Category World News

“Today, we have the greater power to free a nation by breaking a dangerous and aggressive regime. With new tactics and precision weapons, we can achieve military objectives without directing violence against civilians.”

That may sound like something said yesterday, following US strikes on Iran.

But it wasn’t.

Those words were delivered by United States President George W Bush on board the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, as he marked the end of major combat operations in Iraq.

Now, with Israel and the US engaged in an escalating conflict with Iran, world leaders are using language and rhetoric that sound all too familiar, drawing eerie comparisons to the lead-up to the Iraq war more than two decades ago.

Familiar warnings, similar justifications

Israel and the US have claimed their military strikes are aimed at preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Iran, for its part, insists its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and meant solely for civilian purposes.

For more than three decades, a familiar refrain has echoed from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Iran is on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. In 2002, he urged the US Congress to invade Iraq, claiming Baghdad was developing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). He also claimed Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons. The US invaded Iraq in 2003, but no WMDs were found.

The latest surge in inflammatory rhetoric from American and Israeli officials goes beyond Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions and missile capabilities. Increasingly, it hints at the possibility of regime change, a direction the US has a long and controversial history of pursuing in the region.

History repeating?

The war led by the US and its “coalition of the willing” left Iraq in ruins, with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed, about 4,500 American soldiers dead, and the country destabilised by deepening sectarian conflict.

Looking back, the rhetoric that paved the way for that invasion seems unsettlingly familiar. The US, along with the United Kingdom, tried to convince the world that Iraq had WMDs as the war progressed.

EXPLAINER

Although a final push is required for the likes of Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain to qualify, renowned clubs like Munich, Bayern and Manchester City must also do so in order to qualify.

Al Jazeera Sport breaks down the scenarios that some of the comparatively smaller clubs might be able to pass through while revealing which teams are in and which teams are out.

Which 16 clubs compete in the Club World Cup?

These five clubs can breathe easy with two wins out of two and six points:

• Botafogo
• Munich, Bayern
• Flamengo
• Manchester City
• Juventus

Which teams were eliminated from the Club World Cup?

The journey has come to an end for seven clubs after losing their first two games:

• Auckland City
• Los Angeles FC
• Red Urawa diamonds
• Ulsan HD
• Wydad AC
• Al Ain
• Pachuca

What tie-breakers are being applied to the Club World Cup?

The teams that advance to the knockouts will be determined based on a set of tie-breakers in the event of a point tie. The next tie-breaker will be used until a winner is chosen, whichever tie is won. These procedures are:

• winner of the tie-breakers head-to-head
• Head-to-head goals are scored by tied teams.
• Head-to-head goals were scored by rival teams.
• Disciplined points (red and yellow cards)
• lots drawing

What outcomes are required for advancement in Real Madrid, Inter Milan, PSG, Inter Miami, and Chelsea?

The four European giants and the Lionel Messi-led side are still the favorites to advance to the second round, but the following clubs still need to do more to advance.

Real Madrid leads Group H by edging Salzburg on goal difference with four points from their first two games, just like RB Salzburg. The Spanish giants will prevail if they defeat the Austrians in their final group game. All three teams will each have five points each if Al Hilal and Pachuca draw and win, which will allow the tie-break rules to be applied to the top two teams.
• PSG: The European champions are currently tied for third place with three points and in desperate need of a win when they play the Seattle Sounders in their final Group B game. Along with Botafogo, they will win six points.
• Inter Miami: The Miami team started the tournament with a mediocre start before falling to FC Porto, who finished with four points overall. In an effort to avoid a loss, they face Group A leaders Palmeiras in a bid to take their place.
• With only three points after a win and a loss, Chelsea are in trouble. To advance, they must avoid falling short of ES Tunis, their fierce Group D foe, who also has the same points. On the strength of their better goal difference, a draw will suffice for Chelsea.
• Inter Milan, the UEFA Champions League runners-up, were held by Mexican foe Monterrey in their opening match but defeated a tenacious Urawa Reds team to claim their first victory in Group E. A win would place either team as the group leaders, but a draw could result in a tie-break scenario if Monterrey defeats Urawa in their final game.

Can ES Tunis, Mamelodi Sundowns, Monterrey, and Al Hilal still qualify for knockouts?

Yes, each of the four clubs’ first two games saw at least two points, which gave them a strong chance of qualifying.

