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Israel to Deploy ‘Iron Beam’ Laser Defense by End of 2025

An Israeli missile launched from an Iron Dome system attempts to intercept a rocket over Netivot, Israel, on Sunday. (AFP via Getty Images)
An Israeli missile launched from an Iron Dome system attempts to intercept a rocket over Netivot, Israel, on Sunday. (AFP via Getty Images)
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Israel to Deploy ‘Iron Beam’ Laser Defense by End of 2025

An Israeli missile launched from an Iron Dome system attempts to intercept a rocket over Netivot, Israel, on Sunday. (AFP via Getty Images)
An Israeli missile launched from an Iron Dome system attempts to intercept a rocket over Netivot, Israel, on Sunday. (AFP via Getty Images)

Israel's defense ministry announced on Monday the completion of a laser air defense system known as "Iron Beam", which will be deployed by the end of December.

"The Iron Beam laser system is expected to fundamentally change the rules of engagement on the battlefield," Daniel Gold, head of defense ministry research and development, told a defense summit in Tel Aviv.

"With development complete and a comprehensive testing program that has validated the system's capabilities," he added, promising to deliver "initial operational capability" by the end of the year.

The announcement comes as Israeli military steps up its strikes against Hezbollah and its infrastructure, despite a ceasefire that began just over a year ago.

Contacted by AFP, the defense ministry refused to provide more details on what exactly would happen on that date.

The announcement marks a major milestone in a project more than a decade old, developed jointly with the state-owned arms company Rafael and Israeli private defense group Elbit.

The laser system seeks to enhance Israel's interception of drones and other projectiles and will supplement other aerial defense capacities such as the more well-known Iron Dome.

Iron Dome offers short-range protection against missiles and rockets. The David's Sling system and successive generations of Arrow missiles are Israeli-American technology built to bring down ballistic missiles.

During the 12-day war launched by Israel against Iran in June, the country's missile defense system failed to intercept all the projectiles fired by Tehran toward Israeli territory.

Israel has since acknowledged being hit by more than 50 missiles during the war with Iran, resulting in 28 deaths.

The new system is "a ground-based high-power laser air defense system designed to counter aerial threats", Rafael said.

The company added that the system has the "unique advantage of rapidly neutralizing threats using laser technology at negligible cost".

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World

Report: 4 Dead, 8 Hurt as Gunman Opens Fire in Southern Türkiye

The shooting occurred near Tarsus, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Mersin, prompting a widespread police manhunt to locate the shooter. (Reuters file)
The shooting occurred near Tarsus, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Mersin, prompting a widespread police manhunt to locate the shooter. (Reuters file)
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Report: 4 Dead, 8 Hurt as Gunman Opens Fire in Southern Türkiye

The shooting occurred near Tarsus, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Mersin, prompting a widespread police manhunt to locate the shooter. (Reuters file)
The shooting occurred near Tarsus, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Mersin, prompting a widespread police manhunt to locate the shooter. (Reuters file)

Four people were killed and another eight wounded when a gunman opened fire near the southern Turkish city of Mersin on Monday, the DHA and IHA news agencies reported.

At least two people were killed when the assailant opened fire at a restaurant, with the two others killed elsewhere and the assailant fleeing in a car, DHA said.

The shooting occurred near Tarsus, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Mersin, prompting a widespread police manhunt to locate the shooter that also involved helicopters, it said.

There was no immediate comment from police or other officials.

DHA said the shooter was a 17-year-old armed with a shotgun.

Among those killed in the shooting were the restaurant owner and one of his employees, IHA said, identifying the other two as a young man grazing livestock and a truck driver.

The violence came a month after two shooting attacks by teenagers rocked Türkiye.

In the first incident, 16 people were injured, while the second attack claimed 10 lives, most of them young schoolchildren.

World

Romanians Stabbed Journalist in London at Behest of Iran, UK Court Told

Nandito Badea and George Stana, two Romanian men accused of stabbing the Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati near his home in Wimbledon in March 2024, appear at Woolwich Crown Court in London, Britain, May 18, 2026, in a courtroom sketch. (Reuters)
Nandito Badea and George Stana, two Romanian men accused of stabbing the Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati near his home in Wimbledon in March 2024, appear at Woolwich Crown Court in London, Britain, May 18, 2026, in a courtroom sketch. (Reuters)
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Romanians Stabbed Journalist in London at Behest of Iran, UK Court Told

Nandito Badea and George Stana, two Romanian men accused of stabbing the Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati near his home in Wimbledon in March 2024, appear at Woolwich Crown Court in London, Britain, May 18, 2026, in a courtroom sketch. (Reuters)
Nandito Badea and George Stana, two Romanian men accused of stabbing the Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati near his home in Wimbledon in March 2024, appear at Woolwich Crown Court in London, Britain, May 18, 2026, in a courtroom sketch. (Reuters)

A team of Romanian men, acting as proxies for the Iranian government, carried out a knife attack on a journalist working for a Persian-language media organization in London, prosecutors told a British court on Monday.

