Nine killed in courthouse attack in southeast Iran
Another 22 were injured, state media reported.
Jaish al-Adl confirmed the deaths of its three members in the clashes with security forces in Zahedan, the capital of the far southeast province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, on Saturday.
Sistan-Baluchestan is home to Iran's Sunni Muslim Baluch minority, who have long complained of economic marginalisation and political exclusion.
A toddler and a 60-year-old woman were among those killed, as well as three soldiers and law enforcement personnel assigned to the courthouse, the head of the province's judiciary told IRNA.
He did not identify the sixth dead person.
He said the attackers wore explosive vests and carried grenades. It was not clear if they had detonated them.
Baloch Sunni jihadist militant organisation Jaish al-Adl, which claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Telegram account, said it had killed at least 30 members of the judiciary and security forces.
It said it targeted judges and court personnel, whom it accused of issuing death sentences and house demolition orders to Baluch citizens.
"We warn all judges and employees of the judiciary that Baluchestan will no longer be a safe place for them and death will follow them like terrifying shadows until retribution," the group said in its statement.
It blamed security forces for the deaths of civilians, saying they had fired indiscriminately.
The Baluch human rights group HAALVSH, quoting eyewitnesses, said several judiciary staff members and security personnel were killed or wounded when the assailants stormed the judges' chambers.
Sistan-Baluchestan is frequently hit by clashes between security forces and armed groups, including Sunni militants and separatists who say they are fighting for greater rights and autonomy.
Tehran accuses some of them of ties to foreign powers and involvement in cross-border smuggling and insurgency.
At least nine people have been killed in an armed attack by the Sunni Jaish al-Adl Baluch group on a courthouse in Iran's restive southeast Sistan-Baluchestan province, including three assailants.
Another 22 were injured, state media reported.
Jaish al-Adl confirmed the deaths of its three members in the clashes with security forces in Zahedan, the capital of the far southeast province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, on Saturday.
Sistan-Baluchestan is home to Iran's Sunni Muslim Baluch minority, who have long complained of economic marginalisation and political exclusion.
A toddler and a 60-year-old woman were among those killed, as well as three soldiers and law enforcement personnel assigned to the courthouse, the head of the province's judiciary told IRNA.
He did not identify the sixth dead person.
He said the attackers wore explosive vests and carried grenades. It was not clear if they had detonated them.
Baloch Sunni jihadist militant organisation Jaish al-Adl, which claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Telegram account, said it had killed at least 30 members of the judiciary and security forces.
It said it targeted judges and court personnel, whom it accused of issuing death sentences and house demolition orders to Baluch citizens.
"We warn all judges and employees of the judiciary that Baluchestan will no longer be a safe place for them and death will follow them like terrifying shadows until retribution," the group said in its statement.
It blamed security forces for the deaths of civilians, saying they had fired indiscriminately.
The Baluch human rights group HAALVSH, quoting eyewitnesses, said several judiciary staff members and security personnel were killed or wounded when the assailants stormed the judges' chambers.
Sistan-Baluchestan is frequently hit by clashes between security forces and armed groups, including Sunni militants and separatists who say they are fighting for greater rights and autonomy.
Tehran accuses some of them of ties to foreign powers and involvement in cross-border smuggling and insurgency.
At least nine people have been killed in an armed attack by the Sunni Jaish al-Adl Baluch group on a courthouse in Iran's restive southeast Sistan-Baluchestan province, including three assailants.
Another 22 were injured, state media reported.
Jaish al-Adl confirmed the deaths of its three members in the clashes with security forces in Zahedan, the capital of the far southeast province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, on Saturday.
Sistan-Baluchestan is home to Iran's Sunni Muslim Baluch minority, who have long complained of economic marginalisation and political exclusion.
A toddler and a 60-year-old woman were among those killed, as well as three soldiers and law enforcement personnel assigned to the courthouse, the head of the province's judiciary told IRNA.
He did not identify the sixth dead person.
He said the attackers wore explosive vests and carried grenades. It was not clear if they had detonated them.
Baloch Sunni jihadist militant organisation Jaish al-Adl, which claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Telegram account, said it had killed at least 30 members of the judiciary and security forces.
It said it targeted judges and court personnel, whom it accused of issuing death sentences and house demolition orders to Baluch citizens.
"We warn all judges and employees of the judiciary that Baluchestan will no longer be a safe place for them and death will follow them like terrifying shadows until retribution," the group said in its statement.
