The China Mail - Israel pounds Iran, Tehran hits back with missiles

After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war fought through proxies and covert operations, Israel's surprise assault on Iran last week has touched off the most intense fighting yet and triggered fears of a lengthy conflict that could engulf the Middle East.

Israel says its attacks have hit military and nuclear facilities, and killed many top commanders and atomic scientists -- but a senior US official said Sunday that US President Donald Trump told Israel to back down from a plan to kill supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Residential areas in both countries have suffered deadly strikes since the hostilities broke out, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slamming Iran on Sunday for allegedly targeting civilians.

"Iran will pay a very heavy price for the premeditated murder of civilians, women and children," he said, during a visit to the site of a missile strike on a residential building in the coastal city of Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv.

His remarks came hours after Iranian missile fire killed at least 10 people, according to authorities, pushing the death toll in Israel up to 13 since Iran began its retaliatory strikes Friday.

Iranian state television reported at least five people were killed Sunday by an Israeli strike that hit a residential building in downtown Iran.

Colonel Reza Sayyad, a spokesman for Iran's armed forces, threatened a "devastating response" to Israel's attacks.

"Leave the occupied territories (Israel) because they will certainly no longer be habitable in the future," he warned in a televised address, adding shelters will "not guarantee security".

Iran's health ministry reported at least 224 people killed and more than 1,200 wounded in Israeli attacks since Friday.

Israel has claimed strikes as far away as Mashhad in Iran's far east, 2,300 kilometres (1,430 miles) from Israel, while a likely Iranian drone killed a woman in Syria, a Britain-based war monitor said, in what would be the first death on Syrian soil since the current hostilities between Iran and Israel began.

The drone struck the woman's home in western Tartus province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Israeli military said early Monday that it was striking surface-to-surface missile sites in central Iran, adding it was "operating against this threat in our skies and in Iranian skies".

- 'I will not leave' -

A heavy cloud of smoke hung above Tehran after Israeli aircraft struck two fuel depots. Local media also reported an Israeli strike on the police headquarters in the city centre.

"We haven't been able to sleep since Friday because of the terrible noise," said a Tehran resident who gave her name as Farzaneh.

"Today, they hit a house in our alley, and we were very scared. So we decided to leave Tehran and head to the north of the country."

Some, however, were determined to stay.

"It is natural that war has its own stress, but I will not leave my city," Shokouh Razzazi, 31, told AFP.

AFP images from the Israeli city of Haifa, meanwhile, also showed a column of smoke rising on Sunday evening following an Iranian missile barrage.

The military said rescue teams "have been dispatched to several hit sites in Israel", while the fire services reported rescuers heading to a building on the coast that sustained a "direct hit".

Earlier in the day, in Bat Yam, first responders wearing helmets and headlamps picked through a bombed-out building.

"There was an explosion and I thought the whole house had collapsed," said Bat Yam resident Shahar Ben Zion.

"It was a miracle we survived."

- 'Make a deal' -

Trump said Washington "had nothing to do" with Israel's bombing campaign but threatened to unleash "the full strength and might" of the US military if Iran attacked American interests.

On Sunday, he urged the two foes to "make a deal", adding, however, that "sometimes they have to fight it out" first.

A senior US official told AFP that Trump had urged Israel to drop a plan to assassinate Khamenei.

"We found out that the Israelis had plans to hit Iran's supreme leader. President Trump was against it and we told the Israelis not to," said the US official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Asked in an interview with Fox News whether regime change in Iran was one of the objectives of Israel's strikes, Netanyahu said that "it certainly could be the result, because the Iran regime is very weak".

Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi maintained Tehran had "solid proof" that US forces had supported Israel in its attacks.

He also told a meeting of foreign diplomats that Iran's actions were a "response to aggression".

"If the aggression stops, naturally our responses will also stop," he added.

Iranian media reported Sunday that police had arrested two suspects over alleged links to Israel's Mossad spy agency.

Israel, in turn, said it had taken two individuals into custody over alleged links to Iranian intelligence.

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W.Tam--ThChM