Israeli strike hits building in central Beirut early on Wednesday
Videos are circulating online and are being broadcast by local Lebanese news channels from an apparent strike site in the densely populated Aicha Bakkar neighbourhood in the centre of the capital, Beirut.
The intense strikes show two floors of a multi-storey building engulfed in flames.
The attack came without warning. There were no immediate reports concerning who was targeted or the number and extent of casualties.
The structure that was hit is several buildings away from Dar al-Fatwa, the country’s highest Sunni Muslim religious authority.
The strike was in an area far from Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the Israeli military had issued evacuation warnings earlier, announcing intentions to operate against what it says are Hezbollah positions in the area.
On Tuesday, Israeli attacks targeted several buildings in the southern cities of Tyre and Sidon, destroying branches of al Qard al-Hassan, an institution Israel says serves as the Iran-backed group’s financial arm.
At least seven people were killed in those attacks, spiking the death toll in Lebanon from Israeli attacks to over 400.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait intercept Iranian drones
Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry said early on Wednesday it destroyed five drones heading toward the kingdom’s vast Shaybah oil field in the Empty Quarter desert.
It added that it intercepted and destroyed two drones in the Eastern Province.
Meanwhile, Kuwait said it downed eight drones over the tiny, oil-rich nation.
Container ship hit off coast of UAE in Strait of Hormuz
A projectile hit a container ship early Wednesday morning off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in the Strait of Hormuz, according to the British military.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre issued the warning, saying the attack happened off Ras al-Khaimah, the UAE’s northernmost emirate on the strait.
The centre said the “extent of the damage is currently unknown but under investigation by the crew.”
Ships have effectively halted movement through the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded passes.
US targets Iranian mine-laying vessels amid threats of blocking crucial Strait of Hormuz
The US said it took out more than a dozen mine-laying Iranian vessels on Tuesday, after Tehran vowed to block the region’s oil exports, saying it would not allow “even a single litre” to be shipped to its enemies through the chokehold Strait of Hormuz.
In a post late on Tuesday on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump, who had earlier warned Iran of intense consequences “at a level never seen before”, said Washington has taken pre-emptive measures to respond to the threat Tehran had levelled.
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US says it destroyed Iranian mine-laying vessels near Strait of Hormuz
Washington says it has destroyed 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, after Tehran threatened to not allow oil to pass through the waterwa…