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Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said today that despite the attacks on his country, “nothing has changed in our … military capability.”
He told ABC’s This Week that in only a few hours after Iran was struck, Tehran retaliated against Israeli targets and American bases “and we have continued to do so. So, our military is in place. They are capable enough to defend our country.”
When asked whether a diplomatic deal with the Trump administration was still possible, he said, “We negotiated with the United States twice in the past 12 months. And in both cases, they attacked us in the middle of negotiation. And that has become a very bitter experience for us.”
He said “a deal was at our reach, and we left Geneva happily with the understanding that we can reach a deal next time we meet.”
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Death toll from suspected US-Israeli bombing of Iranian school reportedly rises to almost 150
Tess McClure
The death toll from a missile strike on a girls’ school in southern Iran has risen to almost 150, according to Iranian state media.
Mizan news agency, the official news outlet of Iran’s judiciary, reported that the number killed in Saturday’s strike on a girls’ elementary school in Minab in southern Iran had risen to 148 killed, with 95 others wounded. The news agency cited Ebrahim Taheri, a prosecutor in Minab.
The school, which was struck on Saturday morning, appears to be the worst mass casualty event of the US-Israeli-led bombing campaign on Iran so far.
Video and photographs from the aftermath of the strike, which have been verified as authentic and geolocated to the site, show hundreds of people gathered around the partially collapsed, smoking building, with rubble strewn across the street and men digging through it for victims. Screams can be heard in the background. In some of the images, schoolbags and textbooks are being pulled from the debris.
Capt Tim Hawkins, the spokesperson for US Central Command, said the US was “aware of reports concerning civilian harm resulting from ongoing military operations. We take these reports seriously and are looking into them.”
The school building appears to be adjacent to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps barracks. You can read more here:
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Updated at 11.07 EST
The IDF has said in a new post on X that the Israeli air force has launched a “new wave of strikes in the heart of Tehran” in a simialr update to the one we mentioned in our post at 09.02.
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Iran's former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reportedly killed in strikes
Robert Tait
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the firebrand former Iranian president, who gained international notoriety by calling for Israel’s erasure and denying the Holocaust, appears to have been killed in Saturday’s military strikes, according to local media.
Several Iranian outlets ran reports confirming Ahmadinejad’s death on Sunday after it had initially been reported as confirmed by ILNA, a semi-official news agency.
ILNA later retreated somewhat from its original report in a later post that was headlined “Is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad martyred?”
The later report cited an unnamed source who the agency said had denied Ahmadinejad’s death “without providing further information”.
The original report, which ILNA said was based on “informed sources”, said the former president had been killed in strikes on his home in the Narmak district of Tehran. The report was picked up by the websites of several Iranian newspapers, including Shargh and Etemad, before the agency qualified it with a question mark.
Earlier reports on Saturday suggested Ahmadinejad’s team of bodyguards had been killed in the strikes but that his fate was unknown. His Wikipedia page had been updated on Sunday to refer to him in the past tense and suggest he was deceased.
The populist Ahmadinejad was a dominant and highly controversial figure in Iranian politics during his eight-year presidency who also repeatedly generated international headlines.
Months after his election in 2005, he triggered outrage at a conference in Tehran by saying Israel should be “erased from the pages of time” – a quote that was widely translated into English as “wiped off the map”.
He later dismissed the Holocaust as a “myth” and was the driving force behind a 2006 “scientific” conference ostensibly aimed at investigating the evidence for the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis during the second world war, but tendentiously concluding that it did not happen …
He was believed to have been the favoured candidate of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who himself was killed in Saturday’s strikes carried out by Israel.
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Updated at 10.47 EST
Helena Smith
On Saturday, the British prime minister Keir Starmer confirmed that the UK government had “stepped up protections for British bases and personnel to their highest level” in the wake of the strikes on Iran.
Earlier this month, six F-35B fighter jets joined Typhoon jets already stationed in Cyprus to boost defence of the island’s bases and wider sovereign territories.
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Helena Smith
An extraordinary meeting of Cyprus’ national security council will be convened this evening following revelations of Iranian missiles being intercepted heading towards the island.
Highlighting the “indiscriminate” nature of Iran’s retaliation to the US and Israeli offensive on Saturday, Britain’s defense secretary, John Healey, revealed on Sky news that two missiles had been fired in the direction of Cyprus, home to two of the UK’s most strategic military facilities abroad.
“This is a really serious and deteriorating situation, (with) rising risks of increasing Iranian indiscriminate retaliatory attacks,” he told the Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme.
“We had two missiles fired in the direction of Cyprus. We don’t believe they were targeted at Cyprus, but nevertheless, it’s an example of how there is a very real and rising threat from a regime that is lashing out widely across the region, and that requires us to act.”
President Nikos Christodoulides, who called tonight’s meeting, was quick to allay fears that the island – which is less than a twenty minute flight from Lebanon - could be caught up in the crosshairs of retaliatory attacks, saying he had spoken to his British counterpart, Keir Starmer, “regarding the ongoing developments”.
“He confirmed clearly and unequivocally that Cyprus was not a target,” the leader said in a statement. “We are maintaining direct communication. All relevant authorities are fully engaged and monitoring developments closely.”
The two sovereign base areas, covering 99 square miles of the island’s territory, were retained by Britain when the former colony won independence in 1960. As such, Cypriot authorities have no control over the areas.
RAF Akrotiri is particularly significant for Britain because of its role as a forward mounting post for overseas operations in the Middle East. There has been criticism of the RAF facility being used to assist Israel, including surveillance flights by Akrotiri-based spy planes over Gaza.
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The US Central Command (Centcom) said it was a “lie” that the USS Abraham Lincoln was struck by Iranian missiles. It issued the statement after Iranian state media reported earlier that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp said they had attacked the aircraft carrier with four ballistic missiles.
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Updated at 11.08 EST
The death toll from the Iranian missile attack in the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh has increased to at least nine people, first responders said, in what is the deadliest strike in the country since the war began on Saturday (see post at 14.23 for more details).
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Updated at 10.24 EST
US claims it has sunk an Iranian ship
In an earlier update, Centcom said an “Iranian Jamaran-class corvette” (ship) was hit by US forces and is “currently sinking to the bottom of the Gulf of Oman”.
“As the President said, members of Iran’s armed forces, IRGC and police “must lay down your weapons.” Abandon ship,” it added in a post on X.
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Three US service members killed 'in action' as part of Iran operation - Centcom
The US has said three American service members have been killed in action as part of the Iran operation, according to the US military’s Central Command (Centcom).
In an update to X, Centcom said:
double quotation markAs of 9:30 am ET, March 1, three U.S. service members have been killed in action and five are seriously wounded as part of Operation Epic Fury. Several others sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions – and are in the process of being returned to duty. Major combat operations continue and our response effort is ongoing.
These were the first casualties of any kind among US personnel to be announced since the US and Israel launched aerial attacks against Iran and killed its supreme leader on Saturday.
The names of the soldiers who were killed will not be released until 24 hours after their families have been notified, Centcom said.
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Updated at 10.09 EST
