Iranian ‘strike on desalination plant’ stokes fears of attacks on civilian sites

Bahrain has accused Iran of striking a desalination plant, raising fears that civilian infrastructure may become fair game in the war.

It came after Iran’s president vowed to expand the country’s attacks on American targets across the region in the face of intense US and Israeli air strikes.

A late-night Israeli strike on an oil facility engulfed parts of Iran’s capital Tehran in smoke on Sunday, while Israel renewed attacks in Lebanon.

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with the nine-day-old campaign, which has rippled across the region and appears to have no end in sight.

The US military said a service member died of injuries from an Iranian attack on troops in Saudi Arabia on March 1. Seven US soldiers have now been killed in the war.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian threatened on Sunday to step up attacks on American targets across the Middle East, and appeared to backtrack from conciliatory comments towards his Gulf neighbours on Saturday.

Those comments, in which he apologised for attacks on their soil, were quickly contradicted by Iranian hardliners.

In Lebanon, intensifying Israeli strikes pushed the death toll higher as several hundred thousand people were displaced and Israel targeted the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

In Israel, three people were injured in a Sunday afternoon strike and the military said two soldiers were killed in fighting in southern Lebanon — the first military fatalities since the start of the war with Iran last week.

The war, which Israel and the US launched with air strikes on February 28, has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, 397 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, according to officials. Six US troops have also been killed.

The conflict has rattled global markets, disrupted air travel and left Iran’s leadership weakened by several thousand Israeli and American air strikes.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, said on Sunday that the war’s effect on the oil industry would continue to spiral, warning it could become harder to produce and sell oil.

Some regional producers, including in Iraq, have already curbed output amid dangers in the Strait of Hormuz.

“When we are attacked, we have no choice but to respond. The more pressure they impose on us, the stronger our response will naturally be,” Mr Pezeshkian said on Sunday. “Our Iran, our country, will not bow easily in the face of bullying, oppression or aggression — and it never has.”

The remarks came a day after he said Tehran regretted regional concerns caused by Iranian strikes and urged neighbouring states not to take part in US and Israeli attacks against Iran.

Multiple Gulf states reported intercepting more incoming missiles and drones from Iran, but Mr Pezeshkian said the country was not looking to battle them and accused the US of trying to pit countries against one another.

Iranian hardliners quickly contradicted those remarks. Judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei wrote on X: “The geography of some countries in the region — both overtly and covertly — is in the hands of the enemy, and those points are used against our country in acts of aggression. Intense attacks on these targets will continue.”

The two men are part of a three-member leadership council that has overseen Iran since an earlier strike killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Mr Pezeshkian’s remarks on Sunday reinforced pledges that Iran would not surrender despite US and Israeli threats, with Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu saying their aim remains the replacement of Iran’s leaders.

“We’re not looking to settle,” the US president told reporters on Air Force One on Saturday. “They’d like to settle. We’re not looking to settle.”

The Gulf nations of Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, reported additional Iranian missiles launched towards them on Sunday, including several that hit new categories of civilian infrastructure.

The UAE said Iran launched more than 100 missiles and drones in new barrages. Only four drones fell at unnamed locations, the defence ministry said.

Bahrain accused Iran of indiscriminately attacking civilian targets and damaging one of its desalination plants, though its electricity and water authority said supplies remained online.

The island nation, home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, has been among the countries targeted by Iranian drones and missiles. Attacks have hit hotels, ports and residential towers and killed at least one person.

The desalination plant strike came after Iran said a US air strike had damaged an Iranian desalination plant. Abbas Araghchi, the country’s foreign minister, said the strike on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz had cut into the water supply for 30 villages. He warned that in doing so “the US set this precedent, not Iran”.

Desalination plants supply water to millions of residents in the region, raising new fears in parched desert nations.

Iran also said on Sunday that overnight strikes from Israel hit four oil storage tankers and a petroleum transfer terminal, killing four people.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society said on Sunday that about 10,000 civilian structures across the country had been damaged, including homes, schools and medical facilities. It warned Tehran residents to take precautions against toxic air pollution and the risk of acid rain after Israeli strikes set fires at oil depots in the area.

Israel renewed its assault early on Sunday on parts of Lebanon, where health officials reported at least 394 people have been killed in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Health minister Rakan Nassereddine said on Sunday that 83 children and 82 women were among those killed. The Israeli military has ordered large areas of the country to evacuate, and Lebanese officials reported more than 400,000 people displaced during an offensive that Israel’s military has said is aimed at stamping out Iran-supported forces there.