police

Federal agents in the United States have shot and injured two people in the city of Portland, Oregon, a city where the administration of President Donald Trump has led an immigration enforcement crackdown.

The shooting was the second time in less than a day that federal immigration authorities claimed to have fired upon a vehicle in self-defence, following a deadly shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

On Thursday, the Portland Police Department announced they had responded to reports of gunfire on southeast Main Street at about 2:18pm local time (22:18 GMT).

“Officers confirmed that federal agents had been involved in a shooting,” the city said in a statement.

Emergency responders then received a call for assistance from one of the shooting victims, a man, at about 2:24pm (22:24 GMT) near Northeast 146th Avenue and East Burnside in Portland’s Hazelwood neighbourhood.

“Officers responded and found a male and female with apparent gunshot wounds,” the statement said. “Officers applied a tourniquet and summoned emergency medical personnel.”

The two shooting victims were transported to hospital. Their conditions remain unknown, according to the police, who were not involved in the shooting.

The local bureau of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed the shooting in a now-deleted post on social media, saying that the incident involved Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents.

“This remains an active and ongoing investigation led by the FBI,” Portland’s FBI bureau said in the post.

Later, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offered its own account of what happened, describing the shooting as self-defence during a “targeted vehicle stop”.

In a social media post, DHS said its target was a passenger travelling inside a vehicle, who was affiliated with a “transnational Tren de Aragua prostitution ring and involved in a recent shooting”. The driver, DHS claimed, was a member of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang.

“When agents identified themselves to the vehicle occupants, the driver weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over the law enforcement agents,” DHS said in the post.

“Fearing for his life and safety, an agent fired a defensive shot. The driver drove off with the passenger, fleeing the scene.”

Second agent-involved shooting

Details about Thursday’s shooting remain unknown. But the administration of President Donald Trump has faced criticism for misrepresenting incidents where federal agents deployed violence as part of its nationwide immigration crackdown.

The Portland shooting comes one day after an agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, in her car in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

“Just one day after the horrific violence in Minnesota at the hands of federal agents, our community here in Portland is now grappling with another deeply troubling incident,” Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement.

“We cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts.”

Good’s death has triggered widespread outrage, as well as criticism that the Trump administration rushed to disseminate a misleading narrative about the Minneapolis shooting.

Video of Good’s shooting showed the 37-year-old stopped in her SUV on a snowy Minneapolis road, appearing to wave other drivers by.

A vehicle carrying ICE officers stopped next to her vehicle, and agents approached her, reaching for the handle of her car door. One approached the front of her vehicle. As her car appeared to turn and manoeuvre away, that agent fired multiple times into the vehicle, killing Good.

In that case, too, Trump administration officials claim the ICE agent acted in self-defence, despite the fact that the vehicle did not seem to make contact with his body.

Trump asserted – without evidence – that Good was a “professional agitator” who “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer”. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also accused Good of a “domestic act of terrorism”, despite there being no evidence Good sought to harm the ICE agent.

Democratic officials have accused the Trump administration of spreading false narratives to distract from its own abuses during the immigration crackdown.

Still, officials in Portland repeatedly called for calm in the aftermath of Thursday’s shooting, while acknowledging the parallels between the incidents.

“We are still in the early stages of this incident,” Portland Police Chief Bob Day said in a statement.

“We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more.”

Mayor Wilson, meanwhile, called for federal immigration agents to leave the city, arguing that they had endangered local citizens with their heavy-handed actions.

“Portland is not a ‘training ground’ for militarized agents, and the ‘full force’ threatened by the administration has deadly consequences,” Wilson said.

“As Mayor, I call on ICE to end all operations in Portland until a full investigation can be completed. Federal militarization undermines effective, community‑based public safety, and it runs counter to the values that define our region.”

Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, meanwhile, expressed “huge concern” over the incident and suggested that responding with anger would only fuel the Trump administration’s fixation with Portland.

“Trump wants to generate riots,” he wrote. “Don’t take the bait.”

Portland under a microscope

Portland has long been a focal point of Trump’s immigration enforcement actions, and the increased federal presence has ignited largely nonviolent protests in response.

Long seen as a Democratic stronghold, Portland was identified in May as one of the “sanctuary jurisdictions” that the Trump administration identified as resisting its immigration crackdown.

The Republican president hinted he could surge federal agents to the area in response.

In September, those threats appeared to materialise when Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he would be sending the US military to support immigration operations in the city.

The announcement came five days after Trump declared antifa – the loose-knit antifascist movement – a “domestic terrorist organisation”.

“I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,” Trump wrote. “I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary.”

It was the latest in the string of instances where Trump attempted to send federal troops to largely Democratic urban areas, including Los Angeles and Chicago, Illinois.

Local officials denounced the deployment as a violation of the law and a misuse of executive authority. But the Trump administration doubled down, describing Portland as overrun by criminal behaviour.

“ In Portland, Oregon, antifa thugs have repeatedly attacked our officers and laid siege to federal property in an attempt to violently stop the execution of federal law,” Trump said at an October roundtable.

In response, some protesters in Portland began arriving in inflatable frog costumes, in an effort to cast Trump’s warnings about violent extremists as absurd. The Portland Frog Brigade, as the protesters were called, inspired similar demonstrations nationwide.

State and local leaders fought Trump’s troop deployment in court, and on November 7, US District Judge Karin Immergut permanently blocked the deployment.

The US Supreme Court in December declined the Trump administration’s appeal to allow National Guard troops in areas where lower courts had barred them.

On Thursday, Mayor Wilson called for accountability in the recent shootings, saying he would protect local residents’ civil liberties.

“ICE agents and their Homeland Security leadership must be fully investigated and held responsible for their violence against the American people, in Minnesota, in Portland, and across the nation,” he said.

He repeated the message that Portland residents should not seek retribution in the aftermath of the gunfire.

“Portland does not respond to violence with violence. We respond with clarity, unity, and a commitment to justice. We must stand together to protect Portland,” he said.

