Israel launches new wave of attacks on Iran, Tehran strikes Gulf

TNA’s live coverage of the latest from the Middle East concludes for today. Join us again tomorrow.
 

US President Donald Trump on Friday Said on Friday that the United States carried out strikes against "every military target" on Iran's Kharg Island export hub.

"For reasons of decency, I have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

"However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision." 

The Pentagon and White House slammed CNN over its Iran war coverage Friday -- with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth saying he looked forward to an ally of President Donald Trump taking over the news network.

Hegseth spent part of a news conference on US military operations against Tehran criticizing the media and CNN in particular, urging for what he called an "actual patriotic press."

The former Fox News host was particularly incensed by a story the channel ran suggesting Washington had underestimated Iran's ability to disrupt global oil traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

"Patently ridiculous," Hegseth told reporters, before adding: "The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better."

David Ellison is the head of Paramount Skydance, which is set to complete a landmark takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, the current owner of CNN, after beating Netflix in a bidding war.

Earlier this month Ellison vowed to protect CNN's editorial independence.

His father, Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, one of the world's richest men, largely financed the takeover and is also a longtime ally and financial backer of President Donald Trump.

The White House also blasted the CNN story on the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the world oil trade.

"This story is 100% FAKE NEWS," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X.

"The Pentagon has been planning for Iran's desperate and reckless closure of the Strait of Hormuz for DECADES, and it has been part of the Trump Administration's planning well before Operation Epic Fury was ever launched," Leavitt said.

In response, CNN chief Mark Thompson said that "our only interest is in telling the truth to our audiences in the US and around the world and no amount of political threats or insults is going to change that."

Iran launched a fresh round of missiles towards Israel, state media reported just after midnight on Saturday in Tehran, but Israeli rescue workers said there were no reported casualties following the strikes.

Israel's military said it had identified missiles from Iran and "was operating to intercept the threat," as air raid sirens in multiple areas sent people into shelters.

Less than 30 minutes after the launch alert, the military's Home Front Command issued a notice allowing people to leave their shelters.

The Magen David Adom emergency services said "no casualties are known" after the missile fire.

Police said they were checking reports that weapons fragments had impacted an area in southern Israel.

Qatar's interior ministry on Saturday said it was evacuating a number of areas as Iran presses its retaliatory air campaign against Gulf countries.

The ministry said in a statement it was "evacuating several key areas as a temporary precautionary measure, within the framework of ensuring public safety until the danger has passed".

In Doha's central Musheireb district some residents received phone alerts telling them to "evacuate the area immediately... to the nearest safest place as a temporary precaution".

An Israeli strike on a primary healthcare centre in southern Lebanon killed at least 12 medical personnel, the Lebanese health ministry said Saturday as the war between Israel and Hezbollah rages on.

In a statement, the ministry said it "mourns the healthcare workers in Burj Qalawiya who were killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted the town's primary healthcare centre", adding that "12 doctors, paramedics and nurses on duty at the centre were killed, and one healthcare worker was injured" while rescue operations were still ongoing.

The ministry said the attack was "the second against the health sector in a few hours", following a strike on Sawaneh that killed two paramedics affiliated with Hezbollah and its ally Amal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the son of Iran's last shah that Ukraine wanted "a free Iran that will not cooperate with Russia" as the pair met in Paris Friday.

Reza Pahlavi lives in exile in the United States and has offered himself as a transitional leader for Iran should the Islamic republic fall.

"Ukraine truly wants to see a free Iran that will not cooperate with Russia or destabilize the Middle East, Europe, and the world," Zelensky posted on X.

"I am grateful to the Crown Prince for his clear assurances of support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said, adding that their teams will "remain in communication".

US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 provoked retaliation from Tehran, which has attacked countries across the Middle East and blocked maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of global oil supplies pass.

Zelensky said it was "crucial that the Iranian regime gains nothing" from the conflict and that the Iranian people have the right to "determine their own fate".

