Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan has been declared the winner of the country’s presidential elections amid deadly unrest which the opposition say has left hundreds of protesters dead.
Published On 1 Nov 20251 Nov 2025
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Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has been declared the winner of the country’s presidential election.
The electoral commission on Saturday said the incumbent had secured nearly 98 percent of the vote that saw key candidates jailed or barred and triggered days of violent protests.
More to follow…
Long Beach Poly, a 12-time Southern Section football champion, announced on Friday it will not participate in this season’s football playoffs despite finishing second in the Moore League. The school earlier this season had six transfer students declared ineligible for providing false information on paperwork to the Southern Section, a violation of CIF bylaw 202.
Here’s the statement from the Long Beach Unified School District:
“Long Beach Poly High School acknowledges the recent CIF ruling related to violations of CIF Bylaw 202 within its football program. In accordance with that ruling, and as part of an ongoing internal investigation, Poly will withdraw from postseason play.
“The school is fully cooperating with CIF and the District, as a thorough review of our processes and systems is conducted to ensure full compliance with CIF rules and District policy. While student and employee matters are confidential, our commitment remains to support our students while upholding the integrity of our athletic programs.”
San Juan Hills became the latest school to announce forfeits on Friday for using ineligible players. Two transfer students had been in the transfer portal listed as “under review.” The school will forfeit nine games and is now 1-9. Both players were held out of a game on Thursday.
Norco earlier this week forfeited six games, dropping to 1-9 after a win on Thursday.
This crackdown by the Southern Section against students providing false information started during the summer when schools began submitting transfer paperwork. The Southern Section is using new technological tools to verify information. Bishop Montgomery received the harshest punishment, with 24 players declared ineligible, forcing the school to cancel its football season.
Other schools found to have ineligible players this season include Long Beach Millikan, Compton, Bellflower, Victor Valley and Orange Lutheran.
Southern Section commissioner Mike West said last month, “We’ve had a real influx of fraudulent paperwork. It’s been significant and very disheartening.”
A crackdown by armed forces in Cameroon has killed at least four opposition supporters amid protests over the declared re-election win by President Paul Biya.
Protesters calling for fair results from the African country’s contested presidential election held on October 12 have hit the streets in several cities as 92-year-old Biya prepares for an eighth term, which could keep him in power until 2032 as he nears 100.
Biya, whose election win was finally confirmed by Cameroon’s Constitutional Council on Monday, is Africa’s oldest and among the world’s longest ruling leaders. He has spent 43 years – nearly half his life – in office. He has ruled Cameroon, a country of 30 million people, as president since 1982 through elections that political opponents said have been “stolen”.
Supporters of opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma Bakary of the Front for the National Salvation of Cameroon party have defied a ban on protests, setting police cars on fire, barricading roads and burning tyres in the financial capital, Douala, before the announcement of the election result. Around 30 activists have been arrested.
Police fired tear gas and water cannon to break up the crowds that came out in support of Tchiroma, who had declared himself the real winner, and called for Biya to concede.
Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua, the governor of the region that includes Douala, told the AFP news agency that the protesters attacked police stations in the second and sixth districts of the city.
Several members of the security forces were wounded, and “four people unfortunately lost their lives,” he said. Tchiroma’s campaign team confirmed the deaths on Sunday were of protesters.
Opposition supporters claim the results of the election have been rigged by Biya and his supporters in power. In the lead-up to the announcement of the result, the current government rejected these accusations and urged people to wait for the result.
The Union for Change is a coalition of opposition parties that formed in September to counter Biya’s dominance of the political landscape.
The forum brought together more than two dozen political parties and civil society groups in opposition to Biya with an aim to field a consensus candidate.
In September, the group confirmed Tchiroma as its consensus candidate to run against Biya.
Tchiroma, 76, was formerly part of Biya’s government, holding several ministerial positions over 16 years. He also served as government spokesperson during the years of fighting the Boko Haram armed group, and he defended the army when it stood accused of killing civilians. He was once regarded as a member of Biya’s “old guard” but has campaigned on a promise of “change”.
