DUBAI, Mar 18: Iran lashed out following the killing of one of its top leaders in an airstrike with attacks on its Gulf neighbours and Israel on Wednesday, using some of its latest missiles to evade air defences and killing two near Tel Aviv as the war in the Middle East showed no signs of slowing.
Israel kept up intense pressure on Lebanon with strikes it said targeted Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, hitting multiple apartment buildings in Beirut and killing at least six people.
In Iran, the Bushehr nuclear power plant complex was hit by a projectile but there were no injuries and the plant suffered no damage, the International Atomic Energy Agency said after receiving a report from Tehran.
The IAEA’s leader, Rafael Grossi, reiterated his call “for maximum restraint during the conflict to prevent risk of a nuclear accident.”
The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, remained stubbornly over USD 100 per barrel in early trading on Wednesday, up more than 40 per cent from the start of the war.
Since the United States and Israel attacked Iran to start the war on February 28, Iran has been targeting the energy infrastructure of its Gulf Arab neighbours, as well as military bases, as part of a strategy to drive up oil prices and put pressure on Washington to back down.
Iran executes man it says spied for Israel
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Iran’s judiciary announced a man had been executed on charges that he spied for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. The judiciary’s Mizan news agency identified the man as Kourosh Keyvani and alleged that he “provided images and information on sensitive locations” to Israel.
Activists and rights groups have warned since Iran’s nationwide protests in January that the Islamic Republic could begin conducting mass executions.
Iran violently suppressed the protests through violence that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands detained.
Iranian strikes Gulf States
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New attacks were reported in multiple Gulf countries early Wednesday, including on Saudi Arabia’s vast Eastern Province, which is home to many of its oil fields, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said a projectile caused a small fire at its base in the UAE near Dubai but caused no injuries. His comments appeared to correspond with explosions heard near Al Minhad Air Base, used by Western nations as a transit hub for the wider Mideast.
Saudi Arabia shot down a ballistic missile targeting the area of the Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts American forces and aircraft.
Iran has also shown no sign of relenting in its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping lane through which a fifth of the world’s oil transits, giving rise to growing concerns of a global energy crisis.
US Central Command said the US military fired multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator bombs Tuesday on Iranian missile sites along Iran’s coastline near the strait.
Iran launches multiple-warhead missiles at Israel
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Responding to Israel’s killing of Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and one of the country’s most powerful figures, the Republican Guard said Wednesday it had targeted central Israel with multiple-warhead missiles, which have an increased chance of evading missile defence systems and can overwhelm radar tracking systems.
Israel reported at least two salvoes of incoming fire and the country’s medical service said two people were killed in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said the force launched the Khorramshahr-4 and Qadr multiple-warhead missiles to avenge Larijani’s killing.
Footage filmed by The Associated Press showed at least one missile releasing cluster munitions over Israel.
Larijani, a former parliamentary speaker, was a senior policy adviser to the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on strategy in nuclear talks with the Trump administration. He was sanctioned by the US Treasury in January for his role “coordinating” Iran’s violent suppression of nationwide protests.
Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s Basij militia, was also killed in an Israeli strike on Tuesday. Soleimani was sanctioned by the US, the European Union and other nations, over his role in suppressing dissent for years through the Basij.
The US Embassy in Baghdad also came under fire for the second day in a row early Wednesday, two Iraqi security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment.
Further details were not immediately available, but pro-Iran militia groups have been regularly attacking American targets in Iraq since the start of the war. On Tuesday a drone cashed inside the Baghdad embassy compound.
Renewed Israeli strikes in Lebanon
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Israel flattened an apartment building in central Beirut about an hour after issuing an evacuation notice. It was the fourth time the building has been targeted, but three strikes last week failed to bring it down.
Israel’s military claimed the building was being used by Hezbollah to store “millions of dollars intended to finance its activities,” without providing evidence.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, but other attacks on apartment buildings in central Beirut have killed at least six people and wounded 24 others, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
The Israeli army also said it had begun a wave of strikes targeting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon “in response to firing into Israeli territory.”
Israel’s strikes have displaced more than 1 million Lebanese – roughly 20 per cent of the population – according to the Lebanese government, which says more than 900 people have been killed.
In Israel, 14 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire. At least 13 US military members have been killed.
More than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran since the conflict started February 28, according to the Iranian Red Crescent. (AP)
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