US claims destroyed IRGC command centre, more Israel attacks on Tehran
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) says it also destroyed Iranian air defence installations as well as missile and drone launch sites.
The United States military has said its forces have destroyed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) command and control facilities and air defence installations as heavy US-Israel attacks on Iran continued for a fourth day and Tehran retaliated across the region.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM), which is responsible for US military operations in the Middle East, said on Tuesday it also destroyed air defence installations as well as missile and drone launch sites. It provided no evidence for its claims.
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“We will continue to take decisive action against imminent threats posed by the Iranian regime,” it posted on X.
On Monday, CENTCOM claimed US forces had struck more than 1,250 targets in Iran and destroyed 11 Iranian ships.
Meanwhile, it confirmed that six US service personnel have been killed so far, all in Iran’s retaliatory attacks over the weekend on Kuwait.
Kuwait mistakenly shot down three US F-15E fighter jets during an Iranian attack, it added. All six crew members ejected and were safely recovered.
Destruction in Qom
On Tuesday evening, Iranian news agencies reported that an air attack also flattened the Assembly of Experts building in the Iranian city of Qom, south of Tehran.
The Assembly was formed in 1979 and is one of the key religious-political institutions responsible for selecting Iran’s supreme leader, and ensuring that he can lead the country.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society on Tuesday said at least 787 people have been killed since the attacks on Iran began on Saturday, with 153 counties affected. At least 1,039 attacks have taken place across the country so far, it added.
At least 13 Iranian soldiers have been killed in a US-Israeli strike on a military base in Kerman province, according to the Iranian army. The attack targeted the base in the south of the country.
Meanwhile, the ISNA news agency reported that five members of the IRGC’s air force and navy have been killed in US-Israeli attacks on the cities of Jam and Dir in the central province of Bushehr.
The war looks unlikely to end soon as US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Washington has “the capability to go far longer” than its projected four-to-five-week timeframe for its military operations against Iran.
Israeli attacks on Iran continue
Across the Iranian capital, Tehran, the sound of explosions rang out through the night and into the early morning hours on Tuesday.
Iran’s Mehr news agency also reported that explosions have been heard in the cities of Isfahan and Shiraz.
Israel’s air force was carrying out multiple operations against Iran’s air defence system and eliminating several of its forces, according to Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee.
In a post on X, Adraee said Israeli aircraft targeted several personnel who were operating Iran’s defence systems, including its radar systems as well as missile launchers.
He also said Israel’s Air Force attacked sites affiliated with Iran’s ballistic missile launch platforms.
On another front in the widening conflict, the Israeli army launched simultaneous attacks on the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Tuesday on positions purportedly belonging to Hezbollah.
The announcement followed Israeli air strikes early Monday on Beirut’s southern suburbs and southern Lebanon that killed at least 52 people and injured 154, according to state-run media.
Hezbollah earlier said it had launched an attack on the Ramat David Airbase in northern Israel, targeting radar sites and control rooms at the base by deploying “a swarm of drones” at dawn on Tuesday.
UN ‘deeply alarmed’ by attacks on civilians, schools and hospitals
Top UN officials have warned about the “serious” threat to children following the rapidly escalating military operations in Iran and across the region.
“We are deeply alarmed by attacks on civilians, including civilian infrastructures, schools, and hospitals. Schools and hospitals must not be attacked,” the special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict, Vanessa Frazier, and the special representative of the secretary-general on violence against children, Najat Maalla M’jid, said in a joint statement.
The officials called for an immediate cessation of hostilities, stressing that “maximum restraint is imperative, and full compliance with international humanitarian and human rights law must be ensured at all times by all parties”.
Iranian officials say an attack on a primary school in Minab killed at least 165 schoolgirls and staff, while nine hospitals in the country have been reported as seriously damaged.