Mohammed Mirza Sindi was previously a senior officer in the Parastin intelligence agency, an organization founded by the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of two major parties that rules the northern Kurdistan region.
Videos shared by local media showed smoke rising from the mangled wreckage of a car.
The security source stated the incident was being investigated and the cause of the explosion had not yet been determined.
In a statement on Monday, the ministry said the terrorists were connected via “terrorist circles in Denmark and the Netherlands” to the Israeli spy agency.
The terrorists planned to carry out attacks in the month of Muharram — during which millions of Iranians hold public mourning ceremonies for the third Shia Imam — but were arrested before “entering [their] extensive… operational phase.”
The terrorists planned to bomb, among other places, the burial place of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated by the United States in 2020. General Soleimani is buried in his birthplace of Kerman.
The Intelligence Ministry statement said the terrorists planned sabotage activities in the six Iranian provinces of Tehran, Kerman, Esfahan, Kohgilouyeh and Boyer Ahmad, Kurdistan, and Mazandaran.
They also planned to attack popular gathering places, including Muharram mourning ceremonies, fueling stations, power pylons, and natural gas plants to disrupt domestic and export supplies.
Forty three bombs with high destructive power were confiscated from the terrorists, including remote-controlled ones and projectile ones that had been meant to be used at mourning processions and ceremonies.
Other weapons, including “tools that are merely used in street riots,” were also taken in.
The statement said the terrorists had formerly carried out a number of harmful operations in order for their employers in Denmark and the Netherlands to assess their capabilities.
They had filmed and photographed those activities and had forwarded the images to “terrorist media in Europe and the US.” Those preliminary operations included hurling Molotov cocktails at governmental buildings, and setting fire to banks, ATM machines, buses, communications antenna, etc.
The director of Palestine Center for Prisoners’ Studies (PCPS), Riyad al-Ashqar, offered the information in remarks carried by the Palestinian Information Center on Sunday.
The figure shows an increase of 15 percent compared to the same period last year, he noted, adding that 435 of Palestinian youngsters detained by Israeli forces hailed from the occupied city of al-Quds.
The detainees included 29 children under the age of 12, al-Ashqar said, adding that two of them are just 10 years old.
“Dozens of children were put under house arrest following their release in the first half of 2023,” the Palestinian official continued.
He stated that 23 Palestinian minors were arrested under the occupying regime’s inhumane administrative detention policy, which allows Israeli forces to incarcerate Palestinians for indefinite periods of time without any charges or trial.
Back in May, Palestinian Prisoners’ Club (PPC), which is an independent nongovernmental organization, reported that Israeli forces had detained a whopping 3,000 Palestinians since the start of the year.
Reporting in January, the PCPS said Israeli troops had arrested a total of 7,000 Palestinians, including hundreds of women and children, last year.
“Israel arrested 865 Palestinian children, including 142 under the age of 12, in 2022,” al-Ashqar said at the time, adding that some of those children had not even reached nine years of age, and all detainees had been subjected to abuse, torture or humiliation.
The Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, said in early June that the international community needs to intervene to end Israel’s violations against Palestinian children.
In its statement, which was issued on the occasion of the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, Hamas said the regime denies ill children treatment, medicine and food supply by keeping the Gaza Strip blockaded.
In the occupied West Bank, Hamas added, Israel keeps kidnapping and jailing minors, and in some cases even kills them, places them under house arrest or uses them as human shields.
“A dramatic split like this cannot remain behind closed doors,” the soldiers, who previously served in various elite army units, said in the statement reported on Israeli media.
The warning comes as a growing number of reservist soldiers are threatening to suspend their volunteer duty in protest against a controversial judicial overhaul plan by the governing coalition.
Some 10,000 reservists announced on Saturday that they would join the boycott if the government does not drop its proposed legislation.
The escalations come a day before the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, is set to vote on a key bill in the government’s judiciary overhaul package.
If passed, the bill would turn into law and effectively curtail the Supreme Court’s ability to block government decisions it deems unreasonable.
Proponents of the government plan say it is necessary to restore the balance of power between government branches, while opponents say it would undermine the independence of the judicial system.
The veterans’ statement on Sunday warned that soldiers’ protests have now extended beyond reservists and is affecting active-duty soldiers.
“We’ve heard from our units in recent weeks and days about a growing and concrete desire among (at least) dozens of active noncommissioned officers to stop (or at least not extend) their contracts,” the former soldiers stated.
