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Iranian Security Opens Fire on People Celebrating World Cup Defeat

Part of a video circulated on the Internet, showing Iranian actors, including actresses without a veil.
Part of a video circulated on the Internet, showing Iranian actors, including actresses without a veil.
    London, Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat
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Iranian Security Opens Fire on People Celebrating World Cup Defeat

Part of a video circulated on the Internet, showing Iranian actors, including actresses without a veil.
Part of a video circulated on the Internet, showing Iranian actors, including actresses without a veil.

A human rights organization confirmed that at least one person was killed in the renewed Iranian protests, early on Wednesday, as Iranians took to the streets to celebrate the defeat of the their national football team in front of the United States.

Several Iranian cities witnessed protests to celebrate the exit of the Iranian national team from the World Cup.

Reports noted that the Iranian national team players were subjected to pressure from officers in the Revolutionary Guard after their first match against England, which they lost by six goals. The Iranian team tried to restore some of its balance in the match with Wales, winning 2-0, before being defeated by the US and eliminated from the world tournament.

After the defeat of the team, which some Iranians called the “national team of the Islamic Republic”, residents in north and west Tehran chanted slogans against the regime, while numerous videos on social networks showed the celebrations in roads and residential neighborhoods.

The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights confirmed the killing of Mahran Sammak, 27, during a festive gathering in the port of Anzali in the north of the country, noting that he was wounded in the head after security forces opened fire on the demonstrators. Reports said he was hit while driving his car.

Meanwhile, documents obtained by hackers from an agency affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard revealed that 84 percent of Iranians believe that the protests were the way out of the current situation.

The Black Reward group sent a number of secret letters, statements and recordings obtained from Fars agency.

One of the documents refers to a confidential news brief prepared by the agency for the commander of the Guard, Hossein Salami, and contains internal news, official statements and figures, including statistics on the protests.

The report says that 84 percent of Iranians believe that the protests are the way out of the current situation, and 56 percent believe that the demonstrations should continue. Fifty-one percent of Iranians demand “the freedom of the veil.”

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World

Russia: Man Suspected of Shooting Top General Detained in Dubai

An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova
An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova
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Russia: Man Suspected of Shooting Top General Detained in Dubai

An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova
An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Sunday that the man suspected of shooting top Russian military intelligence officer Vladimir Alexeyev in Moscow has been detained in Dubai and handed over to Russia.

Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, deputy head of the GRU, ⁠Russia's military intelligence arm, was shot several times in an apartment block in Moscow on Friday, investigators said. He underwent surgery after the shooting, Russian media ⁠said.

The FSB said a Russian citizen named Lyubomir Korba was detained in Dubai on suspicion of carrying out the shooting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind the assassination attempt, which he said was designed to sabotage peace talks. ⁠Ukraine said it had nothing to do with the shooting.

Alexeyev's boss, Admiral Igor Kostyukov, the head of the GRU, has been leading Russia's delegation in negotiations with Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on security-related aspects of a potential peace deal.

World

Factory Explosion Kills 8 in Northern China

Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
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Factory Explosion Kills 8 in Northern China

Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo

An explosion at a biotech factory in northern China has killed eight people, Chinese state media reported Sunday, increasing the total number of fatalities by one.

State news agency Xinhua had previously reported that seven people died and one person was missing after the Saturday morning explosion at the Jiapeng biotech company in Shanxi province, citing local authorities.

Later, Xinhua said eight were dead, adding that the firm's legal representative had been taken into custody.

The company is located in Shanyin County, about 400 kilometers west of Beijing, AFP reported.

Xinhua said clean-up operations were ongoing, noting that reporters observed dark yellow smoke emanating from the site of the explosion.

Authorities have established a team to investigate the cause of the blast, the report added.

Industrial accidents are common in China due to lax safety standards.
In late January, an explosion at a steel factory in the neighboring province of Inner Mongolia left at least nine people dead.

World

Iran Warns Will Not Give Up Enrichment Despite US War Threat

Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Iran Warns Will Not Give Up Enrichment Despite US War Threat

Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran will never surrender the right to enrich uranium, even if war "is imposed on us,” its foreign minister said Sunday, defying pressure from Washington.

"Iran has paid a very heavy price for its peaceful nuclear program and for uranium enrichment," Abbas Araghchi told a forum in Tehran.

"Why do we insist so much on enrichment and refuse to give it up even if a war is imposed on us? Because no one has the right to dictate our behavior," he said, two days after he met US envoy Steve Witkoff in Oman.

The foreign minister also declared that his country was not intimidated by the US naval deployment in the Gulf.

"Their military deployment in the region does not scare us," Araghchi said.