US launches strikes on southern Iran
The US military’s Central Command is saying US forces have carried out strikes on southern Iran in “self-defence”.
The strikes targeted missile launch sites and Iranian boats seeking to lay mines, Centcom is quoted as saying.
It says the military will defend US forces “while using restraint” during the ongoing ceasefire.
Explosions were heard earlier in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas and the Iranian state news agency Mehr later said the situation was “completely under control” and there was no reason for residents to worry.
Key events
The intensifying fighting between Israel and Hezbollah comes amid waning hopes for an imminent deal between the US and Iran, with Tehran pointing to the confusion in US positions and Israeli interference as key factors in why a complete agreement is proving difficult to secure.
As mentioned, the Israeli army has intensified strikes in southern Lebanon as prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to escalate its offensive in an effort to “crush” Hezbollah in a further erosion of an already fragmented ceasefire.
In turn, Hezbollah said it attacked three barracks and a military post in northern Israel on Monday “in response to the violation of the ceasefire” by Israel.
After Netanyahu’s call for escalation, residents were seen fleeing the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold.
The Israeli air force carried out successive strikes in the Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon on Monday evening, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. Dozens of Israeli strikes earlier targeted several towns and villages in southern Lebanon, killing three people, it reported, and strikes then targeted towns near the ancient city of Tyre.
There’s more in our new full report:
Iranian boats laying mines in Hormuz strait before US attack – report
Two Iranian boats had been spotted laying mines in the strait of Hormuz, and US forces also responded after a missile site targeted US warplanes, Fox News has quoted a senior US official as claiming.
The US military destroyed both Revolutionary Guard vessels and also struck a surface-to-air missile site in the southern city of Bandar Abbas, it reported.
“These were defensive strikes,” the official said. The strikes did not indicate the ceasefire with Iran was over, two additional sources told the network.
Explosions had been heard on Monday in regions across the strait of Hormuz, Fox said, including close to Sirik and Jask near the key waterway. The official later confirmed the US strikes were “over for now”.
US launches strikes on southern Iran
The US military’s Central Command is saying US forces have carried out strikes on southern Iran in “self-defence”.
The strikes targeted missile launch sites and Iranian boats seeking to lay mines, Centcom is quoted as saying.
It says the military will defend US forces “while using restraint” during the ongoing ceasefire.
Explosions were heard earlier in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas and the Iranian state news agency Mehr later said the situation was “completely under control” and there was no reason for residents to worry.
Stockpile of enriched uranium could be destroyed inside Iran, Trump announces
Donald Trump has said the enriched uranium held by Iran could be destroyed inside the country, in a process overseen by an international nuclear agency.
The Enriched Uranium (Nuclear Dust!) will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed or, preferably, in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, destroyed in place or, at another acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy Commission, or its equivalent, being witness to this process and event.”
The fate of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium has been a major sticking point in various rounds of negotiations between Washington and Tehan.
In previous rounds of talks with the US, Iran has said it is willing to down-blend the enriched uranium, but it would not permit the transfer of the stockpile to either the US or Russia.
Experts say Trump’s announcement on his Truth Social platform on Monday could amount to a major concession from the US president as he seeks to finalise an agreement with Iran.
Emma Graham-Harrison
When Donald Trump launched a pre-emptive war on Iran with Israel in February, many in the country hailed the campaign as the crowning triumph of Benjamin Netanyahu’s political and diplomatic career.
Three months on the regime is still in power in Tehran, Trump is chasing a deal that will reopen the strait of Hormuz to oil tankers, and the reported terms have provoked alarm, dismay and anger in Israel.
“Israel is completely beholden to the decisions of a capricious, hollow and desperate American president,” Nahum Barnea wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth, one of several commentators who condemned both the deal and the Israeli prime minister.
“The greater the fury, the greater the roar, the greater the defeat,” he added. “If the agreement currently being talked about is signed, the damage will be even worse. The billions that will flow into the regime’s pockets will go a long way.”
