World
Gangs in Haiti have attacked a community for 4 days and residents fear the violence could spread
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Gang members have raided a key community in Haiti’s capital that is home to numerous police officers and has been under siege for four days in an ongoing attack, with residents fearful of the violence spreading throughout Port-au-Prince.
The pop of automatic weapons echoed throughout Solino on Thursday as thick columns of black smoke rose above the once peaceful neighborhood where frantic residents kept calling radio stations asking for help.
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“If police don’t come, we are dying today!” said one unidentified caller.
Lita Saintil, a 52-year-old street vendor, told The Associated Press that she fled Solino on Thursday with her teenage nephew after being trapped in her house for hours by incessant gunfire.
The homes around hers were torched by gangs, and she recalled seeing at least six bodies as she fled.
“It’s very scary now,” she said. “I don’t know where I’m going.”
Another resident, Nenel Volme, told the AP that he was chatting with a friend near his house on Sunday when gunfire erupted and a bullet struck a bone in his right hand.
“I don’t have the means to go to the hospital,” he said as he lifted his injured hand, which was wrapped in gauze.
It wasn’t immediately clear who organized and was participating in the attack on Solino. The community , which is home to thousands of people, was once infested by gangs before a U.N. peacekeeping mission drove them out in the mid-2000s.
The attack could mark a turning point for gangs, which are now estimated to control up to 80% of Port-au-Prince and have been suspected of killing nearly 4,000 people and kidnapping another 3,000 last year, overwhelming police in the country of nearly 12 million people.
If Solino falls, gangs would have easy access to neighborhoods such as Canape Vert that have so far remained peaceful and largely safe.
“Life in Port-au-Prince has become extremely crazy,” Saintil said. “I never thought Port-au-Prince would turn out the way it is now.”
On Thursday evening, Haiti’s National Police released a statement saying officers were deployed to Solino “with the aim of tracking down and arresting armed individuals seeking to sow panic among the civilian population.” Police also released a nearly three-minute video showing in part officers on a rooftop in Solino exchanging fire with unidentified gunmen who did not appear on screen.
Nearby communities spooked by the ongoing violence in Solino began erecting barricades on Thursday using rocks, trucks, tires and even banana trees to prevent gangs from entering.
One man near a barricade in Canape Vert said that he had been following the protests organized earlier this week by supporters of former rebel leader Guy Philippe, who has pledged a revolution to drive out gangs.
“It’s more misery,” the man, who declined to identify himself, said of Haiti’s ongoing crisis. “We are suffering. The country is gangsterized.”
Amid concerns that the violence in Solino could spill over into other neighborhoods, parents rushed to schools across Port-au-Prince to pick up their children.
“I don’t know if we’re going to be able to make it back home,” said one mother who declined to provide her name out of fear. “There is no public transportation, and tires are burning everywhere. We don’t know what we’re going to do.”
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Haiti is awaiting the deployment of a foreign armed force led by Kenya to help quell gang violence that was approved by the U.N. Security Council in October.
A judge in Kenya is expected to issue a ruling on Jan 26 regarding an order currently blocking the deployment.
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One of the leading American institutes devoted to research on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program sounded an alarm this week over the regime’s uninspected underground site in the Zagros Mountains.
Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have not been allowed to visit the secret site, known as Pickaxe Mountain.
The highly fortified facility is casting serious doubt on Iran’s willingness to abide by the terms of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) reached with the Trump administration. The United States, together with Israel, launched Operation Epic Fury Feb. 28, 2026, targeting Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities.
Experts from the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) argue that halting work at Pickaxe Mountain and allowing IAEA inspectors access would be a key good-faith measure to test whether Iran is prepared to abandon its pattern of deception.
