United News of Bangladesh

Iranian state media reported that an Israeli strike hit an elementary girls’ school in Minab, Hormozgan province, killing at least 57 students dead and 60 others wounded. Iran's state news agency IRNA reported this information. The massive joint attack by the United States and Israel on Iran has escalated tensions across the Middle East, raising fears of a broader regional conflict. Iranian retaliation has targeted US assets in several Gulf Arab states, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, where American military bases are hosted. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility for strikes against “all Israeli and US military targets in the Middle East,” vowing that the operation “will continue relentlessly until the enemy is decisively defeated.” At least one person was reported killed in Abu Dhabi after Iranian missiles were intercepted, while Bahrain reported a missile attack on the headquarters of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet. The attacks have triggered widespread disruption of civil aviation. At least eight countries — Iran, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the UAE — closed their airspace. Several international carriers, including Air France, British Airways, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, and Qatar Airways, canceled flights to the region. Middle East airspace closure also disrupts flights from Dhaka In Iran, explosions were reported in multiple cities, including Tehran, Kermanshah, Qom, Tabriz, Isfahan, Ilam, Karaj, and Lorestan province. Tehran strikes targeted University Street, Jomhouri area, and near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps headquarters. US President Donald Trump outlined the campaign’s objectives, saying the US aims to “destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground” and “annihilate their navy.” He urged Iranian military personnel to surrender, promising immunity to those who comply but warning of “certain death” for those who resist. Trump acknowledged possible US casualties in the operation, which the Pentagon has dubbed “massive and ongoing.” Regional actors are closely monitoring the conflict. Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi paramilitary group, has threatened imminent attacks on US bases in retaliation. Russia called for an immediate halt to US and Israeli attacks, urging diplomatic resolution, while Saudi Arabia condemned Iranian missile strikes on Gulf states, warning of “dire consequences” for continued violations of sovereignty. The European Union urged restraint and diplomacy to prevent nuclear escalation. Pakistan condemned attacks on Iran, while Indonesia signaled readiness to facilitate US-Iran dialogue. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons condemned the military strikes, warning that the attacks “risk provoking further escalation” and increase the danger of nuclear proliferation. Source: Agencies

Hossein Salami, the chief of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has been killed in an Israeli strike on Tehran’s nuclear facility, according to Iran’s state media. The report said that several other senior Iranian officials were also killed in the early Friday morning attack. Israeli forces launched coordinated strikes on multiple locations, including the Iranian capital Tehran, on Friday at dawn. Their state television reported that the IRGC’s headquarters in Tehran was among the sites targeted. Over the past 20 months, Tehran has found itself entangled in multiple crises amid mounting instability in the Middle East. Salami’s death, analysts suggest, is a major blow to Iran’s leadership, as he was one of the country’s most powerful figures. Hossein Salami was born in 1960 in the Iranian city of Golpayegan. He joined the IRGC during the Iran-Iraq war in 1980 while still a college student. Rising through the ranks, he went on to lead the IRGC’s air forces and later served as its deputy commander. Trump urges Iran to make nuclear deal as conflict with Israel escalates Salami gained notoriety both inside Iran and internationally for his hardline stance against the United States and its allies. In a 2016 speech, he declared, “A fertile ground has been prepared to deactivate, collapse, and destroy the Zionist regime.” During the same speech, he also issued threats against the United States. On April 21, 2019, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed Salami as the commander-in-chief of the IRGC, replacing Maj Gen Mohammad Ali Jafari. His appointment came during a critical time when President Trump, during his first term at office, had withdrawn the nuclear deal and imposed severe sanctions on Iran. The Trump administration had also designated the IRGC as a “terrorist organisation.” In 2020, following a US drone strike that killed IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani near Baghdad Airport, Salami warned that American and Israeli commanders would become retaliatory targets. “If our commanders are threatened, no enemy commander will be safe,” he declared.