Iran's police's deputy head of intelligence and nuclear scientist killed in Israeli attack
Two explosions were heard in the Iranian capital on Tuesday, the judiciary news outlet Mizan and the Shargh newspaper reported, after US President Donald Trump called on Israel not to bomb Iran following a ceasefire reached early on Tuesday.
According to a Reuters report, two witnesses reached by telephone in the Iranian capital said they heard two loud explosions. Israeli army radio said Israel had struck an Iranian radar site near Tehran.
However, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said it had not carried out further strikes after Netanyahu spoke to Trump, the report added.
According to ynetnews.com, Iranian sources confirmed the death of Mohammad Reza Sadighi, describing him as a nuclear scientist. The report said that Sadighi was killed in a series of targeted strikes across Iran that Israel launched Tuesday overnight. However, the full outcome of the operation is still being assessed by the Iranian military.
According to the report, Sadighi's X account featured repeated anti-Israel and anti-American posts, open praise for Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and calls for 'psychological operations against the enemy,' including direct links to social media profiles of Israeli government officials.
Trump, en route to a NATO summit in the Netherlands, had said Israel had called off its attack, after he rebuked Israel with an obscenity in an extraordinary outburst at an ally whose military campaign he had joined two days earlier.
"All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly 'Plane Wave' to Iran. Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect!" Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
That followed a post in which he had said: 'Israel. Do not drop those bombs. If you do it it is a major violation. Bring your pilots home, now!'
Before departing the White House, Trump told reporters he was unhappy with both sides for violating the ceasefire, but particularly unhappy with Israel, which he said had "unloaded" shortly after agreeing the deal.
"I've got to get Israel to calm down now," Trump said. Iran and Israel had been fighting "so long and so hard that they don't know what the f*** they're doing."
Mere hours after Trump announced a ceasefire between the two warring nations on Tuesday, Israel accused Iran of launching missiles into its airspace, which the Iranian military denied, an AP report said.
However, the report also said that explosions boomed and sirens sounded across northern Israel midmorning. Earlier, both Israel and Iran had accepted the ceasefire plan to end their 12-day war.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz called the missiles a violation of the ceasefire and instructed Israel's military to resume 'the intense operations to attack Tehran and to destroy targets of the regime and terror infrastructure.'
An Israeli military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with military regulations said Iran launched two missiles at Israel hours into the tenuous ceasefire. Both missiles were intercepted, the official said.
'Tehran will tremble,' Israeli Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich wrote on X after the missiles were launched.
(With inputs from agencies)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
18 minutes ago
- Mint
Trump's DOJ Sidesteps Norms to Boost Ally Alina Habba as US Attorney
President Donald Trump's administration sidestepped tradition this week and criticized judges who sought to bypass his ally as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey — a pattern that may repeat itself in other Democratic-leaning states. The actions of the Justice Department to shield interim US Attorney Alina Habba, Trump's former personal attorney, could foreshadow other fights over chief federal prosecutors holding temporary posts in blue states like California, New York and Nevada. Federal judges in New Jersey said Tuesday they would not extend Habba's four-month tenure, the longest she could serve without US Senate confirmation. When the judges bypassed Habba to pick her deputy, Attorney General Pam Bondi then slammed 'politically minded judges' for overstepping their authority. She fired the judges' choice, Desiree Grace, hours later. Habba's term is set to expire at the end of the week, and what happens next is anyone's guess. But Trump and his appointees have routinely assailed judges who resist him in court cases, and they've shown a recent willingness to push the boundaries of statutes on appointment to protect their choices. 'It's a little unclear as to how this will all shake out,' said Jennifer Selin, an associate law professor at Arizona State University who researches US attorney appointments. The law on appointing interim US attorneys wouldn't prevent Trump from naming Habba as the interim again, but it's 'definitely on the fringes of law,' Selin said. Spokespersons for the Justice Department and the US Attorney's Office in New Jersey declined to comment. US attorneys typically serve four-year terms after they are approved by the US Senate, and they leave en masse with the change of a presidential administration. Under Senate custom, if a home-state senator opposes a president's US attorney nominee, the full body won't confirm their appointment. More than 20 states have two Democratic senators but disputes may arise soon in Nevada, Illinois and California, where interim appointments are set to expire soon. Trump has nominated Habba for a four-year term, but she's drawn strong opposition from New Jersey's two Democratic senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, has also vowed to hold up all Justice Department nominees over Trump receiving a gifted jet from the Qatari government. District judges can appoint a US attorney until a vacancy is filled, but that is prompting pushback from the Trump administration. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche accused New Jersey's judges of 'a left-wing agenda, not the rule of law' and acting like partisans and activists. Such a posture is not a long-term recipe for success, said Daniel Richman, a law professor at Columbia University. Every US attorney's office investigates and prosecutes criminal cases and represents the US in civil litigation. Its lawyers appear regularly in court before federal judges. 'An office that relies on the cooperation of judges to do its work usually doesn't get ahead by making war on them,' Richman said. In the Northern District of New York, the Trump administration tested the bounds of its appointment authority this month after federal judges declined to extend the 120-day term of John Sarcone, the chief prosecutor. Bondi appointed Sarcone as 'Special Attorney to the Attorney General' and 'First Assistant US Attorney,' making him the acting leader under the federal law governing vacancies. Sarcone is authorized to conduct the same legal proceedings as US attorneys may conduct, according to records that say his appointment is 'indefinite but may be terminated at any time.' He could serve more than 600 days as an acting official under the vacancy statute, effectively bypassing the Senate, said Selin. Acting officials may serve under the vacancy law for up to 210 days, followed by up to two more 210-day stints if nominations for the seat fail in the Senate. Trump's administration also named two successive interim leaders to serve as US attorney in Washington, DC, tapping Jeanine Pirro for a 120-day term after her predecessor, Ed Martin, lacked the Senate votes to advance. 'The Trump administration has been very strategic in using acting positions to navigate difficulties in the Senate,' Selin said. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Hindustan Times
