BRAVE MAG

By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK, March 13 (Reuters) - Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro should not be able to use Venezuelan government funds to defend himself against U.S. drug trafficking charges, U.S. ‌prosecutors said on Friday, noting that Washington has not considered him the legitimate leader of ‌the South American country for years.

Last month, Maduro's lawyer Barry Pollack urged U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to dismiss the indictment ​against Maduro because the Treasury Department had without explanation revoked an exemption to U.S. financial sanctions on Venezuela that had allowed the South American country's government to fund his defense.

Pollack argued that the revocation interfered with Maduro's right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

He said that "Venezuelan law and custom" dictate ‌that the government pay the expenses of ⁠the president and his wife. An official in Venezuela's attorney general's office said in a court filing last month that the government was prepared to pay.

In urging ⁠Hellerstein not to dismiss the indictment, prosecutors with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office on Friday said the initial exemption was an "administrative error."

The prosecutors said Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, would still be allowed to use their ​personal ​funds for their defense. Flores' lawyer, Mark Donnelly, had also ​asked Hellerstein to dismiss charges against her over ‌the funding of her defense.

Advertisement

"While both defendants claim that they are entitled to funds under the Venezuelan constitution ... both defendants also surely knew that the U.S. Government did not consider them to hold legitimate positions," prosecutors wrote, noting that one purpose of the U.S. sanctions was to drive Maduro and Flores from power.

The Venezuelan communications ministry, which handles all press queries for the government, did not immediately respond to ‌a request for comment.

Maduro and Flores were captured on January ​3 in a U.S. military raid on their Caracas home. ​Both have pleaded not guilty and are ​jailed in Brooklyn pending trial.

Their lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Hellerstein ‌is expected to consider the legal fees ​dispute during a court hearing ​on March 26 in Manhattan.

The U.S. accuses Maduro, a socialist who took office in 2013, of rigging his re-election votes in 2018 and 2024, which he denies.

Maduro's former Vice President Delcy ​Rodriguez has been running Venezuela since ‌his capture. A State Department official said in a March 11 court filing in a ​separate case that the U.S. recognizes Rodriguez as Venezuela's sole head of state.

(Reporting by ​Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Tom Hogue)

President Donald Trump said U.S. forces on Friday "obliterated" targets on Iran's Kharg Island, which is home to the primary terminal that handles the country's oil exports. The speaker of the Iranian Parliament had warned that such strikes would provoke a new level of retaliation.

Iraq Iran US Israel

Meanwhile, an American official said 2,500 more Marines and an amphibious assault ship are being sent to the Middle Eastnearly two weeks into the war with the Islamic Republic.

Iran has continued to launch widespread missile and drone attacks on Israel and neighboring Gulf states, and has effectively closed theStrait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's traded oil passes, even as U.S. and Israeli warplanes pummel military and other targets across Iran.

The moves appear to signal the two-week-old war is not nearing an end.

Here is the latest:

Lebanese media report more Israeli attacks

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported Israeli strikes Saturday morning on Beirut and the country's south.

Hamas calls on Iran to stop attacks on Arab countries

The Palestinian militant group also urged regional countries to "cooperate and stop" the U.S. and Israeli assault on Iran.

"While affirming the right of the Islamic Republic of Iran to respond to this aggression by all available means in accordance with international norms and laws, the movement calls upon the brothers in Iran to avoid targeting neighboring countries," Hamas said in a statement Saturday, its first since the war began on Feb. 28.

The group, which maintains close ties with Iran and Qatar, said stopping the war is in the interest of the region.

Hamas is part of the so-called Axis of Resistance, which includes Iranian-backed militant groups in the Middle East.

Airstrike kills 2 in Baghdad

An airstrike hit a house in Iraq's capital, Baghdad, early Saturday, killing at least one person, according to a security official and another affiliated with the Iranian-backed armed groups in the country.

The strike in Baghdad's Karrada district also wounded two people, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to the press.

