KYIV: Russian forces launched a “double tap” missile attack on Saturday on a small town near Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, killing two people, an emergency services official and a police officer, officials said.
Officials also reported two dead in Russian attacks on the Donetsk region to the southeast.
Prosecutors said the mid-afternoon missile attack targeted the railway station in Budy, southwest of Kharkiv. After rescue teams arrived, a second missile hit the area.
They said 23 people were injured in the incidents.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said the head of the Kharkiv district emergency services was killed, along with a police officer from a rapid reaction unit. Among the injured were three emergency workers, a policeman and about 20 civilians.
Reuters could not verify independently the accounts and Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians. But Russian forces have used the “double tap” tactic to devastating effect.
Kharkiv remained out of Russian hands in the initial advance of the Kremlin’s forces after the February 2022 invasion.
The city and surrounding area have since come under constant attack, though Ukrainian officials say the frequency has diminished since US supplies of weaponry to Ukraine resumed after a break of several months.
Donetsk regional governor Vadym Filashkin said an attack by multiple rocket launchers hit a multi-story apartment building in Chasiv Yar — a town targeted by Russian forces as a key staging point in moving forward through Ukraine’s east.
And a guided bomb killed one person near the town of Kurakhove, where some of the heaviest fighting is taking place along the 1,000-km (600-mile) front.
Two dead in Russian ‘double tap’ attack on town near Ukraine’s Kharkiv
https://arab.news/bzhp9
Two dead in Russian ‘double tap’ attack on town near Ukraine’s Kharkiv
- Prosecutors said the mid-afternoon missile attack targeted the railway station in Budy, southwest of Kharkiv
- After rescue teams arrived, a second missile hit the area, injuring 23 people
Trump says US struck Daesh targets in Nigeria after group targeted Christians
- The US recently designated Nigera a “country of particular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida: President Donald Trump said Thursday night that he’d launched a “powerful and deadly strike” against Daesh forces in Nigeria, after he spent weeks decrying the group for targeting Christians.
“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against Daesh Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!” the president posted on his social media site.
Last month, Trump said he’d ordered the Pentagon to begin planning for potential military action in Nigeria following the claims of Christian persecution. The State Department then announced in recent weeks that it would restrict visas for Nigerians and their family members involved in mass killings and violence against Christians in the West African country.
The US recently designated Nigera a “country of particular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act.
“I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” Trump wrote in his Christmas night post. He said that US defense officials had “executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing.”
The president added: “our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper.”
