Live updates: Follow the latest news on US-Iran war
A spokesman for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its deputy of public relations, Ali Mohammad Naini, has been killed in strikes launched by the US and Israel, Iranian state TV reported on Friday.
Mr Naini “was martyred in the criminal cowardly terrorist attack by the American-Zionist side at dawn”, the IRGC said in a statement on their Sepah News website.
The Israeli military then confirmed his killing in a statement.
Mr Naini was quoted earlier in the day by the Fars news agency as saying that Iran has continued to produce missiles despite the war with Israel and the US.
“Our missile industry deserves a perfect score … and there is no concern in this regard, because even under wartime conditions we continue missile production,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that after 20 days of attacks, Iran no longer has the ability to enrich uranium or produce ballistic missiles, and that Israel, with the US, would ensure it no longer could.
Israel and Iran launched attacks on each other on Friday, a day after Iran struck an Israeli oil refinery and after US President Donald Trump warned Israel against further attacks on an Iranian offshore gasfield shared with Qatar.
Israel struck Tehran, targeting the “infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime”, the military said in a brief statement that did not provide details. Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel, the Israeli military said, triggering air raid sirens in Tel Aviv as explosions from air defence interceptors echoed across the city.
The war on Iran has killed thousands, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, spilt across the Middle East and hit the global economy since the US and Israel launched their joint air assault on February 28.
The owner of an Israeli oil refinery hit by an Iranian missile strike said on Friday that essential infrastructure was damaged in the attack, but that most production points were operating and the rest would restart.
Oil Refineries Ltd said there had been “localised hits” at its complex in Haifa on Thursday, striking electrical equipment.
There were no injuries or casualties, it said in a statement to the Tel Aviv stock exchange.
The attack came after Israel bombed Iran's South Pars gasfield. Mr Netanyahu said Israel “acted alone” in attacking the field, adding that the country would heed Mr Trump’s call not to repeat attacks on key Iranian energy sites.
Iran retaliated by targeting regional energy infrastructure, including an attack on Qatar's Ras Laffan Industrial City, which processes around a fifth of the world's liquefied natural gas, causing damage that will take years to repair.
'Participation in aggression'
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper during a phone call that allowing the US to use British military bases was equivalent to participating in aggression.
“The United States and the Israeli regime attacked our country, contrary to all international principles and rules,” he said, according to a statement on Telegram.
“These actions will definitely be considered as participation in aggression and will be recorded in the history of relations between the two countries,” he said of the US military's use of British bases.
Ms Cooper expressed concern over the economic impact of the conflict and tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, Mr Araghchi's statement added.
Iran has attacked and otherwise caused disruption to ships passing through the strait that it has deemed to be allied with the US and Israel.
Meanwhile, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said a reported hit to an American F-35 fighter aircraft symbolises the “collapse of an order”. His comment followed reports that a US jet was struck by Iranian fire on Thursday, forcing it to make an emergency landing at a regional base.
“The F-35 was not just a fighter jet but a statue of the US military’s invincibility and arrogance,” Mr Ghalibaf said on X. “This symbol was struck for the first time in the world.”
An F-35 fighter jet made an emergency landing at a US base in the Middle East and officials are investigating reports that it may have been hit by Iranian fire. If proved true, it would mark the first such incident.
