Hassan Nasrallah appeared to be making the case for a response to the Lebanese public, even at the risk of escalating the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel. But he gave no indication of how or when the militants would act.

The strike that killed Hamas’ deputy political leader, Saleh Arouri, threatened months of efforts by the United States to prevent the war in Gaza from spiraling into a regional conflict.

Nasrallah said it was the first strike by Israel in the Lebanese capital since 2006.

“We cannot keep silent about a violation of this seriousness,” he said, “because this means that all of our people will be exposed (to targeting). All of our cities, villages and public figures will be exposed.”

The repercussions of silence are “far greater” than the risks of retaliating, he added.

Tensions are rising on multiple fronts as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in the region. Iraqis are furious after an American airstrike killed a militia leader in Baghdad. At the same time, the U.S. is struggling to deter attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on commercial Red Sea shipping.

In Gaza, Israel is moving to scale down its military assault in the north of the territory and pressing its heavy offensive in the south, vowing to crush Hamas. In the south, most of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians are being squeezed into smaller areas in a humanitarian disaster, while still being pounded by Israeli airstrikes.

Since the start of the Gaza war, Hezbollah has fired rockets and missiles into northern Israel, bringing a return bombardment from Israel in near daily cross-border exchanges. After the strike Tuesday in Beirut, the Lebanon-Israel front appeared to be at a critical juncture, with the potential to veer into an all-out war.

On Friday, Israeli aircraft, tanks and artillery struck several areas in Lebanon after rockets and missiles were fired toward Israel, the military said.

But Hezbollah has held back from a dramatic escalation, wary of a repeat of the two sides’ 2006 war in which Israeli bombardment wreaked extensive destruction in Lebanon.

Nasrallah said Friday that the details of Hezbollah's response “will be decided on the battlefield.” He did not elaborate.

The Beirut strike is not the only thing threatening a wider fight between Israel and Lebanon.

Israeli officials have threatened greater military action against Hezbollah unless it withdraws it fighters from Lebanese territory near their shared border.

A pullback — called for under a 2006 U.N. truce but never implemented — is necessary to stop barrages and allow the return of tens of thousands of Israelis to homes they evacuated near the border, Israel says.

Nasrallah boasted about the evacuations, saying that after Israel forced Lebanese to flee in past conflicts, Hezbollah had now done the same to Israelis, putting political pressure on the government.

Hezbollah’s cross-border attacks aim to engage Israeli forces away from Gaza, Nasrallah said, and the only way to stop them is “to stop the aggression on Gaza.”

Israel says it aims to destroy Hamas’ military capabilities and remove it from power in Gaza after the militants’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, in which they killed around 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and abducted around 250 others.

The army's chief spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Friday the military plans an investigation into failures connected with the Hamas attack, which generated heavy criticism of military, intelligence and political leaders for being caught off guard. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted the government must focus on the war first and answer questions later.

Israel’s onslaught in Gaza has killed more than 22,600 people, more than two-thirds of them women and children, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The ministry’s count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Much of northern Gaza — the most urbanized part of the tiny territory — has been flattened by bombardment and fighting. Most of its population has fled south, joining its residents who have largely been driven from their homes as well. The risk of famine is increasing daily, according to the U.N. humanitarian office, known by the acronym OCHA.

The ground offensive threatens to bring further destruction in the south, particularly in the main battleground city Khan Younis.

Footage aired on Al Jazeera TV showed devastation in downtown Khan Younis. No building in the city’s central Sunneya Square has been left untouched. Some structures have been leveled, while others have been partially destroyed or scorched.

Almost every day this week, strikes have hit in and around Khan Younis’ Al Amal Hospital and a hospital run by the Palestinian Red Crescent, killing dozens of people, the OCHA said.

Martin Griffiths, the U.N. humanitarian chief, said in a statement Friday that the humanitarian community is facing an “impossible mission” of supporting more than 2 million people in Gaza while aid workers are killed, communications blackouts continue, roads are damaged and truck convoys carrying vital supplies shot at. Gaza’s handful of partially functioning hospitals are overwhelmed and infectious diseases are spreading, he said.

Israeli bombardment continued around the territory. At least 13 people were killed when an apartment building was leveled in Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, hospital officials said.

In Rafah, at Gaza’s southernmost end, relatives and friends wept over the bodies of six people killed in a strike on a house overnight, including three children.

