DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A large explosion rocked an area of Iran’s capital where thousands were gathered Friday for the annual state-organized Quds Day to support the Palestinians and call for Israel’s demise. Israel had earlier warned that it would target the area in central Tehran.
There were no immediate reports of casualties. But the decision to proceed with the mass demonstrations, and Israel’s threat to target the area, underscored
the fierce determination on both sides nearly two weeks into a war that has rattled the global economy and shows no sign of letting up.
Iran has continued to launch widespread daily missile and drone attacks on Israel and neighboring Gulf states, and has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's traded oil passes, even as U.S. and Israeli warplanes pummel military and other targets across Iran.
Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Thursday vowed to continue the attacks and keep the strait closed in his first public statement since succeeding his father, who was killed in the opening day of the war. Khamenei has not been seen in public since taking over leadership, and the written statement was read by a state TV anchor.
With growing global concerns about a possible energy crisis and no end to the war in sight, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, remained over $100 per barrel. Brent prices have spiked as high as about $120 per barrel and are about 40% higher than when Israel and the United States launched the war on Feb. 28.
The U.S. military meanwhile said that four of six crew members of an American KC-135 refueling plane that went down in Iraq had been found dead and that recovery efforts were ongoing to find the other two.
U.S. Central Command said that the crash wasn’t related to friendly or hostile fire, and that two aircraft were involved, including one that landed safely. The KC-135 is the fourth publicly acknowledged aircraft to crash as part of the U.S. military’s operations against Iran. Last week, three American fighter jets were mistakenly downed by friendly Kuwaiti fire.
The explosion rocked the Ferdowsi Square area midday, where thousands had gathered for an annual rally organized by the government in which they chanted “death to Israel” and “death to America."
Israel had issued a warning on a Farsi-language X account for people to clear the area shortly before the blast. But few Iranians would have seen it, as authorities have almost completely shut down the internet since the start of the war. Footage from the scene showed people chanting “God is greatest,” as smoke rose in the area.
Israel did not say what it was targeting, but Iranian leaders often attend the annual rallies.
The hard-liner who leads Iran’s judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, had been giving an interview to a state television reporter at the demonstration when the strike happened. His bodyguards encircled him, as he raised his fist and said Iran “under this rain and missiles will never withdraw.”
Senior security official Ali Larijani, who was also at the Quds Day demonstrations, told Iranian media covering the event that the suspected Israeli attack was a “sign of its desperation.”
Israel had earlier announced another wave of strikes in Iran targeting infrastructure, and said its air force had hit more than 200 targes in the last 24 hours, including missile launchers, defense systems and weapons production sites.
In a social media post hours earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump had said “watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today,” while claiming that Iran’s military had been decimated and that its leaders had been “wiped from the face of the earth.”
Iran has been attacking oil and other infrastructure around the Gulf region, and on Friday Saudi Arabia that it had downed nearly 50 drones sent in multiple waves.
In Oman, two people were killed when two drones crashed in an industrial area in the region of Sohar, the Oman News Agency reported.
Sirens also sounded in Bahrain warning of incoming fire, and black smoke billowed from an industrial area in the business and tourism hub of Dubai, after a blaze that authorities said was sparked by debris from an interception.
A building at the Dubai International Financial Center also sustained damage when hit with debris from what authorities described as a “successful interception.” DIFC is an economic free zone for banks, capital traders and wealth managers, home to exclusive restaurants and nightclubs.
Iran said earlier this week that it would target banks and financial institutions, after an airstrike hit a bank in Tehran.
In Turkey, NATO defenses intercepted another ballistic missile fired from Iran, the third time since the war began. Residents in the southern city of Adana reported hearing a loud explosion and sirens sounding at Incirlik Air Base, which is used by U.S. forces, in the early hours of the day.
Nearly 60 people were wounded in northern Israel after the Lebanon's Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah said that it had fired several rocket salvos toward the area and at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. Almost all the injuries were described as very minor.
One person was killed in southwestern Beirut in an Israeli strike, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, and another attack hit an apartment in the capital, leaving it engulfed in flames. The Israeli military said it had targeted a Hezbollah member.
In eastern Lebanon, a strike on an apartment wounded a local official with the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and killed his two sons, the state-run National News Agency reported. For the past two years, Israel has targeted officials with the group.
More than 600 people have been killed in Lebanon since the fighting began, the Health Ministry has reported. and nearly 800,000 have been internally displaced, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
Iranian authorities say that more than 1,300 people have been killed there, and Israel has reported 12 deaths. The U.S. has lost at least 11 soldiers, while another eight have suffered severe injuries.
On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that a French soldier was killed in an attack targeting Irbil in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region. France earlier said that six soldiers had been hurt in a drone strike in Irbil, where French troops are deployed as part of a multinational mission supporting Iraqi forces in their fight against the Islamic State group.
In the same region, U.K. officials said that several U.S. personnel suffered minor injuries Wednesday when drone strikes hit a base in Irbil that houses both British and American troops. Italy said that a base where it has troops in Irbil was also hit Wednesday, but that there were no injuries.
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Rising reported from Bangkok and Abou AlJoud from Beirut. Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Sam Mednik in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this story.