It blamed security forces for the deaths of civilians, saying they had fired indiscriminately.
The Baluch human rights group HAALVSH, quoting eyewitnesses, said several judiciary staff members and security personnel were killed or wounded when the assailants stormed the judges' chambers.
Sistan-Baluchestan is frequently hit by clashes between security forces and armed groups, including Sunni militants and separatists who say they are fighting for greater rights and autonomy.
Tehran accuses some of them of ties to foreign powers and involvement in cross-border smuggling and insurgency.
At least nine people have been killed in an armed attack by the Sunni Jaish al-Adl Baluch group on a courthouse in Iran's restive southeast Sistan-Baluchestan province, including three assailants.
Another 22 were injured, state media reported.
Jaish al-Adl confirmed the deaths of its three members in the clashes with security forces in Zahedan, the capital of the far southeast province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, on Saturday.
Sistan-Baluchestan is home to Iran's Sunni Muslim Baluch minority, who have long complained of economic marginalisation and political exclusion.
A toddler and a 60-year-old woman were among those killed, as well as three soldiers and law enforcement personnel assigned to the courthouse, the head of the province's judiciary told IRNA.
He did not identify the sixth dead person.
He said the attackers wore explosive vests and carried grenades. It was not clear if they had detonated them.
Baloch Sunni jihadist militant organisation Jaish al-Adl, which claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Telegram account, said it had killed at least 30 members of the judiciary and security forces.
It said it targeted judges and court personnel, whom it accused of issuing death sentences and house demolition orders to Baluch citizens.
"We warn all judges and employees of the judiciary that Baluchestan will no longer be a safe place for them and death will follow them like terrifying shadows until retribution," the group said in its statement.
It blamed security forces for the deaths of civilians, saying they had fired indiscriminately.
The Baluch human rights group HAALVSH, quoting eyewitnesses, said several judiciary staff members and security personnel were killed or wounded when the assailants stormed the judges' chambers.
Sistan-Baluchestan is frequently hit by clashes between security forces and armed groups, including Sunni militants and separatists who say they are fighting for greater rights and autonomy.
Tehran accuses some of them of ties to foreign powers and involvement in cross-border smuggling and insurgency.
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News.com.au
18 hours ago
- News.com.au
Russian deserters facing brutal punishments in Ukraine
Brutal punishments meted out to Russian deserters in the gruelling war with Ukraine are being shared in harrowing videos from the front lines. Soldiers accused of abandoning their posts are tied to trees and left for dead, forced to fight fellow deserters in pits or dragged along behind cars by their comrades. Some of the videos posted to social media sites such as Telegram and obtained by CNN show bound soldiers being viciously assaulted and urinated on. In one clip, a man's voice can be heard as he opens a large metal storage tank holding three men stripped down to their underwear. 'Time to feed the animals! The ones who tried to f*** off,' he says. 'Let's find out what they are doing.' The man asks if the men were hungry: 'Do you want a cookie?' One of the captives nods and a biscuit is crumbled into his hands, which he eats. Ukrainian soldiers report intercepting radio communications of enemy battalions describing the punishments as sacrifices to the witch Baba Yaga – who in Slavic folklore eats children. 'Any large Ukrainian drone they call Baba Yaga. It spreads terrible panic in these damaged people,' the commander, who goes by the call sign Munin, told CNN. 'For them, it's some kind of scary myth that flies in and kills everyone.' Tens of thousands of Russians are estimated to have deserted their army since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. Get Lost, which helps men desert or avoid conscription, says it has facilitated the escape of 1700 Russians. 'Their lives are not worth anything to their commanders,' founder Grigory Sverdlin said. 'For Russian officers, losing a tank, losing a vehicle, is much worse than losing, say, 10 or 20 people. 'We often hear from our clients that officers tell them they will all be dead in a week. The officer will get another unit, so it's not a problem for them.' US-based Institute for the Study of War cites apparently leaked data from Russia's Defence Ministry that suggests as many as 50,000 men could have deserted so far. Trump's ultimatum to Putin US President Donald Trump on Monday issued Moscow with a dramatic new deadline to end the war or face tough new sanctions, as he met UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland. Saying he was not very interested in talking to the Russian leader anymore, Mr Trump said he was 'very disappointed' with Putin over continued strikes against Ukrainian civilian targets. He announced that he was reducing an earlier 50-day deadline set on July 14 for Mr Putin to bring the Ukraine conflict to an end to 'about 10 or 12 days', starting immediately. 'There is no reason in waiting,' Mr Trump said, adding he thought Mr Putin would want to end things quickly. 'I really felt it was going to end. But every time I think it's going to end he kills people. 'I'm not so interested in talking (to him) anymore.' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky swiftly praised the US leader's stand, thanking Mr Trump for his 'clear stance and expressed determination'. 'Right on time, when a lot can change through strength for real peace,' Mr Zelensky said on social media. 'I thank President Trump for his focus on saving lives and stopping this horrible war.'
