The West Asia war entered a third week as the United States and Israel traded fire with Iran, with attacks on military, diplomatic and increasing attack on Gulf energy sites.
Triggered by the February 28 US-Israeli strikes, the conflict has spread across the region, roiling energy markets and pushing up oil prices as Tehran blockades the Strait of Hormuz, while Israel has intensified attacks on Lebanon with a ground invasion targeting Hezbollah.
TOP DEVELOPMENTS
US-Israeli hit on Iran atomic facility: The United States and Israel struck Iran's Natanz nuclear facility, said the Islamic republic's atomic energy organisation. No radioactive leak has been reported.
Kharg island warning: The US could "take out" Iran's Kharg island whenever it wanted, the White House said after a report that President Donald Trump's administration was considering plans to occupy or blockade the oil hub.
UK clears US to use its bases: British ministers have agreed to allow the US military to use the UK's military bases in operations to prevent Iran attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Mojataba says enemy 'defeated': Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said the enemies of the Islamic republic were being defeated in the war against the US and Israel in a written message for the Persian New Year, Nowruz.
More US troops in West Asia: The US is deploying additional 2,500 Marines to West Asia, US media reported, possibly signalling a coming ground operation three weeks into the US-Israeli campaign against Iran.
Trump calls NATO allies 'cowards': Trump branded the United States' NATO allies "cowards" for not heeding his demand for military assistance against Iran to control the Hormuz Strait shipping route.
Iran military threats: Iran's military threatened to hunt down US and Israeli officials and army commanders even while they were on holiday or visiting entertainment centres.
A blast left a crater in a hillside just inside Jerusalem's Old City on Friday, spraying debris across a road, after a warning of incoming missiles fired from Iran. AFP journalists at the scene saw the damage just a few hundred metres from Jerusalem's revered holy sites of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Police cordoned off the site in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City shortly after several loud blasts had rocked the centre of Jerusalem.
"We heard a huge boom and debris was thrown about 15 metres," Schimon Elkayam, 44, told AFP, holding fragments of stone in his hands and expressing concern that the Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities were now all being targeted.
The Israeli military wrote on X "the Old City in Jerusalem, right near the Temple Mount, was impacted by Iranian missile fragments."
Israeli Old City police commander Dvir Tamim said the blast was caused by a "missile impact and not interceptor fragments." He said a bomb squad was checking to verify "what kind of missile" it was.
A later statement from the Israeli police said that the "warhead that fell... contained dozens of kilogrammes of explosives."
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Friday said Iran was defeating the enemies of the Islamic republic and had struck a "dizzying blow" in the war against the US and Israel, in a defiant written message to the nation for the Persian New Year, Nowruz.
The long statement, published on his Telegram channel and official Iranian media, was the latest such message from Khamenei after he succeeded his father Ali Khamenei who was killed in an airstrike at the start of the war on February 28.
"At the moment, due to the particular unity that has been created between you our compatriots -- despite all the differences in religious, intellectual, cultural and political origins -- the enemy has been defeated," said Khamenei.
He described the current war against Israel and the US as the third war that the Islamic republic has experienced over the last 12 months. By showing unity and resolve, Iranians had "dealt him (the enemy) a dizzying blow so that he now starts uttering contradictory words and nonsense," Khamenei said in the message which was also read out on Iranian state television.
He said Israel and the US had the "illusion" that if Ali Khamenei and other military leaders were killed, they would create "fear and despair" and "realise the dream of dominating Iran and then dividing it."
The United States could "take out" Iran's Kharg island whenever it wanted, the White House said Friday, after a report that President Donald Trump's administration was considering plans to occupy or blockade the oil hub.
Axios reported that Trump was mulling an operation against Kharg to pressure the Islamic republic to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial shipping lane that Tehran has largely blocked.
"The United States Military can take out Kharg Island at any time if the President gives the order," White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly wrote in a statement to AFP when asked about the Axios report.
"Thanks to a detailed planning process, the entire administration is and was prepared for any potential action taken by the terrorist Iranian regime," added Kelly.
