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Iranian Commander, Six Others Killed In Israel Strike On Syria Consular Annex

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Israeli air strikes destroyed the Iranian embassy’s consular annex in Damascus Monday, Syrian and Iranian officials said, with a top Revolutionary Guard commander among seven members the force said were killed, amid worsening regional tensions.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps named Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and another high-ranking officer, Brigadier General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, as among seven of its members killed.

Britain-based war monitors the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 11 people, including several Guards members, were killed when “Israeli missiles… destroyed the building of an annexe to the Iranian embassy”.

The toll includes “eight Iranians, two Syrians and one Lebanese — all of them fighters, none of them civilians,” Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Observatory with a network of sources in Syria, told AFP.

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Iran’s ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, giving a lower toll, told Iranian state TV that “at least five people were killed in the attack which was carried out by F-35 fighter jets” which fired six missiles at the building.

AFP reporters saw the annex building had caved in, and emergency services were rushing to search for victims under the rubble as sirens wailed in the upscale Damascus district of Mazzeh.

Security personnel shielded the site where earth-moving equipment was brought in to clear the debris and remove charred vehicles from the road outside, watched by a crowd of onlookers.

Syria’s defence ministry said “the attack destroyed the entire building, killing and injuring everyone inside, and work is underway to recover the bodies and rescue the wounded from under the rubble”.

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– Regional tensions –

Iranian state TV said Zahedi — a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ foreign operations arm, the Quds Force — was among the dead.

The Observatory said Zahedi served as the leader of the Quds Force for Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, adding that he was killed along with his deputy, his aide, and the Quds force chief of staff for the same three countries.

Two other members of the Guards and two Iranian advisers were also killed in the strike, the Observatory said.

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The targeted building is next to the Iranian embassy, the front of which is decorated with a large portrait of Qassem Soleimani, the architect of Iran’s military operations in the Middle East, killed in January 2020 in an American drone strike in Iraq.

The Damascus strikes were the fifth in a week to hit Syria, whose President Bashar al-Assad is supported by Iran, Israel’s long-time arch foe in the region.

Syria’s state news agency SANA had earlier reported that “our air defence systems confronted enemy targets in the vicinity of Damascus”.

Iran’s ambassador, Akbari, vowed the attack “will lead to our decisive response”, adding “the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate shows the reality of the Zionist entity which recognises no international laws and does all that is inhumane to achieve its goals”.

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Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian called for a “serious response by the international community”.

– ‘Heinous attack’ –

Only the gate of the building was left standing after the attack, with a sign mentioning “the consular section of the embassy of Iran”, an AFP journalist said.

Window panes in buildings within a 500-metre (550 yard) radius had been shattered, and many parked cars were damaged by the blast.

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Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad also denounced the attack after visiting the site, calling it a “heinous terrorist attack… killing a number of innocent people”, in a statement carried by SANA.

The Gaza war, which started with the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, has devastated the coastal territory and also seen Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah exchange near daily cross-border fire.

Israel has also struck targets in Syria, mostly army positions as well as those of Iran-backed combatants.

Hamas condemned “in the strongest terms” the attack which it called a “dangerous escalation.”

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Moscow, a Damascus ally along with Tehran, blamed “the Israeli Air Force” for the “unacceptable attack against the Iranian consular mission in Syria.”

The Damascus strike came three days after the Observatory reported Israeli strikes that had killed 53 people in Syria, including 38 soldiers and seven members of Hezbollah.

It was the highest Syrian army toll in Israeli strikes since the Israel-Hamas war began, said the monitor.

“Syria and Lebanon have become one extended battleground from the Israeli perspective,” Riad Kahwaji, head of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, told AFP after the Friday strikes.

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The bloodiest ever Gaza war erupted with the Palestinian militants’ unprecedented October 7 attack which resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign, aimed at destroying Hamas, has killed at least 32,845 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.

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UK finally pardons Ruth Ellis, 70 years after execution

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The United Kingdom authorities have approved a posthumous amnesty for Ruth Ellis, more than 70 years after she was hanged for homicide.

The deceased had been convicted of murder after a trial and executed on 13 July 1955 for shooting and killing David Blakely on 10 April 1955.

