Lebanese military court sentences Daesh official to 160 years in prison

Smoke rises during clashes in Ein El-Hilweh camp, Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, near the southern coastal city of Sidon, on February 28, 2017. (AFP/File)
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Updated 27 September 2023
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Lebanese military court sentences Daesh official to 160 years in prison

  • Imad Yassin, a Palestinian in his 50s, confessed to all 11 charges against him

BEIRUT: Lebanese military court has sentenced an official with the extremist Daesh group to 160 years in prison for carrying out deadly attacks against security forces and planning others targeting government buildings and crowded civilian areas, judicial officials said Wednesday.

The officials said Imad Yassin, a Palestinian in his 50s, confessed to all 11 charges against him, including joining a “terrorist organization,” committing crimes in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp of Ein El-Hilweh, shooting at Lebanese soldiers, and transporting weapons and munitions for militant groups.

Yassin, also known as Imad Akl, said he was planning several other attacks, including blowing up two main power stations, the headquarters of a major local television station in Beirut, killing a leading politician, as well as planning attacks on hotels north of Beirut, the officials said on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Before joining Daesh, Yassin was a member of other militant groups, including Al-Qaeda-linked Jund Al-Sham, which is still active in Ein El-Hilweh. In later years, he became Daesh’s top official in the camp.

Yassin was detained in Ein El-Hilweh, near the port city of Sidon, six years ago and has been held since. The total 11 sentences that he received count to up to 160 years in prison, the officials said.

The session during which he was sentenced started on Monday night and lasted until the early hours of Tuesday. 

At the height of its rise in Iraq and Syria in 2014, Daesh claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in different parts of Lebanon that left scores of people dead.


Use of US bunker-buster bomb looms over Iran conflict

Updated 2 sec ago
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Use of US bunker-buster bomb looms over Iran conflict

  • The GBU-57 is a 30,000-pound warhead capable of penetrating 200 feet underground before exploding
  • It is missing from Israel’s arsenal despite its stated goal of preventing Iran from building a nuclear bomb
WASHINGTON: A powerful American bunker-busting bomb is the only weapon capable of destroying Iran’s deeply buried nuclear facilities, making it President Donald Trump’s weapon of choice if he chooses to militarily back Israel.
The GBU-57, a 30,000-pound (13,607 kg) warhead capable of penetrating 200 feet (61 meters) underground before exploding, is missing from Israel’s arsenal despite its stated goal of preventing Iran from building a nuclear bomb.
In less than a week, the Israeli army has taken out Iranian military commanders and damaged numerous surface installations, raising more questions than answers.
“The regime’s missile stockpiles, launchers, military bases, production facilities, nuclear scientists, military command and control has taken a very severe beating,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, director of the Iran program at the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a conservative-leaning group.
“But there are still outsized questions as to how efficacious of a strike Israel had against the beating hearts of Iran’s nuclear program,” Taleblu said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported no damage at Fordo, a uranium enrichment plant south of Tehran. Unlike the Natanz and Isfahan sites in central Iran, Fordo is buried deep underground, beyond the reach of Israeli bombs.
“All eyes will be on Fordo, which is buried under about 300 feet of rock in central Iran,” Taleblu said.
Former US Army lieutenant general and Rand Corporation defense researcher Mark Schwartz insists that “only the United States has the conventional capacity” to destroy such a site.
And by “conventional capacity,” he means the non-nuclear GBU-57 bomb.
The US military says the GBU-57 – also named Massive Ordnance Penetrator – “is designed to penetrate up to 200 feet underground before exploding,” navigating through rock and concrete.
This differs from missiles or bombs that typically detonate their payload near or upon impact.
“To defeat these deeply buried targets, these weapons need to be designed with rather thick casings of steel, hardened steel, to sort of punch through these layers of rock,” said Masao Dahlgren, a fellow working on missile defense for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based research center.
The 6.6-meter-long GBU-57 also has a specialized fuse because “you need an explosive that’s not going to immediately explode under that much shock and pressure,” Dahlgren said.
Design for this bomb began in the early 2000s, and an order for 20 units was placed with Boeing in 2009.
The only aircraft capable of deploying the GBU-57 is an American B-2 Bomber, a stealth aircraft.
Some of these bombers were deployed in early May on Diego Garcia, the site of a joint UK-US military base in the Indian Ocean, but were no longer visible by mid-June, according to AFP’s analysis of satellite imagery provided by Planet Labs.
With their long-range capabilities, B-2s departing from the United States “are able to fly all the way to the Middle East to do bombing runs. That’s been done before,” Dahlgren said.
Each B-2 can carry two GBU-57 bombs, and Schwartz said multiple bombs will likely be needed.
“They’re not going to just be one and done,” he said.
Schwartz added that the air superiority Israel has established over Iran reduces the risks faced by the B-2 bombers.
Such a US intervention would come with “a lot of political baggage for America,” Taleblu said, emphasizing that the bunker-buster bomb is not the only way to address Iran’s nuclear program.
Without the GBU-57 bombs, and short of a diplomatic solution, Taleblu said Israelis could attack access to underground complexes like Fordo by “trying to hit entrances, collapse what they can, cut electricity” and take other measures that have already been taken at Natanz.