Al Hilal and Monterrey both won two games with two draws, each totaling two points. Regardless of the outcome of the other Group H game, the Saudi club will face the ousted Mexican side Pachuca for a chance to win a big game and then rely on their superior goal difference to get there. The same requirements apply to Monterrey’s game against Urawa, which they are in.

The Sundowns have a chance to qualify for the Club World Cup with their skill and colorful celebrations, but their match against Brazil’s Fluminense will not be fun and games. The South African club will have six points if they win, but a draw with Borussia Dortmund, who lead with four points, might force them to leave.

Given their lower goal difference, ES Tunis are in a straight winner-goes-through shootout with Chelsea, which will require a draw for the Tunisian club.

Which other teams still stand a chance of qualifying for Round 16?

• Fluminense
• Borussia Dortmund
• Madrid Atletico
• River Plate
• FC Porto
• Benfica
• Al Ahly
• Palmeiras
• Boca Juniors
• RB Salzburg
• Seattle Sounders

The Colombian army says more than 50 soldiers have been seized by civilians in a southwest mountainous area.

A platoon of soldiers was the first to be seized on Saturday during an operation in El Tambo, a municipality that is part of an area known as the Micay Canyon, a key zone for cocaine production and one of the most tense in the country’s ongoing security crisis.

On Sunday, another group of soldiers was surrounded by at least 200 residents as they headed towards the town of El Plateado, in the same region.

“As a result of both events]both kidnappings], a total of four noncommissioned officers and 53 professional soldiers remain deprived of their liberty”, the army said on Sunday.

General Federico Alberto Mejia, who leads military operations in the southwest, added in a video that it was a “kidnapping” by rebels who had “infiltrated” the community.

The Colombian army has maintained that the civilians in the region receive orders from the Central General Staff (EMC), the main dissident group of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that refused to be part of a peace deal with the government in 2016.

President Gustavo Petro, who has pledged to bring peace to the country, said on social media that freeing the soldiers “is imperative”.

The left-wing leader has been trying for months to ensure that the country’s armed forces gain access to Micay Canyon.

But his government has struggled to contain violence in urban and rural areas as several rebel groups try to take over territory abandoned by the FARC after the peace deal.

This has made many Colombians fearful of a return to the bloody violence of the 1980s and 90s, when cartel attacks and political assassinations were frequent.

According to officials, the strikes on Monday morning targeted residential areas in numerous Kyiv-arean districts. The city’s assault, which is the second major overnight bombing in a week, suggests that Russia is eager to put pressure on Iran given that the United States’ decision to join Israel’s growing airstrikes is a top priority.

“A new, massive attack on the capital. The military administration of Kyiv’s head, Tymur Tkachenko, said in a statement that “there might be several waves of enemy drones.”

Tkachenko stated on Telegram, “The Russians’ style is unchanged; to hit wherever there may be people.” This is the Russian way of saying “Residential buildings, exits from shelters.”

Emergency services claimed that during the extensive attack, residential structures, hospitals, sports facilities, and the entrance to a metro station that serves as a bomb shelter were all damaged.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko posted a message on Telegram claiming that the attack had harmed at least 10 people and damaged six of Kyiv’s ten districts.

According to Lymenko, “at least four people were killed in Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi district, where the entire entrance to a residential high-rise building was destroyed.”

He continued, “There are still people under the rubble.”

Meanwhile, according to authorities, a Russian short-range drone attack in the Chernihiv region on Sunday morning killed two people and injured ten others, including three children.

In the city of Bila Tserkva, which is located 85 kilometers (53 miles) southwest of Kyiv, another person was killed and eight were hurt overnight.

Sabotage

Russia hasn’t made any comments on the strikes. Although the Russian-led war that both sides claimed was aimed at civilians in February 2022, thousands of civilians were killed, overwhelmingly Ukrainians, in the conflict.

The most recent drone attack in Kyiv by Russia was the deadliest, killing 28 people and injuring more than 150, according to Ukrainian officials, who claim nearly 30 sites were targeted by repeated attacks.

In light of the rise in attacks on the capital, Oleksandr Syrskii, the country’s commander-in-chief, has pledged to bolster its strikes against Russia.

We won’t just defend ourselves. Because of this, he said, “We still retreat, lose people and territories,” the AFP news agency reported.

In order to achieve this, Ukraine “will expand and deepen” its attacks on Russian military targets, he continued.

According to the Ukrainian air force, Russian forces stormed Ukraine with at least 47 drones and fired three missiles overnight.