Tehran was rocked by powerful explosions after Israel attacked it again. Residents of the Iranian capital reported large plumes of smoke in several locations, according to The New York Times. Meanwhile, sirens sounded in Israel warning of Iranian missiles. Israel’s air defense intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, according to the Times of Israel website. Shrapnel after shooting down a drone killed a Bangladeshi citizen in the UAE, according to the agency there.
The Israeli military confirmed in a telegram that it had carried out a large-scale series of strikes on Tehran, saying it had targeted the infrastructure of Iranian authorities. According to Iranian state television, three areas were hit, including Nubonjad Square in the center and military buildings and residential buildings northeast of the city.
The airstrike hit a site near the compound of the former US embassy in Tehran and partially damaged its walls, an AFP correspondent said. The United States and Iran cut diplomatic ties after the revolution that toppled the regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Part of the embassy building was later converted into a museum called the Lair of Espionage.
The Russian Embassy in Iran says two airstrikes near the Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church in Tehran partially damaged the building. According to him, no one was injured in the incident.
According to Iranian media, the Israeli-American strikes also hit steel mills in Chaharmahal and Bakhtejary provinces. The Mobárake steel mills in Isfahan province, one of the largest in the country, were heavily damaged and partially destroyed, according to these sources.
Iranian retaliation
Heavy explosions also hit central Israel after Iran retaliated with rocket attacks. According to Israeli television Channel 12, sirens sounded in the Gush Dan area of Tel Aviv, in the Sharon region of central Israel and in the occupied West Bank. The extent of the damage is unclear, with no casualties reported, according to al-Jazeera.
In the central part of Israel in the area of the city of Bnei Brak, an Iranian attack injured at least fourteen people, including an eleven-year-old girl who is in critical condition. Iran used a ballistic missile carrying a cluster munition in the strike, the ToI website wrote.
Explosions were also heard in Damascus, Syria. According to the Syrian state television al-Ikhbariya, these were probably two Iranian ballistic missiles neutralized by Israeli air defenses.
The Israeli army also reported, according to The Times of Israel, that air defense intercepted a missile fired from Yemen. It was headed for the south of Israel, sirens sounded in the city of Beersheba and elsewhere in the southern part of the country. No injuries reported.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels later claimed responsibility for the attack in a telegram statement. They claim that this was their third rocket attack on Israel and that they targeted “sensitive targets”. They also said they carried out the attack together with Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement.
Emirati news agency WAM reported that shrapnel from the downing of the drone killed a Bangladeshi national at a farm in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates (UAE). A second piece of shrapnel from a downed drone injured an Indian citizen in an industrial area in the emirate of Umm al-Quwain. The origin of the drone is not mentioned by the agency, but the UAE, like other countries in the region, faces strikes from Iran.
Iran has denied Trump’s claim that Tehran is calling for a ceasefire
Fujairah is one of the emirates of the UAE with the capital city of the same name, which lies on the coast of the Gulf of Oman. It is located near the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has virtually blocked, leading to a global surge in oil and gas prices.
Great Britain will hold a meeting this week of about thirty countries that are ready to take steps to restore and ensure the safety of maritime navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.
A closer partnership with allies in the European Union is in Britain’s national interest in this uncertain world, Starmer also said. He called NATO the most effective military alliance in the world. On the contrary, US President Donald Trump has stated that he is strongly considering withdrawing the US from NATO.
Trump also claims that Iran’s leadership has asked the US for a cease-fire, making the talks conditional on the opening of the Strait of Hormuz. However, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry called Trump’s statement false and unfounded. The US president has claimed several times that Washington is negotiating with Tehran about the end of the war, but Iran has denied all of Trump’s claims about negotiations so far. The American president should make a speech to the nation on Thursday night about the war with Iran.
The war has been going on for over a month
The United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran on February 28, igniting a regional war. In retaliation, Tehran and its allies began using drones, ballistic missiles and rockets to attack not only Israel and US military facilities in the Middle East, but also civilian targets, including oil infrastructure in surrounding Arab countries.
During the Israeli-American strikes, 1,598 civilians were killed in Iran, among them at least 244 children. This was reported by the Iranian human rights organization HRANA, which is based in the United States, on Tuesday. Attacks by Iran and the Lebanese pro-Iranian movement Hezbollah have so far killed nineteen people in Israel and another four in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli Air Force has carried out more than eight hundred waves of strikes in Iran since the beginning of the war, dropping over sixteen thousand bombs. Around four thousand targets were hit, according to The Times of Israel (ToI) website, the Israeli army said.