A series of raids west of Buenos Aires yielded 250 arrests and unearthed firearms and drugs, police said Monday, the second such operation in as many weeks.

"There were 20 separate related raids in La Matanza, Moreno, Merlo and Moron, in which 250 people were detained, marijuana and cocaine were confiscated, as well as firearms" and 76 vehicles, police chief Daniel Sobrero said.

Around 100 suspects were arrested and 85 weapons seized when police conducted dozens of simultaneous raids in Buenos Aires province, Argentine authorities said Saturday.

The massive police operation in the southern edge of the capital comes amid a year-long public safety state of emergency declared this month by the governor of the province to fight a spike in violent crime and vigilante action against it.

A year-long public security emergency was declared Saturday in Buenos Aires after a spate of violent robberies and assaults sparked a wave of vigilante action.

Some 5,000 retired police officers will beef up patrols in Argentina's most populous province, which is home to about 40 percent of the country's 40 million people.

At least 18 people were killed on an Argentine highway Friday when a truck driving on the wrong side of the road crashed head-on into a bus, local authorities said.

Both vehicles immediately burst into flames, leaving twisted metal remains, television images showed. Firefighters were still working on retrieving the charred bodies for identification.

At least nine firefighters and rescue workers were killed in Buenos Aires Wednesday when the wall of a warehouse engulfed by flames collapsed on top of them, officials said.

Authorities said the dead included six members from a federal police firefighting unit, a volunteer firefighter and two members of Argentina's civil guard.

Israeli officials Friday denied claims by a former envoy that Israel had killed most of those behind bombings at its embassy and Jewish charity offices in Argentina in the 1990s, media said.

News website Ynet quoted foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor describing as "complete nonsense," the allegation by Itzhak Aviran, Israel's ambassador to Argentina from 1993 to 2000.

Israel has killed most of those behind the deadly attacks on its embassy and a Jewish charities building in Argentina in the 1990s, a former Israeli envoy said Thursday.

The July 1994 bombing of the Argentine Jewish Charities Federation (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires killed 85 people. Hundreds were hurt in a bombing Argentina says was masterminded by Iran.

A powerful blast from a gas leak ripped through a ten-story apartment building in Argentina's third largest city Tuesday, leaving at least eight dead and 61 injured.

City officials in Rosario said at least 15 people were still missing as hundreds of firefighters and rescuers searched the rubble of the edifice that was in danger of collapse.

At least eight people died after torrential rain and strong winds battered Buenos Aires and its suburbs, knocking out power, downing trees and affecting 350,000 residents, officials said Tuesday.

More than six inches (155 mm) of rain fell between midnight Monday and 7 am Tuesday, the city weather service said, setting an April record for the Argentine capital.

Interpol said Friday it was not lifting arrest warrants for Iranians suspected of involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, despite Tehran's steps to co-operate.

Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman read from a letter announcing the international police organization's decision at a press conference.