Conflicting dialogue over extent of damage at Iran's nuclear sites
Conflicting dialogue over extent of damage at Iran's nuclear sites
CTV News military analyst Retired Maj.-Gen. David Fraser weighs in on conflicting commentary over the extent of damage at Iran's nuclear sites.
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CBC
3 hours ago
- CBC
'A slow death': Israeli strike on Iran's Evin Prison sparks fear for dissidents
Sayeh Seydal, a jailed Iranian dissident, narrowly escaped death when Israeli missiles struck Tehran's Evin Prison, where she was imprisoned. She had just stepped out of the prison's clinic, moments before it was destroyed in the blasts. The June 23 strikes on Iran's most notorious prison for political dissidents killed at least 71 people, including staff, soldiers, visiting family members and people living nearby, Iranian judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said Sunday. In the ensuing chaos, authorities transferred Seydal and others to prisons outside of Tehran — overcrowded facilities, known for their harsh conditions. When she was able to call her family several days ago, Seydal pleaded for help. "It's literally a slow death," she said of the conditions, according to a recording of the call provided by her relatives, in accordance with Seydal's wishes. "The bombing by the U.S. and Israel didn't kill us. Then the Islamic Republic brought us to a place that will practically kill us," she said. Activists fear Israel's attacks will lead to crackdown Iran's pro-democracy and rights activists fear they will pay the price for Israel's 12-day air campaign aiming to cripple the country's nuclear program. Many now say the state, reeling from the breach in its security, has already intensified its crackdown on opponents. Israel's strike on Evin — targeting, it said, "repressive authorities" — spread panic among families of the political prisoners, who were left scrambling to determine their loved ones' fates. A week later, families of those who were in solitary confinement or under interrogation still haven't heard from them. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, a veteran activist who has been imprisoned multiple times in Evin, said that Iranian society, "to get to democracy, needs powerful tools to reinforce civil society and the women's movement." "Unfortunately, war weakens these tools," she said in a video message to The Associated Press from Tehran. Political space is already shrinking, with security forces increasing their presence in the streets of the capital, she said. Fears of looming executions Many now fear a potential wave of executions targeting activists and political prisoners. They see a terrifying precedent: After Iran's war with Iraq ended in 1988, authorities executed at least 5,000 political prisoners after perfunctory trials, then buried them in mass graves that have never been accessed. Already during Israel's campaign, Iran executed six prisoners who were sentenced to death before the war. The Washington-based Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA) documented nearly 1,300 people arrested, most on charges of espionage, including 300 for sharing content on social media in just 12 days. Iran's parliament is fast-tracking a bill allowing greater use of the death penalty for charges of collaboration with foreign adversaries. The judiciary chief called for expedited proceedings against those who "disrupt the peace" or "collaborate" with Israel. Prisoners scattered after the strike Evin Prison, located in an upscale neighbourhood on Tehran's northern edge, housed an estimated 120 men and women in its general wards, as well as hundreds of others believed to be in its secretive security units under interrogation or in solitary confinement, according to HRA. The prisoners include protesters, lawyers and activists who have campaigned for years against Iran's authoritarian rule, corruption and religious laws, including enforcement of Islamic attire on women. Authorities have crushed repeated waves of nationwide protests since 2009 in crackdowns that have killed hundreds and jailed thousands. The strikes hit Evin during visiting hours, causing shock and panic. Seydal, an international law scholar who joined protest movements over the past two decades and has been in and out of jail since 2023, recounted to her family her near brush with death in the prison clinic. The blast knocked her to the ground, a relative who spoke to Seydal said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. Visiting halls, the prosecutor's office and several prisoner wards were also heavily damaged, according to rights groups and relatives of prisoners. One missile hit the prison entrance, where prisoners often are sitting waiting to be taken to hospitals or court. "Attacking a prison, when the inmates are standing behind closed doors and they are unable to do the slightest thing to save themselves, can never be a legitimate target," Mohammadi said. Mohammadi was just released in December when her latest sentence was briefly suspended for medical reasons. During the night, buses began transferring prisoners to other facilities, according to Mohammadi and families of prisoners. At least 65 women were sent to Qarchak Prison, according to Mohammadi, who is in touch with them. Men were sent to the Grand Tehran Penitentiary, housing criminals and high-security prisoners. Both are located south of Tehran. Mohammadi told AP that her immediate fear was a lack of medical facilities and poor hygiene. Among the women are several with conditions needing treatment, including 73-year-old civil rights activist Raheleh Rahemi, who has a brain tumour. In her phone call, Seydal called Qarchak a "hellhole." She said the women were packed together in isolation, with no hygiene care and limited food or drinkable water. "It stinks. Just pure filth," she said. Seydal, 47, was first sentenced in 2023. In early 2025, her furlough was cancelled, and she was assaulted by security and faced new charges after she refused to wear a chador at the prosecutor's office. A brother disappears Reza