TEHRAN: Iran has hanged nine convicted drug traffickers in recent days, state media reported Tuesday, as it keeps up one of the world’s highest rates of execution.
Three were hanged at a prison in the northwestern province of Ardabil on charges of “buying and transporting heroin and opium,” the official IRNA news agency said.
The other six were executed separately on charges of trafficking “methamphetamine, heroin and cannabis,” it added.
DUBAI: A Syrian military statement said an Israeli air strike early on Tuesday that came from the direction of the Golan Heights targeting positions in the outskirts of Damascus caused some material damage, Syrian state news agency (SANA) reported.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials.
Since the Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israeli civilians and soldiers, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed militia targets in Syria and has also struck Syrian army air defenses and some Syrian forces.
GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Unrelenting Israeli bombardment rocked Gaza on Monday, while an army spokesman warned the war on the besieged territory’s Hamas rulers will continue throughout 2024.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met troops inside Gaza on Monday, and vowed in a statement that “life will return to its course” for residents of border communities hit in Hamas’s October 7 attacks that triggered the war.