Sohad al-Derbashi, whose sister was killed in the strike, said the owner of the house had evacuated, fearing he would be targeted since he works as a civil servant in Gaza’s Hamas-led administration, as do thousands of others in the territory. When he came to visit the house last night, the strike hit, she said. Her sister, living on the floor below, was crushed.

“They were civilians, innocent people, with no connection to anything. Even the target who was with Hamas was a civil employee. What did he do wrong?” el-Derbashi said.

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Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, and Jobain from Rafah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Together, Israel and its U.S. allies were facing two realities they knew all too well going into the war in Gaza: The Gaza-based Hamas militant group is far from alone as it battles for its survival. And by launching an all-out campaign to eliminate Hamas as a fighting force, Israeli and American leaders also are confronting simultaneous attacks from a strengthening defensive alliance of other armed militant groups linked with Hamas and Iran.

This week, the risk of being drawn into a wider, more chaotic and deadlier conflict with an array of regional enemies loomed large. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other senior Biden administration envoys were traveling to Middle East capitals on Friday to calm tensions and deter further attacks.

Here's a breakdown of the armed groups facing the United States and Israel in the Middle East, a look at what unites some of them, and what's different about each.

THE SITUATION

The United States is scrambling to quell attacks by a range of armed groups that are allied to Iran and to each other. They are:

— Hamas in Gaza;

— powerful Hezbollah, the dominant force in Lebanon;

— smaller militias in Iraq and Syria;

— Houthis in the poor Arabian peninsula country of Yemen, who are sometimes seen as more of the loose cannons of the alliance.

All the groups have escalated attacks on U.S., Israeli or global targets within their reach since Israel launched its war in Gaza on Oct. 7, after Hamas's deadly cross-border raids. The aim of Iran and of the armed groups at large is to aid Hamas with attacks that distract the focus of Israel and the United States, and that make the military, economic and political costs of continuing the war against Hamas too great for Israel and the United States.

The groups don't necessarily want further additional escalation themselves, given their odds in any all-out confrontation with two of the world's strongest militaries, experts say. But under the leadership of the late Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by the U.S. in 2020, the far-flung array of Iranian-allied militias knitted themselves into a more cohesive network.

They also grew into a common understanding, said Randa Slim, a regional analyst with the Washington-based Middle East Institute: When the survival of any one was threatened, all would rally.

THE PLAYERS:

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HAMAS

WHAT: Based in Gaza. Founded in 1987 at a time of widespread protests by Palestinians against Israel’s occupation. Has early ties to one of the Sunni world’s most prominent groups, the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in the 1920s. Has vowed to annihilate Israel and has carried out suicide bombings and other deadly attacks on civilians and Israeli soldiers.

BACKGROUND: Hamas seized control of Gaza by force in 2007, the year after it won parliamentary elections there with 44% of the vote. Israel has kept Gaza under a devastating blockade ever since, restricting movement of people and goods in and out of the territory. Hamas receives backing from Arab and Muslim countries, including Qatar and Turkey. Although a Sunni Muslim group, Hamas leaders have moved closer to Shiite Muslim Iran and its allies over the years. Hamas's Oct. 7 attacks in Israel were seen by many as Hamas's bid to reclaim relevance on the world stage. Israel's far-right government had sidelined any attempt at a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian political agreement, and world attention faded away.

HEZBOLLAH

WHAT: Formed in 1982 in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, where it is based. One of the strongest members of the Iran-allied alliance, militarily and organizationally. A Shiite Muslim group. Took part in repeated attacks against the United States through the mid-1990s, including the deadly 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marines barrack in Beirut, Lebanon's capital. Has participated in Lebanon's government since 1992. Its military wing is stronger than the country's armed forces.

BACKGROUND: A 2006 war with Israel provoked by Hezbollah's kidnapping of Israeli soldiers devastated southern Lebanon and Beirut. Many ordinary Lebanese are deeply fearful of a new war with Israel in the wake of the Gaza fighting. Wary of a repeat of the war itself, Hezbollah has lobbed rockets and missiles across its southern border into Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, losing fighters daily in return fire, but held back from further dramatic escalation. That may have changed with a presumed Israeli strike this week that killed a Hamas leader sheltering in Lebanon. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Friday that his group had to retaliate, or else all of Lebanon would be vulnerable to Israeli attack.

