Tehran, Beirut hit by heavy bombing as war escalates on day seven

2026-03-06 - 15:13

TEHRAN — Fresh strikes rocked Iran and Lebanon Friday as Israel and the United States stepped up their attacks on the seventh day of the sprawling Middle East war.Intense air attacks have pounded Tehran and other Iranian cities amid warnings from US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that the bombardment was “about to surge dramatically”.In Tehran, worshippers gathered for the first Friday prayers since the start of the war that killed Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day.Online footage shared by Iranian media showed crowds of men and women dressed in black, some carrying Iranian flags, streaming to an open space outside the Grand Mosque of Imam Khomeini in the capital.Israel’s military said on Friday morning it had begun a new wave of strikes on Tehran, targeting “regime infrastructure” in a “new phase” of the war, while the US said its B-2 bombers had dropped dozens of “penetrator” bombs on deeply buried ballistic missile launchers inside the country.Huge explosions pounded locations in the Iranian capital, including targets linked to the country’s military and political establishment, as well as residential areas and the vicinity of Tehran University.An Iranian military academy was struck while a journalist from Iran’s state broadcaster was reporting live near the site.“From the very early hours of today and into the morning, we have been witnessing a continued wave of massive strikes,” Al Jazeera reporter Tohid Asadi said, adding the shockwaves of the blast could be felt in the Al Jazeera bureau.“I can say that compared to previous days, we saw heavier bombardment overnight, at least in the capital,” he said, reporting enormous explosions and fighter jets in the skies, as thick clouds of smoke from the strikes choked the city.He said the strikes had targeted locations including near Pasteur Street, a highly secured area where key Iranian government institutions are based and where Iran’s supreme leader, and several family members, were killed during the early hours of the conflict.The Office of the President of Iran is also located in the street. Strikes also reportedly hit civilian sites, including residential buildings, car parks and petrol stations, he said.On Friday, President Masoud Pezeshkian said mediation efforts should be directed at the US and Israel. “Let’s be clear: we are committed to lasting peace in the region yet we have no hesitation in defending our nation’s dignity and sovereignty. Mediation should address those who underestimated the Iranian people and ignited this conflict,” Pezeshkian said on X.Explosions were also reported in Iranian cities including Shiraz, Qom, Isfahan and Kermanshah, in an area home to multiple missile bases, as the Iranian Red Crescent said the death toll from attacks since Saturday had risen to at least 1,332.Among the victims were 20 people killed and 30 injured in an attack in the Zibashahr area of Shiraz, Jalil Hasani, deputy governor of Iran’s Fars province, told Iranian state media.Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that two paramedics were among the dead.At least six people were injured by an Israeli missile attack on residential areas in Poldokhtar in Iran’s western Lorestan province, Tasnim reported.Israel’s military said its air force hit six Iranian missile launchers overnight, destroying them before they fired at Israeli territory, and claimed to have destroyed “three advanced Iranian defence systems”.The US military said in a post on X on Friday that Iranian targets were “being decimated by US forces, paving the way for continued delivery of overwhelming American military firepower”.Admiral Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command (CENTCOM), said that early on Friday, US B-2 stealth bombers dropped dozens of 2,000lb “penetrator” bombs on deeply buried ballistic missile launchers inside Iran.“We’ve also struck Iran’s equivalent of Space Command, which degrades their ability to threaten Americans,” Cooper said.Speaking alongside Cooper, Hegseth described an upcoming surge in the bombardment.“It’s more fighter squadrons, it’s more capabilities, it’s more defensive capabilities,” Hegseth said. “And it’s more bomber pulses, more frequently.”The conflict has sucked in Israel's neighbour Lebanon after militant group Hezbollah launched missiles in support of its backer Iran.Israel struck several towns in the south of the country overnight, with widespread destruction in the southern Beirut suburbs, considered a Hezbollah stronghold and home to hundreds of thousands of people.AFPTV cameras captured a fresh strike on the area on Friday, footage showing plumes of smoke billowing from a building.The streets were completely deserted on Friday morning, the only movement being a bulldozer working to remove debris.AFP correspondents on the ground saw scenes of panic and terror on Thursday as residents fled en masse after an unprecedented Israeli order to evacuate immediately if they wanted to save their lives.Hundreds of families milled around on a Beirut beach, left with nowhere to go."We fled from the suburbs, we were humiliated," one man told AFP, declining to give his name.Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned that a "humanitarian disaster in looming" from the displacement, saying the consequences could be "unprecedented."The United Nations refugee agency also said Friday it had declared the crisis a major humanitarian emergency, stressing the need for an immediate response.The UN's rights chief also called for "impartial investigations" after Iran said a strike on a school that it blamed on the US and Israel killed more than 150 people.Neither the US nor Israel has said it was behind the strike, although US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that the Pentagon was investigating.Israel's military chief Zamir has ordered troops to expand the area under his army's control in southern Lebanon, whose health ministry said 123 had been killed in strikes.Iran has kept up its attacks on Israel, with a volley of missiles aimed at Tel Aviv while rocket trails also lit up the sky in Netanya, further north.