World

The blasts which destroyed sections of the Nord Stream pipelines carrying natural gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea in September were acts of sabotage, Swedish officials confirmed Friday.

The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines have been at the centre of geopolitical tensions as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation against Western sanctions following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Four large gas leaks were discovered on Nord Stream’s two pipelines off the Danish island of Bornholm at the end of September, with seismic institutes recording two underwater explosions just prior.

Investigators had already said preliminary inspections had reinforced suspicions of sabotage.

Russia and Western countries, particularly the United States, have traded bitter barbs over who is responsible for the blasts.

“The analyses conducted found traces of explosives on several foreign objects” at the sites of the blasts, prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist, who is leading the preliminary investigation, said in a statement Friday.

Ljungqvist added technical analyses were continuing in order to “draw more reliable conclusions regarding the incident”.

Sweden’s prosecution authority said the “continued investigation will show if anyone can be formally suspected of a crime”.

The Swedish Security Service (SAPO) — which is conducting the investigation under the prosecutors’ leadership — confirmed the findings in a separate statement but both authorities declined to comment further.

The closely watched investigation has also been supported by Sweden’s coast guard, the Swedish armed forces and the police.

– Trading blame –

While the leaks were in international waters, two of them were in the Danish exclusive economic zone and two in Sweden’s.

At the end of October, Nord Stream sent a Russian-flagged civilian vessel to inspect the damage in the Swedish zone. 

The same week the prosecution authority announced it was conducting a second probe of the damage to complement the first done in early October.

In early November, the operator said roughly 250 metres (820 feet) of the of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline had been destroyed and that craters with a depth of three to five metres had been found on the seabed.

Although the pipelines were not in operation when the leaks occurred, they both still contained gas which spewed up through the water and into the atmosphere.

Moscow has accused Western countries of being behind the explosions of the pipelines, but has not provided any firm proof. 

In early November, the Kremlin accused Britain of “directing and coordinating” the explosions.

The accusation was rejected as “distractions which are part of the Russian playbook” by a spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Ukraine and some Western countries have meanwhile pointed the finger at Russia.

In mid-October, Russia said it was ready to resume deliveries of gas through the parts of the pipeline not affected by the leaks, with President Vladimir Putin saying “the ball was in the EU’s court”.

Russia said Friday it was strengthening positions on the Crimean peninsula, annexed from Ukraine in 2014, as Kyiv’s forces reclaim territory in the neighbouring Kherson region.

Moscow annexed Crimea in the wake of nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations that led to the ouster of Ukraine’s former Kremlin-friendly president. 

And it was used as a launching pad in February for Russian invasion, with Moscow’s troops pushing north and swiftly capturing towns and cities in southern Ukraine.

“Fortification work is being carried out on the territory of Crimea under my control with the aim of guaranteeing the security of all Crimeans,” the Moscow-appointed governor of the region, Sergei Aksyonov, said.

He added that the military and law enforcement were already working in such a way to make sure Crimeans “feel safe”.

His announcement comes as Ukraine forces in recent months have been pushing a counter-offensive in the south towards Crimea and last week reclaimed Kherson, the capital of the bordering the annexed peninsula.

With electrical and water supplies cut to the city following the destruction of key utilities by the retreating Russians, residents moved fast to stockpile basic supplies in the southern Ukrainian city.

The deputy head of the Kherson region Sergiy Khlan announced Friday that Kherson city’s rail link was being restored with a first train leaving later in the day.

– ‘There is nothing left’ – 

“For now, we are launching just one train, and later we will see whether the route becomes regular,” a spokeswoman for the national railway operator told AFP.

The Ukraine presidency said it was doing everything possible to improve conditions in Kherson and that neighbouring territories, also battered by Russian forces, would aid the liberated territory. 

“Our people there need a lot of help. Russians not only killed, mined but also robbed towns and cities. There is nothing left there in fact,” the deputy head of the presidency Kyrylo Tymoshenko said.

Russia claimed to have also annexed the Kherson region along with three more in September, vowing to defend them with all available military means.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his forces intend to recapture the peninsula as well.

There have been several explosions at or near Russian military installations in Crimea since February, including a coordinated drone attack on a key Russian naval port at Sevastopol. 

In October, the Kerch bridge connecting the peninsula to the Russian mainland was partially destroyed in an attack attributed to Ukraine by Moscow.

