Tehran11:02 a.m. March 29
Tel Aviv10:32 a.m. March 29
Iran War Live Updates: Tehran Hit by Heavy Airstrikes as U.S. Marines Arrive in Middle East
Airstrikes pummel residential areas and a university in Iran’s capital. Houthi forces in Yemen entered the widening conflict with a missile attack on Israel.
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
- Amit Elkayam for The New York Times
- David Guttenfelder/The New York Times
- David Guttenfelder/The New York Times
- Amit Elkayam for The New York Times
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Ako Rasheed/Reuters
- Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
Tehran was hit with an intense wave of airstrikes on Saturday that damaged residential neighborhoods and struck a prestigious university, according to Iranian media and aid groups, as Israel and the United States kept up aerial attacks they said were aimed at crippling Iran’s industry and its ability to keep fighting.
Early Sunday, the Israeli military said it had carried out strikes on the Iranian capital a day earlier, targeting weapons storage and production sites, temporary command centers, air defense systems and observation posts used by the Iranian regime.
The bombardment, among the heaviest single-day waves of strikes recorded since the war began a month ago, came as an expeditionary force of 2,500 U.S. Marines attached to a group of ships equipped for amphibious assault arrived in the Middle East. The Houthis, an Iran-allied rebel group in Yemen, joined the widening war on Saturday with an unsuccessful missile attack on Israel. The group said it had a conducted a second wave of attacks on Israel later in the day.
President Trump said on Friday that indirect negotiations with Iranian leaders were underway in an effort to reach a truce, but the Marines give U.S. commanders more options for securing the Strait of Hormuz, which Iranian forces have effectively closed, sending oil prices soaring and rattling world markets.
Though the Iranian Navy has been largely crippled by the U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign, Iran can still deploy fast boats with mines or explosives from the strait’s rugged coastline and small islands.
The Houthis’ ballistic missile attack on Israel failed to penetrate air defenses there, but the rebel group, which controls much of Yemen, could further rattle global markets. During the war in Gaza, the Houthis disrupted international shipping by menacing vessels in the Red Sea. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, said that the attacks from Yemen would continue “until the aggression ends.”
Here’s what else we’re covering:
Iran: A human rights monitoring group said the number of attacks recorded on Saturday in Iran was among the highest for a single day since the start of the war on Feb. 28. The group, Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA, said it had documented 701 strikes over 24 hours on Saturday, resulting in at least 24 civilians being killed and 88 injured. Three-quarters of the airstrikes hit in the capital Tehran, the group said. Since the start of the conflict, HRANA has recorded at least 1,551 civilian deaths, including 236 children.
Lebanese journalists killed: An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Saturday killed two prominent Lebanese television journalists and a cameraman, according to their news organizations and Lebanese officials. The attack, which Israel said was targeting a reporter it accused of being a Hezbollah operative, was condemned by the country’s president and rights groups, and it raised questions about the scope of Israel’s targets. Read more ›
Shipping: Pakistan’s deputy prime minister said on Saturday that Iran had agreed to let 20 vessels sailing under the Pakistani flag through the Strait of Hormuz. Two ships will cross per day, Ishaq Dar said in a statement on social media. “This is a welcome and constructive gesture by Iran and deserves appreciation,” he said. There was no immediate confirmation from Iran.
Americans injured: A U.S. official said on Saturday that around two dozen U.S. service members had been wounded in an earlier Iranian strike on a military base in Saudi Arabia. The attack on the Prince Sultan Air Base seriously injured two of the soldiers and damaged two military planes, according to U.S. officials. It was one of the most serious breaches of U.S. defenses since the war began in late February.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps threatened to respond to the bombing of the Iran University of Science and Technology in downtown Tehran overnight by attacking Israeli and American colleges in the Middle East.
According to Iranian state media, several research and educational buildings were damaged at the university.
Some of the United States’ Persian Gulf allies host branches of American colleges. In the previous war between Israel and Iran last June, at least one Israeli university was badly damaged in an Iranian missile attack.
The Israeli Air Force said on Sunday that it had carried out another wave of strikes targeting infrastructure in Tehran and other areas of Iran.
Earlier Sunday, the Israeli military said it also struck the Iranian capital the previous day. The Israeli military said it targeted weapons storage and production sites, temporary command centers, air defense systems and observation posts used by the Iranian regime. The capital sustained one of the heaviest days of bombardment since the war began a month ago, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Delegations have begun arriving at Pakistan’s Foreign Office in Islamabad for two days of talks among the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt. Turkey and Egypt’s top diplomats are in the capital, with Saudi Arabia’s expected by midday local time.
