US military says it destroyed Houthi air defense and drone systems in Red Sea are

DAMASCUS, Syria: Iran’s overseas minister Monday accused the US of giving Israel the “inexperienced gentle” for a strike on its consulate constructing in Syria that killed seven Iranian navy officers together with two generals.
Hossein Amirabdollahian reiterated Tehran’s vows that it’s going to reply to the assault, extensively blamed on Israel, that appeared to suggest an escalation of Israel’s concentrating on of navy officers from Iran, which helps militant teams combating Israel in Gaza, and alongside its border with Lebanon.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an handle Monday reiterated the Iran-backed group’s assist for a Tehran navy response to the assault that killed Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior navy official within the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Power, and worsened fears of the warfare spiraling into the remainder of the Center East.

Because the warfare in Gaza started six months in the past, clashes have elevated between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Hamas, which guidelines Gaza and attacked Israel on Oct. 7, can be backed by Iran, in addition to an umbrella group of Iraqi militias concentrating on US navy bases and positions in Syria and Iraq.
Although Israel has usually performed strikes concentrating on Iranian navy officers and allies, Zahedi’s dying was essentially the most vital blow for Tehran since a US drone focused and killed Quds Power chief Gen. Qassim Soleimani in 2020 in Baghdad.
“I’d prefer to say with a really loud voice from right here in Damascus that America has a accountability in what occurred and should be held accountable,” Amirabdollahian instructed reporters in Damascus throughout a go to the place he met his Syrian counterpart, Faisal Mekdad, who condemned each the strike and Israel’s offensive in Gaza. Amirabdollahian additionally met President Bashar Assad, with whom he mentioned Gaza and the broader state of affairs within the area, an announcement from Assad’s workplace mentioned.
The Iranian overseas minister, who earlier that day inaugurated the opening of a brand new consular part in a close-by constructing, justified his claims by saying that Washington and “two European nations” didn’t condemn the assault on the diplomatic constructing.
He mentioned that failure to sentence the assault “signifies that Washington had given the inexperienced gentle to Israel to commit this crime.”
The Biden administration has insisted that it had no advance data of the airstrike. Washington is Israel’s important navy ally.
Israel, which hardly ever acknowledges strikes towards Iranian targets, mentioned it had no touch upon the strike within the Syrian capital. Nonetheless, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh mentioned final week that the US has assessed Israel was accountable.
Initially after the strikes, Iranian state media mentioned Zahedi led the Quds Power in Lebanon and Syria till 2016.
Then, in a public handle Monday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah mentioned Zahedi was a key determine for the Lebanese group, and had three four-year stints within the tiny Mediterranean nation.
Nasrallah, like Syria, and different key allies of Tehran, have mentioned they continue to be dedicated to backing Iran.
“It’s a pure proper for Iran. It’s pure for the Islamic Republic to conduct this response (to the consulate assault),” Nasrallah mentioned.
Nasrallah mentioned Zahedi’s first involvement was till 2002, overseeing Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon, and serving to Hezbollah scale up. Zahedi’s second time period coated among the fiercest combating in Syria’s rebellion turned civil warfare, the place Tehran and Russia performed a key position in backing Assad towards opposition forces. Zahedi’s closing stint started in 2020 and ended when he was killed.
Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops have clashed alongside the tense Lebanon-Israel border since Oct. 8, the day after the Hamas assault on southern Israel.
The Hezbollah chief mentioned that the second the clashes started, Zahedi reportedly needed to hitch Hezbollah militants on the entrance line however wasn’t permitted to take action.
Earlier Monday, Israeli airstrikes over southern Lebanon killed Ali Ahmad Hussein, an elite commander of Hezbollah’s secretive Radwan Power. Hezbollah introduced Hussein’s dying, however didn’t give any particulars on the circumstances or his position with the group in keeping with the way it makes public the deaths of its members.
The killing of Hussein, some of the senior militants slain to date, got here forward of the Iranian overseas minister’s go to to Syria.
Israel considers Hezbollah its most severe rapid menace, estimating it has some 150,000 rockets and missiles, together with precision-guided missiles that may hit wherever in Israel. The group, which has hundreds of battle-hardened fighters who participated in Syria’s 12-year battle, additionally has several types of navy drones.
In January, Israeli jets struck and killed one other elite Hezbollah commander from the Radwan Power, Wissam Al-Tawil, who fought with the group for many years and took half in a few of its greatest battles.
Hezbollah says it should cease firing rockets as soon as a ceasefire is reached within the Gaza Strip that will finish the Israel-Hamas warfare. Israeli officers have been demanding that the Radwan Power withdraw from the border space to ensure that tens of hundreds of displaced Israelis to return dwelling.
Washington and Paris have been scrambling to discover a diplomatic decision to halt the combating alongside the Lebanon-Israel border, hoping to stop a brand new all-out warfare between Hezbollah and Israel since a month-long warfare in the summertime of 2006.
The chance of warfare spreading to Lebanon has worsened present political tensions throughout the nation between Hezbollah and their most vocal opponent, the nationalist Christian Lebanese Forces get together.
Issues worsened Monday when the Lebanese navy introduced the dying of a Lebanese Forces native official who had been kidnapped a day earlier in northern Lebanon. The Lebanese Military mentioned they detained three Syrians accused within the kidnapping and killing of Pascale Suleiman as they tried to steal his automobile.
The Lebanese Forces get together forged doubt on the military’s findings, saying they believed it was a political assassination.
Nasrallah in his speech slammed members of the Christian get together and allies who had accused Hezbollah of being concerned within the kidnapping. calling it “baseless” and harmful rhetoric.