TEHRAN: Riot police were deployed in force Saturday in the Iranian city of Isfahan, a day after dozens were arrested in violent protests over the drying up of a lifeblood river.
Security forces fired tear gas during the clashes with stone-throwers in the protest in the dry bed of the Zayadneh Rood river that crosses the city, Fars and ISNA news agencies said.
"We have arrested 67 of the main actors and agitators behind the troubles," police General Hassan Karami told on Saturday. He said between 2,000 and 3,000 "rioters" took part in the protest.
On Saturday, the situation was "calm" and streets empty, with riot police deployed on the city's Khadjou bridge, a Isfahan city resident said.
The demonstration was the latest since protests kicked off on November 9 in Isfahan, some 340 kilometres (210 miles) south of Tehran, a tourist magnet due to its majestic mosques and heritage sites, including a historic bridge across the river.
But it was the first to turn violent.
Between 30,000 and 40,000 farmers and city residents turned up for the gatherings last week, estimated Karami.
The riverbed has been the rallying spot for farmers and other people from across Isfahan province protesting the lack of water since November 9.
Drought is a cause, but they also accuse the authorities of diverting water from the city to supply the neighbouring province of Yazd, which is also desperately short on supplies.
"I used to walk along the riverbed with friends, but today the riot police are deployed in large numbers near the Khajou bridge and they are asking people to avoid the area," said a woman in her 50s.
During the clashes on Friday, some people set fire to objects in the city, Fars and ISNA reported.
"After the farmers left, the opportunists and counter-revolutionaries were left behind, which made it easy for the security apparatus, especially the police, to identify and arrest those who destroyed public and state property," Isfahan police chief Mohammad-Reza Mirheidari said on television.
But members of the security forces were hit by fire from hunting rifles, he said, without specifying how many.
One of them was stabbed, although his condition was not believed to be critical.
A Fars journalist said two bulldozers were used to destroy a pipe taking water from Isfahan province to Yazd.
"Among the injured demonstrators, two are in a serious condition," Nourodin Soltanian, spokesman for Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, told the Mehr news agency on Saturday.
Recently, there have been almost daily protests in the region of Isfahan, which has been particularly hard-hit by drought.
On Saturday, the ultra-conservative daily Kayhan pointed the finger of blame for the violence at "mercenary thugs", whereas the pro-reform Etemad said the protests in Isfahan showed a "lack of trust in the government".
Last Sunday, more than 1,000 people marched towards the governor's office in the western province of Chahar-Mahal Bakhtiari to demand a solution to water shortages, state media reported.
According to Fars, farmers and local authorities struck a deal on Thursday about water distribution.
President Ebrahim Raisi met with representatives from the provinces of Isfahan, Yazd and Semnan earlier this month and vowed to resolve water issues.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said the topic is the country's top problem, without making reference to the protests.
Iraninan riot police deployed after 67 arrested in Isfahan
https://arab.news/6ybqq
Iraninan riot police deployed after 67 arrested in Isfahan
- The demonstration was the latest since protests kicked off on November 9 in Isfahan
- Drought is a cause, but protestors also accuse authorities of diverting water from the city
Gun attack on school bus in West Bank wounds 3 Israelis: army
- Soldiers were pursuing the suspect
JERUSALEM: Medics and the army said three people including a boy were wounded in a gun attack Thursday that targeted a school bus near the city of Jericho in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
After reports that a militant fired toward “a number of vehicles,” soldiers were sent to the scene near the town of Al-Auja, the military said, adding that soldiers were pursuing the suspect.
The military confirmed a school bus had been targeted.
A 30-year-old man was in serious condition with gunshot wounds, while a 21-year-old man was less seriously wounded and a 13-year-old boy suffered shrapnel injuries, emergency services said.
Israeli public radio said the masked gunman started shooting at Israeli cars at around 7:00 a.m. local time, hitting a car and a school bus.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip in October. The war began with Hamas’s unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7 that left about 1,160 people dead.
More than 440 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers in the West Bank since the war broke out, according to the Palestinian Authority, which has partial administrative control in the West Bank.
At least 17 Israeli soldiers and civilians have been killed in attacks there over the same period, say the Israeli authorities.
Israeli strikes on Rafah raise fear ground assault could begin
- Israeli forces just north of Rafah kept the two main hospitals in Khan Younis, Al-Amal and Nasser Hospital, under a blockade imposed late last week
- In the north, they were still operating inside Al Shifa Hospital, which they stormed more than a week ago
GAZA STRIP: Israel bombed at least four homes in Rafah on Wednesday, raising new fear among the more than a million Palestinians sheltering in the last refuge on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip that a long-threatened ground assault could be coming.
One of the airstrikes killed 11 people from a single family, health officials said.
