Israeli strike hits military base south of Tehran

Loud blasts were heard Saturday in the Iranian capital, AFP journalists said, as fighting raged between the two foes for the ninth day.

It was not immediately clear whether the blasts heard in central and northern Tehran were the result of incoming Israeli strikes or Iranian air defence fire.

The Israeli military on Saturday said it launched a fresh wave of strikes in the area of southern Iran's Bandar Abbas, targeting drones storage sites and a weapons facility.

Israeli forces are "currently striking UAV storage facilities and a weapons facility in southwestern Iran in the area of Bandar Abbas," a military statement said.

An Israeli attack on Saturday in Iran's west killed at least five army personnel and wounded nine others, Iranian media reported.

"Five army officers were killed and nine others were wounded in today's attack by the Israeli regime on the western city of Sumar" in Kermanshah province, the Fars news agency reported, quoting a provincial official.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian warned of a "more devastating" retaliation should Israel's nine-day bombing campaign continue, saying the Islamic republic would not halt its nuclear programme "under any circumstances".

Israel said on Saturday it had killed three more Iranian commanders in its unprecedented offensive, while Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed the campaign had delayed Tehran's alleged progress towards a nuclear weapon by two years.

"We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat," Saar told the German newspaper Bild, asserting Israel would keep up its onslaught.

Israel and Iran have traded wave after wave of devastating strikes since Israel launched its aerial campaign on June 13, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon.

Iran denies seeking an atomic bomb, and on Saturday Pezeshkian said its right to pursue a civilian nuclear programme "cannot be taken away... by threats or war".

In a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Pezeshkian said Iran was "ready to discuss and cooperate to build confidence in the field of peaceful nuclear activities".

"However, we do not agree to reduce nuclear activities to zero under any circumstances," he added, according to Iran's official IRNA news agency.

Referring to the Israeli attacks, he said: "Our response to the continued aggression of the Zionist regime will be more devastating."

Israel's military earlier said that a strike in Qom, south of Tehran, killed Saeed Izadi, a top Revolutionary Guards official in charge of coordination with Palestinian militant group Hamas. Two other commanders were killed overnight, it added.

Israel said it had also attacked Iran's Isfahan nuclear site for a second time, with the UN nuclear watchdog later reporting that a centrifuge manufacturing workshop had been hit.

US President Donald Trump warned on Friday that Tehran had a "maximum" of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes as Washington weighed whether to join Israel's campaign.