Iran fired cluster warhead missiles at Tel Aviv overnight, killing two people, in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of the country’s security chief Ali Larijani, Iranian state television reported on Wednesday.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the strike used Khorramshahr 4 and Qadr missiles, both equipped with multi-warheads, which disperse into smaller explosives mid-air and spread over a wide area, making them difficult to intercept. The attack hit a neighbourhood close to densely populated civilian and military areas, bringing the Israeli death toll from the war to at least 14.
Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was the most senior Iranian figure killed since Israeli strikes on the war’s first day eliminated supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran confirmed on Tuesday that Larijani’s son and his deputy, Alireza Bayat, were also killed in the same attack.
Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei has rejected ceasefire proposals conveyed to the Foreign Ministry, saying it was not the right time for peace until Washington and Israel accepted defeat and paid compensation, according to a senior Iranian official speaking on condition of anonymity.
In a separate development, a projectile struck an area near the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran on Tuesday evening, though Tehran told the International Atomic Energy Agency it caused no damage or casualties. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi renewed his call for maximum restraint to avert the risk of a nuclear accident.
Lebanon pulled deeper into the war
Israel intensified strikes across Lebanon on Wednesday, killing at least six people and wounding 24 others in Beirut alone, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Fourteen more people were killed in separate strikes on southern and eastern areas of the country. More than 900 people have been killed in Lebanon and over 800,000 displaced since Hezbollah attacked Israel on 2 March, saying it was avenging the killing of Iran’s supreme leader.
US strikes near Strait of Hormuz
The United States military said on Tuesday it had bombed sites along Iran’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz using bunker-buster munitions, citing the threat Iranian anti-ship missiles posed to international shipping. The strait, through which roughly a fifth of global oil trade passes, remains largely closed as Iran threatens vessels linked to Washington and Tel Aviv.
US President Donald Trump has publicly rebuked NATO allies for refusing to join military efforts to reopen the waterway, calling their reluctance “a very foolish mistake.” The legal basis for US involvement has faced growing scrutiny, underscored by the resignation on Tuesday of Joseph Kent, head of the National Counterterrorism Center, who wrote to Trump that Iran “posed no imminent threat to our nation.”
Oil crisis deepens
The International Energy Agency has described the conflict as the worst oil crisis since the 1970s. Brent crude futures have closed above $100 per barrel for four consecutive sessions, with prices up roughly 45% since fighting began on 28 February. The World Food Programme warned that tens of millions of people face acute hunger if the war continues through June.
Global airlines on Tuesday warned of hundreds of millions of dollars in additional costs, higher fares and route cuts as most Middle East airspace remains closed due to the threat of missile and drone attacks.
Gulf Arab states have sustained more than 2,000 Iranian missile and drone strikes on US diplomatic missions, military bases, oil infrastructure and civilian buildings, most of them targeting the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia called a consultative meeting of Arab and Islamic foreign ministers in Riyadh on Wednesday to discuss regional security.
US-based human rights group HRANA estimated that more than 3,000 people have been killed in Iran since the US-Israeli campaign began at the end of February.
(Reuters)