Mussa Dhaheer, looking on from below as neighbors helped an emergency worker lower a victim in a black body bag from an upper story, said he had awakened to the blast, kissed his terrified daughter, and rushed outside to find the destruction. His father, 75, and mother, 62, were among the dead.
“I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to say. I can’t make sense of what happened. My parents. My father with his displaced friends who came from Gaza City,” he told Reuters.
“They were all together, when suddenly they were all gone like dust.”
At another bomb site, Jamil Abu Houri said the intensification of air strikes was Israel’s way of showing its disdain for a UN Security Council resolution last week demanding an immediate Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
Next up, he fears a ground assault on Rafah, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to carry out despite warnings from closest ally Washington that this would wreak a humanitarian disaster.
“The bombing has increased, and they have threatened us with an incursion, and they say that have been given the green light for the Rafah incursion. Where is the Security Council?” Abu Houri said.
A US official said on Wednesday Israel had asked to reschedule a meeting in Washington to discuss its plans for Rafah, days after Netanyahu abruptly canceled the talks over the passage of a Gaza ceasefire resolution by the UN Security Council that the US decided not to veto.
The US abstention from the vote pointed to frustration with Netanyahu, who rebuked Washington over the move.
More deadly airstrikes
Another Israeli airstrike in Rafah on Wednesday afternoon killed four Palestinians including a woman and a child and injured other residents, Gaza health authorities said.
Just west of Gaza City in the enclave’s north, seven people were killed in an airstrike on a house, health officials said.
The Israeli military says it is targeting armed Hamas militants who use civilian buildings, including apartment blocks and hospitals, for cover. Hamas denies doing so.
Separately, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where bloodshed has worsened in parallel with the Gaza war, three Palestinians were killed and four wounded by Israeli fire during a raid in Jenin overnight, the Palestinian health ministry said.
At least 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s air and ground offensive into Hamas-run Gaza, according to the health ministry there, with thousands of other dead believed buried under rubble and over 80 percent of the 2.3 million population displaced, many at risk of famine.
The war erupted after Islamist Hamas militants broke through the border on Oct. 7 and rampaged through nearby communities, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
Israeli forces just north of Rafah kept the two main hospitals in Khan Younis, Al-Amal and Nasser Hospital, under a blockade imposed late last week. In the north, they were still operating inside Al Shifa, the enclave’s largest hospital, which they stormed more than a week ago.
Israel says the hospitals have been lairs for Hamas gunmen, which Hamas and medical staff deny. The Israeli military has said it killed and captured hundreds of fighters in a battle in Al Shifa. Hamas says civilians and medics were rounded up.
Gaza’s health ministry said wounded people and patients were being held inside Al Shifa’s human resources department that was not equipped to provide them with health care.
Residents living nearby have reported hearing constant explosions in and around Al Shifa and columns of smoke coming from buildings inside the premises.
International mediation has failed to secure a ceasefire and exchange of prisoners so far as the two sides stick to irreconcilable demands. Hamas wants an end to the war and total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza while Israel has vowed to keep fighting until the group is eradicated.
US says it downed four Yemen rebel drones in Red Sea
- US and British forces have responded with strikes against the Houthis, who have since declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well
WASHINGTON: The United States military said Wednesday it had downed four drones launched by Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen aimed at a US warship in the Red Sea.
US Central Command said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, that its forces had “engaged and destroyed four long-range unmanned aerial systems” at around 2 am Sanaa time (2300 GMT), adding there were no injuries or damage reported to US or coalition ships.
“It was determined these weapons presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region,” the statement said.
“These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US Navy and merchant vessels,” it added.
In November, the Houthis launched a campaign of drone and missile strikes against vessels in the Red Sea, an area vital for world trade, in professed solidarity with Palestinians during Israel’s war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
US and British forces have responded with strikes against the Houthis, who have since declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well.
Why Jordan is braced for challenging security scenarios
- Earlier this month, Jordan scrambled jets after detecting ‘suspicious aerial activity’ along border with Syria
- Hashemite kingdom has stepped up its no-tolerance policy for cross-border drug smuggling in recent years
LONDON: Amid escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, Jordan is looking to bolster its defenses against possible incursions by Iran-backed militias on its borders.
The new approach follows a series of attacks against US military bases across the Gulf, culminating in a drone assault on a logistics support site of the Jordanian Defense Network near the Syrian border on Jan. 28, which left three American soldiers dead and more than 40 others injured.
In a press briefing, Sabrina Singh, Pentagon deputy press secretary, said that the Iran-backed Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah militia was responsible for the attack on Tower 22.
“We know that Iran is behind it. And certainly, as we’ve said before, Iran continues to arm and equip these groups to launch these attacks, and we will certainly hold them responsible,” she said, noting that eight of the 40 injured had to be evacuated for treatment.