Explosions have been heard in western Tehran as the Israeli army announced it had begun "a wave of attacks against Iranian regime facilities throughout Tehran," according to the Qatari news publication Al Jazeera.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency also reported that explosions were heard around Azadi Square, Nobonyad and other areas.

 The United States is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information about senior Iranian military and intelligence officials, including its new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.

The reward targets 10 officials associated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to the State Department website. The military force, created after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, is loyal to the supreme leader and tasked with protecting the Shi’ite clerical establishment.

Mojtaba Khamenei recently succeeded his father, Ali Khamenei, as Iran's supreme leader after the elder Khamenei was killed along with several other top Iranian officials in joint U.S. and Israeli strikes that began on February 28.

The younger Khamenei, believed to have been injured in the strikes, hasn't been seen publicly since, although he released his first statement on Thursday.

In addition to the supreme leader, the U.S. is seeking information about Iran's security chief Ali Larijani, Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni and two officials in Khamenei's office.

Larijani appeared Friday in videos verified by Reuters alongside President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi attending a rally in Tehran, despite an assertion by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that Iran's leadership was "cowering" underground.

The reward website also lists four other officials, including the IRGC commander and secretary of the defense council, but doesn't include their names or photos.

"These individuals command and direct various elements of the IRGC, which plans, organizes, and executes terrorism around the world," the State Department said.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said on Friday his group was ready for a long confrontation with Israel, as the two sides fought another war in Lebanon which he considered "existential".

"We have prepared ourselves for a long confrontation, and God willing, they (Israelis) will be surprised on the battlefield," Qassem said in his second televised address since the latest war began, adding that "the enemy's threats do not frighten us".

"This is an existential battle, not a limited or simple battle."

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when the Tehran-backed militant group attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.

Israel, which had kept up its strikes in Lebanon even before the war despite a 2024 ceasefire, has since launched air raids and sent ground troops into border areas.

Qassem said his group "will not allow the enemy to achieve its goal of eliminating our existence and controlling Lebanon, and we will remain an impenetrable barrier against it".

"This is our country and we will not allow anyone to control its destiny, its decisions, and how its children live. We are fighting and we are confident of victory."

The U.S. dollar rose across the board on Friday, set for a second straight weekly gain, as the war in the Middle East drove investors toward safe-haven assets and weighed on energy-sensitive currencies such as the euro.

President Donald Trump said the U.S. was going to be hitting Iran "very hard over the next week", shortly after issuing a partial 30-day waiver for purchases of sanctioned Russian oil, hoping to ease prices fuelled by the US-Israeli war on Iran.

A sharp and prolonged rise in oil prices would severely hurt the economies of Japan and the euro zone, which are heavily reliant on crude imports, while the United States would be relatively insulated, having been a net crude exporter for almost a decade.

The euro was 0.6% lower against the dollar at $1.14395. The dollar index, which measures the greenback's strength against a basket of currencies, was up 0.7% at 100.35. The index is up 1.5% for the week.

Turkey said on Friday its "top priority" was to avoid being dragged into the Middle East war, hours after NATO shot down a third ballistic missile from Iran.

"We are acting very cautiously against plots, traps and provocations that seek to drag our country into war," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, pledging an "appropriate and measured" response after the defence ministry said another missile was intercepted.

"Keeping our country out of this fire pit is our top priority."

The missile, which set sirens wailing at Turkey's Incirlik air base, a NATO facility where US troops are stationed near the southern city of Adana, "was neutralised by NATO air and missile defence assets," the defence ministry said.

NATO shot down a first ballistic missile from Iran on March 4, with a second intercepted on Monday.

Adana residents were woken by sirens at 3:25 am (0025 GMT), several posting footage of a fast-moving object in the sky, the Ekonomim business news website reported.

Defence news site SavunmaSanayiST said they could be "fragments of a third ballistic missile" or of the interceptor, which caught fire upon entering the atmosphere.

