Mediaboss Marketing

The file photo shows Iran's Lavan logistic warship.

The naval forces of the Islamic Republicand Oman will hold five-day joint rescue and relief drills in Irans southern waters and the northern areasof the Indian Ocean, an Iranian commander says.

An Iranian naval flotilla, comprising Sabalan destroyer, Lavan logistic warship and helicopter carrier, SH3D helicopter and Falakhan missile-equipped warships, left Iran for Oman on Saturday to take part in the drills, the commander of Iran's First Naval Zone, Rear Admiral Hossein Azad, said.

He added that it was imperative to improve security in Irans southern waters and the Indian Ocean given their geographical significance inmaritime economy and busy traffic of ships and oil tankers.

The naval forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the neighboring country of Oman will draw plans and stage joint maneuvers to this effect, Azad said.

Iran and Oman have so far held several naval relief and rescue drills aimed at enhancing readiness for providing relief services, conducting rescue operations, improving the level of regional cooperation and exchanging experience.

Read more:

Iran Navy dispatches fleet to Kazakhstan for 1st time

The Iranian Navy also on Saturday dispatched a flotilla to the Kazakh port city of Aktau for the first time, the commander of Iran's fleet of warships in the northern province of Gilan, Admiral Ahmadreza Baqeri, said.

The Peace and Friendship flotilla consists ofDamavand destroyer and Peykan missile-launcher destroyer and plans to stay in Kazakhstan for three days, he added.

He emphasized that the fleet would convey Irans message of peace and friendship.

The Iranian naval personnel and commanders on board the fleet are scheduled to visit Kazakhstans military and historical sites and hold talks with the countrys naval officials.

In recent years, the Iranian Navy has increased its presence in international waters to protect naval routes and provide security for merchant vessels and tankers.

In line with international efforts against piracy, the Iranian Navy has been also conducting patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008 in order to safeguard merchant containers and oil tankers owned or leased by Iran or other countries.

Irans Navy has managed to foil several attacks on both Iranian and foreign tanker ships during its missions in international waters.

Read more:

More here:
Iran, Oman to hold joint naval drills in Indian Ocean: Commander - Press TV

AFP

Tehran: The army chiefs of Russia and Iran discussed the US strikes in Syria by phone on Saturday, and vowed to continue the fight against "terrorists" and their supporters, Iranian media reported.

The two chiefs of staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri and General Valery Gerasimov, "condemned the American operation against a Syrian air base which is an aggression against an independent country", state news agency IRNA said.

The American strikes "aim at slowing the victories of the Syrian army and its allies, and reinforcing terrorist groups", they said in a statement.

The two army leaders vowed to continue their military cooperation in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "until the total defeat of the terrorists and those that support them", according to the Mehr news agency.

Battle damage assessment image of Shayrat Airfield (Syria) is seen in this DigitalGlobe satellite image, released by the Pentagon following US Tomahawk Land Attack Missile strikes from Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, the USS Ross and USS Porter on April 7, 2017. (Photo: DigitalGlobe/Courtesy US Department of Defense/Handout via Reuters)

Iran and Russia are Assad's closest allies and label all opponents of his regime as "terrorists".

Both governments have defended Assad against Western allegations that his regime carried out a suspected chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun on Tuesday, killing dozens of civilians.

President Hassan Rouhani earlier criticised his US counterpart Donald Trump for the missiles fired early on Friday in response to the suspected chemical attack.

"This man who is now in office in America claimed that he wanted to fight terrorism but today all terrorists in Syria are celebrating the US attack," he said. (AFP)

The rest is here:
Russia And Iran Army Chiefs Vow to Continue Syria Fight - News18

Much has been said and written about Irans intended entrenchment in Syria and the way Tehran is investing extraordinary human and financial resources to help President Bashar Assad survive. Still, the story of the assassination of Mustafa Badreddine, the head of Hezbollahs military wing, illustrates with rare clarity the determination on the part of Iran and Hezbollah not to let anyone interfere with Irans plans in Syria.

Badreddine, the successor and brother-in-law of Imad Mughniyeh (who was married to Badreddines sister, Saada), was killed last May, in a mysterious explosion near Damascus International Airport. Surprisingly, Hezbollah and its allies cleared Israel of any blame. Hezbollah officials said at the time that the circumstances of the assassination were being investigated.