HOUTHIS

WHAT: Based in Yemen, overseeing one of the world's most vital shipping routes for oil and other trade. Have launched rockets, missiles and drones at commercial vessels during the Gaza war. Forced some major shippers to change route and threatens a potentially major toll on the world's economy. Formally known as Ansar Allah. Had its start as one of several armed groups vying internally for power in fractured, impoverished Yemen. While Shiite Muslim, it's of a different branch than Iran. Group's motto calls for destruction of Israel and the United States, though it has been largely focused on affairs in Yemen.

BACKGROUND: At odds with Yemen's government, Houthis seized control of Yemen's capital in 2014 and soon controlled much of the north. After Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates opened attack in 2015 in an unsuccessful attempt to rout the Houthis, the Houthis moved increasingly close to Iran as a source of materiel support.

Saudi and U.S. attempts to formally end the Saudi-led war in Yemen have failed to bring Yemen's war to a close, but had succeeded in stopping what were sporadic missile and drone strikes by the Houthis against their richer Gulf neighbors. The Houthis, who have limited popular support in Yemen outside of their immediate base, are seen as more independent of Iran in their actions than some of the other groups in the alliance. The strikes on shipping since Israel launched its campaign in Gaza are some of the Houthis' first outward-facing attacks, other than at its Gulf enemies.

IRAN-ALLIED MILITIAS IN SYRIA AND IRAQ

WHAT: Array of smaller Iranian-backed militant groups that have battled with U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq and Syria for years. Mount sporadic attacks against bases in the region where U.S. troops are deployed to fight Islamic State group insurgents.

BACKGROUND: There has been a dramatic spike in attacks by Iran’s proxies in those two countries since the open of the war between Israel and Hamas. Iraq says it is working with the U.S. to contain the militias there. On Thursday, the U.S. unleashed an airstrike against the headquarters of an Iran-backed militia in central Baghdad, killing a high-ranking militia commander. It was an attempt to discourage more attacks.

THE ISLAMIC STATE, AL-QAIDA AND OTHER ARMED SUNNI MUSLIM GROUPS

WHAT: Israel's deadly military campaign in Gaza, and the United States' support for it, are sparking calls to action by violent extremist groups that have long battled the West and other enemies.

BACKGROUND: On Thursday, a spokesman for the Islamic State called on Muslims around the world to carry out killings in what he said would be vengeance for the people of Gaza. “Oh lions of Islam, hunt your prey — the Jews, Christians, and their allies — in the streets and alleyways of America, Europe, and the world,” Abu Hudhayfa al-Ansar said in a speech transcribed by the SITE intelligence group. “Break into their homes, kill them, and torment them in every way you can.”

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Associated Press journalist Ellen Knickmeyer has reported from Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria over more than two decades reporting in and on the Middle East.

The shooting occurred shortly before 8 p.m. Thursday when the traveler and his wife were walking toward Tsubaki Towers, a hotel on Guam's popular Tumon Bay, from nearby Gun Beach, KUAM-TV reported, citing police.

An older model, dark-colored SUV approached them from behind, Guam Police Chief Stephen Ignacio said at a news conference.

A passenger holding a gun got of the vehicle and demanded they hand over their belongings, Ignacio said, adding, “A struggle ensued.”

The victim was taken to Guam Regional Medical City, where he died from his injuries the next morning. He had been visiting Guam while celebrating his retirement.

The Guam Visitors Bureau has offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

Guam is an island of about 170,000 people approximately 3,900 miles (6,275 kilometers) west of Hawaii.

Its warm weather has made it a favored tourist destination for many nearby Asian nations. South Korea sent nearly 270,000 travelers to Guam in the first nine months of last year, more than any other country.

The island is also home to major Air Force and Navy installations. Its economy relies heavily on tourism and U.S. government spending.

In Kook Kim, the Korean consulate's head of mission, urged Guam's officials to act quickly.

“Arrest the suspect in no time and carry out a thorough investigation to bring them to justice,” he said at the news conference.

Carl Gutierrez, the CEO of the Guam Visitors Bureau, assured visitors that Guam is safe.

“We invite them here to a safe destination. We want to ensure that,” he said.

Guam's governor met with the late victim's wife.

“I consoled her, I hugged her, I cried with her. I prayed with her, knowing as a wife and a mother some of the pain that she is going through,” Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said in a video message posted on Instagram.

She urged the people of Guam to come forward with information that would help solve the case.

“Guam remains a safe place, and we are continuing to do everything we can to keep it safe, not just for our people, but our visitors,” she said.

The law, published on the presidential website this week, mandates that all denominations and religious groups reapply for state registration, which authorities reserve the right to refuse.