Syrian farmers pay price of worst drought in decades

Updated 18 June 2025
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Syrian farmers pay price of worst drought in decades

  • One fruit grower forced to chop down dead pear trees and use them for firewood

DAMASCUS: Syria’s worst drought in decades is taking a devastating toll on the agricultural region of Al-Nashabiyah east of Damascus.
Water reserves are down by more than 60 percent on previous years, levels in dams in March were lower than the past two years, and some areas have lost more than 70 percent of their groundwater reserves.
Farmer Mati Mohammed Nasser expects to lose his whole harvest of wheat, pears, plums and other fruit and vegetables. He usually picks about 200 kg of pears a year from trees he has raised from seedlings, but this year he will chop down the dead trees and use them for firewood.
He paid almost $2,000 to dig a deep well, but the water was only a couple of centimeters deep.
“What are we supposed to do with that?” he said. “We have lost hope. We sold everything we had and invested it into the land.”

Another farmer, Al-Nashabiyah’s deputy mayor Mahmoud Al-Hobeish, is $4,000 in debt. “People are asking for it and they know I cannot pay,” he said.


Israel-Iran air war enters sixth day, Trump calls for Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender’

Updated 18 June 2025
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Israel-Iran air war enters sixth day, Trump calls for Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender’

  • US moves additional fighter jets to region
  • Trump says whereabouts of Iranian leader Khamenei are known

JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON/DUBAI: Iran and Israel launched new missile strikes at each other on Wednesday as the air war between the two longtime enemies entered a sixth day despite a call from US President Donald Trump for Iran’s unconditional surrender.
The Israeli military said two barrages of Iranian missiles were launched toward Israel in the first two hours of Wednesday morning. Explosions were heard over Tel Aviv.
Israel told residents in the area of Tehran to evacuate so its air force could strike Iranian military installations. Iranian news websites said explosions were heard in Tehran and the city of Karaj west of the capital.
Trump warned on social media on Tuesday that US patience was wearing thin. While he said there was no intention to kill Iran’s leader “for now,” his comments suggested a more aggressive stance toward Iran as he weighs whether to deepen US involvement.
“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” he wrote on Truth Social, referring to Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “We are not going to take him out , at least not for now ... Our patience is wearing thin.”
Three minutes later Trump posted, “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!“
A White House official said Trump spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone on Tuesday.
Trump’s sometimes contradictory and cryptic messaging about the conflict between close US ally Israel and longtime foe Iran has deepened the uncertainty surrounding the crisis. His public comments have ranged from military threats to diplomatic overtures, not uncommon for a president known for an often erratic approach to foreign policy.
Britain’s leader Keir Starmer, speaking at the Group of Seven nations summit in Canada that Trump left early, said there was no indication the US was about to enter the conflict.
Trump met for 90 minutes with his National Security Council on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the conflict, a White House official said. Details were not immediately available.
The US is deploying more fighter aircraft to the Middle East and extending the deployment of other warplanes, three US officials told Reuters. The US has so far only taken defensive actions in the current conflict with Iran, including helping to shoot down missiles fired toward Israel.

Regional influence weakens
Khamenei’s main military and security advisers have been killed by Israeli strikes, hollowing out his inner circle and raising the risk of strategic errors, according to five people familiar with his decision-making process.
With Iranian leaders suffering their most dangerous security breach since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the country’s cybersecurity command banned officials from using communications devices and mobile phones, Fars news agency reported.
Israel launched a “massive cyber war” against Iran’s digital infrastructure, Iranian media reported.
Ever since Iran-backed Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, and triggered the Gaza war, Khamenei’s regional influence has waned as Israel has pounded Iran’s proxies — from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq. Iran’s close ally, Syria’s autocratic president Bashar Assad, has been ousted.
Israel launched its air war, its largest ever on Iran, on Friday after saying it had concluded the Islamic Republic was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and has pointed to its right to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, including enrichment, as a party to the international Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Israel, which is not a party to the NPT, is the only country in the Middle East believed to have nuclear weapons. Israel does not deny or confirm that.
Netanyahu has stressed that he will not back down until Iran’s nuclear development is disabled, while Trump says the Israeli assault could end if Iran agrees to strict curbs on enrichment.
Before Israel’s attack began, the 35-nation board of governors of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years.
The IAEA said on Tuesday an Israeli strike directly hit the underground enrichment halls at the Natanz facility.
Israel says it now has control of Iranian airspace and intends to escalate the campaign in coming days.
But Israel will struggle to deal a knock-out blow to deeply buried nuclear sites like Fordow, which is dug beneath a mountain, without the US joining the attack.
Iranian officials have reported 224 deaths, mostly civilians, while Israel said 24 civilians had been killed. Residents of both countries have been evacuated or fled.
Global oil markets are on high alert following strikes on sites including the world’s biggest gas field, South Pars, shared by Iran and Qatar.


