TEHRAN, Iran: Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard conducted a drill Saturday launching anti-warship ballistic missiles at a simulated target in the Indian Ocean, state television reported, amid heightened tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program and a US pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic.
Footage showed two missiles smash into a target that Iranian state television described as “hypothetical hostile enemy ships” at a distance of 1,800 kilometers (1,120 miles). The report did not specify the type of missiles used.
In the first phase of the drill Friday, the Guard’s aerospace division launched surface-to-surface ballistic missiles and drones against “hypothetical enemy bases.” Iranian state television described the drill as taking place in the country’s vast central desert, the latest in a series of snap exercises called amid the escalating tensions over its nuclear program. Footage also showed four unmanned, triangle-shaped drones flying in a tight formation, smashing into targets and exploding.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have increased amid a series of incidents stemming from President Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers. Amid Trump’s final days as president, Tehran has recently seized a South Korean oil tanker and begun enriching uranium closer to weapons-grade levels, while the US has sent B-52 bombers, the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and a nuclear submarine into the region.
In recent weeks, Iran has increased its military drills as the country tries to pressure President-elect Joe Biden over the nuclear accord, which he has said America could reenter.
Iran fired cruise missiles Thursday as part of a naval drill in the Gulf of Oman, state media reported, under surveillance of what appeared to be a US nuclear submarine. Iran’s navy did not identify the submarine at the time, but on Saturday, a news website affiliated with state television said the vessel was American. Helicopter footage of the exercise released Thursday by Iran’s navy showed what resembled an Ohio-class guided-missile submarine, the USS Georgia, which the US Navy last month said had been sent to the Arabian Gulf.
Iran has missile capability of up to 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), far enough to reach archenemy Israel and US military bases in the region. Last January, after the US killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad, Tehran retaliated by firing a barrage of ballistic missiles at two Iraqi bases housing US troops, resulting in brain concussion injuries to dozens of them.
Trump in 2018 unilaterally withdrew the US from Iran’s nuclear deal, in which Tehran had agreed to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Trump cited Iran’s ballistic missile program among other issues in withdrawing from the accord.
When the US then increased sanctions, Iran gradually and publicly abandoned the deal’s limits on its nuclear development.
Iranian Guard holds anti-warship ballistic missile drill
https://arab.news/ybkkq
Iranian Guard holds anti-warship ballistic missile drill
- Footage showed two missiles smash into a target that Iranian state television described as “hypothetical hostile enemy ships”
- In recent weeks, Iran has increased its military drills as the country tries to pressure President-elect Joe Biden over the nuclear accord
Jordan eyes increased exports to Iraq amid strengthening economic ties
- Delegation arrives in Baghdad to take part in Jordanian-Iraqi business forum
- 70 Jordanian firms to take part in forum as business leaders seek growth in bilateral trade
BAGHDAD: A Jordanian delegation arrived in Baghdad on Saturday to bolster economic cooperation and explore new opportunities in the Iraqi market, with a focus on expanding Jordanian exports, the Jordan News Agency reported.
The visit, organized by the Jordan Chamber of Industry in partnership with Jordan Export House, coincided with the Baghdad International Fair, where Jordanian industrial firms are set to showcase their products in a dedicated pavilion.
The delegation will also participate in a Jordanian-Iraqi business forum, facilitating discussions between key industrial and commercial figures from both nations.
JCI Chairman Fathi Jaghbir said the initiative aimed to restore Jordanian exports to Iraq to previous levels, when the Iraqi market accounted for roughly 20 percent of Jordan’s total exports.
He described Iraq as a “strategic depth” for Jordanian industries, and highlighted the chamber’s commitment to increasing trade between the two countries.
The forum will be attended by Jordan’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply, Yarub Qudah, alongside Iraq’s Minister of Industry and Minerals, Khaled Batal, and will feature a dialogue session on Jordan-Iraq trade, titled “Visions and a Bright Future,” to highlight the growing collaboration between the public and private sectors.
Jaghbir said that ongoing efforts between Jordanian and Iraqi business leaders have begun to show “tangible” results, with Jordanian exports to Iraq rising by 45 percent over the past year.
He also pointed to past initiatives, such as a specialized Jordanian industries exhibition in Baghdad and multiple bilateral forums, which have led to new agreements and the establishment of joint business chambers.
Ihab Qadiri, head of the JCI’s Iraq focus, underscored the country’s strategic importance for Jordanian exports, noting that 70 Jordanian companies are taking part in the business forum.
Official data shows Jordan’s exports to Iraq reached 830 million dinars ($1.17 billion) in the first 11 months of last year, a 45.6 percent increase over the same period in 2023. Iraq also accounted for 25.4 percent of Jordan’s total exports to the Greater Arab Free Trade Area, valued at 3.25 billion dinars.