It's the latest step in Lukashenko's a crackdown on dissent, which intensified after a disputed presidential election in 2020 gave the authoritarian leader a sixth term in office. The government arrested more than 35,000 protesters in demonstrations that denounced the vote as rigged, and thousands of them were beaten in custody. Many were forced to leave the country to escape prosecution.

Since 2022, involvement in unregistered organizations became a criminal offense, punishable by up to two years in prison.

According to official data in 2023, a total of 3,417 religious groups were registered in Belarus, a country of 9.5 million. About 80% are Orthodox Christians; nearly 14% are Catholics, residing mostly in western, northern and central parts of the country; and about 2% belong to Protestant churches.

During the 2020 anti-government protests, some Catholic and Protestant churches gave shelter and support to the demonstrators.

The new law gives authorities broad powers to deny registration and to shut down any religious organization. It stipulates that in order to be registered, a religious group or denomination needs to have at least one parish that operated in Belarus for at least 30 years. All denominations and groups must reapply for registration within a year.

It also prohibits those accused of involvement with what authorities deem as extremist or terrorist activities from running a religious organization, and it bans the use of any symbols other than religious ones in church services. It also outlaws any gatherings in churches other than for a service.

The Rev. Zmitser Khvedaruk, a Protestant pastor, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that the law was “repressive.”

He expressed concern that “Protestant churches in Belarus will become the main target of the new law" in the predominantly Orthodox country, especially given their popularity among younger people.

“Many Protestant churches in Belarus will face a tough choice — to either cease their activities or return to the dark Soviet times, when Protestant churches effectively worked underground and illegally gathered at people's homes, with (believers) praying under the threat of criminal prosecution,” Khvedaruk told AP.

Analysts say Belarusian authorities are seeking to tighten control over the entire public sphere ahead of parliamentary elections set for next month and a presidential vote in 2025.

“The Belarusian authorities view the clergy as leaders of public opinion, who influence large groups of people; therefore, they strive to take all denominations under tight, centralized control,” said Natallia Vasilevich, coordinator of the Christian Vision monitoring group. “The new law is repressive and doesn't conform to international standards of freedom of conscience.”

Pistorius, 37, will have to live under strict conditions until his full sentence of 13 years and five months expires on Dec. 5, 2029.

Nov. 22, 1986 — Pistorius is born with a congenital condition where he has no fibula bones. His legs are amputated below the knee before he is a year old.

May 16, 2008 — Already a multiple Paralympic champion, Pistorius wins a ruling at sport's highest court that overturns a previous ban and allows him to compete against able-bodied athletes at the world's biggest track events on his specially designed carbon-fiber running blades.

Aug. 4, 2012 — Pistorius realizes his sporting dream to compete at the Olympics. He finishes second in a heat in the 400 meters to qualify for the semifinals in London but doesn't qualify for the final. "Blade Runner" still makes history as the first double-amputee to run at the Olympics and becomes one of the most recognizable athletes on the planet.

Feb. 14, 2013 — Pistorius is at the height of his fame when South African police announce that he has been arrested in connection with the Valentine's Day shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at his villa in the capital, Pretoria. The bombshell news reverberates around the world when Pistorius is charged with murder for shooting the 29-year-old model and law graduate multiple times through a toilet cubicle door in the predawn hours.

Mar. 3, 2014 — Pistorius' murder trial begins at the Pretoria High Court under the glare of the world's media, which is permitted to film the court proceedings live. While Pistorius claims he shot Steenkamp by mistake believing she was a dangerous intruder in his home, prosecutors allege he killed her intentionally in a late-night argument. During his dramatic seven-month trial, Pistorius cries, wails and at times vomits in the courtroom as prosecutors describe Steenkamp's fatal shooting. He also undergoes a psychiatric evaluation. The trial shatters his image as prosecutors say he has a history of angry outbursts, being verbally abusive towards girlfriends, and acting recklessly with guns.

Sept. 12, 2014 — Pistorius is acquitted of murder by a judge but found guilty of a charge comparable to manslaughter for killing Steenkamp. He is also convicted on a separate charge relating to him and a group of friends recklessly firing a gun under a table in a restaurant. He is sentenced to five years in prison for manslaughter. Prosecutors say they will appeal the “shockingly light” sentence.

Dec. 3, 2015 — A panel of judges at South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal overturns Pistorius' manslaughter conviction and finds him guilty of murder. The trial judge sentences him to six years in prison for murder, which prosecutors again appeal.

