(GUANAJUATO, Mexico) — At least seven people are dead, including one child, in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato after several gunmen stormed the La Palma resort on Saturday, according to authorities.
Authorities said when they arrived, they found the deceased bodies of three women, three men and a 7-year-old child, according to a release from the state attorney general’s office. Another injured person was found and transported to a local hospital.
The armed men allegedly arrived around 4:30 p.m. Saturday. “After the event, they fled but not before causing damage to the store and taking the cameras as well as the monitor,” the release said.
“The municipal government regrets the events that occurred and will provide the corresponding accompaniment to the relatives of those affected, also reiterating the willingness to cooperate with the relevant authorities pending that those responsible are brought to justice,” the statement continued.
No suspects have been apprehended at this time, officials said. The Mexican army and public security forces are working together, including using helicopters, in the investigation.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. forces conducted a raid against ISIS militants in northwest Syria on Monday, according to U.S. Central Command.
“The raid resulted in the probable death of a senior ISIS Syria leader and operational planner responsible for planning terror attacks in the Middle East and Europe,” CENTCOM spokesman Joe Buccino told ABC News in a statement.
Two “armed individuals” were also killed, according to a statement from CENTCOM.
“Extensive planning went into this operation to ensure its successful execution. No U.S. troops were wounded. No U.S. helicopters were damaged. We assess no civilians were killed or injured,” the statement said.
Earlier this month, U.S. forces killed an “ISIS senior leader” in a strike in northwest Syria, CENTCOM had announced.
The military identified the leader as Khalid ‘Aydd Ahmad Al-Jabouri, who it said was responsible for planning attacks in Europe and Turkey, and developing ISIS’s leadership network.
“The death of Khalid ‘Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri will temporarily disrupt the organization’s ability to plot external attacks,” a release from CENTCOM said at the time.
The U.S. has roughly 900 troops in Syria as part of its effort to defeat ISIS in the region. In recent years, American forces have killed or captured several ISIS leaders in the country.
“Though degraded, ISIS remains able to conduct operations within the region with a desire to strike beyond the Middle East. We will continue the relentless campaign against ISIS,” CENTCOM Commander Gen. Erik Kurilla said in a statement Monday.
(NEW YORK) — More than a year after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, the countries are fighting for control of areas in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian troops have liberated nearly 30,000 square miles of their territory from Russian forces since the invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022, but Putin appeared to be preparing for a long and bloody war.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 17, 6:19 AM EDT
Putin critic sentenced to 25 years
A Moscow court has sentenced one of Russia’s best-known opposition leaders, whose family live in the U.S., to 25 years in prison in what is widely seen a show trial.
Vladimir Kara-Murza is the most high-profile opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin to be jailed since Alexey Navalny.
Kara-Murza’s extraordinarily harsh sentence is one of the lengthiest any opposition figure has received under Putin and illustrates how repressive Russia has become during the war in Ukraine, reverting to something much closer to the USSR where no opposition is tolerated.
Kara-Murza was convicted of treason, as well as “discrediting Russia’s armed forces,” a new law that effectively criminalizes criticizing the war in Ukraine. He was also convicted of belonging to a banned organization. The charges are widely seen as politically motivated.
Kara-Murza is one of Russia’s best-known pro-democracy figures and a veteran critic of Putin.
Kara-Murza, who holds both British and Russian citizenship, spent many years living in the United States and his wife and children still live in Virginia. He was close to the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, who championed human rights in the former Soviet Union.
Dozens of journalists and Western diplomats attended the court hearing on Monday, including the U.S. ambassador who read out a statement condemning the sentence.
“We support Mr. Kara-Murza and every Russian citizen to have a voice in the direction of their country. Mr. Kara-Murza and countless other Russians believe in and hope for a Russia where fundamental freedoms will be upheld. And we will continue to share those hopes and work for that outcome,” Amb. Lynne Tracy said.
Kara-Murza previously has survived being poisoned not once but twice. In 2015 and then again in 2017, he suffered organ failure after being exposed to an unknown toxin. Independent researchers later linked the poisoning to the same team of FSB poisoners who targeted Navalny.
He chose to return to Russia after the war began, believing it was important to continue to campaign for freedom in his country and has been an outspoken critic of the invasion.
His trial was held entirely behind closed doors, but a letter containing his closing statement to the court has been released to reporters.