This assassination could have caused an enormous commotion throughout the Middle East. Badreddine, after all, was second only to Hassan Nasrallah in the Hezbollah hierarchy, and was the successor of Mughniyeh, who had been wanted all over the world for the murder of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.

Yet the entire topic disappeared from the Syrian and Lebanese agenda within days. The assassination remained a mystery.

Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, General Qassem Suleimani, looking on as people pay their condolences following the death of his mother in Tehran, September 14, 2013. (AFP/ISNA/Mehdi Ghasemi)

Then, last month, came an expos by Al Arabiya, the Saudi Arabian news channel, claiming that Hezbollah leader Nasrallah and Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, were behind the assassination. Several days later, Israeli Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot confirmed the information that had been reported on Al Arabiya. The main reason for Badreddines assassination, according to Al Arabiya, was his differences of opinion with Soleimani over Hezbollahs involvement in the battles in Syria.

A check with Arab and Western intelligence sources confirms this. Badreddine was known to have strongly opposed the fact that Hezbollah had become Irans cannon fodder in Syria. He would not allow his men to fight on the battlefield without Irans active cooperation in the battles. Badreddine demanded that the Iranians be full partners in the fighting in Syria and not sacrifice the Arab Shiites. Soleimani did not like Badreddines attitude, and neither, it seems, did Nasrallah.

According to Al Arabiyas version of Badreddines death, four men met in a building near Damascus International Airport hours before he died. The first was Badreddine. Eyewitnesses say that the second was Soleimani himself, who left a few minutes after the meeting. The third was Badreddines personal escort, who also left the building, leaving only the fourth man the killer, a member of Hezbollah and a former bodyguard of Nasrallah: Ibrahim Hussein Jezzini, whom Badreddine had trusted completely.

Members and supporters of Lebanons Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah carry the coffin of Mustafa Badreddine, a top Hezbollah commander who was killed in an attack in Syria, during his funeral in the Ghobeiry neighborhood of southern Beirut on May 13, 2016. (AFP/Anwar Amro)

Hezbollahs conclusions from its investigation of the incident sounded unconvincing from the moment they were reported. Hezbollah officials claimed that Badreddine was killed by the explosion of a rocket or mortar shell fired by the opposition at his location near the airport. But according to investigations by Al Arabiya and Syrian human-rights groups, no rocket or mortar shell was fired from the opposition positions, which were approximately 20 kilometers away from the airport, and no incidents of artillery fire of any kind at the area were noted in the 24 hours preceding the assassination.

There would also presumably have been more fatalities if such fire had taken place. We can guess that Badreddine did not arrive at the building near the airport alone, but it was reported that he was the only one who died. Al Arabiya also published satellite images, from both before and after the supposed bombardment, of the building where Badreddine was supposedly killed. The images show that the building was undamaged.

Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah speaking to Iranian state television, in a clip broadcast on February 20, 2017. (screen capture: Twitter)

Even if we assume for a moment that the Syrian opposition was responsible, these are Sunni militias that are all too eager to talk about every Shiite whom they succeed in killing on Syrian soil, and all the more so in the case of Hezbollah members. If the Syrian opposition or someone connected with it had been behind the assassination, the victory celebrations would still be going on.

After IDF chief Eisenkot said that the reports matched the information that Israel had about the circumstances of the assassination, some tried to claim that this was utter nonsense, and said the same regarding Al Arabiyas expos. These elements may have more reliable information; if so, they might wish to share the secret evidence in their possession with the general public.

But after reviewing Al Arabiyas expos, it must be said that its conclusions sound more than logical. Any other possibility that the opposition, Israel, or others were to blame is unlikely. But a commanding officer of Hezbollah who followed a policy line that at odds with Iran, one might reasonably assume, would not find himself merely dismissed from his position. The only way to replace him, it might seem, would be to terminate him with extreme prejudice.

Adnan Badreddine, left, brother of Hezbollah terror chief Mustafa Badreddine, grieves at his brother's picture in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, May 13, 2016. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

More:
Fatal dissent: When a Hezbollah commander argued with Iran - The Times of Israel

Iran on Saturday condemned as terrorist a truck attack in Stockholm which killed at least four people and injured 17 others on Friday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahran Qasemi sympathized with Swedish people and government on the sad occasion, IRNA news agency reported.

