The U.S. and Israeli militaries bombarded Iranian military targets and vital energy infrastructure Sunday, as Iran tried to project stability by announcing that top clerics were finalizing their selection of a new supreme leader.
There was no sign of an off-ramp for the fighting. Water desalination plants came under attack in Iran and on the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain over the weekend and strikes on facilities that serve civilians threatened to affect the lives of millions of people across the Middle East.
The Pentagon said a seventh U.S. service member had died, a week after being wounded in an Iranian attack on a military base in Saudi Arabia where U.S. troops were stationed. And President Donald Trump warned in an interview with ABC News that whoever is selected as the next supreme leader “is not going to last long” without the approval of the United States.
Iranian state television said that the country’s top clerics were close to naming a successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the ruler killed in the opening blow of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran last weekend. The channel did not say who the new leader might be, but officials who spoke to The New York Times previously said Mojtaba Khamenei, the ayatollah’s son, was the front-runner.
U.S. Central Command urged Iranian civilians to stay at home, suggesting that the United States could strike densely populated areas from which it said Iranian forces often launch drone strikes and ballistic missiles.
Earlier Sunday, dense, oily clouds from strikes on fuel depots settled over Tehran, Iran’s capital, according to residents and video. “With the fire it felt like night became day, and then with all the smoke the day turned back into night again,” said Aryan, 33, a resident who requested anonymity to avoid possible retribution by Iranian authorities.
Israel’s military said it had targeted the fuel depots because they were being used by Iran’s military, and a senior U.S. military official said U.S. forces were targeting sites affiliated with Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, as well as missile sites and air defenses.
Iran retaliated by firing barrages of missiles and drones across the Persian Gulf and Israel, some of which hit critical civilian infrastructure. Gulf countries depend almost entirely on desalination for drinking water.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said the strike on the facility in Bahrain came only after the United States had hit an Iranian desalination plant on Qeshm Island, affecting the water supply for 30 villages. “The U.S. set this precedent, not Iran,” he said on social media.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
— Migrant worker deaths: Saudi Arabia reported its first civilian deaths: Two foreign residents — one Indian national and one Bangladeshi national — were killed, and 12 more Bangladeshi residents were injured, after a “military projectile” fell on their residence in the Kharj region, according to the kingdom’s civil defense authority. Migrant workers have been among the most heavily affected by Iranian attacks in the Persian Gulf countries.
— Death toll: The death toll in Iran remained shrouded in uncertainty. Last week, the Red Crescent Society said nearly 800 people had been killed, but it has not provided an official update to that figure in recent days. On Friday, Iran’s ambassador to the U.N. put the number of dead at more than 1,300.
— School strike: Trump on Saturday blamed Iran for an airstrike that hit an elementary school in Iran on Feb. 28, killing scores of children. A Times visual investigation indicates that the school was most likely hit by a U.S. airstrike.
— Beirut attacks: An Israeli airstrike hit a hotel in central Beirut on Sunday, killing at least four people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The Israeli military said it had attacked commanders in the Quds Force special forces, a branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that helps manage Iranian ties to proxy militias across the region. The death toll from the Israeli military operation in Lebanon has risen to almost 400, the Lebanese Health Ministry said Sunday.
— Hezbollah funerals: Villagers in eastern Lebanon buried eight people, most identified as Hezbollah fighters, killed in fighting with Israeli forces overnight into Saturday. Mourners praised the dead for their defiance of Israel.
— Gas prices: As oil has jumped in price on the global market, so has gasoline at U.S. service stations. Since the start of the conflict, average gas prices have risen 16%, after going up another 4 cents a gallon Sunday, according to data from the AAA motor club.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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