Iran's embassy in Ankara immediately denied any involvement, saying "no projectile" had been fired towards Turkey.

Israel destroyed a bridge in southern Lebanon on Friday and dropped leaflets in Beirut threatening Gaza-scale devastation as it deployed more troops to fight Iran-backed Hezbollah and warned of more attacks on the country's infrastructure.

As Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut's suburbs with air strikes, Lebanon's interior minister said authorities were unable to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of people who have sought refuge in the capital.

Israeli strikes have killed 773 people in Lebanon since March 2, Lebanon's state news agency said on Friday, citing the health ministry.

Israel launched its offensive against Hezbollah after it opened fire on ‌March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader at the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

Making a visit to Lebanon on Friday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was seeking $308 million in emergency funding to help authorities grapple with the humanitarian fallout. At least 800,000 people have been uprooted in Lebanon.

"Solidarity in words must be matched by solidarity in action," Guterres said.

The US is deploying more marines and warships to the Middle East as concerns grow in the administration about Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz, three US officials told the Wall Street Journal.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has approved a request from US Central Command to deploy another Marine expeditionary unit, which commonly consists of 5,000 marines and several ships.

The Japan-based USS Tripoli and its attached marines are now heading for the region, two of the officials said.

Iran has allowed two Indian-flagged liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers to sail through the Strait of Hormuz, four sources with direct knowledge of the matter, a move that could help ease some of the cooking gas crisis in the country.

Separately, a crude tanker is expected to arrive in India on Saturday carrying Saudi Arabian oil after sailing through the Strait around 1 March, according to two of the sources and data from Lloyd's List Intelligence.

(Reuters)

Iran's military has destroyed 111 enemy drones since the start of the Middle East war, the Revolutionary Guard's Sepah News portal reported on Friday.

It said the Guards had destroyed an MQ-9 over Fars province and another aircraft in Tabriz, meaning "the total number of drones destroyed so far is 111 of various types".

It did not provide a breakdown of how many were cheap, one-way explosive drones versus more sophisticated multi-use aircraft such as the MQ-9.

(AFP)

A drone strike killed two members of an Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group in northern Iraq on Friday, a senior official from the exiled party said, blaming the attack on Iran.

Since the start of the Middle East war, Iran has repeatedly struck positions belonging to Iranian Kurdish exiled groups in Iraq.

"A drone struck one of our positions at 4:40 pm (1340 GMT)," killing two party members and wounding four others, Mardin Zahidi, from the Khabat Organisation of Iranian Kurdistan, told AFP.

The attack occurred in the mountains of Bashiqa, in an area under Kurdish control, between the city of Mosul and the autonomous Kurdistan region.

Zahidi blamed the attack "on Iran and its militias".

Another opposition group, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), accused Iran on X of targeting "a civilian base" belonging to the group near Kurdistan's capital Erbil, with no casualties reported.

(AFP)

Israeli evacuation warnings cover 14 percent of Lebanese territory, the Norwegian Refugee Council said Friday, as Israel expanded the zone from which residents were told to leave their homes.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.

Israel expanded its strikes in Lebanon on Friday, targeting multiple areas, while Hezbollah also launched fresh attacks against Israeli forces.

"Israel's evacuation orders have now engulfed 1,470 square kilometres (some 570 square miles), or 14 percent of Lebanon, including south Lebanon, Beirut's southern suburb, and parts of Bekaa," the international NGO said.

More than 800,000 people in Lebanon are registered as displaced, according to local authorities, with nearly 130,000 people currently sleeping in official shelters.

(AFP)

The Israeli military said on Friday it had carried out around 7,600 strikes in Iran and 1,100 in Lebanon since launching its war on Tehran with the United States on 28 February.

The military said that some 2,000 of the strikes had targeted "headquarters and assets of the Iranian terror regime", and roughly 4,700 were against the Islamic republic's missile program.