Pouria Zaratifoukolaei, known as Pouria Zeraati, a British journalist of Iranian origin who works for Iran International, was stabbed in the leg three times as he was attacked near his home in Wimbledon, southwest London, in March 2024.

At the start of the trial of two of the three men accused of carrying out the stabbing, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson said ‌they had targeted ‌Zeraati, whose TV employer is critical of Iran's government.

'DELIBERATE, PLANNED VIOLENCE'

"This was no robbery, no fight that got out of control, it was deliberate, planned violence to achieve what it did, that is serious injury to its target," Atkinson told London's Woolwich Crown Court.

They had "committed a planned attack preceded by reconnaissance, and which was ordered by a third party acting on behalf of the Iranian state," the prosecutor said.

Iran has denied any involvement in ⁠the incident.

Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25, both ‌deny charges of wounding with intent and unlawful ‌wounding. The third man accused of involvement, David Andrei, was arrested in Romania but is not ‌involved in the trial.

Atkinson said Zeraati was an "obvious and readily identifiable target for ‌violence to be inflicted by proxies" acting for Iran. He said posters had been put up in Tehran in November 2022 featuring pictures of journalists including Zeraati, under the heading "Wanted: dead or alive".

"In recent years, since 2005, Iran has turned less to its ‌own operatives and increasingly to use proxies such as criminal gangs to meet their threatened violence on their behalf," Atkinson ⁠said.

"That has included ⁠attacks on persons in this country who have become targets of Iranian intimidation and, effectively, terror."

Atkinson said Zeraati had been subject to "extensive reconnaissance", and a year before Stana had been arrested in the garden of his apartment with another man, in possession of latex gloves, scissors and a mask.

On the day of the attack, Badea and Andrei confronted Zeraati as he crossed the street from his home to his car, the prosecutor said. Andrei held him, while Badea stabbed him at the top of his thigh before they fled to a getaway car driven by Stana, the prosecutor added.

The men, who were motivated by money, dumped the car and some clothing, and then took a taxi to Heathrow Airport from where they flew to Geneva, Atkinson said.

The trial, which is expected to last more than two weeks, continues.

World

Iran Arrests Over 4,000 on Charges Related to War, Says Rights Group

An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-Israeli mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, May 18, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-Israeli mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, May 18, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
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Iran Arrests Over 4,000 on Charges Related to War, Says Rights Group

An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-Israeli mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, May 18, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-Israeli mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, May 18, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Iranian authorities have made more than 4,000 arrests on charges related to the US-Israeli war against the country in a mass crackdown, a US-based rights group said on Monday.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it had documented at least 4,023 arrests between February 28, when the war started, and May 9.

Charges included espionage, threats to national security and communicating or sharing content related to the conflict with foreign media, it said.

"Iranian authorities have used the conflict to intensify national security narratives and justify arrests, restrictions on freedom of expression, and violence against civilians," it said.

Meanwhile, Iran's national police chief Ahmad Reza Radan had said Sunday that more than "6,500 traitors and spies" linked with the "enemy" had been arrested since anti-government protests peaked in January.

The authorities described the demonstrations as riots and put them down with a crackdown that left thousands dead, according to rights groups.

"The process of identifying and arresting elements associated with the enemy continues, and the police have not stopped their actions in the field of confronting rioters," Radan said, quoted by the IRNA news agency.

There has also been growing alarm over executions in Iran.

Rights groups have said that since the start of the war, Iran has executed 26 men seen as "political prisoners" -- 14 men charged over January protests, one more over 2022 demonstrations and 11 accused of links to banned opposition groups.

Six men have been hanged by Iran on charges of spying for Israel since the war began, according to reports in Iranian official media.

HRANA said it had also documented at least 3,636 fatalities, including 1,701 civilians, due to US-Israeli attacks on Iran in the war, which is currently on hold with an uneasy ceasefire.