US and Israel bomb Iran for fourth day as Trump says air defences 'gone'

US and Israel bomb Iran for fourth day as Trump says air defences 'gone' 7 hours ago David Gritten The US and Israel have bombed targets across Iran for a fourth day, as President Donald Trump declared that the country's air defences, air force, navy and leadership were "gone". The Israeli military said it had struck Iran's presidential office, a covert nuclear compound, and a Revolutionary Guards commander in Tehran, while the US military said it had destroyed command facilities, missile launch sites and airfields. Iranian authorities did not comment. But explosions were reported across Iran, where the Red Crescent has said 780 people have been killed since Saturday. Iran has responded to the strikes by launching deadly missile and drone attacks on Israel and Gulf states hosting US bases. A drone hit a car park adjacent to the US consulate in Dubai on Tuesday evening and "set off a fire in that place", US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

It came hours after two drones hit the US embassy in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh and caused a "limited fire", according to the Saudi defence ministry.

The US and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran on Saturday, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and senior officials in the first wave of strikes.

Trump has said the US is seeking to destroy Iran's ballistic missile capabilities and navy, its ability to develop nuclear weapons, and its support for proxy groups in the region.

He has also urged Iranians to use the attack to "take back your government".

At the White House on Tuesday, the president said: "We've had a very powerful impact.

Virtually everything they had has been knocked out now. Their missile count is going down. "

Trump also repeated a claim that 49 Iranian leaders were "taken out" on Saturday and said there was "another hit today on the new leadership", without giving any details.

When asked by a reporter who he would like to take over after the conflict, Trump replied: "Most of the people we had in mind are dead. " Not long afterwards, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) put out a statement saying an air strike in Tehran had killed the temporary commander of the Lebanon Corps of the Quds Force, the IRGC's overseas operations arm. It named the officer as Daoud Alizadeh and said he had recently pushed the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah to attack Israel.

The IDF has carried out dozens of strikes in Lebanon since Monday, when Hezbollah launched rockets and drones over the border.

The IDF also said it had struck a covert compound on the outskirts of Tehran where it alleged a group of scientists working for the defence ministry had "operated to develop necessary capabilities for nuclear weapons". There was no immediate comment from Iranian authorities, but they have repeatedly insisted that the country's nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and that it is not seeking to develop nuclear weapons. The global nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said separately that satellite imagery had allowed it to confirm "some recent damage" to entrance buildings at Iran's underground Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant. "No radiological consequence expected and no additional impact detected at FEP itself," it added. The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) also said there had been no recorded release of radioactive material at Natanz following what it called the "criminal attack".

Natanz was severely damaged in a US strike during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel last June, and enriched uranium is believed to be buried underground.

Enriched uranium can be used to make reactor fuel but also nuclear weapons.

Neither the US nor Israel have said they struck Natanz in recent days. Earlier on Tuesday, the IDF said it had dropped bombs overnight on the presidential office and the Supreme National Security Council's building in Tehran. "This compound serves as the most central and significant headquarters of the Iranian terrorist regime. Its strike further degrades the functional continuity of the regime's command and control systems," the IDF added. Satellite images later released by Vantor showed extensive damage to the presidential office and other major political and military sites, including the judiciary complex, the ministry of intelligence, a building owned by state broadcaster IRIB, and the IRGC's headquarters. The US military's Central Command said its forces had destroyed IRGC command-and-control facilities, air defence capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields.

The office of the clerical body charged with choosing Khamenei's successor as supreme leader, the Assembly of Experts, was also bombed in the central city of Qom on Tuesday, Iranian media reported.

Two videos verified by the BBC showed that the building was almost completely destroyed.

A nearby building was also heavily damaged.

IRIB said the buildings had been evacuated beforehand and no casualties were reported.

The Iranian army said 13 personnel were killed in a missile attack on an army aviation base in the south-eastern province of Kerman, according to the hardline Tasnim news agency.

The Iranian Red Crescent said on Tuesday that at least 787 people had been killed in the country over the past four days in 1,039 reported US and Israeli strikes.

It did not say how many of the dead were civilians or whether the figure included members of the armed forces.

However, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRNA) said overnight that the deaths of 742 civilians, including 176 children, had so far been reported.

Crowds of mourners packed the streets of the southern town of Minab on Tuesday for the funerals of children who Iranian authorities have said were killed in a strike on Saturday.

Officials have said at least 165 girls and staff died when Shajare Tayyebeh school was hit, and blamed Israel and the US.

The IDF said on Sunday that it was not aware of any Israeli or US strikes in the area.

The US secretary of state told reporters on Monday that the US "would not deliberately target a school" but that the department of defence was investigating "if that was our strike".

"We would have no interest and, frankly, no incentive to target civilian infrastructure," Rubio said.

"The Iranians are, on the other hand, targeting civilian infrastructure. "

Iran's armed forces have responded to the strikes by launching hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel and neighbouring Arab states which host US military installations.

A spokesman for the IRGC warned of more intense attacks on Tuesday, telling state TV: "The gates of hell will open more and more. "

The IDF has said it has intercepted most of the missiles and drones heading towards Israel since the conflict began, but some missiles have landed and killed a total of 10 people.

Iran has also declared the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of global oil and gas shipments pass.

"We will burn any ship that tries to pass through the strait," IRGC Brig Gen Ebrahim Jabbari warned.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Tuesday that he was sending an air-defence destroyer, HMS Dragon, to Cyprus after the runway of the RAF Akrotiri airbase was hit by an Iranian-made drone.

French President Emmanuel Macron also said he had ordered the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier group to deploy to the eastern Mediterranean to help protect Cyprus