“I only blame myself for one thing,” Kara-Murza said in the statement. “I failed to convince enough of my compatriots and politicians in democratic countries of the danger that the current Kremlin regime poses for Russia and for the world.”
“Criminals are supposed to repent of what they have done. I, on the other hand, am in prison for my political views. I also know that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate.
The parents of Wall Street Journalist journalist Evan Gershkovich spoke in an interview with with the paper Friday, the first time since their son was detained in Russia in March.
Mikhail and Ella Gershkovich, who were born in the Soviet Union and married after emigrating to the U.S. separately in 1979, talked about how much he wanted to work for the Journal and cover Russia.
“He said I’m just one of the few left there,” Ella Gershkovich, his mother, said of his time working in Russia during the Ukraine war.
The couple said their family is keeping hope that their son will be returned.
The couple said their family is keeping hope that their son will be released.
“It’s one of the American qualities we absorbed. Be optimistic, believe in happy ending. That’s where we stand right now, but I am not stupid. I understand what’s involved, but that’s what I choose to believe,” Ella Gershkovich said.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman
Apr 14, 2:52 PM EDT
6 dead, including 1 child, after Russia attacks Slovyansk
Russian forces shelled Slovyansk, a city in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, Friday, Andrii Yermak, the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, said on Telegram.
At least seven explosions were heard in the city in the area near a school, and three buildings were struck, Yermak said. Russia hit three five-story buildings in the attack, he added.
Six civilians, including one child, were killed and 17 people have been wounded, as of Friday afternoon, officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared a video of the attack on his Telegram page and condemned Russian forces.
He said there are still people trapped in the rubble.
“The evil state once again demonstrates its essence, just killing people in broad daylight, [and] ruining, destroying all life,” he said.
-ABC News’ Oleksiy Pshemyskiy and Ellie Kaufman
Apr 12, 7:12 PM EDT
Singer Brad Paisley visits Ukraine for 1st time with Senate delegation, meets with Zelenskyy
Country singer Brad Paisley visited Ukraine for the first time on Wednesday and met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to see firsthand what’s happening in the war-torn country, according to Ukrainian fundraising platform UNITED24.
Paisley, who serves as a global ambassador for UNITED24 and its campaign to help rebuild Ukraine, performed his song “Same Here” while in St. Michael’s Square in Kyiv.
Paisley, who went with a bipartisan U.S. Senate delegation, also played for American troops in Poland, UNITED24 said.
“It’s an emotional experience seeing all of this firsthand,” Paisley said during a press conference. “For me, looking around this city and being here for the first time, I’m absolutely struck by the resilience of life and the beautiful nature of the way this city is trying to thrive in the middle of conflict.”
Apr 12, 5:59 PM EDT
2 US citizens died while fighting in Ukraine, State Dept. says
Two Americans have died while volunteering to fight in Ukraine, he U.S. Department of State said Wednesday.
Edward Wilton and Grady Kurpasi died in combat during the conflict, bringing the total number of Americans killed to at least eight.
Wilton, 22, died on April 7 fighting in Bakhmut, his half brother Parker Cummings told ABC News. He was from Marianna, Florida.
Wilton served in the U.S. Army, Cummings said, and informed his half brother about his plans to fight in Ukraine through a message sent from a plane en route to Poland on April 10, 2022.
“My brother was very selfless. My brother was very honorable and traditional,” Cummings told ABC News. “He cared more about freedom for all than for his own safety. Edward was a true hero and he will be missed until we see him again.”
Joshua Cropper, who told ABC News he fought with Wilton in Ukraine’s International Legion between April and early July 2022, said of Wilton: “He was so young, but immensely brave. Fearless. We’d need three guys to do any task, he’s always going to have his hand up. He was as mature as anybody I’ve ever known.”
Kurpasi was reportedly last seen in April 2022 and was widely reported to be missing last June.
As recently as last fall, his family said they believed he was in critical condition in a Russian-controlled hospital in Donetsk, but it’s not clear exactly when he was confirmed dead or if he was ever hospitalized.
A GoFund Me page organized on behalf of Kurpasi’s wife provides few details on his time in Ukraine, but states that he “ended up leading a squad into battle and was killed in action.”
