Monday, 16 March 2026
Monday, 16 March 2026
A strike on the Javadieh neighbourhood of southern Tehran on Friday hit a police station and several surrounding buildings.
Elham Movagghari, a resident of the area who spoke to journalists Sunday, said she was shocked by the attack.
"We were confused and didn't know what had happened," she said. "We just ran away."
Another resident, Hossein Ghardashi, said the strike threw him across the room.
"When I got up and came to my senses, I saw that two or three pieces of glass had gone into my face and head" he said.
Italy's defence chief says drone hit base in Kuwait housing Italian, US forces
Italy's chief of defence staff Gen Luciano Portolano said the attack on the Ali Al Salem base occurred on Sunday morning and destroyed an Italian drone inside a shelter on the base.
No Italian personnel were injured, he said, in comments posted on X.
Italian troops are stationed at the base as part of a coalition task force combating the Islamic State militant group.
The Chief of Defence Staff's post said the Italian task force's assets "had been pre-emptively reduced" in recent days due to the ongoing war. It said some personnel remain at the base to carry out essential activities. It did not say how many Italians remain.
For residents of Israel's north, missile fire continues
Some Israelis in northern Israel have little faith their communities will soon quiet down, after seeing the last Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire falter and fall apart. They fear the conflict thundering ahead could continue beyond the Iran war.
"There was a war, there was an agreement, and today again another war and there will be another agreement, and another war, and another agreement," said Ahmad Zbidat, a renovation foreman at a hotel in Metula, just across the border from Lebanon.
Some 100,000 Israeli troops have amassed along the UN-mandated Blue Line that divides the two countries, in an anticipated ground invasion. Israeli police officer thanks citizens for showing discipline' and entering safe rooms.
Security forces have flocked to the site where a missile fell in Tel Aviv, leaving a small crater in the ground. It was one of at least 23 sites that the Israeli rescue service United Hatzalah said were damaged in one of several barrages from Iran on Sunday.
Shlomo Shlezinger, head of operations for the Israeli police, said a few cars and a motorcycle were damaged but no one was injured or killed at the site.
"Everyone was inside the safe rooms," he said. "Thank you to all the civilians for their civilian discipline."
Israel maintains it has enough interceptors to sustain air defence against Iran
An Israeli military source told The Associated Press on Sunday that the country has enough interceptors to continue defending its skies against missiles from Iran.
The source spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military protocol.
The comment appeared to be an effort to tamp down growing speculation that Israel's vaunted air defense system is running low.
Interceptors are the missiles that Israel's air defense system uses to destroy incoming rockets before they hit populated areas.
Egypt calls Gulf leaders to discuss how to end conflict
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi made a series of phone calls Sunday, speaking with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani; Jordanian King Abdullah II; and UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Egypt's foreign minister is touring the Gulf region.
El-Sissi said in a statement that Egypt is intensifying efforts seeking a de-escalation of tensions in the region.
Iranian foreign minister says there's no reason' to talk with Trump's envoys
Abbas Araghchi told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that Iranian negotiators were in talks with US envoys when the decision to attack his country was made.
Araghchi said "we don't see any reason why we should talk with Americans" about how to end the war and that Iran has had no "good experience talking with Americans."
Araghchi says Iran is "open to countries who want to talk to us about the safe passage of their vessels" through the Strait of Hormuz and has been approach by "a number" of nations about that. He didn't name them.
Asked about the fate of his country's nuclear material, the minister said it was under rubble from attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities and "we have no plan to recover" it from there.
Hassett says US attack on Iran cost $12 bn
The US has spent about USD 12 billion on the ongoing war with Iran so far, Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett said on Sunday. He was speaking on CBS News' Face the Nation. "The latest number I was briefed on was 12," Hassett said.
Pentagon estimates provided to Congress said the war would cost $11.3 billion in its first week. Hassett did not specify the time frame for the $12 billion in spending.
Asked whether the U.S. will need to request more money from Congress, Hassett responded: "I think right now we've got what we need, whether we have to go back to Congress for more is something that I think that Russ Vought and OMB will look into."
Iran wants 'serious review' of Arab Gulf ties
Iran's relations with Arab Gulf states will require a "serious review" in light of the US-Israeli war on Iran, limiting the power of external actors so the region can become prosperous, Tehran's ambassador to Saudi Arabia told Reuters on Sunday.
Asked if he was concerned that relations would be harmed by the war, Ambassador Alireza Enayati said: "It's a valid question, and the answer may be simple. We are neighbors and we cannot do without each other; we will need a serious review."
"What the region has witnessed over the past five decades is the result of an exclusionary approach [within the region] and an excessive reliance on external powers," he said in a written response to questions, calling for deeper ties between the Gulf Cooperation Council's six members, along with Iraq and Iran.
Gulf Arab states have faced more than 2,000 missile and drone attacks since the outbreak of the war on February 28, with targets including US diplomatic missions and military bases but also critical Gulf oil infrastructure, ports, airports, hotels and residential and office buildings.
The United Arab Emirates, which normalized relations with Iran's arch-foe Israel in 2020, has faced the brunt of the attacks. But all Gulf Arab states have been impacted, and all have condemned Iran.
Netanyahu posts video in response to Iran rumours that he is dead
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video of himself getting a cup of coffee and chatting with his aide on Sunday, after rumours that he was dead or injured were aired by Iranian state media and spread online in Iran.
In the video, taken at a cafe in Jerusalem's outskirts and posted on Netanyahu's Telegram account, his aide asks him about the rumours.
Netanyahu responds with a pun on the word dead -- which in Hebrew slang can be used to describe "being crazy about" someone or something -- as he reaches for a cup of coffee.
"I'm crazy about coffee. You know what? I’m crazy about my people," Netanyahu tells the aide.
Reuters verified the video's location from file imagery of the cafe, which matched the interiors seen in the video. The date was verified from multiple videos and photos of Netanyahu's visit posted by the cafe on Sunday.
Pope Leo decries 'atrocious violence' in Iran war
Pope Leo made an impassioned plea on Sunday for an immediate ceasefire in the expanding Iran war, lamenting "atrocious violence" that he said had killed thousands of non-combatants and caused suffering across the region.
As the US-Israeli war on Iran enters its third week, the first US pope warned that violence would not bring the justice, stability and peace that the peoples of the region long for.
"For two weeks, the peoples of the Middle East have been suffering the atrocious violence of war," the pope said at his weekly Angelus prayer in St. Peter's Square.
"In the name of Christians in the Middle East and of all women and men of good will, I appeal to those responsible for this conflict: Cease fire!" Pope Leo said.
Leo added that the situation in Lebanon - ravaged by a war between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah - was also a cause of "great concern".
