Copies of Iranian Shaheds, US suicide drones set to be deployed to Mideast

The Strait of Hormuz is a key waterway where Iranian officials have at times warned they could restrict traffic during periods of tension.

The IRGC Navy public relations office said the drill is named after Mohammad Nazeri, a commander and founder of the IRGC Navy’s special forces unit who was killed in 2016, and will run for two days.

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  Iran army chief says foreign powers must leave region

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  Iran’s Guards launch SCO counter-terrorism exercise in northwest

Earlier this week, Iran began Sahand-2025, a five-day Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) counter-terrorism drill led by IRGC Ground Forces around Shabestar near Tabriz in East Azarbaijan province.

Designed by Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff with input from the foreign ministry and the SCO’s Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure, the exercise targets the bloc’s “Three Evils” – terrorism, separatism and extremism.

Rozhan Goudarzi, who won a bronze medal last month in the women’s under 51 kilogram category at the Islamic Solidarity Games in Riyadh, pulled out in line with Iran’s long standing policy that bars its athletes from competing against Israelis.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei repeated in a speech last year that athletes must not face Israeli opponents and called on sports bodies to compensate those who withdraw, describing such decisions as a “sacrifice” for national and religious ideals.

He said “we must not neglect the well being of this athlete,” urging officials to support competitors who refuse to take part.

The policy has been in place since 1979 and has led to athletes forfeiting matches or intentionally losing to avoid Israeli rivals. Authorities have punished athletes who violate it, including a lifetime ban issued against a weightlifter who shook hands with an Israeli competitor at an event in Poland.

Rights groups and sports analysts say the stance has contributed to a rise in Iranian athletes leaving the country in recent years, with several competing abroad under new flags or joining the International Olympic Committee’s Refugee Team.

MuddyWater, also known as Mango Sandstorm or TA450, has links to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and National Security and has targeted government and infrastructure in the Middle East and beyond since at least 2017.

Researchers said victims in Israel included technology, engineering, manufacturing, local government and education sectors. They said the group used new custom tools to improve its ability to hide and stay active inside networks, including a backdoor called MuddyViper that can gather system data, run commands, move files and steal Windows credentials and browser data.

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  US offers reward for information on two Iran-linked cyber actors

The report said the attackers used Fooder, a loader that reflects malware into memory and at times imitates the classic Snake game, to deploy MuddyViper. It said the group also used several credential stealers and avoided interactive sessions to reduce detection.

Researchers said the campaign relied on spearphishing emails that sent victims to installers for remote monitoring tools hosted on free file sharing sites. They said the operators used a range of malware, including VAX One, which imitates products such as Veeam and AnyDesk.

Past MuddyWater operations include attacks in Saudi Arabia and campaigns that overlapped with Lyceum, suggesting the group may serve as an initial access broker for other Iran linked actors.

Rubio, speaking in a Fox News interview broadcast on Tuesday, said: “Iran, it’s IRGC, and even Hezbollah has a presence in South America, and one of their anchor presence – especially for the Iranians – is inside of Venezuela.”

He added: “Where they have planted their flag in our hemisphere is on Venezuelan territory, with the full and open cooperation of that regime.”

Washington is stepping up a counter-drug mission involving US naval assets in the Caribbean and nearby waters.

Rubio also said the administration used limited force to destroy Iranian nuclear sites earlier this year.

“The President conducted a precise campaign. It wasn’t a prolonged war. It was a 24-hour operation; B-2 bombers left the mainland of the United States, came over a defined target, dropped the payload – 14 missiles or 14 rockets right into the holes of this facility,” he said.

Framing the approach as narrowly tailored, Rubio said: “That’s a great example of the limited and strategic and focused use of American power to achieve something that’s in our national interest. It was in our national interest not to have Iran have a nuclear program that can be turned into a weapons program that could one day threaten the United States.”

Iran and radical Islamism

Rubio tied Iran to what he called a wider campaign by radical Islamist actors against the West.

“Radical Islam has designs, openly, on the West – on the United States, on Europe,” he said.

“And they are prepared to conduct acts of terrorism – in the case of Iran, nation-state actions, assassinations, murders, you name it.”

Rubio also said the administration remains open to diplomacy but skeptical of Maduro’s commitments.

“If you can work out a way where you can bring stability to the hemisphere, you can make Venezuela help be a country that isn’t the base for Iranian influence against and activities against the United States, that would be great,” he said.

The program said Mohammad Bagher Shirinkar oversees the Shahid Shushtari cyber group and that Fatemeh Sedighian Kashi is a long time employee who works closely with him in planning and carrying out cyber operations. Shahid Shushtari is part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Cyber Electronic Command and has operated under names that include Emennet Pasargad, Aria Sepehr Ayandehsazan and Net Peygard Samavat Company.

US officials said the group has caused financial damage and disruption to US businesses and government agencies and has targeted news, shipping, travel, energy, financial and telecommunications sectors in the United States, Europe and the Middle East.

Rewards for Justice said Shahid Shushtari actors ran a multi step operation during the 2020 US presidential election and had earlier carried out cyber enabled information operations that used a false flag persona.

The Treasury Department in 2021 designated the group, then known as Emennet, and six of its employees under an executive order for attempting to influence the 2020 election.

The State Department urged people with information on Shirinkar, Sedighian or the Shahid Shushtari group to send tips through its Tor based reporting channel.