04-06 00:00 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
The second pilot from the fighter jet shot down in Iran is rescued by US rescue forces after 48 hours.
United States President Donald Trump said early on Sunday that an American soldier who went missing in Iran after the downing of his F-15E jet has been rescued following what observers called a dramatic firefight between Iranian and US rescue forces.
The US and Iran were racing to find the airman for about two days, with Tehran calling on the public to hand over the soldier to the authorities in what appeared to be attempts to capture an American prisoner of war as the US-Israel war on Iran entered its 37th day.
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That scenario would have delivered a significant win to Tehran amid the ongoing pummelling of its territory, and for Washington, a stunning blow, analysts say. It could have been the moment that parts of Trump’s support base, which has so far supported the war, started to rethink their stance, they say.
“It was a major test for the American military because they really don’t want to leave any of their servicemen behind enemy lines,” Amin Saikal, a professor of Middle East and Central Asian studies at the Australian National University, told Al Jazeera.
But this rescue “also really frees up President Trump to pursue whatever strategy he has in mind”, Saikal added, referencing Trump’s 48-hour deadline for Iran to make a deal or open the Strait of Hormuz “before all Hell will reign down on them”. Trump has already threatened to bomb energy plants in Iran. Targeting of civilian infrastructure is seen as a violation of the laws of war.
At least 2,076 people have been killed, and 26,500 have been injured in Iran since February 28, when the US and Israel first launched strikes on Iran and killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and several other senior military and political leaders.
The conflict has since escalated into a regional war with Iran retaliating against Gulf countries hosting US military and commercial assets.
What happened to the missing airman?
The F-15E jet carrying two members was flying over southern Iran when it was shot down on Friday morning local time.
According to Tehran, the aircraft was shot down by Iran’s “new advanced air defence system”, which it said remained effective despite claims by the US that it had been destroyed.
It was the first time during the war, and the first time since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, that a US aircraft had been shot down.
Washington immediately launched a rescue mission. Although US forces rescued one crew member hours after the crash, the second pilot, believed to be a colonel-rank weapons system officer, was yet to be found.
At least one Black Hawk helicopter was hit in the initial rescue, but US officials said it managed to stay airborne.
On Sunday afternoon, Trump revealed that the military rescued the ‘seriously wounded’ airman from inside the mountains of Iran.
“This type of raid is seldom attempted because of the danger to ‘man and equipment’ It just doesn’t happen! The second raid came after the first one, where we rescued the pilot in broad daylight, also unusual, spending seven hours over Iran,” the US president said in a Truth Social post.
Earlier, Trump suggested that the US appeared to have the location of the airman and was tracking him as the rescue mission unfolded.
An A-10 Warthog aircraft was also hit near the Strait of Hormuz around the same time as the F-15E, but its pilot was able to eject before the plane crashed and was subsequently rescued. Iranian media reported that this aircraft was also hit by Iran’s defence system.
How did Iran react?
Following the downing of the F-15E, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) cordoned off some parts of the mountainous southwestern Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province because they believed the airman went down in the vicinity.
Iranian media also reported that parts of the southern Khuzestan region, an important energy hub, were being scrutinised. That region was the focus of heavy US-Israeli strikes on Saturday that killed at least five people and injured dozens.
Iranian authorities, in a rare move, called on the public on Friday to help find and capture the missing American soldier. State media reported that Tehran offered a $60,000 reward for the airman as clips on state TV repeatedly played footage showing the remnants of the downed US aircraft.
Nomadic tribes in the area, appearing to heed the calls, set about searching for the US airman. Footage from state media showed men carrying rifles and Iranian flags moving in between the mountains of the country’s southwest region.
Some successfully shot at two US Black Hawks that were part of the rescue mission, Iranian officials said. The BBC also verified footage appearing to show Iranian men firing their rifles at US helicopters.
Nomadic groups in Iran, and elsewhere, usually carry rifles to protect the
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04-06 00:00 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Since January, Iran’s near total internet blackout has impacted jobs and businesses.
Tehran, Iran – Iran’s state-imposed near-total internet shutdown is now the longest nationwide blackout on record in any country, according to a global monitor.
Connectivity to the global internet has been at around one percent of pre-war levels since shortly after the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran on February 28, according to NetBlocks.
