Iran Official Warns Israel that its Embassies Are Not Safe

FILED - 06 April 2024, Iran, Tehran: An undated picture shows Iranian Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi (R), a senior commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps' foreign operations arm, the Quds Force, who was killed the previous days following Israeli airstrikes on the Iranian embassy's consular annexe in the Syrian capital, Damascus. Photo: Sepahnews/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
FILED - 06 April 2024, Iran, Tehran: An undated picture shows Iranian Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi (R), a senior commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps' foreign operations arm, the Quds Force, who was killed the previous days following Israeli airstrikes on the Iranian embassy's consular annexe in the Syrian capital, Damascus. Photo: Sepahnews/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Iran Official Warns Israel that its Embassies Are Not Safe

FILED - 06 April 2024, Iran, Tehran: An undated picture shows Iranian Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi (R), a senior commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps' foreign operations arm, the Quds Force, who was killed the previous days following Israeli airstrikes on the Iranian embassy's consular annexe in the Syrian capital, Damascus. Photo: Sepahnews/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
FILED - 06 April 2024, Iran, Tehran: An undated picture shows Iranian Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi (R), a senior commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps' foreign operations arm, the Quds Force, who was killed the previous days following Israeli airstrikes on the Iranian embassy's consular annexe in the Syrian capital, Damascus. Photo: Sepahnews/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

A top Iranian military adviser on Sunday warned Israel that none of its embassies were safe following last week's strike in Damascus blamed on Israel that killed two elite Iranian generals.

The remarks by Gen. Rahim Safavi, a military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, signaled that the attack on a diplomatic mission could be met with a similar response.

“None of the embassies of the (Israeli) regime are safe anymore,” Safavi was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim agency. He spoke at a ceremony in Tehran for the generals killed in the strike that flattened an Iranian consular building.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was prepared for any response. “Whoever harms us or plans to harm us, we will harm them," he told a Cabinet meeting.

Israel has not confirmed it was behind the strike on Damascus. Its leaders have said in more general terms that they are operating against Iran, which backs militant groups Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, both of which have been in combat with Israel for the past six months.
The United States is also on high alert and preparing for a possible attack by Iran targeting Israeli or American assets in the region.



US Storms, 'Severe' Flooding Death Toll Climbs to 16

People remove debris from a building destroyed by a tornado in Louisville, Kentucky. (AFP)
People remove debris from a building destroyed by a tornado in Louisville, Kentucky. (AFP)
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US Storms, 'Severe' Flooding Death Toll Climbs to 16

People remove debris from a building destroyed by a tornado in Louisville, Kentucky. (AFP)
People remove debris from a building destroyed by a tornado in Louisville, Kentucky. (AFP)

Violent storms battering the central-eastern United States have killed at least 16 people, officials said, with the National Weather Service warning on Saturday of "severe" flash flooding in the coming days.

A line of fierce storms stretching from Arkansas to Ohio has damaged buildings, flooded roadways and produced dozens of tornadoes in recent days, AFP said.

Tennessee was hardest hit by extreme weather, with state authorities saying on Saturday that 10 people had died across the western part of the state.
Two people were killed due to floods in Kentucky, according to state Governor Andy Beshear, including a child who was "swept away by floodwaters."

Photos shared on social and local media showed widespread damage from the storm across several states, with homes torn apart, toppled trees, downed power lines and overturned cars.

"Severe, widespread flash flooding is expected" into Sunday in parts of the central-eastern region, the National Weather Service (NWS) said, warning that "lives and property are in great danger."

Two storm-related deaths were recorded in Missouri and one in Indiana, according to local media reports and authorities.

A five-year-old was found dead in a home in Little Rock, Arkansas "in connection to the ongoing severe weather," the state's emergency management agency said in a statement.

"Flooding has reached record levels in many communities," Kentucky's Governor Beshear wrote on social media Saturday, urging residents in the state to "avoid travel, and never drive through water."

More than 100,000 customers were without power in Arkansas and Tennessee as of early Sunday, according to tracking website PowerOutage.us.

The NWS on Saturday said that moderate to severe tornadoes could form in parts of the Tennessee Valley and Lower Mississippi Valley on Sunday, along with "severe thunderstorms."

Scientists say global warming is disrupting climate patterns and the water cycle, making extreme weather more frequent and ferocious.

Last year set a record for high temperatures in the United States, with the country also pummeled by a barrage of tornadoes and destructive hurricanes.