing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of being behind it.
In a statement, the Sovereignty Council headed by army chief General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan called the attack a “dangerous escalation.”
Kadugli, where famine was declared in early November, has been besieged for a year and a half by the RSF.
Following their late-October capture of El-Fasher — the army’s last stronghold in Sudan’s western Darfur region — the RSF have pushed eastward into the oil-rich Kordofan region, divided into three states.
Kordofan is a vast agricultural region that lies between RSF-controlled Darfur in the west and army-held areas in the north, east and center.
Its position is important for maintaining supply lines and moving troops.
The RSF has been at war with the military since April 2023 and has deployed fighters, drones and allied militias to the fertile region.
Analysts say the RSF seek to punch through the army’s defenses around central Sudan, paving the way for recapturing Khartoum.
Last week, strikes on a kindergarten and hospital in Kalogi in South Kordofan killed 114 people, including 63 children, according to the UN’s World Health Organization.
Sudan’s war has so far killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and resulted in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Efforts to end the war have so far failed.
Last month, US President Donald Trump said he would move to end the conflict following discussions in Washington with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but the initiative has yet to materialize.
