CAIRO: Iran has warned the United States, United Kingdom and France that their bases and ships in the region will be targeted if they help stop Tehran’s strikes on Israel, Iran state media reported on Saturday.
Iran’s state TV also reported that around 60 people, including 20 children, were killed in an Israeli attack on a housing complex in Iranian capital Tehran. Two people were also killed in an Israeli attack on a missile site in Assadabad in western Iran.
Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported an Israeli strike near the northwestern Tabriz refinery, saying smoke was rising from the facility.
Three Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in Israeli attacks, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday. The scientists were identified as Ali Bakaei Karimi, Mansour Asgari, and Saeid Borji, Tasnim said.
Iran’s strikes against Israel will continue, with targets set to expand to include US bases in the region in the coming days, Iran’s Fars news agency reported on Saturday, citing senior Iranian military officials.
“This confrontation will not end with last night’s limited actions and Iran’s strikes will continue, and this action will be very painful and regrettable for the aggressors,” Fars reported, citing senior military officials.
They were quoted saying that the war would “spread in the coming days to all areas occupied by this (Israeli) regime and American bases in the region”.
Iran’s Esfahan and Natanz nuclear sites significantly damaged
Iran’s Esfahan and Natanz nuclear sites were significantly damaged due to Israeli strikes on the two facilities, an Israeli military official said on Saturday.
The official said that it would take more than a few weeks for Iran to repair damage at the two sites, adding that the strikes also killed nine senior nuclear Iranian scientists.
Israel attacked over 150 targets in Iran with hundreds of munitions, the official said, adding that the aerial road to the Iranian capital Tehran was effectively open.
He said that Iran fired hundreds of drones and missiles toward Israel, most of which were intercepted.
‘Tehran will burn’
Defense Minister Israel Katz on Saturday warned that “Tehran will burn” if Iran fired more missiles at Israel, as the arch foes traded fire for a second day.
“The Iranian dictator is turning the citizens of Iran into hostages and bringing about a reality in which they – especially the residents of Tehran – will pay a heavy price because of the criminal harm to Israeli civilians,” Katz was quoted as saying in a statement.
“If (Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei continues to fire missiles toward the Israeli home front – Tehran will burn.”
The threat of a wider war comes as Iran and Israel continue targeting each other on Saturday after Israel launched its biggest-ever air offensive against its longtime foe in a bid to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran airspace closed ‘until further notice’
Iran’s civil aviation authority has declared the country’s airspace closed “until further notice,” state media reported Saturday, as Israel and Iran continued to trade fire for a second day.
“No flights will be operated at any airports in the country in order to protect the safety of passengers… until further notice,” the official IRNA news agency said.
