Iran vows ‘crushing’ attacks as strikes hit regional infrastructure

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TEHRAN – Iran and its allies traded fire with Israel and the United States, as Washington-linked assets across the Middle East were targeted alongside energy and civilian infrastructure – with the month-long war on April 3 showing little sign of easing.

Strikes 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.

Iran fired missiles at Tel Aviv overnight, triggering Israeli air defences and leaving four people lightly wounded, while fresh blasts were heard in Jerusalem after the military warned of incoming fire.

At the same time, Iran said its latest wave of attacks had struck targets in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel in retaliation for earlier US-Israeli strikes on its industrial facilities.

Iran said targets included “American steel industries in Abu Dhabi, American aluminium industries in Bahrain, and the Rafael arms factories of the Zionist regime”.

Israel’s military warned on April 3 that its air defences were operating to down missiles fired from Iran, although there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Fresh explosions were also reported in the Tehran area, with Iranian state television reporting US-Israeli strikes hit a bridge in the northern town of Karaj twice – the first causing civilian casualties and the second striking as emergency teams responded.

In a prime-time White House address, Mr Trump said the US was “very close” to achieving its objectives but warned attacks would intensify if Iran did not reach a negotiated settlement.

“Over the next two to three weeks, we are going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong,” he said.

Iran’s response was immediate, with Israeli air defences pressed into action and police responding to “several” impact sites, as four people were reportedly lightly injured in the Tel Aviv area.

The war continues to disrupt oil and shipping, with British Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper stressing the “urgent need” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world’s oil usually passes.

While Mr Trump has urged oil-importing countries to seize the waterway – virtually closed since the war began – French President Emmanuel Macron said on April 2 that a military operation to liberate the strait was “unrealistic”.

In Tehran, AFP journalists reported a series of loud explosions hitting the Iranian capital, shaking buildings and sending reverberations across the city. The targets were unclear.

The country’s two largest steel plants have meanwhile been forced offline by several waves of US and Israeli attacks, the companies said.

Despite the bombardments, Iranian families gathered at Tehran’s Mellat Park for the 13th day after Nowruz, the Persian New Year, when people traditionally picnic outdoors, AFP journalists said.

In Israel, Jewish Israelis were also celebrating Passover, which some were forced to do underground due to Iran’s attacks.

“This is not my first choice,” said a writer who gave his name as Jeffrey, at a meal organised in a bunker in Tel Aviv.

‘Resist until the end’

Mr Trump has recently raised the prospect of a deal to end the war, which has pushed up fuel prices in the US and around the world and dented his approval ratings.

He said talks could be possible with Iran’s new leadership, which he described as “less radical and much more reasonable” than their predecessors.

But Tehran has dismissed Washington’s ceasefire overtures, describing US demands to end the conflict as “maximalist and irrational”.

“Messages have been received through intermediaries, including Pakistan, but there is no direct negotiation with the US,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei, quoted by the ISNA news agency on April 2.

Mr Trump warned that if no agreement with Tehran was struck, Washington had “our eyes on key targets, including the country’s electric generating plants”.

Pro-government Iranians voiced defiance as they marched in Tehran at the funeral of a Revolutionary Guards naval commander killed in an Israeli strike.

“This war has lasted a month. However long it takes, we will continue,” said 57-year-old pensioner Moussa Nowruzi. “We will resist until the end.”

The country’s Health Ministry said the Pasteur Institute of Iran, a century-old medical centre in Tehran, had been extensively damaged in a strike.

In Lebanon, militant group Hezbollah said its fighters launched drones and rockets at northern Israel on April 2, with the Israeli military’s Home Front Command saying air raid sirens were activated.

On April 1, Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander, two sources told AFP, in a Beirut strike that the Lebanese Health Ministry said killed seven people.

The authorities in Lebanon say Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,300 people in the country since the war erupted between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah on March 2.

‘Oxygen for volatility’

The conflict has drawn in Gulf countries once seen as a safe haven in a volatile region, with air defences in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) responding to missile and drone “threats” on April 2.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz shut to the country’s “enemies”, while Mr Trump has made reopening it a condition for a ceasefire.

Mr Trump’s speech did nothing to reassure markets, as oil prices spiked and stocks tumbled.

Mr Paschal Donohoe, the World Bank’s managing director, told AFP that his institution was “extremely concerned” about the war’s impact on inflation, jobs and food security.

The economic fallout is being felt worldwide, with airlines in China saying they will hike fuel surcharges and Malaysian civil servants being asked to work from home.

Even the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is feeling the impact, with the government saying “external conditions beyond our control” had forced a hike in fuel prices.

AFP reporters in the capital Thimphu saw long queues at filling stations on April 2, with shortages hitting the landlocked nation of around 800,000 people.

“I don’t know what to say. It’s not like our government is responsible; they are trying their best despite the war in the Middle East and price hike in India,” said Thimphu resident Karma Kalden, 40. “We are helpless.” AFP