War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

At least four tanker drivers have been killed in Israel’s attacks on Iranian oil sites in Tehran and Alborz, reports Al Jazeera, citing the Fars news agency.

Fars said Israeli attacks hit four oil storage facilities and a petroleum products transfer centre in Tehran and Alborz.

Israel has issued evacuation orders for the residents of Nabatieh governorate in southern Lebanon, threatening them with imminent strikes, Al Jazeera has reported.

Avichay Adraee, Arabic-language spokesman for Israel’s army, said in a statement that the attack would target Hezbollah fighters, facilities and weapons.

“Any home used by Hezbollah for military purposes may be subject to targeting,” he added.

At least 11 people have been killed in US-Israeli attacks on several manufacturing workshops and a horse-riding club in Iran’s Isfahan province, Al Jazeera reports, citing Tasnim news agency.

Several others were wounded, the agency reported.

At least eight cities were hit in the central province, including Isfahan, Najafabad, Aran, Bidgol, Barkhar, Khomenei Shahr, Shahreza, Falavarjan and Mobarakeh, Tasnim reported.

The United States and Israel have hit five oil facilities in overnight strikes in and near the Iranian capital, an official told state TV, according to AFP.

“Last night, four oil depots and a petroleum products transport centre in Tehran and the Alborz were attacked by enemy aircraft,” the CEO of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company Keramat Veyskarami told state TV.

He added that the five facilities “were damaged” but the “fire was brought under control”.

A member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, Mirbaqeri, has been quoted by the Mehr news agency as saying that the body’s majority has reached consensus over assassinated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s successor, reports Reuters.

“Some obstacles regarding the process need to be resolved,” he has been quoted as saying.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says his country “will be forced to respond” to any attack or invasion attempt from a neighbouring country, in remarks aired by state TV, reports AFP.

If Iran’s enemies “try to use any country to attack or invade our land, we will be forced to respond to that attack. Responding does not mean we have disputes with that country or wish to harm its people — we would be responding out of necessity,” said Pezeshkian.

Falling missile debris has injured three people and damaged a university building in Bahrain, the interior ministry has said, according to AFP.

“As a result of the blatant Iranian aggression, 3 people were injured and material damage was inflicted on a university building in the Muharraq area after missile fragments fell,” the ministry said in a statement, referring to an island area northwest of Manama.

Bahrain has said a water desalination plant has been damaged in an Iranian drone attack, reports AFP.

As the Israel-US war on Iran is entering its second week, President Donald Trump has demanded an “unconditional surrender” by the Persian Gulf Islamic Republic.

But within hours, President Masoud Pezeshkian of the beleaguered nation retorted: they will take their dreams of Iranian people surrendering unconditionally to their grave.

So what can influence the course of this war, including its end?

Apart from claims by the Israel-US coalition of decimating Iran’s nuclear facilities and missile production and launch capabilities, besides decapitating its leadership and destroying its command and control systems, and equally defiant statements by Iran about its own military might, evidence is in short supply about how the war is going.

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Pakistanis have felt the first direct economic tremor of the escalating confrontation between the US-Israel combine and Iran, where it hurts the most: at the petrol pump.

The government’s decision to increase petrol and diesel prices by Rs55 per litre reflects the immediate spill-over of high global oil prices triggered by the conflict. It is the single sharpest petroleum price adjustment in recent memory — alongside even steeper increases in kerosene and light diesel oil.

The increase is extraordinary by any standard. Yet it also reflects how vulnerable Pakistan’s economy remains to geopolitical shocks.

With the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s attacks on US military installations across the Gulf, global oil markets have been thrown into turmoil.

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As the conflict in the Middle East escalates, Pakistan’s Planning Commission has cautioned about possible economic impacts on the country, including increased energy costs, strain on remittance inflows, and potential interruptions to exports and financial stability.

The ministry has warned that instability in the region, especially around the strategic Strait of Hormuz, could drive up global oil prices and sharply increase Pakistan’s import costs, given the country’s heavy dependence on petroleum imports from the Middle East, according to the Ministry of Planning’s Monthly Development Update for March.

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Though Pakistan is not part of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, it is the first victim in the region as the government raised oil prices while the high-cost oil is still at sea; the 28-day stocks are being sold at prices yet to reach consumers.

India kept petrol and diesel prices stable despite global price spikes, but LPG prices were increased. The Indian government has so far managed high import costs for crude.

Trade and business people are disappointed with the sudden jump in oil and diesel prices by Rs55 per litre, while ordinary citizens were highly concerned about the ripple effects of this oil price hike.

“The easiest way to extract money is to bomb the common citizens and destroy the already ailing economy,” said Syed Shakil, a textile industry worker.

He said the textile industry was facing tough times and could face the most difficult times in the wake of the Middle East war.

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The United Arab Emirates has said its air defence systems are intercepting missiles and drones launched from Iran, reports AFP.

“UAE air defences are currently responding to incoming missile and drone threats from Iran,” the defence ministry said in a post on X, adding sounds of explosions were a result of the systems “intercepting missiles and drones”.

The Israeli military says it has launched a wave of strikes “across Iran”, targeting military sites, reports AFP.

A military statement said it had “initiated a wave of strikes” targeting military infrastructure across Iran.

Sri Lanka has discharged from hospital 22 Iranian sailors who were plucked from life rafts after their warship was sunk by a US submarine, reports AFP.

The sailors were treated at Karapitiya Hospital in the southern port city of Galle since Wednesday after the IRIS Dena was torpedoed just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters.

“Another 10 are still undergoing treatment,” a medical officer at the hospital told AFP.

He said the bodies of 84 Iranians retrieved from the Indian Ocean were also at the hospital.

Those discharged from hospital overnight had been taken to a beach resort in the same district.

AFPTV footage shows smoke billowing over the southern suburbs of Beirut following an apparent air strike on the area where Hezbollah holds sway.

Several hours earlier, the Israeli military said it had launched strikes on “Hezbollah infrastructure” in that area.

The Human Rights Watch has called for investigating the “unlawful attack” on a primary girls’ school in southern Iran on February 28 as a “war crime”.

Kuwait’s army says its air defence systems are currently countering missile and drone attacks.

Kuwait’s defence ministry says fuel tanks at the Gulf nation’s international airport have been targeted in a drone attack, reports AFP.

“The fuel tanks of Kuwait International Airport were attacked by drones in a direct targeting of vital infrastructure,” an official defence ministry spokesman said, according to a post by the Kuwaiti military on X.

The spokesman added the country’s forces were “responding to a wave of hostile drones” that penetrated the country’s airspace.

The Saudi defence ministry says it has intercepted a drone attack targeting the diplomatic quarter in the capital Riyadh, reporting no casualties or damage, according to AFP.

“An attempt to target the diplomatic quarter in Riyadh with a drone was thwarted; no material damage or civilian injuries resulted from shooting down the drone,” the ministry said in a statement posted on X.

Lebanon’s health ministry has said that an Israeli strike on a hotel in central Beirut has killed at least four people, with Israel saying it had targeted commanders from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, reports AFP.