Japanese PM Unhurt after Blast during Campaign Event

A man, on the ground, who threw what appeared to be a smoke bomb, is caught at a port in Wakayama, western Japan Saturday, April 15, 2023. (Kyodo News via AP)
A man, on the ground, who threw what appeared to be a smoke bomb, is caught at a port in Wakayama, western Japan Saturday, April 15, 2023. (Kyodo News via AP)
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Japanese PM Unhurt after Blast during Campaign Event

A man, on the ground, who threw what appeared to be a smoke bomb, is caught at a port in Wakayama, western Japan Saturday, April 15, 2023. (Kyodo News via AP)
A man, on the ground, who threw what appeared to be a smoke bomb, is caught at a port in Wakayama, western Japan Saturday, April 15, 2023. (Kyodo News via AP)

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was evacuated unharmed Saturday after someone threw an explosive device at a campaign event in a western port city, officials said. Police wrestled a suspect to the ground as screaming bystanders scrambled to get away and smoke filled the air.

Although no one was hurt, and Kishida planned to continue campaigning Saturday, the chaotic scene was reminiscent of the assassination nine months ago of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which also came on a campaign tour and continues to reverberate in Japanese politics. Kishida was visiting the Saikazaki port in Wakayama prefecture to support his ruling party’s candidate in a local election, and the explosion occurred just before he was to begin his speech, The Associated Press said.

A young man believed to be a suspect was arrested Saturday at the scene after he allegedly threw “the suspicious object,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters. TV footage showed several uniformed and plainclothes police officers gathered around the man, piling onto him and roughly dragging him over the ground. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the explosion, but some reports said it was a smoke or pipe bomb.

Matsuno refused to comment on the suspect's motive and background, saying police are still investigating.

No injuries were reported in the incident, which came on the eve of a major international forum in Japan. Kishida was not hurt and planned to continue giving campaign speeches later Saturday, Matsuno said.

“Elections are the core of democracy and we should never tolerate threats or obstruction by violence, and I believe (continuing on with his campaign schedule) was the prime minister’s judgment in that context,” Matsuno said.

He said he instructed national police to ensure their utmost effort for the protection of dignitaries who are visiting Japan in the period leading up to the Group of Seven summit in May.

Abe's assassination, which shocked a nation that prides itself on public safety and extremely tight gun controls, came as he delivered a campaign speech in the western city of Nara. Amid a national outcry, police have tightened their protective measures following a subsequent investigation that found holes in Abe’s security.

Security has been also ramped up in Japan as senior diplomats from some of the world’s most powerful democracies arrive for Sunday's G-7 foreign minister meetings. Kishida will host a May 19-21 G-7 leaders' summit in his hometown of Hiroshima.

One witness Saturday told NHK television that she was standing in the crowd when she saw something come flying from behind. After a sudden loud noise, she fled with her children. Another witness said people were screaming and that he saw someone being apprehended right before the explosion occurred.

Saturday’s attack comes ahead of nationwide local elections, including several by-elections for vacated parliamentary seats, with voting scheduled for April 23.

In Abe’s assassination, the former prime minister was shot with a homemade gun during a campaign speech. The suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, has been charged with murder and several other crimes, including violating the gun control law.

Abe’s alleged assassin told investigators that he killed Abe, one of Japan’s most influential and divisive politicians, because of the former prime minister’s apparent links to a religious group that he hated. In statements and in social media postings attributed to him, Yamagami said he developed a grudge because his mother had made massive donations to the Unification Church that bankrupted his family and ruined his life.

Abe's assassination led to the resignation of top local and national police chiefs and a tightening of security guidelines for political leaders and other prominent people.
Kishida's government was hoping to focus world attention this weekend on the hot spring resort town of Karuizawa, where senior diplomats will gather Sunday for the so-called Group of Seven foreign ministers’ meeting.

The foreign ministers from Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and the European Union are expected to focus on worries over Russia's war in Ukraine, China's increasingly belligerent rise and North Korea's provocative string of weapons' tests.



Iran Executes a Man Convicted of Spying for the Mossad

People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Iran Executes a Man Convicted of Spying for the Mossad

People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
People walk along a wall covered in mural paintings and a building in the distance bearing an anti-Israel billboard that reads 'Once again, a Pharaoh will drown' at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 26, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran executed Wednesday a man it said worked for Israel's foreign intelligence agency and played a role in the 2022 killing of a Revolutionary Guard colonel in Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The report identified the man as Mohsen Langarneshin and said he was hanged. It called him a “senior spy” for the Mossad, who provided “technical support” in the assassination of Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, shot five times by gunmen on a motorbike outside his home in Tehran, The Associated Press reported.
The agency said the Mossad recruited Langarneshin in 2020 and that he met with Israeli intelligence officers in Georgia and Nepal.
Langarneshin reportedly rented safe houses for operatives in several Iranian cities, including Isfahan, when, in January 2023, bomb-carrying drones targeted what Iran described as a military workshop. Iran has accused Israel of being behind the attack.
The report said Langarneshin confessed in Iran's Revolutionary court, which usually provides a court-appointed lawyer and doesn't allow media access.
At the time of his assassination, local media identified Khodaei only as a “defender of the shrine,” a reference to Iranians who fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq within the Guard’s Quds force that oversees foreign operations.