Kurdistan region says drones that killed couple in Erbil were launched from Iran
The Iraqi Kurdistan region’s counter-terrorism service said on Tuesday that drones which struck a civilian home in Erbil overnight, killing a couple, were launched from Iran.
In a statement issued early on Tuesday, the agency said the one-way attack drones targeting Erbil had taken off from inside Iranian territory.
The presidency of the Kurdistan region called on the Iraqi federal government to take responsibility to prevent such attacks and stop what it described as repeated violations against the region and its civilians.
The governor of Erbil said multiple drones and missiles were fired toward the city overnight.
He said the deaths of the couple brought the total number of people killed in attacks on the Kurdistan region since Feb. 28 to 16.
France opposes any strikes on civilian infrastructure in Iran and warns such action would risk further escalation, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Tuesday.
“We oppose any strike on civilian infrastructure,” Barrot told France Info, responding to threats by Donald Trump to target civilian and energy sites if Iran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
He said such strikes would “open a new phase of escalation and reprisals … which would worsen an already concerning situation.”
“The risk is that we see a regional conflagration without limits,” he added.
Barrot also called for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, warning that its closure was weighing on the global economy.
He said France’s role was to “limit the consequences” of the conflict and “support mediation efforts” led by countries in the region.
“This is a war we did not choose and whose consequences we are managing,” he said.
Barrot also renewed a call for the “definitive release” of two French nationals held in Tehran, saying they were enduring “extremely trying conditions.”
Iran’s police chief said on Tuesday that authorities had arrested 85 people after identifying an alleged enemy-linked network in 25 provinces.
Police Commander Ahmadreza Radan accused the detainees of collecting and sending the locations of sensitive sites, including checkpoints and security forces’ positions, for use in strikes by the US and Israel.
He said the authorities had also seized “specialized electronic equipment, Starlink devices, weapons and ammunition.”
Russia has provided satellite imagery and cyber support to Iran to help it carry out attacks on US and regional targets, according to a Ukrainian intelligence assessment reviewed by Reuters.
The assessment said Russian satellites conducted at least 24 surveys of military facilities and critical sites across 11 countries in the Middle East between March 21 and 31, covering 46 locations including bases, airports and oil fields.
It said Iranian ballistic missile and drone strikes often followed within days of the satellite surveys, describing what it called a clear pattern.
A Western military source and a regional security source said their intelligence also pointed to increased Russian satellite activity in the region and imagery sharing with Iran.
The assessment said Russia and Iran also cooperated in cyber operations, with hacker groups from both countries interacting and stepping up activity targeting infrastructure and telecommunications in the Persian Gulf.
It said the imagery sharing was organized through a permanent communications channel between the two countries and could involve Russian military intelligence personnel in Tehran.
Iranian security forces have still not returned the body of 18-year-old protester Amirhossein Hatami to his family, four days after his execution, in what informed sources described as further pressure on relatives already reeling from his death.
Information obtained by Iran International shows that Hatami, who was executed on April 2, remains unburied as authorities continue to withhold his body.
Hatami was one of the defendants in a case linked to a fire at the Mahmoud Kaveh Basij base on Namjoo Street in eastern Tehran during the January protests.
Others in the same case included Mohammadamin Biglari, Shahin Vahedparast Kalur, Abolfazl Salehi Siavashani and Ali Fahim, all of whom were sentenced to death.
Biglari and Vahedparast were executed on April 5, while Fahim’s execution was carried out on Monday, April 6.
Informed sources told Iran International that Hatami’s body has not been released because his name appeared on a website linked to the Mojahedin-e Khalgh organization, an allegation his family strongly rejects.
Sources familiar with the case said Hatami was an industrial design student at the University of Tehran and was fluent in three languages.
A source with knowledge of the events of January 8 said the case involved seven defendants, none of whom had any role in starting the fire.
According to the source, Hatami and the others entered the Basij base with around 50 other people only after the fire had already broken out.
Minutes later, another fire began. Many managed to escape, but seven people, including Hatami, were unable to flee.
They went to the rooftop, where they were detained by Basij forces and severely beaten, the source said.
Judicial authorities later accused the defendants of trying to gain access to the armory.
After their arrest, the detainees were subjected to severe interrogations and then transferred to Ghezel Hesar prison.
They were denied in-person visits throughout their detention and were allowed only phone calls.
Their trial was presided over by Judge Abolghasem Salavati, and they were denied access to lawyers of their own choosing.
Death sentences were issued on February 7.
Sources told Iran International that the confessions in the case were extracted under pressure and coercion, and that the judicial process ended in executions carried out without the defendants and their families having full knowledge of the proceedings.
In the same case, 28-year-old Shahin Vahedparast was also executed on April 5, and his body, too, has still not been returned to his family, according to informed sources.
Those sources said Vahedparast’s wife was four months pregnant at the time of his execution.
Relatives said he had dreamed of opening a restaurant with her.
Iran’s nationwide internet blackout has entered its 39th day, with connectivity cut for more than 900 hours, NetBlocks said on Tuesday.
“The measure leaves most Iranians isolated from the global network known as the internet, with only a domestic digital service, or intranet, now available,” the internet monitoring group wrote on X.
