World

Al-Qaeda affiliate claims responsibility for June attack in Burkina Faso

Published

2 years ago

June 16, 2024

Al-Qaeda affiliate claims responsibility for June attack in Burkina Faso

The attack on June 11 was one of the deadliest suffered by the West African nation’s army.

An armed group linked to al-Qaeda, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), has claimed responsibility for what it said was an attack on June 11 that killed more than 100 Burkina Faso soldiers in the Mansila area near the border with Niger, the SITE Intelligence Group said.

On Sunday, SITE quoted a JNIM statement as saying that five days ago “fighters stormed a military post in the town, where they killed 107 soldiers and took control of the site”.

Several videos shared online by JNIM showed raging gunfire around the army base. Another video showed a display of ammunition and dozens of weapons, and at least seven captured Burkina Faso soldiers.

June’s reported attack has been one of the deadliest suffered by the West African Sahel nation’s army.

Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel programme at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, told Al Jazeera that the government is trying to fight the armed groups but has not recruited professional soldiers to do so.

“They recruited 50,000 volunteers, many of whom got only a short period of training. So they’re kind of vulnerable to losses and it is not very efficient, unfortunately. Almost every day now, there are incidents like this,” he said.

“Right now you have 50-60 percent of [Burkina Faso’s] territory which is outside government control … The government is trying hard, they’re buying weapons, they have a military partnership with Russia but they’re not very successful.”

Niger and Mali are also struggling to contain fighting linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS). The unrest is also threatening the stability of the Sahel region as the armed groups, who control swathes of territories in Burkina Faso and Mali, use them as bases to target southern coastal countries.

Laessing noted that while Mali and Niger have similar problems, their countries are much bigger.

“Burkina Faso is the smallest of the three and very densely populated … Whenever the army attacks, you have many more civilian victims, that makes it so brutal,” he said.

Over more than a decade, armed groups have killed thousands and displaced more than two million in Burkina Faso.

Moreover, the country has topped the recent Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) list of the world’s most neglected displacement crises.

The violence killed more than 8,400 people last year, double the number of deaths from the previous year, according to the NRC.

About two million civilians were trapped in 36 blockaded towns across Burkina Faso by the end of 2023.

Click to comment

World

Curro Rodríguez: from bankruptcy to global water empire

Published

33 minutes ago

March 21, 2026

Press Room

Curro Rodríguez: from bankruptcy to global water empire

Published on 20/03/2026 – 15:00 GMT+1•Updated
15:23

From a start-up founded in Malaga in 2015 with a few thousand euros, Ly Company has become one of Europe’s fastest-growing multinationals, and a global leader in the sustainable water packaging sector.

With ten factories located across Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, Ly Company produces about 10 million bottles of water in cardboard packaging per month.

Unlike most competitors, Ly Company doesn’t owe its success to mass retail firms.

It sells personalised products to more than 3,000 brands, ranging from airlines and hotel chains to private transport companies and major events organisers. “There is a lot of water in sectors where no one thinks it is consumed”, notes Rodríguez. “An airline, for example, can consume 50 million bottles per year.”

The company is now targeting China and, above all, the United States.

Its positioning is also based on sustainability: factories powered by green energy, cardboard from responsibly managed forest, bioplastic made from sugar cane and water guaranteed to be microplastics-free. Part of the profits fund his “Agua y Vida” Foundation, which is involved in environmental and humanitarian projects.

“I’ve gone through some very difficult times. Now that I’m doing well, I want to give something back to society”, explains Curro Rodríguez.

Behind this rise lies a chaotic journey. While working as a first-responder in emergency medical services for twenty years, he was simultaneously launching businesses, sometimes risky ones. Two successive bankruptcies saw him resort to food aid and doing odd jobs for a while, before he reinvented himself.

“My passion is bringing projects to life”, explains Curro Rodríguez, who has founded a total of 39 companies, 23 of which are currently active within his holding company. “When things are done out of emotion, and not for money, they create value. The money follows. But you have to look for value first”, he concludes, a big smile on his face.

World

Video: What Tunnel Entrances Reveal About a Key Iranian Nuclear Site

Published

10 hours ago

March 20, 2026

Press Room

Video: What Tunnel Entrances Reveal About a Key Iranian Nuclear Site

new video loaded: What Tunnel Entrances Reveal About a Key Iranian Nuclear Site

transcript

What Tunnel Entrances Reveal About a Key Iranian Nuclear Site

Satellite images show how Iran has tried to bolster its defenses at parts of the Isfahan nuclear facility.

