Qatar intercepts drones launched from Iran, defense ministry says

Iran’s security forces detained protest rapper Hossein Afrasiab in Isfahan Province and transferred him to a detention facility run by the intelligence unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Saturday, sources familiar with the matter told Iran International.

Afrasiab was arrested at the entrance to Shahin Shahr, a city in Isfahan Province, by plainclothes security agents who “violently beat him” before transferring him to the IRGC intelligence detention facility known as Alef-Ta at Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan, the sources said.

There is no information yet on the charges against him or what accusations he may face.

Afrasiab has previously collaborated musically with Iranian protest rapper Toomaj Salehi, who was sentenced to death in 2024 before the sentence was later revoked.

Iran is not responsible for attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure, including the Ras Tanura refinery and attempted drone strikes on the Shaybah oil field, Reuters reported, citing an interview with Iran’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

“Iran is not the party responsible for these attacks, and if Iran had carried them out, it would have announced it,” Reuters quoted Alireza Enayati, as saying.

He said he was in ongoing contact with Saudi officials, with relations “progressing naturally.”

A drone attack struck the Ali Al Salem air base in Kuwait on Sunday, destroying an Italian remotely piloted aircraft but leaving Italian personnel unharmed, Italy’s defense chief said.

“This morning the Ali Al Salem base in Kuwait, which hosts American and Italian capabilities and personnel, was the target of a drone attack that struck a shelter where an Italian Air Task Force remotely piloted aircraft was housed, destroying it,” Chief of Defense Staff General Luciano Portolano said on X.

He said all Italian personnel at the base were safe at the time of the attack and were not involved.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Sunday he was sceptical about widening the European Union’s Aspides naval mission to the Strait of Hormuz.

Wadephul said the mission, which was launched to help commercial shipping pass safely through the Red Sea, had not been effective.

“And that is why I am very sceptical that extending Aspides to the Strait of Hormuz would provide greater security,” he said in an interview with Germany’s ARD broadcaster.

Israel’s military said on Sunday it targeted several headquarters belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the Basij militia in the Hamedan region of western Iran.

“The Israeli Air Force completed a wave of strikes against headquarters of the Iranian regime in the Hamedan area in western Iran,” the Israeli military’s Persian-language account said in a statement.

According to the statement, several central headquarters linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij were targeted in the strikes.

“These headquarters were used by regime operatives to manage ongoing activities, as well as to plan and advance terrorist operations against Israel and other countries in the Middle East,” the statement said.