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Iran Opposition Protests in Washington for Regime Change

Effigies of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (L) and supreme leader Ali Khamenei (R) are seen at anti-regime rallies in Washington on March 8, 2019. (AFP)
Effigies of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (L) and supreme leader Ali Khamenei (R) are seen at anti-regime rallies in Washington on March 8, 2019. (AFP)
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Iran Opposition Protests in Washington for Regime Change

Effigies of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (L) and supreme leader Ali Khamenei (R) are seen at anti-regime rallies in Washington on March 8, 2019. (AFP)
Effigies of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (L) and supreme leader Ali Khamenei (R) are seen at anti-regime rallies in Washington on March 8, 2019. (AFP)

Hundreds of people protested in Washington Friday against Iran, demanding a change in its regime and denouncing its "atrocity toward the people".

Protesters waved Iranian flags as they chanted for "regime change now" -- with some holding portraits of Maryam Rajavi, leader of the People's Mujahedin, an Iranian opposition group banned in the country, reported AFP.

"The regime inside Iran is doing so much atrocity toward the people. Iran whole has been destroyed by this regime," said Michael Passi, an Iranian-American engineer.

"There are a lot of executions, a lot of tortures and a lot of export of terrorism by this regime," he alleged.

"We want separation of religion and the state," added Mina Entezari, an Arizona-based designer who was a political prisoner in Iran for seven years. "We want freedom for people."

The administration of US President Donald Trump consistently blasts a lack of freedoms in Iran and its "destabilizing" influence on the Middle East.

A firm adversary of Tehran, he has re-implemented harsh economic sanctions -- but Washington insists it is not pushing for regime change, only a change to Iran's policy in areas including missile development and support for militant groups.

"I'm 100 percent behind President Trump's policy," Passi said. "The only language that this Iranian regime understands is a language of force."

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Russia Launches Nearly 150 Drones against Ukraine as Trump Doubts Putin's Desire for Peace

FILE PHOTO: Servicemen of the 44th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fire a Leopard 1A5 tank during a training, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Servicemen of the 44th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fire a Leopard 1A5 tank during a training, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
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Russia Launches Nearly 150 Drones against Ukraine as Trump Doubts Putin's Desire for Peace

FILE PHOTO: Servicemen of the 44th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fire a Leopard 1A5 tank during a training, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Servicemen of the 44th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fire a Leopard 1A5 tank during a training, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

Russia launched a sweeping drone assault and airstrikes across Ukraine overnight into Sunday, killing at least four people, officials said, after US President Donald Trump cast doubt over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to end the war.
Three people died and four were wounded Sunday morning in airstrikes on Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region, the regional prosecutor's office said. Another person died and a 14-year-old girl was wounded in a drone attack on the city of Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which was hit for the third consecutive night, local Gov. Serhii Lysak said.
The attacks came hours after Russia claimed to have regained control over the remaining parts of the Kursk region, which Ukrainian forces seized in a surprise incursion last August. Ukrainian officials said the fighting in Kursk was still ongoing.
Trump said Saturday that he doubts Putin wants to end the more than three-year war in Ukraine, expressing new skepticism that a peace deal can be reached soon. Only a day earlier, Trump had said Ukraine and Russia were “ very close to a deal.”
“There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” Trump wrote in a social media post as he flew back to the United States after attending Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican, where he met briefly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump also hinted at further sanctions against Russia.
The Trump-Zelenskyy conversation on the sidelines of the pope’s funeral was the first face-to-face encounter between the two leaders since they argued during a heated Oval Office meeting at the White House in late February.
Russia fired 149 exploding drones and decoys in the latest wave of attacks, the Ukrainian air force said, adding that 57 were intercepted and another 67 jammed.
One person was wounded in drone attacks on the Odesa region and one other in the city of Zhytomyr. Four people were also wounded in a Russian airstrike on the city of Kherson on Sunday morning, according to local officials.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that air defenses shot down five Ukrainian drones in the border region of Bryansk, as well as three drones over the Crimean peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Five people were wounded when Ukrainian forces shelled the city of Horlivka in the partially occupied Donetsk region, the city’s Russian-installed Mayor Ivan Prikhodko said.