CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Three gunmen barged into a small house in an impoverished neighborhood in South Africa and opened fire on a group enjoying a party inside, killing at least 11 people including a pregnant woman, police and local authorities said Wednesday.
Three others were wounded in the late-night mass shooting Tuesday in KwaMakhutha township, which is located about 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of the city of Durban on the east coast.
The motive for the shooting wasn't known, but some of the shooting victims were known to authorities as part of investigations into criminal activity, police said.
Police didn’t give out any more information on those investigations, saying it could compromise them.
“Although the motive of the shooting cannot be confirmed yet, (a) feud between rival groupings cannot be ruled out,” the South African Police Service said in a statement.
Ten people, including the pregnant woman, died at the scene and an 11th was declared dead at a hospital. Authorities didn't immediately give out details on the condition of the three people who were wounded.
Police said they were searching for three men and no arrests had been made, but the acting national police commissioner ordered local police to deploy officers in a special 72-hour operation to track down the suspects.
Thami Ntuli, the premier of KwaZulu-Natal province, told reporters at the scene that the killings were “really disturbing” and called on community members to provide any information they might have that would help find the gunmen. He said that there were known problems with drug dealing and illegal firearms in the largely poor community, where some of the houses are just a few meters apart with no fences or walls in between.
Ntuli confirmed in a statement that the woman who was killed was pregnant.
It's the latest in a series of mass shootings in South Africa recently, including one in June when multiple shooters killed 12 people in a poor neighborhood in Johannesburg that police linked to criminal gangs. Two mass shootings two weeks apart in December killed 21 people. They were also carried out by multiple gunmen.
South Africa has extremely high rates of violent crime, with official police statistics recording 5,427 homicides in the latest three-month period between April and June at an average of nearly 60 homicides a day.
Shootings are the most common form of homicide in South Africa, and police and crime experts have long said that one of the biggest problems is that there is a high number of illegal firearms in circulation.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa authorized the deployment of soldiers on the streets in some areas earlier this year to combat violent crime in what critics said was an admission that police were failing.
Soldiers were deployed to areas around Johannesburg, the city of Cape Town and in Eastern Cape province on the south coast in the ongoing operation, but not to KwaZulu-Natal province where the latest shooting happened.
The bodies of some of the victims of Tuesday night's shooting were laid out on the ground and covered with white sheets outside the house where the shooting took place. They were later carried away on stretchers to pathology vans.
Police cordoned off the neighborhood with yellow tape while forensic investigators worked through the scene.
Police were also investigating if the torching of a car near the house was connected to the shooting.
AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
Police officers load a body into a forensic pathology vehicle at the scene of a mass shooting in KwaMakhutha township south of the city of Durban, South Africa, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (AP Photo)
A police officer is seen at a scene of a mass shooting at a house party in KwaMakhutha township south of the city Durban, South Africa, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (AP Photo)
A police officer stands at the scene of a mass shooting at a house party in KwaMakhutha township south of the city of Durban, South Africa, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (AP Photo)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iran’s president said Wednesday that his people have been “victims of terrorism” by the United States, delivering a rare wartime speech at U.N. General Assembly a day after President Donald Trump said he could “annihilate” the Islamic republic.
In a defiant speech, President Masoud Pezeshkian held up large photos of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the more than 150 school Iranian children killed on the first days of the war.
“We have only defended ourselves. We are not terrorists,” Pezeshkian said at the General Assembly. “Our innocent people have been the targets of cowardly attacks and aggressions imposed upon our country. And we defended ourselves with utmost strength. America and Israel attacked us.”
He added of the United States: “Yes they did hit us, but we did not bend the knee.” Toward the end of his speech, Pezeshkian called out Trump by name.
“It must be understood by Mr. Trump and those who seek to bully us that we are ready for dialogue and diplomacy and negotiations without accepting the language of force,” he said.
He also said one thing that was measurably false: "We did not hit civilian populations.” Mariners and migrant workers in the region have been among the civilians killed in Iran’s attacks since the war began.
Arriving in New York under heavy security and scrutiny, Pezeshkian — who, within Iran’s political landscape, is considered a moderate politician — addressed world leaders a day after Trump used the same stage to suggest he may “annihilate” the Islamic Republic if a deal isn’t reached soon to end the nearly seven-month war.
Hours later, Trump told reporters that his chief envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, met for about three hours with the Iranian officials on the sidelines of the annual gathering. But he offered few details about how the discussions transpired or the substance of the exchange.
“It was a very good meeting,” Trump said. The president later added that the Iranian officials were “not the highest level, but it’s something.” Also on Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump is open to meeting with Pezeshkian while he’s in New York.
But Tehran downplayed Tuesday's unscheduled exchange, which were the first indirect talks between U.S. and Iranian officials since a June ceasefire unraveled. Esmail Baghaei, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, maintained the country's negotiating position in talks with U.S. officials, demanding that Washington end its blockade of Iranian ports and release frozen Iranian assets,
Baghaei said the talks — conducted indirectly through Qatari mediators — were “not anything new.”
Pezeshkian's address elaborated on where Tehran stands as more than a year of start-stop negotiations between the two longtime adversaries have failed to produce a sustainable solution. His speech came as intermittent attacks continued in the Strait of Hormuz off Iran’s coast, where commercial shipping remained below prewar levels.
His address last year came months after the 12-day Israel-Iran war that saw the assassination of many of the Islamic Republic’s highest military and political leaders and once again broke down weeks of negotiations with the United States.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you all bore witness that this past June, my country was subjected to a savage aggression and flagrant contravention of the most elementary principles of international law,” Pezeshkian said at the time.
Demonstrators against the Iranian regime protest outside of the United Nations headquarters during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Madison Swart)
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
The front pages of Iranian newspapers show portraits of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, and headlines regarding the Shajareh Tayyebeh school that was hit in a Feb. 28 U.S. airstrike in Minab, at a square in northern Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
In this photo released by the Iranian Presidency Office, President Masoud Pezeshkian waves to media and officials as he boards his plane while leaving Mehrabad airport for New York to attend the UN General Assembly, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)