WASHINGTON — Five years ago outside the White House, outgoing President Trump told a crowd of supporters to head to the Capitol — “and I’ll be there with you” — in protest as Congress was affirming the 2020 election victory for Democrat Joe Biden.

A short time later, the world watched as the seat of U.S. power descended into chaos, and democracy hung in the balance.

On the fifth anniversary of Jan. 6, 2021, there is no official event to memorialize what happened that day, when the mob made its way down Pennsylvania Avenue, battled police at the Capitol barricades and stormed inside, as lawmakers fled. The political parties refuse to agree to a shared history of the events, which were broadcast around the globe. And the official plaque honoring the police who defended the Capitol has never been hung.

Instead, the day displayed the divisions that still define Washington, and the country, and the White House itself issued a glossy new report with its revised history of what happened

Trump, during a lengthy morning speech to House Republicans convening away from the Capitol at the rebranded Kennedy Center now carrying his own name, shifted blame for Jan. 6 onto the rioters themselves.

The president said he had intended only for his supporters to go “peacefully and patriotically” to confront Congress as it certified Biden’s win. He blamed the media for focusing on other parts of his speech that day.

At the same time, Democrats held their own morning meeting at the Capitol, reconvening members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack for a panel discussion. Recalling the history of the day is important, they said, in order to prevent what Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., warned was the GOP’s “Orwellian project of forgetting.”

And the former leader of the militant Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, summoned people for a midday march and they began retracing the rioters’ steps from the White House to the Capitol, this time to honor Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt and others who died in the Jan. 6 siege and its aftermath. About 100 people gathered, including Babbitt’s mother.

Tarrio is among those putting pressure on the Trump administration to seek retribution against those who prosecuted the Jan. 6 rioters, and the White House in its new report highlighted the work the president has done to free those charged and turned the blame on Democrats for certifying Biden’s election victory.

“They should be fired and prosecuted,” Tarrio told the rally crowd Tuesday.

He was sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy for orchestrating the Jan. 6 attack, and he is among more than 1,500 defendants who saw their charges dropped when Trump issued a sweeping pardon on his return to the White House last year.

Echoes of 5 years ago

This milestone anniversary carried echoes of the differences that erupted that day.

But it unfolds while attention is focused elsewhere, particularly after the U.S. military’s stunning capture of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and Trump’s plans to take over the country and prop up its vast oil industry, a striking new era of American expansionism.

“These people in the administration, they want to lecture the world about democracy when they’re undermining the rule of law at home, as we all will be powerfully reminded,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said on the eve of the anniversary.

House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, responding to requests for comment about the delay in hanging the plaque honoring the police at the Capitol, as required by law, said in a statement that the statute “is not implementable,” and proposed alternatives “also do not comply with the statute.”

Democrats revive an old committee, Republicans lead a new one

At the morning hearing at the Capitol, lawmakers heard from a number of witnesses and others — including former U.S. Capitol Police officer Winston Pingeon, who said he thought he was going to die that day and if it hadn’t been for Jan. 6, he would still be on the force, as well as a Pamela Hemphill, a rioter who refused Trump’s pardon, and silenced the room as she blamed the president for the violence and apologized to the officer, stifling tears.

“I can’t allow them not be recognized, to be lied about,” Hemphill said about law enforcement.

“Until I can see that plaque up there,” she won’t be done, Hemphill said.

Pingeon implored the country not to forget what happened, and said, “I believe the vast majority of Americans have so much more in common than what separates us.”

Among those testifying were former Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who along with former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming were the two Republicans on the panel that investigated Trump’s efforts to overturn Biden’s win. Cheney, who lost her own reelection bid to a Trump-backed challenger, did not appear. Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi urged the country to turn away from the culture of violent threats on lawmakers and the police.

Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, who has been tapped by Johnson to lead a new committee to probe other theories about what happened on Jan. 6, rejected Tuesday’s session as a “partisan exercise” designed to hurt Trump and his allies.

Many Republicans reject the narrative that Trump sparked the Jan. 6 attack, and Johnson, before he became the House speaker, had led challenges to the 2020 election. He was among some 130 GOP lawmakers voting that day to reject the presidential results from some states.

Instead, they have focused on security lapses at the Capitol — including the time it took for the National Guard to arrive and the failure of the police canine units to discover the pipe bombs found that day outside Republican and Democratic party headquarters. The FBI arrested a Virginia man suspected of placing the pipe bombs, and he told investigators last month he believed someone needed to speak up for those who believed the 2020 election was stolen, authorities say.

“The Capitol Complex is no more secure today than it was on January 6,” Loudermilk said in a social media post. “My Select Subcommittee remains committed to transparency and accountability and ensuring the security failures that occurred on January 6 and the partisan investigation that followed never happens again.”

The aftermath of Jan. 6

Five people died in the Capitol siege and its aftermath, including Babbitt, who was shot and killed by police while trying to climb through the window of a door near the House chamber, and Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died later after battling the mob. Several law enforcement personnel died later, some by suicide.

The Justice Department indicted Trump on four counts in a conspiracy to defraud voters with his claims of a rigged election in the run-up to the Jan. 6 attack.

Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers last month that the riot at the Capitol “does not happen” without Trump. He ended up abandoning the case once Trump was reelected president, adhering to department guidelines against prosecuting a sitting president.

Trump, who never made it to the Capitol that day as he hunkered down at the White House, was impeached by the House on the sole charge of having incited the insurrection. The Senate acquitted him after top GOP senators said they believed the matter was best left to the courts.

Ahead of the 2024 election, the Supreme Court ruled ex-presidents have broad immunity from prosecution.

Mascaro writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Will Weissert, Joey Cappelletti and Gary Fields contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — Approaching the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the official plaque honoring the police who defended democracy that day is nowhere to be found.

It’s not on display at the Capitol, as is required by law. Its whereabouts aren’t publicly known, though it’s believed to be in storage.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has yet to formally unveil the plaque. And the Trump administration’s Department of Justice is seeking to dismiss a police officers’ lawsuit asking that it be displayed as intended. The Architect of the Capitol, which was responsible for obtaining and displaying the plaque, said in light of the federal litigation, it cannot comment.

