Terrorists backed by ‘global arrogance’: Iran indirectly blames US after twin blasts kill over 100

News Network
January 4, 2024

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Hundreds of people have been killed and injured in two terrorist blasts near the burial site of Iran’s General Qassem Soleimani in the city of Kerman during a ceremony marking his fourth martyrdom anniversary.

The explosions on January 3 left 103 people dead and 211 more injured, state media reported.

Medical services said the death toll is expected to rise as ambulances were taking the wounded to hospitals, with Babak Yektaparast, deputy head of Iran's Emergency Organization, saying that some of the injured are in critical condition.

According to IRNA, the first explosion occurred some 700 meters from the grave of General Soleimani and the second one about one kilometer away.

Tasnim news agency cited unnamed sources as saying that two bags loaded with explosives which were remotely detonated caused the explosions. IRNA also quoted an informed source as saying two bombed bags detonated by remote control caused the explosions.

The first explosion occurred at 14:50 local time. The second one took place 10 minutes later, according to Kerman Mayor Saeed Tabrizi, ISNA reported. 

Iran’s Red Crescent Society said three rescuers were killed by the second blast.

Some people were injured during a crowd crush following the first explosion. Officials say all the injured have been transferred to hospitals and the situation is under control.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Meanwhile, the Iranian cabinet of ministers has announced a day of national mourning on Thursday. 

Crushing response

Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi told the Islamic Republic of Iran’s News Network that a crushing response will soon be given to the culprits.

He said the bombing attacks were a continuation of various plots to kill innocent civilians at ceremonies across the country, many of which had been foiled by Iranian security services.

He said the situation is now under the control of security forces.

According to the minister, most of the fatalities were caused by the second blast. An investigation into the blasts has been launched and further details will be announced by officials as soon as possible, Vahidi noted. 

Who is behind attacks?

Iran’s Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei vowed the perpetrators and those responsible for the attack will be swiftly hunted down and brought to justice. 

Without directly mentioning the name of United States, he blamed the attacks on terrorists backed by the “world arrogance” who harbor deep grudges against General Soleimani, saying they’ve chosen to take revenge on the people after their various plots to insecure the country were foiled.

General Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), and their companions were assassinated in a US drone strike authorized by then-US President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.

Both commanders were highly revered across the Middle East because of their key role in fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.

In less than a week after the attack, Iraqi lawmakers approved a bill that required the government to expel all US-led foreign forces from the country.

The IRGC also targeted the US-run Ain al-Asad base in Iraq’s western province of Anbar with a wave of missile attacks in retaliation for the assassination of General Soleimani.

One of the worst in Iran 

The Wednesday attack was one of the worst in Iran, which has seen similar attacks claimed by various terror groups, including Daesh and the Pakistan-based so-called Jaish al-Adl.

In September, Iranian media reports said a key Daesh-affiliated operative in charge of carrying out terrorist operations in Iran had been arrested in Kerman.

Back in July, Iran's intelligence ministry said it had disbanded a network that it said was linked to Israel's Mossad and which had been plotting terrorist operations across Iran, including in Kerman, according to IRNA.

IRNA said the alleged plots included "planning an explosion at the tomb" of General Soleimani as well as targeting other public gatherings.
In 2022, Daesh claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a shrine in Iran’s city of Shiraz, which killed 15 people.

Earlier attacks claimed by the group include deadly twin bombings in 2017 which targeted Iran's parliament and the mausoleum of the late founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

In 2019, a car bombing of an IRGC bus killed 27 troops in southeastern Iran. It was later claimed by Jaish al-Adl, a terror group formed in 2012.

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News Network
November 18,2024

Advisors to US President-elect Donald Trump have instructed his allies and associates to refrain from using the inflammatory language they previously employed when discussing issues related to migrants and the deportation of asylum seekers, in a bid to avoid “looking like Nazis.”

US media reports said that Trump’s associates had been asked to stop using the word “camps” to describe potential facilities that would be used to accommodate migrants rounded up in deportation operations across the country.

The reports said the US president-elect’s allies had been ordered to stave off such charged terms as they would bring to mind “Nazis,” and be used against Trump.

“I have received some guidance to avoid terms, like ‘camps,’ that can be twisted and used against the president, yes,” one Trump ally told American monthly magazine Rolling Stone.

“Apparently, some people think it makes us look like Nazis.”

The presidential advisers also cautioned surrogates and allies to keep racist terms, which have dogged Trump’s campaign, out of their remarks.

They said with Trump’s heated rhetoric that used to compare undocumented immigrants to “animals” and his slight that they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” detractors did not need to reach too far to find parallels to Nazi Germany.

Stephen Miller, who Trump tapped to be his deputy chief of staff of policy, specifically used the word “camps” to describe holding facilities that he hoped the military could put together for immigrants.

Tom Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is chosen by Trump to be in charge of the US borders, was no stranger to such language.

“It’s not gonna be a mass sweep of neighborhoods,” he said in an interview earlier this week. “It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous.”

Becoming a little more forthright about the new government’s aggressive deportation plans, Homan likened the early days of the Trump administration to the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“I got three words for them – shock and awe,” he said. “You’re going to see us take this country back.”

Trump made immigration a central element of his 2024 presidential campaign but unlike his first run, which was mainly focused on building a border wall, he has shifted his attention to interior enforcement and the removal of undocumented immigrants already in the United States.

