TheNewsGuru

Tag: Iran

  • UK condemns Iran’s attack on Israel, reveals next line of action

    UK condemns Iran’s attack on Israel, reveals next line of action

    Rishi Sunak the British prime minister,  has reacted to Iran’s attack on Israel.

    The UK said it’s working alonside its allies to stabilise the situation, adding that it does not want to see more bloodshed.

    According to Sunak, the United Kingdom will continue to offer support for Israel’s security.

    On Saturday, Iran  fired multiple drone attacks against Israel in retaliation to the attack on its embassy in Syria and the killing of its top officials by the Israeli military.

    Reacting to the attack on X, the Prime minister said, “I condemn in the strongest terms the Iranian regime’s reckless attack against Israel.

    “Iran has once again demonstrated that it is intent on sowing chaos in its own backyard.

    “The UK will continue to stand up for Israel’s security and that of all our regional partners, including Jordan and Iraq.

    “Alongside our allies, we are urgently working to stabilise the situation and prevent further escalation. No one wants to see more bloodshed.”

  • WAR: Iran carries out threats, fires missiles, drones at Israel

    WAR: Iran carries out threats, fires missiles, drones at Israel

    Jerusalem the capital of Israel witnessed multiple blast as drones fired by Iran have arrived in Israel.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that Iran threatened to attack Israel few weeks ago after  it was accused of launching attacks against Iran’s consulate in Damascus, Syria, resulting in the killing of its men.

     

    The attack, according to reports, was in retaliation for the killing of its men and two generals earlier in the month.

    However, following the launching of the drones, Israel’s military on Saturday notified residents of high-risk areas to move into bomb shelters for safety when the drones arrive.

    A CNN correspondent reporting from Jerusalem said no impact of the drones was felt through the destruction of facilities but that the blasts were a result of the drones being intercepted by Israel’s aero-defence system.

    There are reports that France, US and UK are assisting Israel in shooting down the drones.

    According to Israeli Army radio, more than 100 drones were intercepted outside Israeli territory with assistance from the US and UK.

  • WAR: Iran threatens to launch attack on Israel’s embassies

    WAR: Iran threatens to launch attack on Israel’s embassies

    An Iranian official has issued out a strong warning to Israel saying their embassies are no longer safe.

    Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior Iranian official gave the warning, insisting that Israel should no longer see any of its embassies as a safe haven, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

    Safavi, who is a senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, was quoted as saying that Tehran viewed confrontation with Israel as a “legitimate and legal right”.

    It would be recalled that Iran has vowed to revenge after an airstrike destroyed its consulate in Damascus, killing at least 11 people last week, including a senior commander in the al-Quds force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

    Israel has not confirmed it was behind the strike on Damascus.

  • Iran’s oldest woman, Masoumeh Sanei Toroghi, finally dies at 125

    Iran’s oldest woman, Masoumeh Sanei Toroghi, finally dies at 125

    In a momentous announcement, the death of Masoumeh Sanei Toroghi, Iran’s oldest woman, has been reported.

    Born on September 23, 1898, she died at the astounding age of 125.

    Hailing from the city of Mashhad, Toroghi outlived the Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who was previously recognized as the oldest person and died at the age of 122.

    Records and Verification
    Iran began documenting family records in 1918, two decades after Toroghi’s reported birth year, making her age at the time of her death a subject of great interest.

    In an attempt to verify her age, state TV displayed her identity card.

    This isn’t the first time Iran has claimed a record-breaking age for its citizens.

    In 2020, local media reported the death of an Iranian Kurd, whose age, as per his identity documents, was stated to be 138 years old.

    The title of the world’s oldest person is often disputed due to the complexities involved in verifying such long lifespans.

    Despite Iran’s claims, the official record, according to Guinness World Records, is currently held by Maria Branyas Morera of Spain.

    Morera, who is set to celebrate her 117th birthday on March 4, has thus far outlived all her contemporaries.

    As medical advancements continue to push the boundaries of human lifespan, the lives of individuals like Toroghi and Morera become increasingly significant.

    They serve as remarkable reminders of our potential for longevity and the enduring mystery of human life.

  • SAD! Bombs k!ll 103 during slain general’s memorial in Iran

    SAD! Bombs k!ll 103 during slain general’s memorial in Iran

    No fewer than 103 people were killed in Iran Wednesday as two bombs in quick succession struck a crowd commemorating slain general Qasem Soleimani on the anniversary of his killing, state media reported.

    The blasts, which state television called a “terrorist attack”, came with tensions running high in the Middle East a day after Hamas number two Saleh al-Aruri – an Iran ally – was killed in a drone attack on a Beirut southern suburb which Lebanese officials blamed on Israel.