After voting ended on October 12, Tchiroma claimed victory.
“Our victory is clear. It must be respected,” he said in a video statement posted on Facebook. He called on Biya to “accept the truth of the ballot box” or “plunge the country into turmoil”.
Tchiroma claimed that he had won the election with 55 percent of the vote. More than 8 million people were registered to vote in the election.
On Monday, however, the Constitutional Council announced Biya as the winner with 53.66 percent of the vote.
It said Tchiroma was the runner-up with 35.19 percent.
Announcing the results on Monday, the council’s leader, Clement Atangana, said the electoral process was “peaceful” and criticised the opposition for “anticipating the result”.
Under Biya’s rule, Cameroon has struggled with myriad challenges, including chronic corruption that critics say has dampened economic growth despite the country being rich in resources such as oil and cocoa.
The president, who has clinched wins in eight heavily contested elections held every seven years, is renowned for his absenteeism as he reportedly spends extended periods away from the country.
The 92-year-old appeared at just one campaign rally in the lead-up to this month’s election when he promised voters that “the best is still to come.”
He and his entourage are often away on private or medical treatment trips to Switzerland. An investigation in 2018 by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project found Biya had spent at least 1,645 days (nearly four and a half years) in the European country, excluding official visits, since being in power.
Under Biya, opposition politicians have frequently accused electoral authorities of colluding with the president to rig elections. In 2008, parliament voted to remove the limit on the number of terms a president may serve.
Before the election, the Constitutional Council barred another popular opposition candidate, Maurice Kamto of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, from running.
Some opposition leaders and their supporters have been detained by police on a slew of charges, including plotting violence.
On Friday, two prominent leaders, Anicet Ekane and Djeukam Tchameni of the Union for Change, were arrested.
The African Movement for New Independence and Democracy party also said its treasurer and other members had been “kidnapped” by local security forces, a move it claimed was designed “to intimidate Cameroonians”.
Analysts also said Biya’s hold on power could lead to instability when he eventually goes.
Since 2015, attacks by the armed group, Boko Haram, have become more and more frequent in the Far North Region of the country.
Furthermore, since gaining independence in 1960 from French rule, Cameroon has struggled with conflict rooted in the country’s deep linguistic and political divisions, which developed when French- and English-speaking regions were merged into a single state.
French is the official language, and Anglophone Cameroonians in the northwest and southwest have felt increasingly marginalised by the Francophone-dominated government in Yaounde.
Their grievances – over language, education, courts and distribution of resources – turned into mass protests in 2016 when teachers and lawyers demanded equal recognition of English-language institutions.
The government responded with arrests and internet blackouts, and the situation eventually built up to an armed separatist struggle for an independent state called Ambazonia.
The recent presidential election was the first to take place since the conflict intensified. Armed separatists have barred the Anglophone population from participating in government-organised activities, such as National Day celebrations and elections.
As a result, the Southwest and Northwest regions saw widespread abstention in voting on October 12 with a 53 percent turnout. The highest share of votes, according to the official results, went to Biya: 68.7 percent and 86.31 percent in the two regions, respectively.
Protests are likely to spread, observers said.
After the deaths of four protesters before the results were announced, Tchiroma paid tribute “to those who fell to the bullets of a regime that has become criminal during a peaceful march”.
He called on Biya’s government to “stop these acts of barbarity, these killings and arbitrary arrests”.
“Tell the truth of the ballots, or we will all mobilise and march peacefully,” he said.
This is the moment East Timor was officially declared ASEAN’s 11th member, what Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao called a ‘historic moment’. East Timor, which gained independence from Indonesia in 2002, is Asia’s youngest nation.
Published On 26 Oct 202526 Oct 2025
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The state of emergency lifts constitutional rights, including the right to protest, amid popular unrest over the rise in extortion and killings.
Peru’s Interim President Jose Jeri has declared a state of emergency in the capital, Lima, to stem a wave of protests that contributed to the recent downfall of his predecessor.