Tears and cheers for freed West Bank Palestinian prisoners
- During Saturday’s fourth prisoner release since the January 19 Gaza ceasefire began, an eager crowd gathered to see 25 Palestinian prisoners released in the Israeli-occupied West Bank
- A total of 183 prisoners, almost all Palestinians except for one Egyptian, were released on Saturday
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Stepping off a bus with two dozen other released Palestinian prisoners on Saturday after 23 years imprisonment in Israel, Ata Abdelghani had more than his freedom to look forward to.
The 55-year-old was also to meet his twin sons, Zain and Zaid, for the first time.
The encounter was made possible by his release in an ongoing hostage-prisoner exchange as part of a January ceasefire deal for the Gaza Strip agreed by Israel and Hamas.
The twins, now 10 years old, were conceived while Abdelghani was incarcerated after his sperm was smuggled out of his prison.
He had been serving a life sentence on a number of counts including murder, according to a list released by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club in Ramallah.
“These children are the ambassadors of freedom, the future generation,” Abdelghani said as he hugged the boys tightly.
During Saturday’s fourth prisoner release since the January 19 Gaza ceasefire began, an eager crowd gathered to see 25 Palestinian prisoners released in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Wearing grey prison tracksuits and with their heads shaved, the prisoners looked weary as they arrived, but many were hoisted onto people’s shoulders by the crowd and carried along in a heroes’ welcome.
“It’s hard to describe in words,” Abdelghani said.
“My thoughts are scattered. I need a great deal of composure to control myself, to steady my nerves, to absorb this overwhelming moment.”
He added that the situation in prison had been “difficult, tragic.”
A total of 183 prisoners, almost all Palestinians except for one Egyptian, were released on Saturday.
Seven serving life sentences and an Egyptian were deported to Egypt, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club. Of the remainder, 150 were sent to Gaza.
The prisoners were released in exchange for three Israelis taken hostage during Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Riad Marshoud, another freed prisoner, cried when he hugged his two sons, who were boys when he was jailed 22 years ago.
After hugging them tightly, he sat on a chair while relatives made video calls to cousins and uncles who had not been able to come to see him released.
One relative was in Jordan and another in the United Arab Emirates.
All tried to catch a glimpse of the dazed and tired but elated Marshoud as he received congratulations.
“The first moment when the bus doors opened and I stepped out was very difficult — it’s hard to describe it in mere words,” he told the crowd.
The dense throng that had come to see Marshoud parted when his father arrived wearing a traditional keffiyeh around his head.
The father greeted his son with tearful kisses.
Marshoud had been jailed on charges of membership of an illegal organization, shooting and conspiracy to commit murder, according to Israel’s justice ministry.
Shortly after the families in Ramallah took their released relatives home, three busloads of prisoners arrived in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, an AFP journalist reported.
The 150 prisoners were greeted as they got off the bus by chants from the crowd — “In blood and spirit, we shall redeem you, prisoner!“
At least 56 killed as fighting grips greater Khartoum
- Source at Al-Nao Hospital said wounded were “still being brought to the hospital” following attack by RSF
- Hospital one of the last medical facilities operating in the area, has been repeatedly attacked
PORT SUDAN: Artillery shelling and air strikes killed at least 56 people across greater Khartoum on Saturday, according to a medical source and Sudanese activists.
Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been locked in a battle for power since April 2023 that has intensified this month as the army fights to take all of the capital Khartoum and its sister cities of Omdurman and Khartoum North.
RSF shelling killed 54 people at a busy market in Omdurman on Saturday, overwhelming the city’s Al-Nao Hospital, a medical source told AFP.
“The shells hit in the middle of the vegetable market, that’s why the victims and the wounded are so many,” one survivor told AFP.
Across the Nile in Khartoum, two civilians were killed and dozens wounded in an air strike on an RSF-controlled area, the local Emergency Response Room (ERR) said.
Although the RSF has used drones in attacks including on Saturday, the fighter jets of the regular armed forces maintain a monopoly on air strikes.
The ERR is one of hundreds of volunteer committees across Sudan coordinating emergency care.
In addition to killing tens of thousands of people, the war has uprooted more than 12 million and forced most health facilities out of service.
A volunteer at Al-Nao Hospital told AFP it faced dire shortages of “shrouds, blood donors and stretchers to transport the wounded.”
The hospital is one of the last medical facilities operating in Omdurman and has been repeatedly attacked.
After months of stalemate in greater Khartoum, the army retook several bases in Khartoum last month, including its pre-war headquarters, pushing the RSF increasingly into the city’s outskirts.
Witnesses said Saturday’s bombardment of Omdurman came from the city’s western outskirts, where the RSF remains in control.
A resident of a southern neighborhood reported rocket and artillery fire on the city’s streets.
Saturday’s bombardment came a day after RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo vowed to retake the capital from the army.
