Explosions continue to be heard for a sixth day in Iran, Israel, and across several Middle Eastern states after the United States and Israel began attacking Iran on Saturday.
Tehran has responded by launching waves of missiles and drones at Israel and towards several military bases in the Middle East where US forces operate.
US forces have struck nearly 2,000 targets in Iran since Saturday, the US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees US forces in the region, said on Tuesday.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it has launched attacks on at least 27 bases in the Middle East where US troops are deployed as well as Israeli military facilities in Tel Aviv and other parts of Israel.
In total, Iran has launched 500 missiles and 2,000 drones during the first four days of hostilities, according to Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of CENTCOM.
So far, Iran has launched strikes across nine countries in the region: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. An Iranian drone also struck a runway at a UK military base in Cyprus.
Israel’s military said Friday morning it had begun a fresh wave of strikes on Tehran, targeting “regime infrastructure” in a “new phase” of the war, while the US said its B-2 bombers had dropped dozens of “penetrator” bombs on deeply buried ballistic missile launchers inside the country.
Huge explosions hit several locations in the Iranian capital, Tehran, overnight, including residential areas and the vicinity of Tehran University, according to news reports and an Al Jazeera team on the ground.
An Iranian military academy was also struck, while a journalist from Iran’s state broadcaster was reporting live near the site.
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi said the bombardment in the capital had been more intense than previously seen, with many attacks in the east and southeast of Tehran.
“From the very early hours of today and into the morning, we have been witnessing a continued wave of massive strikes,” he said, adding the shockwaves of the blast could be felt in the bureau of Al Jazeera.
“I can say that compared to previous days, we saw heavier bombardment overnight, at least in the capital,” he said, reporting enormous explosions and fighter jets in the skies, and a huge column of thick smoke rising from an air attack.
He said the targets reportedly included military locations but also civilian sites, including residential buildings, parking lots and gas stations.
Explosions were also reported around the Iranian city of Kermanshah, in an area home to multiple missile bases, as well as in the cities of Shiraz and Isfahan, as the Iranian Red Crescent said the death from attacks since Saturday had risen to at least 1,332.
Among the victims were 20 people killed, and 30 injured, in an attack in the Zibashahr area of Shiraz, Jalil Hasani, deputy governor of Iran’s Fars province told Iranian state media.Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that two paramedics were among the dead.
At least six people were injured by an Israeli missile attack on residential areas in Poldokhtar in Iran’s western Lorestan province, Tasnim reported.
Israel’s military said its air force hit six Iranian missile launchers overnight, destroying them before they fired at Israeli territory, and claimed to have destroyed “three advanced Iranian defence systems”.
Admiral Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command (CENTCOM) said that early Friday, US B-2 stealth bombers dropped dozens of 2,000lb “penetrator” bombs on deeply buried ballistic missile launchers inside Iran.
“We’ve also struck Iran’s equivalent of Space Command, which degrades their ability to threaten Americans,” Cooper said.Speaking alongside Cooper, Hegseth described an upcoming surge in the bombardment.
“It’s more fighter squadrons, it’s more capabilities, it’s more defensive capabilities,” Hegseth said. “And it’s more bomber pulses more frequently.”
Iran’s military said on Friday it would expand its attacks in the coming days, Iranian state television reported.
The statement came a day after top Iranian officials said they were ready and waiting to confront a US ground invasion, which Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said would be a “big disaster” for Washington.
US President Donald Trump dismissed the comments, saying it would be a “waste of time” currently to consider deploying US ground troops. “It’s a waste of time. They’ve lost everything. They’ve lost their navy. They’ve lost everything they can lose,” he told US network NBC.
Of the more than 1,300 people killed in the strikes on Iran so far, at least 181 are children, UNICEF said Friday.Among the young victims were at least 175 children killed when a girls’ school in Minab, in southern Iran, was hit on the first day of the US and Israeli strikes on Iran, according to the IRGC.
Amid scrutiny over the incident, Hegseth on Wednesday acknowledged the US military was investigating it.
The Reuters news agency reported, quoting two US officials, that US military investigators believed it was likely that US forces were responsible for the apparent strike, but have not yet reached a final conclusion.
Deliberately attacking a school would be a war crime, and if a US role were to be confirmed, the strike would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of US wars in the Middle East.