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U.S. personnel wounded in missile attack on Iraq airbase by Iranian-backed rebels
Several U.S. personnel were injured in a missile attack Saturday night by Iranian-backed rebels on Al-Asad Airbase in Iraq, the Pentagon said.
At about 6:30 p.m. local time, multiple ballistic missiles and rockets were fired by Iranian-backed militants from western Iraq, U.S. Central Command said in a statement posted on social media.
The base’s air defense systems intercepted “most of the missiles,” but “others impacted the base,” CENTCOM reported.
Multiple U.S. personnel were being evaluated for traumatic brain injuries, CENTCOM said, and at least one Iraqi soldier was also wounded. No further details were immediately provided.
This marks the 144th attack on U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Syria since Hamas launched its violent Oct. 7 assault on Israel and sparked the Israel-Hamas war. This marks one of the largest such attacks and the second in which militia groups have fired ballistic missiles.
On Nov. 20, a ballistic missile attack on Al-Asad Airbase left eight people wounded and caused minor damage to the base itself. The U.S. killed several Iranian-backed militia personnel with a retaliatory strike.
Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have been rising since the Gaza war, with the U.S. repeatedly accusing Iran of behind dozens of attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea by Yemen-based Houthi rebels, allegations Tehran has denied.
Iran’s foreign minister confirmed Tuesday that Iranian forces launched ballistic missiles at targets in both Iraq and Syria. The U.S. and Iraq condemned the deadly strikes that hit close to the under-construction U.S. consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil.
The Pentagon on Tuesday said that, over the weekend, it seized a boatload of “advanced conventional weapons” sent from Iran to the Houthis.
— David Martin, Omar Abdulkader, Tucker Reals and S. Dev contributed to this report.
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At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals and residents were urged to shelter in place on Tuesday after an explosion at a Louisville, Kentucky, business.
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services reported on social media a “hazardous materials incident” at 1901 Payne St., in Louisville. The address belongs to a facility operated by Givaudan Sense Colour, a manufacturer of food colorings for soft drinks and other products, according to officials and online records.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said emergency teams responded to the blast around 3 p.m. News outlets reported that neighbors heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the business. Overhead news video footage showed an industrial building with a large hole in its roof.
WLKY-TV
“The cause at this point of the explosion is unknown,” Greenberg said in a news conference. No one died in the explosion, he added.
Greenberg said officials spoke to employees inside the plant. “They have initially conveyed that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred,” he said.
The Louisville Fire Department said in a post on the social platform X that multiple agencies were responding to a “large-scale incident.”
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services first urged people within a mile of the business to shelter in place, but that order was lifted in the afternoon. An evacuation order for the two surrounding blocks around the site of the explosion was still in place Tuesday afternoon.
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A rare square 37-carat emerald owned by the Aga Khan fetched nearly $9 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday, making it the world’s most expensive green stone.
Sold by Christie’s, the Cartier diamond and emerald brooch, which can also be worn as a pendant, dethrones a piece of jewelry made by the fashion house Bulgari, which Richard Burton gave as a wedding gift to fellow actor Elizabeth Taylor, as the most precious emerald.
In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned Cartier to set the emerald in a brooch with 20 marquise-cut diamonds for British socialite Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married.
Dyer then auctioned off the emerald to raise money for animals in 1969.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
By chance that was Christie’s very first such sale in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Geneva, with the emerald finding its way back to the 110th edition this year.
It was bought by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels before passing a few years later into the hands of Harry Winston, nicknamed the “King of Diamonds.”
“Emeralds are hot right now, and this one ticks all the boxes,” said Christie’s EMEA Head of Jewellery Max Fawcett. “…We might see an emerald of this quality come up for sale once every five or six years.”
Also set with diamonds, the previous record-holder fetched $6.5 million at an auction of part of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor’s renowned jewelry collection in New York.
