Iran strikes Tel Aviv with cluster warheads in retaliation for killing of security chief

Dubai/ Tel Aviv : Iran targeted Tel Aviv with missiles carrying cluster warheads in what it said was retaliation for Israel's assassination of Iran's security chief Ali Larijani, Iranian state television reported ​on Wednesday.

The attack overnight on Tuesday killed two people in a neighbourhood close to densely populated Tel Aviv, where there are also key military facilities, bringing the death toll in Israel from the war to at least 14. A statement by Iran's ‌Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps read on state TV said weapons used included Khorramshahr 4 and Qadr missiles, both with multi-warheads.

Israel has said that Iran has repeatedly used cluster warheads, which disperse into multiple smaller explosives mid-air and spread over a wide area, making them difficult to intercept.

In Iran, a projectile hit an area near the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Tuesday evening but caused no damage or injuries, Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi reiterated his call for maximum restraint during the conflict to avoid the risk of a nuclear accident.

Israel and the U.S. have said preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapons programme was one of the goals of the attacks ​they launched more than two weeks ago, which killed the country's supreme leader and many other top officials.

The Iranian government on Tuesday confirmed the killing of Larijani, the most senior figure targeted since the U.S.-Israeli war's first day, when an Israeli strike killed Iran's ​Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran's Supreme National Security Council, which Larijani led as secretary, said Larijani's son and his deputy, Alireza Bayat, were also killed in an Israeli attack on Monday night.

The targeted killings took place ⁠as the U.S.-Israeli war, opens new tab on Iran shows no signs of de-escalation.

Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has rejected proposals conveyed to Iran's Foreign Ministry for "reducing tensions or ceasefire with the United States," according to a senior Iranian official who asked not to be identified.

Khamenei, attending his first foreign-policy meeting since ​his appointment, said it was not "the right time for peace until the United States and Israel are brought to their knees, accept defeat, and pay compensation," according to the official.

The official did not clarify whether the younger Khamenei, who has not yet appeared in photos or on TV since being ​named last week to replace his slain father, had attended the meeting in person or remotely.

Iran had executed a man convicted of spying for Israel, the Iranian judiciary's media outlet Mizan said on Wednesday.

The man, identified as Kurosh Keyvani, had been convicted of providing Israel's spy agency Mossad with pictures and information about sensitive locations in Iran, it said.

ISRAELI STRIKES ACROSS LEBANON

In Lebanon, an Israeli airstrike hit Beirut's Bachoura neighbourhood in the centre of the city on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said. Loud explosions were heard in the area after the Israeli military warned residents to evacuate a building ahead of the strike.

The attack was part of a broader wave of Israeli strikes ​on Lebanon on Wednesday, including raids on other parts of the Lebanese capital, as well as southern and eastern areas of the country, signalling an intensification of Israel's campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Israeli strikes on Beirut early on Wednesday killed at least six people and wounded 24 others, Lebanon's ​health ministry said. In southern and eastern Lebanon, at least 14 people were killed in separate Israeli airstrikes, the state news agency reported, citing the health ministry.

The latest strikes suck Lebanon deeper into the war in the Middle East after Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2, saying it aimed to avenge the killing of Iran's ‌supreme leader. Israel has ⁠responded with an offensive that has killed more than 900 people in Lebanon and forced more than 800,000 from their homes, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

U.S.-based Iran human rights group HRANA said on Monday that an estimated 3,000-plus people have been killed in Iran since the U.S.-Israeli attacks began at the end of February. Iranian attacks have killed people in Iraq and across the Gulf states, as well as Israel.

US TARGETS IRAN COASTLINE NEAR STRAIT OF HORMUZ

The United States military said on Tuesday it had targeted sites along Iran's coastline near the Strait of Hormuz with powerful "bunker buster" bombs because Iranian anti-ship missiles posed a risk to international shipping there.

The strait, a transit point for a fifth of the global oil trade, remains largely closed as Iran threatens to attack tankers linked to the U.S. and Israel. Oil prices have soared.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly castigated allied countries in recent ​days for their cool response to his requests for military help to ​restore the passage of oil tankers through the waterway.

Most U.S. allies ⁠in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have told Trump they don't want to get involved in the conflict, he said on Tuesday, describing their position as "a very foolish mistake."

The U.S. has given shifting rationales for joining Israel to attack Iran and struggled to explain the legal basis for starting a new war, underscored by the Tuesday resignation of the head of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, Joseph Kent. Kent wrote in his resignation letter to ​Trump that Iran "posed no imminent threat to our nation."

Iran has responded to the Israeli-U.S. attacks with wide-ranging strikes on its Gulf neighbours.

Gulf Arab states have faced more than 2,000 missile and drone attacks on U.S. diplomatic ​missions and military bases, as well as ⁠oil infrastructure, ports, airports, ships and residential and commercial buildings, and most of them aimed at the United Arab Emirates.

Saudi Arabia will host a consultative meeting of foreign ministers from a number of Arab and Islamic countries in Riyadh on Wednesday evening to discuss ways to support regional security and stability, the kingdom's foreign ministry said.

The International Energy Agency has said the war in the Middle East has caused the worst oil crisis since the 1970s.

Oil prices fell more than $2 per barrel on Wednesday to pare back some of Tuesday's sharp gains after the Iraqi government and Kurdish authorities reached a deal to resume oil exports ⁠via Turkey's Ceyhan port, ​providing modest relief to concerns about supplies.

But with no signs of a de-escalation in fighting, Brent futures prices have settled above $100 per barrel for the prior four consecutive sessions.

Oil prices ​are up around 45% since the start of the war on February 28, raising concerns of a renewed spike in global inflation. The World Food Programme said tens of millions of people will face acute hunger if the war continues through June.

Global airlines sounded the alarm on Tuesday over soaring jet fuel prices, warning of hundreds of millions of extra costs, ​higher fares and cuts to some routes. Global aviation has been thrown into turmoil, with flights cancelled, rescheduled or rerouted as most Middle East airspace remains closed amid fears of missile and drone attacks.