The talks are part of Pakistan’s latest effort to mediate the war in the Middle East, with the foreign ministers scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan.
An Israeli soldier was killed in action in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said early Sunday. Sgt. Moshe Yitzchak HaCohen Katz, 22, from New Haven, Conn., was killed in an incident in which three other soldiers were moderately injured, the military said. No further details were provided.
Aluminium Bahrain said its facility was targeted in an Iranian attack on Saturday, leaving two employees with minor injuries, according to a statement reported by Bahrain’s state news agency. The company, known as Alba, said it was assessing the extent of the damage.
Separately, Emirates Global Aluminium said on Saturday that its Al Taweelah site in Abu Dhabi sustained significant damage in Iranian missile and drone attacks, injuring several employees, none of them seriously.
A human rights monitoring group said the number of attacks recorded over the past day in Iran was among the highest for a single day since the start of the war on Feb. 28. The group, Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA, said it had documented 701 strikes over 24 hours on Saturday, resulting in at least 24 civilians being killed and 88 injured. Three-quarters of the airstrikes hit in the capital, Tehran, the group said. Since the start of the conflict, HRANA has recorded at least 1,551 civilian deaths, including 236 children.
The Houthis, an Iranian-backed militant group in Yemen, entered the war by launching a ballistic missile at Israel on Saturday, as an expeditionary force of 2,500 U.S. Marines arrived in the Middle East.
Saturday’s escalation also included a wave of Israeli strikes on central Tehran, the Iranian capital. The attacks came while President Trump gave reassurances that there were “very strong talks” with Iran seeking a diplomatic solution.
The Marines are part of the U.S.S. Tripoli amphibious ready group, which also consists of 2,500 American sailors and is meant to be a part of Mr. Trump’s effort to open the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil route largely blocked by Iran, and ease global oil prices.
Here’s what else happened as the war entered its fifth week:
Saudi Arabia: An Iranian strike injured approximately two dozen U.S. service members on the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. It was one of the most serious breaches of American air defenses since the war’s start.
Most of the service members who were hurt suffered traumatic brain injuries, he said. The U.S. military intercepted several missiles and drones, but at least two missiles and a drone struck the base, he added.
At least two service members were seriously injured, and two aircraft were damaged in the attack, according to multiple U.S. officials who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Israel: The Iran-allied Houthis joined the war, launching a ballistic missile at Israel that was successfully intercepted by the country’s aerial defense systems. The Houthis are Shiite militants who control much of Yemen and have been at war with Saudi Arabia, which backs Yemen’s government, for over a decade. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, said in a video statement that the group’s attacks would continue “until the aggression ends against all the fronts of the resistance.”
Iran: The Israeli military bombarded Tehran with a “wide-scale wave of strikes,” damaging residential areas and civilian facilities. Iranian state media outlets said that several research and educational buildings at the Iran University of Science and Industry were among the struck sites. The Israeli military said it was targeting naval and military infrastructure in the Iranian capital.
Lebanon: An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed two prominent Lebanese television journalists and a cameraman, according to their news organizations and Lebanese officials. They worked for Al-Manar, a network owned by the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, and Al-Mayadeen, a broadcaster supportive of Hezbollah.
The Israeli military said it had targeted a correspondent for Al-Manar, accusing him of being an intelligence operative for Hezbollah. The three victims were traveling together in a car at the time of the attack. In a statement, Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, condemned the killings as a “blatant crime” that “violated the most basic rules of international law.”
Persian Gulf: Iran has permitted several oil tankers from Thailand and Pakistan to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s deputy prime minister, said two ships would cross per day.
The United Arab Emirates noted a significant increase in Iranian attacks over the past day, saying it engaged with 20 ballistic missiles and 37 drones launched from Iran. Authorities said debris from an intercepted ballistic missile caused a fire and injured six people in Abu Dhabi, the U.A.E. capital.
Multiple drones struck Kuwait International Airport, causing significant damage to its radar system, the country’s aviation authorities said. There were no reported casualties. Two drones also struck near Oman’s commercial port of Salalah, injuring a worker. The Iranian military said it had been targeting an American “military support vessel” some distance from the port.
The Houthis, an Iranian-backed militia in Yemen, said in a statement that they had conducted a second wave of attacks on Israel on Saturday with a “barrage of cruise missiles and drones” targeting key military sites. There was no immediate, public confirmation from the Israeli military of the attacks, which the Houthis have vowed to keep up.
Airstrikes damaged residential areas and civilian facilities in Tehran on Saturday, including a prestigious university, according to Iranian media and aid groups.
