05/03/2026

THURSDAY | MAR 5, 2026

9

Israel launches new strikes

Saturday, said Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command. “These forces bring a massive amount of firepower, representing the largest buildup by the US in the Middle East in a generation,” he said in a video message, describing the first day’s barrage as bigger than the so-called “shock and awe” against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 2003. – AFP

It cautioned that this was a “preliminary toll”. It was not immediately clear what was targeted in these towns or in Baalbek, and there was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which earlier announced “broad scale strikes” against Hezbollah. The US military targeted ballistic missiles and “all the things that can shoot at us” in its attacks on Iran since

launched drones and rockets at Israel. Lebanese media said Israeli attacks on a building killed four in Baalbek in Lebanon’s east, far from the border, as well as a Beirut hotel in an area so far spared the violence. In Aramoun and Saadiyat – two towns south of Beirut and outside the Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds – the Health Ministry said Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded eight.

Dubai, starting a fire, and against the US military base at Al-Udeid in Qatar. The United States encouraged all Americans to leave the region if they can find commercial flights, even though air travel has been severely disrupted, while governments including Britain and France sent in chartered flights to get citizens out. The war took a growing toll on Lebanon, where Hezbollah has

o Iran squeezes shipping route

KUWAIT CITY : Kuwait’s Health Ministry said yesterday that an 11-year-old girl was killed after being hit by shrapnel following attacks across the Gulf. The Gulf has borne the brunt of much of Tehran’s response since the US and Israel launched a massive air campaign against Iran over the weekend with at least 13 people killed in the region in the fallout. Among them are four US soldiers also killed in Kuwait and the US embassy there was targeted by Israel kept up the bombardment, with its military announcing a “broad wave of strikes” after midnight across Iran, which in the hours before had launched three waves of missile barrages at Israel. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted two cruise missiles, while drones struck near the US consulate in TEHRAN: Israel launched fresh strikes on Iran and Lebanon, where state media reported a residential building was hit yesterday, as Iran’s Guards said they had sealed off one of the world’s most vital shipping routes for energy. Governments scrambled to evacuate citizens stranded in the Middle East, where Iran expanded a retaliatory missile and drone barrage on the fifth day of a war that sent stocks sinking. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it had “complete control” of the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial chokepoint into the Gulf. But Trump said the US had “knocked out” Iran’s navy, along with its air force and radar systems, and that the US Navy was ready to escort tankers through the waterway through which one-fifth of global seaborne oil pass. The US military said it has hit nearly 2,000 targets since first launching deadly strikes with Israel on Iran on Saturday that killed Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Beirut residents stand amid debris at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the Haret Hreik neighbourhood yesterday. – AFPPIC

Kuwait says girl, 11, killed by shrapnel

No to war, Trump told

its official press agency reported. “Close surveillance made it possible to arrest 10 suspects: seven were tasked with spying and gathering information about vital and military infrastructure in the country, and three were meant to carry out sabotage operations,” the agency said. Iranian missiles and drones have slammed Gulf states’ cities and infrastructure, upending relations with Tehran and placing the neighbours on a potential course for greater military confrontation. – AFP Iran announced that a state funeral for supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which had been planned for yesterday evening in Tehran, was postponed “in anticipation of unprecedented turnout,” state television reported. “The farewell ceremony for the martyred Imam has been postponed. The new date will be announced later.” – Reuters Without mentioning President Donald Trump by name, Zakharova alluded to his call for Iranians to take power from the clerical leadership. “It is even more cynical and inhumane to hear calls for the Iranians to seize power when the West is literally tearing ripping these hands from the Iranians.” – Reuters

Gulf elsewhere with stocks dropping sharply in the United Arab Emirates on the Dubai and Abu Dhabi exchanges after a two-day trading suspension. In Saudi Arabia, the Defence Ministry said two cruise missiles were intercepted over an area south of the capital Riyadh, which is also home to the sprawling Prince Sultan air base, and several drones were destroyed after entering its airspace. Qatar authorities also announced they had dismantled two spy cells linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Israel said it would hunt down whoever was chosen. “Every leader appointed ... will be an unequivocal target for elimination,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. Ruhollah Khomeini’s grandson Hassan is also seen as a potential candidate for supreme leader, representing the more reformist wing of the leadership. killed on the first day of the war. “There is no doubt that the imaginary, invented Iranian threat, repeatedly stated over many years, was merely a pretext for the implementation of a plan to violently overthrow the constitutional order of a sovereign state ... that Washington and Tel Aviv dislike,” she said.

drones, while its energy infrastructure has also been hit in recent days. “Resuscitation was performed in the ambulance while the girl was being transported to the hospital, and attempts continued for nearly half an hour upon arrival at Al-Amiri Hospital. However, she passed away due to her injuries,” said the ministry. Kuwait’s military said later that it detected incoming projectiles and was working to intercept the missiles and drones in their airspace. The war continued to rattle the that will select the new leader will announce its decision soon, only the second time it has done so since the Islamic Republic’s founding in 1979. “The supreme leader will be identified in the closest opportunity, we are close to a conclusion,” Assembly member Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami told state TV. He said the candidates had already been identified. negotiations with Iran, which were taking place as recently as last week, as a cover to disguise a plan for regime change. Russia has a strategic partnership treaty with Iran and President Vladimir Putin has condemned what he called the cynical murder of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was

MADRID: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez hit back yesterday at US President Donald Trump’s criticisms of Madrid’s refusal to let US planes use its bases to attack Iran. “The position of the government of Spain can be summed up in four words: no to war,” he said in a televised address, a day after Trump threatened to sever all trade with Spain. “We will not be complicit in something that is harmful to the world and contrary to our values and interests, simply out of fear of retaliation,” he said. “We oppose this disaster,” Sanchez said, arguing that his stance is shared by “many other governments” and “millions of citizens across Europe, North America and the Middle East who do not want more war or uncertainty tomorrow”. Trump called Spain a “terrible” ally on Tuesday as he met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House. He also pointed to Sanchez’s refusal to join Nato allies in a pledge to boost defence spending to 5% of GDP as demanded by Trump, who has argued that the US shoulders too much of the alliance’s burden. Sanchez’s leftist government has angered Washington with other policies, including his opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza and the military operation to abduct President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela. – AFP

US attacked on false pretext, says Russia DUBAI: Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Iran’s late supreme leader, is alive and favoured to emerge as his father’s successor, two Iranian sources said. The two sources said Mojtaba, 56, was not in Tehran during the strike that destroyed the leader’s compound and also killed the elder Khamenei’s wife, another son and a number of senior military and leadership figures. Iran said the Assembly of Experts Khamenei’s son alive, favoured to succeed

MOSCOW: Russia accused the United States yesterday of using an imaginary threat from Iran as a pretext to overthrow its constitutional order, and said Washington’s calls for Iranians to seize power from their leaders were cynical and inhumane. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the US had used