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Another 20-day internet shutdown was imposed in January, when thousands were killed during nationwide protests, meaning that most Iranian civilians have now spent close to two-thirds of 2026 in digital darkness – with only a limited and at times slow intranet serving to offer some basic services and allow access to state-run news and messaging services.
“Iran is the first country to have had internet connectivity and then subsequently lost it by reverting to a national network,” NetBlocks said on Sunday.
It added that while Myanmar, Sudan, Kashmir and Tigray have had incidents of longer intermittent blackouts, none has experienced a state-imposed shutdown at this scale for this long.
No wars, including those in Ukraine and Gaza, have been known to “have sent an entire country offline” like Iran, the monitor said.
During the January shutdown, the government said that many online businesses could not survive more than three weeks of being disconnected, and that the beleaguered economy was haemorrhaging tens of millions of dollars in direct damages each day, not to mention the untold indirect and cumulative effects of a nationwide blackout.
More than five weeks into the war, the government has not explained how it expects the remnants of the country’s battered digital sector and its globally isolated economy to get through the coming months and years, even if a highly unlikely diplomatic breakthrough stops the war soon.
“There was a wave of layoffs in January, which I survived, but I didn’t survive this latest wave,” said Kamran, a product designer at a technology firm in Karaj near Tehran, who was told he was let go on Saturday, the first day of the working week after the Nowruz holidays.
He told Al Jazeera that he has found a local group where people say what skills they have and others help match them with any job opportunities, but said he was extremely concerned about the prospects of finding gainful employment in the foreseeable future due to the large number of other people looking.
A senior data analyst at a Tehran-based firm who asked to remain anonymous said that his company agreed to offer lower pay raises than expected for the new Persian year, so it would not be forced to downsize any employees for now.
“But the bosses are only doing three-month contracts, so there’s a prevailing sense that many people will have to go after that time is up,” he told Al Jazeera.
The devastating bombing of Iran’s top steel factories, petrochemical firms and other civilian infrastructure is also expected to exacerbate economic conditions that were already defined by rampant inflation and high unemployment long before the war.
Worried about internet and electricity
The minority of Iranians from inside the country who are connected to the internet are either directly permitted – or whitelisted – by the state, or have paid exorbitant amounts to purchase proxy connections that at times last for hours before being taken down by the authorities.
As government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani put it last month, the government is only allowing those who can “get the voice out” to have internet. That has included top officials, state-affiliated figures and entities, and news agencies.
Some of the whitelisted, and even some of the disconnected state supporters, write on X or the comment sections of local news sites working with the intranet that they are happy to accommodate the situation, which they deem to be a necessity for times of war.
Left in the dark with a highly uncertain future, many do not share the same sentiment.
Another Tehran resident told Al Jazeera that she and several friends had a get-together at home last night to share updates gleaned from brief periods of connectivity, state television, foreign-based satellite television networks, and endless phone calls and text messages while state supporters congregate in mosques and city squares.
“Some of us were laid off; all of us were worried about whether we will have electricity later this week, let alone what could happen in another month,” she said. “Artemis II has a live feed from the moon, but we can’t access Google search or AI, and have to think about what to do when the water pumps stop working when the power goes out.”
After the United States bombed a newly built bridge west of Tehran, US President Donald Trump vowed t
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04-06 00:00 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Zarif’s plan calls for limits on Iran’s nuclear programme and reopening Strait of Hormuz in return for end to sanctions.
Former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has proposed a roadmap for ending the United States-Israeli war on Iran as tensions escalate across the Middle East.
Zarif’s plan was published by Foreign Affairs magazine on Friday and goes “beyond a temporary ceasefire”.
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The war, which erupted on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, has spread across the Middle East and convulsed the global economy as Tehran attacked its neighbours, claiming to be targeting US assets there and restricting movement of vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Regional hostilities showed no signs of abating on Sunday, a day after US President Donald Trump said Iran had 48 hours to cut a deal or face “all hell”.
Against this backdrop, Zarif’s roadmap said that although Iran viewed itself as successful in the war, prolonging the conflict – while potentially “psychologically satisfying” for Tehran – would only result in further loss of civilian lives and destruction of infrastructure.
Iran should, therefore, offer to “place limits on its nuclear program” under international monitoring as well as “reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an end to all sanctions”, Zarif wrote.
Since the war began, Iran has virtually blocked the key waterway, through which one-fifth of the world’s crude oil and natural gas supplies normally pass.
