TEHRAN: Iran’s death toll from the novel coronavirus passed 11,000 on Thursday, the health ministry said, as the country struggles to contain the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak of COVID-19.
Official figures have shown a rising trajectory in fatalities and new confirmed cases in recent months, after Iran reported a near-two month low in daily recorded infections in early May.
“In the past 24 hours, we lost 148 of our compatriots due to infection with COVID-19,” health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said on state TV.
That brings Iran’s overall death toll to 11,106, she added.
She also raised the country’s coronavirus caseload to 232,863, with 2,652 new confirmed cases in the past day.
“Unfortunately, the number of hospitalizations is increasing in most of the country’s provinces,” Lari said.
The resurging overall numbers have seen some previously largely unscathed provinces classified as “red” — the highest level on Iran’s color-coded risk scale — with authorities allowed to reimpose restrictive measures if required.
They include Bushehr, Hormozgan, Kermanshah, Khuzestan, Khorasan Razavi, Kurdistan, and West and East Azerbaijan, all located along Iran’s borders.
Iran says coronavirus deaths top 11,000
https://arab.news/y98fe
Iran says coronavirus deaths top 11,000
- Official figures have shown a rising trajectory in fatalities and new confirmed cases in recent months
- The country is struggling to contain the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak of COVID-19
Syrian authorities arrest leader of terrorist cells in Lattakia
- Ali Aziz Sbeira is accused of violating civilians’ rights during the Syrian uprising after 2011
LONDON: Syrian authorities have arrested Ali Aziz Sbeira, a prominent leader of terrorist cells responsible for attacks on internal security checkpoints, the Syrian army and civilians during the country’s uprising against the former regime of Bashar Assad.
The Internal Security Directorate announced on Wednesday the capture of Sbeira in Lattakia province, located on the Mediterranean Sea.
Authorities accuse him of leading and supplying arms to terrorist groups. Hailing from the town of Jableh, Sbeira is also accused of having links to Ghiyath Dalla and Brigadier General Nours Makhlouf, two military figures associated with the former rule of Assad.
Sbeira is accused of violating civilians’ rights during the Syrian uprising after 2011, when he joined the National Defense Militia and helped suppress peaceful demonstrations, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.
In 2014, he joined the 4th Armoured Division, which was commanded by Maher Assad, brother of the former president, from 2018 until the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024.
