MOSCOW: Russia said Tuesday it had shot down six US-supplied tactical missiles launched by Ukraine, with officials in annexed Crimea saying some were downed over the Black Sea peninsula.
Washington has said it had supplied the arms to Ukraine, which has been asking for more powerful weapons for months as it struggles to contain advancing Russian forces.
Moscow’s defense ministry said it had destroyed six Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) rockets “in the last 24 hours,” without saying where they were shot down.
The Russian-installed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said one of the missiles was downed in the village of Donskoye, outside the main city of Simferopol.
“After an ATACMS missile was shot down, undetonated submunitions scattered,” Aksyonov said on Telegram.
“If you find such a weapon, do not pick it up or come close and call emergency services or the police,” he warned.
Aksyonov posted a photograph of a metal ball which he said was part of the destroyed missile.
Russia did not say if the missiles caused any damage in Crimea.
Earlier, an official from Russian-occupied southern Ukraine, Vladimir Rogov, said that air defense had been in operation over Simferopol and the town of Dzankoi, in northern Crimea.
Ukraine has regularly attacked Crimea during Moscow’s more than two-year offensive.
But it did not comment on Tuesday’s attack.
Last week, the United States said it had sent ATACMS missiles to Ukraine in February.
Ukrainian forces are now awaiting the arrival of new US weapons, green-lighted by President Joe Biden after months of being blocked by political wrangling in Congress.
Russia says shot down US-made missiles launched by Ukraine
https://arab.news/49hze
Russia says shot down US-made missiles launched by Ukraine
- Washington has said it had supplied the arms to Ukraine
- The Russian-installed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said one of the missiles was downed in the village of Donskoye
Tanzania opposition says 2,000 killed in election violence
- Opposition party Chadema’s deputy chairperson John Heche said Tanzania witnessed “mass killings of more than 2,000 people and over 5,000 injured in the space of just one week“
- The violence was carried out “with direct involvement of the state“
DAR ES SALAM: Tanzania’s main opposition party on Thursday said more than 2,000 people were killed in a week of election violence, calling for sanctions against officials it accused of crimes against humanity.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the winner of October 29 polls with 98 percent of the vote, but her government was accused of rigging the polls and overseeing a campaign of murders and abductions of her critics that sparked nationwide protests and riots.
Opposition party Chadema’s deputy chairperson John Heche told reporters that Tanzania witnessed “mass killings of more than 2,000 people and over 5,000 injured in the space of just one week.”
He said the violence was carried out “with direct involvement of the state” and that it amounted to “crimes against humanity.”
Previous opposition counts had put the deaths at more than 1,000. The government has not given a death toll.
Heche urged the international community to “impose sanctions on all individuals involved in planning and executing these acts of criminality and crimes against humanity.”
In a live online broadcast, he said those responsible should be subjected to travel bans, including restrictions on their families.
Heche also said the unrest triggered a surge of people fleeing the country, alongside “the abduction and enforced disappearance of hundreds of civilians.”
Chadema further accused security units of carrying out rapes, torture and “gruesome killings,” and of engaging in widespread looting and arbitrary arrests.
The party urged authorities to return the bodies of those killed so families could bury them.
Authorities have continued to stifle dissent, with planned protests earlier this week seeing empty streets and a significant security presence.
Hassan last week justified the killings, saying it was necessary to prevent the overthrow of the government.
“The force that was used corresponds to the situation at hand,” she said in a speech.
Hassan has formed an inquiry commission into the violence, which the opposition says includes only government loyalists, instead calling for an independent investigation.