Residents of the capital described particularly intense waves of strikes on Friday night into Saturday, with the sounds of explosions heard across the city.
Nassrin, a 62-year-old resident of Tehran, said the ground had shaken overnight with the force of the blasts. “I can’t even put into words what it was like in Tehran last night,” Nassrin, who asked that her last name not be used out of fear of retribution, said in a text message. “We got no sleep, it was hours and hours of explosions.”
The Israeli military said on Saturday evening in the Middle East that it had completed a “wide-scale wave of strikes” targeting naval and military infrastructure in Tehran. It said the strikes were part of a “broader phase aimed at deepening the damage to the core systems” of Iran’s government.
On Saturday, U.S. Central Command said it had struck more than 11,000 targets in Iran since the war began. The U.S. military has not been specific about the locations of its strikes, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not held a news conference since March 19 to answer questions from journalists.
Video footage shared by BBC Persian showed razed buildings and flames at the Iran University of Science and Industry on Saturday, a university in downtown Tehran. According to Iranian state media outlets, several research and educational buildings were damaged at the university, though no casualties were reported in that specific strike.
Esmaeil Baghaei, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, claimed in a social media post on Saturday that the strike on the university was “among many universities and research centers deliberately attacked” since the war began.
Videos posted by the Red Crescent Society of Iran showed emergency teams responding to damage in residential areas of Tehran after what it described as airstrikes on Saturday. The exact locations of the affected neighborhoods were not immediately clear from the reports.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency, a Washington-based human rights group, has reported that more than 1,492 civilians have been killed in Iran, out of more than 3,300 total deaths since the start of the U.S.-Israeli military campaign.
Israeli and U.S. officials have said strikes in Iran are aimed at military targets, including sites and individuals linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. But both targeted killings, as well as strikes on police stations and other security or military institutions, are often happening in densely packed residential neighborhoods with high-rise apartment buildings.
The airstrikes do not just hit the targeted buildings, but can cause significant damage to residential units in the area. Across the country, tens of thousands of residential units have been destroyed since the start of the war, according to the Red Crescent.
Israel announced this week that it would intensify attacks on Iran’s infrastructure. The Israeli military has said that the industries struck are often “dual use,” with both civilian and military applications, or have ties to the government and armed forces. In recent days, two major steel production complexes have been hit.
Farnaz Fassihi contributed reporting.
On Saturday morning, phones across Dubai pinged with public safety alerts: Potential missile threats were incoming, and people should seek immediate safety.
On the same day, the Dubai Racing Club issued a warning of a different kind. Attendees to the Dubai World Cup horse race would not be permitted to wear ripped jeans or torn clothing of any kind, “even if considered designer fashion.”
It also offered advice — ladies were encouraged to wear hats.
Few things better illustrated Dubai’s surreal efforts to maintain normalcy amid the Middle East war than the richest day in horse racing’s happening undeterred on Saturday. The event’s nine races awarded a total of $30.5 million in prize money.
Many of the Gulf States have been striving to protect their image as safe havens for leisure and luxury.
Dubai and the United Arab Emirates as a whole have taken it further, aided by the mostly successful interceptions of the over 2,000 Iranian attacks.
Still, there are limits. At least eight civilians have been killed in the Emirates, including one in Dubai, and the strikes have damaged luxury high rises, the Fairmont The Palm hotel and the airport. On Saturday, the Emirates said there had been a significant increase in attacks from Iran, adding that it had intercepted 20 ballistic missiles and 37 drones launched during the past day. Debris from an intercepted ballistic missile caused a fire in Abu Dhabi, injuring six people, the Abu Dhabi government said.
Other events, such as Art Dubai and the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, have been postponed.
The Dubai Racing Club, which organizes the race, did not respond to questions about whether it considered postponing the race or about the security precautions in place.
In a statement, the club said that it “works closely with all relevant authorities to monitor conditions and ensure the highest standards of safety and comfort for all participants and guests.”
Described by one Emirati newspaper as Dubai’s “biggest social spectacle,” the Dubai World Cup has perhaps become more synonymous with style than sport in its 30th year.
Tatiana Maltseva, 40, had not seen the dress code advisory before she and her family arrived at the Meydan Racecourse. When her friend saw her dressed in a yellow sundress sans hat, she asked, “Didn’t you read the rules?”
Few of the women in the affordable grandstands, where Ms. Maltseva was located, appeared to have taken the headwear advice seriously. Most of the visible hats were red Emirates Airlines baseball caps worn by men poring over the race booklet and filling out scorecard predictions.
