The China Mail - Israel aims fresh attack at Tehran: latest developments in US-Iran war

US President Donald Trump vowed to avenge the deaths of US service members and said the war with Iran could last for weeks.

Here are the latest developments:

- Israel strikes Tehran -

The Israeli military said on Monday it had begun a new "broad strike" in the "heart of Tehran" after generals vowed to step up attacks on "key elements of the regime".

Loud explosions were heard on Monday in several parts of the Iranian capital, AFP journalists said, shaking apartment buildings in the centre.

The Israeli military also said it was simultaneously attacking the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and claimed to have killed a "senior Hezbollah terrorist" in Beirut, though the army said there was no reason for a ground invasion yet.

- Iran retaliates -

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Monday they had launched missile strikes on Israeli targets, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office and other sites in Tel Aviv, Haifa and east Jerusalem, calling it a "tenth wave" of attacks.

A series of new explosions were heard above Jerusalem on Monday, AFP journalists reported.

- Gulf states targeted -

Iran also hit targets across the Gulf, with the army saying it had launched 15 cruise missiles in strikes on a US air base in Kuwait and vessels in the Indian Ocean.

A power plant in Qatar was hit, one person was killed as an oil tanker was targeted off Oman, and British officials said a vessel in a Bahrain port had been struck by "unknown projectiles".

The US embassy in Kuwait, where black smoke could be seen, said in a statement that people should not come to the diplomatic mission: "Take cover in your residence on the lowest available floor and away from windows. Do not go outside."

- Iranian deaths -

The Iranian Red Crescent said Monday that "131 cities have been affected" by US-Israeli strikes "and, regrettably, 555 of our compatriots have been killed". Iranian officials confirmed the killings of three Guards members and five army personnel.

- Trump vows vengeance -

Trump vowed to avenge the deaths of three US soldiers killed during US operations against Iran, while warning that more casualties were likely.

The US president also called on Iranians to rise up, saying: "America is with you." He warned the country's Revolutionary Guards to surrender or face "certain death".

- War could last 'four weeks' -

Trump said he envisaged a four-week military operation against Iran, where US and Israeli strikes have killed the country's supreme leader and crippled its defence capabilities.

"It's always been a four-week process. We figured it will be four weeks or so," he told British newspaper the Daily Mail during a round of interviews.

- UNESCO site 'damaged' -

Iran's UNESCO-listed Golestan Palace in Tehran has been damaged in US and Israeli strikes, local media reported.

"Following the joint US-Israeli attack on Arag square in southern Tehran on Sunday evening, parts of the Golestan Palace... were damaged," the ISNA news agency reported, adding that windows, doors and mirrors were hit by reverberations from blasts.

- Nuclear sites undamaged -

UN nuclear watchdog head Rafael Grossi on Monday said his agency had "no indication" that any nuclear installations in Iran had been damaged or hit in the US-Israeli strikes.

- Drone hits Cyprus base -

An unmanned Iranian drone crashed into Britain's RAF Akrotiri military base in Cyprus shortly after midnight, Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides said Monday, with British officials saying a drone hit the runway.

Britain agreed on Sunday to allow the United States to use British military bases to fire "defensive" strikes at Iranian missile systems.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc was "firmly and unequivocally" behind member states following the drone hit, later calling for urgent de-escalation to prevent the conflict spreading across the Middle East.

- Saudi attack -

Saudi Arabia's energy ministry said some operations at its massive Ras Tanura refinery on the Gulf coast had been halted on Monday, following an attack that caused a fire at the complex.

- US warplanes crash -

Several American warplanes crashed in Kuwait on Monday morning but their crew survived, Kuwait's defence ministry said.

"Several US warplanes crashed this morning. Confirming that all crew members survived," a defence ministry spokesman said in a statement, adding that the cause was under investigation.

- China urges truce -

China called on Monday for a ceasefire and diplomatic talks to end the conflict in the Middle East, as officials in Beijing confirmed one citizen had been killed in Iran.

"The most urgent task is a cessation of military operations and preventing a spillover of conflict," foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a news conference.

- Gas price surge -

European gas prices soared more than 20 percent Monday on fears that the conflict will cut supplies in the Gulf region, notably exports from Qatar.

Despite the surge, the price was below the level it reached in January during the northern hemisphere winter.

- Iran says no US negotiation -

Iran "will not negotiate with the United States", Ali Larijani, the powerful head of Tehran's Supreme National Security Council said on Monday, denying media reports that Iranian officials had sought to initiate talks.

He said Trump's "delusional fantasies" had plunged the region into chaos.

- US officials to make case for war -

Top US officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio will make the case Tuesday to Congress for the attack on Iran.

Rubio, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and military chief Dan Caine "will brief the full membership of both chambers of Congress," White House spokesman Dylan Johnson said.

- Maersk suspends Hormuz transit -

Container shipping company Maersk said it was halting passage through the Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz for "safety" reasons.

The Danish group was the latest of several shipping groups to make similar announcements after Iran's Revolutionary Guards declared the strait closed on Saturday.

- Revolutionary Guards HQ 'destroyed' -

The US military announced it had destroyed the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) headquarters, with the US Central Command saying: "America has the most powerful military on earth, and the IRGC no longer has a headquarters."

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T.Luo--ThChM