Middle East war enters seventh day as Israel strikes Beirut

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The raging Iran war, which has spread across the Middle East and beyond, entered its seventh day Friday after Israeli forces announced a “next phase” in the conflict and bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs.

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The Israeli military had earlier issued an unprecedented evacuation warning for the entire area — “save your lives and evacuate your residences immediately” — that sent residents fleeing in panic.

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The war has been felt as far away as the Sri Lankan coast, where a US submarine torpedoed an Iranian warship, and Azerbaijan, which threatened retaliation after a drone hit an airport.

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On the political front, US President Donald Trump rejected the possibility of Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, replacing his slain father, dismissing him as a “lightweight”.

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“I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy,” Trump told Axios in an interview, drawing a comparison to Venezuela, where interim president Delcy Rodriguez has cooperated with him after the United States ousted her boss Nicolas Maduro in a military raid.

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“Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran,” Trump told the publication, threatening more war in the future if a better alternative were not found.

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The remarks suggest a willingness to work with someone from within the Islamic republic rather than toppling the government entirely, despite Trump’s repeated exhortations for Iranians to rise up and take back their country.

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– Beirut strikes –

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Lebanon was dragged into the widening conflict on Monday, when Hezbollah attacked Israel to avenge the killing of Khamenei.

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Israel responded with air strikes and sent ground troops into some Lebanese border villages, and on Thursday it targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs, saying it was “striking Hezbollah infrastructure”.

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The Israeli warning that preceded the strikes sent people fleeing from the area, with massive traffic jams on the outskirts of the suburbs as people fired guns in the air, urging residents to leave as soon as possible.

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On a Beirut beach, hundreds of families, many of them scared and angry, milled around after leaving, having nowhere else to go.

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“We fled from the suburbs, we were humiliated,” one man told AFP, declining to give his name.

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Lebanese authorities say at least 123 people have been killed since Monday, with 683 wounded and at least 90,000 displaced.

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– From Sri Lanka to Azerbaijan –

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On Iran’s borders, neighbouring Azerbaijan warned that a drone attack on an airport “will not go unanswered”, raising fears of another country entering the war.

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Iran denied being behind the strike and blamed Israel, but that did not stop Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev from accusing Tehran of “terrorism”.

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Australia, meanwhile, deployed two military aircraft to the theatre, and Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said he would not rule out his armed forces taking part.

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Following fresh strikes on Iran’s capital, AFPTV images showed blackened vehicles and mangled buildings, with smoke still rising from some.

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“We’re going through a very important page of our history and I’m not afraid,” a 30-year-old Tehran resident told AFP. “Hope is the only thing that we have right now.”

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An Iranian state-run foundation said the death toll from US and Israeli strikes on the country had risen to 1,230, a number AFP could not independently verify.

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The US military has reported the deaths of six of its personnel since the war began Saturday.

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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi struck a defiant tone Thursday, saying Tehran had not sought a ceasefire and did not “see any reason why we should negotiate with the US”.

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Regarding the possibility of a ground invasion, he told US broadcaster NBC News: “We are confident that we can confront them, and that would be a big disaster for them.”

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Israel, meanwhile, said 60 percent of Iran’s missile launchers and 80 percent of its air defence systems had been destroyed.

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Announcing a “next phase” in the campaign, army chief Eyal Zamir said Israel had “additional surprises ahead”.

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The latest Iranian missile barrage sparked a wave of explosions across Tel Aviv, and firefighters worked to contain a blaze at a residential building near Israel’s commercial hub on Friday.

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– Gulf under fire –

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The conflict has not spared the rich Gulf monarchies, usually seen as a haven in a volatile region, as Iran has lashed out at cities and energy infrastructure.

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Thirteen people, seven of them civilians, have been killed in countries around the Gulf since the war began, including an 11-year-old girl in Kuwait.

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Bahrain said early Friday that Iran had targeted two hotels and a residential building in the capital Manama, but that there was “no loss of life”.

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Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted three ballistic missiles launched towards an air base.

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And Qatar said Thursday that it intercepted a missile attack as loud blasts, described by AFP journalists as the most intense yet, reverberated across Doha, with thick black smoke billowing across the horizon.

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Falling debris from an intercepted drone injured six people in Emirati capital Abu Dhabi, officials added.

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