    The blasts stuck near the Saheb al-Zaman Mosque in Kerman, Soleimani’s southern hometown where he is buried, as supporters gathered to mark the fourth anniversary of his killing in a US drone strike just outside Baghdad airport.

    Kerman’s deputy governor, Rahman Jalali, said the explosions were a “terrorist attack”.

    There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

    “The number of people killed rose to 103 following the death of people injured during the terrorist explosions,” said official IRNA news agency, which earlier reported 73 deaths.

    Another 141 people were wounded in the bombings, IRNA said, adding that some were in “critical condition”.

    Iran’s Tasnim news agency, quoting informed sources, said “two bags carrying bombs went off” at the site.

  • Iran’s supreme leader, Khamenei delivered clear message to Hamas chief – Officials

    Iran’s supreme leader, Khamenei delivered clear message to Hamas chief – Officials

    Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered a clear message to the head of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh when they met in Tehran in early November, according to three senior officials.

    According to Iranian and Hamas officials with knowledge of the discussions who asked to remain anonymous to speak freely, Khamenei said to the head of Hamas that the group gave Iran no warning of “your Oct. 7 attack on Israel and we will not enter the war on your behalf.”

    The supreme leader said that Iran – a longtime backer of Hamas – would continue to lend the group its political and moral support, but wouldn’t intervene directly.

    A Hamas official told Reuters that Khamenei pressed Haniyeh to silence those voices in the Palestinian group publicly calling for Iran and its powerful Lebanese ally Hezbollah to join the battle against Israel in full force.

    Hezbollah, too, was taken by surprise by Hamas’ devastating assault last month that killed 1,200 Israelis.

    Its fighters were not even on alert in villages near the border that were frontlines in its 2006 war with Israel and had to be rapidly called up, three sources close to the Lebanese group said.

    “We woke up to a war,” said a Hezbollah commander.

    The unfolding crisis marks the first time that the so-called Axis of Resistance – a military alliance built by Iran over four decades to oppose Israeli and American power in the Middle East – has mobilised on multiple fronts at the same time.

    Hezbollah has engaged in the heaviest clashes with Israel for almost 20 years.

    Iran-backed militias have targeted U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, just as Yemen’s Houthis have launched missiles and drones at Israel.

    The conflict is also testing the limits of the regional coalition whose members – which include the Syrian government, Hezbollah, Hamas, and other militant groups from Iraq to Yemen – have differing priorities and domestic challenges.

    Mohanad Hage Ali, an expert on Hezbollah at the Carnegie Middle East Center think-tank in Beirut, said Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on Israel had left its axis partners facing tough choices in confronting an adversary with far superior firepower.

    “When you wake up the bear with such an attack, it’s quite difficult for your allies to stand in the same position as you.”

    Hamas, the ruling group of Gaza, is fighting for its survival against an avenging Israel, which vows to wipe it out and has launched a retaliatory onslaught on the tiny enclave that’s killed more than 11,000 Palestinians.

    On Oct. 7, Hamas’ military commander Mohammed Deif called on its axis allies to join the struggle.

    “Our brothers in the Islamic resistance in Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria, this is the day when your resistance unites with your people in Palestine,” he said in an audio message.

    Hints of frustration surfaced in subsequent public statements by Hamas leaders including Khaled Meshaal, who in an Oct. 16 TV interview thanked Hezbollah for its actions thus far but said “the battle requires more”.

    Nonetheless, alliance leader Iran won’t directly intervene in the conflict unless it is itself attacked by Israel or the United States, according to six officials with direct knowledge of Tehran’s thinking who declined to be named due to the sensitive nature of the matter.

    Instead, Iran’s clerical rulers plan to continue using their axis network of armed allies, including Hezbollah, to launch rocket and drone attacks on Israeli and American targets across the Middle East, the officials said.

    The strategy is a calibrated effort to demonstrate solidarity for Hamas in Gaza and stretch Israeli forces without becoming engaged in a direct confrontation with Israel that could draw in the United States, they added.

    “This is their way of trying to create deterrence,” said Dennis Ross, a former senior U.S. diplomat specialising in the Middle East who now works at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think-tank.

    “A way of saying: ‘Look as long as you don’t attack us, this is the way it will remain. But if you attack us, everything changes’.”

    Iran has repeatedly said that all members of the alliance make their own decisions independently.

    The Iranian foreign ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment about its response to the crisis and the role of the Axis of Resistance, a term of disputed origin that has been used by Iranian officials to describe the coalition.

    Hamas didn’t immediately respond to questions sent to Haniyeh’s media adviser, while Hezbollah also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

  • US deploys new forces, warships to red sea

    US deploys new forces, warships to red sea

    US has deployed two warships and more than 3,000 sailors and Marines to the Red Sea in a ramped-up response from Washington to the threat to commercial shipping by Iran.