Nov. 24, 2017 — The Supreme Court of Appeal more than doubles Pistorius' sentence to 13 years and five months in prison. Pistorius had been first jailed at the Kgosi Mampuru II Prison in Pretoria, a notorious apartheid-era jail. He is moved to the city's Atteridgeville Correctional Centre, which officials say is better suited to disabled prisoners.

Jun. 22, 2022 — Pistorius meets face-to-face with Steenkamp's father, Barry Steenkamp, as part of a victim-offender dialogue that he must undertake if he wants to be eligible to be released on parole. Barry Steenkamp, who died last year, says after the meeting that he still believes Pistorius is lying about his daughter's killing and wants him to stay in prison for life.

Mar. 31, 2023 — Pistorius attends a parole hearing but is denied early release. The Department of Corrections says he hasn't served the required time in prison and will only be eligible in August 2024. Authorities later concede that was an error due to a miscount by a court over how long Pistorius had already served in prison before his sentence was changed in 2017.

Nov. 24, 2023 — Pistorius is granted parole at a second hearing and officials say he will be released Jan. 5, although he will still be strictly monitored for the next five years until he has served his entire sentence.

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AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Air raid sirens wailed in Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea, and traffic was suspended for a second straight day on a bridge connecting the peninsula, which Moscow seized illegally a decade ago, with Russia’s southern Krasnodar region. The span is a crucial supply link for Russia’s war effort.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its defenses intercepted 36 drones over Crimea and one over Krasnodar, part of an emerging pattern of intensified Ukrainian aerial attacks in recent days.

A Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missile also was destroyed over the northwestern part of the Black Sea, the ministry said.

The developments came after three people were injured Thursday night by other Ukrainian rocket and drone attacks on the Russian border city of Belgorod and the surrounding region, said Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov.

He posted photographs on Telegram of an apartment building with some windows shattered and damaged cars. He said authorities could help those wanting to move farther from the border.

Ukrainian attacks on Dec. 30 in Belgorod killed 25 people, officials there said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pledged to hit more targets on the Crimean Peninsula and inside Russian border regions this year. The goal is to unsettle Russians as President Vladimir Putin seeks another six years in power in a March 17 election.

A Ukrainian attack on military facilities in Crimea on Thursday affected a command center and the peninsula’s air defense system, according to a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern joint forces, Nataliia Humeniuk.

She said the Russian military recently relocated its Crimean launch sites for Shahed drones.

It was not possible to verify either side's claims.

Following a drone strike deep inside Russia last year, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had developed a weapon that can hit targets 700 kilometers (400 miles) away. He said last month Kyiv plans to produce 1 million drones, which have become a key battlefield weapon.

Other Ukrainian officials said it aims to manufacture this year more than 10,000 attack drones with a range of hundreds of kilometers, as well as more than 1,000 longer-range drones that can hit targets well behind the front line and inside Russia.

Both sides are raising the stakes of their long-range warfare as soldiers remain bogged down on the wintry battlefield. The U.K. Defense Ministry said Friday that “ground combat has continued to be characterized by either a static front line or very gradual, local Russian advances in key sectors.”

The Kremlin, meanwhile, has acquired ballistic missiles from North Korea and fired at least one of them into Ukraine on Dec. 30, the White House said Thursday, citing recently declassified U.S. intelligence. It also is seeking close-range ballistic missiles from Iran, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

British Defense Minister Grant Shapps said Pyongyang would pay a high price for supporting Russia, although he didn’t say in what way, and he accused Moscow of violating a U.N. embargo on arms shipments to and from North Korea.

“The world has turned its back on Russia, forcing Putin into the humiliation of going cap in hand to North Korea to keep his illegal invasion going,” Shapps said on X, formerly Twitter.

Asked about the development, Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said in televised comments Friday that he couldn’t immediately confirm the use of the North Korean-supplied missiles, adding that experts need to study the fragments. Russian officials have refrained from commenting on previous U.S. claims that North Korea has supplied ammunition to Moscow.

Ukraine said it stopped 21 out of 29 Russian Shahed drones launched late Thursday and early Friday. The assault injured two people, including a 14-year-old, and was the latest of almost daily Russian drone attacks in the new year.

Zelenskyy thanked Germany late Thursday for a delivery of military aid, especially air defense materiel that he said “is timely and focused on our priorities.”

