CAIRO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Iran targeted a joint U.K.-U.S. base in the Indian Ocean, and Iran\u2019s main nuclear enrichment site was struck again, as the war in the Middle East entered its fourth week.<\/p>\n
The Iranian attack on the Diego Garcia air base \u2014 about 2,500 miles from Iran \u2014 suggested Tehran has missiles that can go farther than it had previously acknowledged, or that it had used its space program for an improvised launch.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s capital saw heavy airstrikes overnight and into the morning, residents said, as thousands of worshipers converged on Tehran\u2019s grand mosque to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s Defense Minister Israel Katz said attacks would \u201cincrease significantly\u201d next week. <\/p>\n
The war shows no sign of abating as its effects are felt far beyond the Middle East, raising food and fuel prices.<\/p>\n
The U.S. and Israel have offered shifting rationales for the war, from hoping to foment an uprising that topples Iran\u2019s leadership to eliminating its nuclear and missile programs and its support for armed proxies in the region. There have been no public signs of any such uprising, while internet restrictions in Iran complicate communications.<\/p>\n
With little information coming out of Iran, it is not clear how much damage its arms or nuclear and energy facilities have sustained in the U.S. and Israeli strikes that began Feb. 28 \u2014 or even who is truly in charge. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public since being named to the role March 2. <\/p>\n
Iran targets Diego Garcia air base<\/p>\n
British officials have not given details of the strike that targeted the Diego Garcia air base in the Indian Ocean on Friday, which was unsuccessful. The Ministry of Defense called Iran\u2019s \u201clashing out across the region and holding hostage the Strait of Hormuz\u201d a threat to British interests and allies. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear how close the missiles came to the island, where Britain and the United States operate a strategically crucial military base. Iran previously asserted that it had limited its missile range to 2,000 kilometers \u2014 about 1,240 miles.<\/p>\n
But military experts said Iran may have used its space launch vehicle for an improvised firing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ve got a space program, you\u2019ve got a ballistic missile program,\u201d said Steve Prest, a retired Royal Navy commodore.<\/p>\n
Britain has not participated in the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran but has allowed American bombers to use U.K. bases to attack Iran\u2019s missile sites. On Friday, the British government said U.S. bombers could use Diego Garcia to target ships in the Strait of Hormuz. <\/p>\n
Israel denies attacking Natanz<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s official news agency, Mizan, said there was no leakage after Saturday\u2019s strike on the Natanz nuclear facility, nearly 135 miles southeast of Tehran. <\/p>\n
The United Nations nuclear watchdog has said the bulk of Iran\u2019s estimated 970 pounds of enriched uranium is elsewhere, beneath the rubble at its Isfahan facility, with a lesser amount at Natanz. The International Atomic Energy Agency said on X it was informed by Iran about the strike and was looking into it.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s military said it was \u201cnot aware\u201d of a strike by it there.<\/p>\n
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said such strikes posed a \u201creal risk of catastrophic disaster throughout the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Natanz facility was also targeted by the U.S. and Israel in the 12-day war last June. President Trump had said afterward that Iran\u2019s nuclear capabilities there and elsewhere had been \u201ctotally obliterated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Global pressure increases on the Strait of Hormuz<\/p>\n
As Iran targets energy facilities in the region while threatening shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the United Arab Emirates joined 21 other countries including the U.K., Germany, France and Japan in expressing \u201creadiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump administration announced it is lifting sanctions until April 19 on Iranian oil that was already loaded on ships as of Friday. Restrictions include sales involving anyone in North Korea or Cuba.<\/p>\n
The decision does not increase the flow of oil production, a central factor in surging prices. Iran has evaded U.S. sanctions for years, suggesting that much of what it exports already reaches buyers.<\/p>\n
The head of U.S. Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, asserted that Iran\u2019s ability to attack vessels on the strait had been \u201cdegraded.\u201d He said multiple 5,000-pound bombs were dropped earlier in the week on an underground facility along Iran\u2019s coast that was used to store anti-ship cruise missiles and mobile missile launchers.<\/p>\n
The U.S. is deploying three more amphibious assault ships and roughly 2,500 additional Marines to the Middle East, an official told the Associated Press. Two other U.S. officials confirmed that ships were deploying, without saying where they were headed. All three spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the military operations.<\/p>\n
Persian Gulf countries reported more attacks. A missile alert sounded Saturday night in Dubai. Saudi Arabia said it downed 20 drones over a couple of hours in its east, home to major oil installations.<\/p>\n
More than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran during the war. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian missiles and four others have died in the occupied West Bank. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed, along with civilians in gulf nations.<\/p>\n
Israeli troops, Hezbollah militants clash in Lebanon<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s military said its forces were conducting a \u201ctargeted ground operation\u201d Saturday with the support of Israeli aircraft and at least four militants were killed. Hezbollah said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops in the southern village of Khiam.<\/p>\n
Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced more than 1 million, according to the Lebanese government. Hezbollah\u2019s civilian assets also have been targeted.<\/p>\n
Magdy, Lawless and Mednick write for the Associated Press and reported from Cairo, London and Tel Aviv, respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAIRO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Iran targeted a joint U.K.-U.S. base in the Indian Ocean, and Iran\u2019s main nuclear enrichment site was struck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1794,81181,7363,2424,19378,340,48,52,51,47,50,49,88844,38957,595,4542,86,16635,104616,104615,2664],"class_list":["post-230497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-attack","tag-britain","tag-country","tag-friday","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-military-operation","tag-missile","tag-saturday","tag-ship","tag-strike","tag-surge","tag-u-k-basis","tag-u-s-sanction","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}