"President Trump knew full well that Iran would try to stop the freedom of navigation and free flow of energy, and he has already taken action to destroy over 40 minelaying vessels."
On Thursday the US leader called Kharg, which handles almost all of Iran's crude exports, the "little oil island that sits there, so totally unprotected" and said US strikes had "taken out everything but the pipes."
British ministers have agreed to allow the US military to use the UK's bases in operations to prevent Iran attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
In a statement, No. 10 Downing Street said ministers met Friday afternoon and “confirmed that the agreement for the US to use UK bases in the collective self-defence of the region includes US defensive operations to degrade the missile sites and capabilities being used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz.”
The statement follows US President Donald Trump’s labelling of NATO partners as “cowards” for not directly joining operations to secure the Strait of Hormuz.
The US Department of the Treasury on Friday designated a network of 16 individuals and entities led by what it called is Hezbollah financier and former public investment official Alaa Hassan Hamieh.
The treasury said these individuals and companies — located in Lebanon, Syria, Poland, Slovenia, Qatar, and Canada — have been involved in numerous economic projects and are estimated to have enabled the diversion of over $100 million since 2020. This network represents a critical source of funding for Hezbollah, it said.
The US Department of State designated Hezbollah as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2001, and three years earlier as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Capt. Tim Hawkins, the spokesman for US Central Command, told The Associated Press that 232 service members have been injured in the Middle East. That’s 30 more than a previous military tally of roughly 200 from Monday.
Hawkins said 207 of the 232 injured have already returned to duty. The number of service members that are considered seriously wounded has remained at 10.
Since the war in Iran began, 13 US service members have been killed.
Turkey on Friday lashed out at Israel for striking army camps in southern Syria, urging the international community to intervene.
"We view Israel's attack targeting military infrastructure in southern Syria as a dangerous escalation and strongly condemn it," a foreign ministry statement said, urging the international community "to stop the Israeli attacks."
US President Donald Trump on Friday ruled out reaching a ceasefire agreement with Iran, saying Washington has the upper hand in the three-week-old war.
"I don't want to do a ceasefire. You know you don't do a ceasefire when you're literally obliterating the other side," Trump told journalists at the White House.
Israel's military said early Saturday that its air defences were operating to intercept a new wave of missiles launched by Iran.
"A short while ago, the IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel. Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat," the Israeli military said on its official Telegram account.
Saudi Arabia intercepted 22 drones in the east of the country, the defence ministry said on Saturday, as Iran continues striking Gulf nations.
"10 drones intercepted and destroyed in the eastern region," the Saudi defence ministry posted on X.
The ministry later posted that its air defences had shot down 12 more drones, also in the east.
The US Treasury temporarily lifted sanctions on Iranian oil already loaded onto vessels, allowing deliveries until April 19.
It follows a similar easing of sanctions for Russian oil already at sea, as Washington seeks to stem a global supply crunch caused by the de facto closing of the Strait of Hormuz.
However, Iran said earlier it had "no surplus crude oil" to offer to international markets, after the US Treasury chief previewed the temporary lifting of sanctions.
The Israeli military said it launched a wave of strikes on Lebanon's capital Beirut early Saturday targeting the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, after urging residents of several areas to evacuate.
Earlier, Lebanese state media said an Israeli airstrike hit a house in a southern town, killing one person and wounding two others.
Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry condemned on Saturday Israel's strikes on Syrian army camps as "aggression", calling on the international community to intervene.
Israel's military said on Friday it had struck southern Syria in response to what it called attacks against the Druze community in Sweida province.
The Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement that the kingdom condemned "the blatant Israeli aggression... in flagrant violation of international law and Syrian sovereignty", urging the international community "to put an end to Israel's violations of international laws and norms".
Kuwait's military said its air defence systems were responding to a missile and drone attack on Saturday, as Iran continues to strike Gulf nations.
"Kuwaiti air defences are currently responding to hostile missile and drone threats," an army statement said.
Iran fired two ballistic missiles towards the joint US-UK military base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, according to a Wall Street Journal report cited by AFP, which quoted US officials.