Nuclear limits on Iran would include a commitment to never seek nuclear weapons and to blend its entire stockpile of enriched uranium so its enrichment levels fall below 3.67 percent, Zarif said.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) estimates, Iran is believed to have about 440kg (970lb) of uranium enriched to 60 percent, a level at which uranium can be quickly enriched to the 90 percent threshold needed to produce a nuclear weapon.
Zarif called Trump’s demand for zero enrichment “fanciful” thinking.
Iran should also “accept a mutual nonaggression pact with the United States” in which both countries pledge to not strike each other in the future, the former minister said.
The US should also end all sanctions and United Nations Security Council resolutions against Iran, he added.
Regional consortium
Zarif also outlined potential roles for regional and international actors.
He suggested that China and Russia along with the US could help create a regional fuel-enrichment consortium with Iran and its Gulf neighbours at West Asia’s sole enrichment facility with Iran transferring all enriched material and equipment there.
Zarif additionally proposed that Gulf states, UN Security Council powers and possibly Egypt, Pakistan and Turkiye should form a regional security framework to “ensure nonaggression, cooperation and freedom of navigation”, including arrangements to guarantee safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
“To further consolidate peace, Iran and the United States should initiate mutually beneficial trade, economic and technological cooperation,” Zarif added.
The Iranian politician said this roadmap would benefit Trump, offering him a “well-timed off-ramp” and an opportunity to claim peace.
“Emotions may be high, and each side is boasting about its war-front victories. But history best remembers those who make peace,” he said.
The US has presented Iran with a 15-point plan for a ceasefire as Pakistan, Turkiye and Egypt have been trying to achieve direct talks, but there has been no signs of progress on the diplomatic front.
What about the Gulf?
Officials from Gulf states have responded to Zarif’s proposal, criticising it for overlooking Tehran’s attacks against its neighbours.
“Reading M. Javad Zarif’s article in Foreign Affairs ignores one of the core flaws in Iran’s strategy: aggression against its Gulf Arab neighbors,” Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, said on X on Saturday.
“Thousands of missiles & drones targeting infrastructure, civilians, even mediators, is not strength; it is hubris & strategic failure. The Arab world has seen this before: destruction peddled as victory,” he added.
Former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani also responded to Zarif’s plan, writing on X on Sunday that he “agreed with much of it” and it took a “clever” approach.
Still, he pushed back, stating that the war has “led us all into a path that is more complicated and dangerous” and chiding Iran for its attacks on the Gulf.
“You may believe that you have achieved progress in some aspects, and perhaps temporary tactical gains, but the cost was clear: the loss of an important part of your friends in the region, and the erosion of the trust that was built over years,” he wrote.
“Today, we
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04-06 00:00 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
The US and Israel have repeatedly hit the plant, raising risks of radioactive contamination far beyond Iran’s borders.
Iran’s only functioning nuclear plant, the Bushehr power plant, has come under repeated attacks in the ongoing Israel and US war on Iran, raising fears of a possible nuclear incident that could prove “catastrophic” across all Gulf countries.
The latest attack on the plant came on Saturday, after missiles hit a location close to the plant, killing one security guard and causing damage to a side building, according to the state-run Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI).
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In a statement criticising the attack, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed the Bushehr facility had now been “bombed” four times since the war erupted on February 28. He criticised what he said was a “lack of concern” for nuclear safety on the part of the United States and Israel.
Nuclear experts and regional authorities have long sounded the alarm over the incredible damage that bombing Bushehr would do, not just to Iran and Iranians, but to neighbouring countries as well.
Here’s what to know about the Bushehr plant and why its safety is paramount:
What is the Bushehr plant?
The Russia-built Bushehr plant is a nuclear power plant located in the coastal city of Bushehr, which has a population of 250,000.
Work on it initially started in 1975 by German companies, but it was eventually finished in 2011 by Russia’s atomic energy ministry. To date, hundreds of Russian personnel are stationed in Bushehr, with some having been evacuated following recent strikes.
It’s the first nuclear power plant in the Middle East, with one operational reactor. Bushehr Unit 1 currently provides about 1,000MW to the national grid. Two additional reactor units are expected to be operational by 2029.
What would happen if Bushehr were attacked?
Iranian officials say Bushehr has now been attacked four times in the course of the US-Israel war on Iran.
