Middle East war latest: Israel army says struck ‘covert underground’ nuclear site in Iran

The Israeli military announced on Tuesday that it struck an underground nuclear site in Iran where it said scientists were “covertly” developing a key component for an atomic weapon.

“The IDF intelligence continued to follow the scientists’ activities and located their new location at this site in a manner that enabled a precise strike on the covert underground compound,” the military said, displaying a map showing the facility on the western outskirts of Tehran.

“In the site, a group of nuclear scientists operated covertly to develop a key component for nuclear weapons,” it said, adding the scientists had been working at the underground location after Israel struck several Iranian nuclear sites during the previous war in June.

Air strike hits Iraq base housing pro-Iran group: faction source

Meanwhile, an air strike hit a military base in southern Iraq housing the Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah group on Tuesday, a source from the armed faction said.

The Jurf al-Nasr base, which serves as one of the main bastions of the powerful Tehran-backed group, has been struck several times since the war in the Middle East broke out, starting in the early hours of the US-Israeli campaign against Iran.

The strikes have since expanded to other areas, and more than 10 fighters, mostly from Kataeb Hezbollah, have been killed across Iraq since Saturday.

A second source from the group said Tuesday’s strike only caused material damage.

Iraq, which has recently regained a sense of stability but has long been a proxy battleground between the US and Iran, said it did not want to be dragged into the war. But it has not been spared.

Several Iran-backed armed groups — known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, to which Kataeb Hezbollah also belongs — have said they will not stay “neutral” and have claimed dozens of drone attacks on US bases.

Iraqi security forces said Tuesday that they seized nine rockets and a launchpad that were set up to target Baghdad International Airport, which includes a military base that hosts American advisers and previously housed US-led coalition troops.

Since the war started, the autonomous Kurdistan region, which hosts US troops, has been the main target of drone attacks, the majority of which were intercepted by air defences.

On Tuesday evening, loud bangs were again heard in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region, AFP journalists reported.

Earlier in the day, drone strikes blamed on Iran hit a camp hosting Iranian Kurdish fighters and family members in Iraqi Kurdistan, a local official and an exiled opposition group told AFP.

AFP photographers at the scene reported damage to rooms used as lodgings for the camp’s hospital staff.

Iraq’s Kurdish region hosts camps and rear-bases operated by several Iranian Kurdish rebel groups that have repeatedly faced cross-border strikes from Iran, which has long accused them of serving Western or Israeli interests.

Israel strikes Islamist group’s HQ in Sidon, south Lebanon – state media

Earlier, Israel struck a headquarters belonging to the Islamist group Jamaa Islamiya, an ally of Hamas and Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon on Tuesday, state media reported.

“The Israeli enemy carried out an air raid a short while ago, targeting a headquarters of the Jamaa Islamiya” in the coastal city, state media said.

Sidon was largely spared of major Israeli attacks during the last war between Israel and Hezbollah, which a November 2024 ceasefire sought to end.

The strike almost entirely destroyed a seven-storey building, according to an AFP photographer, and ambulances rushed to the scene.

It caused a powerful blast in a densely populated area, as seen on local media.

The Israeli military then issued an evacuation warning for another building in Sidon, saying it will hit “Hezbollah military infrastructure… in light of its prohibited attempts to rebuild its activities in the area”.

The Jamaa Islamiya had previously been the target of Israeli strikes in Lebanon after claiming responsibility for rocket launches towards Israel during the war between Israel and Hezbollah that began in October 2023.

Last month, it accused Israel of seizing one of its officials from a town near the border.

The Israeli military said that it “apprehended a senior terrorist” in the group who was then “transferred for further questioning in Israeli territory”.

Israel first responders say 12 injured after new Iran missile barrage

Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency services said Tuesday they were treating 12 people with injuries following the latest salvo of missiles fired from Iran.

“Medics and paramedics are providing medical treatment and evacuating to hospitals 12 injured people, including a woman of about 40 in moderate condition with blast injuries, and 11 people lightly injured with cuts from glass shards and blast injuries,” an MDA statement said.

Israeli police said officers were operating at several sites in the central and Tel Aviv districts where shrapnel had fallen.

AFP footage showed security forces in high visibility vests and helmets deployed at one site. At another, a fire engine was stationed as forces sprayed non-flammable foam on the charred wreckage of cars.

US embassy warns of imminent attack in eastern Saudi Arabia

The US embassy in Riyadh on Tuesday warned of an imminent attack in the eastern Saudi city of Dhahran, home to much of the kingdom’s energy installations along the Gulf coast.

“There is a threat of imminent missile and UAV attacks over Dhahran. Do not come to the U.S. Consulate” the embassy wrote on its official X account.

The warning came just hours after the US mission in Riyadh was attacked by two drones that sparked a small fire on the embassy grounds, as Iran pressed on with retaliatory strikes across the Gulf.

On Monday, the massive Ras Tanura refinery on Saudi Arabia’s Gulf coast went into partial shutdown after a strike by drones.

The complex run by the Saudi state oil giant Aramco is home to one of the largest refineries in the entire Middle East and a cornerstone of the kingdom’s energy sector.

Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest oil exporter, with most of its oil fields and petroleum infrastructure located along its eastern coast, across the Gulf from Iran.

Israel army says struck Iran’s presidential office as Iran attacks Israel

The Israeli military on Tuesday said it had carried out air strikes on Iran’s presidential office and the National Security Council building in Tehran as part of its ongoing campaign against the Islamic Republic.

“The Israeli Air Force… struck and dismantled facilities within the leadership compound of the Iranian terrorist regime in the heart of Tehran” overnight, the military said.

“During the strike on the compound, numerous munitions were dropped on the presidential office and the building of the Supreme National Security Council,” it added.

Meanwhile, Iran’s army said its forces launched attacks on Israel and a US military base in Qatar.

“The destructive combat drones of the army’s ground, air, and naval forces…  targeted the military areas of the Zionist regime in the occupied territories and the bases of American forces in Al-Udeid, Qatar,” said the army in a statement carried by Shargh daily.

Israeli troops take up new position in Lebanon

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said he told the military to take control of more positions in Lebanon after an attack from Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have authorized the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to advance and take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon in order to prevent attacks on Israeli border communities,” Katz said in a statement.

Hezbollah joined Iran with an attack on Israel after Israel and the United States went to war against the Islamic republic.

Meanwhile, drones targeted an Omani port on Tuesday, hitting a fuel tank, state media said.

“A security source reported that fuel tanks at the commercial port of Duqm were targeted by a number of drones, one of which hit a fuel tank. The resulting damage was contained without any human casualties,” the Oman News Agency said in statement.

Attack on US embassy

An attack by two drones early Tuesday on the US embassy in Riyadh sparked a small fire, a Saudi defence ministry spokesman said in a statement.

The growing war began on Saturday after joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran that Tehran said killed dozens of civilians and the country’s supreme leader.

“The US Embassy in Riyadh was attacked by two drones, according to initial assessments. The attack resulted in a limited fire and minor material damage to the building,” the statement said.

Two witnesses told AFP they saw fire engines around the embassy.

Earlier, witnesses said they had seen smoke over the building housing the US mission and heard loud explosions in the diplomatic quarter, home to foreign embassies in the Saudi capital.

A source close to the Saudi army, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue, told AFP that Saudi air defences intercepted four drones targeting Riyadh’s diplomatic quarter in the attack.

In the aftermath, the US embassy issued shelter in place notifications for Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran and limited non-essential travel to any military installations in the region.

Later on Tuesday, the Saudi defence ministry said it had intercepted more than half a dozen drones near the capital Riyadh and the city of Al-Kharj.

“Eight drones were intercepted and destroyed near the cities of Riyadh and Al-Kharj,” said defence ministry spokesman Major General Turki al-Malki on X.

Gulf states under fire

The attacks in Saudi coincided with a wave of missiles and drones launched at Gulf states, with the UAE defence ministry saying it was dealing with a barrage of ballistic missiles coming from Iran.

In Qatar, the military intercepted two ballistic missiles early Tuesday morning, the country’s defence ministry said in a statement.

Iran’s salvos have hit ports, airports, residential buildings and hotels along with military sites across the wealthy region of oil giants.

On Monday, smoke poured out of Kuwait City’s US embassy, an AFP correspondent saw.

Later, a Kuwait-based diplomat and a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP the embassy had been damaged by several drones, while a second Kuwait-based diplomat said the building had been struck directly.

Israel army issues new evacuation warnings in Lebanon

The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for dozens of locations in Lebanon on Tuesday, including warning residents in two southern Beirut neighbourhoods to stay away from several buildings ahead of an imminent operation.

Israel’s military on Monday vowed to intensify its attacks on the country and make Hezbollah pay a “heavy price” after rocket and drone fire from the Iran-backed militant group.

“Urgent warning to the residents of Lebanon, specifically in the villages whose names are shown,” said a statement by the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee on Telegram, which listed 50 locations.

“For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately.”

Most of the locations were across the south of Lebanon, which Israel regularly targets with the aim of hitting Hezbollah infrastructure.

He told the residents of the southern Beirut neighbourhoods Ghobeiry and Haret Hreik in another evacuation warning to avoid two buildings.

“You are located near Hezbollah facilities and interests, against which the IDF will operate in the near future,” he said.

“For your safety and the safety of your family members, you must evacuate these buildings and those adjacent to them immediately and stay away from them for a distance of no less than 300 metres (984 feet),” he added.

In a later warning, he told “those in the southern suburbs of Beirut, especially in the Hadath neighbourhood” to avoid a third building.

Lebanon’s government on Monday took the unprecedented step of banning Hezbollah’s military and security activity, prompting the Iran-backed group to lash out at the decision.

Hezbollah is represented in both the government and parliament, and the move came hours after it announced it had launched rockets and drones towards Israel early Monday to avenge the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli attacks.

Israel bombarded Beirut’s southern suburbs and dozens of villages in south Lebanon on Monday in response.

The Lebanese government said the Israeli strikes have killed at least 52 people and wounded 154.