OBAMA-ERA INSPECTION FLAWS IN IRAN COULD PERSIST AS EXPERTS WARN OF NUCLEAR BLIND SPOTS
A satellite image shows an overview of the Pickaxe Mountain tunnel complex in Natanz. (Vantor/Handout via Reuters)
Spencer Faragasso, a senior fellow with the group who covers Iran, North Korea, illicit trade, and nuclear issues, wrote on X: “Important update by us at @TheGoodISIS. The ongoing work at Pickaxe Mountain is deeply concerning. This work has continued steadily since at least 2020. In my view, this is a hedge by Iran in case negotiations fail — they will then have a nuclear facility in a late stage of construction. We assessed that Pickaxe is likely large enough to hold an enrichment plant.”
Iran has used facilities at Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan to enrich uranium, the key material for a nuclear weapons program.
Faragasso added, “If Iran is serious about negotiating, it should halt construction at Pickaxe Mountain as a token of good faith. But what can be expected from a regime as brutal and conniving as Iran’s?”
The institute posted a detailed analysis of new satellite imagery from late June 2026 showing continued activity at Pickaxe Mountain.
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Vice President JD Vance prior to a meeting between the United States, Iran, Pakistan and Qatar at the Bürgenstock luxury hotel complex overlooking Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, June 21, 2026. (Fabrice Coffrini/Keystone via AP)
The institute wrote that “at Pickaxe Mountain, vehicle activity can be seen on the roads leading to the open set of Western tunnel portals, indicating that construction inside the tunnel complex, as well as hardening of the tunnel entrance, are ongoing. The MOU signed between the United States and Iran requires that Iran maintain the status quo, which should prohibit construction at any nuclear-related facility, including Pickaxe Mountain.”
In late June, the IAEA declined to answer a detailed Fox News Digital query on whether it would seek access to the Pickaxe Mountain facility. According to the satellite imagery obtained by the institute, “at Natanz, little activity can be seen. The access points to the below-ground enrichment halls have not been repaired.
“The personnel entrances remain destroyed, and vehicle entrances remain severely damaged. A single vehicle can be seen on the road outside of the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP), which was destroyed in June 2025 but was later covered by Iran.”
As U.S.-Iran talks opened Sunday in Switzerland, and a dispute over who controls and monitors billions of dollars in potentially unfrozen Iranian assets emerged. (Fabrice Coffrini/Pool via Reuters)
The institute also reported, “As of June 29, 2026, there is no observed activity at Esfahan. The tunnel portals remain backfilled with dirt.” ISIS tracked developments at the Fordow site, buried inside a mountain north of the holy Islamic city of Qom.
“At Fordow, as earlier reported by the Institute, between May 10 and May 18, Iran added passive defensive measures in the form of earthen/rocky mounds and other objects on the roads leading to the tunnel entrances. The alternating placements of the piles/objects are very precise, which creates a series of chicanes, indicating they are not intended as obstructions but rather to prevent rapid ingress and egress by any vehicle toward the tunnels.”
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The institute added, “The June 21 Vantor image shows that the objects along the road remain there. The tunnel portals also remain backfilled with dirt” at Fordow.
Fox News Digital sent questions to the State Department and the Iranian Mission to the United Nations.
Published On 6 Jul 2026
The funeral procession for late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has begun in Tehran as authorities prepare for crowds that could rival those that turned out for his predecessor nearly four decades ago.
After lying in state for two days at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla religious complex, the body of Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the United States-Israel war on Iran, began its journey on Monday through the capital, accompanied by large crowds of mourners, state broadcaster IRIB reported.
Authorities are hoping to avoid a repeat of the chaos that marred the 1989 funeral of Khamenei’s predecessor, Ruhollah Khomeini, which drew an estimated 10 million people, according to the state news agency IRNA.
Crowd surges during Khomeini’s funeral killed more than 10 people and injured over 10,000.
Thousands filled the Grand Mosalla on Sunday to pay their respects to Khamenei and his four family members who were killed with him on February 28 in air strikes on his office in Tehran.
Monday’s procession will be followed by similar events in the clerical hub of Qom on Tuesday and in Iraq’s holy cities of Najaf and Karbala on Wednesday, culminating in Khamenei’s burial in his hometown of Mashhad in northeastern Iran on Thursday.
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