Live – Iran’s intelligence minister killed, Israel says as it promises day of ‘significant surprises’

Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that the Israeli military killed Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib.

Khatib’s killing follows Israel eliminating top Iranian security official Ali Larijani and the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force.

Katz said “significant surprises are expected throughout this day on all the fronts.”

Katz also said that the military has been authorised to target any senior Iranian official without requiring further approval.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have authorised the IDF to eliminate any senior Iranian official for whom the intelligence and operational circle has been closed, without the need for additional approval,” Katz said in a statement.

“We will continue to thwart and hunt them all down.”

Iraq said on Wednesday it has resumed oil exports from fields in the city of Kirkuk through a pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

The development came after the Iraqi government reached a deal with the autonomous Kurdish administration in the north of the country, the Iraqi oil ministry said.

The move avoids the Persian Gulf altogether. The ministry said it will initially export 250,000 barrels per day of crude oil.

Manama said on Wednesday Iran fired a missile and a drone at the island kingdom that hosts the US Navy’s 5th Fleet.

Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar TV said the director of its political programmes was killed alongside his wife in an Israeli strike on central Beirut on Wednesday.

In a statement, the outlet said the “director of political programmes at the channel, Mohammad Sherri and his wife” were killed “in the Zionist raid on the Zuqaq al-Blat area in Beirut”.

His children and grandchildren were wounded and hospitalised following the strike, the statement added.

The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier is expected to temporarily return to port following a fire on board, US officials said.

The carrier, the world’s largest, is currently in the Red Sea and is deployed in operations against Iran.

The officials said it will dock at Souda Bay on the Greek island of Crete, but the officials didn’t say how long it was expected to stay there.

The vessel has been deployed for nine months, including taking part in operations against Venezuela prior to arriving in the Middle East. 

Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom says Russian-built nuclear power plant in Iran had come under attack, but there was no damage or injuries.

Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev said on Wednesday that the strike a day earlier was near the meteorology service building close to the nuclear reactor. He said there was no detected increase in radiation levels.

It was the first attack on the plant in Bushehr, southern Iran, since the start of the war. Likhachev condemned the strike as a “flagrant disregard for key rules and principles of international security.”

He said that Rosatom has evacuated 250 workers and family members from Iran, but another 480 remain in Bushehr, some of whom will be evacuated.

Turkey’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that NATO was deploying a new Patriot missile battery at its Incirlik air base near Adana, just days after a third ballistic missile from Iran was shot down.

“Another Patriot system… is being deployed… in addition to the existing Spanish Patriot system stationed there,” a ministry official told reporters at the Turkish air base.

The ministry did not detail which country’s troops would be operating the new PAC-3 system.

Last Friday, Ankara confirmed a third ballistic missile from Iran was shot down in Turkish airspace by NATO forces, the third such incident since the war in Iran erupted on 28 February.

After the second interception, NATO deployed Patriot defences in the central Malatya region, where the Kurecik air base is located, which houses a NATO early-warning radar system manned by US troops that can detect Iranian missile launches.

The Patriot is a mobile air-defence system designed to intercept tactical ballistic missiles, low-flying cruise missiles and aircraft.

The PAC-2 version has an interception range of up to 70 kilometres against aircraft and cruise missiles, while the PAC-3 has a range of 20 to 35 kilometres against ballistic missiles, according to US army data.

Israeli strikes on central Beirut on Wednesday morning killed at least 12 people, according to the Lebanese health ministry who updated tolls in a statement.

The ministry said that the strikes on the Basta and Zuqaq al-Blat neighbourhoods in central Beirut killed at least 12 people and wounded 41.

Iran’s judiciary reported on Wednesday that an enemy “attack” hit southern Iran, killing and wounding civilians and judicial staff.

The judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported the attack at a judiciary site in Larestan County in Iran’s Fars province.

The site “was targeted in an attack by the enemy,” said Mizan. “A number of staff members and civilians were ‘martyred’ and injured, the exact number is still unknown.”

Mizan described the site as a judiciary complex in Larestan County hit during working hours. It later detailed the attacks were airstrikes and blamed the United States and Israel.

At least four explosions were heard on Wednesday in the city of Erbil in the autonomous Kurdistan region, journalists there reported.

It was not immediately clear what the target was. From a suburb of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region, interceptions of projectiles were seen over the city, home to a major US consulate complex, while its airport houses US-led coalition troops.

Iraq was drawn into the war in Iran after having long been a proxy battleground between the United States and Iran.

Strikes have targeted Iran-backed groups, which in turn have claimed daily attacks on US interests in Iraq and across the region.

Since the start of the war, the coalition’s air defences have repeatedly downed drones over Erbil.