People close to the US president and his aides are laying the groundwork for expanding detention facilities to fulfill his mass deportation campaign promise.

The businessman-turned-politician deported more than 1.5 million people during his first term.

The figure do not include the millions of people turned away at the border under a Covid-era policy enacted by Trump and used during most of Biden’s term.

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News Network
November 11,2024

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Udupi, Nov 11: The Karkala town police in Udupi have arrested Krishna Naik, the sculptor responsible for installing a 33-foot Parashurama statue at Umikkal Hill in Bailur, Karkala taluk. 

Naik, the owner of Krish Art World and a resident of Bengaluru's Visvesvaraya Layout, was apprehended in Mahe, part of the Union Territory of Puducherry, for allegedly substituting a look-alike statue in place of a genuine bronze figure at the Parashurama Theme Park in Karkala.

Udupi Superintendent of Police Dr. Arun K confirmed the arrest, stating that Naik faces charges under Sections 420 (cheating) and 409 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code. 

This legal action followed a complaint lodged in June by Krishna Shetty, a resident of Nallur village, Karkala. Shetty claimed that Naik had received a payment of ₹1,25,50,000 from Udupi Nirmithi Kendra for the installation of a bronze Parashurama statue. However, Naik allegedly deceived the government by installing a replica instead.

The statue was unveiled on January 27, 2023, by then Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. Current Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has since ordered a CID investigation to probe deeper into the alleged fraud surrounding the statue's installation at the theme park.

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News Network
November 13,2024

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Beirut: The Israeli army on Tuesday continued to launch attacks against civilians in Lebanon, targeting them in several areas without prior evacuation warnings.

However, 13 airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs in the space of only three hours were preceded by evacuation warnings.

The attacks caused no injuries but resulted in widespread destruction of residential buildings and commercial, medical and educational centers.

The airstrikes in southern Lebanon and Bekaa region, reaching Akkar in Lebanon’s far north, erased any hope of a near-term ceasefire settlement.

The strikes were accompanied by an announcement on Israel’s Channel 14 that “the Israeli army has expanded its operations in southern Lebanon to areas it had not reached since the beginning of the ground operation.”

About 50 days have passed since Israel intensified its hostile operations in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah. The death toll from these confrontations and attacks has passed 3,200, with more than 14,000 wounded.

For the first time, an airstrike targeted a mountainous area between Baalchmay and Aabadiyeh on the road leading to Aley, destroying a building housing displaced people.

The mayor of Baalchmay, Adham Al-Danaf, confirmed that “the airstrike targeted a residential building in the Dhour Aabadiyeh area.”

The initial toll from the Ministry of Health showed “five people killed and two injured.”

The raids that targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs for the first time in the morning, unlike nightly raids before, caused huge destruction. Those who evacuated their homes after Israeli warnings, used their phones to record the collapse of empty buildings in Sfeir, Haret Hreik, Bir Al-Abed, Mrayjeh, Laylaki and Hadath.

Israeli warplanes also targeted Tyre, where a strike on a building killed three people and injured many others, while a raid on Tefahta killed a man identified as Kifah Khalil and his family.

Attacks were widespread, with Yater and Zebqine subject to artillery shelling, a civilian being killed in Hermel, and further attacks on Bouday and an area between the towns of Srifa and Arsoun.

A raid on the town of Siddiqin killed two people and injured several others, while an attack on the Mechref farm led to one fatality and multiple injuries.

The search for those missing after an Israeli raid on the town of Ain Yaacoub in Akkar, in the northernmost part of Lebanon, continued until dawn.

During the operation, 14 bodies were retrieved, identified as those of residents displaced from the town of Arabsalim in the Iqlim Al-Tuffah area of the south, along with members of a Syrian family, a mother and three of her children. Additionally, there were 10 people in critical condition.

The targeted residence belongs to a Lebanese citizen, Hussein Hashim, who is reported to be a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.

An airstrike on the town of Saksakiyeh in the Sidon region on Monday night resulted in yet another tragedy.

It appeared that the intended target was the Shoumer family, who just days before lost Hussein Amin Shoumer and his two sisters in a drone strike near Al-Awali River.

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued additional evacuation warnings for towns in the southern region along the Litani River, which, according to estimates from the mayors, are currently 90 percent uninhabited.

In the meantime, Hezbollah announced its continued efforts to “combat the intrusions of Israeli forces and to strike military installations and towns in the north.”

Hezbollah said in a statement that it confronted “an Israeli Hermes 450 drone in the airspace of Nabatieh and forced it to leave Lebanese airspace.”

The party also announced that it targeted “Kfar Blum settlement with a rocket salvo.”

On the Israeli side, air raid sirens sounded in areas of Upper and Western Galilee and in the town of Kiryat Shmona and its surroundings.

The Israeli army confirmed that “a drone exploded in Nesher, east of Haifa, without activating the air raid sirens,” and that “a drone launched from Lebanon crashed into a school in Gesher HaZiv, north of Nahariya.”

Israel’s Channel 13 reported the Israeli military’s assessment regarding Hezbollah’s military strength, claiming that the group currently possesses approximately 100 precision missiles, thousands of artillery shells, and hundreds of rockets. Additionally, it was highlighted that “there are around 200 Lebanese towns that remain unvisited.”

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