“We can confirm the death of a U.S. citizen in Ukraine. We are in touch with the family and providing all possible consular assistance,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement when asked about his case. “When a U.S. citizen dies overseas, including in Ukraine, the Department of State supports the legal representative and family of the deceased in numerous ways, including by providing information on the disposition of remains and estates and issuing a consular report of death.”
The spokesperson added: “The U.S. government takes its role in such a situation very seriously, providing all appropriate assistance through the legal representative, next of kin or their designee.”
Regarding Wilton, a State Department official confirmed that a U.S. citizen died near Bakhmut and said they’re in touch with the family and providing all appropriate consular services.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford and Chris Looft
Apr 12, 2:50 PM EDT
Efforts to pressure Russia to release WSJ reporter ‘senseless and futile,’ Russia says
Days after the U.S. designated Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich as wrongfully detained in Russia, Russian officials referred to pressure from the U.S. to release him as futile.
“Any attempts to put pressure on the Russian authorities and the court, insisting on a ‘special treatment’ for U.S. citizens who have violated Russian law, are senseless and futile,” the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
After some missed calls, President Joe Biden finally connected with the parents of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed Tuesday.
“He felt it was really important to connect with Evan’s family,” she told reporters on Air Force One as the president travels to Ireland.
Meanwhile, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Gershkovich’s detention is “pretty fresh” and officials are still trying to get consular access to Gershkovich, which they have not been able to do.
He would not get into any specific conversations the U.S. is having with Russians about releasing Gershkovich or if a prisoner swap is a possibility.
“I just want to make a couple of things clear that is, the determination of wrongful detention, it doesn’t start the clock necessarily on communicating with the Russians about getting him released,” Kirby said. “We’re very early in this process here and I certainly, I think you can understand why I wouldn’t talk about any discussions we might be having with the Russians about his release or Paul [Whelan]’s release. We certainly wouldn’t do that.”
Kirby said the administration is “certainly having discussions about what we can do to get him released.”
“I don’t want to go into details about these internal deliberations, having things out in the public sphere viscerally might actually make it harder to get Evan and Paul home, and that’s what we’re focused on,” Kirby said.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Apr 10, 4:28 PM EDT
Gershkovich designated as wrongfully detained by Russia
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has determined that Wall Street Journalist reporter Evan Gershkovich is being wrongfully detained by Russia, according to a statement released Monday afternoon.
Two Americans are now considered to be wrongfully detained by Russia — Gershkovich and Paul Whelan.
Gershkovich’s case will now be transferred to the Office of the Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs, the U.S. government’s top hostage negotiator.
Gershkovich, a 31-year-old New Jersey native who has lived and worked in Moscow as an accredited journalist for the last six years, was in a restaurant in Yekaterinburg on March 29 when Russia’s Federal Security Service arrested him on espionage charges that the Wall Street Journal, his colleagues and the U.S. government have said are absurd.
(GUANAJUATO, Mexico) — At least seven people are dead, including one child, in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato after several gunmen stormed the La Palma resort on Saturday, according to authorities.
Authorities said when they arrived, they found the deceased bodies of three women, three men and a 7-year-old child, according to a release from the state attorney general’s office. Another injured person was found and transported to a local hospital.
The armed men allegedly arrived around 4:30 p.m. Saturday. “After the event, they fled but not before causing damage to the store and taking the cameras as well as the monitor,” the release said.
“The municipal government regrets the events that occurred and will provide the corresponding accompaniment to the relatives of those affected, also reiterating the willingness to cooperate with the relevant authorities pending that those responsible are brought to justice,” the statement continued.
No suspects have been apprehended at this time, officials said. The Mexican army and public security forces are working together, including using helicopters, in the investigation.
(LONDON) — It was in early March when Fereshteh, a 42-year-old mother of two, said she received a phone call from a friend claiming there had been a chemical gas attack at a girls’ school in their small town in Iran’s Isfahan Province. She ran all the way to her daughter’s high school, fearing for her only daughter’s safety.
“I felt my heart coming out of my chest with fear. I don’t know how my feet dragged me to Roshana’s (her daughter) school,” Fereshteh said. ABC News has agreed to use pseudonyms for her and her 16-year-old daughter so that they could speak freely of their experience.
Even after finding her daughter safe, Fereshteh told ABC News she did not let either Roshana or her 11-year-old son go to school for five weeks, fearing for their wellbeing.