In Lebanon, it said it had struck 200 "missile and launcher targets" and around 35 command-and-control sites of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, and killed "more than 380 Hezbollah terrorists".

(AFP and TNA staff)

Israeli strikes have killed at least 773 people since 2 March, the Lebanese health ministry said on Friday, as Israel vowed that Lebanon will pay an "increasing price" in damage to infrastructure.

"The total number of martyrs from 2 March to 13 March reached 773, and the number of wounded reached 1,933" including 103 children, the ministry said in its daily update.

Several European countries including France and Italy are in negotiations with Iran to allow their ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz and resume energy shipments, three officials familiar with the matter the Financial Times.

The strategic waterway normally carries around a fifth of the world's supply of oil and gas but has been blocked by Tehran in response the US-Israeli attacks.

A Turkish-owned ship was able to cross the Strait of Hormuz with Iran's permission, Turkey's transport minister said Friday of a critical artery where the Mideast war has essentially halted shipping.

"We have 15 ships in the Strait of Hormuz and were able to get one of them through after obtaining permission from the Iranian authorities," Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu told journalists.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres launched a $325 million humanitarian appeal on Friday to support Lebanon as it responds to the displacement crisis caused by the war between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel.

"I am pleased to join all of you today as we launch a Flash Humanitarian Appeal of $325 million to support the people of Lebanon," Guterres said during a conference attended by representatives of UN agencies and donor countries at the Lebanese prime minister's office.

The appeal "will sustain and expand life-saving assistance over the next three months - including food, clean water, health care, education, protection and other vital services", he added.

(AFP)

The US military on Friday announced that the entire crew of six was killed when an aerial refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq - an incident it said was not caused by "hostile fire."

"All six crew members aboard a US KC-135 refueling aircraft that went down in western Iraq are now confirmed deceased," US Central Command said in a social media post.

"The circumstances of the incident are under investigation. However, the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire," said the military command, which is responsible for US forces in the Middle East.

This brings the total of confirmed US deaths in the operation against Iran to 13.

(AFP)

Israeli planes dropping propaganda leaflets over Beirut on Friday caused a number of loud booms in the sky, terrifying residents of the Lebanese capital.

AFP correspondents heard four successive booms at short intervals, before clouds of paper leaflets appeared high in the air.

State media said the noise was "caused by Israeli aircraft flying at a very low altitude and dropping leaflets over a number of areas, specifically in Verdun, Hamra, and Ain al-Mreisseh", western Beirut neighbourhoods.

One of the leaflets, addressed to the Lebanese people, said: "You must disarm Hezbollah, Iran's shield", and "Lebanon is your decision, not someone else's."

The leaflets included a QR code, along with the line: "Unit 504 is working to secure the future of Lebanon and its people."

Unit 504 is an Israeli military intelligence unit. Leaflet drops have been a tactic also used in Gaza.

(AFP)

An explosion was heard in Dubai on Friday, an AFP correspondent reported, as the interior ministry sent phone alerts warning of "potential missile threats".

"Air defence systems are currently dealing with a missile threat," the defence ministry later said.

(AFP)

President Donald Trump said Friday he feels honored to be killing Iran's leadership, calling them "deranged scumbags."

"They've been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so!" Trump posted on social media shortly after midnight in Washington.

Iran's longtime supreme leader Ali Khamenei and numerous other top figures in Tehran have been killed since the war was launched by the United States and Israel on 28 February.

(AFP)

The Strait of Hormuz is a "tactically complex environment," top US military officer General Dan Caine said Friday, acknowledging the difficulty in acting on plans to escort traffic safely through the strategic waterway.

"It's a tactically complex environment. Before, I think, we want to take anything through there at scale, we want to make sure that we do the work pursuant to our current military objectives," Caine said.

President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday a drone attack in Northern Iraq against French soldiers was "unacceptable" and that France's position in the region was "defensive".

Macron told a news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris that he had asked for a full military analysis to be made of the attack.

