TEHRAN: Several “powerful explosions” were heard Saturday afternoon in southwestern Iran’s Ahvaz, the daily Shargh reported, on the ninth day of hostilities between the Islamic republic and Israel.
Ahvaz is the capital of Khuzestan province, which is situated on the Iraqi border and is Iran’s main oil-producing region. The Israeli military had previously announced it was striking “military infrastructure” in the southwest.
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Meanwhile, with more than a week since the war begun between Iran and Israel, least 430 people were killed and 3,500 were wounded in Iran, Iranian state-run Nour News reported on Saturday, citing the country’s health ministry. Israel recently targetted a military installation in Shiraz but no casualities have been reported as per the ISNA agency.
Earlier today, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that the military had killed a veteran commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ overseas arm, in a strike in an apartment in Iran’s Qom province.
The commander, Saeed Izadi, led the Palestine Corps of the overseas arm, or Quds Force, Katz said in a statement. The Israeli military later said that it killed a second commander of the Guards’ overseas arm, who it identified as Benham Shariyari, during a strike on his vehicle overnight in western Tehran.
It said the commander “was responsible for all weapons transfers from the Iranian regime to its proxies across the Middle East”. Shariyari supplied missiles and rockets launched at Israel to Hezbollah, Hamas and Yemen’s Houthis, according to the Israeli military.