Archive for category: News

The funeral procession for the martyr Brigadier General Hossein Hamedani who was killed by Daesh terrorists in Syria, was held in Tehran on Sunday morning.

Secretary of the Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei delivered a speech in the funeral ceremony.

The body of martyr Hamedani is set to be delivered to Hamedan, in south west of Tehran, on Monday to be buried in his hometown.

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Saturday condoled the nation on the martyrdom of Hamedani.

The Leader said in a message that the veteran combatant attained the honor of martyrdom while defending the sanctity of the shrines of the Prophet Muhammad’s Honourable Household.

Ayatollah Khamenei further expressed condolences to the Brigadier General’s family and his fellow combatants.

General Hamedani, a veteran IRGC commander during the Saddam-imposed war (1980-88), was killed when he was on a military consultant position in the vicinity of Syria’s city of Aleppo on Thursday evening.

Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firoozabadi, and IRGC Commander Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari expressed their condolences over his departure too.

Also ministers of defense, foreign affaris, and interior, secretary of Expediency Council and Friday Prayers leader of Hamedan issued condolence messages on General Hamedani’s martyrdom.

President Hassan Rouhani in a message on Sunday offered his condolences to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the terror attacks at a peace rally there.

In his condolence message, President Rouhani expressed sympathy with his Turkish counterpart and the Turkish nation over the Ankara terrorist attack and said Iran, as a victim of terrorism, has always condemned such brutal measures.

Sympathizing with the brotherly nation of Turkey, President Rouhani conveyed his deepest personal sympathies for those killed and injured in these heinous attacks that killed at least 95 people and wounded more than 200.

The twin bombings – the deadliest attack in modern Turkish history – were set off by suspected suicide attackers in a crowd of leftist and pro-Kurdish activists at an anti-government peace rally.

The attacks, near Ankara’s main train station, left bodies of dead demonstrators strewn across the ground.

/257

The Iranian Judiciary says it expects the international community to appropriately react to the tragic crush of September 24 in Mina, near the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

“We expect the international bodies and those who claim to advocate human rights to have a good reaction to the occurrence of the Mina catastrophe,” Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejeie, the spokesman for Iran’s Judiciary, said on Sunday.

“This disaster, which happened on the day of Eid al-Adha (the Feast of the Sacrifice) was a big crime and a tragic event; and it is self-evident that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the bereaved families cannot get over the grief,” the spokesman said.

He said the Tehran’s Judiciary Department is currently investigating the issue and is taking measures so that the families of the victims – in case of having any complaints about the incident – can file them.

He went on to say that the perpetrators of the “appalling tragedy” must be brought to justice, adding that Tehran has launched a probe to identify those responsible for the incident and hopes that other Islamic countries take similar measures.

The crush reportedly took place after two large masses of pilgrims converged at a crossroads in Mina, a few kilometers east of the holy city of Mecca, during the symbolic ceremony of the stoning of Satan in Jamarat.

Saudi Arabia claims nearly 770 people were killed in the incident, but officials at Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization say about 4,700 people lost their lives. The bodies of 399 Iranian victims have so far been handed over to Iranian officials, according to the Sa’eed Ohadi, the head of the organization. Ohadi said on Sunday that 65 Iranians are still missing after the incident.

A new tally by the Associated Press (AP) shows that at least 1,453 people were killed in the incident. The AP count is larger by 684 than the official toll of 769 provided by Riyadh.

The AP says it obtained the figure from statements made by 19 of over the 180 countries that had pilgrims in Mina at the time of the deadly tragedy. Saudi officials, however, have not made any comment on the AP tally, yet.

/257

Iran has successfully tested a new precision-guided ballistic missile, its defense minister said on Sunday, signaling an apparent advance in Iranian attempts to improve the accuracy of its missile arsenal.

“The Emad missile is able to strike targets with a high level of precision and completely destroy them… This greatly increases Iran’s strategic deterrence capability,” Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said at a televised news conference.

“Our leadership and armed forces are determined to increase our power and this is to promote peace and stability in the region. There is no intention of aggression or threats in this action,” he added.

The liquid-propelled rocket had a range of 1,700 kilometers (1,056 miles) and was accurate to within 500 meters (1,640 feet) of the target.

The rocket could carry a 750-kilogram (1,653-pound) payload and was scheduled for deployment some time after 2016.

---

Ahlul Bayt News Agency – A Shia Muslim was martyred while his two daughters were injured when takfiri terrorists of Sipah-e-Sahaba opened fire on them in Peshawar on Thursday morning.