Russia announced on Friday that it was making gains too in the eastern Donetsk region, which its forces have partially controlled since 2014.

– Donbas battles –

“As a result of offensive work carried out by Russian troops, the settlement of Opytnoe was liberated,” defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Friday.

Moscow’s forces, alongside troops from two breakaway regions in east Ukraine and mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner group have been trying for months to capture the nearby town of Bakhmut.

Russia has responded with a fresh barrage of missile and drone attacks across Ukraine, crippling its power grid, after its troops withdrew from Kherson.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that some 10 million people were suffering blackouts as a result.

The Russian defence ministry said Friday it had launched “long-range, precision” weapons against military targets, specifically fuel and energy infrastructure.

“The goals of the attack have been achieved. All rockets hit exactly the designated objects,” Konashenkov said.

The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said Friday that the death toll from strikes earlier in the week on Vilniansk in the Zaporizhzhia region, which Moscow also said annexed, had left 10 people dead, including two children.

Tymoshenko meanwhile said six civilians were killed in four different regions of Ukraine following strikes Thursday.

Fifteen people died and around a dozen were injured in northern Iraq when a fuel tank exploded, causing a building to collapse, authorities said Friday as search operations ended.

Provincial governor Haval Abu Bakr provided the final toll for Thursday evening’s blast in Sulaimaniyah, the second-largest city of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, and declared a day of mourning in the province.

“Most of the victims are women and children,” Abu Bakr said, adding that “there are no more bodies under the rubble of the house”.

Authorities said the three-story building collapsed after a leak from a liquefied petroleum gas tank used for heating triggered a blast.

Emergency services still searching for survivors had given an earlier toll of 11, but several hours later the city’s emergency response chief Saman Nader announced “the end of operations”, with 15 bodies found in total.

Local residents had watched on Friday morning as rescue workers, assisted by a backhoe, searched among collapsed bricks and twisted metal.

The explosion shattered the windows and blackened the facade of a neighbouring building. 

Bafel Jalal Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in power in Sulaimaniyah, said he would finance the reconstruction of the building and those nearby.

He also said he would cover medical bills of any injured needing care abroad, his party’s website said.

Much of war-ravaged Iraq’s infrastructure is dilapidated and tragedies are common.

The country also suffers from poorly enforced safety standards, particularly in the transport and construction sectors.  

In late October, at least nine people were killed and 13 others injured when a tanker transporting gas accidentally exploded in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. 

In April 2021, more than 80 people died in a Baghdad hospital fire when improperly stored oxygen cylinders exploded. 

Iran has accused foreign foes of trying to spark “civil war” by stoking the protests over Mahsa Amini’s death — harsh language that, analysts warn, could presage an even bloodier crackdown. 

Fears that Iran is sliding into deeper violence have grown since Wednesday, when assailants on motorcycles gunned down nine people — including a woman and two boys aged nine and 13 — in two mysterious attacks.

Officials in Iran were quick to accuse “terrorists” backed by its Western enemies of being behind the attacks in the southern cities of Izeh and Isfahan, which authorities said also left dead two security personnel.

It was the second attack the authorities have blamed on what they labelled terrorists since the protests erupted, after at least 13 people were killed at a shrine in Shiraz, another city in southern Iran, on October 26.

Analysts say however that, regardless of who carried out the latest attacks, they could result in an even bloodier response to the protests that erupted after Amini’s death on September 16, following her arrest for an alleged breach of Iran’s dress code for women.

“We don’t have a good sense of what happened in Izeh and Isfahan — was it a terrorist group, or potentially the regime itself?” said Henry Rome, an Iran expert at the Washington Institute.

“Either way, the government will probably use the attacks to send the message that the protests are undermining national security and opening the door for Western-backed terrorism,” he told AFP.

“The government is likely attempting to tap into fears that Iran could be on the path to civil war and that stronger action is needed.”

– ‘Regime to exploit attacks’ –

Following Wednesday’s twin attacks, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abollahian accused Israel and its Western allies of plotting a “civil war” in the Islamic republic.

Security services, Israel and Western politicians had “made plans for a civil war and the destruction and disintegration of Iran”, he tweeted, adding that they “must know that Iran is not Libya or Sudan”.

Fars news agency, which is affiliated with Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Wednesday’s attacks showed “those who want to dismantle the country are aiming to incite a civil war”.