Jordan’s government “condemned the terrorist attack that targeted an outpost on the border with Syria, killing three US soldiers,” in a statement issued via the Petra news agency.
Although the deaths at the Jordan-based US output were the first American military casualties since the start of the Israeli military offensive on Hamas-run Gaza in October last year, for Jordanians, the attack was anything but out of the ordinary.
With Iraq plagued by instability and sectarianism and Syria mired in a decade-long civil war, Jordan’s northern border region has become a breeding ground for militias.
Baraa Shiban, an associate fellow at the UK’s Royal United Services Institute, says that those monitoring the region have been seeing “cross-border attacks for some time.”
He told Arab News: “If you are in that part of the world, the activity of these groups is known about. Press attention on them has increased since the American soldiers were killed, but the number of attacks has been largely constant.
“Those attacks are typically a series of skirmishes that sometimes escalate and sometimes die down, but they are always simmering in the background.”
Nor are the skirmishes simply the result of efforts to attack military installations, with the militias having turned Jordan into a major transit route for one of their key funding efforts, namely the trade in the multi-billion-dollar Syrian-made amphetamine Captagon.
“Jordan has become particularly concerned by the increase in drug-smuggling activities taking place across its borders,” Shiban said.
“These smuggling activities are essential for the groups if they are to fund their ongoing military assaults. If Jordan could successfully curb the activities, the groups would be starved of a major income stream that helps to keep them alive.”
The amounts involved are staggering: In December, Jordanian authorities seized 5 million pills and, with a single pill worth $12-25, a combined value of between $60-125 million.
Jordan has stepped up its no-tolerance policy for cross-border drug smuggling in recent years, last year announcing that it would use military force in Syria to curb drug trafficking across its borders.
In May 2023, Jordan carried out an airstrike in a village in Syria’s southern Sweida governorate, killing the so-called Captagon kingpin Merhi Al-Ramthan.
INNUMBERS
• 11m Estimated total population (2023)
• 31.42% Population below 14 years of age
• $102.8bn Real GDP (purchasing-power parity) (2021)
January’s drone attack marked out Kataib Hezbollah as the most prominent of a number of militias engaged in these cross-border activities, and making clear, through its principle of “velayat-e faqih” — or “Guardianship of the Jurist” — where it was receiving its directions.
David Rigoulet-Roze, a researcher at the French Institute for Strategic Analysis, has said that “velayat-e faqih” means that Kataib Hezbollah recognizes Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as its supreme commander.
Describing the group as “undoubtedly the most influential” in a collective known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, Rigoulet-Roze said that it was this banding together with Harakat Hezbollah Al-Nujaba and Hashd Al-Shaabi factions that made for the more potent threat.
Interestingly, the latter of these emerged in 2014 to support a Washington-led anti-Daesh coalition, contributing to Daesh’s territorial defeat in Iraq in 2017.
“There was an objective alliance between the coalition, the Americans, and Hashd militias against Daesh. The two fought on the same side. After 2017, these same groups found their Iranian — and therefore anti-American — DNA,” Rigoulet-Roze told France24.
Against the backdrop of Israel’s war on Gaza, however, Jordanian officials are increasingly concerned the skirmishes may evolve into something less sustainable for reasons connected to its own security.
This is unsurprising: One of Kataib Hezbollah’s main goals is to oust the US from the Middle East. Jordan not only houses some 3,000 US troops but in 2021 signed a new defense agreement with the Americans.
The Jordanian agreement was approved by royal decree, allowing US aircraft, personnel and vehicles free entry in exchange for $425 million in annual military aid.
The deal committed Jordan to provide logistical and other support for the estimated 3,000 US troops in the country.
Several members of Jordan’s parliament, especially members of the opposition Islamic Action Front, condemned the agreement, saying it gave away too many prerogatives to the US.
Jordan is one the biggest recipients of US aid, yet the subject of American troops and the bases they use in the country is a politically sensitive one.
Acknowledging the divisions over the defense agreement, Jawad Anani, Jordan’s former foreign minister, said there was “no chance” the deal with the US would be canceled given the present situation.
“There is a sense of resentment and displeasure (with the US), but there’s no way for Jordan to renege on its agreement,” he said in an interview. “Jordanians are equally unhappy with the UK, Germany, and France; we cannot break our relations with everyone.”
Jordan’s perception of threat from anti-US militias soared on March 18 after radar systems detected suspicious aerial activity from an unknown source along the Syrian border.
Witnesses told Reuters news agency that the incident resulted in jets being scrambled above the skies of the border city of Irbid, with an air force spokesperson noting a squadron had been sent to ensure airspace was not threatened.
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy gave warning that the deadly drone attack of Jan. 28 marked something of a turning point in what had become the norm.
It described the incident as “a serious warning for Jordan’s national security for several interrelated reasons,” highlighting it as the first incident carried out by non-state actors against Jordanian territory and sovereignty, and against its American allies.
