Iran’s Khamenei decorates commander for Israel attack

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R) decorating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Aerospace Force Commander Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh (L) with the 'Fath' badge in Tehran for planning the Iranian attack on Israel. (AFP)
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Updated 06 October 2024
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Iran’s Khamenei decorates commander for Israel attack

  • The decoration was bestowed because of “the brilliant ‘Honest Promise’ operation”

TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader has decorated the Revolutionary Guards aerospace commander for the Islamic republic’s missile attacks on arch-foe Israel, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s website said on Sunday.
“Ayatollah Khamenei presented the Order of Fath (“Conquest” in Farsi) to General Amirali Hajjizadeh, commander of the Guards Aerospace Force,” it said.
The decoration was bestowed because of “the brilliant ‘Honest Promise’ operation,” the website said.
Hajjizadeh, 62, has headed the Guards aerospace unit since its creation in 2009.
On Tuesday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired some 200 missiles at Israel in retaliation for an Israeli air strike that killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC top general Abbas Nilforoushan in Beirut.
It was Iran’s second direct attack on Israel in six months, after a missile and drone assault in April in retaliation for a deadly strike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus, which Tehran blamed on Israel.
Israel has vowed to respond after Tuesday’s Iranian missile attack.


Fire from Iran, Lebanon triggers sirens across Israel

Updated 2 min 26 sec ago
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Fire from Iran, Lebanon triggers sirens across Israel

  • Alerts were sounded in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and several other northern regions
  • The Israeli army had noticed a gradual decrease in the number of Iranian missiles launched at Israel since Saturday
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it had detected multiple missile barrages from Iran on Wednesday, as well as launches from Lebanon, but added that the number of missiles fired from the Islamic republic at Israel was declining.
AFP journalists heard several blasts and multiple rounds of sirens from Jerusalem, while alerts also sounded in Tel Aviv, central Israel, Haifa and several other northern regions.
“The IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel. Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat,” the military said four times throughout the afternoon and early evening.
In a statement shortly after the first salvo was announced, the military said that “several launches... from Lebanon toward Israeli territory were successfully intercepted” after sirens sounded in central Israel.
The new salvos came on the fifth day of the Middle East war, which began on Saturday with joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Lebanon was dragged into the war on Monday when the Tehran-backed Hezbollah group launched an attack on Israel to “avenge” the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, prompting ongoing Israeli air strikes.
Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters Wednesday evening that the army had noticed a gradual decrease in the number of Iranian missiles launched at Israel since the start of the war.
“We are speaking about many dozens the first day going down gradually to a few dozen and very low amounts,” he said.
“The barrages are much smaller. Today, some of them weren’t even a barrage, they were just one missile,” he added.
Shoshani said that some projectiles were launched from Iraq too, where some militias act as Iran proxies.
“We’ve seen small amounts of fire coming from Iraq, mostly UAVs (drones), but the vast majority of fire is from Iran and now from Hezbollah,” he said.
Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency services said they had evacuated to hospital two people in central Israel with mild injuries, including “a man of about 30 with shrapnel wounds and another casualty with blast injuries.”
Police said in a statement that officers were dispatched to five locations in the Jerusalem area “where various intercepted projectiles had fallen, causing only damage.”
The military said that the “majority of the launches” from Lebanon were intercepted.
Not including Wednesday’s figures, MDA said that since the start of the war its teams had provided medical treatment to 414 casualties including “10 fatalities, 2 seriously injured, 6 moderately injured and 396 lightly injured.”