That’s separate from an initial strike on February 28, when the US and Israel first launched attacks, sparking off the war. Strikes hit Bushehr city, a few hundred metres from the plant.
A strike on a nuclear reactor or storage pools for used fuel would cause the release of radiological particles, specifically the hazardous isotope Caesium-137, into the atmosphere.
These can be spread far beyond the release point by wind and water and can contaminate food, soil, or drinking water sources for decades. Close exposure to such material would burn the skin and increase cancer risks.
What has the UN nuclear watchdog said about strikes targeting Bushehr?
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ atomic watchdog, has been warning against targeting the plant for months.
During Israel’s 12-day war on Iran last year, IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi told the UN Security Council that an Israeli strike on the Bushehr power plant could trigger a regional catastrophe.
Directly hitting the plant, which tonnes of nuclear material, could “result in a very high release of radioactivity”, with “great consequences” beyond Iran’s borders, Grossi warned, calling for “maximum restraint”.
A strike on the lines supplying electricity to Bushehr, which keep the cooling system operating, could cause a reactor meltdown and trigger a radioactive leak, he said. Evacuation orders would have to be issued within several hundred kilometres of the plant, extending to countries outside Iran.
He said authorities would also have to administer iodine to those within the area and potentially restrict food supplies due to possible radioactive contamination. Areas beyond the immediate danger zones would then have to be monitored as well for hundreds of kilometres.
Grossi, in the wake of the latest attack on Saturday, reiterated calls for restraint.
What are the risks of water contamination for the Gulf?
There are also fears that damage at Bushehr could contaminate the waters of the entire Gulf region. Radioactive contamination would affect marine life in the area, and the Gulf’s shallowness could see the negative effects remain over a long period, research finds.
It would also affect drinking water supplies. Most Gulf countries lack groundwater and rely heavily on desalination of seawater. But desalination plants are not inherently built to filter radioactive material, and not all plants at the moment have the technologies required.
Alan Eyre of the Middle East Institute told Al Jazeera that academic research has shown that the concentration of radioactive material at Bushehr might not be enough to cause Chornobyl-level disasters, referencing the 1986 tragedy in then-Soviet Ukraine.
But “more serious is the threat of radioactive material in the water because once you get an a
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04-05 08:01 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Iran claims another US aircraft involved in the rescue of the F-15 fighter pilot has been shot down.
The United States has rescued the second crew member of a US F-15 jet shot down, President Donald Trump confirms, as Iran claims another US aircraft involved in the rescue has been downed in the province of Isfahan.
“This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies,” Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social on Sunday. “He sustained injuries, but he will be just fine.”
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The airman, who Trump said held the rank of colonel, was the second member of a two-person crew of an F-15 that Iran said on Friday had been brought down by its air defences.
“This miraculous search and rescue operation comes in addition to a successful rescue of another brave pilot yesterday, which we did not confirm because we did not want to jeopardise our second rescue operation.”
The rescue resolves a crisis for the White House with the war on Iran in its sixth week.
The first member of the crew had been rescued, triggering a high-stakes search for the remaining airman by both Iran and the US.
Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said there had been no confirmation or denial from the Iranians on the pilot’s rescue.
“Over the past 24 hours, we have witnessed continuous air strikes on the location where the fighter jet was downed,” he said.
Another plane down?
Separately on Sunday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it shot down a US aircraft that was looking for the missing officer in the southern province of Isfahan, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.
Fars posted a photo on its Telegram channel, showing thick smoke rising from a field, and said: “Trump’s desperate attempt to cover up a huge defeat.”
The plane was a C-130 class aircraft, it said, and was destroyed by a police commando unit called the Faraj Rangers.
The high-stakes US rescue effort, which involved dozens of military aircraft, encountered fierce resistance from Iran.
Before Trump’s confirmation, Al Jazeera’s Jon Hendren, reporting from Washington, DC, quoted a US official as saying that US forces had encircled and were moving in on the downed airman, who had managed to avoid Iranian units for about two days.
“And then a firefight broke out. This happened in daylight,” Hendren reported. “Generally, special operations troops would go in for a rescue operation like that, and they would try to extract someone very quickly in the darkness. This went on for hours, we were told.”
In a separate incident, an A-10 Warthog fighter crashed after being hit over Kuwait, with the pilot ejecting, officials said. The degree of any injuries among the aircraft crew remained unclear.
