US amphibious assault ship the USS Wasp docked at Limassol, Cyprus, on August 9, 2024. AFP
US amphibious assault ship the USS Wasp docked at Limassol, Cyprus, on August 9, 2024. AFP
US amphibious assault ship the USS Wasp docked at Limassol, Cyprus, on August 9, 2024. AFP
US amphibious assault ship the USS Wasp docked at Limassol, Cyprus, on August 9, 2024. AFP

US Marines 'safe' after attack on Turkish street


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Two US Marines who were attacked by a group of men in western Turkey are safe and were not injured during the incident, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

Members of a nationalist Turkish youth group on Monday attacked the Marines, who were on shore leave in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir in western Turkey after their ship, the USS Wasp, stopped for a port visit.

“The two Marines are safe,” Pentagon spokesman Maj Gen Pat Ryder said. “They were aided by other Marines in the area and subsequently taken to a local hospital for evaluation as precaution, but were not injured, and subsequently returned to the USS Wasp.”

Maj Gen Ryder said Izmir police and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are co-operating in an investigation of the incident.

Footage posted on social media showed a group of men restraining the two Marines, who were in civilian clothes, at one point pulling a white hood or a shirt over the head of one of the service members.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday that the attack was “a serious matter” and that Washington appreciated the actions of Turkish police.

In a statement, the Izmir Governor's office said members of the Turkey Youth Union, a youth branch of the nationalist opposition Vatan Party, “physically attacked” the Marines, who were in the Konak district.

It added that five US personnel joined in after seeing the incident, and that police intervened. All 15 attackers had been detained and an investigation was launched into the matter, it said.

US-Turkey ties have been strained in recent years by the US alliance with Syrian Kurds that Turkey deems extremists, and over Turkey's purchase of Russian S-400 missile defences that prompted US sanctions and removal from a F-35 jet programme.

There has also been a divergence over Israel's war in Gaza, where more than 40,800 people have been killed according to Gazan authorities, and over which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sharply criticised Washington's ally.

Gulf Under 19s final

Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B

Usain Bolt's World Championships record

2007 Osaka

200m Silver

4x100m relay Silver

 

2009 Berlin

100m Gold

200m Gold

4x100m relay Gold

 

2011 Daegu

100m Disqualified in final for false start

200m Gold

4x100m relay Gold

 

2013 Moscow

100m Gold

200m Gold

4x100m relay Gold

 

2015 Beijing

100m Gold

200m Gold

4x100m relay Gold

 

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Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.

Updated: September 04, 2024, 9:58 AM