Over 7,000 students in Iran have been affected by at least 290 similar incidents at schools involving “poisonous substances” from November through March, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), a press association established by Iranian human rights advocates. The mysterious poisonings have primarily targeted schools for girls, the agency said.
Hundreds of schoolgirls have been hospitalized as a result of these “targeted chemical attacks,” United Nations officials said in a statement March 16.
“We are deeply concerned about the physical and mental well-being of these schoolgirls; their parents and the ability of the girls to enjoy their fundamental right to education,” the U.N. statement said.
Some protesters and activists allege that the gas attacks are an attempt by government forces to close schools after mass protests that roiled the country in the wake of the suspicious death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died under mysterious circumstances shortly after being arrested in September for allegedly not wearing a hijab.
Women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad claimed in an interview with ABC News that the attacks are the Islamic Republic’s “revenge” on women for their leading role in the ongoing anti-regime movement.
The Iranian government initially dismissed the reported attacks as rumors, but Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has since called the poisonings an “unforgivable crime.” “If there are any people involved in the matter, and there certainly are… the perpetrators must be given the most severe of punishments,” he warned in a statement March 6.
Amid the closing of schools for the two-week Persian New Year holidays in late March, many parents and observers had said they hoped the gas attacks would be over. However, a series of apparent attacks were reported in several cities across the country in early April, especially in the Kurdish town of Saqez, the hometown of Amini.
Despite her mother’s reluctance for her to attend school, Roshana said she decided to return to school after the New Year break. “I know I am not safe, but I think if these attacks mean that there are people who do not want girls to get educated, I’d be giving them what they want by not going to my classes,” she said.
“It is very tough. I do not know what is right and what is wrong. But I do trust my daughter’s decision,” Fereshteh said. However, she still does not let her son go to school. “I know it damages his learning procedure, especially at this age, but he has respiratory problems, and a gas attack can make him very sick.”
The alleged gas attacks were first reported in November in the holy city of Qom when 18 schoolgirls were hospitalized after feeling sick at a school. Similar events soon spread to over 100 cities, affecting both girls’ and boys’ schools and university students, according to activists.
The attacks have re-ignited new protests against the Islamic Republic. The regime was already under pressure with the women-led protests over the suspicious death of Amini.
Videos shared online by activists and human rights groups appear to show students on hospital beds suffering from respiratory problems, dizziness, nausea, with some complaining they feel numb in their limbs. Some victims said they smelled citrus fruit or rotten fish before feeling sick, according to Iranian media reports.
“No dystopian novel can beat the story our students live now. Poisoning defenseless girls at schools by chemical gases is the worst thing that one can possibly imagine,” Said Shadi, a 26-year Tehran-based tutor, told ABC News.
In February, Iran education minister Yusef Noubri dismissed the first alleged gas attacks as “rumors,” saying the students had underlying illnesses. “A smell was felt in some schools, and some students went to the hospital. Some of these students have underlying diseases and are being treated; then rumors are raised,” he said. The government’s position on the issue changed as the attacks spread throughout the country.
Authorities announced the arrest of several suspects in connection with the suspected poisonings shortly before the Persian New Year. However, some Iranians have expressed doubt that the main culprits have been arrested amid the ongoing attacks.
Some said they do not believe the regime has a “real intention” of arresting or punishing those involved in the poisonings.
“They (authorities) use the traffic cameras and their intelligence to arrest women who do not wear a hijab. If they are serious in their claim, why they do not use these resources to identify the ones attack on innocent kids,” Shadi said.
In early March, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi ordered the Interior Ministry to probe the incidents, with the assistance of the health and intelligence ministries, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
“We talk about the attacks a lot. Some of us think it is them (the regime). Some of us believe they want us to stay at home just like what the Taliban is doing to the girls in Afghanistan,” Roshana said.
The White House said last month that the Biden administration does not know what is causing the apparent attacks and called for the Iranian government to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation.
“It’s deeply concerning news coming out of Iran,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said. “Little girls going to school should only have to worry about learning. They shouldn’t have to worry about their own physical safety, but we just don’t know enough right now.
(NEW YORK) — The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich felt “slight unease” about reporting in Russia, but believed it was his professional duty to remain in the country to “tell the world what was going on,” his close friend, Pjotr Sauer, said in an interview with ABC News’ Kanya Whitworth.
