"We need help, otherwise we will be pulling corpses, not the injured, out of the rubble," Brigadier Mohammadi, commander of the army in southeast Iran, told state television. According to an official at the Kerman governor's office, two flights, carrying rescue and relief teams with sniffer dogs, from Germany and Switzerland had arrived in Kerman and a further British flight was due to touch down at the city's airport. The Red Crescent Society said Iran had also received more help offers from most of the European Union states as well as many other countries, including Japan, New Zealand, the United Nations, Malaysia, Turkey and Greece. Meanwhile, Jahanbakhsh Khanjani, a spokesman for Iran's Interior Ministry, said Saturday that Iran would accept aid from all countries of the world, aside from Israel. The announcement followed statements by foreign correspondents in Israel, who reported that the Israeli Foreign Ministry had said that unofficial Israeli sources were considering sending aid to Iran. "The Islamic Republic of Iran accepts all kinds of humanitarian aid from all countries and international organizations with the exception of the Zionist regime [Israel]," Khanjani said. The official said Iran had waived visa requirement for foreign relief workers as he made a plea for international assistance, including for detection equipment, sniffer dogs, medicines, blankets, tents and pre-fabricated units. According to Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari, the city of Bam has been divided to six disaster zones in order to accelerate relief and rescue operations. "The main issue now is to save the lives of those remaining under the debris. However, transfer of the injured is a priority," he said. An Army Air Force official, Brigadier Amir Habibi, said more than 600 tons of relief aid, including medicine, ambulances, blankets, heating equipment, tents and canned food, had been shipped to the provincial center of Kerman on 20 flights. (albawaba.com)