Ukraine “should look to continue degrading Russia’s ability to wage war by conducting an escalating campaign of airstrikes on targets far behind the front lines throughout occupied Ukraine and inside Russia itself,” according to Mykola Bielieskov, a research fellow at Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies.

“This could include attacks on troop concentrations, military bases, and munitions stores along with logistical hubs and armament production facilities,” he wrote in an assessment published by the Atlantic Council, a U.S. think tank.

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Associated Press writers Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv and Colleen Long and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Rahman, 63, was one of thousands of opposition activists who were arrested in the months leading to Sunday's parliamentary election amid a sweeping polarized political culture.

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by former premier Khaleda Zia, said Rahman was one of 10 members who died in police custody. According to his family, he was arrested on Oct. 25 outside the tea stall he ran and taken to jail. He fell sick and was later transferred to a hospital where he died over a week ago, they said. Rahman's arrest came three days before a massive opposition rally turned violent, leaving at least 11 dead and nearly a hundred injured.

His family believed he was targeted for being an outspoken BNP supporter for the last 35 years.

“My father was with the BNP, which is why they took him," Mohammad said, “if he dies, BNP's name will vanish from our neighborhood.”

The BNP has accused Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government of a major crackdown targeting its supporters and opposition politicians on what they say are trumped-up charges in the lead-up to the polls. They claimed that over 20,000 of their members have been jailed in recent months.

However, government officials argued the figure to be much lower and that arrests were made not because of political affiliations but rather specific criminal charges such as arson. Attorney General A.M. Amin Uddin told The Associated Press over the phone that between 2,000 to 3,000 people have been arrested. The country’s law minister told the BBC this week that 10,000 have been arrested.

The figures remain unclear.

CIVICUS, a nonprofit that tracks civic freedoms around the world, recently downgraded Bangladesh to “closed,” the worst rating that it could assign, along with China and Venezuela, following the latest crackdown on opposition supporters.

“We’ve seen many of them being arbitrarily arrested and many of them are facing what we consider fabricated charges,” said Josef Benedict, a researcher with a focus on South Asia at CIVICUS.

Rahman's family said he was arrested in connection to a case dating back to 2022.

The clampdown has raised questions about the legitimacy of the upcoming election.

The BNP and other opposition parties had previously announced a boycott of the election, saying they could not trust the current administration to run it fairly. They repeatedly demanded Hasina's resignation and for a caretaker government to oversee the election. The move has all but guaranteed Hasina, the country’s longest-serving leader, to extend her 15-year-long rule and clinch a fifth term in power.

Rights groups have called the polls a farce, and fear that it follows a pattern. In 2018, Hasina’s Awami League-led alliance won 96% of the 300 seats in parliament amid widespread allegations of vote-rigging, which authorities denied. And in 2014, she came to power after a boycott by all major opposition parties.

Instead of the BNP, smaller opposition parties and over 400 independent candidates — including scores from the Awami League itself — are participating. The government has invited international observers and defended the polls as fair and democratic, but critics say the aim is to make them look competitive instead.

The recent targeting of the BNP has also reignited concerns of alleged enforced disappearances of opposition members and critics under the Hasina government, said Benedict, the researcher at CIVICUS.

In August, Human Rights Watch said Bangladesh’s security forces have committed over 600 enforced disappearances since 2009, when Hasina came to power for the second time. The figures, based on Bangladeshi human rights monitors, show that nearly 100 remain missing.

The government has consistently denied the accusations but has refused to work with the U.N. to investigate the disappearances. In 2022, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan dismissed these concerns and said that those who went missing might be in hiding, and often return after a few days.

That hasn’t been the case for Sajedul Islam, a BNP local politician, who has been missing for over 10 years, said Sanjida, his sister.

His family said he was picked up by agents of Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion — a special security force unit — on 4 Dec. 2013, just days before the 2014 general election. Over 20 people working at the construction site from where Islam was taken saw agents dressed in the black RAB uniform tying his hands before bundling him into a van, the family said.

“As long as we live, I will keep saying, ‘bring my brother back because he is my family. He is my blood,’” Sanjida said.

Rights groups have long accused RAB of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and human rights violations, sparking the U.S. government to impose sanctions on the elite paramilitary force in 2021.

While this helped bring down the number of such incidents, Islam's sister said they have struggled to push authorities to investigate her brother’s disappearance.

“He was a strong organizer for the BNP in our neighborhood, he was popular and people listened to him - I think that’s why he was targeted,” Sanjida said.