One French soldier was killed and six others were wounded after a drone attack in northern Iraq that President Emmanuel Macron earlier had said was said was unacceptable and unjustified.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Friday he believes Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei is wounded.

"We know the new so-called, not-so-supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured," Hegseth told a press conference.

Khamenei issued a written statement on Thursday but has remained in hiding since taking over from his father Ali Khamenei, who was killed in bombing at the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran on 28 February. Iranian officials have confirmed the new leader is wounded but have given no further detail.

The United States and Israel have struck more than 15,000 targets since the start of the Iran war late last month, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday.

"Between our air force and that of the Israelis, over 15,000 enemy targets have been struck. That's well over 1,000 a day," Hegseth told a news conference, adding that Friday would mark the highest volume of strikes yet in the campaign.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Israel and Hezbollah to "stop the war" during his visit to Beirut on Friday, saying it was "no longer the time of armed groups".

"My strong appeal to those parties, to Hezbollah and to Israel, is for a ceasefire to stop the war and... allow Lebanon to become a country independent... where its authorities have the monopoly on use of force," Guterres said from the presidential palace, as Lebanon entered its 11th day of war.

"This is no longer the time of armed groups. This is the time of strong states."

The UN will launch an urgent humanitarian fundraiser Friday to assist the more than 800,000 people registered as displaced in Lebanon.

A building in Dubai's financial district was hit by debris from an intercepted attack Friday, witnesses and an AFP journalist saw, days after firms evacuated the area as Iran threatened US and Israeli-linked economic targets.

On Wednesday, US banking giant Citi, consultancies Deloitte and PwC, as well as other firms closed their offices or told employees to leave, mainly in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), sources told AFP.

Iran's threats sparked concern at the heart of the Middle East's top financial hub, home to international companies and multi-billion dollar businesses.

Two witnesses described seeing damage to a building in DIFC after hearing loud bangs. Dubai's media office confirmed that the facade of a building in "central Dubai" had been hit by debris from a successful interception.

An AFP correspondent also saw the damaged building in DIFC after hearing the bangs.

(AFP)

Iran launched a fresh salvo of missiles at Israel on Friday, according to state television, on the 14th day of the Middle East war sparked by US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic.

Without providing details, state television announced "the start of a new wave of Iranian missile strikes on the occupied territories", a reference to Israel, which Tehran does not recognise.

(AFP)

At least one person was killed on Friday in an explosion that went off close to an annual pro-government rally in Tehran marking support for the Palestinian cause, Iran's official IRNA news agency said.

No further details were given but the Israeli army earlier called on people to evacuate two areas in the city centre of Tehran close to the site of the rally, on the 14th day of a war that is engulfing the Middle East.

(AFP)

Senior Iranian officials including the president on Friday openly attended a mass rally in Tehran despite Israeli-US attacks, with national security chief Ali Larijani dismissing the latest strikes on the capital as being "out of desperation".

State TV showed President Masoud Pezeshkian greeting supporters and even having selfies taken on the rain-spattered streets of Tehran at annual Quds Day rally in support of the Palestinian cause.

Huge explosions rocked central Tehran on Friday in an area not far from where the demonstration was being held, state television said. At least one person, a woman, was killed, state media said.

Other key officials attending in an open show of defiance included judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, national police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, according to state TV images.

Their presence was the most high-profile public showing by Iranian officials since the February 28 strike that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials.

(AFP)

An Israeli strike killed eight people in a south Lebanese village near the port city of Sidon on Friday, according to the health ministry, which added that nine others had been wounded.

An AFP photographer on the scene saw paramedics working to evacuate people from the targeted building in the village of Miyeh w Miyeh. The building is part of a complex, most of whose residents are Palestinians.

(AFP)

UN chief Antonio Guterres said he had arrived in Beirut on Friday for a "solidarity" visit to Lebanon, where the Middle East war has claimed more than 687 lives since March 2.

