logo
Iran executes three prisoners accused of spying for Israel

Iran executes three prisoners accused of spying for Israel

BreakingNews.ie6 hours ago

Iran executed three more prisoners for allegedly spying for Israel on Wednesday, the latest hangings connected to the country's war with Israel.
The hangings happened in Urmia Prison in Iran's West Azerbaijan province, the country's most north-west province, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
Advertisement
IRNA said Iran's judiciary claimed the men had been accused of bringing 'assassination equipment' into the country.
Iran has carried out several hangings during its war with Israel, sparking fears from activists that it could conduct a wave of executions after the conflict ended.
Iran identified the three men executed as Azad Shojaei, Edris Aali and Iraqi national Rasoul Ahmad Rasoul.
People began to return to their normal lives as a ceasefire with Israel appeared to be holding (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP)
Amnesty International had previously raised concerns that the men could be executed.
Advertisement
Wednesday's executions bring the total number of hangings for espionage around the war up to six since June 16.
Activists fear more people will be executed, particularly after Iran's theocracy issued a deadline for people to turn themselves in over spying.
People in Iran, meanwhile, began trying to return to their normal lives as a shaky ceasefire with Israel, negotiated by US President Donald Trump, appeared to be holding.
State media described heavy traffic around the Caspian Sea area and other rural areas outside of the capital, Tehran, as people began returning to the city.
Advertisement
Tehran experienced intense Israeli airstrikes throughout the war, including those that targeted Iran's top military leadership and other sites associated with its ruling theocracy.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Man admits to attempted murder after hurling toddler onto airport floor
Man admits to attempted murder after hurling toddler onto airport floor

Metro

time25 minutes ago

  • Metro

Man admits to attempted murder after hurling toddler onto airport floor

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video A man has confessed to trying to murder a one-year-old boy in an airport who had just fled the conflict between Israel and Iran. Belarusian Vladimir Vitkov, 31, a nuclear power plant construction worker, picked up and hurled little Yazdan on the ground of the arrivals hall of a Moscow airport. The tot had arrived in Russia minutes earlier after he and his mother fled the bombing in Iran, according to local reports. The 18-month-old is now fighting for his life in the hospital, with serious skull fractures and spinal injuries. Vitkov was reported by some outlets to have been on the same flight as the child and his mother, who were escaping from Iran, where they had been visiting relatives. Vitkov was returning home through Moscow after failing a drug and alcohol check for a job in Egypt. He later confessed to being high on drugs when he threw the toddler head-first onto the ground. In police discussions, Vitkov seemingly confessed to the crime when asked to explain what he did. He told an officer: 'I attempted to murder a child… at Sheremetyevo Airport.' When asked what his motive was, Vitkov said he 'didn't know' because he was 'under the influence of drugs'. Reports said cannabis had been found in his possession and there were traces of the drug in his blood. Mash news outlet reported today that he had drunk three bottles of whisky and obtained cannabis in Cairo before the incident. The Moscow region children's ombudswoman Ksenia Mishonova labelled him a 'drug-addled monster', and called for him to be punished with 'hard labour until he is feeble with old age'. 'This was a stoned drug addict, a monster. I cannot call this person anything else. I believe he is not sick at all,' she said. 'In our country, drug addiction is like a disease — it is not a disease, but this is my position. He is an absolute monster, a criminal who should be judged in the most severe manner for what he did….' More Trending By a 'miracle', the child's brain was not damaged, she said, adding that he was now out of a medically-induced coma as doctors assessed his condition. The boy's distraught mother, Hajizada Sahar, had repeatedly asked her if her son would recover, she said. Dr Tatyana Shapovalenko, chief doctor at the Roshal Children's Centre, Moscow, said: 'The child was admitted with a severe craniocerebral injury. He has an open fracture of the skull bones, a fracture of the base and vault of the skull, a subdural haematoma.' She said he did not require neurosurgical treatment. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: 'Sometimes daddy has to use strong words': Trump praised for ending Israel's war with Iran MORE: 'Living Nostradamus' issues chilling warning on Trump's Israel-Iran ceasefire MORE: Experts reveal real risk of WW3 — and what's at stake for anywhere that gets dragged in

NATO allies agree 'ironclad commitment' to collective defence - but no condemnation of Russia's war in Ukraine
NATO allies agree 'ironclad commitment' to collective defence - but no condemnation of Russia's war in Ukraine

Sky News

time28 minutes ago

  • Sky News

NATO allies agree 'ironclad commitment' to collective defence - but no condemnation of Russia's war in Ukraine