Neither missile hit the target, which is around 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) from Iranian territory, but the launch suggests that Tehran has missiles with longer ranges than previously thought, the report said.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
One of the missiles failed in flight, and the other was targeted by an interceptor fired from a US warship, though it was not clear if the missile was hit, The Journal reported.
Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands is one of two bases Britain is allowing the United States to use for "defensive" operations in Iran.
American forces have stationed bombers and other equipment at the base, a key hub for Asia operations, including the US bombing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Britain has agreed to hand back the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after holding it since the 1960s, and maintains a lease for the base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands.
US President Donald Trump has slammed the decision.
The Israeli military said early Saturday it launched strikes on “regime targets” in Tehran, hours after reporting several rounds of Iranian missile fire towards Israel.
In a brief statement, the military said it was “striking Iranian terror regime targets in Tehran,” following an earlier air raid on Iran-backed group Hezbollah in Beirut, AFP reported.
There were no immediate details on damage or casualties from the strikes.
Earlier, the military said it had detected missile launches from Iran towards Israeli territory at least three times within a span of six hours. Air raid sirens sounded across large parts of the country, though no casualties were reported.
In a separate statement, Israel said recent strikes on Tehran had targeted ballistic missile infrastructure, adding that operations to “degrade the Iranian regime’s fire array” would continue.
Iran has said it is willing to assist Japanese vessels navigating a key global oil route, even as tensions escalate over access to the Strait of Hormuz.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in an interview with Kyodo News published Saturday, denied that Iran had closed the strait, asserting that it remains open. He said restrictions apply only to countries involved in attacks on Iran, while others, including Japan, could expect support.
“We have not closed the strait. It is open,” Araghchi said, adding that Iran was prepared to ensure safe passage for Japanese ships.
Japan, which depends heavily on Middle East crude, sources about 95% of its oil from the region, with nearly 70% transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The disruption has prompted Tokyo to begin releasing strategic oil reserves earlier this week.
The country holds reserves equivalent to around 254 days of domestic consumption. Meanwhile, members of the International Energy Agency on March 11 agreed to tap stockpiles to stabilise prices amid the ongoing Middle East conflict.
The president made the comment in a post on social media Friday evening after another climb in oil prices sent the US stock market sharply lower.
Trump’s statement seemed at odds with his administration’s move to send more troops and warships to the region and request another $200 billion from Congress to fund the war.
In his post, the president also left a muddled picture of whether the U.S. would police the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane. Trump had said this week that the U.S. didn’t need help, while also complaining that other countries did not help.
Two people have been killed by shelling on a residentia; area in the village of Dastak in northern Iran, Al Jazeera reported.
An upscale Baghdad neighbourhood came under drone attack Saturday morning, a security official told AFP, with one drone targeting an Iraqi security service building.
The drone "carried out the attack on a communications building", the official said, adding that the building houses an Iraqi security agency that works with US advisors in Iraq, part of an international anti-jihadist coalition.
Another drone, filming the operation, crashed into a private members sports club popular with Iraqi elite and foreign diplomats, according to the same source.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it clashed with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, killing four people.
It says Israeli forces were fired upon, but none was injured.
The military says its air force also struck “a number of Hezbollah headquarters” in Beirut.
The United States and Israel struck Iran's Natanz nuclear facility, the Islamic republic's atomic energy organisation said.
"Following the criminal attacks by the United States and the usurping Zionist regime against our country, the... Natanz enrichment complex was targeted this morning," the organisation said in a statement carried by the Tasnim news agency.
It added that there was "no leakage of radioactive materials reported" in the area in central Iran.
An Iraqi officer was killed in the drone attack targeting an Iraqi intelligence services building in a residential Baghdad neighbourhood, the agency said.
"An officer was martyred," Iraqi intelligence said in a statement condemning "a terrorist attack carried out by rogue elements". A security official and an Iraqi emergency services source reported that another officer was wounded.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned that the United States and Israel would intensify their strikes on Iran in the coming week starting Sunday.
"This week, the intensity of the strikes to be carried out by the IDF and the US military against the Iranian terror regime and the infrastructure on which it relies will rise significantly," Katz said in a statement issued by the defence ministry on Saturday.
