Category: Middle East

Iran Seizes Two Greek Tankers Amid Row Over US Oil Grab

DUBAI/ATHENS—Iranian forces seized two Greek tankers in the Gulf on Friday, shortly after Tehran warned it would take “punitive action” against Athens over the confiscation of Iranian oil by the United States from a tanker held off the Greek coast. “The Revolutionary Guards Navy today seized two Greek tankers for violations in Gulf waters,” said…


Accident at Iran’s Sensitive Military Parchin Site Kills One Engineer

An engineer died and another employee was injured after an accident on Wednesday in a research center at the Parchin military site affiliated with Iran’s Defence Ministry, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Thursday. Fars news said investigations into the cause of the accident were under way. Situated 60km (37 miles) southeast of Tehran,…


Blast Tears Through Kabul Mosque, Killing at Least 5

KABUL—A blast tore through a mosque in Afghanistan’s capital on Wednesday evening, killing at least five people, authorities and hospitals said, the same day deadly explosions hit passenger vehicles in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. A spokesman for the capital’s commander said at least two people were injured in the blast on a mosque in…


3 Killed in Yemen’s Capital by Downed Drone, Houthi Officials Say

SANAA—Three people were killed in the Yemeni capital Sanaa after terrorist Houthi forces downed a spy drone of the Saudi-led military coalition, Houthi officials and medical sources said on Monday. The health minister in the Houthi administration that runs Sanaa said another three people were injured when the drone landed in a commercial area, the…


Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Used Detainees as ‘Tool’: Former UK Foreign Secretary

The former British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has told a committee of MPs that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards often used their control of detainees like Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe as a “tool” to prevent compromises they opposed. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, who had dual British and Iranian nationality, and who returned to the UK in March after spending six years…


Iran Building Collapse Kills 11 as Mayor and Others Detained

TEHRAN, Iran—Rescuers dug through debris Tuesday of a building collapse in southwestern Iran that killed at least 11 people, fearful that many more could still be trapped beneath the rubble as authorities arrested the city’s mayor in a widening probe of the disaster. The collapse Monday of an under-construction 10-story tower at the Metropol Building…


UK Lawmakers Slam Government Role in Afghan Withdrawal ‘Disaster’

Britain’s withdrawal from Afghanistan last year was a “disaster” in which British soldiers and their Afghan allies were “utterly let down by deep failures of leadership” in the UK government, a Parliamentary committee has said. In a damning report (pdf) published on May 24, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons said the…


2 Killed, 120 Wounded in Abu Dhabi Restaurant Gas Explosion: Police

Two people were killed and 120 injured on Monday when a gas cylinder exploded inside a restaurant in the United Arab Emirates’ capital Abu Dhabi, police said. Civil defense firefighters managed to contain the fire, which damaged several shops and the facades of six buildings, the police added. They had said earlier that four buildings…


5 Dead, Scores Trapped After Building Collapses in Iran: State TV

DUBAI—Five people were killed when a 10-storey building in Iran’s southern city of Abadan partly collapsed and rescuers were trying to help at least 80 people left trapped under the rubble, Iranian state TV reported on Monday. The semi-official Mehr news agency identified the building as a residential-commercial property on Amir Kabir street in the…


British-Iranian Citizen Says She Had to Sign ‘False Confession’ Before Being Freed

British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who returned to the UK in March after spending six years in detention in Iran, has revealed she was forced to sign a “false confession” in front of a UK government official before she was allowed to leave Iran. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was…