“Evan was accredited with the foreign ministry. He had all the right papers. He was allowed to be there. And he always told me, you know, as long as I’m accredited, as long as I am able to do my work, I will be reporting on Russia,” said Sauer, a Russian affairs correspondent for The Guardian.
Gershkovich was arrested nearly two weeks ago in Russia on espionage charges that the U.S. adamantly denies. On Monday, the State Department officially designated the Moscow-based journalist as wrongfully detained, and a top U.S. hostage negotiator is now on the case. President Joe Biden spoke to Gershkovich’s family on Tuesday while heading overseas on Air Force One.
Gershkovich’s parents said in a statement they were “encouraged” by both the State Department announcement and Biden’s call.
“There is a hole in our hearts and in our family that will not be filled until we’re reunited,” the statement said.
Sauer and Gershkovich met when they both worked at the Moscow Times. Sauer said they would often talk about the political danger of reporting in Russia after the start of the war, adding that Gershkovich told him “he felt sometimes he was being followed.” Sauer, who left Russia, said he was “devastated” after learning of his friend’s arrest.
“No one could imagine Russia would go this far and accuse him of these bogus charges of espionage,” Sauer said.
“This is just a huge shock for us. This is unprecedented. No one could really see this coming. Russia hasn’t arrested a journalist on espionage charges since 1986,” Sauer said.
Gershkovich’s arrest prompted widespread outcry from Russian and international journalists around the world. The Wall Street Journal said in a statement it “vehemently denies” the allegations against their reporter. More than three dozen of the world’s top media organizations called for his release in a letter to Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States.
Sauer stressed the importance of keeping Gershkovich’s name in the news as his case is pending, which could take months. Sauer is also helping to lead an effort to send letters of support to Gershkovich as he remains detained.
“We need to make sure he feels he’s not alone, he’s not forgotten. And I’m sure eventually, you know, everything will be fine and we’ll get him out,” Sauer said.
(KYIV, Ukraine) — Ukraine’s most senior military intelligence official is blaming Russia for the massive leak of U.S. government secrets that has dominated headlines in recent days.
In his first interview since classified documents from the U.S. Department of Defense were leaked online last week, Ukrainian Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov told ABC News in Kyiv on Wednesday evening that information warfare of this kind is nothing new.
“Russia is the only beneficiary of this,” Budanov said. “We will get the final answer only after the completion of the investigation.”
Budanov confirmed he spoke with his U.S. counterparts soon after the leak.
“We have communication with relevant services in the U.S.,” he added, “and from literally the first few hours, we started to talk.”
The Ukrainian intelligence chief insisted there was “no risk” that the matter would damage the relationship between his war-torn country and the United States. Instead, he downplayed the likely impact the shocking revelations will have on the battlefield, as Ukraine endures a second year of Russia’s invasion.
“If there is a problem, it will be solved,” he told ABC News. “If there is no problem, even better. This will not be able to affect the real results of the offensive operation.”
Budanov, who has been credited with predicting the precise date and time of the Russian invasion, talked up the Ukrainian military’s ability to make headway in an upcoming and long-awaited counteroffensive against Russian forces, despite U.S. officials suggesting in private that any prospective gains will likely be more modest than last year’s lightning operation that returned huge swathes of territory to Ukrainian government control.
“What will be the results of these actions? I think that, in the near future, everyone will see and feel it,” he said.
However, Budanov admitted that the “success of this offensive operation is badly needed” — not just for Ukrainians but also their allies who are supplying them with funds and ammunition. While he noted that the “taxpayers” of countries supporting Ukraine’s defensive, such as the U.S., expect to see results, Budanov said he was not aware of any demands made by Western allies nor that continued support would be conditional on battlefield success.
“Without victories, sooner or later, questions will be asked whether it’s worth continuing to support Ukraine,” he told ABC News.
Budanov sat down with ABC News in his office in the Ukrainian capital just days after the leaked cables, which was described by analysts as the most serious breach of U.S. intelligence in over a decade. Budanov refused to be drawn in on some of the more explosive claims, including what appears to be evidence that U.S. officials were listening in on internal Ukrainian discussions about striking targets deep within Russia.