In the past few days daily explosions have been heard over the city, although mostly in the evening.

On Tuesday night, the powerful Iran-backed armed group Kataib Hezbollah condemned the US presence in Iraq and demanded that every “foreign soldier” leave the country.

The group, a US-designated terrorist organisation, is part of an umbrella movement known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which has been claiming daily attacks on US interests in Iraq and the region, and has always demanded the withdrawal of their troops.

Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry says its forces shot down a second drone flying over the capital, Riyadh, on Wednesday.

The drone was approaching the city’s diplomatic quarter, where the US embassy and other foreign missions are located.

Earlier in the morning on Wednesday, the ministry reported it destroyed a drone that was headed for the diplomatic quarter.

Israeli strikes overnight into Wednesday against central Beirut have destroyed the illusion of safe areas in the capital, residents and first responders said.

In the renewed fighting with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, Israel has concentrated most strikes where the group has a strong presence in southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs.

But several attacks early on Wednesday hit city centre neighbourhoods, some without warning.

“Today, Beirut is no different from the southern suburbs,” said Neshat Berri, fire brigade Captain, in the Bachoura neighbourhood, where emergency crews dug through rubble.

Near a building damaged by a strike in the Basta neighbourhood, resident Hassan Jaber complained there was “no safety.”

“We will continue to be exposed to this. Beirut is no different (from other areas),” he said. “May God protect us.”

Israeli airstrikes killed at least two people in Lebanon’s western Bekaa valley on Wednesday, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

The strikes in the town of Sohmor also wounded at least six others, the ministry added.

Saudi Arabia is set to host on Wednesday a consultative meeting of foreign ministers from Arab and Islamic countries as the Iran war shows no sign of abating.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said the meeting in the capital Riyadh will include discussion of means to “support regional security and stability.”

Gulf Arab states have repeatedly come under fire from Iran, raising anger at Tehran, as well as the United States and Israel for launching the war.

Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry says its forces shot down a drone on Wednesday morning as it approached the diplomatic quarter in the capital Riyadh, which houses the US embassy and other foreign missions.

Euronews journalists in Dubai and Doha report intensive waves of attacks throughout the night and into the early hours of the morning as Iran continues to target its Gulf neighbours.

Massive interception explosions, low-flying fighter jets roaring over the city and air raid alerts urging residents to seek shelter kept Dubai awake all night, Euronews journalists in the UAE reported.

Dubai’s skyline was lit by missile interceptors in action and falling debris amid reports that Tehran’s attacks were targeting Dubai International Airport.

The UK announced that a “British ground-based counter drone unit operating in a high-threat area took out the largest number of drones in a single night since the conflict began.”

Air raid alerts sounded at 6 am local time in Doha, as Euronews journalists there report loud explosions as the country’s air defences engaged incoming Iranian fire. 

Iran’s judiciary said on Wednesday that it has executed a man it accused of spying for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.

The judiciary’s Mizan news agency identified the man as Kourosh Keyvani.

It alleged he “provided images and information on sensitive locations” to the Mossad. Keyvani was the first publicly announced execution for spying during the current war.

Iran, one of the world’s top executioners, has long killed people convicted of spying charges in closed-door hearings where they can’t fully contest the cases against them.

Activists and rights groups have warned since Iran’s nationwide protests in January that the Islamic Republic could begin conducting mass executions. Iran violently suppressed the protests through violence that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands detained.

In the aftermath of Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s, international rights groups estimate as many as 5,000 people were executed.

A senior Australian government minister said he isn’t aware of any formal US request for military support to help keep the Strait of Hormuz open amid spiralling energy prices.

Australia’s Treasurer Jim Chalmers was responding on Wednesday to US President Donald Trump’s complaint that Australia, Japan, South Korea and NATO had rejected his calls to help secure the strait from Iranian attack.

Asked if Australia had received any formal US request for extra military support to keep the strait open, Chalmers told Australian media outlets “Not that I’m aware of.”

“It’s not something that we’ve been considering, in terms of sending battleships to the Strait of Hormuz,” Chalmers insisted in another interview.

Iran launched a barrage of what it said were multiple-warhead missiles aimed at central Israel on Wednesday to avenge the deaths of two of its top security officials, who were killed in overnight Israeli strikes the day prior, as the war enters day 19.

In a major blow to the Islamic Republic’s leadership, Israel announced on Tuesday that its strikes in Tehran eliminated Gholam Reza Soleimani, the IRGC’s all-volunteer Basij paramilitary unit chief, and top security official Ali Larijani, who served as secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

Iran’s attacks have also targeted its neighbours in the Gulf region, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Attacks were also reported in Iraq, where an Iranian drone was seen directly hitting the US embassy compound in Baghdad.

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