Agencies
Dubai
US President Donald Trump derided Iran’s leaders as “deranged scumbags” and said it was his great honour to kill them as the war in the Middle East approached the two-week mark on Friday with heavy exchanges of drone and missile strikes across the region.
The conflict, which began with joint Israeli-US strikes on Iran at the end of February, has killed more than 2,000 people, disrupted the lives of millions of others and shaken energy and financial markets across the globe.
On Friday Trump said the US was “totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran”.
“We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time, watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today,” Trump said.
“They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honour it is to do so!”
New Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, in his first comments on Thursday, vowed to keep the key energy chokepoint of the Strait of Hormuz shut and called on neighboring countries to close US bases on their territory or risk Iran targeting them.
“I assure everyone that we will not neglect avenging the blood of your martyrs,” said the hardline cleric. Iranian officials have said he had been lightly wounded and Trump has said he thinks he is alive but “damaged”.
The Israel Defense Forces said on Friday its air force struck more than 200 targets in western and central Iran over the past day, including ballistic missile launchers, air defence systems and weapons production sites, as part of its operation dubbed Operation Roar of the Lion.
Multiple explosions and the sound of fighter jets were heard in Karaj, west of Tehran on Friday, said Iranian state media.
Israel said its military struck a bridge over the Litani River in Lebanon because it was a key crossing used by Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. It appeared to be the first time in the current campaign against Hezbollah that the Israeli military acknowledged it had targeted civilian infrastructure.
Iran launched its own barrage of missiles and drones overnight, undermining earlier US and Israeli claims to have knocked out much of Iran’s stock of long-range weapons.
In central Dubai, debris from a successful interception also caused minor damage to the façade of a building, the emirate’s media office said early on Friday, adding that no injuries were reported. The office did not specify the exact location of the incident. A witness said the damage occurred at a building close to the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