Donald Trump and his NATO allies confirmed their "ironclad commitment" to collective defence in a communique released at the end of a brief summit in The Hague. But there was no condemnation of Russia's war in Ukraine - something that had been in previous statements by allied leaders when Joe Biden was in the White House. His successor has a closer relationship with Vladimir Putin than many of his allies. The document did describe Russia as a "long-term threat". But there was also no word about NATO membership for Ukraine - something that had previously been described an "irreversible path". The allies also agreed to spend more on their collective defence. The endorsement of Article 5 of NATO's founding treaty came after the US commander-in-chief - the most powerful leader in the room - suggested on his way to the gathering that his definition of what it means may differ from other allies. The US president's words risked undermining the credibility of a commitment that has helped ensure the security of NATO for more than 75 years, though the joint statement, approved by the leaders of all 32 member states spelt out clearly what Article 5 constitutes. 0:53 "We reaffirm our ironclad commitment to collective defence as enshrined in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty - that an attack on one is an attack on all," it said. "We remain united and steadfast in our resolve to protect our one billion citizens, defend the Alliance, and safeguard our freedom and democracy." Sir Keir Starmer and the leaders of all European member states, as well as Canada, are all too aware of Mr Trump's scepticism about NATO. He has accused his allies of taking advantage of the US's far more powerful armed forces to defend Europe and wants the rest of the alliance to take on more of the burden. Urgently needing to keep him onside, Mark Rutte, the head of NATO, has been rallying member states to agree to a new pledge to spend 5% of GDP on defence and related areas - a level first touted by Mr Trump. The statement commits allies to hit this goal by 2035, though Spain has already come out to warn it will agree to the new target but without having a plan to reach it. The communique reads: "United in the face of profound security threats and challenges, in particular the long term threat posed by Russia to Euro-Atlantic security and the persistent threat of terrorism, allies commit to invest 5% of GDP annually on core defence requirements as well as defence-and security-related spending by 2035." 2:38 It is a significant rise, that is broken down into 3.5% of GDP on core defence - up from a previous goal of 2% - and a further 1.5% to be invested in national resilience, such as roads, railways, energy and cyber security. The final communique was much shorter than usual, comprising just five paragraphs. In the only mention of Russia's war in Ukraine, it said: "Allies reaffirm their enduring sovereign commitments to provide support to Ukraine, whose security contributes to ours, and, to this end, will include direct contributions towards Ukraine's defence and its defence industry when calculating allies' defence spending." Mr Trump has vowed to end Russia's war in Ukraine but has so far failed to stop the fighting.

Why the Iran nuclear intelligence report is causing such controversy
Why the Iran nuclear intelligence report is causing such controversy

Telegraph

time28 minutes ago

  • Telegraph

Why the Iran nuclear intelligence report is causing such controversy

Early US intelligence assessments appear to have challenged Donald Trump's claim that his bombing campaign 'totally obliterated' Tehran's nuclear weapons programme. The Pentagon's Defence Intelligence Agency, according to sources, suggests the attack had only set back Iran's ability to produce the bomb by a matter of months. The result was a furious reaction by the president and his top officials, accusing the media of pushing fake news. Yet there remains a string of questions that analysts must still answer before firm conclusions can be reached. For example, one of the sources cited by the Washington Post, who was familiar with the initial DIA report, said its conclusions were 'low confidence' in nature. This is spy speak for conclusions drawn from scant or fragmented evidence, or indicating concerns with sourcing. The dossier reportedly said that centrifuges used to enrich uranium that could be used in weapons remained intact. Other findings included that entrances to two of the facilities were sealed off but that underground structures had not been destroyed, and that enriched uranium had been moved to other locations. Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, said it was too early to make a concrete assessment of damage to facilities buried so far underground. 'Has someone shot their mouth off and I mean, what would they know?' he said. 'Nothing from overhead is going to tell you what the consequences of the attack are because it's deep underground.' Early assessments of damage include analysis of satellite imagery. Commercially available pictures show six deep holes around Fordow, one of the most fortified sites, buried inside a mountain, with debris spread around the site. One source said the assessment also included signals intelligence, based on communications between Iranian officials. Mr Trump referred to intercepts when he spoke with journalists on Thursday morning. 'Two Iranians went down to see it and they called back and they said, 'This place is gone,'' he said. But it could take weeks or months for Iran to conduct its own full damage assessments and for their information to filter into communications channels. Sir Richard, who led the Secret Intelligence Service from 1999 to 2004, said it was unlikely Iran had managed to get people inside the facilities to assess damage 'because of the problems of radiation and leaks'. He said the fact that it had come out in the public domain so rapidly raised another red flag. 'It does sort of politicise the whole thing as well,' he said. 'I mean, it does remind me of some of the stuff around Iraq going way back, and some of those reports that came out, and the arguments about them and the difficulty of sourcing, I just don't think people really know.' Classified briefings for both chambers of Congress had been expected on Tuesday but were cancelled. A Senate briefing is now expected on Thursday, when top members of Mr Trump's national security team will have returned from the Nato summit in the Hague, and one for the House will follow the next day. Chris Coons, a Democratic senator, said the intelligence community needed time to make a detailed assessment. 'This is the key to the question, what's next? If, in fact, there had been a successful destruction of all of Iran's dangerous nuclear enrichment program, I've said that would have been a significant accomplishment,' he told reporters in the Netherlands for the Nato summit. 'But if this pushes Iran and some of its partners to accelerate their enrichment program, it may have created a more dangerous situation in the region. 'The intelligence community needs the time without political interference to assess the impact and to deliver that assessment to Congress and the president.' Officials continued to point out the limited nature of the findings so far. 'This is a preliminary, low-confidence report and will continue to be refined as additional intelligence becomes available. We are working with the appropriate authorities to investigate the unauthorised disclosure of classified information,' said a senior DIA official. The initial Israeli intelligence assessment of the attacks is more optimistic, stating the attacks caused 'very significant' damage. However, Mossad has not yet reached a full conclusion. 'A professional battle damage assessment takes time,' an Israeli official told Axios. 'Israeli intelligence services haven't arrived at any bottom lines for now,' the official added. 'But we don't think there was any bug in the operation, and we have no indications the bunker-buster bombs didn't work. Nobody here is disappointed.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store