In a stark development of the escalating Iran war, France announced that a French soldier was killed in an Iranian drone attack on a base in the Erbil region of Iraq on Thursday, and several other service members were killed.
French president Emmanuel Macron slammed Tehran over the attacks, calling them “unacceptable” and stressing that attacks on Iran “cannot justify” such strikes.
Also on Friday, the United States announced that four crewmembers died as one its refuelling aircraft crashed in western Iraq, while a second aircraft involved in the incident landed safely.
The KC-135 aircraft is part of the operations against Iran, but the crash was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire, the US military said.
Meanwhile on Friday morning, Euronews journalists across the Gulf region are reporting Iranian attacks in Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE as the conflict continues to spiral regionally after Iran’s new ayatollah vowed to continue attacks on Gulf countries that host US bases.
Saudi Arabia said its defence forces have intercepted more than two dozen drones over its Eastern and Central Provinces, bringing the total to nearly 50 drones over the span of a few hours.
Oman said that a drone crash in the region of Sohar killed two foreigners, the first deaths reported on land in the sultanate during the Iran war.
And in Dubai, a building at the Dubai International Financial Centre sustained damage on Friday after what authorities described as a “successful interception” of an incoming Iranian drone, Euronews correspondent Jane Witherspoon is reporting, amid expert reports that the UAE has now absorbed more drone and missile strikes than Israel since the start of the war.
DIFC is an economic free zone for banks, capital traders and wealth managers, home to exclusive restaurants and nightclubs for the city-state’s elite. Iran’s joint military command on Wednesday said banks and financial institutions were now a target in the Middle East after an airstrike hit a historic bank in Tehran.
Meanwhile on Friday, air raid sirens sounded at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, according to the official Anadolu Agency, but there was no comment from the authorities on the reason for the activation of the sirens.
Four days ago, NATO air defences intercepted a ballistic missile in Turkish airspace that had been launched from Iran, the second such incident within five days.
Strikes on Iran continue as Trump slams Tehran regime
Meanwhile heavy US and Israeli airstrikes in Iran’s capital Tehran continued on Friday morning.
A large explosion struck Tehran at a square filled with demonstrators, Iranian state television reported during the annual Quds Day demonstrations on Friday morning.
Video published by the semiofficial Tasnim news agency showed a plume of gray smoke rising as demonstrators screamed “Death to Israel” and “Death to America”.
Israel’s military also announced on Friday that it began a wave of strikes targeting infrastructure across Iran.
The war of words between the US and Israel on one hand and Iran on the other continued unabated on Thursday and Friday.
Iran’s attacks continue unabated as US President Donald Trump repeated last night that Iran’s military capability is “decimated” and Israeli PM B Netanyahu said Israel will continue to target the Iranian regime leaders.
Trump issued a new threat online to Iran stating bluntly that the Islamic Republic “have been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th president of the United States of America, am killing them.”
“What a great honour it is to do so,” Trump said.
In a post on Friday on his Truth Social website, he also warned: “Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today.”
“Iran’s navy is gone, their air force is no longer, missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the Earth,” Trump concluded.