Latest news with #Khuzestan
Reuters
3 days ago
- General
- Reuters
Fire at Iran's Abadan refinery contained, one dead
DUBAI, July 19 (Reuters) - A fire broke out on Saturday at a unit of Iran's Abadan refinery, killing one employee, before being brought under control, the Iranian oil ministry's news agency reported. It said operations were unaffected. "According to initial technical probes, the cause of the fire was a leak in one of the pumps in Unit 70, and no evidence of sabotage or human intervention has been observed so far," SHANA said. Several workers suffered burns, and as many as three were in serious condition, Abadan governor Khosrow Pirhadi told state TV, adding that worn-out parts at the refinery may have caused the incident. Local news agencies carried videos showing large flames and plumes of dark smoke rising from part of the refinery, Iran's oldest crude processing facility. Abadan is in the southwestern Khuzestan province, currently among the hottest places in the world with temperatures close to 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit). The refinery, like almost all Iranian oil and gas processing plants, needs major works and renovation after decades of international sanctions.
Reuters
3 days ago
- General
- Reuters
Fire contained at Iran's Abadan refinery, one dead, SHANA says
DUBAI, July 19 (Reuters) - A fire that broke out on Saturday at a unit of Iran's Abadan refinery, killing one employee, has been brought under control, Iran's oil ministry's SHANA news agency reported. It said operations were unaffected. "According to initial technical probes, the cause of the fire was a leak in one of the pumps in Unit 70, and no evidence of sabotage or human intervention has been observed so far," Shana reported. State television said firefighters from Abadan and nearby areas had responded. Local new agencies earlier carried videos showing large flames and dark stacks of smoke rising from a segment of the refinery, Iran's oldest crude processing facility in the southwestern oil-rich Khuzestan Province, which is currently among one of the hottest places in the world. Temperatures are nearly 50 degrees Celsius (122°F). The refinery, like almost all Iranian oil and gas processing plants, needs major works and renovation.
Al Jazeera
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
US-Israel-Iran conflict: List of key events, June 23, 2025
Here's where things stand on Monday, June 23: Fighting Iran has fired ballistic missiles at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the United States' largest military installation in the Middle East. Doha said the attack was intercepted and there were no casualties. Fellow Gulf countries Bahrain and Kuwait – which also host US facilities – joined Qatar in closing their airspace, then reopened them. Earlier, Israel had struck Tehran's Evin Prison, notorious for holding political activists. Iranian state television shared surveillance footage of the strike, which reportedly blew the facility's gate open. Explosions were heard on the western outskirts of the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz, capital of oil-rich Khuzestan province, the Fars news agency reported. Tasnim news agency reported a strike at an electricity feeder station in the Evin neighbourhood in north Tehran. Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said his country had attacked 'regime targets and government repression bodies in the heart of Tehran', including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) command centres. Israel also carried out a strike on the Fordow enrichment facility, a day after the US hit the underground site south of Tehran with so-called 'bunker buster' bombs. The Israeli military issued an evacuation threat to residents of Tehran, telling them to stay away from weapons production centres and military bases. Iranian state television said on Monday that the country had targeted the Israeli cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv. It claimed the majority of its projectiles fired since the early hours of the day had successfully reached their targets. Sirens sounded across Israel before noon on Monday, with a large number of impacts recorded in several areas, including the Ashdod area in southern Israel and the Lachish area, south of Jerusalem. Casualties and disruptions Eleven days into the conflict, large numbers of Tehran's 10 million population have reportedly fled. After Israel's strike on Evin Prison, Iran's IRIB state broadcaster released video showing rescue workers combing the flattened wreckage of a building at the prison, carrying a wounded man on a stretcher. Iranian power company Tavanir said there were power cuts in