7NEWS
2 days ago
- 7NEWS
The brutal punishments for soldiers no longer willing to fight for Putin
WARNING: Graphic content Russian soldiers call the practice a sacrifice to Baba Yaga, a fearsome witch from Slavic folklore who feasts on her victims. A Russian serviceman is seen on video being tied up to a tree and abandoned to his fate – possibly death – at the hands of one of Ukraine's large attack drones. Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Why this is happening is clear from a radio intercept about a similar incident, shared with CNN, in which a Russian commander can clearly be heard ordering a subordinate be tied up in this way as punishment for desertion. The instruction is given twice: 'Hide him somewhere (while the fighting is ongoing) then take him out and tie him to a tree … in the next half hour.' A Ukrainian drone battalion commander says he has observed it happen twice and heard it happening on radio intercepts many more times. 'Any large Ukrainian drone they call Baba Yaga. It spreads terrible panic in these damaged people. For them, it's some kind of scary myth that flies in and kills everyone,' the commander, who goes by the callsign Munin, told CNN. The practice is one of a sickening array of battlefield mistreatments recorded on video either by Ukrainian surveillance drones or Russian servicemen and then circulated on social media. As Moscow's forces make slow but seemingly inexorable progress inside Ukraine, the videos paint a grim picture of the realities of life inside Putin's army – a service which tens of thousands of Russian men are estimated to have fled since the start of the full-scale invasion in early 2022. In the video, apparently filmed last winter, the man is shown in close-up, tied to a tree. The man says he is from Kamensk-Uralsky, a city in Russia's centre, on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains. He explains that he fled his post after being spooked by a Ukrainian drone flying overhead. A fellow soldier who caught up with him then made him an offer, he says. 'Let me make you '300' so you'll be withdrawn,' the soldier had said, using a term signifying a wounded fighter in the Russian army. Then came the quid pro quo. 'You shoot me, and I will shoot you.' The man tells the camera he refused but says the other soldier shot him anyway, rendering him an easy capture by men from his unit. With a thick cable now tethering him to the tree, he looks nervously to the skies as a voice behind the camera tells him there is a drone on the way. '(If the drone) comes here, she's going to drop everything on you,' the voice taunts. At this point, the clip ends, the soldier's fate unclear. Desperate appeals to Putin In common with many armies, Russia does not talk publicly about desertion in the ranks. But social media channels – usually Telegram – provide a glimpse into the deep anxieties and desperation felt by many soldiers and their families and give a sense of why some Russian servicemen chose to quit. 'Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich,' begins one video posted to Telegram by a man identified as Yuri Duryagin, in what amounts to a personal appeal to Russia's President Putin for help. In one video, two men in a shallow pit, both apparently deserters, are told to fight one another, with only the victor allowed to get out when it is over. Credit: Telegram/CNN Duryagin says he was fighting in Ukraine's Donetsk region, where poor equipment and a lack of ammunition meant only 32 men from his company survived one particular assault. Typically, a company might have up to 150 personnel. He tells Putin he has received less than a fifth of his salary but adds his superiors tell him he would be wasting his time complaining. When deaths occurred on the battlefield, they were often covered up to avoid paying compensation to families of the bereaved. 'I personally saw comrades die before my eyes. They were killed. Parents tried to find out information about their relatives and loved ones, but they were told that the person was missing,' he says. Perhaps most damning of all, he appears to accuse one commander of shooting those who refuse to take part, saying he 'put people up against the wall because they simply refused to go up against a machine gun.' 'They will all be dead in a week' 'Violence is what is keeping the Russian army going and what is glueing it together,' said Grigory Sverdlin, founder of Get Lost, an organisation helping Russian men to desert, or to avoid conscription in the first place. He spoke to CNN from Barcelona, Spain, where the organisation is now based. Get Lost has helped 1700 people to desert since it was launched six months into the full-scale invasion, Sverdlin claims. The total number of desertions from the Russian army is hard to determine but he estimates it to be in the tens of thousands. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based analysis group, cites what it says is leaked data from Russia's Defence Ministry that suggests it could be as high as 50,000. Many desert before they are deployed, complaining of poor training lasting just one to three weeks, Sverdlin said, while those who quit during deployment often describe a culture marked by nihilism. 