    The Pentagon says Iran has either seized or attempted to take control of nearly 20 internationally flagged ships in the region over the past two years.

    The new US forces arrived on board USS Bataan and USS Carter Hall, providing “greater flexibility and maritime capability,” the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain said on Monday. The deployment adds to efforts “to deter destabilizing activity and de-escalate regional tensions caused by Iran’s harassment and seizures of merchant vessels,” spokesman Cdr. Tim Hawkins said.

    Bataan is an amphibious assault ship that can carry fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and landing craft. The Carter Hall, a dock landing ship, transports Marines and their equipment, and lands them ashore.

    The latest deployment came after US forces blocked two attempts by Iran to seize commercial tankers in international waters off Oman on July 5. Tehran said one of the tankers, the Bahamian-flagged Richmond Voyager, had collided with an Iranian vessel and injured five crew.

    In April and early May, Iran seized two oil tankers within a week in regional waters. Those incidents came after Israel and the US blamed Iran for a drone strike off the coast of Oman in November on a tanker operated by an Israeli-owned company.

    The US said last month it would deploy a destroyer, F-35 and F-16 warplanes, and a marine expeditionary unit to the Middle East to deter Iran from seizing ships in the Gulf. Washington is also preparing to put Marines and navy personnel aboard commercial tankers in the Gulf.

    Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said US deployments served only Washington’s interests.“The US government’s military presence in the region has never created security. Their interests in this region have always compelled them to fuel instability and insecurity,” he said. Countries in the Gulf were capable of ensuring their own security,” he said.

    Torbjorn Soltvedt of the risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft said: “Security will remain a friction point in US-Gulf relations even if the threat posed by Iranian attacks against shipping eases in the short term.

    “The perception that the US isn’t doing enough to deter Iranian attacks against international shipping will persist. The need for a new approach is evident.”

  • Iran tops list of countries with internet restrictions, recent figures show

    Iran tops list of countries with internet restrictions, recent figures show

    Iran has imposed the tightest Internet restrictions in the world during the first six months of 2023, a recent study shows.

    Figures released by cybersecurity company Surfshark showed that Iran has outpaced other countries in tightening Internet restrictions, introducing 14 new restrictions.

    Following closely behind is India, which imposed nine new restrictions, while Pakistan implemented three.

    The continuing protests in Iran, which erupted in Sept. 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini and the Zahedan massacre, have been found to be the main reason for the surge in censorship.

    Surfshark spokesperson, Gabriele Racaityte-Krasauske, expressed deep concern over the increase in online controls, namely in the aftermath of Mahsa Amini’s death and the Zahedan massacre, Al-Monitor reported.

    On September 16, 2022, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, died while in the custody of Iran’s morality police. She had been arrested and beaten for not wearing a headscarf as required by the government, and her death ignited country-wide protests.

    The Zahedan massacre happened later that month. It involved a series of brutal police crackdowns on protesters in Iran’s southeastern city of Zahedan, home to the ethnic Balouch community, killing at least 96 demonstrators and wounding 300 others.

    To hinder activists’ communication, Iranian authorities imposed more Internet blackouts.

    Surfshark’s report revealed that there were 42 new Internet disruptions globally during the first half of 2023, in addition to 40 cases that were already present before January.

  • Five persons executed in Iran over drug offences

    Five persons executed in Iran over drug offences

    About five persons have been executed by Iranian authorities for “armed drug smuggling” in the south of the country, the judiciary reported.

    The convicts, “all criminals and armed drug smugglers”, had been sentenced to death by hanging in a verdict upheld by Iran’s top court, the judiciary’s website Mizan Online quoted Mojtaba Ghahramani, Chief Justice of the southern province of Hormozgan, as saying.

    “The sentences of the aforementioned were carried out this morning in Bandar Abbas and Minab prisons” in Hormozgan, he added.

    The execution of five persons brings to eight the number of people executed in less than a week over drug smuggling.

    On Wednesday, the judiciary executed three convicted drug cartel members, following warnings from the United Nations over the “frighteningly” high number of executions in the country.

    Iran executes more people a year than any other nation except China, according to human rights groups including Amnesty International.

    On Monday, Iran executed two people following a rare conviction for desecrating the Koran and insulting the Prophet Mohammad, prompting US condemnation and outcry from human rights groups.

    On Tuesday, UN rights chief Volker Turk sounded the alarm over Iran’s “abominable” track record this year, with an average of more than 10 people being put to death each week.

    More than 210 people have already been executed in Iran this year, most of them for drug-related offences, but a United Nations statement said the actual number is likely much higher.

    The country hanged 75 percent more people in 2022 than the previous year, the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) and Paris-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) said in a joint report in April.

