Tehran, Iran– Tehran, Iran (AFP) – US President Donald Trump On Sunday, obscenity-laced threats were made against Iran And its infrastructure if it does not open Strait of Hormuz By the deadline set on Tuesday, after the US forces Rescue a wounded pilot The plane that was shot down by Iran fell behind enemy lines.
A defiant Iran has struck infrastructure targets in neighboring Gulf Arab states and threatened to restrict another heavily used waterway, the Bab al-Mandab Strait Off the Arabian Peninsula.
Trump vowed on social media to strike Iranian power plants and bridges and said the country would “live in hell” if the Strait of Hormuz was closed. Crucial to global tradeit has not been opened. He ended with “Praise be to God.”
Trump has issued such deadlines before but extended them when mediators claimed progress toward ending the war, which has claimed thousands of lives, and was shaken. Global markets and High fuel prices In just over five weeks.
“Trump seems to have become a phenomenon that neither Iranians nor Americans can fully analyze,” Iranian Culture Minister Seyyed Reza Salehi Amiri told visiting journalists from The Associated Press in an interview in Tehran, adding that the US president is “constantly shifting between contradictory positions.”
Both sides have threatened and struck civilian targets such as oil fields and desalination plants that provide drinking water. Iran’s mission to the United Nations described Trump’s threat as “clear evidence of intent to comply.” War crime“.
Iran’s Joint Military Command warned of escalating attacks on regional oil and civilian infrastructure if the United States and Israel attack such targets there, according to state television.
Legal scholars say the laws of armed conflict permit attacks on civilian infrastructure only if the military advantage outweighs the harm to civilians. This is a major hurdle to overcome, and causing excessive civilian suffering could constitute a war crime.
The intense search followed the crash of the F-15E Strike Eagle on Friday, while Iran promised to reward the “enemy pilot”. This was the first known American plane to crash in Iranian territory since the United States and Israel launched war on February 28.
Trump said that the soldier was “seriously injured and truly brave” and was rescued from “deep in the mountains” in an operation that involved dozens of armed aircraft. He added that a second crew member was rescued “in broad daylight” within hours of the accident.
A senior US administration official said that before the second pilot was located, the CIA spread news inside Iran that US forces had found him and were transferring him, creating confusion for the Iranians. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not yet been announced.
Iran also shot down another US military aircraft on Friday, demonstrating the dangers of the bombing campaign and Iran’s ability to do so The deteriorating Iranian army to respond. The status of the crew of the A-10 attack aircraft and the location of its crash are not known.
On Sunday, Iranian state television broadcast a video clip showing what it claimed were parts of American aircraft – a transport plane and two helicopters – shot down by Iranian forces during the rescue operation.
However, a regional intelligence official familiar with the mission told the AP that the US military blew up two transport planes due to a technical malfunction and brought in additional aircraft to complete the rescue operation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the secret mission.
Iran’s Joint Military Command later said the United States bombed its planes “to prevent embarrassment of President Trump.”
Two Black Hawk helicopters were hit but were flown to safe airspace, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
Trump’s deadline centers on concerns about Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, which is critical for global shipments of oil and gas from the Persian Gulf as well as… Humanitarian supplies. Some ships have I paid Iran for passage.
Iranian presidential spokesman Seyyed Mohammad Mehdi Tabatabai said on social media that the strait could only be reopened if some transit revenues compensated Iran for war damage.
A senior Iranian adviser, Ali Akbar Velayati, warned on social media that Tehran may also disrupt trade in the Bab al-Mandab, a major corridor to and from the Red Sea.
Diplomatic efforts continued. The Omani Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the deputy foreign ministers and experts from Iran and the Sultanate of Oman met to discuss proposals to ensure “smooth transit” through the strait.
Egypt said that Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Ati spoke with US envoy Steve Witkoff, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, and with his Turkish and Pakistani counterparts. Russia said that Araqchi also spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Bahrain urged the UN Security Council to act based on its resolution Draft proposal With language allowing for defensive measures to ensure safe passage through the strait.
An airstrike early Monday hit a residential building near Islamchar, southwest of Tehran, killing at least 13 people, the semi-official Fars News Agency and Noor News reported.
Iranian media reported that the air strikes also damaged the buildings of Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, as well as a natural gas distribution site next to the campus. It was not immediately clear what was being targeted on the campus, which had shifted to online classes due to the war.
Elsewhere in Iran, an airstrike killed at least five people in a residential area in Qom, the state-run Iran Daily reported in an online message. Qom is a Shiite seminary city south of Tehran.
It was not clear why the buildings were bombed. Neither Israel nor the United States claimed responsibility for the raids early Monday
In the United Arab Emirates, authorities said that a Nepalese and three Pakistanis were injured in fires caused by debris resulting from the interception of an Iranian projectile at the port of Khor Fakkan, and debris from the interception also caused fires at a petrochemical plant in Ruwais, halting operations.
In Kuwait, Iranian drone attacks caused severe damage to power plants and a petrochemical plant. They also took the water desalination plant out of service, according to the Ministry of Electricity.
In Bahrain, a drone attack caused a fire at a storage facility belonging to the National Oil Company and a state-run petrochemical plant, the kingdom’s official news agency reported.
In Israel, rescue authorities searched for three people in the northern city of Haifa after a residential building was hit. It was not immediately clear what happened to her.
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but its government has not updated the death toll for days.
In Lebanon, where the Ministry of Health said that an Israeli raid without warning led to the killing of four people in Beirut, more than 1,400 people died. They were killed And more than a million people They have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers were killed there Targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah The militants.
In the Arab Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people died, while 19 deaths were reported in Israel and 13 in the United States. Service members They were killed.
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Lee and Trobin reported from Washington, Metz from Jerusalem, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Lisa Mascaro and Seung Min Kim in Washington; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; Farnoush Amiri in New York; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.