The conditional pardon was granted by King Charles III, following a recommendation by Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy.

The government said the decision reflects the extraordinary circumstances of the case, including evidence of domestic abuse and coercive and controlling behavior.

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The pardon recognizes that the outcome could be different under modern law and understanding. No reprieve was granted, and no appeal was lodged at the time of the verdict.

Ruth, a nightclub hostess and mother of two young children, shot Blakely outside The Magdala pub in Hampstead, London. The two were involved in an affair.

Ruth reportedly had an abortion, which was illegal in the UK then, and was physically abused by Blakely, causing a miscarriage. Her grandchildren filed for the amnesty.

“The shadow of Ruth’s execution has fallen across two generations,” said Laura Enston, a granddaughter. “We have carried shame that was never ours to bear.”

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Deputy Prime Minister Lammy noted that though what happened seventy years ago cannot be changed, the government acknowledges that it was “an exceptional case.”

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Trump orders new round of strikes after calling Iranian leaders ‘scum’

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U.S. forces on Wednesday attacked Iran for a second consecutive day, officials said, hours after President Donald Trump declared the ceasefire between Washington and Tehran “over” and predicted that additional U.S. military action “probably” would occur.

American forces carried out the strikes at the direction of the president “to further degrade [Iran’s] ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” according to a statement from U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the region. The waterway has been a source of friction both militarily and economically in recent weeks, as Iranian forces have been accused of attacking commercial vessels and the United States has responded.

Trump, writing on social media, characterized the renewed assault as “retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran.”

“If it happens again, it will get much worse!” the president warned in his Truth Social post, which was accompanied by an image of a billowing fire.

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Speaking in Turkey earlier Wednesday, Trump said that “I think” a tenuous ceasefire agreement reached between U.S. and Iranian officials in June was “over.” However, he later qualified his remarks, saying that any military action would end “very quickly” and that he didn’t think the U.S. military would return to full-scale war.

Trump’s remarks, at a meeting of NATO leaders here in Ankara, followed a separate U.S. assault on Iranian territory — involving more than 80 strikes — ordered in response to attacks on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump said the U.S. hit Iran “very hard last night” and would “probably hit them hard again tonight.”

The president also suggested that the U.S. could reimpose a naval blockade on Iran and that Washington was “not attacking at the highest level,” repeating previous threats to strike infrastructure such as bridges, desalinization facilities and electricity plants. U.S. officials declined to detail what might be planned but said in a social media post later in the day that more than 20 U.S. warships remain in the Middle East.

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Oil prices had eased but quickly spiked on Wednesday. Brent crude futures rose more than 5 percent to over $78 per barrel on fears that a renewed war would further disrupt energy supplies.

But Trump offered an evolving account of his plans in multiple appearances over the course of the day, by nightfall suggesting that any additional fighting was likely to remain contained.

“I don’t think it’s going to start again,” he said at a news conference before returning to the United States. “I think it’s going to go very quickly. They hit a couple of ships, and so we hit them much harder. … We use their language. We speak their language.”

The president spoke after Iran launched heavy retaliation overnight, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps saying it had targeted 85 U.S. military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait on Wednesday, according to the semiofficial media outlet Fars.

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“They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people, and they’re vicious, violent people,” Trump said in his comments earlier Wednesday. “Far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them. They’re liars … there’s something wrong with them. They’re cuckoo. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.”

Trump said that talks with Iran could continue but that he was deeply skeptical they would be productive.

“They can talk, but I think they’re wasting their time. They’re a bunch of lying guys,” Trump said. “They’re bad people, and frankly, I don’t want to waste my time with them. Now, I’ll let our wonderful negotiators keep talking if they want, but I don’t see it.”

Later in the day, Trump declared that he was Iran’s top target for assassination.Ask The Post AIDive deeper

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“I’m their number-one target. It’s out all over the place,” he said. “Because they’re scum. That’s the way they act, and that’s the way they’ve done it for 47 years.”

Adding to speculation about Iranian threats to his life, Trump also abruptly announced Wednesday that he would not be departing Turkey on the new Qatari luxury 747 that he debuted as Air Force One last week. Instead, he said he would depart on one of the older, smaller 747s that have been in service since 1990, jumping back on the fancier plane in Britain.