At the beginning of the war Israel’s security elite warned that Netanyahu risked sacrificing the country’s most vital foreign policy asset – bi-partisan support in the US – in pursuit of regime change in Iran and possibly a boost in an election due by October.
Almost three months on, US opinion polls indicate that a body blow to a decades-old legacy may be the conflict’s most enduring legacy for Israel.
Read the full analysis here:
Hezbollah said it staged several attacks on Monday on three barracks and a military post in northern Israel “in response to the violation of the ceasefire” by Israel.
The Iran-backed group claimed responsibility for at least four drone attacks on the Shomera barracks, as well as attacks on two barracks in towns in northern Israel, and another on a military post in Misgav Am.
They were carried out around midday at short intervals, AFP is reporting.
The attacks came as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would escalate strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon to “crush them” and the Israeli military said it struck more than 70 of the militant group’s siteson Monday.
Iran, meanwhile, praised Hezbollah for its continuing resistance against Israel.
The situation in the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas is “completely under control” and there is no reason for residents to worry, the state Mehr news agency reported, after explosions were heard in the area earlier.
Further to my earlier post, the Tasnim news agency said three explosions were heard in the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, while the Fars news agency said similar sounds were heard close to Sirik and Jask near the strait of Hormuz.
The cause and exact locations of the explosions was unknown.
The Israel Defence Forces said it struck more than 70 Hezbollah sites across Lebanon on Monday.
Around 10 centres, weapons storage facilities and additional infrastructure sites were targeted in the southern Tyre region alone, the IDF said on Telegram.
The Israeli air force also eliminated Hezbollah operatives using motorcycles in southern Lebanon, it said.
Iran’s foreign minister expresses ‘resolute support’ to Hezbollah leader
Earlier, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi issued a statement praising Hezbollah for its ongoing resistance in Lebanon against Israel.
In a statement on Telegram, Araghchi congratulated the group’s secretary general Naim Qassem, and Nabih Berri, speaker of the Lebanese parliament, in separate messages to mark the anniversary of Liberation Day in Lebanon.
The anniversary commemorates the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, and Araghchi emphasised Iran’s support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon against Israel.
“In these messages, Araghchi… emphasized the Islamic Republic of Iran’s continued and resolute support for the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of the Lebanese people and their legitimate resistance against the occupation and aggression of the Zionist regime,” it said.
Here are some images from Beirut on Monday.
Explosions have been heard in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, which sits on the Persian Gulf, north of the strait of Hormuz, Reuters reports, citing the semi-official Mehr news agency.
I’ll bring you more on this as we get it.
As we’ve been reporting, the Israeli army intensified strikes in southern Lebanon on Monday, as Israeli prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to escalate its offensive in Lebanon in an effort to “crush” Hezbollah.
It comes as the United States and Iran seek to finalise the terms of an agreement to end the Middle East conflict, which could include the Lebanon front, where Israel has waged war on Hezbollah since 2 March.
Following the call for escalation, an AFP correspondent reported residents fleeing the southern suburbs of Beirut.
The Israeli air force carried out successive strikes in the Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon on Monday evening, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA), and dozens of Israeli strikes earlier targeted several towns and villages in southern Lebanon in the early hours, killing three people in two cars and on a motorcycle.
Israeli airstrikes then targeted several towns near the ancient city of Tyre, according to the state-run agency.
Those strikes came after Israel issued evacuation orders for 10 villages, accusing Hezbollah of breaching the truce.
Later on Monday, it issued another evacuation warning directed at residents of a building in Rashidieh and two buildings in Burj al-Shamali, near Tyre.
A Palestinian woman and girl have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza, according to medical officials.
The strike hit a tent sheltering a displaced family in the west of Khan Younis on Monday, the Kuwait field hospital told the Associated Press. The hospital, which received the casualties, said another girl was wounded.
The Israeli military said it had struck a militant, but gave no further details.
This adds to the more than 880 Palestinians who have been killed since the ceasefire in October, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