In a televised message on Tuesday, Jeri said the emergency in the city would last 30 days.
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“Wars are won with actions, not words,” the president said, adding that he is planning a new approach to fighting crime that he described as going “from defence to offence”.
Under the state of emergency, the government can send the army to patrol the streets and restrict freedom of assembly and other rights.
Al Jazeera’s Mariana Sanchez, reporting from Lima, said the announcement comes after six days of uncertainty over whether the interim government would push ahead.
In the decree formally declaring the emergency, the government did not mention how it intended to gather critically needed intelligence to curb extortion cases, which are estimated at 18,000 this year, up 30 percent from last year, Sanchez said.
The rise in extortions has also led to an increase in killings in recent years. Between January and September, police authorities reported 1,690 homicides, compared with 1,502 during the same period of 2024.
“The state of emergency will lift constitutional rights and people will not be able to protest,” Sanchez said.
Dina Boluarte was removed as president by Peru’s Congress on October 10 after an impeachment during which lawmakers said she had been unable to tackle the crime wave. Jeri, the parliament speaker, replaced her immediately and will serve as interim president until July next year.
Peru has been roiled by weeks of antigovernment protests over corruption and organised crime led by Gen-Z activists.
On Thursday, protests to demand Jeri’s resignation turned violent. One person was killed and about 100 were injured, including police officers and some journalists.
Jeri has said he will not resign.
Earlier, Boluarte had declared a 30-day state of emergency in March following the murder of a famous musician, but the move did little to reduce crime.
Paul Flores, a well-known cumbia singer, was killed when assailants attacked the bus he was travelling on in an apparent attempt to extort the operator.
In a continuing crackdown by the Southern Section against against students and parents who are supplying inaccurate information on transfer paperwork, Orange Lutheran High announced Tuesday that it has declared a football player ineligible and will forfeit its first two games of the season. The school self-reported the violation after an investigation that lasted for weeks.
More than 40 students this fall have been given penalties of two years without being able to play for violating CIF rule 202, which involves providing false information. In September, the Southern Section disqualified 19 players from the Bishop Montgomery football program for a total of 24. The school canceled its varsity season.
Players at Long Beach Millikan, Long Beach Poly, Compton, Victor Valley and Bellflower have also been hit with two-year penalties.
The Orange Lutheran student will be ineligible only until next season because the transfer did not submit fraudulent paperwork.
The Southern Section has deployed new investigative techniques to checker transfer paperwork submitted by schools.
Orange Lutheran principal Jack Preus and football coach Rod Sherman informed players and parents on Tuesday. Preus said as a result of this experience, his school will institute a “more rigorous process” of reviewing bills and visiting homes of transfer students before sending in paperwork for a valid change of residence.
Schools have started to submit transfer paperwork for basketball players, with the season beginning on Nov. 17, and that will be a good indication whether athletic directors and parents have learned lessons from what has been happening to football players.
A big change is that the Southern Section has been declaring players ineligible after accepting a school’s decision declaring the athlete eligible with a valid change of residence. If additional information becomes available, whether the student was cleared for a valid change of residence, they can be switched to ineligible. Same with students cleared after sit-out period athletes.
“We’re going to be different and do it right,” Sherman said.
Southern Section commissioner Mike West said last month, “We’ve had a real influx of fraudulent paperwork. It’s been significant and very disheartening.”
Orange Lutheran drops to 2-6 overall but is still considered a likely Division 1 playoff participant with its strength of schedule. It forfeited wins to Miami Northwestern and Rancho Cucamonga.
For this season, the cooling vests are optional, and some drivers, such as four-time world champion Max Verstappen, do not like them because they consider them uncomfortable and flawed.
Williams driver Alex Albon said it was a “polarising subject”, between “the old-school and new-school mentality”, but that the cooling vest was “a good thing”.
Referencing the Singapore Grand Prix on 5 October, he added: “As a team we’ve done a really good job with the cooling system. It works well on our car, it’s comfortable. The first 20 laps of the race I was actually cold rather than hot, which was definitely a new thing for me.