In a statement, the Iraqi military condemned the strike as "a blatant violation of all humanitarian values and a disregard for international conventions."

The strike happened before a missile attack hit the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad.

Advertisement

By Qassim Abdul-Zahra

Iranian media reports 15 explosions in Kharg following US strikes

Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency reported at least 15 explosions with thick smoke rising over Kharg Island, earlier hit by U.S. strikes.

It said the strikes targeted an air defense facility, a naval base, the airport control tower, and an offshore oil company's helicopter hangar, adding no oil infrastructure was damaged in the attack.

Iran reiterates threats to target US-linked oil facilities

Iran's joint military command reiterated its threat to attack U.S.-linked oil and energy facilities in the region if the Islamic Republic's oil infrastructure were hit.

Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters made the threat early Saturday, according to Iran's state-run television.

He warned that Iran will target "all oil, economic, and energy infrastructures belonging to oil companies across the region that have American shares or cooperate with America" if energy and economic infrastructure in Iran is attacked.

No comment from US Embassy after strike on Baghdad compound

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad after a strike hit it's compound in the Iraqi capital.

On Friday, the embassy renewed its Level 4 security alert for Iraq, warning that Iran and Iran-aligned militia groups have previously carried out attacks against U.S. citizens, interests and infrastructure, and "may continue to target them."

The sprawling embassy complex, one of the largest U.S. diplomatic facilities in the world, has been repeatedly targeted by rockets and drones in the past by Iran-aligned militias.

The groups have recently stepped up attacks on bases hosting U.S. and coalition troops.

A drone strike in northern Iraq on Thursday killed a French soldier and wounded several others stationed there as part of an international coalition.

Missile strikes helipad inside US Embassy compound in Baghdad

A missile struck a helipad inside the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, two security officials said.

The projectile landed within the embassy's boundaries after the Green Zone, the heavily fortified district in central Baghdad that houses Iraqi government institutions and foreign embassies, added the security officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to speak with the press.

Video obtained by The Associated Press showed smoke billowing from inside the compound.

By Qassim Abdul-Zahra

BEIRUT (AP) — Fatima Nazha slept on the street for two days after she and her family fled their home in Beirut's southern suburbs following an Israeli mass evacuation order.

Lebanon Israel Iran

All of the schools the government turned into shelters were full, and the family couldn't afford a hotel or an apartment, so she and her husband eventually moved into a tentin the country's biggest stadiumwhile their kids and grandchildren found shelter near the southern coastal city of Sidon.

In just 10 days, more than 800,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced by war, just over a year since the last conflict uprooted over a million Lebanese from their homes. That's one in every seven people in the tiny country, according to humanitarian organization the Norwegian Refugee Council. Many don't have a place to stay, and the cash-strapped government has only been able to accommodate roughly 120,000 people as it scrambles to open shelters and bring in more supplies.

Nazha, who uses a wheelchair, said being forced from her home has been far more difficult this time than when Israel and Hezbollahwere last at warmore than a year ago. The strikes targeting theIran-backed militant grouphave been more intense and unpredictable, and Israel's evacuation order came abruptly, leaving her unable to gather all her belongings.

"The strikes used to target a specific area, but now they're hitting all the areas," she said, taking a drag off her cigarette. Lebanon's Health Ministry said Friday that more than 700 people, including 103 children, have died in the war.

Divisions simmer in Lebanon

Israel ramped up its strikes on its northern neighbor after Hezbollah fired several rockets into Israel following the killing ofIran's Supreme Leader Ali Khameneiat the start of the war.

Most Lebanese were hoping Hezbollah wouldn't respond to the attack on Iran, as the militant group's support for another Iran-backed group, Hamas, in 2023 led to Israeli attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Resentment toward Hezbollah and its backershas surged in Lebanon, as internal tensions and divisions in the deeply divided country continue to simmer.

