US-Israel launch major attacks as Iranian authorities maintain defiance
Bunker-buster bombs triggered massive secondary explosions at a mountainous area near Isfahan overnight. Tehran, Iran – Strikes by the United States and Israel have hit Tehran, Isfahan, and other Iranian cities, as local commanders said they were prepared for a war of attrition involving potential US ground incursions .
Numerous air raids struck areas across the capital before and after midnight – and periodically throughout Tuesday – once more leading to electricity outages in multiple areas. The Ministry of Energy confirmed that shrapnel and shock waves damaged a main power transfer line, but said the disruption was fixed within hours.
A number of industrial areas in nearby Karaj and surrounding towns were also struck, while the Israeli army released a new aerial map to warn citizens to stay away from an area of Vardavard, located west of Tehran, pending attacks. The area is a base for multiple pharmaceutical companies.
Authorities reported extensive damage was done to a major pharmaceuticals company, Tofigh Darou, which was believed to have been targeted with multiple projectiles. Iran produces more than 90 percent of its medicine domestically due to US sanctions, and the company is among the top producers of ingredients used in a wide range of drugs, including cancer medication and immunomodulator medication used to treat multiple sclerosis.
In central Iran’s Isfahan, residents were shocked after a large number of heavy bunker-buster bombs were dropped over a mountainous area next to the metropolis in an apparent attempt to target military installations. The munitions caused secondary explosions that were some of the largest recorded since the start of the war over a month ago and lit up the night sky, followed by massive sounds that reverberated across the city.
In Zanjan to the northwest of Iran, local media showed footage of considerable destruction after a building described as the “administrative department” of Hosseinieh Azam, a major religious centre, was hit. At least four people were killed and others injured, according to local authorities, who did not identify the deceased.
Iranian authorities say that more than 2,000 people have been killed in US-Israeli strikes since the start of the war on February 28, and a large number of residential units, schools, hospitals, and historical sites have been impacted.
US and Israeli warplanes this week also bombed multiple civilian nuclear sites, the country’s top steel manufacturers and their electricity sources, petrochemical plants, and the Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran, where an imaging satellite had been developed.
A professor at the university, who had helped advance Iran’s missile programme, was assassinated along with his two children at their home in northern Tehran last week. US President Donald Trump again threatened to attack oil and gas installations, destroy power generation plants, and “possibly” obliterate all of Iran’s water desalination plants.
The top commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), currently believed to be running the war and deciding the future of the country, have continued to signal defiance after this week’s attacks.
The spokesman of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters of the IRGC said on Tuesday that Tehran’s enemies are “humiliated and on the path of destruction” as the US raises the prospects of launching ground attacks on strategic islands on Iran’s southern shores.
The idea of gaining dominance over the Strait of Hormuz through military attack is a “wish they [the US] will take forever to the grave”, Ebrahim Zolfaghari said in a video message as an Iranian drone attack sparked fire on a Kuwaiti tanker at Dubai Port .
The IRGC also released footage of ballistic missiles fired towards Israel and countries across the region, as well as footage of shooting down what it said were two of the US military’s advanced MQ-9 Reaper drones . It said retaliatory attacks would be launched…