Dubai | Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said attacks against Iran will “increase significantly” in the coming week. Katz spoke Saturday, hours after US President Donald Trump said he was considering “winding down” military operations in the Mideast even as the United States announced it was sending more warships and Marines to the region and Iran threatened to attack tourist sites worldwide.
The mixed US messages came after another climb in oil prices plunged the US stock market, and was followed by a Trump administration announcement that it will lift sanctions on Iranian oil loaded on ships, a move aimed at wrangling soaring fuel prices.
The war, meanwhile, has shown no signs of abating.
Iran said its Natanz nuclear facility was hit in an airstrike Saturday but that there has been no radiation leakage. Israel said Iran continued to fire missiles at it early Saturday, while Saudi Arabia said it downed 20 drones in just a couple of hours in the country's eastern region, which is home to major oil installations. The defence ministry said there were no injuries or damage.
The death toll has risen to more than 1,300 people in Iran, more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, 15 in Israel and 13 US military members in the region. Millions of people in Lebanon and Iran have been displaced.
Here is the latest:
Iran's ability to threaten navigation in Strait of Hormuz is degraded, US military leader says
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The head of US Central Command says in his latest video update on the war that US forces “remain on plan to eliminate Iran's ability to project meaningful power outside its borders.”
Adm Brad Cooper also detailed steps taken to undermine Iran's control of the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway vital to international commerce such as oil shipments.
He says in a post on X that earlier in the week, multiple 5,000-pound bombs were dropped on an underground facility along Iran's coastline that was used to store anti-ship cruise missiles, mobile missile launchers and other equipment “that presented a dangerous risk to international shipping.”
Cooper says intelligence support sites and missile radar relays used to monitor ship movements were destroyed.
“Iran's ability to threaten freedom of navigation in and around the Strait of Hormuz is degraded as a result and we will not stop pursuing these targets,” he says in the video.
Cooper also said that “we have built the most extensive air defense umbrella in the world over the Middle East right now.”
22 countries urge Iran to cease attacks, reopen the Strait of Hormuz
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Countries including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, the UK, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea and Australia have also condemned Iran's attacks on commercial vessels as well as oil and gas facilities in the region.
“The effects of Iran's actions will be felt by people in all parts of the world, especially the most vulnerable,” they said in a joint statement Saturday.
Iranians hold Eid al-Fitr prayers in Tehran's grand mosque
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Thousands of Iranian worshipers on Saturday converged on Tehran's grand mosque for Eid al-Fitr prayers marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Associated Press footage showed worshippers lining up at Imam Khomeini Mosalla and in its vast courtyard for the prayers as Israel and the United States continued launch massive airstrikes against Iran.
“It's really a painful feeling,” Masoud Alibenam, 50 said its “really a painful feeling” that the Eid prayers are being offered without Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who was killed in the first days of the war. “The leader (Khamenei) is no longer here, and we are offering the prayers in his absence.”
Worshippers also held funeral services for Gen Ali Mohammad Naeini, spokesperson for the Revolutionary Guard, who was killed in an Israeli strike Friday. The funeral procession of Amir Hossein Bidi, a pro-government cultural activist also was held after Eid prayers.
36 Iranian drones and missiles launched at Jordan in war's third week
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Jordan's military said on Saturday this week's attacks, which involved at least 14 missiles, left a child injured.
That brought the total number of wounded to 24 since war's Feb 28 start.
Over the last three weeks, a total of 240 missiles and drones have been fired at Jordan, the military said.
What is the Diego Garcia air base?
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The Diego Garcia air base is home to about 2,500 mostly American personnel and has supported US military operations from Vietnam to Iraq, Afghanistan and strikes on Yemen's Houthi rebels.
Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos Islands, a remote archipelago in the middle of the Indian Ocean off the tip of India. The islands have been under British control since 1814.
They are at the centre of a UK spat with President Donald Trump over Britain's plans to hand sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius. Britain would then lease back the Diego Garcia base.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer says that will safeguard the future of the base, which is currently vulnerable to legal challenge. The Trump administration initially welcomed the deal, but in January Trump called it “an act of GREAT STUPIDITY.”
Attack on Diego Garcia raises questions about range of Iran's missiles
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Iran currently has a self-imposed limit on its ballistic missile programme, limiting their range to 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles).
That puts all of the Mideast and some of Eastern Europe in range, but Diego Garcia would be far beyond it.
However, US officials long have alleged Iran's space program could allow it to build intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Britain condemns Iran's “reckless attacks” on Diego Garcia air base
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Britain has condemned “Iran's reckless attacks” after its military fired missiles at the UK-US air base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
UK officials have not given details of the attempted strike, which was unsuccessful. It's unclear how close the missiles came to the base, which is about 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometres) from Iran.
The Ministry of Defence said Saturday that Iran's “lashing out across the region and holding hostage the Strait of Hormuz, are a threat to British interests and British allies.”
Britain has not participated in US-Israeli attacks on Iran, but has allowed American bombers to use UK bases to attack Iran's missile sites.
On Friday, the British government said US bombers can also use UK bases, including Diego Garcia, in operations to prevent Iran attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran targeted the base before that UK statement.
Dubai | Twenty-two countries on Saturday urged Iran to cease attacks and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Countries including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, the UK, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea and Australia have condemned Iran's attacks on commercial vessels as well as oil and gas facilities in the region.
"The effects of Iran's actions will be felt by people in all parts of the world, especially the most vulnerable,” they said in a joint statement Saturday.