Kuwait Petroleum says Iranian drone strike caused severe damage

An Israeli source told Iran International that two Israeli commando units, Shaldag and Sayeret Matkal, took part in the operation to rescue the American pilot.

According to the source, the mission lasted about 36 hours.

The source also said a US helicopter came under fire during the operation but was able to return safely to base.

Mostafa Tajzadeh, a jailed reformist politician, said in an open letter from Evin Prison addressed to Donald Trump that Iranians would defend their country under any circumstances.

In the letter, made available to Ensaf News for publication, Tajzadeh said he opposed the war and warned that its continuation could turn into a full-scale tragedy for people who had no role in it.

He questioned why Trump had ordered an attack on Iran while negotiations were still under way and criticized threats to bomb civilian infrastructure, including power plants, water desalination facilities, bridges and refineries.

Tajzadeh also argued that such a strategy would violate international law, deepen anti-American sentiment and risk turning the conflict into a broader regional disaster.

Former Iranian official Mohammad Javad Larijani said the United States should accept defeat and argued that Washington’s proposals for negotiations reflected weakness rather than strength.

Larijani, a former senior judiciary official and adviser to the slain supreme leader, said the United States had to take responsibility for what he described as aggression against Iran and for the resulting damage.

He also said Iran should reconsider its nuclear commitments, pursue the issue outside negotiations, and press ahead on issues including the Strait of Hormuz and compensation.

He added that repeated calls for talks were an attempt by Washington to escape its current predicament and said any further miscalculation would be met with a forceful response.

Internet monitor NetBlocks said Iran’s blackout has now become the longest nation-scale internet shutdown on record in any country, entering its 37th consecutive day after 864 hours.

It said Iran was the first country to have had internet connectivity and then effectively revert to a national network, unlike countries such as North Korea, which have remained internationally isolated without passing through the same connected phase.

NetBlocks added that other prolonged or severe disruptions, including in Myanmar, Sudan, Kashmir and Tigray, as well as wartime damage in places such as Ukraine and Gaza, had caused lengthy reductions in connectivity, but said no war was known to have sent an entire country offline.

Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesperson for parliament’s National Security Committee, said the United States and its allies were now seeking “a dignified exit” from the region after having spoken at the start of the war about destroying Iran, but said the Islamic Republic would not allow that.

He added that the priority now was unity, resistance and a sustained public presence, and said people should ignore what he described as “deviating remarks” by Western-leaning figures calling for negotiations with the enemy.

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  Hardliners pile on 'traitor' Zarif, urge his arrest over call for end of war