Iran’s main nuclear enrichment site hit in air strike
The Natanz facility is nearly 135 miles south east of Tehran.
Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility has been struck again as the war in the Middle East entered its fourth week.
The capital Tehran saw heavy air strikes overnight and into the morning, residents said, as thousands of worshippers converged on Tehran’s grand mosque for prayers marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said attacks would “increase significantly” next week. He was speaking shortly after fragments from an Iranian missile slammed into an empty nursery school near Tel Aviv. No casualties were reported.
The attacks — and threats of more to come — indicate the war shows no sign of abating as its effects are felt far beyond the Middle East, raising food and fuel prices.
Meanwhile, an Iranian attack on the joint UK-US Diego Garcia air base in the Indian Ocean, about 2,500 miles away, suggested Tehran has missiles that can go farther than it had previously acknowledged.
The US and Israel have offered shifting rationales for the war, from hoping to foment an uprising that topples Iran’s leadership to eliminating its nuclear and missile programmes and its support for armed proxies in the region. There have been no public signs of any uprising, while internet restrictions in Iran complicate communications.
With little information coming out of Iran, it is not clear how much damage its arms, nuclear or energy facilities have sustained in the US and Israeli strikes that began on February 28 — or even who is truly in charge. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public since he was named to the role.
Iran’s official news agency, Mizan, said there was no leakage after the strike on the Natanz nuclear facility, nearly 135 miles south east of Tehran.
The UN nuclear watchdog has said the bulk of Iran’s estimated 970lb of enriched uranium is elsewhere, beneath the rubble at its Isfahan facility, with a lesser amount at Natanz.
Israel’s military said it was “not aware” of a strike there by its own military.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said it was informed by Tehran about the strike and was looking into the incident.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said such strikes pose a “real risk of catastrophic disaster throughout the Middle East”.
The Natanz facility was hit in the first week of the war and several buildings appeared damaged, according to satellite images. Natanz was also targeted in the 12-day war last June.
As Iran targets energy facilities in the region while threatening shipping on the Strait of Hormuz, the United Arab Emirates joined 21 other countries including the UK, Germany, France and Japan in saying they “express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage”.
The Trump administration announced it is lifting sanctions on Iranian oil already loaded on ships as of Friday and will end the pause on April 19. The licence has limits including a restriction on sales involving anyone in North Korea or Cuba.
The decision does not increase the flow of oil production, a central factor in surging prices. Iran has evaded US sanctions for years, suggesting that much of what it exports already reaches buyers.
The head of US Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, said Iran’s ability to attack vessels in the strait had been “degraded”. He said earlier in the week that multiple 5,000lb bombs had been dropped on an underground facility along Iran’s coastline that was used to store anti-ship cruise missiles, mobile missile launchers and other equipment.
The US is deploying three more amphibious assault ships and roughly 2,500 additional marines to the Middle East, an official told the Associated Press. Two other US officials confirmed that ships were deploying, without saying where they were heading.
Saudi Arabia said it downed 20 drones in a couple of hours on Saturday in its eastern region, home to major oil installations. No injuries or damage were reported.
More than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran during the war. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian missiles and four have died in the occupied West Bank. At least 13 US military members have been killed, along with civilians in Gulf nations.
