Iran threatened to focus on leisure and vacationer websites worldwide and insisted it was nonetheless constructing missiles. Friday’s (March 20, 2026) present of defiance got here almost three weeks into U.S.-Israeli strikes which have killed a slew of Tehran’s high leaders and hammered its weapons and vitality industries.
Iran fired on Israel and vitality websites in neighbouring Gulf Arab nations as many within the area marked one of many holiest days on the Muslim calendar. Iranians had been additionally marking the Persian New Yr, referred to as Nowruz, a usually festive vacation that’s extra subdued this 12 months.
Iran-Israel warfare LIVE
With little info popping out of Iran, it was not clear how a lot injury its arms, nuclear or vitality amenities have sustained because the warfare started February 28 and even who was actually answerable for the nation. However Iran has confirmed it’s nonetheless able to assaults which are choking off oil provides and denting the worldwide financial system, elevating meals and gasoline costs far past West Asia.
The U.S. and Israel have provided shifting rationales for the warfare, from hoping to foment an rebellion that topples Iran’s management to eliminating its nuclear and missile applications. There have been no public indicators of any such rebellion, and it isn’t clear what capabilities Iran retains or how the warfare may finish.
Iran army threatens to search out U.S., Israeli officers even on trip
Iran’s high army spokesman warned on Friday (March 20, 2026) that “parks, leisure areas and vacationer locations” worldwide will not be protected for Tehran’s enemies.
Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi made the menace as Iran continues to be hit by American and Israeli airstrikes. It renewed considerations that Iran might revert to utilizing militant assaults past West Asia as a stress tactic within the warfare.
U.S. and Israeli leaders have stated that weeks of strikes have decimated Iran’s army. Airstrikes have additionally killed its supreme chief, the pinnacle of its Supreme Nationwide Safety Council and a raft of different top-ranking army and political leaders.
On Thursday (March 19, 2026), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Iran’s navy was sunk and its air pressure in tatters, whereas including that its skill to supply ballistic missiles had been taken out. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard disputed the missile declare on Friday (March 20, 2026).
“We’re producing missiles even throughout warfare situations, which is superb, and there’s no explicit drawback in stockpiling,” spokesman Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini was quoted as saying in Iran’s state-run IRAN newspaper.
Naeini added that Iran had no intention of in search of a fast finish to the warfare. “These folks anticipate the warfare to proceed till the enemy is totally exhausted,” he stated.
Iran and the politics of martyrdom
A short while after the assertion was launched, Iranian state tv stated Naeini was killed in an airstrike.
The nation’s new Supreme Chief Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei additionally launched a uncommon assertion, saying Iran’s enemies have to have their “safety” taken away.
Mr. Khamenei hasn’t been seen since he succeeded his father, the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the primary day of the warfare.
A refinery comes underneath assault in Kuwait and explosions shake Dubai
Iran has stepped up its assaults on vitality websites in Gulf Arab states after Israel bombed Iran’s large South Pars offshore pure fuel area earlier within the week.
Two waves of Iranian drones attacked a Kuwaiti oil refinery early Friday (March 20, 2026), sparking a fireplace. The Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery, which may course of some 730,000 barrels of oil per day, is among the largest within the area. It was broken on Thursday (March 29, 2026) in one other Iranian assault.
Bahrain stated a fireplace broke out after shrapnel from an intercepted projectile landed on a warehouse, and Saudi Arabia reported capturing down a number of drones focusing on its oil-rich Jap Province.
Heavy explosions shook Dubai as air defences intercepted incoming hearth over the town, the place folks had been observing Eid al-Fitr, the top of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
In Iran, in the meantime, many had been marking Nowruz at the same time as Israel stated it had launched new strikes, and explosions had been heard over Tehran. The Persian New Yr, which coincides with the spring equinox, is a practice noticed throughout southwestern Asia that dates again hundreds of years.
Loud explosions may be heard in Jerusalem after the Israeli military warned of incoming Iranian missiles. First responders stated they handled two folks round 70 years outdated who had been evenly wounded.
Along with steadily putting Iran, Israel has commonly hit Lebanon, focusing on Iran-backed Hezbollah militants who’ve been firing rockets and drones into Israel.
On Friday (March 20, 2026), Israel broadened its assaults to Syria, saying it hit infrastructure there in response to what it described as assaults on the minority Druze inhabitants. Syria’s state-run SANA information company didn’t instantly acknowledge the assault.
Greater than 1,300 folks have been killed in Iran in the course of the warfare. Israeli strikes in Lebanon have displaced greater than 1 million folks, in line with the Lebanese authorities, which says greater than 1,000 folks have been killed. Israel says it has killed greater than 500 Hezbollah militants.
In Israel, 15 folks have been killed by Iranian missile hearth. 4 folks had been additionally killed within the occupied West Financial institution by an Iranian missile strike.
At the very least 13 U.S. army members have been killed.
Revealed – March 20, 2026 07:46 pm IST