Still, Trump was triumphant.
“The fact that we were able to pull off both of these operations, without a single American killed, or even wounded, just proves once again that we have achieved overwhelming air dominance and superiority over the Iranian skies,” he said in his statement.
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04-05 03:47 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Authorities in New Iberia, Louisiana, have said the incident does not appear to be an intentional car-ramming.
An estimated 15 people have been injured in Louisiana’s Iberia Parish, after a car struck participants at a Lao New Year parade in the United States.
According to a statement from the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office on Saturday, some attendees were seriously injured.
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“Based on the preliminary investigation, this does not appear to be an intentional act,” said Rebecca Melancon, a sheriff’s office spokesperson.
The Acadian Ambulance company confirmed on social media that it had taken 11 people to the hospital using ground transport, and another two victims were airlifted to seek urgent care. Ten ambulances and two medical helicopters were deployed to the scene.
The incident took place in New Iberia, a city of more than 28,000 in Iberia Parish, some 34km (21 miles) south of Lafayette, Louisiana. It is situated roughly 214km (130 miles) west of New Orleans.
The Louisiana Lao New Year Festival parade is an annual tradition on Easter weekend in the parish, and the celebration features live music, food vendors and a beauty pageant.
In the aftermath of the car crash, the festival issued a statement on social media, saying that all of its security resources had been surged to the scene.
“We are profoundly saddened by the news of the incident near the festival grounds,” festival organisers wrote. “We are awaiting additional details from authorities as they become available.”
They added that Saturday’s musical events were cancelled, though vendors were permitted to stay open until 9pm local time (2:00am GMT, Sunday).
“We are praying for the victims and for their families during this difficult time,” the organisers wrote. “As of now, and if security resources are restored for tomorrow (Sunday) we will reopen only the religious services of the festival, and vendors will stay open.”
The Lao New Year is a tradition typically associated with Buddhism, and it takes place each year in April, as the dry heat in Laos gives way to the wet monsoon season.
Louisiana is home to a small but vibrant Lao community. In New Iberia, one neighbourhood is called Lanexang Village — roughly translated to the “million elephants” village — and it is reportedly home to hundreds of Lao people.
Many arrived as a result of the Vietnam War, which bled into Laos, with communist and US-backed forces clashing over the course of nearly 16 years.
The Pathet Lao, a communist movement, ultimately took over the country in 1975, ending Laos’s monarchy. Hundreds of thousands of people fled in the aftermath, with many resettling in countries like Thailand and the US.
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04-05 03:47 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Company says move amid US-Israel war on Iran comes after a request from the US government.
The Iran war picture blackout | Digital Dilemma
Satellite imaging company Planet Labs has said it will indefinitely withhold visuals of Iran and the region of conflict in the Middle East to comply with a request from United States President Donald Trump’s administration.
The US company announced the decision in an email to customers on Saturday, with news agencies quoting it as saying the government had asked satellite imagery providers to impose an “indefinite withhold of imagery”.
The restriction expands upon a 14-day delay on imagery of the Middle East that Planet Labs implemented last month, which extended an initial 96-hour delay, a move the firm said was meant to prevent adversaries from using the imagery to attack the US and its allies.
Planet Labs said it will withhold imagery dating back to March 9 and that it expects the policy to remain in effect until the end of the war, which began on February 28 when the US and Israel launched aerial attacks against Iran. The conflict has since spread across the region, with Iran firing missile and drone barrages at Israel and US assets, as well as civilian infrastructure across the Gulf.
Planet Labs, which was founded in 2010 by former NASA scientists, said in its email to customers that it would switch to a “managed distribution of images” deemed not to pose a risk to safety.
Under a new system, Planet Labs will release imagery on a case-by-case basis for urgent, mission-critical requirements or in the public interest.
“These are extraordinary circumstances, and we are doing all we can to balance the needs of all our stakeholders,” the California-based company was quoted as saying.
Military uses of satellite technology include target identification, weapons guidance, missile tracking and communications. Some space specialists say Iran could be accessing commercial imagery, including pictures obtained via US adversaries. Satellite images also help journalists and academics studying hard-to-reach places.
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04-05 03:47 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Iran says US-Israeli attacks on the Mahshahr Petrochemical Zone have killed five and wounded 170.
The US has “recovered” the second crew member from the downed F-15E jet in Iran following a “heavy firefight”, a US government official says.
