Nepali sherpa scales Mount Everest for 23rd time; creates world record
Kathmandu: A 49-year-old veteran Nepali sherpa has scaled Mount Everest for the 23rd time, breaking his own record in reaching atop the world's highest peak, media reports said Wednesday.
Kami Rita Sherpa, who summited Everest 22nd time last year to set record of most summits on Mt. Everest, stood on top of the 8,850-metres peak together with other Sherpas on Wednesday morning, the Himalayan Times reported.
"Kami Rita Sherpa from Thame village of Solukhumbu district successfully climbed Mt Everest at around 7:50 am from Nepal side breaking his own record for most summits on the roof of the world," Mingma Sherpa, Company Chairman at Seven Summit Treks, was quoted as saying by the paper.
Rita has been climbing Mt. Everest since 1994. He couldn't climb the Everest in 1995 after his client got sick on the way to summit, My Republica, another prominent daily in the Himalayan nation, reported.
In 1995, he abandoned the summit bid after the deadliest avalanche killed expedition teams.
In 2017, Kami became the 3rd person to climb Mt. Everest for 21 times, equalising the achievement of Apa Sherpa and Phurba Tashi Sherpa, both of whom have since retired.
Kami broke record for set record of most summits on Mt. Everest in 2018.
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US soldiers were killed in Iranian drone strike on operations centre at Kuwait civilian port
Washington (AP): An operations centre targeted by an Iranian drone strike that killed six American soldiers on Sunday was located in the heart of a civilian port in Kuwait, miles away from the main Army base, according to satellite images and a US official.
The husband of one of the slain soldiers, who was part of a supply and logistics unit based in Iowa, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the hub was a shipping container-style building and had no defences.
The development, reported earlier by CNN and CBS News, raises questions about the safety precautions that the US military had in place as it, along with Israel, launched an attack on Iran, which has responded with retaliatory strikes against several countries in the region, including Kuwait.
President Donald Trump and top defence leaders say more American casualties are likely.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that the six soldiers were killed in a “tactical operations centre” when a projectile made its way past air defences. A day later, the Pentagon confirmed it was a drone strike in Port Shuaiba when announcing the names of four of the soldiers who were slain.
A satellite image taken Monday and reviewed by the AP showed the main building in the complex destroyed, with a trail of black smoke rising from it. It is located in the heart of Port Shuaiba, a working seaport and industrial area just south of Kuwait City. The US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a matter under active investigation, confirmed the image depicted the location of Sunday's attack.
The Army base, Camp Arifjan, is more than 10 miles to the south. The operations centre was just a little over a mile from some of the piers where merchant ships would offload cargo containers and was surrounded by oil storage tanks, refineries and a power plant.
Joey Amor, husband of Sgt 1st Class Nicole Amor, said his wife was moved off-base to what he described as a shipping container-style building a week before the Iranian strike. The 39-year-old from White Bear Lake, Minnesota, was one of the soldiers killed in the attack.
“They were dispersing because they were in fear that the base they were on was going to get attacked, and they felt it was safer in smaller groups in separated places,” he said.
After news reports about the operations centre emerged, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on social media that the “secure facility was fortified with 6-foot walls.” He said the military has “the most extensive Air Defence umbrella in the world over the Middle East right now and control of the skies is increasing with every wave of airpower.”
Parnell's office did not respond to questions about what role the walls would have played in defending against a drone attack or what air defences were present in range of the command centre at the port.
Capt Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for US Central Command, said “it would be inappropriate to comment given the incident is under investigation.”