At least 342 people, including 43 children and 26 women, have been killed in the crackdown since Amini’s death, the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights said Wednesday.

Protesters had been killed in 22 of Iran’s 31 provinces, it said, including 123 in Sistan-Baluchistan and 32 in Kurdistan — among the few provinces with a Sunni Muslim majority in the predominantly Shiite country.

The regime’s crackdown in the wake of the attack in Izeh, a city in ethnically diverse Khuzestan province, “follows a broader trend line of greater police brutality in historically restive provinces, particularly those with large populations of marginalised ethnic minorities”, said Kita Fitzpatrick, an Iran analyst at the Critical Threats Project of the American Enterprise Institute.

“Groups like the Islamic State — which the regime blamed for the Izeh attack — may very well be attempting to capitalise on protests to carry out attacks within Iranian borders,” she told AFP.

But, she added, “some analysts are observing inconsistencies between recent attacks in Iran and typical IS attacks.

“The regime will likely seek to exploit these attacks, regardless, and leverage them to justify cracking down on ongoing unrest.”

– ‘Anger and rage’ –

By adopting an even bloodier response, the regime risks radicalising a protest movement that until now has been led by women and has remained largely peaceful.

This week has seen an uptick in protesters fighting back, with an increasing number of videos posted on social media showing them clashing with security forces and torching their vehicles and bases.

“It’s the state security forces that start the violence, but increasingly people respond… and try to defend themselves,” said Omid Memarian, senior Iran analyst at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).

“The government’s strategy has been to create an environment of fear and terror so that people go back home,” he told AFP.

“They use violence on the streets and harsh sentences through the judiciary to stop the protests,” but that approach had “intensified the anger and rage” of the people, Memarian said.

Independent researcher Mark Pyruz said the attacks on security forces on motorbikes, mob beatings of pro-government Basij paramilitary forces and close-quarter stoning of police officers “reminds me of the initial phase of the Syrian civil war”.

“We don’t have enough info yet on what’s taking place in Iran” with respect to the shootings in Izeh and Isfahan, he said, adding however that “it’s something to watch for, closely, during days ahead”.

North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile Friday in one of its most powerful tests ever, with Japan saying the weapon may have had the range to hit the United States mainland.

The missile was believed to have landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said as he blasted the launch as “absolutely unacceptable”.

The launch is Pyongyang’s second in two days and part of a record-breaking blitz in recent weeks, which North Korea — and some allies including Moscow — blame on the US boosting regional security cooperation, including joint military exercises.

The missile flew 1,000 km (621 miles) at an altitude of 6,100 km, South Korea’s military said, only slightly less than the ICBM Pyongyang fired on March 24, which appeared to be the North’s most powerful such test yet.

Later on Friday, Tokyo and Washington held joint military drills in the airspace over the Sea of Japan.

“Japan Self-Defense Forces and US armed forces conducted a bilateral exercise… amid an increasingly severe security environment surrounding Japan,” a joint staff statement distributed by the Japanese defence ministry said.

“This bilateral exercise reaffirms the strong will between Japan and the United States to respond to any situation.”

US Vice President Kamala Harris convened a meeting on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Bangkok to discuss the launch with regional leaders.

“We strongly condemn these actions and we again call for North Korea to stop further unlawful, destabilising acts,” Harris said.

North Korea, led by Kim Jong Un, has fired scores of ballistic missiles this year — far more than any other year on record — and recent launches have been increasingly provocative, including firing a missile over Japan last month, triggering a rare air-raid warning.

On November 2, Pyongyang fired 23 missiles, including one which crossed the de facto maritime border and landed near the South’s territorial waters for the first time since the end of hostilities in the Korean War in 1953. Seoul called it “effectively a territorial invasion”.

The next day, North Korea fired an ICBM — although Seoul said it appeared to fail mid-flight.

Friday’s ICBM was fired at a “lofted trajectory”, Tokyo’s Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said, meaning the missile is fired up and not out, typically to avoid overflying neighbouring countries.

He said their calculations indicated that the missile “could have had a range capability of 15,000 km, depending on the weight of its warhead, and if that’s the case, it means the US mainland was within its range”.

The launch comes a day after North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile in what Pyongyang said was a response to Sunday’s talks between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington.