Political observers say such cases illustrate how the bitter rivalry between Hasina’s Awami League and the BNP led by Zia, who is ailing and under house arrest, has polarized Bangladeshi politics — and its citizens — for decades.

Hasina has often accused the BNP of courting hardline extremists that her party, which calls itself moderate and secular, had worked to stamp out, while Zia’s BNP accuses the Awami League of using oppressive tactics to stay in power.

The decades-long feud has deeply fractured the political landscape in Bangladesh, where the two main parties are marred by a history of electoral violence and a politics of retribution.

When the BNP was last in power, from 2001-2006, rights groups and observers detailed how political and security conditions deteriorated in Bangladesh. In 2004, a grenade attack on a rally led by Hasina killed over 20 people, and she narrowly escaped. The country saw nearly daily bombings throughout 2005, according to a Human Rights Watch report at the time, which also accused the then-BNP government of widespread rights abuses.

This week in the capital, Dhaka, people who said they suffered burn injuries during protests by BNP in October, took to the streets. Authorities at the time said they arrested scores of BNP members for stoking violence and burning vehicles. They have since blamed numerous arson attacks on the opposition, which BNP has denied, saying the accusations were politically motivated and aimed at quashing their supporters as the election approaches.

For Mohammad, who believes his father died because of supporting BNP, this election doesn't exist.

“After seeing my father’s condition, I will never vote as long as this government is here,” he said.

The development is expected to escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The last two years have seen North Korea performing a record number of missile tests and South Korea and the U.S. expanding their defense exercises in a tit-for-tat cycle. Experts say North Korea will likely intensify a run of weapons tests ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired more than 200 rounds in the waters north of their western sea boundary on Friday morning. It was North Korea’s first front-line maritime firing exercise in about a year.

Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung Joon told a televised briefing that the North’s artillery firing was “an act of provocation that threatens peace and heightens tensions on the Korean Peninsula.” Lee said South Korea suffered no damage.

In a corresponding step, South Korea's Defense Ministry said it had its troops on two border islands fire artillery rounds south of the sea boundary later Friday. Local media said South Korea fired 400 rounds. A Defense Ministry statement said the military will maintain a firm readiness to strongly punish any provocations by North Korea.

North Korea's military later said that its firing drills were “a sort of natural countermeasure” against the South's other military drills earlier this week. It said “the military gangsters" of South Korea must not shift blame for tensions to the North.

“If the enemies commit an act which may be regarded as a provocation under the pretext of so-called counteraction, the (North) Korean People's Army will show tough counteraction on an unprecedented level,” the KPA's General Staff said in a statement.

Ahead of the South Korean drills Friday, authorities blared broadcasts via street loudspeakers and sent text messages to residents on the five major border islands, asking them to evacuate to safe places. They worried North Korea could conduct a new round of firing training in response but lifted the evacuation order a few hours later as they detected no suspicious activities by the North's military, according to local officials.

The Koreas’ poorly marked western sea boundary witnessed bloody naval clashes in 1999, 2002 and 2009. The North’s alleged torpedoing of a South Korean warship killed 46 South Korean sailors in March 2010, and the North’s artillery bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island — one of the five border islands where the evacuation order was issued on Friday — killed four South Koreans in November 2010.

The 2018 agreement — reached during a short-lived era of reconciliation between the two Koreas, requires them to halt live-fire exercises and aerial surveillance in buffer and no-fly zones established along their border. But the deal is in danger of collapsing after both Koreas took steps to breach the accord amid bickering over the North’s first successful military spy satellite launch in November.

South Korea resumed front-line aerial surveillance in protest at the North’s satellite launch. North Korea responded that it would deploy powerful weapons at the border and won’t abide by the 2018 deal any longer. South Korea later accused North Korea of restoring front-line guard posts that it had dismantled under the 2018 deal.

South Korea has previously accused North Korea of having already breached the deal numerous times with firing drills at the buffer zones, including one as recently as December 2022 off the Korean Peninsula’s east coast.

“North Korea is now in the stage of finding a justification for provocation after scrapping the 2018 military agreement,” said Lee Sang Sook, a research professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security. “There is a possibility for North Korea to ramp up provocation steadily, so big and small provocations along the western sea boundary and the land border are expected this year.”

In a recent key ruling-party meeting, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un fired off fierce, derisive rhetoric against South Korea, saying South Korea must not be considered as a partner for reconciliation or unification. He ordered the military to use all available means — including nuclear weapons — to conquer South Korea in the event of a conflict.