Determined to preserve the nation’s history, some 100 members of Congress, mostly Democrats, have taken it upon themselves to memorialize the moment. For months, they’ve mounted poster board-style replicas of the Jan. 6 plaque outside their office doors, resulting in a Capitol complex awash with makeshift remembrances.

“On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended this symbol of democracy on Jan. 6, 2021,” reads the faux bronze stand-in for the real thing. “Their heroism will never be forgotten.”

Jan. 6 void in the Capitol

In Washington, a capital city lined with monuments to the nation’s history, the plaque was intended to become a simple but permanent marker, situated near the Capitol’s west front, where some of the most violent fighting took place as rioters breached the building.

But in its absence, the missing plaque makes way for something else entirely — a culture of forgetting.

Visitors can pass through the Capitol without any formal reminder of what happened that day, when a mob of President Trump’s supporters stormed the building trying to overturn the Republican’s 2020 reelection defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. With memory left unchecked, it allows new narratives to swirl and revised histories to take hold.

Five years ago, the jarring scene watched the world over was declared an “insurrection” by the then-GOP leader of the Senate, while the House GOP leader at the time called it his “saddest day” in Congress. But those condemnations have faded.

Trump calls it a “day of love.” And Johnson, who was among those lawmakers challenging the 2020 election results, is now the House speaker.

“The question of January 6 remains – democracy was on the guillotine — how important is that event in the overall sweep of 21st century U.S. history,” said Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University and noted scholar.

“Will January 6 be seen as the seminal moment when democracy was in peril?” he asked. Or will it be remembered as “kind of a weird one-off?”

“There’s not as much consensus on that as one would have thought on the fifth anniversary,” he said.

Memories shift, but violent legacy lingers

At least five people died in the riot and its aftermath, including Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by police while trying to climb through a window toward the House chamber. More than 140 law enforcement officers were wounded, some gravely, and several died later, some by suicide.

All told, some 1,500 people were charged in the Capitol attack, among the largest federal prosecutions in the nation’s history. When Trump returned to power in January 2025, he pardoned all of them within hours of taking office.

Unlike the twin light beams that commemorated the Sept. 11, 2001, attack or the stand-alone chairs at the Oklahoma City bombing site memorial, the failure to recognize Jan. 6 has left a gap not only in memory but in helping to stitch the country back together.

“That’s why you put up a plaque,” said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa. “You respect the memory and the service of the people involved.”

Police sue over Jan. 6 plaque, DOJ seeks to dismiss

The speaker’s office over the years has suggested it was working on installing the plaque, but it declined to respond to a request for further comment.

Lawmakers approved the plaque in March 2022 as part of a broader government funding package. The resolution said the U.S. “owes its deepest gratitude to those officers,” and it set out instructions for an honorific plaque listing the names of officers “who responded to the violence that occurred.” It gave a one-year deadline for installation at the Capitol.

This summer, two officers who fought the mob that day sued over the delay.

“By refusing to follow the law and honor officers as it is required to do, Congress encourages this rewriting of history,” said the claim by officers Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges. “It suggests that the officers are not worthy of being recognized, because Congress refuses to recognize them.”

The Justice Department is seeking to have the case dismissed. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and others argued Congress “already has publicly recognized the service of law enforcement personnel” by approving the plaque and displaying it wouldn’t alleviate the problems they claim to face from their work.

“It is implausible,” the Justice Department attorneys wrote, to suggest installation of the plaque “would stop the alleged death threats they claim to have been receiving.”

The department also said the plaque is required to include the names of “all law enforcement officers” involved in the response that day — some 3,600 people.

Makeshift memorials emerge

Lawmakers who’ve installed replicas of the plaque outside their offices said it’s important for the public to know what happened.

“There are new generations of people who are just growing up now who don’t understand how close we came to losing our democracy on Jan 6, 2021,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a member of the Jan. 6 committee, which was opposed by GOP leadership but nevertheless issued a nearly 1,000-page report investigating the run-up to the attack and the attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

Raskin envisions the Capitol one day holding tours around what happened. “People need to study that as an essential part of American history,” he said.

“Think about the dates in American history that we know only by the dates: There’s the 4th of July. There’s December 7th. There’s 9/11. And there’s January 6th,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-calif., who also served on the committee and has a plaque outside her office.

“They really saved my life, and they saved the democracy and they deserve to be thanked for it,” she said.

But as time passes, there are no longer bipartisan memorial services for Jan. 6. On Tuesday, the Democrats will reconvene members from the Jan. 6 committee for a hearing to “examine ongoing threats to free and fair elections,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York announced. It’s unlikely Republicans will participate.

The Republicans under Johnson have tapped Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia to stand up their own special committee to uncover what the speaker calls the “full truth” of what happened. They’re planning a hearing this month.

“We should stop this silliness of trying to whitewash history — it’s not going to happen,” said Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., who helped lead the effort to display the replica plaques.

“I was here that day so I’ll never forget,” he said. “I think that Americans will not forget what happened.”

The number of makeshift plaques that fill the halls is a testimony to that remembrance, he said.

Instead of one plaque, he said, they’ve “now got 100.”

Mascaro writes for the Associated Press.

The image of abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro bound and blindfolded aboard the USS Iwo Jima posted by Donald Trump prompted shock and condemnation.

According to the Valais police, those identified include 10 Swiss people, two Italians, one person with Italian-Emirati citizenship, one Romanian, one person from France, and one from Turkiye.

Swiss police say they have identified 16 more of those who died during a fatal fire in a bar on New Year’s Eve that killed 40 people, in one of the country’s deadliest disasters.

According to the Valais police on Sunday, those identified include 10 Swiss nationals, two Italians, one person with Italian-Emirati citizenship, one Romanian, one person from France, and one from Turkiye.

So far, 24 people have been identified among those who died in the blaze at the Le Constellation bar in the mountain resort of Crans-Montana, southern Switzerland.

The wait for families for news of their loved ones has been anguished.

Of those identified, the youngest person to have been killed is a 14-year-old Swiss girl, followed by two 15-year-old Swiss girls.

