US Navy Intercepts ‘Massive’ Cargo Of Explosives On Vessel From Iran

In a Monday phone call with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein decried the attacks as a violation of Iraq's sovereignty, saying that the continuation of such unilateral measures is "dangerous".

Moreover, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani also condemned the “violations” of Iraq and its Kurdish region’s sovereignty, following IRGC’s attacks on the headquarters of Iranian-Kurdish groups, some of which are armed.

According to Iran International’s correspondent, the RGC targeted the main base of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) in capital Erbil and Komala in Sulaymaniyah with drones and missiles.

The PDKI said a senior party member and a Peshmerga militiaman were killed and several other Peshmerga forces injured in the Monday attacks.

The Canadian Embassy in Iraq, the US Consulate General in Erbil, the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the German Consulate General in Erbil have so far condemned the renewed attacks on the Kurdistan Region.

The German Consulate-General in Erbil said that Berlin urges Iran to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Iraq. “The attacks have to stop immediately,” it said.

Since the current wave of protests began in Iran following the death in custody of young Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa (Jina) Amini, the Islamic Republic has intensified its attacks on Kurdish dissident groups based in Iraqi Kurdistan, apparently aimed at intimidating the Kurds. In addition to PDKI and Komala, IRGC launched artillery and suicide drone attacks against positions of other Kurdish groups opposed to the Islamic Republic such as Parti Azadi Kurdistan, aka PAK (Kurdistan Freedom Party).

The US also strongly condemned Iran’s “violations of Iraqi sovereignty”, calling on the Islamic Republic to stop attacking its neighbor and the people of Iraq. “We stand with the Iraqi government’s leaders in Baghdad and the Iraqi Kurdistan region,” the Consulate General in Erbil said on its twitter account.

“Iraq should not be used as an arena to settle scores and its territorial integrity must be respected,” UN Assistance Mission for Iraq said, adding that “Dialogue between Iraq and Iran over mutual security concerns is the only way forward.”

Amini was from the Kurdish town of Saqqez and was arrested and beaten during a visit to Tehran. After her death in hospital, her hometown and other Kurdish cities were the first to launch antigovernment protests.

Late in October, the Iranian Army's Ground Force also launched a three-day war game around the northwestern town of Piranshahr in West Azarbaijan province bordering Iraqi Kurdistan.

Iran’s last barrage of missile and drone strikes against the groups in September led to the death of 14 people, including women and children, and wounding of 58 other people near Erbil and Sulaymaniyah.

The Islamic Republic calls the Kurdish armed groups in the western provinces of Iran, "terrorist groups" or "anti-revolutionary" but these groups say that the goal of their armed campaign is "defending the rights of the Kurds".

Generally, the Kurdish parties − including Komala and the KDPI − favor Kurdish autonomy within a federal Iran.

Military sources said the air base, at Shayrat, was recently used by the Iranian air force.

Syrian state media posted a short video of the "aggression" and said there were material damages, without elaborating.

One military source, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the strikes had targeted a runway in the sprawling air base that is located southeast of Homs city.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military refused to comment, although Israel has conducted hundreds of similar strikes since 2017.

The runway and underground facilities at Shayrat, including aircraft shelters, have undergone a major expansion by the Russian military in the last three years, the military source said.

Russia has forces stationed near to Shayrat air base and uses the base, security sources say.

Israel has in recent months intensified strikes on Syrian airports and air bases to disrupt Iran's increasing use of aerial supply lines to deliver arms to allies in Syria and Lebanon including Lebanon's Hezbollah.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which monitors such events said a warehouse for Iranian militias and Hezbollah in Shayrat air base were destroyed in Sunday's strike.

Opposition sources say Iranian militias hold sway in large swathes of western Homs province near the Lebanese border and to the east where they have a string of bases.

Israel has been mounting attacks in Syria for years against what it has described as Iranian and Iran-backed forces that have deployed there during the war, which began more than a decade ago.

With reporting by Reuters

Swedish authorities have identified the two as, Peyman Kia, 42 and Payam Kia 35. One of these two brothers has also been indicted for alleged gross unauthorized handling of secret information.

Reportedly the older brother has been working with Sweden's Domestic Intelligence Agency for years.

“It has been a complex investigation concerning a crime that is very difficult to investigate and the suspicion concerns very serious criminality directed against Sweden's intelligence and security system," National Security Unit chief prosecutor Per Lindqvist said.

He noted that this case is about confidential and very sensitive information but refused to give further explanation.

According to the charge sheet obtained by AP, these two brothers have provided information to the Russian Military Intelligence Department (GRU) between September 28, 2011 and September 20, 2021.

It adds that Peyman Kia, obtained this information from various security and intelligence institutions of Sweden when he was working at Sweden's Domestic Intelligence Agency and the Swedish Armed Forces. The other brother also helped to make contact with “Russia and the GRU including matters of surrender of information and receipt of compensation.”

They were arrested in September and November 2021. Both have denied any wrongdoing, Swedish media reported. The brothers face up to life imprisonment if convicted. A life sentence in Sweden generally means a minimum of 20-25 years in prison.

In a statement on Friday, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said, "I summoned the Iranian representative today to make clear that we do not tolerate threats to life and intimidation of any kind towards journalists, or any individual, living in the UK."

“The UK will always stand up to threats from foreign nations,” read the statement.

Criticizing the Iranian regime, it added that the Islamic Republic responded to widespread internal protests with the suppression of freedom of expression and the targeting of media outlets operating in Iran.

It noted that more than 40 journalists have been arrested and detained since the current wave of protests began following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. The journalists who reported the circumstances around her death have been also arrested.

The Metropolitan Police formally notified two of our journalists about an imminent, credible and significant risk to their lives and those of their families.

Earlier in the week, Iran’s intelligence minister implicitly threatened the UK of terrorist operations after the country decried the attempted menacing acts.

Iranian vice president Mohammad Hosseini also emphasized Thursday that the Islamic Republic now considers Iran International as a terrorist network. Iranian intelligence also arrested Elham Afkari Thursday, claiming that she was “an agent” of Iran International. Afkari is the sister of Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari who was executed in September 2020, after participating in protests.

Mohammad Hosseini made the remarks during a Thursday interview with Al Mayadeen TV, a media outlet close to Iran-backed Lebanese militant organization Hezbollah.

"We'll respond wherever necessary, even in other countries, as we did in the case of Iraqi Kurdistan. We may even take some actions and not announce them," he said. 

The intelligence services of the US, the UK, France, Israel and Saudi Arabia are conspiring against the Islamic Republic round the clock, he claimed, adding that “even some European embassies” tried to provoke people during the recent protests and were consequently warned.

Referring to the ongoing protest and strikes across the country and its coverage by Iran International and other foreign-based Persian-language media, he said, “We now consider Iran International as a terrorist network. Many of its elements inside the country have been arrested.”

He added that “Iran International, Manoto, BBC, etc. have started a media tsunami against the Islamic Republic and its people,” claiming that “They based their work on the big lie of killing Mahsa Amini [by hijab police], someone who had been sick since childhood.” 

On Thursday, Iranian intelligence arrested Elham Afkari, claiming that she was “an agent” of Iran International. Afkari is the sister of Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari who was executed in September 2020, after participating in protests. Earlier in the week, two of our journalists were notified of threats to their lives by the UK Police.