“The numbers are growing every day. The situation is far graver than what the heads of the military are describing,” they added.
Earlier on Sunday, opposition MP and former defence minister Benny Gantz said that some of the damage done to the military amid the protests “is already irreparable”.
Herzi Halevi, the army’s chief of staff, wrote a letter to soldiers on Sunday pleading with them to maintain the unity of the military.
“If we do not have a strong and unified army, if the best do not serve, we will not be able to exist as a country in this region anymore,” Halevi continued, adding, “No one has the right to say that they are no longer serving, and all of us do not have the right not to report for duty or to refuse an order.”
Debate on the final readings of the contentious bill began in parliament on Sunday and a final vote is expected on Monday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Israel is bracing for mass protests ahead of the vote in several cities.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters are already gathering in Jerusalem to sway lawmakers outside the Knesset from advancing the bill.
Haji-Hashemi made the remarks during a press conference on Saturday, citing a joint research conducted by the foundation and Tabriz Islamic Art University.
“By the end of the [Iranian calendar] year of 1401 (which ended on March 20, 2023), in terms of producing scientific output for computer games … the Islamic Republic of Iran ranked first among the regional countries and the Muslim world, while ranking 18th on a global scale,” he stated.
The official added that the study has covered all areas related to computer games, including the application of artificial intelligence in computer games as well as serious games, mobile games, and console games.
“In addition to scientific areas, we have also made good progress with regard to developing games in the country over the past years,” he continued.
“At present, there are numerous knowledge-based companies in the country that are actively producing mobile and computer games. Their products have been installed 20 million times in the domestic market and five million times in foreign markets,” he stated.
This important development, the official said, has taken place through the efforts of Iranian knowledge-based companies.
“This has been achieved while the country is under sanctions that hamper access to tools needed for game development engines, as well as game design and production tools, game distribution tools, and market analysis tools,” Haji-Hashemi noted.
Alireza Roudbari, a spokesman for the drills, dubbed Fada’eeyan-e Harim-e Velayat 1402, said the strategic Su-24 aircraft successfully bombarded mock enemy targets and the F4 jets then flew at low altitudes to fire upgraded indigenous Qassed missiles at the designated targets.
Roudbari said a range of missiles, including laser-guided, heat-seeking, and radar-guided ones, as well as various domestically-produced bombs and rockets were used in the drills.
F4 aircraft deployed flares to lighten up the battlefield and help identify targets.
And F14 aircraft drilled aerial fueling from a Boeing 707 tanker, he said.
The Iranian Air Force drill licked off in the central province of Esfahan on Sunday.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a brief statement that it had prevented an “attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using two unmanned aerial vehicles” on Monday morning.
Several drone fragments were found on Komsomolsky Prospekt in downtown Moscow, not far from the Defense Ministry’s main headquarters, a source in the emergency services told TASS news agency. The department of transportation said that traffic in the area was partially restricted, advising residents to plan detour routes.
While the drone itself hit a non-residential building, several windows in residential buildings in the area were reportedly blown out by the blast wave. There were no reports of casualties or injuries, but emergency services are working at the scene, with videos showing multiple police cars and ambulances.
The second drone apparently hit a high-rise building in southern Moscow which hosts the office of the French home improvement giant Leroy Merlin. The department of transport confirmed partial road closure and traffic reroutes in the area.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said that the attempted Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow is “an act of international terrorism”.
Ukraine has previously attempted to strike targets in Moscow Region and the capital itself. Earlier this month, four incoming UAVs were shot down by air defenses over Novaya Moskva, while another crashed after being disabled by electronic warfare.
Last month, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that Kiev had launched an attack on Moscow involving eight drones which were either shot down by air defenses, or suppressed by electronic warfare. The raid damaged several residential buildings, but did not cause any serious injuries.
Shafiullah Rahimi, the Taliban’s appointed spokesman for Afghanistan’s disaster ministry, said on Sunday that at least 31 people were killed, 74 were injured and 41 others were missing after flooding over the past three days.
Flash floods hit the capital Kabul, the Maidan Wardak and Ghazni provinces. He stated that the majority of the casualties were in west Kabul and Maidan Wardak. Rahimi added about 250 livestock perished in the floods.
