Defendant number one, an officer who had shot the victim with a gun and killed him, was sentenced to death.
Defendant number two, who was the commander of the group, received a jail term.
Defendant number three was sentenced to paying a cash fine due to mitigating circumstances and showing remorse.
Some other defendants were cleared of charges leveled against them.
However, their acquittal is not final yet.
The security forces had broken into the victim’s house without a judicial warrant.
Spokesperson Nasruldeen Amer told Al Jazeera Arabic there were no injuries or “material damages” caused by the latest US action, but that there would be a “firm, strong and effective response”.
The US targeted a radar facility used by the Houthis in the early hours of Saturday local time, according to a US official.
A joint US-UK operation 24 hours earlier struck almost 30 separate locations, in an effort to disrupt the Houthis’ ability to fire on international shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
Five Houthi fighters were killed in the first wave of strikes and six more were wounded, a statement from the group confirmed Friday.
The attacks, which the Houthis described as a “brutal aggression”, would not dissuade Yemen from its stance of solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, the Houthi armed forces announced in a statement carried by Houthi-run TV channel Al-Masirah.
Following the strikes, the Houthis announced that United States and United Kingdom interests are “legitimate targets” for the Yemeni fighters.
The Houthis have pledged solidarity with the Palestinians and vowed not to stop attacking merchant vessels until Israel ends its ongoing war with Hamas, which erupted on October 7.
Hans Grundberg, the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, called for all parties in Yemen to exercise restraint and de-escalation amid an “increasingly precarious regional context”.
Grundberg reiterated UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ call for all parties to “avoid actions that would worsen the situation in Yemen, escalate the threat to maritime trade routes, or further fuel regional tensions at this critical time”.
The diplomat in a statement Saturday also highlighted the “need to protect Yemeni civilians, and to safeguard the progress of peace efforts since the truce of April 2022″.
“The Special Envoy urges all involved to exercise maximum restraint and to prioritize diplomatic channels over military options and calls for de-escalation,” according to the statement.
The Houthi group announced Saturday it will continue military actions against Israel and prevent its vessels from passing through the Red Sea, according to the Saba news agency.
“The American and British aggression will not go unpunished,” it said in a statement.
It noted that “the overt American and British aggression, which comes to support the Zionist entity, will not deter Yemen from continuing its military operations against the Israeli enemy and preventing its vessels and other ships heading to the occupied Palestinian ports.”
It added that “this aggression, which will certainly not pass without punishment from our armed forces, highlights the significant impact of Yemen’s military operations against the Israeli enemy and preventing the passage of its vessels and other ships of other nationalities carrying goods to it”.
Eslami said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Iran with nuclear attacks and two Zionist regime Knesset members issued similar threats.
The head of the AEOI noted that he wrote to IAEA Chief Rafael Grossi and demanded that he fulfill his legal responsibility as the world atomic body’s key task is to prevent nuclear proliferation.
Eslami added that he also told Grossi to report those threats to the Security Council, but this did not happen.
Israel has repeatedly threatened to wage war against Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program.
The Israeli regime claims Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons. Tehran denies this, saying its atomic work is purely civilian.
Israel pursues the policy of nuclear ambiguity and is said to have 200 nuclear warheads.
The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI), the most commonly used measure of such costs, reached $3,101 per 20-foot container from $2,871 last Friday. The data shows that the overall price of a container being shipped from Shanghai to Europe was reportedly 310% up from prices at the beginning of November.
The Houthis, who have pledged to support Gaza amid fighting in the enclave between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, have since mid-October launched multiple drones and missiles targeting commercial vessels in the Red Sea, as well as warships patrolling the vital channel. They have carried out more than two dozen attacks, forcing major freight giants like MSC, Maersk, CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd, to divert cargo around the southern tip of Africa, avoiding the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal.
This rerouting adds more than ten extra days to the journey and sends insurance bills surging. At the same time, the cost of staff wages has increased, while longer journeys also force the transportation companies to burn additional fuel.
Despite the major increases, shipping costs remain below levels recorded in March 2021 when the grounded 400-meter-long Ever Given container ship blocked the Suez Canal, leaving the crucial trade route impassable for six days. That incident left hundreds of ships stuck in mooring and reportedly held up $9 billion of global trade for each day of stoppage.
Earlier this week, the US and UK began carrying out airstrikes on Houthi militias in Yemen in response to the group’s actions in the Red Sea and the Gulf. The move has garnered mixed international reactions, with many warning that it would lead to escalation of conflict in the Middle East.
The New York Times newspaper has reported that even after two rounds of strikes by the US and UK, the Yemeni group retains about 75 percent of its ability to launch missiles and drones at ships crossing the Red Sea.
Citing two unnamed US officials, the daily added that “even after hitting more than 60 missile and drone targets with more than 150 precision-guided munitions, the strikes had damaged or destroyed only about 20 to 30 percent of the Houthis’ offensive capability, much of which is mounted on mobile platforms and can be readily moved or hidden”.
World trade plunged by 1.3% from November to December 2023 as a result of Houthi attacks on merchant vessels in the Red Sea, according to a new report by the IfW Kiel.
The German economic institute said on Thursday that the volume of containers transported via the Red Sea had plummeted by more than half as of December and is currently almost 70% below the volume that would usually be expected.
The research shows that currently around 200,000 containers are being transported via the Red Sea daily, down from some 500,000 per day in November.
“The detour of ships due to the attacks in the Red Sea around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa means that the time it takes to transport goods between Asian production centers and European consumers is significantly extended by up to 20 days,” said Julian Hinz, director of the IfW Kiel’s trade policy research center.
