Iran has blamed Israel for a deadly air strike on its consulate in Syria, in which two of its senior military commanders were killed.
Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) elite Quds Force, died in the explosion, which destroyed the Iranian consulate building in the Syrian capital, Damascus.
Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, a deputy commander in the Quds Force, was also killed, along with five other officers, according to the IRGC.
They are the most senior leaders of the force to be killed since the US assassination of Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in January 2020.
The IRGC blamed Israel for the strike, as did Iran’s foreign ministry, which labelled it an “abhorrent” and “brutal” attack.
Tehran’s ambassador to Damascus, Hossein Akbari, who was not injured in the strike, promised the Iranian response would be “harsh”.
Israel declined to comment on the incident. The White House also did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The deaths of the two commanders and the destruction of the Iranian consulate are likely to further inflame tensions in the Middle East.
Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, called the strike “a breach of all international conventions”.
A spokesperson for the ministry told Iranian state TV that Tehran would decide on the type of “response and punishment against the aggressor”.
Syria’s foreign minister Faisal Mekdad, who later attended the scene, said his country “strongly condemns this atrocious terrorist attack that targeted the Iranian consulate building in Damascus and killed a number of innocents”.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Pakistan also condemned the attack, while Hamas – which is backed by Iran – said it condemned the strike “in the strongest terms”.
Who is Mohammad Reza Zahedi?
A top commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Guardsman Brigadier General Zahedi was a leading figure in its elite Quds Force – a unit specialising in military intelligence and unconventional warfare.
He was a mid-ranking commander during the Iran-Iraq war, having joined the IRGC two years after the revolution of 1979.
Having previously served as a commander in the Revolutionary Guard’s ground forces, he served as the head of the Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon until 2015.
According to the IRGC-affiliated Sabereen News, Guardsman Brigadier General Haji Rahimi was one of Mr Zahedi’s deputies.
He earlier served as the deputy commander of the IRGC Quds Force for coordination but was recently sent to Syria upon his own request to serve as Mr Zahedi’s deputy.
Hundreds of police are hunting armed men who attacked a prison van in France – with a convict reportedly nicknamed “The Fly” escaping.
Two male prison officers were shot dead and three others seriously injured during the ambush on a motorway in Incarville, northwest France, at around 9am.
Eric Dupond-Moretti, France’s justice minister, said one of the officers leaves behind a wife who was five months pregnant, while the other was a 21-year-old father-of-two.
He said two of those injured are in a critical condition after Tuesday’s ambush.
The officers were transporting convict Mohamed Amra, 30, when they came under heavy fire, said the Paris prosecutor’s office.
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1:03
CCTV shows car smash into prison van
Footage shows a black car driving into the front of a white van, and later two armed men patrolling near a tollbooth on the A154 motorway.
Several men used two vehicles to target the van – with one later found burnt-out, a police source told French news agency AFP.
Amra had been serving an 18-month sentence for “aggravated thefts” in the suburbs of Evreux, northwest France, according to BFM TV.
The French broadcaster said his nickname is “The Fly”.
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Police sources also said Amra was involved in drug dealing, suspected of ordering a murder in Marseille, and had ties to the city’s powerful “Blacks” gang.
He had reportedly appeared before a judge in Rouen on Tuesday morning, accused of attempted homicide.
The attack on the van took place while he was being transported back to prison in Evreux, according to reports in France.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said Amra was a “particularly monitored detainee” while in prison.
Gerald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, said “several hundred police officers” had been deployed to “find these criminals”.
French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X: “This morning’s attack, which cost the lives of prison officers, is a shock to us all.
“The Nation stands alongside the families, the injured and their colleagues.
“Everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime so that justice can be done in the name of the French people. We will be intractable.”
“Everything, I mean everything, will be done to find the perpetrators of this despicable crime,” added justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti.
“These are people for whom life weighs nothing. They will be arrested, they will be judged, and they will be punished according to the crime they committed.”
