Israel claims Iranian intelligence minister killed

Israel said it has killed another top Iranian official, the third in two days, while Iran lashed out with attacks on its Persian Gulf neighbours and Israel, using some of its latest missiles to evade air defences and killing two people near Tel Aviv.

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said Iranian intelligence minister Esmail Khatib had been killed in an overnight strike and promised that “significant surprises are expected throughout this day on all fronts”, without elaborating.

Iran did not immediately confirm Mr Khatib’s death.

Israel killed top Iranian security official Ali Larijani and the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s Basij force on Tuesday.

In Lebanon, Israel kept up its intense pressure with strikes it said targeted Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, hitting multiple apartment buildings in Beirut and killing at least a dozen people.

In Iran, the Bushehr nuclear power plant complex was hit by a projectile the night before but there were no injuries and the plant suffered no damage, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said after receiving a report from Tehran.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi reiterated his call “for maximum restraint during the conflict to prevent risk of a nuclear accident”.

Since the United States and Israel attacked Iran to start the war on February 28, Iran has been targeting the energy infrastructure of its Gulf Arab neighbours, as well as military bases, as part of a strategy to drive up oil prices and put pressure on Washington to back down.

On Wednesday, Iranian state-run media also reported an attack on facilities associated with its offshore South Pars natural gas field.

The Iranian side of the field, the South Pars field, came under attack and was burning, according to reports.

It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties.

Iran’s state television subsequently said the Islamic Republic would be attacking oil and gas infrastructure in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates after its field was hit.

Qatar, which shares the South Pars field with Iran, blamed Israel for the attack.

Meanwhile, Tehran is keeping up its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping lane through which a fifth of the world’s oil transits, giving rise to growing concerns of a global energy crisis.

The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, remained stubbornly over 100 dollars per barrel in early trading on Wednesday, up more than 40% from the start of the war.

Iran executed a man on charges of spying for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, according to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency.

Wednesday’s report identified him as Kourosh Keyvani and alleged he “provided images and information on sensitive locations” to Israel.

Later in the day, Mizan said an air strike hit a courthouse complex in Larestan, a county in southern Fars province, and that at least eight people were killed.

Separately, Iranian media said the national women’s football team has returned to the Islamic Republic after several of the players had sought asylum in Australia.

The team was greeted by Iranian officials after crossing the border with Turkey.

Two players chose to remain in Australia while others who initially sought asylum later changed their minds.

Iran attacked Saudi Arabia’s vast Eastern Province, home to many of its oil fields, as well as Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said a projectile caused a small fire at its base in the UAE near Dubai but caused no injuries.

Explosions were heard near Al Minhad Air Base, used by Western nations as a transit hub for the wider Middle East.

Missile alerts sounded again later in Dubai as interceptors exploded overhead across the city-state.

Saudi Arabia shot down a ballistic missile targeting the area of the Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts American forces and aircraft, and two drones targeting Riyadh’s diplomatic quarter, which houses the US embassy and other foreign missions.

Iran has vowed to continue to throttle shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.

Since the war started, a few ships have got through – some Iranian, but also vessels from India, Turkey and elsewhere.

Iran insists the waterway is open, just not to the US or many of its allies.

US President Donald Trump, who has been growing increasingly frustrated that no allies have stepped forward after he asked others to send ships to help open the strait again, posted on social media on Tuesday that “WE DON’T NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”

Iraq, which suspended operations at its main oil terminal on the Persian Gulf last week when the Basra port was attacked, said on Wednesday it had reached an agreement with the autonomous northern Iraqi Kurdish administration.

The Oil Ministry said it will begin exporting 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Kirkuk via a pipeline north to Turkey’s Ceyhan port on the Mediterranean Sea.

Saudi Arabia is also already bypassing the Strait of Hormuz by sending some of its oil by pipeline across the country to be shipped from a Red Sea port.

Responding to Israel’s killing of Mr Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and one of the country’s most powerful figures, the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said on Wednesday it had targeted central Israel with multiple-warhead missiles, which have an increased chance of evading missile defence systems and can overwhelm radar tracking systems.

Iran’s Guard said the force launched the Khorramshahr-4 and Qadr multiple-warhead missiles to avenge Mr Larijani’s killing.

Footage filmed by The Associated Press showed at least one missile releasing cluster munitions over Israel.

Israel said two people were killed in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv.

Mr Larijani was a senior policy adviser to the late supreme leader Ali Khamenei on strategy in nuclear talks with the Trump administration.

He was sanctioned by the US Treasury in January for his role “co-ordinating” Iran’s violent suppression of nationwide protests.

General Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s Basij militia, was also killed in an Israeli strike on Tuesday.

Gen Soleimani was sanctioned by the US, the European Union and other nations, over his role in suppressing dissent for years through the Basij.

Mr Khatib had been sanctioned by the US in 2022 on allegations his ministry had been “engaging in cyber-enabled activities against the United States and its allies”.

The US embassy in Baghdad also came under fire for the second day in a row early on Wednesday, two Iraqi security officials said.

Pro-Iran militia groups have been regularly attacking American targets in Iraq since the war started.

Israel flattened an apartment building in central Beirut about an hour after issuing an evacuation notice – the fourth time the building was targeted.

Israel’s military claimed it was being used by Hezbollah to store “millions of dollars intended to finance its activities”, without providing evidence.

Overall, 10 people were killed in Israeli air strikes in central Beirut, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

Another two people were killed in an air strike in Lebanon’s western Bekaa valley, it said.

Among those killed in Beirut was a journalist with Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV, the broadcaster said.

Al-Manar said the head of its political programme Mohammed Sherri was killed along with his wife, and that his children and grandchildren were wounded.

The Israeli army also said it had launched a wave of strikes targeting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon “in response to firing into Israeli territory”.

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

Israeli strikes have displaced more than one million Lebanese – roughly 20% of the population – according to the Lebanese government, which says 912 people have been killed and 2,221 wounded.

In Israel, 14 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire.

At least 13 US military members have been killed.

More than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran since the conflict started on February 28, according to the Iranian Red Crescent.