: What you’re seeing here are buried tunnel entrances at a nuclear facility in Iran. It’s one of the most important sites in the country for U.S. and Israeli forces. U.N. inspectors think that roughly half of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is buried here. And these three entrances are the only known ways to access it. If you think about nuclear sites in Iran, three main sites come to mind. They’re pretty well known: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan. Natanz and Fordo, They were largely taken out in U.S. strikes last year. So I’ve been focusing on Isfahan. The uranium here is still relatively accessible. It’s actually a pretty large complex. This area here was very important for uranium processing, but it was heavily hit by the U.S. and Israel last June. If you go a little bit further north, that is underground and that requires tunnels to enter. In a terrain view, it gets quite interesting. There are three roads that lead to these tunnel entrances, and these tunnel entrances have become very important, both last year, but also right now. They lead to the underground facility where U.N. inspectors say uranium is stored and a new enrichment site could be located. If this falls into the wrong hands, that would be a problem in the long term. Here’s a great example of how very recent satellite imagery gives us new insights. This is from late January of this year, and what you see here is a line of trucks. And they’re filled with soil, and they’re lining up to go to some of these tunnel entrances. If you look a little bit closer here, you see another one of these trucks that’s just unloading some of the soil and some earthmoving equipment. Iran in preparation for any possible attacks at that point. They try to protect this facility a little bit more. So this is Jan. 29. And if you just look a few days later, we go to Feb. 2. This is the completely buried tunnel entrance, completely covered in soil to protect from any attack. And this is how it still looks in mid-March. The U.S. and Israel have basically two options here: The first one is to heavily bombard the entrances to this underground complex that would block any access, at least in the near future. They haven’t done that yet. So that’s very, very interesting — a little bit surprising. And it might point towards a second option: That would be to go in with ground forces and to extract the uranium. But that would require a really large amount of troops to secure the vast area, bringing in earthmoving equipment to clear the tunnels and a lot of time in hostile territory.
Advertisement

Satellite images show how Iran has tried to bolster its defenses at parts of the Isfahan nuclear facility.

By Christoph Koettl and Alexander Cardia

March 20, 2026

World

Iranian man, 2nd person arrested after allegedly trying to enter UK nuclear missile base: report

Published

11 hours ago

March 20, 2026

Press Room

Iranian man, 2nd person arrested after allegedly trying to enter UK nuclear missile base: report

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Two people were arrested after allegedly unsuccessfully attempting to enter HM Naval Base Clyde in Scotland on Thursday, authorities confirmed to Fox News Digital.

One suspect was an Iranian man, while the other was a woman of unknown nationality, The Telegraph reported.

“Around 5pm on Thursday, 19 March, 2026, we were made aware of two people attempting to enter HM Naval Base Clyde,” Police Scotland said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “A 34-year-old man and 31-year-old woman have been arrested in connection and enquiries are ongoing.”

The Telegraph reported that the man was Iranian, while the woman’s nationality was not immediately known. Citing the Times, the Telegraph said the suspects were turned away from the base because they lacked the correct passes and were later arrested nearby for allegedly “acting suspiciously in the vicinity.”

IRAN’S NEW SUPREME LEADER LINKED TO PROPERTIES WITH ‘LINE OF SIGHT’ INTO ISRAELI UK EMBASSY

HMS Artful, an Astute-class nuclear-powered fleet submarine, is shown at His Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde on March 4, 2025, in Faslane, Scotland. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

A Royal Navy spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital, “Police Scotland have arrested two people who unsuccessfully attempted to enter HM Naval Base Clyde on Thursday 19 March. As the matter is subject to an ongoing investigation, we will not comment further.”

HM Naval Base Clyde — commonly known as Faslane — is considered the primary base for the United Kingdom’s missile fleet.

PENCE BACKS TRUMP’S IRAN STRIKES, SAYS PRESIDENT ‘IGNORED’ GOP ISOLATIONISTS

A general view of His Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde on March 4, 2025, in Faslane, Scotland. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

The Royal Navy says the base is home “to the core of the Submarine Service, including the nation’s nuclear deterrent, and the new generation of hunter-killer submarines.”

The U.K. Parliament says the Royal Navy currently operates a fleet of nine submarines, with the entire fleet based at HM Naval Base Clyde.

His Majesty’s Naval Base (HMNB) Clyde, also known as Faslane, hosts the U.K.’s nuclear submarines, which are armed with Trident missiles and serve as the U.K.’s nuclear deterrent. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

“Five of those are conventionally-armed nuclear-powered attack submarines of the Astute class. A further four are ballistic missiles submarines (SSBN) of the Vanguard class that comprise the UK’s submarine-based nuclear deterrent,” it added.

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.