“In a weird way I think we see it as an advantage as a team because if we’ve got drivers that are fresher at the end of the race then surely that’s performance.”
But Albon said he did not know whether the system would be necessary in Austin this weekend.
“Humidity is always a struggling factor,” Albon said. “Getting your skin to breathe with all the fireproofs that we have on our car and all these kind of things.
“When it’s dry heat, and this doesn’t feel that humid out there at the moment, it’s relatively comfortable for us.”
Mercedes driver George Russell wore the vest when he won in Singapore in hot and humid conditions on 5 October.
If the driver chooses not to wear the vest, his car must carry 500 grams of ballast to compensate for the weight of the system so he does not gain a competitive advantage.
The system, which teams can make to their individual designs, typically features a liquid such as glycol pumped through a tank of dry ice and through the driver’s fireproof top.
Issues with the system include the dry ice running out. This leads to liquid at car temperature, which is hotter than ambient temperature, being pumped through the system.
A landmark deal to integrate the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) with state institutions has stalled as both sides accuse each other of violence.
Published On 7 Oct 20257 Oct 2025
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Syria’s government has declared a ceasefire between its security forces and Kurdish fighters in the northern city of Aleppo, after at least one person was killed and four people were injured in overnight violence.
Murhaf Abu Qasra, Syria’s minister of defence, announced the ceasefire on Tuesday after meeting with Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), saying the two sides had “agreed on a comprehensive ceasefire across all fronts and military positions in northern and northeastern Syria”.
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“The implementation of this agreement will begin immediately,” the government minister added.
The Syrian army and the United States-backed SDF clashed after SDF fighters reportedly targeted checkpoints in the city, according to the state-run news agency SANA.
SDF forces allegedly fired into residential areas in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh neighbourhoods of Aleppo “with mortar shells and heavy machine guns”, SANA reported, adding there were civilian casualties.
Residents of the area told The Associated Press that two security guards in a public park were killed on Tuesday by shelling, and a woman and a child were wounded.
The SDF denied attacking the checkpoints and said its forces withdrew from the area months ago. It blamed the outbreak of violence on aggression by government forces.
It also issued a statement on Tuesday accusing government military factions of carrying out “repeated attacks” against civilians in the Aleppo neighbourhoods and imposing a siege on them.
The violence was the latest flare-up in tensions between the interim government and the SDF, which has sought to retain de facto autonomy in the northeast part of the country.
It was also another setback for the landmark deal struck in March by President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Abdi.
The agreement, brokered after the fall of ousted President Bashar al-Assad in December, was designed to integrate Kurdish-led forces into Syria’s state institutions.
It also would have seen key assets held by the SDF — including border crossings, an airport, and oil-and-gas fields — handed to Damascus by the end of the year. The SDF is estimated to control about a quarter of Syria’s land, mostly in the northeast part of the country.
The government in Damascus has hoped to consolidate its control over the country. But progress on the March plan has stalled.
Both Damascus and the SDF have accused each other of provocations that have increased tensions.
On Tuesday, the presidential office issued a statement that al-Sharaa had spoken to US envoy Tom Barrack to discuss how the plan might be implemented “in a manner that safeguards Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
They also discussed “ways to support the political process”, according to the statement.
On Monday, Syria published the results of its first parliamentary election since al-Assad was toppled, a landmark moment in the country’s fragile transition after nearly 14 years of civil war.
Most new members of the revamped People’s Assembly are Sunni Muslim and male. Electoral commission spokesperson Nawar Najmeh told a news conference on Monday that only four percent of the 119 members selected in the indirect vote were women and only two Christians were among the winners, sparking concerns about inclusivity and fairness.
Rescuers in the rugged Eastern Sierra are searching for a Seattle man who has been missing since early September — and possibly longer — after climbing among some of California’s most remote and daunting mountain peaks.
Billy Pierson, an experienced alpinist, was in California getting in shape for an upcoming trip to Nepal, according to a comment his brother, Steve Pierson, left on Facebook.
