Iranian Commander Threatens to Destroy Haifa, Tel Aviv

Iran's regular army ground forces' commander Kiumars Heydari. Fars
Iran's regular army ground forces' commander Kiumars Heydari. Fars
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Iranian Commander Threatens to Destroy Haifa, Tel Aviv

Iran's regular army ground forces' commander Kiumars Heydari. Fars
Iran's regular army ground forces' commander Kiumars Heydari. Fars

Iran will raze the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa should its enemy Israel make any mistake, Commander of the Iranian army ground forces Kiumars Heydari threatened on Tuesday.

“For any mistake made by the enemy, we will raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground by the order of the Supreme Leader,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted the Iranian commander as saying.

Heydari said all units of the army are being equipped with precision-guided, long-range and smart weapons, adding that the range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and that the operational missiles of the army have increased.

He underlined that the military and defense achievements of the Iranian army are a thorn in the enemies' eyes.

“All this equipment is to respond to the stupid aggressions of the enemies of the Islamic Revolution,” Heydari noted.

The Army commander reiterated that the usurper Zionist regime has occupied Muslim lands and these lands will return to Islam in less than 25 years.

However, Heydari failed to refer to any of the security developments that shook Iran lately.

Last May 25, an engineer died and another employee was injured after an accident in a research center at the Parchin military site affiliated with Iran's Defense Ministry.

The next day, Iranian authorities confirmed the death of engineer Ehsan Ghad Beigi in an "industrial accident" at the military site.

The New York Times said that according to three Iranians with knowledge of the attack and to a US official, a drone strike targeted the highly sensitive military site outside Tehran where Iran develops missile, nuclear and drone technology.

The attack came four days after a senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, Col. Sayad Khodayee, was assassinated in Tehran outside his home, according to a statement by the Guards.

NYT said Israel told the United States that it was behind his killing, according to one intelligence official.

The Israelis intended it as a warning to Iran to stop targeting Israeli citizens abroad, the official said.

Few days following the Parchin explosion, another commander of IRGC Quds Force died under suspicious circumstances in Karaj. There were conflicting reports concerning the reason for his death, his role at the IRGC and his link to Khodayee.

Later, reports revealed that Ayoob Entezari, a senior Iranian engineer who held a PhD in aerospace engineering and was reported dead under unclear circumstances early this month, had been intentionally poisoned in the city of Yazd.

A letter written by the governor called him a "martyr" and a picture allegedly showed officials paying a condolence visit to his home.

Khodayee’s killing and the Parchin bombing dealt a major blow to Iranian authorities, who tried to reduce Israel’s ability to carry out operations deep inside Iranian territory, especially after hardliner Ibrahim Raisi was elected President.



7 Killed by Russian Attacks as Moscow Pushes Ahead in Ukraine's East

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
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7 Killed by Russian Attacks as Moscow Pushes Ahead in Ukraine's East

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV

Russian shelling in the town of Chasiv Yar on Saturday killed five people, as Moscow’s troops pushed ahead in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
The attack struck a high-rise building and a private home, said regional Gov. Vadym Filaskhin, who said the victims were men aged 24 to 38. He urged the last remaining residents to leave the front-line town, which had a pre-war population of 12,000.
“Normal life has been impossible in Chasiv Yar for more than two years,” Filaskhin wrote on social media. “Do not become a Russian target — evacuate.” A further two people were killed by Russian shelling in the Kharkiv region. One victim was pulled from the rubble of a house in the village of Cherkaska Lozova, said Gov. Oleh Syniehubov, while a second woman died of her wounds while being transported to a hospital.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it captured the town of Pivnichne, also in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. The Associated Press could not independently verify the claim.
Russian forces have been driving deeper into the partly occupied eastern region, the total capture of which is one of the Kremlin’s primary ambitions. Russia’s army is closing in on Pokrovsk, a critical logistics hub for the Ukrainian defense in the area.
At the same time, Ukraine has sent its forces into Russia’s Kursk region in recent weeks in the largest incursion onto Russian soil since World War II. The move is partly an effort to force Russia to draw troops away from the Donetsk front.
Elsewhere, the number of wounded following a Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Friday continued to rise.
Six people were killed, including a 14-year-old girl, when glide bombs struck five locations across the city, said regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov. Writing on social media Saturday, he said that the number of injured had risen from 47 to 96.
Syniehubov also confirmed that the 12-story apartment block that was hit by one bomb strike, setting the building ablaze and trapping at least one person on an upper floor, would be partly demolished.
Ukrainian officials have previously pointed to the Kharkiv strikes as further evidence that Western partners should scrap restrictions on what the Ukrainian military can target with donated weapons.
In an interview with CNN on Friday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that Kyiv had presented Washington with a list of potential long-range targets within Russia for its approval. “I hope we were heard,” he said.
He also denied speculation that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ’s decision to dismiss the commander of the country’s air force Friday was directly linked to the destruction of an F-16 warplane that Ukraine received from its Western partners four days earlier.
The order to dismiss Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk was published on the presidential website minutes before an address which saw Zelenskyy stress the need to “take care of all our soldiers.”
“This is two separate issues,” said Umerov. “At this stage, I would not connect them.”
The number of injured also continued to rise in the Russian border region of Belgorod, where five people were killed Friday by Ukrainian shelling, said Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov. He said Sunday that 46 people had been injured, of whom 37 were in the hospital, including seven children. Writing on social media, Gladkov also said that two others had been injured in Ukrainian shelling across the region.