DUBAI (AP) — Bahrain accused Iran of striking a desalination plant on Sunday, raising fears that civilian infrastructure may become fair game in the war, as Iran’s president vowed to expand the country’s attacks on American targets across the region in the face of intense U.S. and Israeli airstrikes.
A late-night Israeli strike on an oil facility engulfed parts of Iran’s capital, Tehran, in smoke on Sunday, while Israel renewed attacks in Lebanon. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with the nine-day-old campaign, which has rippled across the region and appears to have no end in sight.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian threatened on Sunday to step up attacks on American targets across the Middle East. He appeared to backtrack from conciliatory comments toward his Gulf neighbors on Saturday. Those comments, in which he apologized for attacks on their soil, were quickly contradicted by Iranian hard-liners.
In Lebanon, Israeli strikes pushed the death toll to above 300 after Israel ordered tens of thousands to evacuate ahead of an offensive aimed at stamping out the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
The war, which Israel and the United States launched with airstrikes on Feb. 28, has so far killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 300 in Lebanon and about a dozen in Israel, according to officials. Six U.S. troops have also been killed.
The conflict has rattled global markets, disrupted air travel and left Iran’s leadership weakened by hundreds of Israeli and American airstrikes.
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, said on Sunday that the war’s effect on the oil industry would continue to spiral, warning it could soon become harder to both produce and sell oil.
Some regional producers, including in Iraq, have already curbed output amid dangers in the Strait of Hormuz.