Younesi's father and younger brother, Ali, have both been imprisoned at Evin for years. Now the family is terrified because Ali has disappeared. Ali, a 25-year-old graduate of a prestigious technical university, was serving a 16-year sentence for "colluding to commit crimes against national security." The sentence, widely criticized by rights groups, was reduced but then the Intelligence Ministry launched a new case against him on unknown charges. Days before the strike on Evin, Ali was dragged out of his ward and taken to an unknown location, according to his brother. After the strike, their father, Mir-Yousef Younesi, saw no sign of Ali as he and other prisoners were transferred to the Great Tehran Penitentiary. The father managed to get a call out to his family, in a panic. Disappearances in Evin are not uncommon. Guards sometimes remove political prisoners from wards for interrogation. In some cases, they are sentenced in secret trials and executed. Reza Younesi said the family lawyer was unable to find out any information about his brother or the new charges. "We are all worried," he said, speaking from Sweden where he is an associate professor at Uppsala University. "When there is no information from a prisoner, this almost in all cases means that the person is under interrogation and torture." 'All hope is gone' Mehraveh Khandan grew up in a family of political activists. She spent much of her childhood and teen years going to Evin to visit her mother, rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who was imprisoned there multiple times. Her father, Reza Khandan, was thrown into Evin in December for distributing buttons opposing the mandatory headscarf for women. Now living in Amsterdam, the 25-year-old frantically tried to find information about her father after the strike. The internet was cut off, and her mother had evacuated from Tehran. "I was just thinking who might die there," she said. It took 24 hours before she got word her father was OK. In a family call later, her father told how he was sleeping on the floor in a crowded cell rife with insects at the Grand Tehran Penitentiary. At first, she thought the Evin strike might prompt the government to release prisoners. But after seeing reports of mass detentions and executions, "all this hope is gone," she said. The war "just destroyed all the things the activists have started to build," she said.
CBC
3 hours ago
- CBC
Israeli strikes hit 4 school shelters in Gaza after hundreds of families ordered to evacuate
Social Sharing Palestinians in northern Gaza reported one of the worst nights of Israeli bombardment in weeks after the military issued mass evacuation orders on Monday, while Israeli officials were due in Washington for a new ceasefire push by the Trump administration. A day after U.S. President Donald Trump urged an end to the 20-month-old war, a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected at the White House for talks on a Gaza ceasefire, Iran and possible wider regional diplomatic deals. But on the ground in the Palestinian enclave, there was no sign of fighting letting up. "Explosions never stopped; they bombed schools and homes. It felt like earthquakes," said Salah, 60, a father of five from Gaza City. "In the news, we hear a ceasefire is near; on the ground, we see death and we hear explosions." Israeli tanks pushed into the eastern areas of the Zeitoun suburb in Gaza City and shelled several areas in the north, while aircraft bombed at least four schools after ordering hundreds of families sheltering inside to leave, residents said. At least 25 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Monday, health authorities said, including 10 people killed in Zeitoun. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which says Palestinian militants embed among civilians. The militant groups deny this. The heavy bombardment followed new evacuation orders to vast areas in the north, where Israeli forces had operated before and left behind wide-scale destruction. The military ordered people there to head south, saying that it planned to fight Hamas militants operating in northern Gaza, including in the heart of Gaza City. Netanyahu's security cabinet to discuss next steps A day after Trump called to "make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back," Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a confidant of Netanyahu's, was expected on Monday at the White House for talks on Iran and Gaza, an Israeli official said. In Israel, Netanyahu's security cabinet was expected to convene to discuss the next steps in Gaza. On Friday, Israel's military chief said the present ground operation was close to having achieved its goals. And on Sunday, Netanyahu said new opportunities had opened up for recovering the hostages, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive. Aid distribution in Gaza goes 'against every humanitarian principle,' UNICEF specialist says 4 days ago Duration 10:36 UNICEF's Rosalia Bollen says the way aid is being distributed in Gaza is 'unsafe' and 'unfair' and says it has killed hundreds in Gaza. 'Nobody should have to choose between dying of hunger or risk being shot at when you try to get some food,' says the agency's communication specialist. Palestinian and Egyptian sources with knowledge of the latest ceasefire efforts said that mediators Qatar and Egypt have stepped up their contacts with the two warring sides, but that no date has been set yet for a new round of truce talks. A Hamas official said that progress depends on Israel changing its position and agreeing to end the war and withdraw from Gaza. Israel says it can end the war only when Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms. The war began when Hamas fighters stormed into Israel on Oct. 7 2023, killing 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza in a surprise attack that led to Israel's single deadliest day. Israel's subsequent military assault has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, displacing almost the entire 2.3 million population and plunging the enclave into a humanitarian crisis.
