Tehran responded with missile fire on Israel and its Gulf neighbours
More than 25 people have been killed in Iran following a wave of attacks carried out by Israel and the United States.
Tehran responded to the attacks with missile fire on Israel and its Gulf neighbours, according to reports. The airstrikes came as Donald Trump’s deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz loomed.
The US President issued an expletive-laden threat against Iran over the weekend, saying America would escalate strikes on its infrastructure if it doesn’t open the Strait of Hormuz by his deadline, which is 1am UK time on Tuesday. In a social media post, Mr Trump promised strikes on Iran’s power plants and bridges.
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He said the strikes would set the country ‘back to the stone ages’ and would added that Iran would be ‘living in hell’. But a defiant Iran showed no sign of backing down, striking economic and infrastructure targets in neighbouring Gulf Arab countries and challenging the US’s account of the rescue.
And Iran’s joint military command warned of stepped-up attacks on regional oil and civilian infrastructure if the US and Israel attack such targets there, according to state television. Overnight explosions rang out in Tehran and low-flying jets could be heard for hours as the capital was pounded.
Thick black smoke rose near the city’s Azadi Square after one airstrike hit the Sharif University of Technology grounds. Two people were found dead in the rubble of a residential building in Haifa, according to Israeli authorities.
The search was ongoing for two more even as new Iranian missile attacks hit the northern Israeli city early on Monday. Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates both activated their air defence systems to intercept incoming Iranian missiles and drones, as Tehran kept up the pressure on its Gulf neighbours.
Iran’s regular attacks on regional energy infrastructure and its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped in peacetime, have sent global energy prices soaring. Iran has let some vessels through the strait since the war began, but none belonging to the US, Israel or countries perceived as helping them.
Some have paid Iran for passage and the overall flow of traffic is down more than 90 per cent over the same period last year. Beyond Mr Trump’s military threats, diplomatic efforts are still underway to see if a solution can be reached to open the waterway.
One of Monday’s morning airstrikes targeted Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology, where Iranian media reported damage to the buildings as well as a natural gas distribution site next to the campus. It was not immediately clear what had been targeted on the grounds of the university, which is empty of students as the war has forced all schools into the country into online classes.
Multiple countries over the years have sanctioned the university for its work with the military, particularly on Iran’s ballistic missile programme, which is controlled by the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. A strike near Eslamshar, southwest of Tehran, killed at least 13 people, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
Five others were killed when a residential area in the city of Qom was hit, and six more were killed in strikes on other cities, the state-run IRAN daily newspaper reported. Three more people were killed when an airstrike hit a home in Tehran, Iranian state television reported.
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