The flooding brought further misery to the already suffering Afghanistan. In April, the United Nation’s humanitarian affairs agency said the South Asian country was facing its third consecutive year of drought, its second year of severe economic hardship and the consequences of decades of war and natural disasters.
The most recent flash flood happened in the Jalrez district of Maidan Wardak province west of Kabul. At least 12 people were killed in their sleep by rapidly rising floodwaters, said Taliban government spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid. Some 40 other people were missing after hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed, and rescue teams were busy conducting search and rescue operations, he said.
Issuing a condolence message, Mujahid called on aid groups and the Kabul administration to help the bereaved families.
The provincial governor’s office in a statement said that hundreds of homes were either damaged or destroyed and the missing are believed to be under the rubble of collapsed homes.
The statement added that hundreds of square miles of agricultural land were washed out and destroyed and the highway between Kabul and the central Bamiyan province was closed due to the floods.
In Pakistan, 13 people died and seven were injured due to heavy rains and landslides as monsoon season continued to affect parts of the country on Sunday.
In the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, nine people lost their lives over the last 48 hours in rain-related incidents.
In the Skardu area of the Gilgit Baltistan region, four family members died when a massive landslide hit their car, according to police officer Raja Mirza Hassan.
Taimur Khan, a spokesman of the provincial disaster management authority, stated that heavy rainfall and thunderstorms damaged at least 74 houses in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The provincial authorities declared an emergency in the Chitral district as rainfall triggered flash floods in the mountainous area.
Since the monsoon rains began on June 25, 101 people including 16 women and 42 children have died, according to the national disaster management authority.
In Afghanistan, natural disasters affect 200,000 people on average each year. In 2022, record floods in the monsoon season temporarily flooded a third of the country, killing about 1,700 people.
OPEC data cited in a Sunday report by the IRIB News showed that Iran had produced a total of 262.261 billion cubic meters (bcm) (9.26 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas last year, up from 257.119 bcm reported in 2021.
Iran was the third largest gas producer in the world in 2022 after the United States and Russia and its output was nearly 50 bcm more than that of China, showed the figures.
US gas output rose by 3.7% to 1.0015 trillion cubic feet last year while Russia’s production dropped 12.3% to630.759 bcm.
Total gas production in the world dropped by 0.1% last year compared to 2021, OPEC data showed.
Iran’s exports of natural gas also rose by 2% to 18.79 bcm in 2022, according to the same figures which also indicated that domestic consumption of gas in Iran had increased by 4.3% compared to 2021.
Iran’s exports of natural gas had increased by 59.9% in 2021 compared to 2020 when the country faced a sudden rise in domestic demand for heating and electricity generation.
Imports of natural gas into Iran remained flat at zero in 2022, according to the OPEC data.
Iran has managed to expand its natural gas sector in recent years despite sanctions imposed by the US which restrict the country’s access to foreign technology and investment.
Latest figures by the Iranian Oil Ministry show that daily gas production in the country has exceeded 1 bcm.
The ‘North/Cooperation-2023’ exercise was held over July 20-23, the fleet’s press service said. It involved two Russian anti-submarine war frigates and two Chinese destroyers, as well as a pair of both Russian corvettes and Chinese guard ships alongside a number of support vessels, the statement said on Sunday.
A total of 30 aircraft from both nations also took part in the drills, the fleet said, adding that this included anti-submarine planes and helicopters, interceptors and other maritime aircraft, the fleet said. The two nations’ naval groups took part in some 20 combat exercises during the drills, it added.
The drills were aimed at “strengthening the naval cooperation between the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China as well as maintaining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific Region,” the statement added.
The Russian Defense Ministry also published a short video of the drills showing Russian fighter jets and strategic Tu-95MS bombers taking part in the exercise, as well as Russian battleships engaged in firing practice.
The drills came ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to China in October. Chinese President Xi Jinping invited his Russian counterpart to Beijing during a state visit to Moscow in March, at which the two leaders signed an agreement to bring ties between their countries into a “new era” of cooperation.
In March, Putin described relations between the two nations as a “superior” form of cooperation to the Cold War-era interstate alliances. Moscow and Beijing agreed at the time to “regularly conduct joint maritime and air patrols and joint exercises,” develop military exchange and cooperation using all available bilateral mechanisms, and increase mutual trust between their armed forces.
Xi called relations with Russia a “strategic choice China has made” on the basis of its fundamental interests.
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