Fearing becoming a target, landlords have been hiking apartment rents to dissuade new tenants. Hotels, meanwhile, have been vetting guests more strictly sinceIsrael struck two hotel rooms, saying it was targetingIranian Revolutionary Guardmembers who were operating in Beirut.

Some who don't have family and friends to stay with or can't afford an apartment or a hotel room have been sleeping on the streets or in their cars around central Beirut, trading comfort for safety. That sense of safety was shattered, though, afteran overnight Israeli strikekilled at least eight people and wounded more than 30 others in the capital's Ramlet el-Bayda neighborhood, where many displaced people pitched tents by the sea or slept on mattresses on the boardwalk.

Humanitarian groups, saddled by years of underfunding, are struggling to keep up. They warn ofa humanitarian crisis.

"The needs are escalating much faster than our capacity to respond," Mathieu Luciano, the head of the International Organization for Migration in Lebanon, said during a recent press briefing.

No time to prepare

The government, meanwhile, is using Lebanon's largest sports stadium as a makeshift shelter, where Nazha, her husband and more than 800 other people have been sleeping in the semiopen corridors under the stands. It has toilets and sinks, but no showers and only sporadic electricity.

"It's not enough that they bring us food. … A tin of sardines or a loaf of bread or a gallon of water, that's not enough," Nazha said Thursday from her foldout bed.

In the parking lot of the stadium where Lebanon's national soccer team regularly plays in peacetime, children played a pickup game as an Israeli drone flew overhead, recognizable by its whirring. From there, one can see and hear the bombs that have been exploding daily in nearby neighborhoods.

Advertisement

Naji Hammoud, who oversees sporting facilities for the Lebanese Youth and Sports Ministry, said he didn't expect to have to take on such a heavy responsibility.

"It's a race against time," Hammoud said as aid workers and volunteers scrambled to pitch tents.

More than a million people were displaced in the last war, but that was toward the end of it after a year of limited fighting that gradually escalated. This time, what took months took days.

Hezbollah's initial rocket attack followed by Israel's swift bombardments overnight rattled Lebanon and the mass evacuation notices caught people off-guard. Israel first called on dozens of villages south of the Litani River to flee north. It later warned residents to evacuate Dahiyeh, an area of predominantly Shiitesuburbs on Beirut's southern edgethat is one of the country's most densely populated places.

All of the main roads leading to the capital from southern Lebanon were gridlocked as people scrambled to find somewhere safe to stay.

"We were on the road for two days until we found this place here that accepted us," said Seganish Gogamo, a worker from Ethiopia who fled the southern city of Nabatieh and found shelter in a Beirut church hosting migrant workers from Asia and Africa. She fled in the middle of the night after intense airstrikes.

Uncertainty abounds

There is no end in sight to the fighting, as some 100,000Israeli troops have amassedalong the U.N.-mandated Blue Line which divides the two countries in an anticipated ground invasion. Many fear the Israel-Hezbollah conflict could continue beyond the Iran war.

Joe Sayyah was among dozens of residents who remained in their border village, Alma al-Shaab, during the first few days of the war, hoping they wouldn't have to leave. It's a Christian village, and Israel has mostly targeted Shiite communities where Hezbollah operates.

Sayyah and others appealed to the Vatican and the U.S., describing themselves as bystanders in the conflict, insisting there was no military presence or activity among them. They also spent days sheltering in a church.

But when his friend was killed in an Israeli drone strike while watering his plants, they knew it was time to leave. He and the others rang the church bell one last time before they left for the capital in a convoy escorted by United Nations peacekeepers.

Afterarriving at a churchin the northern outskirts of Beirut to hold a funeral Mass for his friend, Sayyah said the sense of relief that came with reaching somewhere safe was quickly replaced by the grim realization that this war could be different from the last.

"This time around, there's a huge possibility we may not be able to go back to our village," he said.

Associated Press reporters Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Fadi Tawil in Beirut contributed to this story.