Israel Destroyed Several Iranian Arms Convoys in Iraq

This photo released Sunday June 12, 2022 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a bulldozer work at a damaged runway of the Damascus International Airport, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Friday, in Damascus, Syria. (SANA via AP)
This photo released Sunday June 12, 2022 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a bulldozer work at a damaged runway of the Damascus International Airport, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Friday, in Damascus, Syria. (SANA via AP)
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Israel Destroyed Several Iranian Arms Convoys in Iraq

This photo released Sunday June 12, 2022 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a bulldozer work at a damaged runway of the Damascus International Airport, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Friday, in Damascus, Syria. (SANA via AP)
This photo released Sunday June 12, 2022 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a bulldozer work at a damaged runway of the Damascus International Airport, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Friday, in Damascus, Syria. (SANA via AP)

Israel has carried out numerous strikes against truck convoys smuggling Iranian weapons to the Hezbollah party in Lebanon, revealed an Israeli source.

Israel would target the convoys as they were making their way from Iraq to Syria and carry out the strike in either country.

The announcement was made after Israel last week struck Damascus' old international airport, causing "significant" damage to infrastructure and rendered the main runway unserviceable until further notice.

The airport is located south of the capital Damascus where Syrian opposition activists say Iran-backed militiamen are active and have arms depots.

Israel has staged hundreds of strikes on targets in Syria over the years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.

Israel has for years been closely monitoring the transport of weapons to Hezbollah, continued the source.

At first, Israel used to target the weapons depots in Lebanon or Syria, but the military command has since ordered that the convoys be destroyed before they reach their destination, it continued.

Several Iranian convoys would make their way to Lebanon through Iraq and Syria and Israeli commandos would lie in wait to ambush them. Some convoys were destroyed in Iraq, others in Syria and some at the Lebanese border.

Security sources in Tel Aviv revealed that the Iranians then significantly reduced the transfer of weapons by land and have resorted to transporting them through air military cargo or even by sea.

Israeli strikes on Syria would often target these shipments as soon as they are unloaded at Syrian army depots.

Iran has recently started to deliver these shipments through passenger flights to Damascus' old airport. The shipments carry less quantities of weapons, but the arms are more sophisticated than before, according to Israel's Channel 12.

Israeli military officials had previously expressed their concern over the delivery of such sophisticated weapons, including modern drones and precision-guided missiles, to Lebanon.

Israel has therefore, intensified its operations against Iran because it believes such arms would create a strategic imbalance in the region.

Israel estimates that its latest attacks have destroyed 70 percent of arms shipments smuggled from Iran to Syria and Lebanon. The 30 percent that have reached their destination "pose a major threat," warned Israeli military officials.

Channel 12 reported that Israel had informed Russia of its intended strike on Damascus airport last week to avoid a clash.

Israeli media on Monday said last week's strike was not only a message to the Iranians - that Israel is watching them - but also a strong one to Bashar al-Assad's regime that it will pay a heavy price if it continues to allow Iran to entrench itself militarily in Syria.



Bangladesh Says Student Leaders Held for Their Own Safety

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Bangladesh Says Student Leaders Held for Their Own Safety

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladesh said three student leaders had been taken into custody for their own safety after the government blamed their protests against civil service job quotas for days of deadly nationwide unrest.

Students Against Discrimination head Nahid Islam and two other senior members of the protest group were Friday forcibly discharged from hospital and taken away by a group of plainclothes detectives.

The street rallies organized by the trio precipitated a police crackdown and days of running clashes between officers and protesters that killed at least 201 people, according to an AFP tally of hospital and police data.

Islam earlier this week told AFP he was being treated at the hospital in the capital Dhaka for injuries sustained during an earlier round of police detention.

Police had initially denied that Islam and his two colleagues were taken into custody before home minister Asaduzzaman Khan confirmed it to reporters late on Friday.

"They themselves were feeling insecure. They think that some people were threatening them," he said.

"That's why we think for their own security they needed to be interrogated to find out who was threatening them. After the interrogation, we will take the next course of action."

Khan did not confirm whether the trio had been formally arrested.

Days of mayhem last week saw the torching of government buildings and police posts in Dhaka, and fierce street fights between protesters and riot police elsewhere in the country.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government deployed troops, instituted a nationwide internet blackout and imposed a curfew to restore order.

- 'Carried out raids' -

The unrest began when police and pro-government student groups attacked street rallies organized by Students Against Discrimination that had remained largely peaceful before last week.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location to be tortured before he was released the next morning.

His colleague Asif Mahmud, also taken into custody at the hospital on Friday, told AFP earlier that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week's unrest.

Police have arrested at least 4,500 people since the unrest began.

"We've carried out raids in the capital and we will continue the raids until the perpetrators are arrested," Dhaka Metropolitan Police joint commissioner Biplob Kumar Sarker told AFP.

"We're not arresting general students, only those who vandalized government properties and set them on fire."