The US military announced that it had attacked Iranian missile positions near the strategic Strait of Hormuz using so-called bunker-busting bombs.
US Central Command said on social media platform X on 17 March that US forces had successfully used “multiple 5,000-pound deep penetration bombs” against fortified Iranian missile sites on the coast near the Strait of Hormuz.
The report indicated that “anti-ship cruise missiles deployed at these sites posed a threat to international shipping in this strategic passage.”
Meanwhile, new explosions have taken place in Dubai as the UAE considers joining the US naval coalition.
UAE officials say Iran has fired more than two thousand drones and missiles at the country since the war began.
Anwar Gargash, a diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said the country was considering joining a US initiative to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has reportedly effectively closed to ships. Negotiations on the issue are ongoing, he said, but a final decision has not yet been made.
In Israel, local media reported on 18 March that at least two people were killed in an Iranian missile strike on the country.
According to Haaretz and Times of Israel, which cited humanitarian organisations, the victims were seriously injured in the attack on the town of Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, and later died from their injuries. Reports also indicated that two other people were wounded in the towns of Bnei Brak and Petah Tikva, east of Tel Aviv.
Following the assassination of Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, in an Israeli strike, Tehran announced that it had retaliated by striking Tel Aviv with missiles equipped with cluster warheads.
The overnight attack on an area near the densely populated neighbourhoods of Tel Aviv, where important military installations are also located, raised the death toll in the war In Israel to 14.
The joint United States-Israeli operation against Iran began on 28 February and resulted in the deaths of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a significant number of other senior Iranian regime officials.
Iran’s military has attacked not only Israel or US military installations in the region with missiles and drones, but also many of its regional neighbours, which Tehran considers allies of the United States.
US President Donald Trump has stated that the goals of this war are to destroy Iran’s military capabilities and to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.