“This is also reflected in the declining trade figures for Germany and the EU, as transported goods are now still at sea and have not already been unloaded in the harbors as planned,” Hinz added.
The IfW Kiel’s trade indicator for December shows exports from and imports to the EU dropped by 2% and 3.1%, respectively. The US saw a 1.5% decline in exports and a 1% fall in imports, even though the route through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal plays a lesser role for the US than for Europe, according to the report.
“We delivered it privately and we’re confident we’re well-prepared,” Biden stated on Saturday.
The US launched new strikes earlier today against the Houthis for a second straight day after the group warned it would retaliate for a series of attacks on its facilities.
The US and the UK have previously carried out air raids and launched cruise missiles at Yemen with the aim of punishing the Houthis for disrupting the shipping in the vital Red Sea waterway.
Tehran has strongly condemned the raids on Yemen, calling on Washington to stop supporting Israeli war on the besieged strip.
following the strikes, the Houthis announced that United States and United Kingdom interests are “legitimate targets” for the Yemeni fighters.
The Houthis have pledged solidarity with the Palestinians and vowed not to stop attacking merchant vessels until Israel ends its ongoing war with Hamas, which erupted on October 7.
This startled those on board the boat who quickly joined hands to throw the dolphin back into the sea.
Hengam is known as the island of “dancing dolphins”. It’s located south of Iran’s Qeshma Island in the Persian Gulf.
The primary economic activity of the locals is fishing, tourism and sightseeing.
The main sightseeing places of Hengam are the English harbor buildings along with the coal storage, the Portuguese shipwrecks and aquatic animals such as turtles, dolphins, corals and sharks.
That’s according to Iran’s environment protection organization.
The construction of the dam comes as more than two decades of drought has not only dried up the edge of the 7th international wetland of Hamun, but it has also affected livelihoods, employment and environment of the residents of the northern parts of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province.
The wetland and the river are one of the most important environmental habitats of Iran which were once among the most popular resorts for tourists and a tourist attraction as well.
Meanwhile, the issue of Iran’s right to the water, which has been the subject of a hot debate among experts and officials for many years, is about the country’s lack of access to its share of the Hirmand River water, the drying up of the Hirmand River and subsequently the drying up of the Hamun wetland.
Also, if no water enters the Hamun wetland, the drought will be worsened and this will turn this area into a source of dust.
The Taliban rulers of Afghanistan previously said Iran’s right to the Hirmand River water was conditional on the existence of water. They added if there is water enough, the Taliban will respect the 1972 treaty between the two countries, under which Iran is entitled to use 820 million cubic meters of the Hirmand River water abually.
Despite such conciliatory comments, since their takeover of Afghanistan over two years ago, the Taliban officials have on several occasions ignored calls for Kabul to respect Iran’s right to the water of the border river.
The lion cub was not accepted by its mother at birth. However, it’s living a normal life.
Experts say Sana will be soon transferred outdoors.
Here you can see related pictures of the lion cub:
Israel is preparing to receive “a large number of disabled Israeli soldiers”, and after 100 days of the war, “around 4,000 soldiers have already been acknowledged as having disabilities”, Hebrew news site, Walla, reported on Saturday.
The site considered Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 as having “led Israel into a war that it had not previously experienced in terms of the number of soldier injuries, but more importantly, the injuries are extremely severe”.
“Thanks to the devoted and high-quality care provided by rescue teams and medical teams, those with severe injuries survive,” it added.
The report noted that the Israeli army “does not provide all data about the wounded to the public, for fear that it will lower people’s morale”.
“Currently, about 4,000 soldiers (with disabilities) have been recognized according to classification 3, meaning they are entitled to all treatments and rights enjoyed by a disabled person in the Israeli army without being officially recognized in this way,” said Walla.
It added that salaries are being paid to injured soldiers and their treatment without the need to prove anything and that the rehabilitation process “will begin soon to reintegrate them into life.”
The site quoted Idan Kaliman, chairman of the Israel Defense Forces Organization for the Disables, who stated “I have been in the organization for 30 years, and I have never encountered such a large number of severely wounded individuals. There are many wounded with amputated limbs, blindness, or paralysis”.
Kaliman pointed out that there are “many wounded who have had their limbs amputated, as well as those who were blinded and paralyzed”.
The Israeli army announced the conscription of 360,000 reservists in the ongoing war against the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, while the ground operation began Oct. 27.
As of early Friday, the number of officers and soldiers killed in the ranks of the army since the beginning of the war hit 520, including 186 since the start of the ground war in Gaza.
The latest report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) says Palestinian armed fighters still maintain a presence in northern Gaza Strip.
The report also quoted an Israeli military official as claiming that most of the local Hamas battalion commanders in the area have been killed but dozens of fighters are still active and are now in “guerilla mode”.
Israel has also carried on with its operations in Khan Younis in the south.
The Israeli army has recently claimed it has “completed the dismantling” of Hamas’s command structure in the northern Gaza Strip.
Israel’s military chief has also stated that the conflict in Gaza, persisting for three months already, would likely last throughout 2024 and spill over to other fronts. Herzi Halevi, the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), stated 2024 would be “challenging” and that Israel would “certainly be involved in fighting in Gaza throughout the year”, implying that the current full-scale conflict with Hamas could ease but not end.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, killing more than 23,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring nearly 60,000 others, according to local health authorities.
The onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.
About 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s initial attack on Israel.
© All Content by IFP News ( Iran Front Page ) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
