عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

'Jaish-ul-Adl' Publishes Images of Abducted Iranian Soldiers

Jaish-ul-Adl carried out a spate of attacks on Iranian security forces in recent years. (File Photo: AFP)
Jaish-ul-Adl carried out a spate of attacks on Iranian security forces in recent years. (File Photo: AFP)
    Tehran, Dubai – Asharq al-Awsat
TT
TT

'Jaish-ul-Adl' Publishes Images of Abducted Iranian Soldiers

Jaish-ul-Adl carried out a spate of attacks on Iranian security forces in recent years. (File Photo: AFP)
Jaish-ul-Adl carried out a spate of attacks on Iranian security forces in recent years. (File Photo: AFP)

A militant group claimed responsibility for the abduction of 12 Iranian security personnel and soldiers southeast the border with Pakistan, Iran’s semi-official news agency ISNA reported Monday.

"The terrorist group Jaish-ul-Adl has posted two photos... claiming that those in it are the forces abducted" on October 16, AFP reported. The photo shows seven members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and 15 security personnel in their military garb.

Jaish-ul-Adl, formed in 2012, is a successor to the extremist group Jundallah which led the bloody rebellion between 2005 and 2010.

Poor Sistan-Baluchestan province, bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, where a majority of Sunnis are ethnic Baluchis, has been battling clashes between regime forces and Baloch separatists or militant groups, according to AFP. The Sunni Baloch minority accounts for about 2 percent of Iran's population.

The photos also show a haul of automatic weapons and sniper rifles, rocket launchers, machine-guns, grenades and ammunition, apparently seized from the Iranian forces.

IRGC Ground Force Commander, Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour, left for Pakistan on Monday to pursue the case of the kidnapped Iranians, according to an IRGC statement.

Meanwhile, Iranian Oil Ministry quoted Minister Bijan Zanganeh as saying that Iranian oil output cannot be replaced by other oil-producing countries if Tehran is hit by US sanctions in November, Reuters published in a report from Dubai.

“As I have repeatedly said there is no replacement for Iranian oil in the market,” said Zanganeh.

In May, US President Donald Trump pulled out of an international nuclear deal with Iran and announced sanctions against OPEC’s third-largest producer. Washington is pushing allies to cut imports of Iranian oil to zero and will reimpose sanctions on Iranian oil and financial sectors in November.

In June, OPEC agreed to boost supply to make up for the expected disruption to Iranian exports. But Iran has repeatedly said that its oil exports cannot be reduced to zero because of high demand levels in the market.

“The market’s knowledge of this inability has raised the prices as the average price (of crude) ... Rising oil prices have slowed down the economic growth of most of the consumer countries, which is affecting the global economy,” Oil Minister noted.

Zanganeh advised Trump “to forgo imposition of sanctions on Iran’s oil exports”, saying that the non-OPEC producers of oil were also unable “to offset disruptions in the market”.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in an interview with Reuters on Sunday, dismissed concerns that oil prices could rise, saying the market had already factored in the losses.

Iran warned that if it cannot sell its oil due to US pressure, then no other regional country will be allowed to do so either, threatening to block the Strait of Hormuz, as referred by Reuters.

Under the 2015 nuclear deal, most international sanctions against Tehran were lifted in 2016 in exchange for Iran curbing its nuclear program.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Sirens Heard at Incirlik Air Base, Key NATO Facility in South Türkiye

İncirlik Air Base in Adana, southern Türkiye (AFP)
İncirlik Air Base in Adana, southern Türkiye (AFP)
TT
TT

Sirens Heard at Incirlik Air Base, Key NATO Facility in South Türkiye

İncirlik Air Base in Adana, southern Türkiye (AFP)
İncirlik Air Base in Adana, southern Türkiye (AFP)

Sirens were heard early on Friday at Türkiye’s Incirlik airbase, a key NATO facility where US troops are stationed near the southeastern city of Adana, state news agency Anadolu reported.

There was no immediate official comment on the incident, which took place four days after NATO air defenses shot down a ballistic missile in Turkish airspace that was fired from Iran, the second in five days.

Residents of Adana, which lies 10 kilometers (six miles) away from the base, were woken at around 3:25 am (0025 GMT) by sirens, which sounded for around five minutes, according to the Ekonomim business news website.

It said a red alert sounded at the base.

Several people posted mobile phone footage on social media of a glowing image flying through the sky, suggesting it could be a missile heading for the airbase, it said.

Across the city, sirens from fire engines and the security forces could be heard for a long time, it added.

NATO said it shot down a second ballistic missile fired from Iran on Monday, prompting a stern warning from Türkiye to Tehran not to take "provocative steps".

The announcement came shortly after Washington said it was closing down its consulate in Adana, urging all American citizens to leave southeastern Türkiye.

Since the US-Israeli war against Iran started, Tehran has launched strikes across the Middle East. Türkiye had appeared to have been spared.

As well as Incirlik airbase, US troops are also stationed at Kurecik, another Turkish base that is a NATO facility in the center of the country, where a Patriot missile defense system was deployed on Tuesday.

A first missile had been intercepted by NATO defenses in Turkish air space on March 4.

World

Iran War Disrupts Energy Supplies as Iran's New Leader Resolves to Keep Fighting

FILE - A thick plume of smoke rises Sunday, March 8, 2026, from an oil storage facility struck overnight in Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
FILE - A thick plume of smoke rises Sunday, March 8, 2026, from an oil storage facility struck overnight in Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
TT
TT

Iran War Disrupts Energy Supplies as Iran's New Leader Resolves to Keep Fighting

FILE - A thick plume of smoke rises Sunday, March 8, 2026, from an oil storage facility struck overnight in Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
FILE - A thick plume of smoke rises Sunday, March 8, 2026, from an oil storage facility struck overnight in Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

Iran’s secretive new leader issued his first public statements Thursday, resolving to keep fighting and threatening to open “other fronts” in a war that has already disrupted world energy supplies, the global economy and international travel.