Experts say Kim likely believes that a boosted military capability would increase his chances of wresting U.S. concessions if former President Donald Trump is reelected in the U.S. presidential election. In the ruling party meeting, Kim vowed to expand the country’s nuclear arsenal and launch three additional military spy satellites this year.

Earlier Friday, North Korea’s state media said Kim ordered authorities to increase production of mobile launch vehicles for missiles during a visit to a munitions factory. Kim said the role of the factory producing transport erector launchers, or TELs, is “very important” in bolstering North Korea's national defense because of a looming military showdown with its rivals.

Mobile launch vehicles give North Korea the ability to move missiles around its territory, making it more difficult for adversaries to detect their launches in advance.

Yang Uk, an analyst at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said that North Korea is estimated to have more than 200 such launch vehicles, about 20-30 of them likely for intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to attack the U.S. mainland.

Kim’s factory visit may also be related to the North’s purported shipments of conventional arms to Russia for its war in Ukraine in return for receiving high-tech Russian weapons technologies.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that recently declassified intelligence showed that North Korea has provided Russia with ballistic missile launchers and several ballistic missiles. The U.S. and South Korea have previously accused North Korea of supplying ammunitions and artillery to Russia.

“The Russia-Ukraine war is really a good opportunity for North Korea. It's likely operating its weapons factories at their full capacities to satisfy Russia, a big customer,” Yang said.

The vessel sent a message on the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations portal indicating that it was boarded by five to six unknown armed people on Thursday evening, the navy said in a statement.

The navy diverted a ship deployed for maritime security operations to assist the vessel, the statement said. It did not identify the vessel, but media reports said it was the MV Lila Norfolk.

Ambrey, a maritime intelligence firm, said the bulk carrier started to drift 670 kilometers (420 miles) east of Hafun, Somalia, and said its crew included 15 Indian nationals.

A patrol aircraft overflew the vessel early Friday and established contact with the crew and ascertained that they were safe, the navy said. The aircraft is continuing to monitor the carrier's movements and the naval ship is traveling to the vessel to assist.

Commander Mehul Karnik, a navy spokesperson, said the crew members said they were in their strong room and were operating the vessel from there.

The situation is being closely monitored in coordination with other agencies in the area, the navy added.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the assault. There have been growing concerns about shipping in the region following attacks by Yemeni Houthi rebels.

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Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell contributed from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Meanwhile, JAL also started using heavy machinery to remove some of the debris for storage in a hangar to allow the runway to reopen.

Six experts from the Japan Transport Safety Board, walked through the mangled debris of the Airbus A350-900 that was lying on the runway searching for the voice data recorder.

JTSB experts have so far secured both the flight and voice data recorders from the coast guard’s Bombardier Dash-8 and a flight data recorder from the JAL plane to find out what happened in the last few minutes before Tuesday's fatal collision.

All 379 occupants of JAL Flight 516 safely evacuated within 18 minutes of landing as the aircraft was engulfed in flames. The pilot of the coast guard plane also escaped, but its five other crewmembers were killed.

New details have also emerged from media footage at Haneda airport. NHK television reported footage from its monitoring camera set up at the Haneda airport showed that the coast guard plane moved on to the runway and stopped there for about 40 seconds before the collision.

In the footage, the coast guard aircraft is seen entering the runway from the C5 taxiway, then shortly after the passenger plane touches down right behind and rams into it, creating an orange fireball. The JAL airliner, covered with flames and spewing gray smoke, continues down the runway before coming to a stop.

Transcript of the recorded communication at the traffic control, released by the transport ministry Wednesday, showed that the air traffic controller told the coast guard plane to taxi to a holding position just before the runway, noting its No. 1 departure priority. The coast guard pilot repeats the instruction, then offers thanks for the No. 1 slot. There was no further instruction from the control allowing the coast guard to enter the runway.

The pilot told police investigators that his aircraft was struck just as he powered up the engines after obtaining clearance to take off.

The small lights on the coast guard aircraft and its 40-second stop might have made it less visible to the JAL pilots and air traffic control. NHK also said that air traffic control officials may have missed an alert system for unauthorized runway entry while engaging in other operations.

The JTSB investigators on Friday planned to interview seven JAL cabin attendants to get their accounts, after their similar interviews with the three pilots and two other attendants the day before.

As aircraft manufacturer, Airbus officials are also joining the investigation, a requirement under international aviation safety rules, according to the board.