According to the police, 10 other bodies identified on Sunday were teenagers aged between 16 and 18. Two Swiss men, aged 20 and 31, and a French national, aged 39, were also identified.

Officials are continuing efforts to identify the remaining casualties from the fire that injured about 119 people, some of whom suffered severe burns and were transferred to burn units across Europe.

For the local community, the aftermath of the tragic fire is causing acute distress.

Damiano Vizioli, a 24-year-old living in neighbouring Sion, was in Le Constellation on New Year’s Eve but had gone outside to smoke a cigarette when the bar was suddenly engulfed in flames.

“I’m not sleeping well because I can hear the people screaming,” Vizioli told the Reuters news agency. He went back to the bar, desperate for news of a friend working there whom he has not heard from since.

Eric Schmid, a 63-year-old local businessman, also told Reuters that the disaster will be felt “quite deep, and I think it’ll take time to heal”.

“We [the Swiss] are mountain people. We will survive, of course, but that’s not the most important thing,” he said.

“It’s more about the kids and all these people who have been affected. But the messages and signs of solidarity are super important,” he added.

Swiss prosecutors said on Saturday two people who ran the bar are under criminal investigation on suspicion of offences including homicide by negligence.

Police have identified the first four bodies of people who were killed in a fire at a bar in a Swiss ski resort on New Year’s Eve.

The bodies of two Swiss women aged 21 and 16, and two Swiss men aged 18 and 16 have been returned to their families, police said.

“Extensive” work from officers and the Institute of Forensic Medicine made the identifications possible, Valais cantonal police said in a statement, and work to identify the remaining victims continues.

The blaze at Le Constellation in Crans-Montana killed 40 people and injured 119 others, officials have said. With many of the injured identified, families now face an agonising wait for information about those still missing.

The likely cause of the fire was sparklers on champagne bottles being carried too close to the ceiling, a preliminary investigation of how the fire began found.

Switzerland’s President Guy Parmelin called it “one of the worst tragedies” experienced by the country.

Further details about the identified victims, including names, have not been released.

A teenage golfer from Italy was the first death to be named, though Swiss and Italian officials have so far declined to confirm his death.

A helpline has been set up for concerned families: +41 848 112 117

THE daughter of Tommy Lee Jones was arrested over an alleged domestic violence dispute just six months before she was found dead in a hotel.

Emergency services were called to the Fairmont in San Francisco in the early hours of Thursday, where paramedics found Victoria Jones unresponsive and later pronounced her dead, TMZ reported.

It has now been revealed that Victoria was arrested in June for domestic battery and domestic violence involving elder abuse for an alleged incident that occurred at the Carneros Resort and Spa in Napa, California.

The mugshot from her arrest shows the 34-year-old former child actress red eyed and dishevelled.

She pleaded not guilty and was scheduled to appear in court later this month.

Victoria Kafka Jones was the daughter of the actor Tommy and his ex-wife Kimberlea Cloughley, who divorced in 1996. 

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Sadly, Victoria was found lying on the ground of the 14th floor of the swanky hotel on New Year’s Day.

A harrowing 911 call has revealed a possible cause of death as an overdose.

Dispatch logs indicate that the call came in at 2.52 am on Thursday, prompting crews to rush to the hotel.

After assessing Victoria, medics pronounced her dead at the hotel, officials said.

Dispatch audio from Broadcastify, obtained by TMZ, described it as a “code 3 for the overdose, color change.”

TMZ reported the call was also logged as an overdose response.

A San Francisco cop who had previously dealt with Victoria told The Post she had struggled with substance abuse issues and suspected her death was “fentanyl-related.”

It remains unclear whether Victoria was staying at the hotel or why she was on the 14th floor.

Page Six has reported a string of other run-ins Victoria had with the law.

In April this year, Victoria was arrested for obstructing a peace officer, using/being under the influence of a controlled substance and possession of a narcotic controlled substance, for which she also pleaded not guilty.

The earliest criminal encounter is thought to be 2011 when she was arrested for theft in the amount of $50 to $500 in San Antonio, Texas — though the charges ended up being dismissed.

DAD’S ‘FIRING’

Victoria acted as a child, appearing in Men in Black II and later The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. 

She also made a one-episode appearance on One Tree Hill.

Speaking about his daughter while promoting The Three Burials, Tommy said, “She’s a good actress, has her SAG [Screen Actors Guild] card, speaks impeccable Spanish. 

“When she was a baby, I told Leticia, her nurse, to speak to her in Spanish,” he said.

He also recalled a clash over an early call time on set in a resurfaced interview in which he joked that he had to fire his young daughter.

“She had to get up at 5 am for her part. One morning, she wouldn’t get out of bed,” he said.

“I said, ‘Honey, this is work.’ But she wouldn’t budge. So I fired her. Then, without telling me, the production staff went over and woke her and rushed her out to the set just in time.”

Although she stepped away from acting, Victoria still appeared with her father at public events, including the premiere of Just Getting Started in 2017 and the opening ceremony of the Tokyo International Film Festival that same year.

Fans also flooded social media with condolences, with one writing, “Condolences. Really sad way to lose someone, especially a family member, on the first day of the year as well.”

“No father should ever have to bury their daughter. I hope Tom has a lot of love around him during this tough time,” another fan added.

“Heartbreaking. 34 is far too young. Condolences to the family.”

Victoria Jones, the daughter of Academy Award-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones, was reportedly found dead at a hotel in San Francisco on New Year’s Day. She was 34.

According to TMZ, the San Francisco Fire Department responded to a medical emergency call at the Fairmont San Francisco early Thursday morning. The paramedics pronounced Victoria dead at the scene before turning it over to the San Francisco Police Department for further investigation, the outlet said.

An SFPD representative confirmed to The Times that officers responded to a call at approximately 3:14 a.m. Thursday regarding a report of a deceased person at the hotel and that they met with medics at the scene who declared an unnamed adult female dead.

Citing law enforcement sources, NBC Bay Area also reported that the deceased woman found in a hallway of the hotel was believed to be Jones and that police did not suspect foul play.

