Star Metro - Wave of US-Israeli strikes hit key Iran sites

Video footage verified by AFP showed at least two massive explosions and columns of smoke in Isfahan, central Iran. State media reported the Grand Husseiniya, a Shia religious centre, was damaged in Zanjan in the northwest.

The Iranian government also said airstrikes had hit a pharmaceutical plant producing cancer drugs and anaesthetics, wile a health ministry official told the ISNA news agency that a bombing had left a desalination plant on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz "completely out of service".

It was not clear when the reported strike on the desalination plant had taken place, but Iran has vowed throughout the month-old conflict to match strikes on its infrastructure with raids on its neighbours.

Desalinated water provides 42 percent of drinking water in the United Arab Emirates, 70 percent in Saudi Arabia, 86 percent in Oman and 90 percent in Kuwait.

Any attack on civilian drinking water could trigger a major escalation and draw Iran's neighbours into the fray, analysts warn, but Trump did not hold back in his latest threat, apparently designed to pressure Iran to capitulate and accept a US-proposed settlement.

- Reality of war -

In a post on his social media site, Trump warned that if Iran didn't strike a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to sea traffic the Us would responde by "blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!)".

Nevertheless, Qatar's foreign ministry announced that the Arab monarchies shared a "very unified position in the Gulf on calling for the de-escalation and an end to the war."

Iran's Fars news agency also reported explosions and power outages in parts of Tehran, where residents painted a picture of a city that is still clinging to some routine despite tight security.

"When I make it to a cafe table, even for a few minutes, I can almost believe the world hasn't ended," said Fatemeh, a 27-year-old dental assistant in Iran. "And then I go back home, back to the reality of living through war, with all its darkness and weight."

Oil prices see-sawed up and down as markets weighed Trump's confidence that Tehran would soon buckle against fears that a possible US ground operation in the Gulf would further escalate the conflict.

Explosions were heard in Dubai and near Erbil airport in northern Iraq, sirens sounded in Jerusalem and two people were wounded when air defence intervened to intercept a drone near the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, civil defence said.

Israeli emergency services said eight people received minor injuries from falling munitions fragments in Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv. At least 10 blasts were heard in the Jerusalem area after missile launches from Iran were detected.

- 'Direct and malicious' -

Kuwait's state oil company reported that one of its giant crude old tankers was on fire off Dubai after a "direct and malicious Iranian attack while in the anchorage area".

Such attacks on oil tankers and export facilities have world markets jumpy, and all eyes were on the Strait of Hormuz, the maritime channel that Iran has effectively closed to all vessels except those it approves.

Two Chinese container ships were able to pass the strait, and Beijing expressed gratitude to "the relevant parties", a foreign ministry spokeswoman told reporters.

World oil prices have surged since the US and Israel launched the war more than a month ago with strikes on Tehran that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but fall back every time Trump promises a rapid conclusion to the conflict, leaving markets jittery.

"The fog of war continues," investment adviser Christopher Dembik of Pictet Asset Management said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump's partner in attacking Iran, said more than half of the operation's military aims had been achieved, but both leaders have refused to put a timeline on the war.

Israel's military also reported Tuesday that four more of its soldiers had been killed in combat in southern Lebanon, where the war has spread and where it is battling Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel's military would occupy a swathe of southern Lebanon even after the end of the current war against the Hezbollah.

"All the houses in the villages adjacent to the border in Lebanon will be demolished in accordance with the Rafah and Beit Hanoun model in Gaza," he declared, citing the example of Israel's last war in the region, which left much of the Palestinian territory in ruins.

- Ready for talks? -

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, whose country is acting as an intermediary between Tehran and Washington, was in Beijing for talks on "global issues of mutual interest" with counterpart Wang Yi.

Dar hosted foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey in the Pakistani capital on Sunday, saying Islamabad was ready to host talks between the United States and Iran in the "coming days".

Trump has claimed to be in direct contact with senior Iranian figures, but has not identified the publicly and the Iranian foreign ministry said that Washington had sent only a request to talk via intermediaries, including Pakistan.

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F.T. Michaud--SMC