Ms. Maltseva, a wedding planner who left Russia with her family three years ago because of the war with Ukraine, said her only reference point for such an event was the polo match scene from the movie “Pretty Woman.”
“And people were dressed really nice,” she said, making a show of looking around her at the dressed-down crowd in the grandstands. She laughed and shook her head.
Instead, that glamour was mostly in the V.I.P. sections above, where Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, was in attendance, or down on the grounds where judging took place for several categories of “best dressed.”
Ms. Maltseva was ready to leave after the second race, but her friends had filled out predicted results for the third race in hopes of winning prizes. So they stayed to watch the race.
As the horses and jockeys came around the final stretch, the horse that had been leading for much of the race was suddenly overtaken by the rest of the pack.
All around her, men leaped from their seats, cheering and pumping their fists as Fairy Glen, owned by Dubai’s crown prince, took the lead at the final moment and won.
A bit later, near the track, Deepshika Sriram, dressed in a navy dress and a matching blue lace headpiece, looked around for the best view of the fifth race.
Ms. Sriram, a 22-year-old compliance officer, said she attended her first horse races while studying in Britain. Now back in Dubai, she was attending her first Dubai World Cup.
“You have to fit in with the attire,” she said, touching the edge of her hat. “I feel like whatever I was wearing wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t wear a hat.”
An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Saturday killed two prominent Lebanese television journalists and a cameraman, according to their news organizations and Lebanese officials. The attack was condemned by the country’s president and rights groups, and it raised questions about the scope of Israel’s targets.
The Israeli military said it had targeted Ali Choeib, a correspondent for Al-Manar, a Lebanese television network owned by Hezbollah. The military accused him of being an intelligence operative for the Iran-backed militant group, but did not respond to requests for evidence to support that claim.
Fatima Ftouni, a correspondent with Al-Mayadeen, another Lebanese broadcaster whose editorial line is generally supportive of Hezbollah, and Mohammad Ftouni, a cameraman, were also killed in the strike, according to Al-Mayadeen and Al-Manar.
The three were traveling together in a car close to the southern town of Jezzine at the time of the attack, the outlets said.
Lebanon’s health minister, Rakan Nassereddine, said late Saturday that a paramedic had been killed in a second strike. The Israeli military did not respond immediately respond to a request for comment on the deaths of the paramedic or Ms. Ftouni and Mr. Ftouni.
In a statement, Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, condemned the killing of the journalists as a “blatant crime” that “violated the most basic rules of international law.” The Lebanese government now plans to file a complaint with the U.N. Security Council, according to Lebanon’s minister of information, Paul Morcos.
Mr. Choeib and Ms. Ftouni were fixtures on Lebanese television, particularly during the current war between Israel and Hezbollah. The conflict erupted earlier this month after the militant group fired rockets into Israel, opening a new front in the broader U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
The two journalists frequently reported from Lebanon’s southern border towns as Israeli forces have expanded their ground invasion there.
Both have expressed views in support of Hezbollah, which the United States designates as a terror organization, but it is also an established political party in Lebanon with support particularly among Shiite Lebanese.
The Israeli military accused Mr. Choeib of being part of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit, which has played a central role in the group’s long-running conflict with Israel. It also accused him of using his work with Al-Manar to expose Israeli military positions and disseminate propaganda for Hezbollah. Israel did not make similar claims against the other two journalists.
Hezbollah condemned what it described as the “deliberate” targeting of journalists and rejected what it called “false claims” by Israel, an apparent reference to the accusation that Mr. Choeib was a Hezbollah operative.
Legal experts and human rights groups say that expressions of support for an armed group such as Hezbollah do not make someone a legitimate target under the laws of war, unless they actively participate in hostilities.
“Just reporting on the advancement of Israeli troops or engaging in propaganda does not make someone a military target,” said Ramzi Kaiss, the Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. He added that the United States-based watchdog group has “documented repeated deliberate attacks on journalists in Lebanon, including those working for both international and Lebanese agencies, amounting to apparent war crimes.”
A British correspondent for RT, the Russian state broadcaster, and his cameraman were wounded last week in an Israeli strike on a bridge in southern Lebanon.
In 2023, Reuters cameraman, Issam Abdallah, was killed and six other journalists were injured in southern Lebanon when an Israeli tank fired on their position. The Committee to Project Journalists, a rights group, concluded that the killing was “an early example of the Israeli military deliberately targeting journalists for their work.”
Aaron Boxerman, Dayana Iwaza and Sarah Chaito contributed reporting.