The Qatari jet — whose $400 million overhaul was accelerated by the U.S. Air Force when it took possession of the plane last year — is unlikely to have the same self-defense capabilities as the older, highly modified plane. That could pose a problem when flying out of Turkey, which shares a border with Iran.

Trump framed the move as a chance for U.S. service members based in Britain to explore the new jet. But asked Wednesday whether he had changed his plans because of security concerns, he didn’t answer directly.

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The president’s tone about Tehran was a marked change from his assessment of Iranian leaders just weeks ago, when he praised their interest in making a deal shortly after they agreed to the ceasefire.

Asked why he was now dismissing them as scum, Trump said that “I got to know ’em.”

The secretary general of the International Maritime Organization, Arsenio Dominguez, in a statement Wednesday urged shipowners to avoid exposing their crews to danger by crossing the Strait of Hormuz “as long as the safety and security of crews cannot be assured.”

The U.S. and Iran reached a preliminary peace deal last month to reopen the strait to shipping traffic while continuing to discuss the thornier nuclear issue and possible lifting of U.S. sanctions against Tehran. The strait is a crucial shipping choke point through which 20 percent of global oil products normally flow.

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But the tentative agreement appeared to collapse less than halfway through the 60 days that negotiators had allotted to reach a more durable accord. Trump previously expressed hope that the negotiations would lead to strict controls on Iran’s nuclear program.

The renewed hostilities were a setback for the president, who cited his concern about becoming a new Herbert Hoover as a major reason for seeking peace when he announced the initial deal last month. Hoover was president at the start of the Great Depression in 1929.

Iranian leaders, too, had seemed to be interested in peace. The country has been focused on days of mourning and funeral rites for its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an airstrike during the first hours of the war.

But negotiations have stalled. Talks began with days of delays before Vice President JD Vance flew to Switzerland to kick them off. And the two sides traded barbs, and sporadic strikes, from the get-go. Trump expressed frustration on Wednesday that Iran’s public representation of what was being discussed differed from his understanding.

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“We make a deal. Everyone’s agreed. No nuclear weapon. We make a deal. They go outside, joke to the press, they say we never even talked about it,” Trump said.

Iran’s leaders in recent days have appeared emboldened, with several senior officials appearing in public for the first time since the start of the war as part of the mourning rituals for Khamenei.

The possible resumption of war sparked some concern in Congress, which has sought to restrict Trump’s ability to keep fighting.

In June, the House and Senate passed a resolution to block Trump from resuming military action in a bipartisan effort to rein in the Iran war. The White House has argued that the measure does not have the force of law, setting up a clash with congressional Democrats who sponsored the legislation.

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Iran retaliates, fires missiles, drones at US bases after fresh attacks

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Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday claimed that they launched missile and drone attacks on United States military installations in Bahrain and Kuwait, in what they described as retaliation for fresh US strikes on Iran.

This development further escalated tensions in the Gulf, coming hours after Washington carried out a new wave of military attacks on Iranian targets following alleged attacks on commercial tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

According to reports, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it carried out a joint operation against “US military facilities, including Bahrain’s Fifth Naval District at Bandar Salman and Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait.”

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The Guards also claimed that they shot down a US MQ-9 drone during the operation, although the claim had not been independently verified.

Air raid sirens reportedly sounded in Bahrain and Kuwait as the attacks unfolded.

The Kuwaiti army said its air defence systems were confronting “hostile” missile and drone attacks, while authorities in Bahrain also confirmed the activation of air defence measures.

The latest strikes followed a fresh US military operation against Iran and Washington’s decision to revoke a licence that had allowed Tehran to sell oil.

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The US said its action was in response to attacks on three commercial tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important oil shipping routes.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said more than 60 boats belonging to the Revolutionary Guards were among the targets hit during its operation.

 

Recall that CENTCOM is one of the unified combatant commands of the United States Armed Forces. Established in January 1983, it is responsible for directing and overseeing U.S. military operations and diplomatic partnerships across a vast, strategic area of the globe.

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According to Investing, CENTCOM said in a statement, “The unwarranted aggression by Iranian forces is a clear and dangerous violation of the ceasefire and undermines freedom of navigation.”

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