Iran-Israel war: latest developments
Iran defended its nuclear program as Israel's bombing campaign killed over 400 people. President Masoud Pezeshkian warned of a "devastating"response. Strikes targeted the Isfahan site, causing at least 25deaths in Israel.U.S.stealth bombers raised concerns about potential involvement in the conflict
Jerusalem (AFP) - Iran on Saturday maintained that its right to a civilian nuclear program could not be taken away by force as Israel pressed its bombing campaign, killing Iranian commanders and striking the Isfahan nuclear site.
As the Iran-Israel war wore on into its second week, here are the latest developments:
Devastating' response
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian warned his country's "response to the continued aggression of the Zionist regime will be more devastating" during a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the official IRNA news agency.
Israeli strikes on Iran have killed more than 400 people since they began last week, the Islamic republic's health ministry said.
A US-based NGO, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, said on Friday that based on its sources and media reports, at least 657 people have been killed in Iran, including 263 civilians.
AFP journalists reported hearing explosions in Tehran on Saturday evening, after Israeli strikes on Ahvaz, in Iran's southwest.
Iranian media also reported an Israeli strike on an "evacuated" military base south of Tehran that wounded one person, while Israel reported it was attacking drone "storage facilities and a weapons facility" in southwestern Iran's Bandar Abbas region.
Israel says killed 3 Iranian commanders
Israel's military said it had killed Saeed Izadi, a top Revolutionary Guards official in charge of military coordination with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, as well as two other Iranian commanders overnight.
Iran's Fars news agency reported Saturday evening that "five army officers were killed and nine others were wounded" in an Israeli strike in the western city of Sumar.
Israel building struck
Israeli rescue services said an Iranian "drone strike hit a two-story residential building in northern Israel" following a wave of attacks reported by the military.
Iran's strikes since June 13 have killed at least 25 people in Israel, according to official figures.
Isfahan nuclear site
Israel targeted "two centrifuge production sites" at Iran's Isfahan nuclear facility overnight in a second wave of strikes on the location, a military official said.
The UN's nuclear watchdog, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed a centrifuge manufacturing workshop at the site had been hit in the strike.
Pezeshkian, during his call with Macron, said Iran had long been willing "to provide guarantees and build confidence in its peaceful nuclear activities", and that its right to a nuclear program "cannot be taken away from them by threats or war".
The Arak heavy water reactor, which Israel struck earlier this week, was carrying out work related to "health and medicine", Iran's atomic agency chief said.
US stealth bombers
US stealth bombers were flying Saturday across the Pacific Ocean, according to tracking data and media reports, fueling speculation over their intended mission as President Donald Trump considers joining Israel's attack on Iranian nuclear sites.
Multiple B-2 bomber aircraft left a base in the central United States overnight, The New York Times and specialist plane tracking sites reported.
The B-2 is capable of carrying America's heaviest payloads, including the bunker-busting GBU-57 -- the only weapon capable of destroying Iran's deeply buried nuclear facility in Fordo.
Huthi threat
Yemen's Tehran-backed Huthi rebels said they would restart their attacks on US-linked vessels and warships in the Red Sea if Washington got "involved in... aggression against Iran with the Israeli enemy", the group's military spokesman Yahya Saree said.
After the start of the war in Gaza in late 2023, the Huthis, saying they were acting in solidarity with the Palestinians, began firing at vessels in the Red Sea that they accused of ties to Israel and the United States.
The group agreed to a ceasefire with the United States last month after an intense bombing campaign by Washington, but it has not stopped firing missiles at Israel.
Iran's armed forces meanwhile threatened to strike "any military or radar equipment by boat or aircraft from any country to assist the Zionist regime".