The UN atomic watchdog said it was looking into a report by Iran that the Natanz nuclear site was attacked in the war with the United States and Israel.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi repeated a "call for military restraint to avoid any risk of a nuclear accident", the agency posted on X.
"The IAEA has been informed by Iran that the Natanz nuclear site was attacked today. No increase in off-site radiation levels reported," it added.
Iran was "unsuccessful" in targeting the joint UK-US Indian Ocean military base at Diego Garcia, a UK official source confirmed to AFP on Saturday, after the Wall Street Journal reported Tehran fired two ballistic missiles at it.
The source said the "unsuccessful targeting of Diego Garcia" took place before the UK government announced Friday that it would allow the United States to use some of its bases to target Iranian sites being used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Countries including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, the UK, France, Germany and Japan have also condemned Iran’s attacks on commercial vessels and oil and gas facilities in the region.
The countries said in a joint statement that “the effects of Iran’s actions will be felt by people in all parts of the world, especially the most vulnerable.”
Russia condemned strikes on Iran's Natanz nuclear facility earlier Saturday, saying they created a risk of "catastrophe" in the Middle East.
The UN's atomic energy watchdog said it was looking into an Iranian report that the Natanz nuclear site, used for uranium enrichment, was attacked in the war with the United States and Israel.
"The international community... must immediately provide an objective and hardline assessment of these irresponsible actions, which pose a real risk of a catastrophe across the Middle East," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
The Israeli military on Saturday said its forces struck ballistic missile production facilities belonging to Iran's Revolutionary Guards in overnight attacks on Tehran.
"Facilities utilised for the production of critical components for the development of ballistic missiles belonging to the Iranian regime's security apparatus were targeted," the military said.
The strikes hit a central Guards' compound, a missile components production facility, and a separate compound belonging to Iran's defence ministry, it said.
"The strikes significantly degrade the Iranian terror regime's capabilities to continue producing critical components for ballistic missiles at these sites," the military said.
Trump took the United States to war without a vote of support from Congress, but lawmakers are increasingly questioning when, how and at what cost the war with Iran will come to an end.
Three weeks into the conflict, the toll is increasing: At least 13 US military personnel have died, and more than 230 wounded. A $200 billion Pentagon request for war funds is pending at the White House. Allies are under attack, oil prices are spiking and thousands of US troops are deploying to the Middle East with no endgame in sight.
“The real question is: What ultimately are we trying to accomplish?” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told The Associated Press. “I generally support anything that takes out the mullahs. But at the end of the day, there has to be a kind of strategic articulation of the strategy, what our objectives are,” he said.
The United Arab Emirates has ordered the closure of an Iranian state-linked hospital in Dubai, staff told AFP, as tensions escalate amid Tehran’s aerial campaign against Gulf states.
The move follows weeks of missile and drone attacks by Iran, with the UAE reporting more than 2,000 strikes since February 28.
Abu Dhabi has recalled its ambassador and shut its diplomatic mission in Iran, signalling a sharp deterioration in ties. A UAE official said institutions linked to the Iranian regime and the IRGC would be closed under targeted administrative measures for violating local laws.
The hospital, run by the Iranian Red Crescent and employing over 700 people, is among the UAE’s oldest healthcare facilities. Staff said they were asked to vacate within days, with patients shifted to other hospitals.
Several Iranian schools and community institutions in Dubai have also been shut, underscoring the widening impact on long-standing economic and social ties.
The Israeli military denied that Israel was responsible for a strike that hit Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility.
An official Iranian news agency reported on Saturday that the site was damaged in an airstrike but there was no radiation leakage. The Israeli military said it wasn’t aware of Israeli strikes in that region.
The denial came as Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a video statement that next week, “the intensity of the attacks” by Israel and the United States against Iran’s ruling theocracy will “increase significantly.”
Trump’s fellow Republicans appear unlikely to directly challenge him, even as the conflict drags on. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said the military operation will be over quickly.
“I do think the original mission is virtually accomplished now,” Johnson, R-La., told the AP and others at the Capitol this week. “We were trying to take out the ballistic missiles, and their means of production, and neuter the navy, and those objectives have been met.”
