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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were confirmed dead after search and rescue teams found their crashed helicopter in a fog-shrouded mountain region, sparking mourning in the Islamic Republic
Condolences flooded in from Palestinian militant group Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Syria, all members of the so-called Axis of Resistance against Israel and its allies, at a time of high West Asia tensions over the Gaza war
Axis of Resistance
The Axis of Resistance is an informal Iranian-led political and military coalition in West Asia and North Africa.
It most notably includes the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, the Syrian government, the Lebanese political party and militant group Hezbollah, the Yemeni political and military organization Ansar Allah (the Houthi movement), and a variety of Palestinian militant groups.
The various actions of members of this axis reflect their domestic interests while serving the broader goal of complicating Israel's attacks and imposing a cost on the United States to support Israel.
The axis became the main fighters against ISIS, after the group took over Syria and Iraq in 2014
Iran
Iran, also known by its Western-given name Persia, is a country in West Asia.
It is bordered by Iraq to the west and Turkey to the northwest, Azerbaijan, Armenia, the Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan to the north, Afghanistan to the east, Pakistan to the southeast, the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south.
The nation's capital and most populous city is Tehran
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