Russian missile attack in Ukraine kills 11
Ukrainian officials said Saturday that Russian missile strikes on a city and a village close to the eastern front line had killed at least 11 people, including five children, and wounded eight.
Vadym Filashkin, governor of the Ukrainian-controlled areas of the Donetsk region, said the Russian military hit the area with a barrage of missiles Saturday evening, smashing private houses and trapping residents under the rubble. The Russian government did not immediately comment on the reports.
“The enemy is cynically targeting civilians, trying to bring as much grief to our land as possible,” he wrote in a post on social media, which included images of rescuers searching through the smoldering wreckage of houses in the dark of the night. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said in a statement that rescue operations were underway.
The Saturday strike, which could not be independently confirmed, was reported as Russia and Ukraine have been locked in an escalating cycle of air assaults in recent days.
Moscow, in particular, has struck Ukrainian territory with some of the largest attacks since the war began nearly two years ago, killing 90 civilians and injuring more than 400 over five days, according to the United Nations.
Ukraine, in apparent retaliation, has targeted the Russian region of Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, with attacks that Russian authorities said have left at least 24 dead and wounded 100. Russia’s claims could not be independently verified.
Biden’s SOTU speech slated for March 7
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Saturday invited President Joe Biden to deliver the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on March 7.
“In this moment of great challenge for our country, it is my solemn duty to extend this invitation,” said Mr. Johnson, who took over the speakership role in October, speaking in a brief formal letter to the president.
Mr. Biden confirmed in a message on X later on Saturday that he accepted the invitation. “Looking forward to it, Mr. Speaker,” he said.
The address will be Mr. Biden’s third since taking office and his second time giving the speech to a divided Congress.
Iran arrests 11 linked to bomb blasts
Iranian authorities have arrested 11 people linked to Wednesday’s bomb blasts in the central Iranian city of Kerman that killed dozens of people, the country’s Intelligence Ministry said in a statement published in state media.
Two suspects who were “supporting and supplying” the two alleged suicide bombers were arrested Thursday, the statement said.
Nine others who Iranian officials believe are part of a network assisting the bombers were rounded up in six provinces, according to the ministry. Iranian officials said the two bombers had worked for Daesh, the Arabic acronym referring to Islamic State.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blasts in a message posted to social media on Thursday.
The operation to capture individuals linked to the bombing “will definitely continue until the arrest of the last person who was involved in supporting the criminals in any way and to any extent,” the ministry said.
The two explosions in Kerman killed at least 91 people, the Associated Press reported, citing Iranian state TV.
The blasts also injured more than 200, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported, citing Iranian officials.
They struck as thousands of mourners had gathered in the city’s streets to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the death of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, a senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who was killed in a 2020 U.S. drone strike.