Johnson acknowledged that Iran’s ability to threaten ships in the Strait of Hormuz is “dragging it out a little bit,” especially as US allies have largely rebuffed the president’s request for help, but said “As soon as we bring some calm to the situation, I think it’s all but done.”
The European Commission on Saturday urged EU member countries to lower their target for filling natural gas storage in the coming months, to alleviate price pressures caused by the war in the Middle East.
EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen sent a letter asking to "consider reducing your filling target to 80 percent as early as possible in the filling season to provide certainty and reassurance to market participants", down from the usual 90 percent goal.
Tehran is willing to help Japanese ships transit the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic chokepoint for global oil supplies, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Kyodo News in an interview published on Saturday.
Japan is the fifth-biggest importer of oil, with 95% of it coming from the Middle East and 70% passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
In a telephone interview with Kyodo News on Friday, Araghchi denied the passage was closed, insisting instead that countries attacking Iran face restrictions, while others were being offered assistance.
"We have not closed this strait. From our perspective, the strait is open. It is only closed to ships belonging to our enemies -- countries that attack us. For other countries, (their) vessels can pass through the strait," he said according to a Farsi transcript of the interview posted on his Telegram channel.
Araghchi said that Iran was prepared to ensure safe passage for Japan. "They only need to contact us so we can discuss how this transit can take place," he added.
The joint UK-US base in the Indian Ocean is almost 4,000 miles (2,500 kilometers) away. Iran previously limited the range of its ballistic missile program to 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometers), but US officials have said Iran’s system for satellite launches could extend their range.
Iran’s Simorgh space launch vehicle could offer greater range “at the likely cost of terminal accuracy,” said Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense think-tank.
“Ballistic missiles are space rockets. They launch, they go really high up and they come down really fast,” said Steve Prest, a retired Royal Navy commodore. “If you’ve got a space program, you’ve got a ballistic missile program.”
Prest said the launches were likely a message of defiance, to say “look what we can do,” in response to Trump’s claims that Iran’s military has been obliterated.
The Health Ministry said Saturday that three deaths were reported over the past 24 hours, and 99 people were wounded, raising the total injured to 2,740.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2, when the Iran-backed militia fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the US and Israeli attacks on Iran triggered a widening war in the Middle East.
Israel has since ordered evacuations from large parts of southern and eastern Lebanon as well as Beirut’s southern suburbs, and more than 1 million people have been displaced.
Israeli medics said shrapnel wounded 20 people in the town of Dimona, home to a nuclear facility, after warnings of incoming missile fire from Iran.
Magen David Adom first responders said their teams were treating approximately 20 victims at a number of impact sites, including a 10-year-old boy and a 40-year-old woman in moderate condition.
Dimona in southern Israel hosts a facility widely believed to possess the Middle East's sole, if undeclared, nuclear arsenal.
Israel has maintained a policy of ambiguity about its nuclear programme, and the Dimona plant officially focuses on research.
The casualties in Dimona came after Iranian authorities said the nuclear facility at Natanz in the Islamic republic was struck in the US-Israeli bombing campaign.
The United Arab Emirates said on Saturday it faced aerial attacks from Iran after the Islamic republic warned its neighbour against allowing attacks from its territory on disputed islands near the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
"UAE air defences are currently responding to incoming missile and drone threats from Iran," the defence ministry said in a statement explaining "the sounds heard are the result of the Air Defence Systems intercepting missiles and drones."
The Tasnim news agency reported the Iranian military's operational command had warned the UAE "if any further aggression originates from its territory against the Iranian islands of Abu Musa and Greater Tunb in the Persian Gulf, Iran... will subject Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE to heavy strikes."
Authorities in the northern emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, which shares its name with the UAE's sixth-largest city, said later on Saturday the "sounds heard across parts of the city were the result of successful air defence interception operations."
Abu Musa and the Greater Tunb islands, which are controlled by Iran but claimed by the UAE, have long been a source of dispute between the two countries. The islands are located in the Gulf near the entrance to the critical global shipping chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz.
