US Iran war highlights: Iran fires missiles towards Israel; loud explosions heard in Lebanon's Beirut

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US Iran war LIVE updates: Take a look at the key points:

• The Israeli military said Saturday it detected missiles fired from Iran, as Tehran pressed on with its retaliatory fire after a US-Israeli bombing campaign began at the end of February.
• Loud explosions were heard in Beirut on Saturday, AFP reported, as the Israeli military said it had begun striking "Hezbollah infrastructure" in the Lebanese capital.
• Iran's military says it has downed a second US military jet in the Gulf, according to state media.
• An Egyptian national was killed and four others wounded after a fire at a gas complex in Abu Dhabi, caused by falling debris from an intercepted attack, the government media office said.
• US President Donald Trump has been briefed about the downing of a military jet in Iran that has triggered a major search and rescue operation for the crew, the White House said.
• The US embassy in Lebanon, where the Tehran-backed Hezbollah militant group is at war with Israel, said that Iran and allied groups could seek to target universities in the country.

US Iran war LIVE updates: A second US Air Force aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf region on Friday, the New York Times reported. This came as the United States was already running search-and-rescue efforts after Iran brought down a fighter jet in a separate incident.

The report said the A-10 Warthog went down near the Strait of Hormuz around the same time Iran shot down a US F-15E fighter jet, citing US officials. The pilot was rescued safely.

A US official said one of the two crew members from the F-15 jet has been found.

Hezbollah said it fired rockets at Israeli soldiers at the Al-Sidr hill in the town of Ainata at 12:20am local time and at at the Kahil Triangle in the border town of Maroun al-Ras at 1:05am local time.

Hezbollah also said it targeted Israeli troops in a Merkava tank in the town of Houla at 1:45am local time with a guided missile. The attack caused the tank to catch fire, it added.

Earlier, it said it had carried out 48 attacks on Israeli positions on Friday.

Israeli media is reporting that there’s been another Iranian missile attack on central Israel.

The YNet news outlet said a fire broke out in an apartment in Rosh Haayin, while a building in Petah Tikva and streets in Tel Aviv were damaged. It said emergency crews were also in Bnei Brak.

The Channel 12 broadcaster reported a “fall” in Givatayim as well.

Recent US intelligence reports warn that Iran is unlikely to open the Strait of Hormuz any time soon because its grip on the world’s most vital oil artery provides the only real leverage it has over the United States, Reuters reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter.

The finding suggests that Tehran could continue to throttle the strait to keep energy prices high as a means of pressuring US President Donald Trump to find a quick off-ramp to the nearly five-week-long war that remains unpopular with US voters.

The reports also provide the latest indication that the war, intended to eradicate Iran’s military strength, may actually increase its regional sway by showing Tehran's ability to threaten the key waterway.

Trump has sought to downplay the difficulty of reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which carries a fifth of the world's oil trade. On Friday, he appeared to suggest that he could order US forces to reopen the passage.

The Israeli military said Saturday it detected missiles fired from Iran, as Tehran pressed on with its retaliatory fire on the country after a US-Israeli bombing campaign began at the end of February.

"Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat," the Israeli military said on Telegram.

Syrian state media is reporting explosions in the capital Damascus and its countryside.

Hezbollah has claimed that it has struck Israeli soldiers and vehicles with missiles in the al-Sadr area of the town of Ainata in southern Lebanon, as well as Israeli artillery positions and forces in and near the southern border town of Maroun al-Ras.

It says it has also shelled Israeli forces in al-Malikiyah.

France said Friday it was launching an emergency loan programme to help small and medium-sized businesses exposed to soaring fuel prices driven by the war in the Middle East.

The economy ministry said firms in the transportation, agriculture and fisheries industries would be eligible for the "flash fuel loans" of up to 50,000 euros ($57,600).

The programme fulfils a pledge made last week by Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, whose government, like many worldwide, is seeking to contain the economic pain caused by the war's impact on fuel prices.

Public investment bank Bpifrance will issue the loans via a streamlined digital process that will make the money available within seven days, the ministry said in a statement.

The three-year loans will have an interest rate of 3.8 percent.