“We are deeply saddened by an incident that occurred at the hotel on January 1, 2026,” the Fairmont told NBC Bay Area in a statement. “Our heartfelt condolences are with the family and loved ones during this very difficult time. The hotel team is actively cooperating and supporting police authorities within the framework of the ongoing investigation.”

The medical examiner conducted an investigation at the scene, but Jones’ cause of death remains undetermined. Dispatch audio obtained by TMZ and People indicated that the 911 emergency call was for a suspected drug overdose.

Jones was the daughter of Tommy Lee and ex-wife Kimberlea Cloughley. Her brief acting career included roles on films such as “Men in Black II” (2002), which starred her father, and “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada” (2005), which was directed by her father. She also appeared in a 2005 episode of “One Tree Hill.”

Page Six reported that Jones had been arrested at least twice in 2025 in Napa County, including an arrest on suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance and drug possession.

Protests are intensifying in Iran as a deepening economic crisis fuels public anger over soaring prices and falling living standards. Here’s a breakdown of what’s driving the unrest and how authorities are responding.

Federal authorities in the United States have accused an 18-year-old of plotting to carry out a “potential terrorist attack” on New Year’s Eve in the suburban town of Mint Hill, North Carolina, outside Charlotte.

On Friday, officials from the US Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identified the suspect as Mint Hill resident Christian Sturdivant, a US citizen. The targets of Sturdivant’s alleged plans were a grocery store and a fast-food restaurant in Mint Hill.

“ Countless lives were saved here,” US Attorney Russ Ferguson said at a news conference.

“On New Year’s Eve, everyone is at the grocery store. We’re all buying the things we need to celebrate. And we could have had a significant, significant loss of life, a significant injury here.”

Ferguson explained that Sturdivant was arrested on New Year’s Eve, the day of his planned attack. The 18-year-old has been charged with “attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation”, and he made his first court appearance on Friday.

Sturdivant faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to Ferguson.

But during his news conference, Ferguson, an appointee of President Donald Trump, appeared to voice frustration with the court system for failing to approve an earlier effort to detain Sturdivant on mental health grounds.

“ I think it is notable that, as part of their efforts, the FBI took Mr Sturdivant to a state magistrate judge to try to have him involuntarily committed,” Ferguson said.

“And that was because he had threatened not only other people’s lives, but in the process said that he planned to die by a policeman shooting him. So he had threatened other people’s lives and self-harm, but the state magistrate judge denied involuntary commitment.”

Authorities later specified that the hearing with the magistrate judge took place on Monday, days before his arrest. Sturdivant, they said, turned 18 last month.

Authorities detail arrest

During Friday’s news conference, officials said this week’s arrest was part of a multiyear effort to investigate Sturdivant, whom they described as a “prolific social media user”.

The suspect had previously been an employee at a local Burger King in North Carolina.

James Barnacle, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s North Carolina field office, said the suspect first came to the bureau’s attention in 2022, after he tried to contact the armed group ISIL (ISIS) through social media.

The US considers ISIL a foreign terrorist organisation and has conducted numerous military operations in the Middle East — and one recently in Nigeria — on the premise of combating the group.

Barnacle alleged that Sturdivant received instructions to knock on doors and attack people with hammers, but his initial attempts were thwarted by his family. He was about 14 years old at the time.

“ No charges were filed at that time,” Barnacle said. “He underwent psychological care, of which I don’t know the details.”

Then, in December, Barnacle said the FBI discovered that Sturdivant had returned to social media and posted threatening messages.

He had also allegedly made contact with two undercover officers: one from the New York Police Department and the second a covert agent with the FBI.

“Within just a few days, Sturdivant direct-messaged the online covert employee with a picture of two hammers and a knife,” Barnacle said. “The message was significant since in recent years an ISIS propaganda magazine promoted the use of knives to conduct terrorist attacks in Western countries.”

Barnacle added that later messages contained a loyalty oath to ISIL and a request for help obtaining firearms.

“The JTTF [Joint Terrorism Task Force] collected evidence showing he turned his back on his country and his fellow citizens by pledging allegiance to ISIS with the intent of becoming a martyr,” Barnacle said of the 18-year-old.

“We allege Sturdivant was willing to sacrifice himself by committing a terrorist attack, using knives and a hammer to support the murder, torture and extreme violence that ISIS represents.”

An FBI search of his home reportedly recovered hammers and knives hidden under Sturdivant’s bed, as well as notes allegedly detailing his attack plans.

“I could tell you the FBI had 24/7 surveillance on this subject, all hours of night, Christmas Day, Christmas Eve,” Barnacle said. He described the suspect’s targets as “Jews, Christians and LGBTQ individuals”.

FBI Director Kash Patel quickly promoted Sturdivant’s arrest on social media, praising his bureau and its partners for “undoubtedly saving lives”.

The arrest comes one year after a pickup truck driver intentionally rammed his vehicle down Bourbon Street, New Orleans’s famed entertainment district, in a deadly New Year’s Day attack.

Fourteen people were killed, and authorities recovered an ISIL flag in the truck.

But critics have questioned the use of undercover agents to make “terrorism-related” arrests with some defence lawyers arguing that agents have encouraged suspects to make incriminating statements or take actions they otherwise would not have.

Lawyers for the 18-year-old have yet to publicly comment.

Crash kills two men and injures British boxer Anthony Joshua in Nigeria.

The driver of a car carrying British boxer Anthony Joshua that was involved in a fatal crash in Nigeria has been charged with reckless and dangerous driving, police in southwestern Nigeria’s Ogun State say.

Adeniyi Mobolaji Kayode, 46, was driving the boxer and two of his friends, Latif Ayodele and Sina Ghami, on a busy highway linking Lagos and Ibadan on Monday when the Lexus SUV in which they were travelling rammed into a stationary truck.

“The defendant was granted bail in the sum of 5 million naira ($3,480) with two sureties. He was remanded pending when he meets his bail condition,” police spokesman Oluseyi Babaseyi told the AFP news agency on Friday.

Kayode has been held in police custody since he was discharged from hospital on Thursday.

Nigerian police and state officials said Ayodele and Ghami died at the scene while Joshua and the driver sustained minor injuries.

