Tehran (AFP) – Iran launched waves of missile and drone attacks on its Gulf neighbours hosting US forces on Saturday and vowed no surrender despite threats from President Donald Trump to widen the conflict. Israel and the United States pounded Iran again, with one air strike setting a Tehran airport ablaze, but Iran demonstrated that it retained the capacity to riposte militarily. There were air raid warnings and blasts in Jerusalem in Israel and Doha in Qatar, and two waves of attacks on the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the early morning and again in the afternoon. The UAE said its air defences intercepted 15 missiles and 119 drones on Saturday morning, and video footage showed one projectile crashing into Dubai airport, the world’s busiest for international traffic. An explosion took place near planes parked in front of an airport building and close to a passing train, mobile phone footage authenticated by AFP showed.
“Evidence from Iran’s armed forces shows that the geography of some countries in the region is openly and covertly at the disposal of the enemy,” said Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, Iran’s hardline judiciary chief. “The heavy attacks on these targets will continue,” he said. Earlier, President Masoud Pezeshkian had issued an apology to Iran’s neighbours, which host major US military bases, while US media reports suggested Russia might be providing the Islamic Republic with targeting intelligence. Saudi Arabia said Saturday it had intercepted a missile fired at an airbase housing US personnel, while Jordan accused Iran of “targeting vital installations” inside the country over the last week. Pezeshkian struck a defiant tone in a speech broadcast on state TV in which he also appeared to address Trump’s demand on Friday for “unconditional surrender.” “Iran’s enemies must take their wish for the unconditional surrender of the Iranian people to their graves,” Pezeshkian said.
– Air raids –
Israel launched some of its biggest raids since the bombardment began last Saturday, with a military academy, an underground command centre, and a missile storage facility named as targets. Fire and smoke billowed from Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport after a predawn attack in which Israel said it had destroyed 16 aircraft and fighter jets used by the security forces and military. “Today Iran will be hit very hard!” Trump posted on his Truth Social media platform. “Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran’s bad behavior, are areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time.”
Now in a second week, the war was sparked by joint Israeli and US air strikes last Saturday that killed Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei. The conflict has since widened to Lebanon, as well as Cyprus, Turkey, and Azerbaijan, and reached as far as waters off Sri Lanka where US forces sank an Iranian warship with a torpedo. Inside Iran, damage to infrastructure and residential buildings is mounting, while residents of the capital report growing anxiety and a heavy presence of security forces on the streets. “I don’t think anyone who hasn’t experienced war would understand it,” a terrified 26-year-old teacher told AFP on condition of anonymity. “When you hear the bombs, you have no idea where they will hit.” The Iranian health ministry put the civilian death toll at 926 on Friday, with around 6,000 injured — numbers that AFP could not independently verify.
Israel has also intensified its air strikes on Lebanon, repeatedly bombing and ordering the evacuation of Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah holds sway. With memories still fresh of Israel’s devastation of Gaza, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Saturday that his country would pay a “very heavy price” if it failed to disarm Hezbollah. Israeli commandos also launched an unsuccessful mission overnight to try to retrieve the remains of a navigator lost in 1986, killing 41 people in the process in the town of Nabi Sheet. Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 294 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes over the last week, while Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has warned of a “humanitarian disaster.”
The consequences of the conflict reach far beyond those in the immediate firing line, however. Global stock markets have slumped, while crude oil prices have surged, with analysts warning that there appears to be no clear path to ending a conflict that US and Israeli officials have suggested could last a month or more. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had hit two oil tankers with exploding drones in the Gulf on Saturday as they continue to paralyse oil and gas traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint for global shipping.
– Defiance –
Trump has promised to help rebuild Iran’s economy if Tehran installs someone “acceptable” to him to replace its late supreme leader. Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, said the United States would have no role in selecting Khamenei’s successor. “The selection of Iran’s leadership will take place strictly in accordance with our constitutional procedures and solely by the will of the Iranian people, without any foreign interference,” he added. US rivals China and Russia have so far stayed largely out of the fray despite their ties to the Islamic Republic, but there are reports that Moscow is providing intelligence to Iran on US troop positions and movements. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the United States is “not concerned” about the reports.
The war has killed six US service members, and Trump is to attend the return of their bodies at a transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Saturday.
© 2024 AFP