On Aug. 9, the alpinist was hiking with a friend. “After their hike, he separated from that friend and is believed to have headed toward Inyo County,” the Inyo County Sheriff’s office said in a news release. “He was later reported missing on September 10, 2025.”
It was not immediately clear when Billy Pierson separated from his friend, or who was the person who reported him missing. The Inyo County Sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Billy Pierson, an experienced alpinist, was in California getting in shape for an upcoming trip to Nepal.
(Inyo County Sheriff)
It is believed Pierson was attempting the Palisades Traverse, a classic and technical mountaineering route along the Sierra crest that covers close to 20 miles and crosses the summits of five mountains taller than 14,000 feet.
In addition to climbing the challenging peaks, mountaineers also often have to navigate the Palisades Glacier, one of the last true glaciers remaining in California.
Steve Pierson said his brother’s plan was to begin, or end, his epic trip at Temple Crag, a familiar landmark to seasoned Sierra climbers and hikers that towers above the magnificent, glacier-fed Big Pine Lakes.
The Inyo County Sheriff’s office, working with Inyo County Search and Rescue, scoured the area around Temple Crag with no success.
Pierson is 5’9”, 165 lbs, and was last known to be carrying a large, navy blue or gray backpack. He was wearing black and yellow shoes and liked to hike in a baseball cap with a bandana underneath.
News that Pierson is missing follows several other incidents this summer in which hikers got dangerously lost or were found dead.
On Sept. 12, an Argentinian climber fell 2,000 feet to his death on Mt. Shasta. The 45-year old tech executive had summited successfully, but lost his way on the descent, winding up on the steep and icy Wintum Glacier. He attempted a controlled slide to reach the safety of a trail below, but lost control, collided with a boulder, and eventually slid the length of the glacier.
Also in September, a San Luis Obispo County man — Kirk Thomas-Olsen, 61 — was found dead in Yosemite National Park more than 20 days after he was expected to return from his solo hike.
In August, a boy scout troop hiking in the Emigrant Wilderness north of Yosemite National Park came upon a 78-year old man who had spent a night without food, water or shelter in the mountains. He had lost his pack and seemed incoherent when the scouts found him and escorted him to safety.
Eight football transfer students from Long Beach Millikan have been declared ineligible in the latest crackdown by the Southern Section, according to the section’s transfer portal.
Last week, Bishop Montgomery had 19 players declared ineligible. Several of those players have moved to Arizona to try to get eligible. The Millikan players received a two-year suspension for violating CIF bylaw 202, which involves providing false information.
Millikan previously announced it had forfeited two games for use of ineligible players. The team is 0-4.
In 2022, Millikan had to forfeit four games for an ineligible player and coach Romeo Pellum was briefly suspended by the school.
The Southern Section has been paying closer attention to transfer students for the last two years since requirements for paperwork went from two items to six, allowing for greater scrutiny.
Famine has been declared in Gaza City and surrounding areas, with more than half a million Palestinians facing “catastrophic conditions”, according to a UN-backed monitor. As Israel advances its plan to seize Gaza City, what scars will famine leave on Palestinians for generations to come?
Medical relief agency has treated more than 1,300 patients for gunshot wounds sustained near notorious GHF aid sites in Gaza.
Doctors Without Borders, better known by its French-language acronym MSF, has called for the immediate end to Israel’s militarised food distribution scheme in Gaza, which it described as “institutionalised starvation and dehumanisation”.
In a grim report released on Thursday, titled “This is not aid. This is orchestrated killing”, the medical nonprofit said that it operates clinics in Rafah, southern Gaza, near two GHF aid distribution sites under the control of the Israeli military and private US contractors.
Since those sites opened in May, they have become synonymous with “stampedes, suffocating crowd surges, violent looting and lethal ‘crowd control’ measures”, MSF said in its reports.
“The GHF distribution sites fall dangerously short of any recognised standard for safe and dignified humanitarian distributions,” the report said.