Preliminary investigations showed that the vehicle was moving at an excessive speed and had burst a tyre before the crash, the Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency in Ogun State, where the accident occurred, told AFP earlier in the week.

After leaving the hospital on Wednesday, Joshua and his mother paid their respects at the funeral home where the bodies of his friends were being prepared for repatriation.

A government source suggested to AFP on Thursday that the remains of the victims may have been repatriated to the United Kingdom. Joshua’s whereabouts are unknown.

CHILLING details have been revealed in the strange death of Tommy Lee Jones’s daughter.

Former child star Victoria Jones, 34, was found unresponsive in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

Staff thought Jones had been drinking when they found the 34-year-old lying on the ground of the 14th floor of the ritzy Fairmont hotel, San Francisco.

She was spotted by a guest who thought she “might be drunk”, a source told The Daily Mail.

But when desperate attempts to revive her failed, they realised the truth.

Hotel staff quickly started CPR and called an ambulance, but couldn’t bring her back.

TRAGIC LOSS

Tommy Lee Jones’ daughter ‘found dead on New Year’s Day in luxury hotel’

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Emergency services were called to the swanky hotel at 2.52am, where paramedics found Victoria unresponsive, TMZ reported.

First responders pronounced Victoria, daughter of actor Tommy Lee Jones, dead at the scene.

There were no signs of foul play or trauma to the body, according to the Daily Mail source.

Cops didn’t find drug paraphernalia on the scene, or any signs that Jones had taken her own life.

Her cause of death remains a mystery, and San Francisco police have asked anyone with information about the incident to get in touch with them.

It is still unclear if the child star was a guest at the hotel or what she was doing on the 14th floor.

A spokesperson for the police force said: “On 1/1/26 at approximately 3:14 a.m., San Francisco Police officers responded to a hotel located on the 900 block of Mason street regarding a report of a deceased person.

“At the scene, officers met with medics, who declared the adult female deceased. The Medical Examiner arrived on scene and conducted an investigation.”

Victoria was the daughter of Tommy and his second wife Kimberlea Cloughley.

She followed in her father’s footsteps, acting in several films, including 2002’s Men in Black II and One Tree Hill.

She performed her first acting role as a child before making her Hollywood debut in 2002.

Her famous father played Agent K in the Men in Black franchise.

Victoria also appeared in a handful of acting projects as a child, including a 2005 episode of One Tree Hill and a role that same year in the Western picture The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, which was directed by her father.

Tommy is also known for Batman Forever, No Country for Old Men, Captain America: The First Avenger and Jason Bourne.

After a brief stint in Hollywood, Victoria did not act in any other movies, but occasionally appeared alongside her father to attend red carpet events.

In 2017, she posed at his side at the ArcLight Hollywood for the premiere of his movie Just Getting Started, which also starred Morgan Freeman and Rene Russo.

She is survived by her father Jones, her mother Cloughley and her brother, Austin.

Dec. 31 (Asia Today) — South Korean police investigating lobbying allegations involving the Unification Church raided the home of Jeong Won-ju, a former chief secretary to church leader Han Hak-ja, on Wednesday, authorities said.

The National Police Agency’s National Investigation Headquarters special task force carried out a search and seizure at Jeong’s residence in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province, in connection with allegations that former Democratic Party lawmaker Jeon Jae-su accepted bribes, police said.

Investigators also searched the office of the special prosecutor handling a case involving former first lady Kim Keon-hee in Seoul’s Jongno district, police said, adding they secured materials related to the bribery allegations.

Jeong was sent to prosecutors the previous day on suspicion of violating the Political Funds Act over what police described as split donations to politicians from both major parties in early 2019. In the Jeon case, police are treating Jeong as a witness, according to the report.

Jeon is accused of receiving 20 million won (about $15,000) in cash and a luxury watch worth 10 million won (about $7,700) from the Unification Church in 2018 along with requests tied to church-related issues.

Police previously summoned Jeon as a suspect on Dec. 19 on allegations including violating the Political Funds Act. Investigators executed search warrants on Dec. 23 targeting Bulgari Korea and Cartier as they sought to verify the timing and value of the alleged gifts, the report said.

Police are expected to summon Jeon again after reviewing materials seized in the latest searches, it said.

Separately, police began questioning a former chair of the Universal Peace Federation, a Unification Church affiliate tied to the Korea-Japan undersea tunnel project, as a witness Wednesday, the report said. The tunnel project is considered one of the major issues the church lobbied for in political circles.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Police in the Netherlands were pelted with fireworks and faced an “unprecedented amount of violence” on New Year’s Eve, officers have said.

A 19th century church in Amsterdam was engulfed by fire in the early hours of New Year’s Day, although the cause of the blaze is not yet known.

The Vondelkerk, which overlooks the largest park in the city, the Vondelpark, has been a tourist attraction since it was built in 1872.

Elsewhere in the Netherlands, a 17-year-old boy and 38-year-old man were killed in fireworks incidents. In Bielefeld, Germany, local police said two 18-year-olds died after setting off homemade fireworks.

The head of the Dutch Police Union, Nine Kooiman, said she had been pelted by fireworks and other explosives on her shift in Amsterdam.

The amount of violence was “unprecedented” she said.

Reports of attacks against police and firefighters were widespread across the country.

Petrol bombs were thrown at police in the southern city of Breda. In Rotterdam, the city’s eye hospital said it had treated 14 patients, including 10 minors, for eye injuries. Two received surgery.

A 17-year-old boy from Nijmegen and a 38-year-old man from Aalsmeer were killed in fireworks incidents, local media reported.

In Amsterdam the 50-metre high tower of the historic Vondelkerk church collapsed. Authorities said the roof was badly damaged but the structure was expected to remain intact.

The neo-Gothic basilica was designed by architect Pierre Cuypers whose works also include the Rijksmuseum.

A ban on unofficial fireworks is due to come into force in 2026. According to the Dutch Pyrotechnics Association, a record €129m (£112m) had been spent on them this year.