“We expelled them (from Khartoum) before, and we will expel them again,” he told troops in a rare video address.
Greater Khartoum has been a key battleground in nearly 22 months of fighting between the army and the RSF, and has been reduced to a shell of its former self.
An investigation by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that 26,000 people were killed in the capital alone between April 2023 and June 2024.
Entire neighborhoods have been taken over by fighters as at least 3.6 million civilians have fled, according to United Nations figures.
Those unable or unwilling to leave have reported frequent artillery fire on residential areas, and widespread hunger in besieged neighborhoods blockaded by opposing forces.
At least 106,000 people are estimated to be suffering from famine in Khartoum, according to the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, with a further 3.2 million experiencing crisis levels of hunger.
Nationwide, famine has been declared in five areas — most of them in the mainly RSF-controlled western region of Darfur — and is expected to take hold of five more by May.
Before leaving office, the Joe Biden administration sanctioned Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, accusing the army of attacking schools, markets and hospitals and using starvation as a weapon of war.
That designation came a week after Washington sanctioned the RSF commander for his role in “gross violations of human rights” in Darfur, where the State Department said his forces had “committed genocide” against non-Arab minority groups.
Syria vows ‘no leniency’ after detainee death: state media
- The man, identified as Louai Tayara, was arrested on Wednesday for “not settling his legal status, and for carrying undeclared weapons“
- The city has seen security sweeps since Assad was toppled, with hundreds of people arrested
DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities have opened an investigation and vowed no leniency after a detainee died in Homs, state media reported on Saturday, less than two months after rebels ousted Bashar Assad.
The man, identified as Louai Tayara, was arrested on Wednesday for “not settling his legal status, and for carrying undeclared weapons,” the SANA news agency said, citing the head of the General Security department in the central Syrian city.
Without identifying the security chief by name, SANA said Tayara had been a member of the National Defense, a militia affiliated with the former government, in Homs.
The city has seen security sweeps since Assad was toppled, with hundreds of people arrested.
Tayara was transferred to a detention center but “some security personnel assigned with transporting him” carried out “violations,” leading to his death, the news agency reported.
“An official investigation was opened” and “all personnel responsible were arrested and referred to the military judiciary,” it said.
SANA cited the security official as saying that the incident “is being dealt with in all seriousness, and there will be no leniency.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Tayara had been “hit in the head with a sharp object.”
Since Islamist-led rebels toppled Assad on December 8, Syria’s new authorities have sought to provide assurances that will be no revenge for Assad-era brutality.
However, they have also begun operations against “regime remnants,” amid reports of violence including extra-judicial killings.
Assad ruled Syria with an iron fist, and his bloody crackdown down on anti-government protests in 2011 sparked a war that has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions.
The new authorities have also sought to reassure religious and ethnic minorities that they will not be harmed, with members of Assad’s Alawite sect in particular fearing a backlash.
Civil Peace Group, a civil society organization, called Tayara’s death a “crime” and an “attack on human values and dignity and the right to life.”
In a statement, it described the incident as a “threat to stability in the city.”
SANA reported the official as saying that “General Security affirms its full commitment to protecting citizens’ rights... and all legal measures will be taken to guarantee justice and transparency.”
“Justice will take its compete course, irrespective of the identity of the person concerned or their previous affiliation,” it said, adding that the results of the investigation would be announced promptly.
The Observatory said on Saturday that it had documented 10 deaths in custody in Homs province since Tuesday, including Tayara.
It also said that gunmen on Friday killed 10 people in a “massacre” in an Alawite village in Hama province, north of Homs.
Israel demands ‘information’ from mediators on Bibas family after father’s release
- “Yarden has returned home. But his wife Shiri and his children Ariel and Kfir have not,” Gal Hirsch, Israel’s hostage coordinator, said
- “We continue to demand information about their condition from the mediators“
JERUSALEM: Israel on Saturday demanded information from mediators who brokered the ceasefire in Gaza about the fate of three family members of freed hostage Yarden Bibas.
“Yarden has returned home. But his wife Shiri and his children Ariel and Kfir have not. We have been searching for them for a long time, tracking their traces and investigating their fate,” Gal Hirsch, Israel’s hostage coordinator, said in a statement.
“The Bibas family... has been living in constant fear for their lives for a long time... We continue to demand information about their condition from the mediators.”
Like Bibas, his wife Shiri and their two boys were seized by militants on October 7, 2023 during Hamas’s attack on Israel and taken to Gaza.
Bibas’s sons — Kfir, the youngest hostage, whose second birthday fell in January, and his older brother Ariel, whose fifth birthday was in August — have become symbols of the hostages’ ordeal.
Hamas has previously declared that Shiri and the children were killed in an Israeli air strike in November 2023, but Israel has not confirmed their deaths.
