Middle East

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday said his country was expanding the scope of Iran metals sanctions to hit Iran’s nuclear, military or ballistic missile programs.

Multiple explosions were reported on Sunday evening at a weapon depot used by Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds forces and pro-Iranian Iraqi militias of Hashd al-Shaabi, a security force told Avatoday.

27 Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders including Esmail Qaani the commanders of Quds force were on Iran’s Mahan Air flight from Tehran to Beirut that was ‘visual inspected’ by a US F-15 over Syrian on Thursday night, a source in IRGC told Avatoday.

Emine Erdogan, wife of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has given a $2 million-dollar worth diamond necklace to Esra Erdogan, her elder daughter in 2013 for her birthday, a source in the Turkish interior ministry told Avatoday.

At least 35 Iran-backed militias were reported dead on Saturday in an unidentified airstrike in Deir ez-Zor province in eastern Syria.

A second round of airstrikes in less than 24 hours in Syria resulted in killing 9 more Iran-backed militias. A previous attack killed six militias also supported by Tehran, Syrian observatory group said late on Sunday.

At least six members of pro-Iranian militias in Syria, including four of Syrian nationalities, were killed overnight after an unidentified aircraft targeted Iranian bases in the eastern Syrian city of Deir ez-Zur, Syrian human rights observatory group reported.

Iraqi forces late on Thursday attacked a headquarters belonging to the powerful militia of Kataib Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, and arrested more than a dozen militias including three commanders, Reuters cited local officials

Iran said it will hold an online conference with top Russian and Turkish officials on Syria amid a coronavirus pandemic.

Missiles that attacked a Saudi oil complex last year came from the Islamic Republic of Iran, the United Nations said in a confidential report, Bloomberg reported on Friday.