the Iranian capital, Tehran. In Qatar, prior to Iran's attack on Al Udeid, the US and the United Kingdom had urged their citizens in the country to 'shelter in place'. Britain said on Monday that a Royal Air Force flight carrying 63 British nationals and their dependents out of Israel had left Tel Aviv. A number of airlines, including Kuwait Airways, Finnair and Singapore Airlines, have suspended operations in the Middle East. Air India said it was not only halting operations to the region, but also stopping flights to and from the US east coast and Europe. Politics and diplomacy After Iran's attack on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, US President Donald Trump thanked Tehran for giving him 'early notice' of the attack, with he described as a 'very weak response' to the US attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. In a separate post, he thanked the Emir of Qatar for his peace efforts. A spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry said that the country considered the Iranian attack to be a 'surprise', announcing the situation in the country was safe. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei posted on his Farsi-language X account: 'We have not violated anyone's rights, nor will we ever accept anyone violating ours, and we will not surrender to anyone's violation; this is the logic of the Iranian nation.' Earlier in the day, Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had said bases used by US forces 'in the region or elsewhere' could be attacked – that evening, Iran targeted Al Udeid in Qatar. Abdolrahim Mousavi, Iran's armed forces chief of staff, pledged that the country would take 'firm action' in response to US strikes on key nuclear sites the day before. 'This crime and desecration will not go unanswered,' he said on state television. Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson for Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya central military headquarters, addressed US intervention in the war in a video statement, saying: 'Mr Trump, the gambler, you may start this war, but we will be the ones to end it.' Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency said a parliamentary committee had approved a general plan to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Iran's mission to the United Nations said the US, the UK, France, Israel and IAEA chief Rafael Grossi were responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians and the destruction of infrastructure. Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed attacks on Iran as 'unprovoked' and 'unjustified' in a Moscow meeting with Tehran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, 'Our strategic partnership with Iran is unbreakable,' but was not drawn on the question of whether Iran had requested military help – or whether any help would be forthcoming. After Israel's attack on Tehran's Evin Prison, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote 'Viva la libertad!', Spanish for 'long live liberty', on X. French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that the Israeli strike on Tehran's Evin Prison, which holds some French prisoners, was unacceptable. China's UN ambassador, Fu Cong, said US credibility was 'damaged' after its bombing of Iran's nuclear sites, warning the conflict could 'go out of control', according to the state broadcaster. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said of Sunday's US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites: 'Yes, it is not without risk, but leaving it as it was wasn't an option either.' British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said his country stood ready to 'defend our personnel, our assets and those of our allies and partners'. NATO chief Mark Rutte said alliance members had 'long agreed that Iran must not develop a nuclear weapon' and called an Iranian atomic bomb his 'greatest fear'. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on China to help deter Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for one-fifth of the world's oil supply and a potential lever for retaliatory action. The European Union's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said closing the strait would be 'extremely dangerous'. US President Trump posted an online message on oil production to the US Department of Energy, encouraging it to 'drill, baby, drill', and saying, 'I mean now.' Reza Pahlavi, the long-exiled son of Iran's toppled shah, but not seen as a player with any real influence in Iran itself, warned the US and Europe not to throw a 'lifeline' to Iran's current leadership. 'This is our Berlin Wall moment,' he said in an interview with the AFP news agency.
