Iran fires at least 16 ballistic missiles and 117 drones in new barrages

Iran has launched at least 16 ballistic missiles and 117 drones in new barrages, according to the United Arab Emirates, as well as targeting a desalination plant in Bahrain.

The UAE’s Defence Ministry said it had intercepted 16 missiles on Sunday, while a 17th fell into the sea.

It added that it intercepted most of the drones but four fell in UAE territory. The ministry said it is ready to “firmly confront” the threats.

The Emirati statement did not specify the locations of the attacks.

Bahrain earlier accused Iran of striking a desalination plant, raising fears that civilian infrastructure may become targets in the war, as 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.

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.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian threatened on Sunday to step up attacks on American targets across the Middle East. He 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, the health ministry said 83 children were among almost 400 people killed in a week of conflict, after Israeli ordered tens of thousands to evacuate ahead of an offensive aimed at stamping out the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

The war, which Israel and the US launched with air strikes on February 28, has also killed at least 1,230 people in Iran and about a dozen 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 hundreds of 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 will 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.”

While multiple Gulf states reported intercepting more missiles and drones from Iran, 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.

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

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

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 of risks in multiple 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 on parts of Lebanon early on Sunday, and health officials reported 12 more people killed.

The Israeli military has ordered tens of thousands of people in large areas of the country, including parts of the Beirut area, to evacuate during an offensive that its military said was aimed at stamping out Iran-supported forces there. It warned residents of southern Lebanon to move north on Sunday morning.