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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that Israeli air strikes have destroyed about 70% of Iran’s steel production capacity, significantly hindering its ability to manufacture weapons.
Steel is a strategically important material used in industrial and military production, including of missiles, drones and ships.
“Together with our American friends, we continue to crush the terror regime in Iran. We are eliminating commanders, bombing bridges, bombing infrastructures,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.
“In recent days, the Air Force has destroyed 70% of Iran’s steel production capacity,” he said.
“This is a tremendous achievement that deprives the Revolutionary Guards of both financial resources and the ability to produce many weapons.”
Iran’s two largest steel plants have been forced out of action by several waves of US and Israeli air attacks.
The Khuzestan Steel Company and Mobarakeh Steel Company have said it would take months for them to restructure the plants.
Friday began with Israel saying it was under attack by a new barrage of missiles from Iran, as President Donald Trump warned the United States had yet to begin “destroying what’s left” of the Islamic republic’s infrastructure.
Israeli emergency services reported some damage to houses and cars from a cluster missile that wasn’t intercepted, while Israeli military radio said a train station in Tel Aviv was damaged by shrapnel.
The Iranian fire came as Trump said the US military “hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!” on his Truth Social platform, several hours after saying Iran’s tallest bridge had been destroyed.
That strike killed eight people and injured at least 95, local authorities said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted online that “striking civilian structures, including unfinished bridges, will not compel Iranians to surrender.”
Strikes from both sides have increasingly targeted economic and industrial sites, raising fears of wider disruption to global energy supplies and deepening the conflict’s impact beyond the battlefield.
The war started more than a month ago with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, triggering retaliation that has spread the conflict throughout the Middle East, convulsing the global economy and impacting millions of people worldwide.
The Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, has come into sharp focus after Iran effectively closed it, with Gulf nations pushing for a force to protect shipping there, but a UN vote set for Friday was delayed.
Trump has threatened to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages” and warned US attacks would intensify if Tehran did not reach a negotiated settlement, while Iran has vowed in response to carry out “crushing” attacks against the US and Israel.
Additional sources • AFP