Apparent assassination attempt comes as Iran’s army pledges to fight back until the US, Israel face ‘permanent surrender’.
Iran’s ex-foreign minister Kharazi ‘gravely wounded’ in attack on his home
Former Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharazi has been seriously wounded in an apparent assassination attempt that killed his wife, as United States-Israeli strikes continue to pound Iran for a fifth week.
Iranian media on Thursday reported that Kharazi’s home in Tehran was targeted the previous day in an air strike. The official was hospitalised with serious injuries, according to newspapers Shargh, Etemad and Ham Mihan.
“We have seen what looks like an assassination attempt against the former foreign minister, Kamal Kharazi … We don’t know why he’s been targeted. He has been gravely wounded, and his wife was killed,” said Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Vall, reporting from Tehran.
Air strikes were reported on Thursday across Iran, including in Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz. Four people were reported killed in Larestan, in southern Iran.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the armed forces’ unified command said Tehran will press on with the Middle East war until the US and Israel face “permanent regret and surrender”, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported.
Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson of the Khatam al-Anbiya central headquarters, said US and Israeli assessments of Iran’s military capabilities were “incomplete” and that Tehran would step up its military actions, with “more crushing, broader and more destructive” attacks in store for its adversaries.
The threat followed comments by US President Donald Trump that Washington would hit Iran “extremely hard” within weeks, although Iran was “essentially decimated” and the US was on track to achieve its military objectives.
More than 1,340 people have been killed in Iran since the US and Israel launched joint air strikes on February 28. At least 24 people have been killed in Israel, as well as 13 US soldiers in the region.
At least four Israelis were injured in Bnei Brak, east of Tel Aviv, following an Iranian missile attack late on Wednesday. Israel’s Home Front Command on Thursday issued several warnings of incoming rocket fire, advising the public to take shelter.
Eyes in the sky
Russia also played a key role in the development of Iran’s space programme and its key satellite, the Khayyam.
Launched in 2022 from Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome, the 650kg (1,430 pound) satellite orbits the Earth at 500 kilometres (310 miles) and has a resolution of one metre (3.3 feet).
Moscow “can, in theory, receive and process data from Iran’s optical imaging satellite and share data from its own several satellites”, Luzin said.
