Unprecedented’: Israel, US carry out extensive strikes across Iran

Israel and the United States have launched a new wave of attacks against Iran as Tehran renewed retaliatory strikes on its Gulf neighbours, and pledged to hit power plants in Israel as well as other regional countries if its power plants were targeted.

The Israeli military said on Monday it had “begun a wide-scale wave of strikes” on infrastructure targets in Tehran, without immediately elaborating.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Admiral Brad Cooper claimed in an interview that Iran was launching missiles and drones from populated areas, suggesting those areas would be targeted. Israel provided no proof for its claims. It made similar claims to target civilian areas in Gaza, which have been turned to ruins by more than two years of genocidal war.

The US military said it targeted a turbine engine production site in north-central Iran’s Qom province used for drone and aircraft components linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent in Tehran, Suhaib al-Asa, reported that the size and volume of the explosions in the Iranian capital were “unprecedented”, especially in the eastern side of the city.

The Iranian air defence systems were activated in the eastern part of the city, al-Asa said, which indicated Iran was responding to US-Israeli drones hovering over that part of the city.

Iran’s Fars news agency reported that a strike on a residential building in the city of Khorramabad, located west of Tehran, killed one child and wounded several people. At least six people were killed in strikes on homes in Tabriz city, according to Fars. Majid Farshi, the director general of crisis management for Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, said there were two deadly attacks in Tabriz.

“One person was killed after a radio station was targeted in Bandar Abbas. In Isfahan, Karaj and Ahvaz, too, sounds of massive explosions were heard. In Ahvaz, we are hearing that one hospital was impacted as a result of the explosions,” he said, reporting from Tehran.

“All in all, the Iranian Red Crescent Society has said more than 80,000 civilian units have been hit, with some of them fully demolished. Of course, that number includes hospitals, schools, academic institutions and Red Crescent facilities.”

Meanwhile in Israel, Iranian missile strikes continued overnight, with reports of falling shrapnel across several locations in southern and central Israel.

“In the past hour, sirens have blasted in northern Israel in what Israeli authorities believe to be a joint attack from Hezbollah and Iran targeting northern Israel at the same time,” said Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim.

“The concern in Israel is that the US might stop the war prematurely, reason why Israeli officials continue to send messages that they will continue to crack down more on Iran and that the fighting with Hezbollah is just at the start,” Ibrahim, reporting from the occupied West Bank, said.

Iran vows to retaliate
The latest wave of strikes came after US President Donald Trump gave a 48-hour ultimatum on Saturday for Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz to all ships, threatening otherwise to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants. Tehran has said it would completely close the Strait, through which one-fifth of global oil passes, in retaliation.

The IRGC on Monday responded that if the US did that, it would hit power plants in all areas that supply electricity to US bases, “as well as the economic, industrial and energy infrastructures in which Americans have shares”.

“Do not doubt that we will do this,” the IRGC said in a statement read on Iranian state television. They stressed their determination to respond to any threat at the same level and noted that the US underestimates their capabilities.

Iran’s death toll in the war has surpassed 1,500, its Ministry of Health has said. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian attacks.

The prospect of tit-for-tat attacks on civilian infrastructure further unsettled oil markets, with prices opening choppy in Asian trading. Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, on Monday warned that the situation in the Middle East is “very severe” and is worse than the two energy crises of the 1970s put together.