Mobile artillery launching a missile. PHOTO: X
Around 10 US service members were injured in an Iranian attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, according to a US official speaking to CNN.
At least two of the injured had shrapnel wounds considered non-life-threatening, and others were “impacted,” though the nature of what happened to them was not immediately clear, another US official said.
A refuelling aircraft was also damaged, the first source said.
The attack comes as Israel said it was attacking Tehran and “defending” against missiles fired from Iran on Saturday, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US expected to conclude military operations within weeks, not months.
Iranian retaliation on an air base in Saudi Arabia wounded 12 US military personnel, two seriously, a US official told Reuters on Friday, as drones and missiles continued to strike US bases around the Gulf.
A month after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran, the war has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands of civilians, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, and causing the biggest disruption ever to energy supplies, hitting the global economy and fuelling inflation fears.
Trump questions why US would be ‘there’ for NATO
While Israel said it was hitting targets across Iran’s capital, it said it had identified a missile launched from Yemen. Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, who had previously disrupted shipping with missile attacks, have not been active in the Iran war.
The Houthis said on Friday they were ready to intervene militarily under certain conditions, including if new allies joined the US and Israel in the war or if the Red Sea was used to launch attacks on Iran.
Rubio told reporters after meeting Group of Seven counterparts in France that Washington was “on or ahead of schedule in that operation, and expect to conclude it at the appropriate time here – a matter of weeks, not months”.
Read: Europeans to press Rubio over Russian support for Iran at G7 meeting
The war has driven a wedge between the US and its traditional allies, who have stayed on the sidelines. President Donald Trump said this lack of support had implications for NATO, the West’s most important alliance.
“We would have always been there for them, but now, based on their actions, I guess we don’t have to be, do we?” Trump told an investment forum in Miami on Friday. “Why would we be there for them if they’re not there for us? They weren’t there for us.”
The charter underlying the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which the US has long led, says an attack on one member is an attack on all, requiring them to support one another.
Rubio said European and Asian countries that benefit from trade through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital choke point largely blocked by Iran, should contribute to efforts to secure free passage.
While he said the US could achieve its aims without ground troops, he acknowledged it was deploying some to the region “to give the president maximum optionality and maximum opportunity to adjust the contingencies, should they emerge”.
More strikes while Trump speaks of negotiations
Washington has dispatched two contingents of thousands of Marines to the region, the first of which is due to arrive in the coming days aboard a large amphibious assault ship. The Pentagon is also expected to deploy thousands of elite airborne soldiers.
The deployments have raised concerns that the war will turn into a prolonged ground battle.
Stock markets tumbled sharply on Friday while the Brent crude oil benchmark LCOc1 topped $112, having risen more than 50% since the war began.
Read more: Late sell-off drags PSX lower by 1,200 points
In the US, where Trump is politically vulnerable to rising fuel prices, diesel in California hit a record average high of $7.17 a gallon, the American Automobile Association said.
Trump has appeared eager to wind down the unpopular war, emphasising this week what he called productive negotiations aimed at a diplomatic solution – despite repeated assertions from Tehran that no such talks have begun. On Thursday, Trump extended a deadline by 10 days for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face attacks against its civilian energy grid.
At least five people were killed and seven injured after a US-Israeli attack on a residential unit in Iran’s northwestern city of Zanjan, Iranian media reported early on Saturday. The Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran was also struck.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on X that Israel, in coordination with the US, had also hit two steel factories and a power plant. “Attack contradicts POTUS extended deadline for diplomacy. Iran will exact HEAVY price for Israeli crimes,” Araqchi said on Friday, using an acronym for the president of the United States.
Israel’s military said on Saturday it had detected incoming missiles from Iran, and Syrian state television reported explosions heard above the capital Damascus from Israeli intercepts of the Iranian missiles.
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain also reported missile attacks early on Saturday.
Iran vows to exact heavy price
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has warned that Tehran would exact a “heavy price” for what he described as Israeli attacks on key industrial and nuclear infrastructure, as hostilities between the two sides intensified.
In a social media post, Araghchi said Israel had struck two of Iran’s largest steel factories, a power plant and civilian nuclear facilities, adding that Israel claimed the operation was carried out in coordination with the United States.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards echoed the warning, urging workers at industrial sites with American ties or links to Israel to “leave their workplaces immediately,” signalling the possibility of further retaliatory strikes.
US-Israeli strikes earlier in the day hit two Iranian nuclear facilities — the Khondab heavy water complex and a uranium processing plant in Ardakan — along with two major steel plants. Israeli forces confirmed the attacks, while Iranian authorities said there had been no radioactive release.
Israel’s military said Iran responded by firing missiles, with one person killed in Tel Aviv and at least four others wounded. Air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem, while explosions were reported near Jericho in the occupied West Bank.