US President Donald Trump warns that “all hell” will rain down on Iran if it does not reach a peace deal within 48 hours. Tehran rejects the “helpless and nervous” ultimatum.
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04-05 01:04 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Iran says US-Israeli attacks on the Mahshahr Petrochemical Zone have killed five and wounded 170.
US President Donald Trump warns that “all hell” will rain down on Iran if it does not reach a peace deal within 48 hours. Tehran rejects the “helpless and nervous” ultimatum.
Iran says US-Israeli attacks have killed five people and wounded 170 others at the Mahshahr Petrochemical Zone. The attacks have targeted more than 30 universities since the beginning of the war.
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04-05 00:01 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Authorities say at least 30 universities impacted by US and Israeli strikes since the start of the war.
Tehran, Iran – Inside the sprawling Shahid Beheshti University in northern Tehran, a research centre lies in ruins after warplanes bombed it.
The attack on Friday on the Laser and Plasma Research Institute of the elite higher education facility is part of a growing pattern of civilian sites targeted by the United States and Israel in their war on Iran.
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There were no casualties at the university because it was mostly empty after all classes across the country were moved online by the government until further notice. Dormitories nearby were lightly damaged.
The US and Israel did not officially divulge the rationale behind the attack, but Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, a senior theoretical physicist and nuclear scientist who was assassinated during the opening salvo of Israel’s 12-day war in June, was the director of a magneto-photonics lab there.
“This hostile act not only targets the security of academics and the country’s scientific environment, but is also a clear attack on reason, research, and freedom of thought,” the university said in a statement, calling on international peers to raise awareness about similar strikes.
Hossein Simaei Saraf, minister of science, research and technology, told reporters at the research centre on Saturday that parts of at least 30 universities have so far been impacted by US and Israeli strikes since the start of the war on February 28.
He said Iranian scientists have been targets for decades and pointed out that several more Shahid Beheshti University professors were assassinated by Israel during the 12-day war.
“Attacking universities and research centres means returning to the Stone Age,” the minister said in reference to a threat by US President Donald Trump to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages” by systematically hitting its infrastructure, including power plants.
Another major university attacked during the ongoing war was Tehran’s Science and Technology University, which saw one of its research centres reduced to rubble and other departments damaged a week ago. The facility worked on developing domestically made satellites.
The US and Israel also attacked the Pasteur Institute in downtown Tehran, which was founded more than 100 years ago in collaboration with the internationally renowned Institut Pasteur in Paris but now operates independently.
The institute works on infectious diseases, producing vaccines and biological products and providing advanced diagnostics.
The World Health Organization (WHO), which works with two of the institute’s departments as collaborating centres, confirmed that the institute “sustained significant damage and was rendered unable to continue delivering health services” but said no one was killed.
More than 20 attacks have targeted healthcare facilities in Iran since the start of March, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday, also pointing to the Delaram Sina Psychiatric Hospital, which sustained significant damage in a strike on Sunday.
A major pharmaceutical company was hit near Tehran this week. Iran’s government said the attack aimed to affect medicine supply lines while Israel claimed the company was linked to the production of chemical weapons.
US and Israeli attacks have also impacted schools, houses and businesses across the country, killing more than 2,000 people, according to Iranian authorities. Fighter jets flew at low altitudes over Tehran on Friday night, launching strikes that lit up the mountainous areas north of the capital.
Petrochemicals, steel factories destroyed
As a defiant Iran continues to block the Strait of Hormuz despite Trump’s repeated demands to reopen the waterway, the US and Israel are increasingly focusing their air attacks on economic targets that could have widespread ramifications for Iranian civilians.
Heavy bombardment on Saturday targeted the economic zone in the oil-rich city of Mahshahr, one of Iran’s most important industrial hubs and a key source of export revenue.
Multiple refineries were significantly damaged, and a local official said at least five people were wounded.
This comes a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted that his military has “destroyed 70 percent of Iran’s steel production capacity” after putting two top manufacturers, including the largest in the Middle East, out of commission with multiple rounds of devastating strikes.
On the same day, two rounds of large air raids significantly damaged the B1 bridge near Tehran. At least eight people were killed and more than 90 wounded in the attack, which came while a large number of civilian families were spending Sizdah Bedar, or Nature Day, together in the area.
The recently completed 136-metre-high (446ft-high) suspension
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