    At least 582 people were executed in Iran last year, the highest number of executions in the country since 2015 and well above the 333 recorded in 2021, the two rights groups said.

  • Iran reacts as Israel attacks Islamic Jihad in Gaza, killing 13

    Iran reacts as Israel attacks Islamic Jihad in Gaza, killing 13

    Thirteen people were killed after Israel attacked targets of the militant Palestinian organisation Islamic Jihad, according to officials on Tuesday.

    The Palestinian Health Ministry said the dead included four women and four children in the strikes on Gaza and Rafah.

    Russians Jamal Khaswan and his wife and son were also among those killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza, according to the Russian mission in the West Bank.

    About 30 Palestinians were injured, some of them critically, the ministry said.

    Militant groups said they would retaliate.

    Israel’s army justified the operation by citing rocket attacks from Gaza on the Israeli border area in recent weeks.

    The Israeli army said the three militants were Chalil Bahitini, a commander in the northern part of the Gaza Strip who was responsible for recent rocket attacks on Israel.

    Jahed Ahnam, head of the military council and Tarek Az Aldin, coordinated the attacks in the West Bank.

    UN envoy, Tor Wennesland, condemned the civilian deaths as unacceptable.

    “I urge all concerned to exercise maximum restraint to avoid an escalation.

    “We must be prepared for every scenario – the IDF and security forces are prepared to defend every front,” Israeli Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, said.

    The military was ordered to prepare for a possible mobilisation of reservists.

    The opposition backed the Israeli government’s deployment.

    The U.S. was informed about the plans, according to media reports.

    Several Arab countries, including Egypt and Jordan, condemned the Israeli attacks.

    Civilians in southern Israel were ordered to stay near a designated shelter until Wednesday.

    Border crossings with Gaza were closed and regional rail traffic was restricted.

    According to eyewitnesses, the Gaza region saw little traffic, while schools, universities and all ministries and public services were closed.

    Amid fears of escalation, Managing Director of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), Tamir Hayman, has said.

    “As far as Israel is concerned, Hamas is not the target of the operation but the main question that will determine the intensity of this conflict and its duration is whether or not Hamas will join the campaign.’’

    Israeli news site Ynet reported that Israel had sent a message to Hamas that they were not targeted.

    A Hamas spokesman said that the Palestinian people know how to respond to the crime of the targeted killing of Jihad members and attack the occupying power.

    A Jihad spokesperson said that Israel had ignored all the initiatives of the mediators.

    In August last year, Israel killed jihadi military chief, Chalid Mansur, in an air strike.

    Two other jihad members were killed, including Mansur’s deputy.

    At that time, there were massive rocket attacks from the Palestinian territory and further Israeli air strikes.

    An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire came into effect three days later.

    The latest tensions stem from the death of Khader Adnan a week ago.

    The senior member of the Islamic Jihad movement died after spending almost three months on hunger strike in an Israeli jail.

    The Gaza Strip is home to more than two million people living in very poor conditions, while Hamas seized power in the Palestinian territory by force in 2007.

    In response, Israel tightened a blockade of the coastal area, which was supported by Egypt.

    The U.S., the EU and Israel classify Hamas and Islamic Jihad as terrorist organisations.

    Both groups were committed to the destruction of Israel.

    Islamic Jihad, however, was seen as more radical than Hamas.

    Iran strongly condemns Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza Strip

    The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman on Tuesday strongly condemned the Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip earlier in the day.

    In a statement posted on the ministry’s website, Nasser Kanaani highlighted the necessity of an immediate, effective, deterrent and coordinated action by Muslim states to stop Israel’s crimes.

    After the Israeli attack on Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) militants in the Gaza Strip that killed at least 13 people, including women, children and three senior PIJ military leaders, and injured at least 20 others.

    Kanaani said the Israeli offensive was aimed at diverting public opinion away from Israel’s very shaky and critical domestic situation.

    The spokesman added that the silence and inaction of Western countries and relevant international organisations in the face of Israel’s recent escalation of tensions with the Palestinian people had greatly emboldened Israelis to continue their crimes.

    On Tuesday, Israeli fighter jets and unmanned drones carried out simultaneous and surprising airstrikes against buildings and apartments that host senior PIJ military leaders in the Gaza Strip.

    The Israeli military said in a statement that three PIJ leaders were killed in the airstrikes.

    They were identified by the PIJ as Khalil Bahitini, the commander of the Al-Quds Brigades in the northern Gaza Strip, Tariq Izz al-Din.

    The spokesperson for the movement who also managed retaliatory operations in the West Bank and Gaza, and Jihad al-Ghannam, secretary of the movement’s military council said.

    The airstrikes came less than a week after over 100 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel following the death of PIJ official Khader Adnan.

    Adnan, who had been on hunger strike for 86 days while under Israeli custody.