Amid all the jubilation of some Western and Arab countries over US recent missile strike in Khan Shyknun region near Idlib in northern Syria which is by itself an effort to breathe new life to the dead bodies of terrorists, we are witnessing a criminal act conducted by one who has been nurtured by the dogmatic, lunatic and bloody ideologies in Europe, he said.

The unbridled terrorism that some countries do not even hesitate to give their overt and covert support for, tend to have no human, ideological and geographical borders, the spokesman said.

They cause insecurity and instability in the world, he added.

He went on to say that uprooting the evil phenomenon of terrorism has no way but strong will, honest behavior and global consensus.

The Islamic Republic of Iran as one of the victims of terrorism has spared no efforts to tackle terrorism over the past years, the spokesman said.

Iran is quite ready to establish cooperation aimed at creating regional and international mechanisms to annihilate terror and violence across the globe and in the absence of insidious politicization of the issue, he noted.

Source: IRNA

Read more from the original source:
Iran Condemns Sweden Truck Attack - Al-Manar TV

Gunfire, no food, no water. Iraq is the most dangerous place. I will never go back, said Sathish in broken English when asked about his experience in Erbil, Iraq.

Sathish is among the 33 migrant workers who were rescued from Iraq earlier this week by efforts made by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the NRI cell of Telangana. Most of these men belonged to Telangana. None of the people rescued were highly qualified. Most of them could hardly speak any language other than Telugu.

These men were duped by employment agents who promised them attractive jobs in Iraq in exchange for a few thousand to Rs 1 lakh remuneration. Only after they reached Iraq did they realise that there were no employers waiting for them. Since their visa was valid only for 15 days, they were left to fend for themselves.

Kalyan, another person who was rescued, said, I am safe and alive. That is all that matters now. I went there to improve my future prospects, but we did not even have food to eat. It was very dangerous and I was scared enough to feel that I might die. All we could arrange to eat was bread. On some days, we could not buy bread as we had no money.

Sathish told The Sunday Guardian, I could hear the sound of gunfire. I did not know there was a war going on there. We had to sleep on empty stomach in hiding. We faced a lot of challenges, but we finally made it back home.

Sources said that some of the people rescued were exposed to conflict areas and had to live in confinement. But who captured them or where they were detained could not be known. Not all of them were taken to areas where the on-going civil war has larger effects. But almost all of them had no means of livelihood and had to rely on odd-jobs to arrange for their food and drinking water.

Some of the people rescued were exposed to conflict areas and had to live in confinement. But who captured them or where they were detained could not be known.

Not all of them were taken to areas where the on-going civil war has larger effects. But almost all of them had no means of livelihood and had to rely on odd-jobs to arrange for food and drinking water.

E. Chitti Babu, section officer at the NRI cell, Telangana, said, Some of them were stranded for over two years. The workers had been asking for help for the past five months. The rescue was initiated once the Indian authorities intervened after Telangana minister K.T. Rama Rao and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj directed the Indian embassy to look into the matter.

A survivor said, We did any work we could find to collect enough money to buy food. We sold empty bottles to earn money and looked through garbage for edible leftovers.

Earlier in 2015, 11 nurses from Kerala were rescued from Kirkuk in northern Iraq.

In 2014, the Iraqi insurgency escalated into a civil war with the conquest of Mosul and Tikrit and major areas in northern Iraq by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS). The most recent update on the ongoing conflict comprises the battle of Mosul that started in 2016 and has continued through February and March between Iraqi government forces with allied militias, the Kurdistan Regional Government, and international forces to retake the city of Mosul from the ISIL.

Mosul is only 95km from Erbil, capital of the autonomous state of Kurdistan, which also serves as the defacto capital for all western political and military movements since the actual capital, Baghdad, is currently unstable and unsafe. An estimated 400,000 civilians are still trapped in the conflict areas. However, with strong checkpoints, Erbil is largely considered safe.

View original post here:
Gunfire, no food, say survivors from Iraq - The Sunday Guardian