Iran Minister Says US, Israeli Strikes Caused 'Heavy Damage' to Water, Energy Infrastructure

The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. (Reuters)
TT

Iran Minister Says US, Israeli Strikes Caused 'Heavy Damage' to Water, Energy Infrastructure

The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. (Reuters)

Iran's critical water and energy infrastructure have suffered extensive damage due to US and Israeli strikes on tens of thousands of civilian sites, officials said on Sunday.

Israel and the United States launched strikes on Iran on February 28, killing the Islamic republic's supreme leader and sparking a war that has since spread across the Middle East.

"The country's vital water and electricity infrastructure has suffered heavy damage following terrorist and cyber attacks by the United States and the Zionist regime," said energy minister Abbas Aliabadi, according to ISNA news agency, AFP reported.

"The attacks targeted dozens of water transmission and treatment facilities and destroyed parts of critical water supply networks," he noted, adding that efforts were under way to repair the damage.

Iran's Red Crescent chief Pirhossein Kolivand said the total number of damaged civilian sites "has reached 81,365 based on the latest field assessments".

He said the figure includes residential and commercial units, schools, medical centers and vehicles.

"Behind every damaged unit stands a family, a life, a memory, a livelihood, and a future that has collapsed beneath the rubble of war and violence," he added.

AFP has not been able to access sites or verify the figures outside of the Iranian capital, but journalists in Tehran have reported damage to multiple residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure.

More than 1,200 Iranians have been killed in US and Israeli strikes, according to the latest toll from Iran's health ministry on March 8, which could not be independently verified.

On Sunday, ISNA news agency reported that strikes had damaged a hospital in the southern city of Ahvaz, in Khuzestan province.

Other media, including Fars news agency, showed images of rescuers pulling bodies from the rubble of destroyed buildings in the northern city of Tabriz.

It was not immediately clear when those strikes took place.

Earlier on Sunday, US President Donald Trump threatened to strike Iran's power plants if it failed to reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.

Traffic through the vital strait -- through which 20 percent of the world's crude oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes -- has been brought to a near-standstill since the start of the war.

Iranian forces have attacked multiple vessels, saying they failed to heed "warnings" against transiting the waterway.

In recent days, Iran has allowed some vessels from countries it considers friendly to pass, while warning it would block ships from countries it says have joined the "aggression" against it.

In response to Trump, Iran threatened to target energy infrastructure and desalination plants across the region.

 

 

 



Türkiye Arrests 119 Accused of Links to ISIS

Turkish police officers (file photo/Reuters)
Turkish police officers (file photo/Reuters)
TT

Türkiye Arrests 119 Accused of Links to ISIS

Turkish police officers (file photo/Reuters)
Turkish police officers (file photo/Reuters)

Türkiye's interior ministry said on Saturday that authorities had arrested 119 people across the country accused of links to ISIS terror group.

"(The) 199 suspects were arrested in a police operation carried out in 30 provinces against the ISIS terrorist organization," including in Istanbul and Ankara, the ministry said, using another name for the ISIS militant group.

Charges levelled against those apprehended included ISIS group membership, posting ISIS propaganda on social media and financing ISIS through intermediaries or "so-called charities", the ministry said.

In late June, Turkish police killed a man suspected of ISIS links in an exchange of gunfire in the south of Ankara, two weeks before a NATO summit was held in the capital.

After that, 209 people suspected of links to the ISIS group or to far-left groups were arrested in Ankara on orders from the city's chief prosecutor.


Iran Executes a Man Convicted of Killing a Security Force Member during 2022 Protests

A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
TT

Iran Executes a Man Convicted of Killing a Security Force Member during 2022 Protests

A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
A view of the entrance to Evin prison in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)

Iranian authorities said Sunday they have executed a man convicted of killing a member of security forces during the 2022 nationwide protests that erupted after the death of a woman in custody of the country’s morality police.

Authorities said the fatal shooting took place during unrest in Tehran, where protesters blocked roads and clashed with security forces.

They said Aref Khoshkar was armed with a pellet gun and fired at security personnel, wounding Salman Amirahmadi, who later died in a hospital.

According to the authorities, Khoshkar confessed that he fired the gun from the roof of a house and threw it in a trash bin.

The execution is the latest reported in connection with the 2022 protests, which had spread after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, died in police custody following her arrest for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code.

Rights groups have criticized the trials over the deaths of security forces during the protests, saying defendants were denied due process.


7 Killed in Ukrainian Drone Attack on Russian Regions

17 July 2026, Ukraine, Kharkiv: Ukrainian police officers examine a charred vehicle following a russian 'banderol' missile strike on a road in Kharkiv's Shevchenkivskyi district. Photo: Yevhen Titov/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
17 July 2026, Ukraine, Kharkiv: Ukrainian police officers examine a charred vehicle following a russian 'banderol' missile strike on a road in Kharkiv's Shevchenkivskyi district. Photo: Yevhen Titov/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
TT

7 Killed in Ukrainian Drone Attack on Russian Regions

17 July 2026, Ukraine, Kharkiv: Ukrainian police officers examine a charred vehicle following a russian 'banderol' missile strike on a road in Kharkiv's Shevchenkivskyi district. Photo: Yevhen Titov/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
17 July 2026, Ukraine, Kharkiv: Ukrainian police officers examine a charred vehicle following a russian 'banderol' missile strike on a road in Kharkiv's Shevchenkivskyi district. Photo: Yevhen Titov/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Seven people were killed and 51 others were wounded in Russia overnight by Ukrainian drone attacks, Russian officials said Saturday.

Kyiv's forces are continuing their relentless aerial campaign against energy infrastructure and military targets inside Russia, aiming to undermine Moscow’s war effort and make Russians feel the consequences of the Kremlin's all-out invasion of Ukraine that is well into its fifth year.

Two sprawling warehouses of Russia's major online retailer, Wildberries, were hit by Ukrainian drones overnight, according to Russian officials: one in the town of Kotovsk in the Tambov region, some 360 kilometers (roughly 220 miles) from the border with Ukraine, and another one in the city of Elektrostal, about 50 kilometers (some 30 miles) east of Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post on Saturday that Ukrainian long-range strikes hit two “significant logistical facilities in the Moscow and Tambov regions."

“These facilities were used by the aggressor to supply sanctioned components for the production of drones and navigation equipment,” he wrote. An oil facility was also hit, The Associated Press quoted him as saying.

Ukrainian special operations also conducted strikes against targets in the Sea of Azov and in occupied territory, Zelenskyy said.

Seven night shift workers were killed at the warehouse in Kotovsk, and 25 others were wounded, Tambov regional governor Yevgeny Pervyshov said. A total of 24 people were wounded in Elektrostal, according to the governor of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov.

Two more people were wounded in the Moscow region city of Noginsk, just north of Elektrostal, where an oil depot was on fire after a Ukrainian drone strike, Vorobyov said. A nearby maternity hospital was evacuated as a precaution, as well as one residential building, he added.

In the city of Vladimir, some 180 kilometers (over 110 miles) east of Moscow, a Ukrainian drone hit a residential building, sparking a brief fire, Vladimir governor Alexander Avdeyev said. There were no casualties, he added.

Overall, the Russian Defense Ministry said its air defenses overnight intercepted 379 Ukrainian drones over 19 Russian regions, as well as the illegally annexed Crimea, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.