CTV News
3 hours ago
- CTV News
Women can be drafted into the Danish military as Russian aggression and military investment grows
Young conscripts sit waiting in the grass during final exercises at a training area close to Royal Danish Army's barracks in Hovelte, 25 kilometres north of Copenhagen, Denmark, Wednesday, June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/James Brooks) HOVELTE, Denmark — Peering across a dense stretch of woodland outside of Denmark's capital with camouflage paint smeared across her face, 20-year-old Katrine scans the horizon for approaching threats. After nearly four months of military training, the young soldier and the rest of her unit spent early June completing their final exercises near the Danish army's barracks in Hovelte, 25 kilometres (15 miles) north of Copenhagen. Katrine and other female soldiers, all of whom spoke to The Associated Press on June 11 on the condition that only their first names be used because of operational security, volunteered for military service earlier this year. Until now, that was the only way women were allowed to partake in military service, although women have been able to enlist as full-time members of the armed forces since the early 1970s The Scandinavian country is seeking to increase the number of young people in the military by extending compulsory enlistment to women for the first time. Men and women can both still volunteer, and the remaining places will be filled by a gender-neutral draft lottery. 'In the situation the world is in now, it's needed,' Katrine said. 'I think it's only fair and right that women participate equally with men.' Under new rules passed by Denmark's parliament earlier in June, Danish women who turn 18 after Tuesday will be entered into the lottery system, on an equal footing with their male compatriots. The change comes against a backdrop of Russian aggression and growing military investment across NATO countries. Russia's looming threat Even from the relative safety of Denmark, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine casts its shadow. Lessons from the Ukrainian battlefields have even filtered down into their training. 'That makes it very real,' Katrine said. Denmark's gender-parity reforms were originally outlined in 2024 as part of a major defence agreement. The program was originally expected to be implemented by early 2027, but has been brought forward to summer 2025. Col. Kenneth Strøm, head of the conscription program, told AP the move is based on 'the current security situation.' 'They could take part in NATO collective deterrence,' Strøm added. 'Raising the number of conscripts, that would simply lead to more combat power.' Denmark, a nation of 6 million people, has about 9,000 professional troops. The new arrangement is expected to bring the figure up to 6,500 people doing military service annually by 2033, up from 4,700 last year. Under Danish law, all physically fit men over age 18 are called up for military service. Some people — both men and women — volunteer, and the rest of the places are filled by a lottery system that until now has only involved men. Women volunteers make up roughly a quarter of 2024's cohort. 'Some will probably be very disappointed being chosen to go into the military,' Anne Sofie, part of Katrine's cohort of volunteers, said of the new female conscripts. 'Some will probably be surprised and like it a lot more than they think they would.' The duration of service is also being extended, from four to 11 months. Conscripts will first spend five months in basic training, followed by six months of operational service, plus additional lessons. Military buildup The move is part of a broader military buildup by the Nordic nation. In February, Denmark's government announced plans to bolster its military by setting up a US$7 billion fund that it said would raise the country's defence spending to more than 3% of gross domestic product this year. Parts of the conscript program are being financed by the so-called Acceleration Fund. 'We see a sharpened security situation in Europe. We have the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. We have focus on the Baltic countries, where Denmark is contributing a lot of soldiers. So, I think it's a general effort to strengthen the Danish defence,' said researcher Rikke Haugegaard from the Royal Danish Defense College. But Haugegaard notes there are many challenges, from ill-fitting equipment and a lack of additional barracks, to potential cases of sexual harassment. 'For the next year or two, we will be building a lot of new buildings to accommodate all these people. So, it will be a gradual process,' she added. In 2017, neighbouring Sweden instituted a military draft for both men and women after its government spoke of a deteriorating security environment in Europe. Norway introduced its own law applying military conscription to both sexes in 2013. James Brooks, The Associated Press