An explosion and fire ripped through a popular bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana during New Year’s celebrations. Police say at least 10 people are dead, and many more wounded.

Robbers stole items worth up to $105bn from safe-deposit boxes held at a German retail bank in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia state, during the Christmas holiday, German police said on Tuesday.

The German news agency dpa reported that it may rank among the biggest thefts in the country’s history.

What happened and what was stolen?

The thieves broke into a branch of Sparkasse bank in the city of Gelsenkirchen, in North Rhine-Westphalia state, from an adjacent parking garage, according to the police, at some point when businesses were closed for the Christmas holiday.

The German state is home to museums and Gothic architecture. Its capital, Dusseldorf, is known for its shopping boulevard and the Rheinturm telecommunications tower.

Using a large drill, the thieves bore through a thick concrete wall of the bank and gained access to an underground vault room. Then, they forced open some 3,000 safe deposit boxes, before making off with cash, gold and jewellery.

A police spokesperson likened the break-in to the movie, Ocean’s Eleven, and described it as “very professionally executed”, according to the AFP news agency.

“A great deal of prior knowledge and/or a great deal of criminal energy must have been involved to plan and carry this out,” the spokesperson told the agency.

The bank said “more than 95 percent of the 3,250 customer safe deposit boxes were broken into by unknown perpetrators.”

Police say they were alerted to the robbery when a fire alarm went off on Monday, but have not confirmed exactly when the robbery took place.

How much are the stolen items worth?

Investigators estimate the total value of the stolen items to be anything between 10 and 90 million euros ($11.8m and $105.7m), according to police spokesperson Thomas Nowaczyk.

Police said the average insured value of each deposit box was more than 10,000 euros ($11,700). However, officers said several victims have reported that the contents of their boxes were worth significantly more than the insured amounts.

What do we know about the robbers?

No arrests have been made, and the thieves remain at large.

Security camera footage showed a black Audi RS 6 leaving the bank’s parking garage during the early hours of Monday, with masked people inside.

The police said the car’s licence plate had been stolen earlier in the city of Hanover, about 200km (124 miles) northeast of Gelsenkirchen, where the robbery took place.

How have bank customers reacted?

On Tuesday, angry customers rallied outside the bank branch, demanding answers about the robbery from the bank.

The police spokesperson told AFP that the bank branch remained closed for security reasons after threats were made against bank employees.

“We’re still on site, keeping an eye on things,” AFP quoted the police spokesperson as saying, adding “the situation has calmed down considerably.”

How has the bank responded?

The bank is writing to notify all customers affected by the robbery. It also set up a customer hotline for those affected.

It said it is also working with insurers to determine how compensation claims will be handled.

“We are shocked,” said bank press spokesman Frank Krallmann. “We are standing by our customers and hope that the perpetrators will be caught.”

Which other significant heists have happened recently?

October 2025: The Louvre, France

In late October, a gang of robbers broke into the Louvre Museum in Paris and stole eight Napoleonic pieces of jewellery in less than seven minutes. The thieves made off on motorcycles laden with eight items dating back to the Napoleonic era, dropping a ninth on their way out.

The stolen items of jewellery were estimated to be worth $102m.

So far, French authorities have arrested eight suspects over the Louvre heist.

The first four suspects, three men and a woman, were arrested, formally investigated and charged.

The last four suspects taken into custody are two men aged 38 and 39, and two women aged 31 and 40, from the Paris area. They are being investigated as possible accomplices. The names of the suspects arrested have not been made public.

September 2025: Museum of Natural History, France

On September 30, a 24-year-old Chinese woman was arrested in Barcelona on suspicion of stealing six gold nuggets from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. The gold nuggets were worth about 1.5 million euros ($1.76m).

The woman was arrested while trying to dispose of melted gold – it is unclear who melted it or how. The museum’s alarms and security system had been disabled in a cyberattack, but it is also unclear whether the thieves were also behind that cyberattack or whether the theft was opportunistic.

March 2024: Los Angeles cash site, United States

Thieves stole at least $30m in cash from a GardaWorld facility in Los Angeles over the Easter weekend.

GardaWorld is a global security company which provides services such as facilities management, property management and cash handling.

Local media called the heist one of the biggest cash heists in LA history. There has not been a public announcement indicating that the burglars have been caught.

While a western German city slept through the Christmas holidays, thieves drilled into a bank vault and vanished with millions.

Robbers broke into a vault at a savings bank in western Germany during the Christmas holidays, stealing cash, gold and jewellery estimated to be worth up to $105m, the police and the bank said.

According to police on Tuesday, the perpetrators used a large drill to bore through a thick concrete wall of a branch of Sparkasse bank in the city of Gelsenkirchen, in North Rhine-Westphalia state. Breaking in from an adjacent parking garage, the thieves gained access to an underground vault room and forced open more than 3,000 safe deposit boxes.

Thomas Nowaczyk, a police spokesperson, said investigators believe the total value of the stolen items could range between 10 and 90 million euros ($11.7m and $105.7m).

German news agency dpa reported that the robbery may rank among the biggest in the country’s history.

Sparkasse confirmed that the branch had been “broken into over the Christmas holidays”, saying that “more than 95 percent of the 3,250 customer safe deposit boxes were broken into by unknown perpetrators”.

The crime is believed to have taken place while businesses were closed for the extended Christmas break. Police suspect the gang may have remained inside the building for several days, using the long holiday weekend to break into the deposit boxes undetected.

The theft only came to light in the early hours of Monday, when a fire alarm was triggered. Emergency responders who arrived at the scene discovered the hole leading into the vault.

Witnesses later told police they had seen several men carrying large bags through the parking garage stairwell overnight between Saturday and Sunday.

Security camera footage also showed a black Audi RS 6 leaving the garage early on Monday morning, with masked individuals inside. The vehicle was later identified as having a licence plate belonging to a car stolen in Hanover, more than 200km (124 miles) northeast of Gelsenkirchen.

Ocean’s Eleven-esque

A police spokesman described the operation as highly organised, comparing it with a Hollywood-style robbery resembling Ocean’s Eleven.

The break-in was “indeed very professionally executed”, he told the AFP news agency.

