Nine killed in Iran as bus, fuel truck collide — state media

A photo released by the Iranian state news agency on August 20, 2024, shows first responders at the site of a bus crash in Iran’s central Yazd province. (IRNA/File)
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Updated 23 December 2024
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Nine killed in Iran as bus, fuel truck collide — state media

  • Iran has a poor road safety record, with over 20,000 deaths recorded between March 2023 and March 2024
  • In August, 28 Pakistani Muslim pilgrims en route to Iraq were killed when their bus crashed in central Iran

TEHRAN: At least nine people were killed on Monday when a bus collided with a fuel truck in Iran’s southeast, state media reported, the second mass casualty road accident within days.
Mohammad Mehdi Sajjadi, head of the Red Crescent Society in Sistan-Baluchestan province, told the official IRNA news agency that “nine people lost their lives and 13 others were injured in the accident in which a bus collided with a fuel truck near Zahedan.”
On Saturday, 10 people were killed when a bus plunged into a ravine in Iran’s western Lorestan province.
Iran has a poor road safety record, with more than 20,000 deaths in accidents recorded between March 2023 and March 2024, according to figures from the judiciary’s Forensic Medicine Organization cited by local media.
In August, 28 Pakistani Muslim pilgrims en route to Iraq were killed when their bus crashed in central Iran.
Impoverished Sistan-Baluchestan, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, saw one of Iran’s deadliest accidents in 2004, when a gasoline tanker collided with a bus, sparking a massive fire that killed more than 70 people.


Latest US sanctions target Houthi funding networks, Treasury says

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Latest US sanctions target Houthi funding networks, Treasury says

  • Since 2023, ⁠the Houthis have launched numerous assaults on vessels in the Red Sea that they deem to be linked with Israel

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration issued fresh sanctions on Friday further targeting the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen ​and the transfer of oil products, weapons and other so-called dual-use equipment that it said helped fund the group.

The action targets 21 individuals and entities as well as one vessel, including some ‌alleged front ‌companies in Yemen, ‌Oman and ⁠the ​UAE, the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement.

“The Houthis threaten the United States by committing acts of terror and attacking commercial ⁠vessels transiting the Red Sea,” US Treasury ‌Secretary Scott Bessent said ‍in the statement.

The move ‍builds on previous Treasury action ‍to pressure the Houthis “vast revenue generation and smuggling networks, which enable the group to sustain its capability to conduct destabilizing ​regional activities,” including the Red Sea attacks, the department added.

Since 2023, ⁠the Houthis have launched numerous assaults on vessels in the Red Sea that they deem to be linked with Israel in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war on Gaza.

Tehran’s regional sway has been weakened by Israel’s attacks on its proxies, including on ‌the Houthis in Yemen. (Reporting by Susan Heavey and Daphen Psaledakis; Editing ‌by Chizu Nomiyama )