Iran Sends Missiles to Iraqi Hezbollah in East Syria

Iranian military trucks carry surface-to-air missiles during a parade on the occasion of the country's Army Day, on April 18, 2017, in Tehran. (AFP Photo/Atta Kenare)
Iranian military trucks carry surface-to-air missiles during a parade on the occasion of the country's Army Day, on April 18, 2017, in Tehran. (AFP Photo/Atta Kenare)
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Iran Sends Missiles to Iraqi Hezbollah in East Syria

Iranian military trucks carry surface-to-air missiles during a parade on the occasion of the country's Army Day, on April 18, 2017, in Tehran. (AFP Photo/Atta Kenare)
Iranian military trucks carry surface-to-air missiles during a parade on the occasion of the country's Army Day, on April 18, 2017, in Tehran. (AFP Photo/Atta Kenare)

Short and medium range surface-to-surface Iranian missiles were delivered Friday to the Iraqi Hezbollah near the regime-controlled town of Al-Tabani in the western countryside of Syria’s Deir Ezzor province.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 56 missiles were delivered to the Hezbollah sites in civilian trucks via unofficial crossings between Syria and Iraq.

Earlier this month, SOHR activists had monitored the Afghan Fatimiyoun Brigade unloading a weapons shipment from four large trucks used for transporting vegetables and fruits.

The trucks were loaded with Iranian-made missiles, coming from Iraq. The shipments were stored in commercial warehouses rented from civilians in the area of Kua Ibn Aswad, located between Al-Mayadeen city and Mahakan town in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor.

Iranian militias and their supporters are based in positions in Deir Ezzor’s countryside, but they make redeployments from time to time over fear of Israeli airstrikes and unidentified US-led coalition aircraft.

Meanwhile, the Iranian Cultural Center won Friday a bid to invest in Al-Nour private hospital in Deir Ezzor city, which belongs to a doctor who has sought asylum in a European country.

The Syrian regime had confiscated the hospital and the doctor’s properties. The center won the bid to operate the hospital in return for 15 million Syrian pounds a year. It has started rehabilitating for reopening.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese Hezbollah started recruiting new volunteers at its base in the rural development department building of Deir Ezzor’s Harabish neighborhood. The Party announced that it would give the new recruits monthly salaries of $150 each, exploiting the economic hardship and dire living conditions.

A large number of volunteers applied to join Hezbollah's ranks, seeing the offer as a good deal compared to the wages of regime soldiers and other loyalists, the Observatory said.



Thousands of Somalis Protest Israeli Recognition of Somaliland

This picture taken on November 7, 2024 shows a general view of the city of Hargeisa, capital and largest city of the self-proclaimed Republic of Somaliland. (Photo by LUIS TATO / AFP)
This picture taken on November 7, 2024 shows a general view of the city of Hargeisa, capital and largest city of the self-proclaimed Republic of Somaliland. (Photo by LUIS TATO / AFP)
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Thousands of Somalis Protest Israeli Recognition of Somaliland

This picture taken on November 7, 2024 shows a general view of the city of Hargeisa, capital and largest city of the self-proclaimed Republic of Somaliland. (Photo by LUIS TATO / AFP)
This picture taken on November 7, 2024 shows a general view of the city of Hargeisa, capital and largest city of the self-proclaimed Republic of Somaliland. (Photo by LUIS TATO / AFP)

Large protests broke out in several towns and cities across Somalia on Tuesday in opposition to Israel's recognition of the breakaway region of Somaliland.

Israel announced on Friday that it viewed Somaliland -- which declared independence in 1991 but has never been recognized by any other country -- as an "independent and sovereign state".

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has condemned the move as a threat to stability in the Horn of Africa. He travelled Tuesday to Türkiye, a close ally, to discuss the situation, AFP reported.

Thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Somali capital Mogadishu and gathered at a stadium, waving placards with anti-Israeli slogans alongside Somali and Palestinian flags.

"We will never allow anyone to violate our sovereignty," one attendee, Adan Muhidin, told AFP, adding that Israel's move was "a blatant violation of international law".

Demonstrations also took place in Lascanod in the northeast, Guriceel in central Somalia, and Baidoa in the southwest.

