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US drops 5,000-pound 'bunker buster' bombs on Iran missile sites near Strait of Hormuz
The US said the Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles in these sites posed a risk to international shipping in the strait.
The US on Tuesday dropped massive 5,000-pound bombs on Iranian missile sites near the strategic Strait of Hormuz that has turned out to be one of the flashpoints in the ongoing Iran-US war. Describing the bombs as ‘deep penetrator munitions’, the US claimed the targeted Iranian missile sites were a ‘risk to international shipping in the strait’. Follow live updates on Middle East conflict
"US forces successfully employed multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator munitions on hardened Iranian missile sites along Iran's coastline near the Strait of Hormuz," Central Command said in a statement on X.
The alleged air raid comes in the backdrop of Iran shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway through which one-fifth of the world's oil flows.
Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf has meanwhile warned that the situation in the Strait of Hormuz will not return to its "pre-war state". "The Strait of Hormuz situation won't return to its pre-war status," he said in a post on X.
The bomb, according to an Air Force Times report in 2022 ,cost an estimated $288,000 each. These are still less powerful than the 30,000-pound (13,600-kg) bombs dropped by the United States against Iranian nuclear sites last year.
Projectile hits near Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant
A projectile reportedly hit an area near Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant on Tuesday evening, Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"The IAEA has been informed by Iran that a projectile hit the premises of the Bushehr NPP on Tuesday evening. No damage to the plant or injuries to staff reported," the IAEA said on X, as IAEA chief Rafael Grossi reiterated his call for maximum restraint during the conflict to avoid the risk of a nuclear accident.
Iran's fresh salvo on Israel
Iran on Wednesday launched fresh strikes on Israel and other Arab nations in its vicinity after Israel killed two of Iran's most senior security officials.
Iran on Tuesday confirmed that Ali Larijani, one of Tehran's most prominent figures in the ongoing war against the US and Israel, was killed in the US-Israel strikes. Larijani was close confidant of slain leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son Mojtaba.
Iran's Fars news agency said he was targeted by “American and Zionist regime fighter jets” while he was at his daughter’s house in the Pardis district east of Tehran. Israel said it had “eliminated” Larijani in an overnight raid that also killed Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, the commander of the country’s paramilitary Basij unit.
Retaliating to the killings, Iran launched a barrage of ‘multiple-warhead missiles’ on Wednesday at central Israel. Israel’s medical service said two people were killed in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Arab states also came under the missile, drone attacks that were interceppted by air defense systems.
