By JON GAMBRELL, SAM MEDNICK and JULIE WATSON Associated Press
Iran is threatening recreational and tourist sites worldwide and insisting it is still building missiles three weeks into an escalating war in the Middle East. The United States is deploying more warships and another 2,500 Marines to the region. As Israeli strikes landed in Tehran, Iran launched more attacks on Israel and energy sites in neighboring Gulf Arab states. With little information coming out of Iran, it was not clear how much damage its forces have suffered in the punishing U.S. and Israeli strikes that began Feb. 28 — or even who was truly in charge of the country. But Iran's attacks are still choking off oil supplies and denting the global economy.
By JULIA FRANKEL and MICHAEL BIESECKER Associated Press
Satellite images and videos of an Iranian girls school damaged by large explosions at the start of a U.S.-Israeli airstrike campaign targeting the Islamic Republic indicate a targeted attack from the air hit the building. That's according to military experts who spoke to The Associated Press. Iran says the blast killed at least 165 people, most of them children. The location of the strike, its affiliation to a coastal defense unit of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and the tight pattern of the damage suggest a targeted airstrike on the site. Several factors point to a U.S. strike, given the proximity of American forces to the school and focus on missile sites and naval forces in the war.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has confirmed that Iran and the US will hold nuclear talks in Oman's capital of Muscat on Friday. His announcement on Wednesday came after hours of indications that plans for the talks might be faltering over changes in the format and content of the talks. Araghchi wrote on X that he was grateful "to our Omani brothers for making all necessary arrangements." Tensions between the countries have spiked after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested the U.S. might use force against Iran in response to its bloody crackdown on protesters last month. Trump also has been pushing Tehran for a deal to constrain its nuclear program.
As Iran threatens to attack Israel over the assassination of a Hamas leader in the Iranian capital, its long-vaunted missile program offers one of the few ways for Tehran to strike back directly. But questions loom over just how much of a danger it poses. The program was behind Iran's unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on Israel in April, when Iran became the first nation to launch such a barrage since Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein lobbed Scud missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War. But few of the projectiles reached their targets. A new report shared exclusively with The Associated Press suggests one of Iran's advanced missiles is far less accurate than previously thought.