Shiban, RUSI associate fellow, casts doubt on the Washington Institute’s claim that the deadly attack on Tower 22 marked an escalation in the assault by Iranian proxies, saying that it was important to properly understand the groups involved.
“Many of these groups are erratic. When it comes to the day-to-day operations, they tend to clash with one another and with border security. In fact, who it is they are fighting can really depend on the day,” Shiban said.
“Yes, in general, they are united by a desire to push the US presence from the region, but this is much down to the fact that as long as the US has a presence, they are threatened.”
While not playing down the significance of Iranian influence on the activities of these groups, Shiban said that the militias that the Jordanian authorities fretted about were not completely under the sway of the government in Tehran.
Rather, he said there needed to be recognition that part of the problem was that there were a number of these militias that were now operating “semi-independently.”
As to what could be done to resolve this vexing issue, Shiban said Jordan has shown willingness to deal with the Syrian regime, noting that it is from Syria that most of these groups launch their attacks.
That said, he believes the Jordanians ultimately “don’t think Syria has the will or capacity to do anything about it.”
Amid calls for the US to provide Patriot missile defense systems, Saud Al-Sharafat, a former Jordanian brigadier-general, said that Jordan is “in an explosive region,” with fears that Iran and its well-armed militias could enter the Gaza conflict.
“Regardless of whether there were drones or missiles that were intercepted or fired or not, the risk of Jordan being caught in the crossfire can only increase if the war (in Gaza) continues and expands,” he said.
Spain air drops 26 tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza
- ‘Every day people get hurt or even killed fighting to get flour, water, lentils and beans’
MADRID, JERUSALEM: Spanish military planes air dropped 26 tons of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip on Wednesday and Madrid called on Israel to open land border crossings to prevent a famine, the foreign ministry said.
The operation, carried out in coordination with Jordan and co-financed by the EU, dropped more than 11,000 food rations to alleviate the “catastrophic levels of food insecurity” faced by up to 1.1 million people in Gaza, the ministry said in a statement.
“Spain insists on the opening of the land crossings as an indispensable measure to avoid a famine situation,” it added.
Even before 18 people were killed when airdrops of aid into Gaza went disastrously wrong on Monday, many had questioned the sense in using planes when food can be delivered far more rapidly by road.
With only a trickle of aid getting into the starving north and the UN warning of “imminent famine” as it accuses Israel of blocking deliveries, foreign governments have turned to airdrops as “a way to show that they’re doing something,” said Shira Efron of the Israel Policy Forum.
The problem is that “airdrops are as inefficient as they are dangerous,” according to a source from an international NGO working in Gaza who asked to remain anonymous.
And they can be deadly to the desperate people waiting on the ground.
Twelve hungry Gazans drowned trying to fish food packages from the sea on Monday and six more were killed in stampedes.
Others have been crushed by the crates after parachutes malfunctioned, with five killed and 10 injured earlier this month when crates fell “like rockets” on the Al-Shati refugee camp.
Despite the deaths and the risks, Palestinians like mechanic Ahmed Al-Rifi were back the day after the latest tragedy waiting for the next drop, on the same beaches where the 18 were killed.
“Every day people get hurt or even killed fighting to get flour, water, lentils and beans,” he said.
Taxi driver Uday Nasser said it was “deeply humiliating.”
“The strong take from the weaker ones. Sometimes they use knives or even shoot,” he said.
UNICEF’s James Elder, who is in Gaza, said “typically food aid is delivered from the air because people are cut off and it’s the only way to reach them.”
“Here the lifesaving aid they need is a matter of kilometers away. We need to use the roads,” he said.
After the latest tragedy, Hamas pleaded for foreign powers to stop the drops saying they were a “real danger to the lives of hungry citizens.”
But the plea fell on deaf ears — Jordan’s Army said five more drops were carried out on Wednesday with help from Egypt, the UAE, Germany and Spain.
The US also pledged to continue airdrops with US Central Command confirming it had dropped 46,000 powdered meals over northern Gaza on Monday.
Some of those dropping the aid admit it is little more than a gesture with so many of Gaza’s 2.4 million people starving.
US Air Force Lt. Col. Jeremy Anderson said during a drop earlier this month that the aid delivered by air was only a “drop in the bucket” of what was needed.
He said that if a parachute failed to open they try to make sure it ends up in the water where “nobody is going to get hurt.”
Tragically on Monday, people drowned as they tried to get the crates landing in the water, witnesses saying some of the dead were children.
Washington insisted on Tuesday it was working “around the clock” to increase the flow of aid into Gaza by land as well as setting up a sea corridor.
Last week, a UN-backed report said a famine was imminent and likely to occur by May in northern Gaza and could spread across the enclave by July.