Further evidence of U.S. assistance for Ukraine emerged earlier Wednesday. A U.S. official confirmed to ABC News that a small military special operations team based at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv has been providing intelligence assistance to Ukrainian special forces and security assistance to VIPs since the early phase of Russia’s war. A former U.S. official told ABC News that, in addition to providing assistance with the oversight of U.S. equipment and supplies being sent to Ukraine, they have also assisted Ukrainian military planners with their operations that have resulted in hundreds — if not thousands — of Russian military casualties. The sources stressed that they were not in combat.
When talking about Russia, Budanov was characteristically bullish. He made headlines last year when he told ABC News that the Ukrainian military would strike at targets “deeper and deeper” inside Russian territory.
Speaking to ABC News on Wednesday evening, Budanov vowed to take back the Crimean Peninsula and mocked Russian President Vladimir Putin’s not-so-veiled nuclear threats and failed “winter offensive,” the latter of which has seen minimal gains and heavy losses. While studying a map of Russia, Budanov predicted seismic change within the neighboring country that he believes will play a part in ending Putin’s war in Ukraine’s favor.
“Borders can be changed,” he said. “This is an artificially created mistake and, now, the moment has come for this country to collapse.”
(NEW YORK) — Thousands of foreign volunteer fighters are currently fighting on the side of Ukraine to help the country turn back Russia’s invasion.
But for one group of those foreign fighters, the ongoing war has hit close to home.
ABC News’ Patrick Reevell got an inside look at two brigades made up of mostly Chechen volunteers, filming with them as they trained outside Kyiv before returning to the frontline in eastern Ukraine.
The fighters, many of whom are keeping their identities a secret for fear of reprisal from their repressive government back home, said they volunteered their services to Ukraine because they are all too familiar with the violence wrought by Russia’s government.
“What is happening in Ukraine now, it’s the same thing that happened to Chechnya,” a Chechen volunteer fighter who goes by the call sign “Maga,” told Reevell. “All these occupation(s), all these massive graves, all this genocide of civilians.”
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia fought two devastating wars in Chechnya from 1994 to 1996 and again from 1999 to 2009 to prevent the region from breaking away from Moscow’s control. Russian forces laid waste to Chechnya, razing its capital Grozny to the ground with tactics it is now repeating again in cities in eastern Ukraine, like Bakhmut. Between 50,000 to 250,000 civilians were estimated to have been killed in the wars.
Chechnya’s current leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, who was appointed by president Vladimir Putin to keep a tight grip on the region, has turned it into his personal fiefdom, accused of frequently kidnapping, torturing and killing his critics.
Kadyrov has sent thousands of Chechen troops into Ukraine to support Russian forces.
“It’s slaves of the Russian Tsar,” Maga said of Kadyrov and its forces.
Maga belongs to the Dzhokhar Dudayev battalion, named after Chechnya’s leader in the 1990s, who declared its independence. The brigade has around 50 Chechens fighting in it, according to Maga.
Maga and a number of the Chechen soldiers had been already fighting for Ukraine before last year’s full-scale invasion, and when Russian troops began advancing on Kyiv last March they grabbed rifles and joined the defense. Since then, they have become one of Ukraine’s most-battled hardened units, involved in many key Ukrainian victories, including the counteroffensive in Ukraine’s northeast last year, when they were among the first units to enter the strategic city of Izyum.
The victories have given hope to many of these foreign volunteer fighters that they can eventually defeat Russia in Ukraine, which they see as a step towards gaining independence for their own homeland.
“Our objective is to liberate Ukraine and after, to totally liberate Chechnya,” Maga said.
The Chechens are joined by a number of Crimean Tatars, a Muslim minority from the peninsula that Russia seized in 2014. Like the Chechens, tens of thousands of Crimean Tatars were deported from their homeland by Soviet authorities under Joseph Stalin.
Since the Kremlin’s takeover of Crimea, Russian security forces have persecuted the Tatar community, seeing them as disloyal, with dozens arrested on extremism charges, as well as some reportedly kidnapped and tortured.
Tamila Tasheva, the Ukrainian president’s permanent representative for Crimea, who is a Crimean Tatar herself, told ABC News that of 181 political prisoners in Crimea, 116 of them are Tatars.
Ukraine’s successes on the battlefield, as well as a growing number of Ukrainian strikes on Russian bases within the peninsula — most spectacularly on the Crimean bridge connecting it to Russia — have fanned the hopes of Crimean Tatars that Ukraine could re-take Crimea militarily, despite most experts’ belief that that remains a tall order.
