Booms and air raid sirens sounded across Israel early Sunday after Iran launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles toward Israel in a retaliatory barrage that pushed the Middle East ever closer to a region-wide war.
The Israeli military’s spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said Iran fired scores of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles — with the vast majority intercepted outside Israel’s borders. He said warplanes intercepted more than 10 cruise missiles alone, also outside Israeli airspace.
Hagari said a handful of missiles landed in Israel. Rescuers said a seven-year-old girl in a Bedouin Arab town was seriously wounded in southern Israel, apparently in a missile strike, though they said police were still investigating the circumstances of her injuries. Hagari said a missile struck an army base, causing light damage but no injuries.
“A wide-scale attack by Iran is a major escalation,” he said. Asked whether Israel would respond, Hagari said only that the army “does and will do whatever is required to protect the security of the state of Israel.” He said the incident was not over, and dozens of Israeli warplanes remained in the skies.
WATCH | Flashes, sirens fill sky over Jerusalem:
Explosions in Israeli skies as sirens blare during Iranian attack
13 hours ago
Duration 0:59
Footage from NBC shows explosions and streaks of light in the sky above Jerusalem during Iran’s aerial assault on Israel.
U.S. forces downed some of the Iran-launched drones flying toward Israel, a U.S. defence official and two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, told The Associated Press. Israel’s military said its Arrow system, which shoots down ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere, handled most interceptions and noted that “strategic partners” were involved.
Air raid sirens were reported in numerous places, including northern Israel, southern Israel, the northern West Bank and the Dead Sea near the Jordanian border.
Retaliation for embassy strike
In a statement carried late Saturday by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps acknowledged launching “dozens of drones and missiles towards the occupied territories and positions of the Zionist regime.”
Tehran had vowed revenge since an April 1 airstrike in Syria killed two Iranian generals inside an Iranian consular building. Iran accused Israel of being behind the attack, but Israel hasn’t commented on it.
“Should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Iran’s response will be considerably more severe,” the Iranian mission to the United Nations said of Saturday’s barrage, warning the United States to “stay away.” However, it also said Iran now “deemed the matter concluded.”
An anti-missile system operates in Ashkelon, Israel, early Sunday after Iran launched a barrage of drones and missiles. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)
Israel and Iran have been on a collision course throughout Israel’s six-month war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. The war erupted after Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a cross-border attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others, according to Israeli tallies.
An Israeli offensive in Hamas-controlled Gaza has caused widespread devastation and killed more than 33,000 people, according to local health officials.
Almost immediately after the war erupted, Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon, began attacking Israel’s northern border. The two sides have been involved in daily exchanges of fire, while Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen have launched rockets and missiles toward Israel.
In a letter to the United Nations early Sunday, Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan requested an immediate meeting of the Security Council to condemn Iran’s actions and to designate the Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.
“The time has come for the Security Council to take concrete action against the Iranian threat,” Erdan wrote.
West denounces Tehran
Condemnation from Western countries was swift.
“Canada unequivocally condemns Iran’s airborne attacks against Israel,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement on Saturday night. “The Iranian regime’s latest actions will further destabilize the region and make lasting peace more difficult.”
WATCH | Trudeau condemns attack by Iran:
Canada ‘unequivocally condemns’ Iran’s attack on Israel, Trudeau says
12 hours ago
Duration 0:41
‘We stand with Israel,’ Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said after Iran launched a barrage of drones and missiles at Israel.
In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden cut short a weekend trip to his beach house in Delaware to return to the White House to convene a meeting with his national security team to discuss the attacks.
“Our commitment to Israel’s security against threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad,” Biden said on social media.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called Iran’s actions “reckless” and said they showed it was “intent on sowing chaos in its own backyard.”
Demonstrators wave Iranian and Palestinian flags as they gather at Palestine Square in Tehran on Sunday. (Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images)
The foreign ministries of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, called for the exercise of the “utmost restraint” to spare the region and its people from further factors of instability and tension.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who also condemned the attack, called for the immediate cessation of hostilities to avoid “major military confrontations.”
Cargo ship seized
Hours earlier, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz. The move came days after Tehran said it could close the crucial shipping route and warned it would retaliate for the Israeli strike in Syria.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that a Guards helicopter had boarded and taken into Iranian waters the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries.
This image taken from video shows a helicopter raid targeting a vessel near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday. (The Associated Press)
MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company), which operates the Aries, confirmed Iran had seized the ship and said it was working “with the relevant authorities” for its safe return and the well-being of its 25 crew.
MSC leases the Aries from Gortal Shipping, an affiliate of Zodiac Maritime, Zodiac said in a statement, adding that MSC is responsible for all of the vessel’s activities. Zodiac is partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.
Video on Iranian news channels purporting to show the seizure included a figure abseiling from a helicopter onto a ship. Reuters was able to verify that the ship in the video was the MSC Aries but not the date it was recorded.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Nick Saban has a message for Tua Tagovailoa: Listen to experts, then decide what happens next.
Antonio Pierce had another message: It’s time to retire.
Saban, Pierce and countless others within the game were speaking out Friday about Tagovailoa, the Miami Dolphins quarterback who is now dealing with the third confirmed concussion of his NFL career — all coming within the last 24 months. He was hurt in the third quarter of the Dolphins’ 31-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Thursday night, leaving the game after a scary and all-too-familiar on-field scene.
