Iran Vows Response to Guards Deputy Commander Killing in Lebanon

A demonstrator stands in the rain holding up a picture of late Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah who was killed by an Israeli air strike the previous day, during an anti-Israel protest in Tehran's Palestine Square on September 28, 2024. (AFP)
A demonstrator stands in the rain holding up a picture of late Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah who was killed by an Israeli air strike the previous day, during an anti-Israel protest in Tehran's Palestine Square on September 28, 2024. (AFP)
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Iran Vows Response to Guards Deputy Commander Killing in Lebanon

A demonstrator stands in the rain holding up a picture of late Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah who was killed by an Israeli air strike the previous day, during an anti-Israel protest in Tehran's Palestine Square on September 28, 2024. (AFP)
A demonstrator stands in the rain holding up a picture of late Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah who was killed by an Israeli air strike the previous day, during an anti-Israel protest in Tehran's Palestine Square on September 28, 2024. (AFP)

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday that the killing by Israel of an Iranian Revolutionary Guards deputy commander in Beirut was a "horrible crime" that would not go unanswered.

Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan was killed in the Israeli strikes on Beirut on Friday in which Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah also died.

"There is no doubt that this horrible crime committed by the Zionist regime (Israel) will not go unanswered," Araqchi said in a statement addressed to the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Major General Hossein Salami.

Earlier on Sunday, Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said that Iran-aligned armed groups would carry on confronting Israel with Tehran's help following the killing of Nasrallah, Iranian state media reported.

An alliance known as the Axis of Resistance, built up over decades with Iranian support, includes the Palestinian group Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Yemen's Houthis, and various Shiite armed groups in Iraq and Syria.

"We will not hesitate to go to any level in order to help the resistance," Qalibaf said.

He also issued a warning to the United States.

"The US is complicit in all of these crimes and...has to accept the repercussions," he said.

Iran's Vice-President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif, asked about Nasrallah's assassination, told state media on Sunday Iran would react at an appropriate time of its choosing against Israel.



Russia Downs 125 Ukrainian Drones, Residential Apartment Hit in Voronezh

This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on September 28, 2024, shows rescuers inspecting a damaged hospital building following a drone attack in Sumy. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian Emergency Service / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on September 28, 2024, shows rescuers inspecting a damaged hospital building following a drone attack in Sumy. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian Emergency Service / AFP)
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Russia Downs 125 Ukrainian Drones, Residential Apartment Hit in Voronezh

This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on September 28, 2024, shows rescuers inspecting a damaged hospital building following a drone attack in Sumy. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian Emergency Service / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on September 28, 2024, shows rescuers inspecting a damaged hospital building following a drone attack in Sumy. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian Emergency Service / AFP)

The Russian defense ministry said on Sunday its air defense downed 125 Ukrainian drones overnight, while a residential apartment was hit in the western city of Voronezh according to the local governor.

Separately, the governor of the western region of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, in an account of the drone and shelling attacks over the past 24 hours, said one man died in the border town of Shebekino, while eight civilians were injured in the wider region.

As Russia advances in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv has taken the conflict to Russia, with a cross-border attack into Russia's western Kursk region that began on Aug. 6 and by carrying out increasingly large drone attacks deep into Russian territory.

The defense ministry said the focus of the recent attacks was on the southern Volgograd region, over which 67 drones were shot down. It also said 17 drones were intercepted over each of the Belgorod and Voronezh regions, and 18 downed over the Rostov region.

Alexander Gusev, the governor of the Voronezh region, said on the Telegram messaging app that a falling drone hit a residential complex, causing a fire.

The blaze had been contained and no one was injured, according to preliminary information, he said.

The Mash Telegram channel posted a video purporting to show a blaze engulfing the top floor of a high-rise house in Voronezh. Reuters was not able to immediately corroborate the footage.