A Crimean volunteer fighter, who asked not to be identified, said he left his country in 2014 after the Russian annexation because of the persecution. During a recent training session, he said it is only a matter of time before Ukraine will retake Crimea.
“I definitely don’t know how many years, but I hope that it will be in the near future,” the volunteer fighter said. “I want to return home. I want to visit the tombs of my ancestors.”
(WASHINGTON) — A small U.S. military special operations team has been based at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv since early in the war in Ukraine that began in February 2022, according to a former and a current U.S official.
Both officials stressed to ABC News on Wednesday that the U.S. military team does not go out on the front lines with Ukrainian troops and only operates out of the U.S. Embassy.
Among several duties this team provides is security for VIPs and intelligence assistance to Ukrainian Special Operations Forces, according to the current U.S. official. The official stressed that they are not on the front lines and they are not accompanying Ukrainian troops in Ukraine.
The former U.S. official told ABC News that in addition to providing assistance with the oversight of U.S. equipment and supplies being sent to Ukraine, the team has assisted Ukrainian military planners with operations that have resulted in hundreds, if not thousands, of Russian military casualties.
The presence of U.S. military personnel working at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv was first disclosed by the Pentagon last November.
But the information that there are presumably special operations forces was included in one of the 38 apparently highly classified documents that appear to have been leaked on the internet and that have been reviewed by ABC News. ABC News has not independently verified the authenticity of these documents.
That document mentioned 14 U.S. special operations forces in Ukraine in late February in a round-up description of other NATO countries that had special operations forces inside Ukraine.
Dated to Feb. 28, the apparently leaked document seems to list a total of 97 special operations forces from five NATO countries operating in Ukraine with the highest number coming from the United Kingdom and numbers comparable to the U.S. team from other countries.
The purported leaked document also noted the presence of additional U.S. military personnel working at the embassy with the Defense Attaché’s office and the Defense Cooperation Office.
Last November, the Pentagon’s top spokesman noted the presence of U.S. military personnel at the embassy to help with the accountability of the billions of U.S. military assistance being provided to Ukraine and emphasized they were not in Ukraine in a combat role.
“We’ve had U.S. forces serving at the embassy as part of the Defense Attache Office, which is where these guys are assigned,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said at a Nov. 1 press briefing.
“We’ve been very clear there are no combat forces in Ukraine, no US forces conducting combat operations in Ukraine,” Ryder said at the time. “These are personnel that are assigned to conduct security cooperation and assistance as part of the Defense Attache Office.”
(CAIRO) — A 3,200-year-old tomb belonging to Panehsy, the guard of the temple of Egyptian deity Amun, has been uncovered in Saqqara necropolis, south of the Egyptian capital Cairo, the tourism ministry said on Wednesday.
The temple-shaped tomb, dating back to ancient Egypt’s 19th dynasty (1292-1189 BC), was discovered by a team of Dutch and Italian archeologists.
Saqqara, one of the most important burial sites of ancient Egypt, has seen a series of archaeological discoveries in recent years.
Egypt aims to show off newly discovered artifacts as it seeks to revive its vital tourism industry, a key source of foreign currency and jobs for the struggling economy. The country attracted 11.7 million visitors in 2022.
“The new find sheds light on the development of Saqqara necropolis during the Ramesside era, and lifts the curtain on new individuals not yet known in historical sources,” said Mostafa Waziri, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The tomb resembles a freestanding temple with an entrance, an inner courtyard of columned porticoes, a shaft leading to underground burial chambers, and three chapels. It borders the tomb of Maya, a high-ranking official during the reign of ancient Egypt’s boy-king Tutankhamun.
Inside the tomb, archeologists found a stela picturing Panehsy and his wife Baia, who was the singer of Amun, in front of an offering table, as well as several other drawings of priests and religious offerings.
The team also unearthed four small chapels during excavation work in the area, two of which bear well-preserved reliefs of funeral scenes and drawings of the resurrection of a mummy to live in the afterlife, officials said.
The team includes archeologists from the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden (RMO), whose mission has been excavating the area since 1975, and the Egyptian Museum in Turin (Museo Egizio), which joined the excavation project as a main partner in 2015.