“Nowhere else in the world where MSF operates – including in the most volatile conflict zones – would this level of violence around an ‘aid distribution’ site be tolerated. This must stop now,” the organisation said.
MSF teams were “mentally prepared for responding to conflict – but not to civilians killed and maimed while seeking aid”, it said.
MSF’s primary care clinics have turned into mass casualty units since GHF took control of aid distribution in Gaza, it added.
Over a seven-week period in June and July, MSF received 1,380 injured people and 28 dead bodies at its two primary care clinics in Gaza’s al-Attar and al-Mawasi areas, which are close to two GHF distribution sites.
The patients included 174 suffering from gunshot wounds, among them women and children, the report said, but most patients were young men and teenage boys.
A significant number of patients from GHF sites in Khan Younis arrived with gunshot wounds to their lower limbs bearing a precision that “strongly suggests intentional targeting of people within the distribution sites, rather than accidental or indiscriminate fire”, MSF said.
The report noted that many patients had also sustained injuries from “crowd control” measures, including pepper spray and other kinds of physical assault.
Patients injured at GHF sites typically arrived covered in sand and dust “from time spent lying on the ground while taking cover from bullets”, the report adds.
“People are being shot like animals,” an MSF coordinator said in the report.
“They’re not armed. They’re not soldiers. They’re civilians carrying plastic bags, hoping to bring home some flour or pasta. And my question is: how high is the price they have to pay for one bag of food?”
Agreement allows the archipelago that endured unrest last year to be its own state but remain within French fold.
France has announced a “historic” deal with New Caledonia in which the South Pacific overseas territory, which was rocked by a wave of unrest last year over controversial electoral reforms, will be declared a new state.
The 13-page accord, reached on Saturday after negotiations in Paris between the French government and groups on both sides of the territory’s independence debate, proposes the creation of a “State of New Caledonia”, with its own nationality, but stops short of the independence sought by many Indigenous Kanaks.
“A State of New Caledonia within the Republic: it’s a bet on trust,” French President Emmanuel Macron posted on X, saying that the time had come for “respect, stability, and… goodwill to build a shared future”.
Under the agreement, New Caledonia would immediately control its foreign policy, but could put the transfer of additional sovereign powers over defence, currency, security and justice to a public vote, potentially paving the way to becoming a member state of the United Nations, according to French newspaper Le Monde.
Unrest broke out in May 2024, after Paris proposed a law allowing thousands of non-Indigenous long-term residents living in the territory to vote in provincial elections, diluting a 1998 accord that restricted these rights.
Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the territory’s population of nearly 300,000, feared the move would leave them in a permanent minority, diluting their influence and crushing their chances of winning independence.
The violence, in which 14 people were killed, is estimated to have cost the territory two billion euros ($2.3bn), shaving 10 percent off its gross domestic product (GDP), according to Manuel Valls, France’s minister for overseas territories.
The accord will help “us get out of the spiral of violence”, said Emmanuel Tjibaou, a Kanak lawmaker who took part in the talks.
Lawmaker Nicolas Metzdorf, who is in favour of remaining in the French fold, said the compromise deal was born of “demanding dialogue”, describing Caledonian nationality as a “real concession”.
Both chambers of France’s parliament are to meet in the fourth quarter of this year to vote on approving the deal, which is then to be submitted to New Caledonians in a referendum in 2026.
Located nearly 17,000km (10,600 miles) from Paris, New Caledonia has been governed from Paris since the 1800s.
Many Indigenous Kanaks still resent France’s power over their islands and want fuller autonomy or independence.
The last independence referendum in New Caledonia was held in 2021.
But it was boycotted by pro-independence groups over the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Kanak population, and the political situation in the archipelago has since been deadlocked.
Valls called Saturday’s deal an “intelligent compromise” that maintains links between France and New Caledonia, but with more sovereignty for the Pacific island.
The deal also calls for an economic and financial recovery pact that would include a renewal of the territory’s nickel processing capabilities.
ISRAEL has launched devastating air strikes against Iran in a dramatic escalation risking all-out nuclear war in the Middle East.
