By Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON, April 5 (Reuters) - The rescue had unfolded with near‑perfect precision. Under cover of darkness, U.S. commandos slipped deep into Iran, undetected, scaled a 7,000‑foot ridge and pulled a stranded American weapons specialist to safety, moving him toward a secret rendezvous point before dawn on Sunday.
Then everything stopped.
Lebanese Christians marked Easter Sunday by turning their prayers to the south, where villages remain trapped by fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
This year's celebrations were dedicated to "people in the south," said Jenny Yazbek al‑Jamal, as she left mass at a church in Beirut's northern suburb of Jdeideh.
With family living in the region, the 55-year-old said she feels like "one of them".
It is not only Christian villages suffering in this war added al-Jamal, who leads the parish choir.
By Phil Stewart and Menna AlaaElDin
WASHINGTON/CAIRO, April 5 (Reuters) - U.S. special forces rescued an airman in a high-risk mission deep inside Iran while President Donald Trump threatened to rain "hell" on Tehran if it did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday for oil flows vital to the world economy.
Trump announced the rescue in the early hours of Sunday in a social media post that described the operation in a mountainous area as "one of the most daring" such missions in U.S. history.
British police said they arrested seven people on Sunday at a protest near an air base in eastern England used by US forces, accusing them of supporting the banned group Palestine Action.
Activists had gathered to protest the alleged use of the Royal Air Force Lakenheath base as a departure point for US aircraft involved in the war in the Middle East.
The Lakenheath Alliance for Peace, which organised the protest, said the seven had been arrested wearing clothing with the message: "We oppose genocide, we support Palestine Action."
April 5 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said his deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on critical infrastructure is Tuesday evening, according to an interview he gave to the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.
"If they don’t do something by Tuesday evening, they won’t have any power plants and they won’t have any bridges standing,” Trump told the Journal.
US President Donald Trump did not take a break from his polarizing rhetoric on Easter Sunday, delivering an expletive-laden attack on Iran that sparked criticism on Capitol Hill and beyond.
"Open the Fuckin' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!" the president wrote just after 8:00 am, renewing his threat to unleash heavy bombing on Iranian power plants and bridges if Tehran refused to unblock the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Israeli firefighters were searching for two missing people in the rubble of a residential building in the northern city of Haifa after it was struck by an Iranian missile that killed two others, authorities said Monday.
The direct hit on a seven-storey building tore through sections of the structure which has partially collapsed, the military and rescue services said.
AFP footage showed rescuers using flashlights to search through rubble and scattered concrete blocks.
The latest developments in the Middle East war:
- Second Philippine national killed -
A second Philippine national has been killed in the Middle East war after a missile struck a residential building in northern Israel, according to Manila's foreign affairs department.
The woman was killed in the port city of Haifa on Sunday "alongside her Israeli husband and elderly parents-in-law", the department said.
By Nazih Osseiran
April 5 (Reuters) - An Israeli airstrike on Kfarhata, a village in south Lebanon, killed seven people on Sunday, including a 4-year-old child, Lebanon's health ministry said in a statement.
Another Israeli attack on the Jnah neighbourhoodin Beirut killed four people and injured 39 others, the ministry added.
The strike on Kfarhata followed an overnight evacuation order by the Israeli military instructing residents to leave the village.
BEIJING, April 5 (Reuters) - China is willing to continue to cooperate with Russia at the U.N. Security Council and make efforts to cool down the Middle East situation, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in a phone call, state agency Xinhua reported Sunday.
Wang said the fundamental way to resolve navigation issues in the Strait of Hormuz is to achieve a ceasefire as soon as possible, adding that China has always advocated political settlement of hotspot issues through dialogue and negotiation.
