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11:37
Iran Targets Kuwait Airport, Bahrain Desalination Plant
Iran continued its retaliatory attacks on Arab countries hosting US bases in the Persian Gulf on March 8, targeting Kuwait International Airport and a desalination plant in Bahrain.
The latest attacks also claimed the lives of two Kuwaiti border guards, bringing the death toll in the conflict in the southern Persian Gulf country to 16, according to the AFP news agency, citing the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry.
According to the agency, after large explosions were heard on March 7 in the cities of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Manama in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait have reported new attacks on their territory.
Bahrain's Interior Ministry announced on March 8 that a desalination plant in the country had been targeted following an Iranian drone attack.
Bahrain has accused Tehran of indiscriminately targeting civilian infrastructure with a deliberate agenda.
In a region facing chronic shortages of drinking water and low annual rainfall, this marks the second desalination plant to be targeted in the past week.
According to Ahmad Nafisi, deputy political and security governor of Hormozgan Province in Iran, the US military attacked one of the desalination plants on Qeshm Island last week. The claim drew immediate concern from Kaveh Madani, director of the United Nations Water Institute.
"The desalination plant and part of the Qeshm water and electricity facilities, which supplied between 12,000 and 15,000 liters of water daily to Qeshm Island and its affiliated villages, have been hit. Currently, water supply is facing challenges in 30 villages in the central, Hara and Shahab districts of Qeshm," Nafisi said.
Madani, while warning about the consequences of such actions, described the strike as "very dangerous."
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11:06
Wladimir Van Wilgenburg: Kurdish Groups Need US 'Guarantees' Before Iran Offensive
The United States is considering arming Iranian Kurdish opposition groups based in neighboring Iraq, according to reports, with the aim of fomenting an uprising inside the Islamic republic.
The possibility of the United States supplying weapons to the exiled groups and supporting potential cross-border ground attacks in western Iran comes amid a joint US-Israeli aerial campaign against Tehran, launched on February 28.
RFE/RL spoke to Iraq-based Kurdish expert Wladimir van Wilgenburg, who said the Iranian Kurdish groups are deeply cautious about becoming entangled in the US-Israeli war on Iran.
"These Kurdish groups will not launch an offensive if they don't have any guarantees for any form of political recognition," said van Wilgenburg.
To read the interview, clickhere.
Iranian Kurdish fighters from the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) take part in a training session at a base on the outskirts of Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, on February 12.
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10:42
Israel Targets F-14 Fighter Jets At Isfahan Airport
The Israeli Army announced on March 8 that it had targeted Iranian F-14 fighter jets at Isfahan Airport the day before.
"Reconnaissance and defense systems that were considered a threat to our Air Force aircraft were also attacked," themessage on Xadded.
On March 7, news and photos of an explosion and bombing in the city of Isfahan were published.
Iran purchased 80 F-14s from the United States in the 1970s, when it was an ally of Washington's, of which 79 were delivered to Iran. The United States has been withdrawing its F-14s since 2006.
The Israeli Army also announced on March 7 that it had destroyed "16 Quds Force aircraft" at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport that were purportedly delivering weapons to Hezbollah.
An Iranian Army F-14 fighter jet (file photo)
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09:43
Iranian Jews In Israel Speak Of Pain And Hope Amid Conflict
TEL AVIV -- Bijan Bahordari has two flags in the window of his fast-food restaurant: the blue-and-white Israeli Star of David and that of pre-revolutionary Iran, the green-white-red tricolor with a golden lion and sun in the center.
After ladling stuffed peppers, rice, and a rich red sauce into a takeaway container for a customer, he stopped to talk about what it's like to witness his adopted homelandat war with the land of his birth.
"I wish and I hope that they finish the regime now. And I am waiting to go back there. Seventeen years, I lived there. And I remember everything," he told RFE/RL. "In the morning, I check my phone, the radio, the TV -- it doesn't matter what."
To read the full report by RFE/RL's Ray Furlong, clickhere.