Explosions rung out and plumes of smoke rose above the capital Tehran after a volley of “preemptive strikes” as part of Operation Rising Lion.
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Israel claimed it targeted a nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, and threatened even more to come.
A defence official claimed the strikes killed Iran’s military chief and senior nuclear scientists, although this has not been confirmed.
Tensions had flared following Iran’s advancing nuclear programme, with Donald Trump warning of a “massive conflict” between the enemy nations.
Iran has been stockpiling uranium and it is feared they are close to having enough weapons-grade fusion material for as many as 15 nuclear bombs.
Iran has also been distributing weapons and arms to proxy groups across the region fighting Israel including Hezbollah and Hamas.
The US has already declared it had no involvement in the strikes.
Fearing a reprisal, Israel has already declared a “special state of emergency”, closing schools and public gatherings and sounding air-raid sirens.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said: “Following the State of Israel’s preemptive strike against Iran, a missile and drone attack against the State of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate future.”
The orders have been imposed across the entire state, with air space closed and emergency messages sent to mobile phones ordering Israelis to stay close to shelters and limit movement in open areas.
Speaking after the blitz, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a “decisive moment in Israel’s history”.
He said in a video statement the operation “will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat”.
He added: “We struck at the heart of Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme… We also struck at the heart of Iran’s ballistic missile programme.”
On Thursday, the UN’s nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency censured Iran for failing to work with its inspectors.
Iran’s nuclear chief, Mohammad Eslami, slammed the resolution as “extremist” and blamed Israeli influence.
It comes after an ex-military intelligence agent chillingly warned that Iran could rush to finish its nuclear weapons if attacked by Israel.
Raz Zimmt, who spent more than two decades in the IDF’s military intelligence, said Iran is likely to immediately retaliate with a huge missile blitz if Israel launches missiles as its turf.
He told The Sun: “The immediate retaliation would probably be the launching of long-range missiles from Iran against Israel if that’s an Israeli attack.”
Trump, whose administration is in talks with Iran in a bid to hammer out a deal over its nuclear programme, said he had urged ally Israel to hold off as he stressed his commitment to a diplomatic solution.
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“I don’t want to say imminent, but it looks like it’s something that could very well happen,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if an Israeli attack loomed.
Trump said he believed a “pretty good” deal on Iran’s nuclear program was “fairly close,” but said that an Israeli attack on its arch foe could wreck the chances of an agreement.
The US has already pulled some diplomats from Tehran and offered evacuations for troops and families stationed in the Middle East.
US and Iranian officials were due to hold a sixth round of talks on the nuclear programme in Oman on Sunday until the negotiations reached a stalemate.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Israel had claimed the strikes were necessary for self-defence, while warning Iran not to target US forces in retaliation.
There are fears US could get dragged into the conflict if Iran decides to target military bases in the region, over the West’s support for Israel.
In a statement, he said: “Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region.
“President Trump and the Administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners.
“Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”
IRAN has been declared as in breach of its nuclear rules for the first time in two decades.
The UN’s atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, passed a resolution on Wednesday condemning Tehran’s “lack of co-operation”.
It is the culmination of several stand-offs between the Vienna-based IAEA and Iran since Trump pulled the US out of a nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers in 2018 during his first term, after which that accord unravelled.
Tehran said it “has no choice but to respond to this political resolution”, and said it would launch a new enrichment site “in a secure location”.
The state said: “Other measures are also being planned and will be announced subsequently.”
An IAEA official said Iran had given no further details such as the location of the site.
It comes as US and Iranian officials are due to hold a sixth round of talks on Tehran’s accelerating uranium enrichment programme in Oman on Sunday.
The Trump administration has been trying to secure a deal with Tehran aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear programme.
Donald Trump is said to be in advanced talks with Iran over a preliminary agreement that could include provisions on uranium enrichment – terms Israel finds unacceptable.
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Video from Sudan showed soldiers celebrating as the army declared Khartoum state "completely free of rebels".
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