The China Mail - Middle East war spirals with fresh strikes on Iran, Gulf

AFP reporters in Tehran and Doha heard huge explosions over the cities, with a thick column of black smoke billowing on the horizon of the Qatari capital.

A conflict sparked Saturday with US-Israeli attacks on Iran that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has rapidly escalated, engulfing the region and drawing in global powers, and snarling shipping and energy markets.

The war has touched as far afield as the Sri Lankan coast, where a US submarine torpedoed an Iranian warship, and Azerbaijan, which threatened retaliation after a drone hit an airport.

Azerbaijan warned that the attack "will not go unanswered" and said it was "preparing the necessary retaliatory measures," raising fears of another country entering the fray.

In Lebanon, AFPTV images showed buildings in rubble and plumes of black smoke drifting over Beirut after Israeli strikes aimed at Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

On another front, Tehran said it had hit Iraq-based Kurdish groups, as the United States reportedly seeks to arm Iranian Kurdish groups to infiltrate Iran.

Australia deployed two military aircraft to the theatre while Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney said he could not rule out his armed forces taking part in hostilities.

The war has also dragged in NATO member Turkey after alliance air defences destroyed a missile launched from Iran heading towards Turkish airspace.

While a Turkish official said the missile appeared to have been aimed at a British base in Cyprus, Turkey summoned the Iranian ambassador over the incident.

Iran's official IRNA news agency said 1,045 military personnel and civilians have been killed since the war began, a toll AFP could not independently verify.

Iranian media reported Thursday that a sports complex, football stadium, municipality building and shop fronts across Tehran were damaged in Israeli and US strikes on the city.

The country is effectively cut off from the rest of the world, with the internet operating at around one percent of capacity, according to the Netblocks monitor.

Israel's war aims were to "inflict severe damage on the Iranian terror regime until it removes the existential threat", military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said in a televised briefing.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said his US counterpart Pete Hegseth had assured him of Washington's firm backing for their joint military campaign against Iran and urged him to continue the operation "to the end".

- 'We will not surrender' -

In the early hours of Thursday, AFP reporters in Jerusalem heard explosions following warnings of incoming Iranian missile fire, but residents were quickly cleared to leave their shelters.

Across the border in Lebanon, Israel said its forces had hit "several command centres belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation" in south Beirut.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) said a separate pre-dawn Israeli drone strike hit an apartment in Beddawi, a Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli, killing senior Hamas official Wassim Atallah al-Ali and his wife.

Hezbollah's leader Naim Qassem vowed the group would step up its fight against Israel, in his first speech since the latest round of fighting erupted.

Lebanese authorities said at least 72 people had been killed, 437 wounded and 83,000 displaced from their homes since Monday.

The conflict has not spared the rich Gulf monarchies, usually seen as a safe haven in a volatile region, as Iran has lashed out at cities and energy infrastructure.

Thirteen people, seven of them civilians, have been killed in countries around the Gulf since the war began, including an 11-year-old girl in Kuwait.

Qatar said Thursday it was intercepting an incoming missile attack as loud blasts, described by AFP journalists as the most intense yet, reverberated across Doha.

It had earlier evacuated residents living near the US embassy in Doha, after earlier thwarting attacks on Hamad International Airport.

The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar all said they had intercepted Iranian missiles on Wednesday, including a drone set to hit the Saudis' huge Ras Tanura refinery.

- 'Catastrophic' -

In Washington, the US Senate rejected a resolution aimed at limiting US military action, voting largely along party lines, with Republicans backing Trump.

Even if the measure had cleared the Senate and the House, where a vote on a similar resolution is expected Thursday, Trump would have been able to veto it.

The war could usher in a "prolonged period of flux" for the global economy, warned International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva.

Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards have claimed the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf chokepoint through which a fifth of the world's crude oil flows, with oil tanker transits down 90 percent, according to market intelligence firm Kpler.

A tanker in the waters off Kuwait suffered a "large explosion" that caused an oil spill, the British maritime security agency UKMTO reported.

According to Iranian state TV, Iran struck a US oil tanker in the Gulf with a missile, an incident that could not immediately be independently confirmed.

Facing energy shortages, South Korea said it was activating a $68-billion market stabilisation fund, while China reportedly told oil refiners to stop exporting diesel and gasoline.

With flights scrapped and travellers stranded or hastily repatriated, the war is also hammering tourism in a region that has become a prized destination for holidaymakers worldwide.

"My last group of tourists left three days ago, and all the other groups planned for March have been cancelled," said Nazih Rawashdeh, a tour guide near Irbid, in northern Jordan.

"This is the start of the high season here. It's catastrophic," he told AFP.

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N.Wan--ThChM