Day 4: US-Israel strikes intensify in Iran, President’s office, IRGC command-and-control facilities bombed
New Delhi, Mar 3: The conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran entered its fourth day on Tuesday, with fresh strikes, mounting casualties and further rising fears of wider regional escalation, according to the BBC and other international media outlets.
Israel said it launched a new wave of “extensive airstrikes” targeting what it described as military sites in Tehran and Beirut. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the country’s air force struck “regime targets” in Tehran with “significant force” and was continuing efforts to degrade Iran’s missile-launch capabilities.
The Israeli military said its air force had carried out strikes on what it described as the Iranian regime’s leadership compound in Tehran. In a statement posted on Telegram, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said “numerous munitions” were dropped on the Presidential Office and the Supreme National Security Council, along with a military training institution and “additional key regime infrastructure”.
Local journalists from Iran said to the BBC that communication towers, broadcasting stations and parts of Tehran’s Grand Bazaar had been hit. The Israeli military has denied intentionally targeting civilian infrastructure, responding to allegations over damage to Gandhi Hospital in Tehran by saying the strike “was not targeted at the hospital.”
Iranian state media claimed a command-and-staff building at a US air base in Bahrain had been destroyed. The US military has not confirmed that specific claim but acknowledged continuing Iranian retaliatory strikes across the region, reports the international media.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it had destroyed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) command-and-control facilities, air defence systems, missile sites and drone launch platforms. It claimed US forces had struck more than 1,250 targets inside Iran and destroyed 11 Iranian vessels since the start of operations, though it provided no independent evidence. “We will continue to take decisive action against imminent threats posed by the Iranian regime,” CENTCOM posted on X as reported by the BBC.
CENTCOM confirmed that six US service members have been killed since the war began, all during Iranian retaliatory attacks over the weekend in Kuwait. It also said three US F-15E fighter jets were shot down in an apparent friendly fire incident during an Iranian assault. All crew members survived after ejecting safely.
On the Iranian side, the Iranian Red Crescent said at least 787 people have been killed nationwide since Saturday, with more than 1,000 attacks recorded. US-based Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRANA) put the civilian death toll at 742, including 176 children.
Iranian authorities said 13 soldiers were killed in a strike on a military base in Kerman province, while the ISNA news agency reported five members of the IRGC’s air force and navy were killed in Bushehr province.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that “the hardest hits are yet to come.” As bombardment continues across Iran and retaliatory strikes ripple through Gulf states, international observers warn the war risks spiralling into a broader regional conflict involving multiple actors. With threats to global oil supplies, mounting civilian casualties and increasingly aggressive rhetoric on all sides, the fourth day of fighting suggests the conflict is far from containment, and may yet reshape the strategic landscape of West Asia and surroundings.
