Days after the US and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran, the global uncertainties until today have been largely unbalanced. Iran on Monday, April 20, offered a new death toll for the war with Israel and the United States, with its forensic chief saying at least 3,375 people had been killed in the conflict.
News agency AP on Monday reported that the figure came from Abbas Masjedi, the head of Iran`s Legal Medicine Organisation.
Masjedi, quoted by the judiciary`s Mizan news agency and other outlets on Monday, said only four of the dead remain unidentified.
383 children died in Iran amid the West Asia War
Masjedi’s comments did not break down casualties among civilians and security forces; instead, they just said that 2,875 were male and 496 were female. He further stated that 383 of the dead were children 18 years old and under.
Masjedi`s figures raised questions about whether or not they included security force members, particularly given the levels of intense bombings targeting military bases and arsenals in the country.
Lebanon reports 203 deaths
On the other hand, Lebanon’s health ministry, a few days earlier on April 9, said that at least 203 people were killed in widespread Israeli strikes in central Beirut and other areas of Lebanon on Wednesday. It said more than 1000 were wounded.
The death toll on Wednesday was the highest for a single day in Lebanon during more than five weeks of renewed war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hezbollah site, as reported by AFP.
However, several of the buildings that were struck without warning during the afternoon rush hour were in densely packed commercial and residential areas, leading to widespread civilian casualties.
Israel on Thursday said it killed Ali Yusuf Harshi — the nephew and personal secretary of Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem — in a strike carried out in Beirut on Wednesday night. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has affirmed that Israel will persist in its military operations against Hezbollah. Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, warned that continued Israeli attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon would bring “explicit costs and strong responses”.
Meanwhile, Iran published a chart suggesting its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard put sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz during the war, in a message that may be intended to pressure the US as uncertainty hangs over a days-old two-week ceasefire and further negotiations are expected in Pakistan.
(With inputs from AP)
Over 3,000 killed amid the war-like situation; 203 deaths reported in Lebanon