Iran celebrates state TV presenter after Israeli attack

Updated 18 June 2025
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Iran celebrates state TV presenter after Israeli attack

  • “This dust you see in the studio...” she began, her finger raised, before being interrupted by the sound of yet another blast

TEHRAN: Facing the camera with a defiant gaze, her index finger raised in the air, Iranian TV presenter Sahar Emami became an icon in her country after an Israeli attack on the state broadcaster.
“What you can see is the flagrant aggression of the Zionist regime against the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Iranian broadcaster,” she said on air Monday as several explosions were heard in the background.
“What you just heard was the sound of an aggressor against the motherland, the sound of an aggressor against truth,” added Emami, who is known for her impactful interviews with government officials.
“This dust you see in the studio...” she began, her finger raised, before being interrupted by the sound of yet another blast.
The journalist, clad in a black chador, rushed out of her seat and disappeared from view.
The destruction in the studio, which quickly filled with smoke and dust, was broadcast live before the transmission was cut.
Emami, who Iranian media say is in her 40s, is a familiar face to viewers in the Islamic republic after some 15 years on air with state television.
She resumed the broadcast just a few minutes after the attack, as if nothing unusual had happened.
The broadcaster’s headquarters in the capital Tehran with its recognizable glass exterior was badly damaged in the fire that broke out as a result of the Israeli attack.
Official media shared images of charred offices and studios no longer usable.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday denounced Israel’s “cowardice” in striking the state television building, in an attack that the broadcaster said killed three people.
“The attack against the Iranian broadcaster demonstrates the Israelis’ desperation,” Araghchi said.
Conservative newspaper Farhikhtegan said on its front page on Tuesday: “Female journalist’s resistance until the last moment sends a clear message.”
Ultraconservative publication Kayhan said: “The courage of the lioness presenter surprised friends and foes.”
The government put up a banner in Tehran’s central Vali-Asr Square honoring Emami, showing her image paired with a verse from the Persian poet Ferdowsi that celebrated the courage of women “on the battlefield.”
The state broadcaster has aired the clip of Emami during Monday’s attacks multiple times since then, celebrating its presenter.
State TV meanwhile mocked a reporter for the London-based Iran International TV, which is critical of the Iranian government.
In footage from a live broadcast, the reporter in Israel is seen rushing to a bomb shelter after warnings of incoming missiles from Iran.
 

 


Iran asks its people to delete WhatsApp from their devices

Updated 18 June 2025
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Iran asks its people to delete WhatsApp from their devices

  • Iran has blocked access to various social media platforms over the years but many people in the country use proxies and virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access them

Iranian state television on Tuesday afternoon urged the country’s public to remove the messaging platform WhatsApp from their smartphones, alleging the app — without offering specific evidence — gathered user information to send to Israel.
In a statement, WhatsApp said it was “concerned these false reports will be an excuse for our services to be blocked at a time when people need them the most.” WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, meaning a service provider in the middle can’t read a message.
“We do not track your precise location, we don’t keep logs of who everyone is messaging and we do not track the personal messages people are sending one another,” it added. “We do not provide bulk information to any government.”
End-to-end encryption means that messages are scrambled so that only the sender and recipient can see them. If anyone else intercepts the message, all they will see is a garble that can’t be unscrambled without the key.
Gregory Falco, an assistant professor of engineering at Cornell University and cybersecurity expert, said it’s been demonstrated that it’s possible to understand metadata about WhatsApp that does not get encrypted.
“So you can understand things about how people are using the app and that’s been a consistent issue where people have not been interested in engaging with WhatsApp for that (reason),” he said.
Another issue is data sovereignty, Falco added, where data centers hosting WhatsApp data from a certain country are not necessarily located in that country. It’s more than feasible, for instance, that WhatsApp’s data from Iran is not hosted in Iran.
“Countries need to house their data in-country and process the data in-country with their own algorithms. Because it’s really hard increasingly to trust the global network of data infrastructure,” he said.
WhatsApp is owned by Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
Iran has blocked access to various social media platforms over the years but many people in the country use proxies and virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access them. It banned WhatsApp and Google Play in 2022 during mass protests against the government over the death of a woman held by the country’s morality police. That ban was lifted late last year.
WhatsApp had been one of Iran’s most popular messaging apps besides Instagram and Telegram.