Israel and US pound Iranian targets while Tehran respond with attacks on regional sites

已複製連結

The US and Israel pounded targets across Iran, bombing the country's ballistic missile sites and wiping out warships as part of an intensifying military campaign following the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Blasts rattled windows across the country and sent plumes of smoke high into the sky above Tehran. More than 200 people have been killed since the start of the strikes that killed Khamenei and other senior leaders, Iranian leaders have said.

Iran retaliated by firing missiles and drones at Israel and at US military installations around the Gulf, and also at the Saudi capital and the global business hub of Dubai. Earlier Sunday, Iran selected a 66-year-old cleric to join the three-member leadership council that will govern the country until a new supreme leader is selected.

A senior White House official says that "new potential leadership" in Iran has suggested they are open for talks with the United States. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations, said President Donald Trump says he is "eventually" willing to talk, but for now the military operation "continues unabated."

Here is the latest:

Cyprus' government spokesperson said an "incident" that happened at a British air base on the island nation's southern coastline involved an "unmanned drone which caused limited damage."

Spokesperson Constantinos Letymbiotis said the incident at RAF Akrotiri occurred shortly after midnight Monday.

He said "information received through various channels" indicated a drone strike.

He didn't specify what kind of drone, where it was launched from or the extent of damage.

Letymbiotis said Cypriot authorities have enacted security protocols and are monitoring the situation in coordination with the UK and its two military bases in Cyprus.

The suspected drone strike occurred after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the UK would help the US in the war against Iran.

Iran's foreign minister has suggested his country's military units are acting independently from any central government control after being pressed about attacks on Gulf Arab nations that have served as intermediaries for Tehran in the past.

The comments came in an Al Jazeera interview on Sunday with Abbas Araghchi.

"What happened in Oman was not our choice. We have already told our, you know, army, armed forces to be careful about the targets that they choose," Araghchi said.

"As a matter of fact, our, you know, military units are now in fact independent and somehow isolated and they are acting based on instructions - you know, general instructions - given to them in advance."

Already, there have been attacks on Oman, which served as an intermediary in recent nuclear talks with the United States, and on Qatar, which also has negotiated with Tehran and shares a massive offshore natural gas field in the Persian Gulf with the Islamic Republic.

Militaries around the world do contingency planning for wars, including what to do if their central governments are affected.

But Iran is a special case given that its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which answered only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, controls its vast ballistic missile arsenal and much of its stockpile of bomb-carrying drones.