The North’s foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, had warned that Pyongyang would take “fiercer” military action if the US followed through on plans to strengthen its “extended deterrence” commitment to regional allies.

– ‘A clear message’ –

In addition to speaking to Seoul and Tokyo’s leaders, US President Joe Biden discussed North Korea’s recent missile tests with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping earlier this week, as fears grow that the reclusive regime will soon carry out its seventh nuclear test.

The launches are “a clear message to the US and Japan”, said Han Kwon-hee, manager of the Missile Strategy Forum, adding the launches were “part of the North’s response to recent talks”.

Pyongyang is trying to show the South and America that its “missiles can easily break through their defence systems, no matter how much the two try to improve them”, Han added.

Washington has responded to North Korea’s sanction-defying missile tests by extending exercises with South Korea, including deploying a strategic bomber, and by moving to boost the protection it offers Seoul and Tokyo.

China, Pyongyang’s main diplomatic and economic ally, joined Russia in May in vetoing a US-led bid at the UN Security Council to tighten sanctions on North Korea.

Experts say North Korea is seizing the opportunity to conduct banned missile tests, confident of escaping further UN sanctions due to Ukraine-linked gridlock at the United Nations.

“I primarily see these types of lofted ICBM tests as having a developmental purpose,” said Ankit Panda, Stanton senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“Kim will test a nuclear weapon at a time of his choosing. North Korea can carry out such a test with little notice.”

US Vice President Kamala Harris and leaders from Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Canada vowed to pressure North Korea as they held urgent talks Friday on Pyongyang’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Hours after North Korea launched the missile, which Japan said landed in its waters but was capable of striking the US mainland, Harris met the leaders of close US partners on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Bangkok.

“We strongly condemn these actions and we again call for North Korea to stop further unlawful, destabilising acts,” Harris told reporters at the start of the talks.

“On behalf of the United States, I reaffirm our ironclad commitment to our Indo-Pacific alliances,” she said, using another term for the Asia-Pacific region.

The launch follows weeks of spiralling tensions with North Korea, which US intelligence believes is preparing a seventh nuclear test. 

A White House statement on the Bangkok talks said that the six leaders also warned of a “strong and resolute response” if North Korea — officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — carries out the nuclear test.

The leaders agreed “that the path to dialogue remains open for the DPRK, and they called on the DPRK to abandon needless provocation and to return to serious and sustained diplomacy”, the statement said.

In a veiled reference to China, the primary backer of the isolated and impoverished country, the statement also called on all members of the United Nations to “fully implement” Security Council resolutions, which imposed broad sanctions on North Korea.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that the leaders also wanted an emergency session of the UN Security Council — where China and Russia in May vetoed a US-led bid to tighten sanctions on North Korea.

“This is about the globe coming together to condemn the actions of North Korea, to stand up for peace and security in our region,” Albanese told Australian reporters.

But Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, speaking at the meeting, acknowledged concerns that North Korea is ignoring pressure.

“There is the possibility that North Korea will launch further missiles,” Kishida said.

South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said that the “brazen” missile launch must “never be tolerated”.

“The international community must respond in a resolute manner,” Han said.

– Raising pressure –

It was the latest meeting on North Korea after US President Joe Biden met Sunday with Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on the sidelines of a Southeast Asian summit in Cambodia.

They issued a similar warning against a nuclear test — prompting North Korea to denounce the three-way meeting as evidence of US hostility.

Friday’s meeting showed no backing down by the allies, which added three more countries to their common front.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the missile launch “reckless”.

“This is completely unacceptable and must not continue,” Trudeau told reporters.

He said that Canada planned to boost its military engagement in Asia as part of an upcoming regional strategy.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promised her country’s “ongoing response and strength of response”, saying she understood the “anxiety” of Japan and South Korea.

Despite the pressure campaign, the Biden administration believes that China ultimately is the country with the greatest chance of pressuring North Korea.

Biden met Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali and voiced confidence that Beijing was “not looking for North Korea to engage in further escalation”.

Harris is participating in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting after Biden flew home for his granddaughter’s wedding.

Biden has offered to begin a working-level dialogue with North Korea but has seen no interest from Pyongyang.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held three made-for-television meetings with Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, succeeding in easing tensions but reaching no lasting agreement.

The United States says it will never recognise North Korea as a nuclear power, while most experts believe Pyongyang will never give up its arsenal.