DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Israel’s defense minister said on Wednesday that the Israeli military killed Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib.
Israel Katz announced Khatib’s killing and said that “significant surprises are expected throughout this day on all the fronts,” without elaborating.
Khatib’s killing follows Israel killing top Iranian security official Ali Larijani and the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force.
The U.S. Treasury had sanctioned Khatib in 2022, over the Intelligence Ministry “engaging in cyber-enabled activities against the United States and its allies.”
Khatib “directs several networks of cyber threat actors involved in cyber espionage and ransomware attacks in support of Iran’s political goals,” the Treasury said at the time.
The Treasury also called Iran’s Intelligence Ministry in another round of sanctions “one of the Iranian government’s main security services which is responsible for serious human rights abuses.”
“Under his leadership, the (Intelligence Ministry) has cracked down on a large number of human rights defenders, women-rights activists, journalists, filmmakers, and members of religious minority groups,” it said.
The Intelligence Ministry “has also aggressively persecuted individuals reporting on human rights abuses and violations in Iran, as well as their families, and subjected detainees to torture in secret detention centers during his tenure.”
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran lashed out following the killing of one of its top officials in an airstrike with attacks on its Persian Gulf neighbors and Israel on Wednesday, using some of its latest missiles to evade air defenses and killing two people near Tel Aviv as the war in the Middle East showed no signs of slowing.
Israel kept up intense pressure on Lebanon with strikes it said targeted Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, hitting multiple apartment buildings in Beirut and killing at least a dozen people.
In Iran, the Bushehr nuclear power plant complex was hit by a projectile the night before but there were no injuries and the plant suffered no damage, the International Atomic Energy Agency said after receiving a report from Tehran. The IAEA chief Rafael Grossi reiterated his call "for maximum restraint during the conflict to prevent risk of a nuclear accident."
Since the United States and Israel attacked Iran to start the war on Feb. 28, Iran has been targeting the energy infrastructure of its Gulf Arab neighbors, as well as military bases, as part of a strategy to drive up oil prices and put pressure on Washington to back down.
Tehran also is keeping up its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping lane through which a fifth of the world's oil transits, giving rise to growing concerns of a global energy crisis.
The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, remained stubbornly over $100 per barrel in early trading Wednesday, up more than 40% from the start of the war.
Iran executes man it says spied for Israel
Iran executed a man on charges of spying for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, according to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency. The report identified him as Kourosh Keyvani and alleged he “provided images and information on sensitive locations” to Israel.
Activists and rights groups have warned since Iran’s nationwide protests in January that the Islamic Republic could begin conducting mass executions. Iran violently suppressed the protests through violence that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands detained.
Later Wednesday, Mizan said a judiciary complex in Larestan, a county in southern Fars province, was hit by an airstrike during working hours, blaming it on the U.S. and Israel. It said staff and civilians were killed and wounded but the "exact number is still unknown."
Iranian strikes Gulf countries
Iran on Wednesday attacked Saudi Arabia's vast Eastern Province, home to many of its oil fields, as well as Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said a projectile caused a small fire at its base in the UAE near Dubai but caused no injuries. Explosions were heard near Al Minhad Air Base, used by Western nations as a transit hub for the wider Mideast.
Missile alerts sounded again later in Dubai as interceptors exploded overhead across the city-state.
Saudi Arabia shot down a ballistic missile targeting the area of the Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts American forces and aircraft, and two drones targeting Riyadh's diplomatic quarter, which houses the U.S. Embassy and other foreign missions.
Iran has vowed to continue to throttle shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean. Since the war started, a few ships have gotten through — some Iranian, but also vessels from India, Turkey and elsewhere. Iran insists the waterway is open, just not to the U.S. or many of its allies.
U.S. Central Command said the U.S. military fired multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator bombs Tuesday on Iranian missile sites along Iran’s coastline near the strait.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been growing increasingly frustrated that no allies have stepped forward after he asked others to send ships to help open the strait again, posted on social media Tuesday that “WE DON'T NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”
Iran launches multiple-warhead missiles at Israel
Responding to Israel's killing of Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and one of the country's most powerful figures, the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said Wednesday it had targeted central Israel with multiple-warhead missiles, which have an increased chance of evading missile defense systems and can overwhelm radar tracking systems.
Iran's Guard said the force launched the Khorramshahr-4 and Qadr multiple-warhead missiles to avenge Larijani’s killing. Footage filmed by The Associated Press showed at least one missile releasing cluster munitions over Israel.
Israel said two people were killed in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv.
Larijani, a former parliamentary speaker, was a senior policy adviser to the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on strategy in nuclear talks with the Trump administration. Larijani was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in January for his role "coordinating" Iran's violent suppression of nationwide protests.
Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s Basij militia, was also killed in an Israeli strike on Tuesday. Soleimani was sanctioned by the U.S., the European Union and other nations, over his role in suppressing dissent for years through the Basij.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad also came under fire for the second day in a row early Wednesday, two Iraqi security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment.
Pro-Iran militia groups have been regularly attacking American targets in Iraq since the war started. On Tuesday, a drone cashed inside the embassy compound in Baghdad.
Renewed Israeli strikes in Lebanon
Israel flattened an apartment building in central Beirut about an hour after issuing an evacuation notice — the fourth time the building was targeted. Israel's military claimed it was being used by Hezbollah to store “millions of dollars intended to finance its activities,” without providing evidence.
Overall, 10 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in central Beirut, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. Another two people were killed in an airstrike in Lebanon's western Bekaa valley, it said.
The Israeli army also said it had launched a wave of strikes targeting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon “in response to firing into Israeli territory.” There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
Israeli strikes have displaced more than 1 million Lebanese — roughly 20% of the population — according to the Lebanese government, which says 912 people have been killed and 2,221 wounded. In Israel, 14 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed.
More than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran since the conflict started Feb. 28, according to the Iranian Red Crescent.
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Rising reported from Bangkok, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Bassem Mroue and Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed to this report.