LBCI
23-06-2025
- Politics
- LBCI
Explosions heard near Iranian city of Ahvaz: Media
Explosions were heard near the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz on Monday, the Fars news agency reported, as fighting raged between Israel and Iran for an 11th day. Fars said the blasts were heard on the western outskirts of the city, which is the capital of Khuzestan province on the border with Iraq. AFP
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Israel-Iran conflict: List of key events, June 21, 2025
Here's where things stand on Saturday, June 21: Israeli air strikes hit a key nuclear site in Iran's Isfahan province. An Israeli army spokesperson said the air force 'struck the central facility along with buildings used to produce centrifuges'. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that a centrifuge manufacturing workshop at the site was hit, adding that there was no nuclear material at the site and therefore no radiological consequences. The deputy governor of Isfahan said the cities of Lanjan, Mobarakeh, Shahreza and Isfahan were targeted. Iranian media reported a drone attack on Isfahan later. Israeli forces also hit a military installation in Shiraz. Fars news agency reported attacks on two cities in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan, saying 'frightening explosions' were heard in the provincial capital of Ahvaz and a large column of smoke had risen above the port city of Mahshahr. In other Israeli attacks, defence systems were activated over Najafabad, while explosions were reported in Malard. There were also reports of attacks on Tehran. The Israeli military's chief spokesperson said the army had been told to be prepared for a 'prolonged campaign' to destroy Iranian targets. The Iranian army said that the seventh and eighth stages of launching dozens of 'destructive' drones towards Israel had been carried out, with a report saying 'most of the drones hit the intended targets'. Iran's armed forces threatened to strike shipments of military aid to Israel, warning that 'any military or radar equipment by boat or aircraft from any country to assist the Zionist regime' would be considered a 'legitimate target'. The Israeli army said it had shot down approximately 40 drones launched from Iran. German newspaper Bild reported that Israel's foreign minister claimed that attacks on Iran had delayed the country's prospects of creating a nuclear bomb by 'at least two or three years'. Explosions were heard above Tel Aviv, where buildings were seen on fire. In central Israel, the emergency services released images showing fire on the roof of a multistorey residential building. A spokesperson for Yemen's Houthi group, in a video statement, threatened to attack US 'ships and warships' in the Red Sea should Washington get involved in Israel's campaign against defence minister said that Israeli forces killed three senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The IRGC said five of its members had died in Israeli attacks. At least five people were killed in Israeli attacks in the Iranian city of Khorramabad. An Israeli aircraft struck a residential building in Qom, killing a 16-year-old and injuring two people. Hussein Khalil, a former bodyguard for Hezbollah's slain leader Hassan Nasrallah killed in an Israeli strike on Tehran. Iran's Fars news agency quoted Health Minister Mohammadreza Zafarghandi as saying Israel had struck six ambulances and three hospitals, killing two health workers and a child in the attacks. Iran's deputy health minister said the department was preparing to treat any victims suffering from the effects of Israel's continued targeting of the country's nuclear capability, 'in the event that nuclear reactors are targeted'. Tasnim News Agency reported Iran's information minister as saying that access to 'international' internet should be fully restored across the country by 8pm on Saturday. Iran's health ministry said that Israeli strikes over the past nine days had killed at least 430 people and wounded approximately 3,500. In Israel, Iran's strikes have killed at least 25 people. The head of Qom province's intelligence police said the force had arrested 22 people 'on charges of being connected to the Zionist regime's spy services' since Israel's assault on the country began on June Berlin, more than 10,000 people gathered in the centre of the city in support of Gaza. More than 1,000 protesters joined a rally in front of Berlin's Reichstag, seat of the German Bundestag, to call for the leadership in Iran to be deposed. In London, pro-Palestine demonstrators marched through the city centre waving Iranian flags and calling for the UK government to stop allowing arms exports and military cooperation with Israel. A pro-Palestine march also took place in Stockholm. A mass rally took place in Baghdad's Shia district of Kadhimiya, under the slogan 'Iran is not alone'. Iran's president spoke with his French counterpart, warning of a 'more devastating' retaliation should Israel's bombing campaign continue, saying that Iran would not halt its nuclear programme 'under any circumstances'. Macron said that the pair had agreed to 'accelerate' nuclear negotiations between European powers and Iran. Iran must never acquire nuclear weapons, and it is up to it to provide every assurance that its intentions are peaceful,' he said. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson said no country has violated international human rights more than Israel, which 'has always felt complete immunity from punishment for its crimes'. Attending a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, Iran's foreign minister said the United States had been involved in Israel's 'aggression' from 'day one', despite denials from Washington. Addressing the OIC summit, Turkiye's president said Netanyahu was the 'biggest obstacle to regional peace' and that Israel's attacks on Iran aimed to sabotage nuclear talks with the US. Qatar's state news agency reported that Gulf Cooperation Council ambassadors expressed concerns to UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi about the 'dangerous repercussions' of Israel targeting Iran's nuclear facilities close to their countries. A German Foreign Ministry official said the country had temporarily relocated the staff of its embassy in Tehran abroad. India's embassy in Iran said it was 'evacuating all Indian Nationals in Iran'. Hundreds of US citizens have departed Iran using land routes over the past week.