Protesters have smashed barriers at Georgia’s parliament after it approved a divisive “foreign agents” bill.
Riot police used tear gas and sprayed crowds with water cannon as they entered the grounds of the Georgian parliament in the capital Tbilisi.
Sky’s international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn, who is covering the protests in Tbilisi, said there was a “febrile atmosphere” and a “real sense anger, frustration and massive disappointment” that MPs voted for the bill.
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Protesters break through parliament barricades
The legislation is seen by some as threatening press and civic freedomsand there are concerns it’s modelled on laws used by President Vladimir Putin in neighbouring Russia.
The proposed law would require media and non-governmental organisations and other non-profit groups to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20% of funding from abroad.
Demonstrations have engulfed Georgia for weeks ahead of the bill’s final reading on Tuesday.
Critics also see it as a threat to the country’s aspirations to join the European Union.
The bill is nearly identical to one that the governing Georgian Dream party was pressured to withdraw last year after street protests.
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Opponents have denounced the bill as “the Russian law” because Moscow uses similar legislation to stigmatise independent news media and organisations critical of the Kremlin.
A brawl erupted in the parliament as MPs were debating the bill on Tuesday.
Georgian Dream MP Dimitry Samkharadze was seen charging towards Levan Khabeishvili, the chairman of main opposition party United National Movement, after Mr Khabeishvili accused him of organising mobs to beat up opposition supporters.
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Fighting in Georgia’s parliament
‘Absolutely insane’
Former Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili called the bill a “joke” and a “replica” of one introduced by Vladimir Putin to “control his own society” in Russia.
He said the Georgian people would “not fall under that mistake” and that protesters were standing “firm, calm, peaceful and for freedom”.
“We will not let them prevail. We will overcome,” he told Sky News.
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Protesters angry after ‘Russian law’ passes
A protester said it was “absolutely insane that a country like Georgia has accepted this bill as it’s a complete violation for our future”.
The medical student said the bill “makes us more far away from Europe and the rest of the world”, while bringing Georgia closer to the Russian government.
Another protester outside parliament said: “Our government is a Russian government, we don’t want Russia, Russia is never the way, I’m Georgian and therefore I am European.”
One demonstrator said they had been trying to protest “peacefully” but were now “feeling anger, pain and disappointment that again in our history there is a government that goes against our wishes”.
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The president of the European Parliament has shown support for the Georgian people in a post on social media.
“Tbilisi, we hear you! We see you!” Roberta Metsola said.
Alex Scrivener, director of the Democratic Security Institute, said there was time for the law to be turned around.
He told Sky News: “The law passing isn’t the end of the vote.
“The president of Georgia who is aligned with the protesters can veto legislation and that buys us time.”
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has said she will veto it but her decision can be overridden by another vote in parliament, controlled by the ruling party and its allies.
Two prison officers have been killed after an attack on a convoy carrying an inmate – with the convict reportedly on the run.
Three other people are seriously injured after the reported “ramming car attack” on a motorway in Incarville in the northwestern France region of Eure.
Footage from the scene shows two hooded men with firearms and a prison van which appears to have been in a collision with a black vehicle.
Several men used two vehicles to target the convoy, a police source has told the French news agency AFP.
The escaped detainee is a man named Mohamed who was convicted of “burglary theft” and is nicknamed “The Fly”, according to Le Parisien.
He had appeared before a judge in Rouen this morning accused of attempted homicide, BFM TV reports.
The attack on the prison van took place while he was being transported back to prison in Evreux, the French broadcaster adds.
The escaped prisoner fled with those who attacked the convoy on Tuesday, Le Parisien reports.
One of the vehicles used to target the convoy was found burned-out in a location which was not specified by the police source who spoke to AFP.
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The prison convoy was targeted at a tollbooth on the A154 motorway at about 11am local time, according to reports.
French justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti posted on X: “A prison convoy was attacked in Eure. Two of our prison officers have died, three are seriously injured.
“All my thoughts are with the victims, their families and their colleagues.”
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