• Tehran warns their bases and ships in the region will be targeted

CAIRO: Iran has warned the United States, United Kingdom and France that their bases and ships in the region will be targeted if they help stop Tehran’s strikes on Israel, Iran state media reported on Saturday.

Iran’s state TV also reported that around 60 people, including 20 children, were killed in an Israeli attack on a housing complex in Iranian capital Tehran. Two people were also killed in an Israeli attack on a missile site in Assadabad in western Iran.

Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported an Israeli strike near the northwestern Tabriz refinery, saying smoke was rising from the facility.

Iran’s strikes against Israel will continue, with targets set to expand to include US bases in the region in the coming days, Iran’s Fars news agency reported on Saturday, citing senior Iranian military officials.

“This confrontation will not end with last night’s limited actions and Iran’s strikes will continue, and this action will be very painful and regrettable for the aggressors,” Fars reported, citing senior military officials.

They were quoted saying that the war would “spread in the coming days to all areas occupied by this (Israeli) regime and American bases in the region”.

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that “Tehran will burn” if it keeps firing missiles at Israeli civilians.

“The Iranian dictator is taking the citizens of Iran hostage, bringing about a reality in which they, and especially Teheran’s residents, will pay a heavy price for the flagrant harm inflicted upon Israel’s citizens. If Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn,” Katz said in a statement.

The threat of a wider war comes as Iran and Israel continue targeting each other on Saturday after Israel launched its biggest-ever air offensive against its longtime foe in a bid to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.

Iran’s civil aviation authority has declared the country’s airspace closed “until further notice,” state media reported Saturday, as Israel and Iran continued to trade fire for a second day.

“No flights will be operated at any airports in the country in order to protect the safety of passengers… until further notice,” the official IRNA news agency said.

Agencies