Early Friday, US President Donald Trump issued a new threat online to Iran, writing: “Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today.” Trump tallied the damage inflicted on Iran and its leaders and called it a “great honor” to be responsible for it.

The remarks by Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country's attacks were creating conditions for the Iranian population to topple the government, The Associated Press reported.

“It is in your hands,” Netanyahu said at a news conference, addressing the Iranian people. “We are creating the optimal conditions for the fall of the regime.”

Since the start of the war, US and Israeli strikes have targeted security checkpoints in Iran to undermine the government’s ability to suppress dissent, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, the US-based independent monitoring group known as ACLED.

Intense airstrikes hit early Friday around Iran’s capital, Tehran, as well as outlying areas. It was not immediately clear what had been targeted.

Netanyahu denounces Iranian leader

Netanyahu denounced Khamenei as a “puppet of the Revolutionary Guards."

Khamenei is close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and is widely seen as even less compromising than his father, Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei said in a statement read by a state TV news anchor that he was keeping a “file of revenge.” He did not appear on camera and has not been seen since his father and wife were killed in the war’s opening salvo, which also wounded him, according to an Iranian ambassador.

Oil prices spiral again and stocks sink

The war continued to escalate on its 13th day as oil prices spiraled up again to $100 per barrel, and stocks sank worldwide over fears that the conflict could drag on longer than hoped.

To relieve the surge in prices, the US Treasury Department announced it was further easing sanctions on Russian oil by granting a license that authorizes the delivery and sale of some Russian crude oil and petroleum products for the next month.

Trump signaled earlier this week that he would take more action to address the squeeze on oil flows. The move follows the administration’s decision to grant temporary permission for India to buy Russian oil.

The new exemption applies only to Russian oil already at sea. Last week, analysts estimated there were about 125 million barrels loaded on tankers. To put that in perspective, about 20 million barrels of oil per day usually pass through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the International Energy Agency.

Iran has made clear it plans to keep up attacks on energy infrastructure across the region and use the effective closure of the strait as leverage against the United States and Israel. A fifth of the world’s traded oil flows through the waterway leading from the Arabian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean.

At a news conference Thursday, Iran’s ambassador to Tunisia, Mir Masoud Hosseinian, said Iranian naval forces “have established full control” over the strait and “carried out precise strikes in response to attacks on our oil infrastructure.”

“Global energy security is contingent on respect for Iran’s sovereignty,” he said.

The pinch was being felt worldwide. South Korea reinstated government-set caps on oil prices for the first time in three decades as it sought to calm soaring fuel costs. The two-week caps, which took effect Friday, set maximum prices for petroleum products supplied by refiners to gas stations and other businesses.

Iranian leader calls for the shutdown of US bases

Hosseinian told The Associated Press the new supreme leader was wounded in the attack on his family’s home, but “it is not serious.” The hope is he will attend the massive, state-organized Eid prayer next week that his father traditionally led. However, Khamenei remains a target for the Israelis, who have vowed to kill him.

Hosseinian said Iran’s strikes on Gulf nations have been strategic. “Even when we targeted hotels, we had precise information that they were hosting American and Israeli soldiers,” he said.

Khamenei called on Gulf Arabs to “shut down” US bases in the region, saying protection promised by Washington was “nothing more than a lie.”

He also said Iran has studied “opening other fronts in which the enemy has little experience and would be highly vulnerable” if the war continues. He did not elaborate, but Iran has been linked to previous attacks on US, Israeli and Jewish targets around the world.

World

Mojtaba Khamenei Says Closure of Strait of Hormuz Should be Used as 'Leverage'

(FILES) In this picture obtained from Iran's ISNA news agency, Mojtaba Khamenei (C), son of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, walks along a street in Tehran on May 31, 2019. (Photo by Hamid FOROUTAN / ISNA / AFP)
(FILES) In this picture obtained from Iran's ISNA news agency, Mojtaba Khamenei (C), son of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, walks along a street in Tehran on May 31, 2019. (Photo by Hamid FOROUTAN / ISNA / AFP)
TT
TT

Mojtaba Khamenei Says Closure of Strait of Hormuz Should be Used as 'Leverage'

(FILES) In this picture obtained from Iran's ISNA news agency, Mojtaba Khamenei (C), son of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, walks along a street in Tehran on May 31, 2019. (Photo by Hamid FOROUTAN / ISNA / AFP)
(FILES) In this picture obtained from Iran's ISNA news agency, Mojtaba Khamenei (C), son of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, walks along a street in Tehran on May 31, 2019. (Photo by Hamid FOROUTAN / ISNA / AFP)

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued his first statement on the war on Thursday, saying that the leverage of closing the Strait of Hormuz should be used.

Khamenei called on people in Gulf countries to “shut down” US bases, saying promised US protection is “nothing more than a lie.”

Khamenei did not appear on camera. Israeli intelligence assessed that he was likely wounded in the war’s opening salvo, which he said also killed his wife, one of his sisters, his niece and his father, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

US President Donald Trump has promised to “finish the job,” even as Iran is “virtually destroyed.” The first week of the war cost the United States $11.3 billion, according to the Pentagon.

“One point I must emphasize is that, in any case, we will obtain compensation from the enemy,” Khamenei said.

“If it refuses, we will take from its assets to the extent we deem appropriate, and if that is not possible, we will destroy its assets to the same extent.”