"There is nothing we have in common with Israel. We say to the people of Somaliland, don't bring them close to you," said Sheikh Ahmed Moalim, a local religious leader, in Guriceel.

Somaliland has long been a haven of stability and democracy in the conflict-scarred country, with its own money, passport and army.

It also has a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden that makes it an attractive trade and military partner for regional and international allies.

But Israel's decision to recognize its statehood has brought rebukes from across the Muslim and African world, with many fearing it will stoke conflict and division.

There have been celebrations in Somaliland's capital Hargeisa, with the rare sight of Israeli flags being waved in a Muslim-majority nation.


Iranian Students Protest in Tehran and Isfahan, Says Local Media

Shopkeepers and traders walk over a bridge during a protest against the economic conditions and Iran's embattled currency in Tehran on December 29, 2025. (Handout / Fars News Agency / AFP)
Shopkeepers and traders walk over a bridge during a protest against the economic conditions and Iran's embattled currency in Tehran on December 29, 2025. (Handout / Fars News Agency / AFP)
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Iranian Students Protest in Tehran and Isfahan, Says Local Media

Shopkeepers and traders walk over a bridge during a protest against the economic conditions and Iran's embattled currency in Tehran on December 29, 2025. (Handout / Fars News Agency / AFP)
Shopkeepers and traders walk over a bridge during a protest against the economic conditions and Iran's embattled currency in Tehran on December 29, 2025. (Handout / Fars News Agency / AFP)

Student protests erupted on Tuesday at universities in the capital Tehran and the central city of Isfahan, decrying declining living standards following demonstrations by shopkeepers, local media reported.

"Demonstrations took place in Tehran at the universities of Beheshti, Khajeh Nasir, Sharif, Amir Kabir, Science and Culture, and Science and Technology, as well as the Isfahan University of Technology," reported Ilna, a news agency affiliated with the labor movement.


Iran Designates Royal Canadian Navy a Terrorist Organization

Iranians drive past a huge banner of former Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani ahead of the sixth anniversary of his assassination at Valiasr Square in Tehran, Iran, 30 December 2025. (EPA)
Iranians drive past a huge banner of former Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani ahead of the sixth anniversary of his assassination at Valiasr Square in Tehran, Iran, 30 December 2025. (EPA)
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Iran Designates Royal Canadian Navy a Terrorist Organization

Iranians drive past a huge banner of former Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani ahead of the sixth anniversary of his assassination at Valiasr Square in Tehran, Iran, 30 December 2025. (EPA)
Iranians drive past a huge banner of former Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani ahead of the sixth anniversary of his assassination at Valiasr Square in Tehran, Iran, 30 December 2025. (EPA)

The Iranian foreign ministry designated the Royal Canadian Navy a terrorist organization on Tuesday in what it said was retaliation for Canada's 2024 blacklisting of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

In a statement, the ministry said that the move was in reaction to Ottawa declaring the Guards, the ideological arm of Iran's military, a terror group "contrary to the fundamental principles of international law".

Iran "within the framework of reciprocity, identifies and declares the Royal Canadian Navy as a terrorist organization," the statement added, without specifying what ramifications if any the force will face.

On June 19, 2024, Canada declared the IRGC a terror group. This bars its members from entering the country and Canadians from having any dealings with individual members or the group.

Additionally, any assets the Guards or its members hold in Canada could also be seized.
Canada accused the Guards of "having consistently displayed disregard for human rights both inside and outside of Iran, as well as a willingness to destabilize the international rules-based order."

One of the reasons behind Ottawa's decision to designate the force as a terror group was the Flight PS752 incident.

The flight was show down shortly after takeoff from Tehran in January 2020, killing all 176 passengers and crew, including 85 Canadian citizens and permanent residents.

The IRGC admitted its forces downed the jet, but claimed their controllers had mistaken it for a hostile target.

Ottawa broke off diplomatic ties with Tehran in 2012, calling Iran "the most significant threat to global peace".

Iran's archenemy, the United States, listed the Guards as a foreign terrorist organization in April 2019 while Australia did the same last month, accusing the force of being behind attacks on Australian soil.