Israel's strike on Iran's Evin prison sparks fear for political prisoners
BEIRUT (AP) — 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 spokesman 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.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
18 minutes ago
58 killed in intensified Israeli strikes in Gaza, ahead of another ceasefire push
Israeli strikes killed at least 58 people across Gaza on Monday, as residents in the enclave's north reported one of the heaviest bombardments in weeks. It comes as 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. The Israeli military issued evacuation orders on Monday to residents in large districts in the northern Gaza Strip, forcing a new wave of displacement. 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 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. All of us have children, we're innocent. We were sleeping in our tents, Nisreen Abu Zaid, a 45-year-old mother of four, told CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife on Monday. A man places his head on the body of a Palestinian during a funeral at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City on Monday. He was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school on Sunday, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. (Mahmoud Issa/Reuters) Photo: (Mahmoud Issa/Reuters) Amani Salouha, 36, said her husband was killed last Wednesday in an earlier Israeli strike in Gaza City, leaving her as the sole caretaker of their three children. Now I'm taking care of the children [alone]. Where are we going to flee in the middle of the night? What is their fault in any of this? Salouha said At least 58 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Monday, Gaza health authorities said, including 10 people killed in Zeitoun and at least 13 killed southwest of Gaza City. Medics said most of the 13 were hit by gunfire, but residents also reported an airstrike. Twenty people, including a local journalist, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a beachfront café in Gaza City, medics said. The Palestinian Journalist Syndicate said more than 220 journalists had been killed in Gaza since the war began in October 2023. The Israeli military claimed it struck militant targets in northern Gaza, including command and control centres, after taking steps to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, but it did not provide any evidence. 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. Palestinians examine the damage left behind after an Israeli strike on Al-Falah School in Gaza City on Monday. (Mohamed El Saife/CBC) Photo: (Mohamed El Saife/CBC) Netanyahu's security cabinet to discuss next steps 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. Dermer was expected to begin meetings with Trump administration officials on Tuesday, the source in Washington said. Alongside talks on Gaza ceasefire prospects, Dermer also plans to discuss Netanyahu's possible visit to the White House in coming weeks, according to the source familiar with the matter. 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. WATCH | Hundreds killed near aid distribution sites in Gaza: Début du widget Widget. Passer le widget ? Fin du widget Widget. Retourner au début du widget ? Aid distribution in Gaza goes 'against every humanitarian principle,' UNICEF specialist says 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. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Israel has agreed to a U.S.-proposed 60-day ceasefire and hostage deal, and put the onus on Hamas. Israel is serious in its will to reach a hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza, Saar told reporters in Jerusalem. 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. More than 80 per cent of the territory is now an Israeli-militarized zone or under displacement orders, according to the United Nations. Thomson Reuters with files from CBC News and Mohamed El Saife
Toronto Star
40 minutes ago
- Toronto Star
Military requesting to pull 200 troops back from California protest duty
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top military commander in charge of troops deployed to Los Angeles to respond to protests against immigration raids has asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth if 200 of those forces could be returned to wildfire fighting duty, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Monday. President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of about 4,000 California National Guard troops and 800 active duty Marines against the wishes of Gov. Gavin Newsom in early June to respond to a series of protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles.
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Military requesting to pull 200 troops back from California protest duty
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top military commander in charge of troops deployed to Los Angeles to respond to protests against immigration raids has asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth if 200 of those forces could be returned to wildfire fighting duty, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Monday. President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of about 4,000 California National Guard troops and 800 active duty Marines against the wishes of Gov. Gavin Newsom in early June to respond to a series of protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles. The federal troops' domestic deployment raised multiple legal questions, including whether the administration would seek to employ emergency powers under the Insurrection Act to empower those forces to conduct law enforcement on U.S. soil, which they are not permitted to do except in rare circumstances. The Marines, however, are primarily assigned to protecting federal buildings. The Insurrection Act has not been used. But in at least one circumstance, Marines have temporarily detained civilians in Los Angeles. California has just entered peak wildfire season, and Newsom has warned that the Guard is now understaffed due to the Los Angeles protest deployment. The top military commander of those troops, U.S. Northern Command head Gen. Gregory Guillot, recently submitted a request to Hegseth to return 200 of the National Guard troops back to Joint Task Force Rattlesnake, which is the California National Guard's wildfire unit, the officials said. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details not yet announced publicly. Trump has contended that 'there has been an invasion' of migrants entering the country without legal permission. At the height of the deployments some members of Congress in their annual budget hearings with the secretary questioned whether he foresaw extending the deployment nationwide, Hegseth did not provide a direct response. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, at the time told the lawmakers 'I don't see any foreign, state-sponsored folks invading, but I'll be mindful of the fact that there have been some border issues.'