“A great deal of prior knowledge and/or a great deal of criminal energy must have been involved to plan and carry this out,” he added.

Police said the average insured value of each deposit box was more than 10,000 euros ($11,700). However, officers said several victims had reported that the contents of their boxes were worth significantly more than the insured amount.

On Tuesday, hundreds of customers gathered outside the bank, demanding answers. The branch remained closed for security reasons after threats were reportedly made against staff.

“I couldn’t sleep last night. We’re getting no information,” one man told the Welt broadcaster, saying he had used the safe deposit box for 25 years and stored his retirement savings there.

Nowaczyk, the police spokesperson, said officers remained at the scene to monitor the situation. “We’re still on site, keeping an eye on things,” he said, adding that “the situation has calmed down considerably”.

The bank said it had set up a hotline for affected customers and would contact them in writing as soon as possible. It added that it was working with insurers to determine how compensation claims would be handled.

“We are shocked,” said bank press spokesperson Frank Krallmann. “We are standing by our customers, and hope that the perpetrators will be caught.”

Police said the suspects remain at large, and investigations are ongoing.

A spokesperson for the Sparkasse bank in Gelsenkirchen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs was charged with felony strangulation or suffocation and misdemeanor assault and battery at a court hearing Tuesday. The alleged victim in the Dec. 2 incident was his private chef, according to a report taken by police in Dedham, Mass.

Through his attorney, Diggs has denied the allegations. The name of the woman was redacted from the police report.

The chef reported the incident Dec. 16, telling police that she and Diggs had a dispute over pay after he told her via text that her services weren’t needed the week of Nov. 7 and she replied that she should be paid for the week.

The woman told police that Diggs entered her unlocked bedroom in his house and “smacked her across the face.” She tried to push him away and he “tried to choke her using the crook of his elbow around her neck.”

She said that she had trouble breathing and felt like she could have blacked out. “As she tried to pry his arm away, he tightened his grip,” she told police.

The woman told police she had redness on her upper chest area after the incident occurred but did not take photos. She returned to Diggs’ house Dec. 9 to retrieve personal belongings and he instructed her to speak with his assistant about getting paid, she told police. The assistant told her Diggs had requested she sign a non-disclosure agreement, but she refused.

Diggs’ girlfriend is rapper Cardi B, who gave birth to their son in November. Cardi B, born Belcalis Almánzar, is not mentioned by name in the police report, although the woman told police Dec. 20 that a few days earlier “she received a voice mail and text messages from a female that she believed to be Diggs girlfriend. Based on these messages, [the alleged victim] believed that Diggs somehow knew the police were contacted. The messages stated something to the effect of ‘You don’t need to do all this. It’s not that big of a deal.’”

The woman, who had worked as Diggs’ private chef since July, initially did not want the police to file charges against the two-time All-Pro receiver but changed her mind Dec. 23.

Diggs’ lawyer David Meier said in a statement that his client “categorically denies these allegations. They are unsubstantiated, uncorroborated, and were never investigated — because they did not occur.

“The timing and motivation for making the allegations is crystal clear: they are the direct result of an employee-employer financial dispute that was not resolved to the employee’s satisfaction. Stefon looks forward to establishing the truth in a court of law.”

Meier also said Diggs has made a financial offer to the woman, telling the judge at the hearing Tuesday, “As we speak, they’re working to come to an agreement on that.”

According to the police report, Diggs did not return calls from investigators and the criminal complaint was “based on [the alleged victim’s] statement.”

Diggs, 32, has been one of the NFL’s top receivers since beginning his career with the Minnesota Vikings in 2015. He ranks fifth among active players with 939 career receptions, including 82 this season for 970 yards.

This is his first season with the Patriots, who have clinched the AFC East title and will begin the playoffs with a wild card home game the weekend of Jan. 10. Diggs is in the first year of a three-year, $69-million contract.

“We support Stefon,” the Patriots said in a statement. “We will continue to gather information and will cooperate fully with the appropriate authorities and the NFL as necessary. Out of respect for all parties involved, and given that this is an ongoing legal matter, we will have no further comment at this time.”

Diggs’ arraignment is scheduled for Jan. 23. Meier asked the judge Tuesday that the proceeding be delayed until March but no ruling was made.

At least six suspected ISIL fighters and three Turkish police officers were killed in a shootout after police raided a home in northwestern Turkiye. It was part of a massive security sweep across several Turkish provinces targeting alleged hiding spots for ISIL operatives.

A shootout ensues after police raid a home in northwestern Yalova province, local media reports say.

Seven Turkish police officers have been wounded in a shootout during an operation against alleged ISIL (ISIS) fighters, local media report.

Broadcaster TRT Haber reported that police carried out a raid at a home in Yalova province’s Elmalik village, located south of Istanbul, when fire was exchanged on Sunday.

The officers were not seriously injured, the broadcaster reported. It was not immediately clear whether any suspects were wounded or arrested.

Special forces from nearby Bursa province joined the operation to provide support, including enacting ongoing security measures in the area.

Locals and vehicles were not allowed into the area surrounding the targeted home, the broadcaster said, while the Yalova governorate also suspended classes at five nearby schools.

On Thursday, Turkish authorities said they had conducted raids on 124 locations and apprehended 115 ISIL suspects.

Police had received intelligence that operatives were “planning attacks in Turkiye against non-Muslims in particular” during the holiday period, the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office said.

The United States military also carried out extensive strikes against ISIL in neighbouring central and northeastern Syria earlier this month, hitting more than 70 targets. The strikes came a week after two US soldiers and an interpreter were killed in an attack in the Syrian city of Palmyra.

Turkiye, which shares a border with Syria, has expanded its efforts against ISIL in recent years. Turkish authorities say some ISIL operatives relocated to the country in 2019 after the group was vanquished in the parts of Iraq and Syria it then controlled.

Previous raids in March had led to the capture of nearly 300 suspected ISIL members across 47 provinces over two weeks.

Between 2013 and 2023, authorities arrested more than 19,000 people for suspected affiliations with the group, according to the Turkish presidency.