18 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Trump was informed he was named in Epstein files? Here's what White House said
US President Donald Trump was informed in May that his name appeared in the Jeffrey Epstein filed, and the information was given to him by Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Wall Street Journal report said on Thursday. A message calling on President Donald Trump to release all files related to Jeffrey Epstein is projected onto the US Chamber of Commerce building.(AFP) However, the White House has denied the report as "fake news", blaming the Democrats and liberal media for fabricating it. "This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media," White House spokesman Steven Cheung was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters. What did the WSJ report say? The publication has claimed that Pam Bondi reviewed files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and found Trump's mention in it "multiple times". Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche then informed Trump of the development, the publication further reported. The WSJ report also claimed that besides Trump, the Epstein files named many other high-profile figures. However, WSJ also said that "being mentioned in the records isn't a sign of wrongdoing". While the White House was quick to dismiss the report, Bondi and her deputy also issued a statement, without directly addressing the WSJ report. "Nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution, and we have filed a motion in court to unseal the underlying grand jury transcripts," the officials were quoted as saying by Reuters. "As part of our routine briefing, we made the President aware of the findings." The report also claimed that the officials told Trump in May itself that there were no plans to release documents related to the probe as "the material contained child pornography and victims' personal information." Trump-Epstein ties and the files Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were once friends but their ties are now under scrutiny, amid a growing demand for the release of all government files on the sex offender's alleged crimes. The duo shared a good camaraderie in the 1990s but had a falling out in 2004 over eyeing the same property at Palm Beach. In 2019, Trump said that they had a "falling out" and hadn't spoken in 15 years. While there was a period when the two shared a friendship, there is no evidence linking Trump to the sex offender's crimes. The Jeffrey Epstein files contain important information, like flight logs, contact lists, clients list, court records etc., linked to the sex offender and his activities. While some parts of the files have been released, large portions of it still remain sealed and there are growing demands to release them.
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
Wrongly deported migrant Abrego scores legal wins, but remains behind bars
By Andrew Goudsward and Luc Cohen WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Kilmar Abrego, the migrant whose wrongful deportation to El Salvador made him a symbol of President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration policies, won two key victories in U.S. courts on Wednesday but will remain behind bars on human smuggling charges for now. In dual rebukes to the Trump administration after Abrego was brought back to the U.S. to face the charges, one federal judge ruled that he must be released on bail, and another ruled that authorities must give his lawyers three days' notice before they try to deport him again to a different country. 'These rulings are a powerful rebuke of the government's lawless conduct and a critical safeguard for Kilmar's due process rights," Abrego's lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said in a statement. Still, Abrego will remain in criminal custody in Tennessee for at least 30 days. His lawyers, while pushing for his release on bail, had asked that any such order be delayed given the risk that immigration authorities could swiftly detain and deport him upon his exit from jail. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin in a statement accused Abrego of being a member of the Salvadoran gang MS-13 and said he "will never walk America's streets again." Abrego denies being part of the gang. Abrego, 29, a Salvadoran migrant who had been living in Maryland, was deported and imprisoned in El Salvador in March despite a 2019 judicial ruling that he could not be sent there because of a risk of gang persecution. That prompted Trump's critics to argue that his administration was infringing on legal rights as it moved aggressively to deport millions of migrants living illegally in the U.S. Abrego then challenged that deportation in a civil lawsuit before U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland. The U.S. Supreme Court in April upheld Xinis' order that the administration facilitate Abrego's return. In June, U.S. officials brought Abrego back to the U.S. after securing an indictment accusing him of transporting migrants in the U.S. illegally as part of a smuggling ring. Abrego has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has been held in criminal custody in Tennessee since his return. His lawyers have accused the Trump administration of bringing the charges to cover up violations of his rights. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville, Tennessee last month granted Abrego's request to be released ahead of his trial. But Abrego's lawyers later asked Holmes not to release Abrego right away, citing the risk he would be detained and deported to a country other than El Salvador. Federal prosecutors challenged Holmes' ruling. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw rejected that challenge, writing that prosecutors had not shown sufficient evidence that Abrego posed a public safety threat or was a flight risk to justify his continued detention ahead of trial. But he said the government was entitled to another hearing over whether to detain Abrego due to their allegation that he sometimes transported children. After Crenshaw's order on Wednesday, Holmes said she would delay her order for release by at least 30 days. In a simultaneous decision on Wednesday, Xinis ruled that if Abrego is released from criminal custody, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could not detain him in Tennessee. She also ruled that his immigration case must be returned to Maryland, and that he must be notified at least three days before any deportation to a third country. On Xinis' ruling, McLaughlin said, "The fact this unhinged judge is trying to tell ICE they can't arrest someone who is subject to immigration arrest under federal law is insane." Xinis' order did not bar immigration authorities in Maryland from taking him into custody. (Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Additional reporting by Jan Wolfe, Jack Queen, Ted Hesson and Luc Cohen; Editing by Deepa Babington and Noeleen Walder)