The downed US jet highlights the “false claims” made by President Trump that the US had destroyed Iran’s air defence system, says Ebrahim Zolfaghari, the spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al Anbiya central headquarters.

In a televised address, he said it was downed using Iran’s “new advanced defence system”.

He added that “an advanced hostile fighter jet was also targeted south of Qeshm Island, crashing into the waters between Qeshm and Hengam Islands”.

Syrian state media said Israeli fire killed a man in Qunietra province in the country's south near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as the foreign ministry decried the death of a civilian.

State news agency SANA said that the man was killed in an attack by "an Israeli tank", while state television said a car was targeted.

Syria's foreign ministry in a statement condemned "in the strongest terms the crime committed by Israeli occupation forces in targeting a civilian car with a tank shell".

It said the attack "led to the death of a civilian", calling it "a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law" and urging the international community to help "stop these repeated violations".

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry says four people have been injured and homes damaged in the Sitra area after shrapnel fell from the downing of an Iranian drone.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has joined other Iranian officials in responding to US President Donald Trump’s threat to send Iran “back to the Stone Age,” calling it an admission of intent to commit a “massive war crime”.

“This was the question I asked my Finnish counterpart, who is a jurist,” he added, referring to Alexander Stubb.

“History is full of those who paid a heavy price for their silence in the face of criminals,” he said.

The White House at 4 p.m. EST called a “lid” for press, indicating the president would not be making any appearance in front of the media for the day.

The call came hours earlier than normal and signalled the president and White House are remaining tight-lipped as the search-and-rescue mission continued.

The US House Armed Services Committee has been notified by the Pentagon that the status of a second service member is not known after the downing of the fighter jet.

The panel was told that an F-15 was shot down and one service member has been recovered, a congressional aide told the Associated Press.

The other service member’s duty status is unknown, the aide said.

That generally means the Defence Department does not know the person’s whereabouts and they have gone missing.

After Tehran, explosions have also been reported in Karaj, located west of the Iranian capital, Al Jazeera reported.

Al Jazeera is reporting, citing a US official, that two US helicopters involved in search-and-rescue operations for the downed pilots were hit by Iranian fire.

US President Donald Trump declined to discuss specifics of the rescue operation in a phone interview with NBC, saying Iran downing the US jet would not impact negotiations.

“No, not at all. No – it’s war,” he told the US media outlet.

Several explosions have been heard in the Iranian capital, Tehran, AFP reported.

Iran's air defence system targeted an "enemy" A-10 aircraft in southern waters near the Hormuz Strait, the nation's state media said on Friday.

The New York Times reported earlier in the day that a second U.S. Air Force combat plane had crashed in the Gulf region on Friday and its only pilot was then rescued.

After Iran’s Mehr news agency reported that a US helicopter, on a search mission for the jet reportedly shot down in Iran, was also hit by a projectile, US media outlet Newsmax is now reporting, citing sources, that it was a Black Hawk helicopter that was hit, and it managed to leave Iranian airspace and land safely.

A second US Air Force combat plane crashed in the Persian Gulf region on Friday, and the lone pilot was safely rescued, The New York Times reported, citing two US officials.

According to the report, the A-10 Warthog attack plane went down near the Strait of Hormuz about the same time that an Air Force F-15E was shot down over Iran, adding that the officials provided scant details about the A-10 crash, including how and where it happened.

The WHO has warned about “multiple attacks on health” in Iran in recent days following an air strike on the Pasteur Institute in Tehran.

“Multiple attacks on health have been reported in the Iranian capital, Tehran, in recent days amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.

He said the Pasteur Institute “sustained significant damage and was rendered unable to continue delivering health services” – one of 20 facilities the WHO has confirmed as being targeted.

Iran’s ISNA news agency reported that the “services of the Pasteur Institute of Iran have not been interrupted by these attacks”, adding that vaccine and serum production would continue.

Iran has rejected a US proposal for a 48-hour ceasefire, Fars news agency reported, citing an unnamed source.

The source said the proposal was made on Wednesday through another country, which was not named. There was no immediate comment or confirmation from the US.