20/03/2026

FRIDAY | MAR 20, 2026

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Iran targets energy sites in retaliation

Pakistan, Afghanistan pause hostilities Wednesday announced a halt in fighting during celebrations for the end of Ramadan, after the deadliest strike in their escalating conflict killed hundreds in Kabul earlier this week. The governments in Islamabad and Kabul said in separate statements that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkiye had requested a pause in fighting during Eid al-Fitr and both agreed. Cross-border attacks have intensified since last month and Pakistan accuses the Taliban authorities of shielding extremists behind the violence on its territory. Afghanistan denies doing so. Pakistani jets on Monday struck a drug rehabilitation centre in the Afghan capital, prompting fresh calls for an immediate end to attacks and talks to end the bloodshed. Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the government agreed to a halt to its operations until Monday “in good faith and in keeping with the Islamic norms”. Tarar said: “In case of any cross border attack, drone attack or any terrorist incident inside Pakistan, (operations) shall immediately resume with renewed intensity.” Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said defending Afghanistan was “a national and religious obligation” and the country would respond to any aggression. Taliban authorities have said about 400 individuals were killed and more than 200 wounded in Monday’s strike, and a mass funeral was held for some of the victims on Wednesday. Afghan Red Crescent Society volunteers carried dozens of coffins from a fleet of ambulances to a mass grave in Kabul. Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani said they were innocent victims targeted by “criminals”. “We will undoubtedly seek accountability for them,“ he added, and warned those behind the bombing: “We are not weak and helpless. You will see the consequences of your crimes.” – AFP ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan on

BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities said Israel stepped up airstrikes on Beirut on Wednesday, killing at least 10 individuals and destroying a 10-storey building near the city centre in the third week of its war with Iran-backed Hezbollah. In a further escalation, Israeli warplanes began striking bridges over the Litani River that link southern Lebanon to the rest of the country, destroying at least two of them, Lebanese state media said. The Israeli military said it would target bridges on the Litani to prevent Hezbollah transferring fighters and Missile strike kills four TEL AVIV: Iranian missile attacks have killed three Palestinian women in the occupied West Bank and a foreign worker in central Israel, medics said yesterday. Falling shrapnel struck a hair salon in the West Bank town of Beit Awa near Hebron on Wednesday, killing the three women, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, marking the first Palestinian deaths from Iranian attacks in the Middle East war. The victims include a teenager, 17-year-old Mays Ghazi Masalmeh, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. The Red Crescent added at least eight others were injured, including one woman in critical condition. The news agency said missile fragments landed in multiple locations across the West Bank, including within the city of Hebron, after Israel’s military reported another round of Iranian missile launches. A short while later, Israeli medics said Iranian missile fire had killed a man in central Israel, bringing the death toll in Israel from attacks during the ongoing war to 15. – AFP The Israeli military did not comment on the South Pars attack, while US officials said Washington was aware but not involved. Iran’s threat of further retaliation TEHRAN: Iran targeted energy facilities across the Gulf and threatened further destructive attacks after a key gas field was hit, raising fears yesterday of a wider assault on fuel supplies that could jolt already rattled global markets. The warning came after Israel killed the Islamic republic’s intelligence chief Esmail Khatib, the latest in a string of strikes that have decimated its leadership since the war began nearly three weeks ago. Tehran, following a strike on its South Pars field, said it would respond forcefully to any further attacks on its energy sector. “We warn you once again that you made a big mistake in attacking the energy infrastructure of the Islamic republic,” the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement carried by Iranian media. “If it is repeated again, further attacks on your energy infrastructure and that of your allies will not stop until it is completely destroyed.”

Iranian Masoud Pezeshkian condemned Khatib’s killing as a “cowardly assassination”, while the country’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed retaliation. “Every drop of spilled blood comes at a price.” Khamenei has not appeared in public since taking power after the death of his father, Ali Khamenei, in the opening strikes of the war. Local authorities said Larijani would be buried at a shrine popular with pilgrims in the city of Qom. US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard told Congress the Iranian government remained “intact but largely degraded”, while also acknowledging Tehran had not resumed nuclear enrichment. – AFP President

the near-total disruption of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, surged again, with the main US benchmark for crude adding more than 3% yesterday. French President Emmanuel Macron said he had spoken to his US counterpart Donald Trump and the Emir of Qatar, and called for a moratorium on strikes targeting civilian infrastructure. “Civilian populations and their essential needs, as well as the security of energy supplies, must be preserved from military escalation,” he posted on social media. The killing of Khatib followed the death of security chief Ali Larijani, as Israel presses a campaign to eliminate senior Iranian officials.

o Tehran vows to respond forcefully to further aggression came after Qatar’s state energy company said a missile strike sparked a fire causing “extensive damage” at its main gas facility, the world’s largest, prompting Doha to expel two Iranian diplomats. Saudi Arabia also said it intercepted drones targeting energy infrastructure in the east, while debris from a ballistic missile landed near a refinery south of Riyadh. Oil prices, already elevated by

MARKET MOMENT ... Displaced Palestinians shop for clothes ahead of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. – AFPPIC

Saudi Arabia reserves right to military action: Minister RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has not ruled out military action in response to repeated missile and drone attacks from Iran, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said yesterday. Speaking to reporters following a meeting in Riyadh of foreign ministers from the region, Faisal said Iran “tries to pressure its neighbours” with attacks. “The kingdom is not going to succumb to pressure, and on the contrary, this pressure will backfire. As we have stated quite clearly, we have reserved the right to take military actions if deemed necessary,“ he said. Saudi Arabia reported more Iranian attacks on Wednesday, as the foreign minister hosted his

counterparts from about a dozen Arab and Islamic countries. Several strong blasts were heard in the Saudi capital on Wednesday, according to AFP journalists, while the defence ministry said it had intercepted ballistic missiles. – AFP

Israel escalates Beirut assault, at least 10 dead

operations” if the military issued orders to establish positions as far as the Litani. Beirut resident Abu Khalil said he had helped individuals flee their homes in the Bachoura district after Israel’s military posted a warning that it would hit the 10-storey building, before levelling it with a strike. “It’s just an operation to hurt, to terrify people, to terrify children.” No fatalities have been reported in Israel from Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks. The military says two of its soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon. – Reuters

clear message to the Lebanese government: the State of Israel will not allow such a reality”. Israel also destroyed a bridge in southern Lebanon on Friday and dropped leaflets in Beirut threatening Gaza-scale devastation. Fears are growing in Lebanon that cutting off southern Lebanon from the rest of the country could pave the way for a large-scale Israeli military operation into Lebanese territory. On Wednesday, an Israeli military officer commanding troops operating in Lebanon told Reuters that his troops are “prepared to do all kinds of

things together. The victims are coming torn up and in bad shape.” He added that as strikes escalated around Tyre, doctors had brought their families to stay with them at the hospital. However, he also said with the roads at risk of closure, they were now starting to leave and head north. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday said Israel’s military had destroyed two additional bridges over the Litani that he said Hezbollah had used to smuggle weapons and operatives south. He described the action as “a

weapons, and reiterated a warning for residents to leave the south. The Hezbollah-Israel conflict has become the deadliest spillover of the US-Israeli war on Iran since the Iran-backed group fired at Israel in support of Tehran on March 2, with more than 900 individuals killed in Lebanon and 1 million displaced. Thousands have also been wounded, with Jabal Amel University Hospital head Dr Wael Mroueh telling Reuters he had seen terrible injuries. “Victims are coming without lower extremities, (needing a) craniotomy, with open wounds and all those