Guterres is expected to raise awareness of the growing humanitarian needs in the country, with more than 800,000 people displaced since the conflict spread to Lebanon.

"I have just landed in Beirut for a visit of solidarity with the people of Lebanon. They did not choose this war. They were dragged into it," the United Nations secretary-general said on X.

"The UN and I will spare no effort in striving for the peaceful future that Lebanon and this region so richly deserve."

I have just landed in Beirut for a visit of solidarity with the people of Lebanon.

They did not choose this war. They were dragged into it.

The @UN & I will spare no effort in striving for the peaceful future that Lebanon & this region so richly deserve.

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 13, 2026

Turkey's defence ministry on Friday said a ballistic missile from Iran had been shot down in Turkish airspace by NATO defences, in the third such incident in just over a week.

"A ballistic munition launched from Iran and entering Turkish airspace was neutralised by NATO air and missile defence assets deployed in the Eastern Mediterranean," a ministry statement said.

(AFP)

Four of the six crew members aboard a US military aircraft that crashed in western Iraq were killed in the incident, the US military said on Friday, as rescue efforts continued for the remaining two.

The Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for downing the aircraft. The US military has denied the claim, saying the crash was not the result of hostile or friendly fire.

(Reuters and TNA staff)

Saudi forces intercepted a drone targeting Riyadh's Diplomatic Quarter housing foreign embassies, the defence ministry said on Friday.

The "hostile drone" was downed "during an attempt to approach the Diplomatic Quarter", the ministry posted on X. Three more drones were intercepted elsewhere in Saudi Arabia around the same time, the ministry said.

(AFP)

Two people died after security forces intercepted a drone in northern Oman, state media said on Friday, without giving further details.

Both victims in the incident at Al Awahi industrial area were expatriates, the Oman News Agency said, adding that other people were injured.

(AFP)

Huge explosions rocked central Tehran on Friday, according to Iranian state television, which added that strikes had hit an area not far from where a pro-government demonstration was being held.

Earlier, state TV broadcast images of crowds gathering in Tehran and other major cities to mark Quds Day, the last Friday of Ramadan, in support of the Palestinian cause.

(AFP)

Israel began targeting civilian infrastructure in Lebanon on Friday as it escalates its attacks on the country in response to Hezbollah rocket fire.

The Israeli military said it bombed a bridge over the River Litani in the country's south, claiming it was used as a crossing by Hezbollah fighters but without providing evidence.

(Reuters and TNA staff)

Two drones fell near a major southern Iraqi oil field, two oil ministry officials told AFP on Friday.

"Two drones hit communications towers near the Majnoon oil field, without causing casualties or material damage," one official told AFP.

The oil field had already paused operations prior to the incident.

(AFP and TNA staff)

The Israeli military on Friday warned it would strike two areas in the Iranian capital Tehran, Villa and Moniriyeh, and told residents to evacuate.

"In the coming hours, the IDF will operate in these areas, as it has in recent days across Iran, to strike military infrastructure belonging to the Iranian regime. Dear citizens, for your safety and well-being, we ask that you immediately evacuate the marked area," the army posted on its Persian-language account on X, attaching maps of the affected neighbourhoods.

(AFP)

Fresh strikes rocked Iran and several Gulf countries Friday, as Israel and the Islamic republic unleashed a new wave of attacks in a war that has ignited the Middle East and threatens to torpedo the world economy.

Unusually powerful explosions rattled Tehran on Friday morning, AFP journalists reported, as Israel's military said it had hit more than 200 targets in western and central Iran in the past day.

The blasts shook the houses of two AFP journalists, located several kilometres apart in the north and centre of the Iranian capital, with black smoke pluming over the city.

Iranians speaking to AFP under cover of anonymity have painted a grim picture of life under the bombs, with cities in ruins and cash running short.

"People are desperately trying to withdraw their savings from the banks, as trust in them has vanished," one 30-year-old woman in Kermanshah, western Iran, told AFP.