'Their lives are not worth anything to their commanders. For Russian officers, losing a tank, losing a vehicle, is much worse than losing, say, 10 or 20 people,' Sverdlin said. 'We often hear from our clients that officers tell them they will all be dead in a week. The officer will get another unit, so it's not a problem for them.' For Russian soldiers convicted of desertion, the sentence can be up to 15 years in prison. But the videos circulated on social media indicate ad hoc punishments are also widely carried out on the ground, with the same aim of deterring others from running away. In one, a man behind a camera approaches a large metal storage tank with a ladder on the side. 'Time to feed the animals! The ones who tried to f**k off! Let's find out what they are doing,' the man's voice says, sliding open the container lid to reveal three men stripped to their underwear hunkered down inside. 'You hungry?' the voice taunts. 'Do you want a cookie?' One of the men nods and a biscuit is crumbled into his outspread hands, which he quickly eats. Another video shows a man cowering on the ground as he is kicked repeatedly in the face. He has an orange belt tied to one of his ankles. The other end is attached to a jeep, which drives off at speed, circling a field, dragging the man bouncing behind it in a punishment known colloquially as 'the carousel.' A soldier tied to a tree with a bucket over his head. Credit: CNN/Telegram And in another, a man is tied to a tree with a rusty bucket over his head. 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Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Former Sydney cafe owner jailed over child abuse material
Rebbeck came to the attention of police in April 2023 when they identified a Zoom meeting he was logged into. Search warrants were sought and Rebbeck was arrested several months later. In his initial police interview, he admitted to possessing child abuse material, gave police his pin codes and passwords and told them they would find it on his phone under the Telegram account named 'SydF—k'. Rebbeck pleaded guilty to four child abuse material charges and was called to give evidence during sentencing submissions before Judge Robert Newlinds SC. He agreed with a psychologist's assessment that he appeared to be in a disinhibited drug-fuelled state during the period of offending due to heavy 'stimulant usage' which affected his cognitive functioning and lowered his behavioural inhibition. Asked if he believed he had an underlying sexual interest in children, Rebbeck said he did not and that the offending stemmed from the heavy drug use he turned to while depressed. His barrister, Jeremy Etkind, told the court Rebbeck accepted and was 'horrified' about the things he said, but didn't remember them. The Crown prosecutor asked Rebbeck if he accepted there 'is a risk you have a sexual interest in children?' to which he replied: 'I guess, if drugs are involved'. No one 'pretends from time to time they don't have impulses that are bad, but many people don't act on that,' Newlinds said, adding that if Rebbeck did not have an interest in children, there would be 'nothing to control'. 'It's very easy for people to think 'I'm just looking at photos' but all the images are horrible and they're all real children,' the judge said. During sentencing submissions, Etkind tendered a previous Herald article, which named Rebbeck as the ninth person in NSW arrested by NSW Police under the child exploitation internet unit's Strike Force Packer, formed in March 2023 to investigate a child abuse ring whose members were allegedly hosting and joining video conferences to share child abuse videos. Etkind told Newlinds he did not suggest the media exposure equalled extra-curial punishment but said it was 'simply just embarrassment'. 'You can't hide from it. It's going to be known by everyone [and] noticed whenever anybody plugs that into the internet,' he said. Newlinds said that media reporting on child-abuse-related offending served as 'important general deterrence' because it was becoming 'more and more prevalent'. Rebbeck was sentenced to three years' jail with his sentence partially suspended after 20 months on the condition he enter a recognisance of $100 without security. Other conditions include undergoing mental health, alcohol and drug treatment. Strike Force Packer detectives said the paedophile syndicate they discovered spread across Australia and the world, with hundreds of users in Europe, Asia and the US. Detective Superintendent Jayne Doherty earlier told this masthead the investigation found 'hundreds of people' with a common motive who viewed the sessions and even exposed themselves during the events. 'They have cameras open … so they can see each other getting pleasure from it. In the general person's world, this is unthinkable, but for these guys it's the norm,' the state's top anti-child abuse detective said. Doherty said the alleged perpetrators used multiple platforms, many of which had gained popularity through the pandemic, and it was unclear how long the sessions had been running. She described the alleged syndicate as very 'fluid', without clear hierarchy – but one Queensland man had been allegedly identified as a 'host' who shared files.
