War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Amir-Saeid Iravani, Iran’s permanent representative to the UN, has condemned the US attacks against Iran’s civilian infrastructure in a letter to Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, AlJazeera reports.

Iravani wrote in the letter that the US attacks “targeted and caused extensive damage to ports, transportation networks, communications facilities, logistics hubs, radar installations, coastal defense systems and other infrastructure indispensable to the civilian population, and to the functioning of the national economy”.

He further notes in his letter that the US bears full international responsibility for all deaths, injuries, damage to vital infrastructure and environmental harm caused by the attacks.

“The continued commission of these unlawful armed attacks poses a grave threat to international peace and security, freedom of navigation, regional stability, and the security of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” Iravani adds.

Bahrain’s army says its air defences repelled a wave of Iranian attacks, as an AFP journalist in Manama reported hearing blasts after sirens sounded.

“Air defence systems thwarted” the attacks, the army says in a statement, adding that they “intercepted and destroyed a number of treacherous Iranian aerial assaults”.

In the labyrinthine alleyways of Cairo’s Garbage City, recycling specialist Peter Romany finds himself fielding calls from factories scrambling for plastic to plug supply shortfalls caused by the US-Israel war on Iran.

The 25-year-old is among the hundreds of recyclers and manufacturers across Egypt benefiting from a war-driven surge in demand ever since the United States and Iran choked off the Strait of Hormuz — a major shipping lane for the raw materials from which plastic is made.

At the heart of the boom is the sprawling eastern Cairo settlement of Manshiyet Nasser, where generations of garbage collectors have built one of the world’s most sophisticated informal recycling systems.

Read more here.

A fire broke out at a power generation and water desalination plant in Kuwait after an Iranian attack, Reuters reports, citing the country’s Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy Ministry.

It adds that several power generation units were shut down.

It says efforts were under way to contain the fire and carry out repairs.

The US attack that hit water desalination pumps in the coastal Bunji village, in Iran’s Jask county, has “completely disrupted the supply of drinking water to 20 villages with a population of approximately 10,000 people”,  Hamzeh Pour, the CEO of the Hormozgan Water and Wastewater Company, was quoted as saying by Tasnim.

Pour referred to the US strikes as “a series of crimes and terrorist attacks”, wherein a pumping station for extracting water from the sea and a power transformer at the Bunji desalination plant were “completely destroyed”.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that Israeli warplanes have carried out air strikes in two waves at dawn, targeting the Masha’ al-Mansouri area in the country’s Lebanon.

Kuwait Airways said it has rescheduled most flights after the country temporarily suspended operations at Kuwait International Airport following Iranian missile and drone attacks, Reuters reports.

The airline had earlier said the rescheduling was due to the closure of Kuwaiti airspace.

Iran’s IRGC is warning countries hosting US military forces to prepare for a “corresponding response” according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, Al Jazeera reports.

The IRGC demanded that such nations “activate their civil defence units to protect their citizens and move them away from potential military targets,” stating that their territories are being used as launchpads for aggression against Iran.

The Iranian army said that it had targeted an air base in Bahrain used by the United States in response to American strikes, according to Iran’s state broadcaster, AFP reports.

Attack drones targeted “aircraft shelters and parking areas, fuel storage tanks of the US military at Sheikh Isa Air Base, as well as several connecting bridges in Bahrain,” the army said, adding that the base in southern Bahrain is “one of the most important operational and logistical centres” for the US military in the region.

Iranian media has reported that electricity facilities and desalination pumps have been hit during the attack in Hormozgan province, according to Al Jazeera.

An official in Hormozgan told the Mehr news agency: “We are assessing the damage and working to restore drinking water to areas that were cut off due to last night’s attacks.”

Jordan’s army said it had shot down 10 Iranian missiles with no casualties or damage, as Tehran retaliated against American strikes by pressing attacks on US allies, AFP reports.

“Air defense systems … intercepted 10 Iranian missiles that had entered Jordanian airspace and were targeting the Kingdom’s territory (which) were intercepted and shot down,” the army said in a statement, adding that there were no casualties or material damage.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reports that a location in the vicinity of Jask was targeted in a military attack by the US, Al Jazeera reports. Details regarding the extent of the damage or casualties from this specific incident have not yet been released.

In a separate US attack on the Bandar Abbas-Rudan road, two bridges along the vital transportation route sustained heavy damage. According to the Tasnim report, a number of Iranian citizens were killed, and several others were injured as a result of the strikes on the infrastructure.

The US military has completed its seventh consecutive night of strikes against Iran, US Central Command said, adding that it targeted military logistics infrastructure and other sites, Reuters reports.

“More than 50,000 American service members are operating across the Middle East and remain vigilant, lethal, and ready,” Centcom said in a statement.

Iran’s army says it struck US military targets in Kuwait and Jordan in response to American attacks, AFP reports, citing Iranian state broadcaster.

In Kuwait, Iranian forces targeted an ammunition depot in the Al-Adiri camp, the headquarters buildings and ammunition depots in the Ali Al-Salem base and several communication bridges.

In Jordan, fuel tanks at the Al-Azraq base were also targeted, the state broadcaster said on Telegram.

US attacks killed three people and wounded eight in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan, state news agency IRNA reported, according to AFP.

“The deputy political, security and social affairs governor of Hormozgan announced the martyrdom of three people and the injury of eight people following enemy attacks on some parts of Hormozgan province this morning,” IRNA said on Telegram.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Saturday they had “stopped” four ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz, AFP reports.

“In the past hours, four violating ships with the support of the terrorist US army were trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and all four ships were stopped in place during a combined missile and drone operation,” the Guards said in a statement carried by the state broadcaster.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said that two oil tankers transiting through the Strait of Hormuz hit mines and exploded, according to a statement published by state news agency IRNA, AFP reports.

“An hour ago, two oil tankers, which were trying to pass through the minefield south of the Strait of Hormuz by deceptive American intelligence agencies, exploded and caught fire,” the Guards said in their statement.

Five explosions were heard in in Yazd, in central Iran, the state news agency IRNA reported, after the US military announced a seventh night of strikes against the country, AFP reports.

Another Iranian news agency, Mehr, reported that explosions were heard “in several provinces in the south” of Iran.

Iran’s foreign minister says three people killed while crossing a bridge in Bandar Khamir were “completely innocent”, according to Al Jazeera.

“We will never allow their pure blood to be trampled upon”, Abbas Araghchi says on his official Telegram account. “We will defend every inch of this land until our last breath.”

Kuwait’s state news agency reports that two fires in southern Kuwait were brought under control after sites were targeted in Iranian attacks, according to Al Jazeera.