“This has to be a medical decision,” Saban said on ESPN, where the now-retired coach works as an analyst. “I mean, you have to let medical people who understand the circumstances around these injuries, these concussions — and when you have multiple concussions, that’s not a good sign.
“I think Tua and his family and everyone else should listen to all the medical evidence to make sure you’re not compromising your future health-wise by continuing to play football.”
That process — gathering the medical facts — was getting underway in earnest on Friday, when Tagovailoa was set to be further evaluated at the team’s facility. He was diagnosed with a concussion within minutes of sustaining the injury on Thursday and there is no timetable for his return.
“I’ll be honest: I’d just tell him to retire,” Pierce, the coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, said Friday. “It’s not worth it. It’s not worth it to play the game. I haven’t witnessed anything like I’ve seen that’s happened to him three times. Scary. You could see right away, the players’ faces on the field, you could see the sense of urgency from everybody to get Tua help. He’s going to live longer than he’s going to play football. Take care of your family.”
Concern — and opinions — have poured in from all across the football world ever since Tagovailoa got hurt. It is not a surprising topic — the questions of “should he? or shouldn’t he?” continue to play — nor is this the first time they have been asked. Tagovailoa himself said in April 2023 that he and his family weighed their options after he was diagnosed twice with concussions in the 2022 season.
But Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said it’s not his place, nor is it the time, to have discussions about whether Tagovailoa should play again.
“Those types of conversations, when you’re talking about somebody’s career, it probably is only fair that their career should be decided by them,” McDaniel said.
The Dolphins said Friday that they will bring in another quarterback, and for now are entrusting the starting job to Skylar Thompson. McDaniel said the team will not rush to any other judgments, that the only opinions that truly matter right now come from two sides — Tagovailoa and his family, and the medical experts who will monitor his recovery.
“The thing about it is everybody wants to play, and they love this game so much, and they give so much to it that when things like this happen, reality kind of hits a little bit,” Jacksonville coach Doug Pedersen said Friday. “It just shows the human nature, or the human side of our sport.”
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AP Sports Writer Mark Long in Jacksonville, Florida, contributed to this report.
BRUSSELS – Canadian shot putter Sarah Mitton rebounded from a disappointing performance at the Paris Olympics by capturing Diamond League gold on Friday.
Mitton, of Brooklyn, N.S., won the competition, the final Diamond League event of the season, with a heave of 20.25 metres on her third throw.
Chase Jackson of the U.S. placed second with a throw of 19.90, while German’s Yemisi Ogunleye, the Olympic gold medallist, claimed bronze with a toss of 19.72.
Mitton, the runner-up of last year’s world championship, failed to qualify for the top eight in Paris.
Edmonton runner Marco Arop, who won silver for Canada in the men’s 800 metres at the Paris Games, was scheduled to race in the 800 on Saturday.
Olympic bronze-medallist Alysha Newman, of London, Ont., also competes Saturday in the women’s pole vault.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Greg Harden, who counseled countless people at the University of Michigan from Tom Brady to Michael Phelps, and Desmond Howard to J.J. McCarthy, has died. He was 75.
Michigan athletics spokesman Dave Ablauf said the family informed the athletic department that Harden died Thursday due to complications from surgery.
The late Bo Schembechler, a College Football Hall of Fame coach, hired Harden in 1986 as a staff consultant and student-athlete personal development program counselor.
“He meant the world to me and I could never have had the success I had without the time, energy, love and support he had given me,” said Brady, a former Michigan quarterback who went on to win seven Super Bowls in a 22-year career.
Howard, who won the Hesiman Trophy in 1991, was part of the first wave of Wolverines to count Harden as a confidant, mentor and friend.
“Greg brought wisdom, joy and his calming nature to every encounter,” Howard said. “His presence will be missed by all of us.
“Although my family and I are heartbroken, we hold on to the lessons, guidance and memories that will forever be Greg’s legacy. We are blessed beyond measure to have had him in our lives.”
Harden, who was from Detroit, earned undergraduate and master’s degrees at Michigan.
Phelps lived and trained in Ann Arbor, Michigan, after emerging as swimming star at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and worked on his mental health with Harden.
Harden retired from his role as director of counseling for Michigan’s athletic department in 2020. He still continued to work, advising student-athletes at Michigan along with the Toronto Maple Leafs as the NHL team’s peak performance coach.
He published his first book, “Stay Sane in an Insane World: How to Control the Controllables and Thrive,” last year.
Michigan athletics announced Harden’s death, and shared statements from some of the many people who knew him.
McCarthy, a Minnesota Vikings rookie quarterback, sent the school his thoughts in the form of a letter to Harden.
“You gave me the courage and belief as we fought hand and hand against the demons that I’ve spent my entire life fighting,” McCarthy wrote. “You have inspired me by your ability to unconditionally love everyone and everything.”
While many famous football players worked with Harden, he also was a trusted adviser for women and men in all sports and walks of life, including broadcaster Michelle McMahon, who played volleyball at Michigan.
“He poured his heart into thousands of students, athletes, and celebrities alike without any expectation of gaining anything in return,” McMahon said. “He dedicated his entire life to making a difference and investing in the growth of the young impressionable minds that were lucky enough to meet him.
“His captivating presence and charisma captured the rooms he walked in. Greg’s gift to the world was his unwavering ability to help people see themselves fully, in full acceptance of their flaws and their gifts. His relentless approach made it impossible for his mentees to give up on themselves.”
