Iran's Khamenei Decorates Commander for Israel Attack

A picture provided by Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei's office shows him decorating General Amirali Hajizadeh - AFP
A picture provided by Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei's office shows him decorating General Amirali Hajizadeh - AFP
TT

Iran's Khamenei Decorates Commander for Israel Attack

A picture provided by Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei's office shows him decorating General Amirali Hajizadeh - AFP
A picture provided by Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei's office shows him decorating General Amirali Hajizadeh - AFP

Iran's supreme leader has decorated the Revolutionary Guards aerospace commander for Iran's missile attacks on arch-foe Israel, Ali Khamenei's website said on Sunday.

"Khamenei presented the Order of Fath ("Conquest" in Farsi) to General Amirali Hajizadeh, commander of the Guards Aerospace Force," it said.

The decoration was bestowed because of "the brilliant 'Honest Promise' operation", the website said, AFP reported.

 

Hajizadeh, 62, has headed the Guards aerospace unit since its creation in 2009.

 

On Tuesday, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired some 200 missiles at Israel in retaliation for an Israeli air strike that killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC top general Abbas Nilforoushan in Beirut.

 

It was Iran's second direct attack on Israel in six months, after a missile and drone assault in April in retaliation for a deadly strike on Iran's consulate in Damascus, which Tehran blamed on Israel.

 

Israel has vowed to respond after Tuesday's Iranian missile attack.



Death Toll in Attack on Germany Market Rises to 5, Scholz Calls for Solidarity

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt Reiner Haseloff, and German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser visit the site where a car drove into a crowd of a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany December 21, 2024. REUTERS/Christian Mang
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt Reiner Haseloff, and German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser visit the site where a car drove into a crowd of a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany December 21, 2024. REUTERS/Christian Mang
TT

Death Toll in Attack on Germany Market Rises to 5, Scholz Calls for Solidarity

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt Reiner Haseloff, and German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser visit the site where a car drove into a crowd of a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany December 21, 2024. REUTERS/Christian Mang
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt Reiner Haseloff, and German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser visit the site where a car drove into a crowd of a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany December 21, 2024. REUTERS/Christian Mang

Germans on Saturday mourned the victims after a doctor drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing at least five people, including a small child, and wounding at least 200 others.

Authorities arrested a 50-year-old man at the site of the attack in Magdeburg on Friday evening and took him into custody for questioning.

He has lived in Germany since 2006, practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers south of Magdeburg, officials said.

The state governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters that the death toll rose to five from a previous figure of two and that more than 200 people in total were injured.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that nearly 40 of them "are so seriously injured that we must be very worried about them.”

Mourners lit candles and placed flowers outside a church near the market on the cold and gloomy day.

Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser traveled to Magdeburg.

The chancellor called on the nation to stand together against hate.

Faeser ordered flags lowered to half-staff at federal buildings across the country.