US strikes hit petrochemicals hub, nuclear plant as Iran shoots down 160 enemy drones

Attack on Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant kills one: Iran shoots down another US fighter jet as hunt for F-15 pilot goes on: Trump says F-15 loss will not affect negotiations with Tehran: Fresh air strikes hit Israel, Iran, Lebanon, Gulf countries, targeting economic and industrial sites

Published: 08:45 AM, 4 Apr, 2026
Featured News, Middle East
US strikes hit petrochemicals hub, nuclear plant as Iran shoots down 160 enemy drones
Caption: Rescue workers inspect the debris of destroyed buildings at the site of an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese area of Maarakeh.–AFP

US-Israeli strikes on Saturday targeted a petrochemicals hub in southwestern Iran, hitting several companies in the area, as Iranian forces said they have so far shot down more than 160 armed enemy drones.

"Explosions occurred in the Special Petrochemical Zone of Mahshahr," said Fars news agency, citing the deputy governor for Khuzestan province.

Fars said the "US-Israeli attack on Mahshahr" hit three companies in the area, while Tasnim news agency said "the extent of the damage remains unknown".

Meanwhile, commander of the Joint Headquarters of the National Air Defence has said Iranian soldiers are ready to ambush “enemy fighter jets and drones” with “modern indigenous methods and equipment” built to hunt fifth-generation aircraft and advanced unmanned systems, Al Jazeera reported on Saturday.

In a statement carried by the IRNA news agency, Brigadier General Alireza Elhami said the Iranian air forces have already destroyed several advanced fighter jets, dozens of cruise missiles and more than 160 drones, including the Hermes and Lucas unmanned aircraft. He added that the downing of these aircraft was “the result of tactics and the use of new equipment and innovations in defence systems”, which he said has caused confusion for the enemy.

Attack on Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant kills one

A projectile from a US-Israeli attack hit near the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran on Saturday, killing one person, state media reported.

"Following the US-Zionist criminal attacks, this Saturday morning, around 8:30 am, a projectile hit the area near the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the southwest," said the official IRNA news agency.

It added that one of the building's guards was killed but noted that there was no damage to the plant's facilities.

Iran shoots down another US warplane

Iranian and American forces were racing each other early Saturday to recover a crew member of the first US fighter jet to go down inside Iran since the start of the war.

Tehran said it had shot down the F-15 warplane, while US media reported American special forces had rescued one of its two crew members, with the other still missing.

Iran's military also said it downed a US A-10 ground attack aircraft in the Gulf, with US media saying the pilot was rescued.

The war erupted more than a month ago with US-Israeli strikes on Iran that killed supreme leader Ali Khamenei, triggering retaliation that spread the conflict throughout the Middle East, convulsing the global economy and impacting millions of people worldwide.

US Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the loss of the F-15, but White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: "The president has been briefed".

President Donald Trump told NBC the F-15 loss would not affect negotiations with Iran, saying: "No, not at all. No, it's war."

- 'Valuable reward' -

A spokesperson for the Iranian military's central operational command said "an American hostile fighter jet in central Iranian airspace was struck and destroyed by the IRGC Aerospace Force's advanced air defence system".

"The jet was completely obliterated, and further searches are ongoing."

An Iranian television reporter on a local official channel said anyone who captured a crew member alive would "receive a valuable reward".

Later Friday, Iran's semi-official Mehr News Agency reported that a US Black Hawk helicopter was also hit by a projectile in Iranian airspace while searching for the pilot of the downed US fighter jet.
Later, US officials confirmed that two US rescue helicopters involved in the search and rescue efforts for an F-15 fighter jet downed earlier on Friday were struck by Iranian fire.

Crew members aboard the helicopters were unharmed, said an NBC News report, citing a US official

The US military has announced the loss of several aircraft during Iran operations, including one tanker that crashed in Iraq and three F-15s shot down by Kuwaiti friendly fire.

Retired US brigadier general Houston Cantwell -- who has 400 hours of combat flight experience -- said key goals for downed pilots include determining their location and figuring out how to communicate.

"My priority would be, first of all, concealment, because I don't want to be captured," he told AFP.

- Blown-out windows -

Fresh strikes meanwhile hit Israel, Iran, Lebanon and Gulf countries -- and large blasts rocked northern Tehran, an AFP journalist said. Israel said it had launched a wave of strikes in the Iranian capital, alongside parallel attacks in Beirut.

Strikes by all sides have increasingly targeted economic and industrial sites, raising fears of wider disruption to global energy supplies.

In the area around a bridge west of Tehran that was targeted by the United States, an AFP reporter saw a villa and residential buildings with blown-out windows -- but no military installations.

According to the martyrs foundation of Alborz province, cited by the official IRNA agency, the attack killed 13 civilians and wounded dozens.

- Ex-FM urges deal -

Writing in the US journal Foreign Affairs, Iran's former foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said Tehran should make a deal with Washington to end the war by offering to curb its nuclear programme and reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for sanctions relief.

Iran has virtually blocked the key waterway since the war began, where one-fifth of the world's oil and natural gas normally passes.

Of the few ships that have managed to cross, most have had links to Iran, with 60 percent of commodity-bearing ships crossing the strait either coming from Iran or heading there, an AFP analysis of maritime data showed.

Iranian military spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari warned that Iran would increase its own attacks on energy sites in the region in response to threats from Trump of attacks on infrastructure.

A drone attack on a refinery owned by Kuwait's national oil company on Friday sparked fires, while a separate Iranian attack damaged a power and desalination complex.

Bahrain said four of its citizens sustained "minor injuries" as a result of shrapnel from an intercepted Iranian drone.

And one person was killed and four others injured after a fire at a gas complex in the United Arab Emirates caused by falling debris from an intercepted attack.

- Bridge destroyed in Lebanon -

The Israeli military said Friday it had struck more than 3,500 targets across Lebanon in the month since fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah began.

It added that it would attack two bridges in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa region "in order to prevent the transfer of reinforcements and military equipment".

Lebanese state media later reported that Israel destroyed one bridge in the region.

Lebanon's health ministry said Thursday that 1,345 people had been killed -- and 4,040 wounded -- since the start of the war.

Hezbollah has so far not announced its losses.

US-Israeli strike on trade terminal kills one

A US-Israeli strike on Saturday hit a trade terminal on the Iran-Iraq border, killing one person, Iranian media reported.

"At 11:00 am, the commercial terminal of the Shalamcheh border crossing in the southwestern city of Khorramshahr was targeted in an air attack by American and Zionist enemies," Mehr news agency said, citing Khuzestan province deputy governor Valiollah Hayati.

ISNA news agency quoted Hayati as saying that "an Iraqi driver was killed and two Iranian workers were wounded" in the attack.

After the strike, Iraq suspended trade and passenger movement through the Shalamcheh crossing, the Iraqi News Agency quoted Border Ports Authority chief Omar Al-Waeli as saying.

Air attack hits cement plant in Iran

A US-Israeli strike on Saturday hit a cement plant in southern Iran, media reported, adding that operations were not interrupted.

"The American-Zionist attack against the cement plant of Bandar Khamir did not leave any casualties," said Tasnim news agency, quoting Ahmad Nafisi, the deputy governor of the southern Hormozgan province.

He added that operations at the plant have "continued as normal".

Israeli strikes damage hospital in Lebanon

A hospital in the coastal Lebanese city of Tyre was damaged by Israeli airstrikes on nearby buildings that wounded 11 people, the health ministry said on Saturday.

The director of the Lebanese Italian Hospital told the state-run National News Agency (NNA) that it would "remain open to provide the necessary medical care" despite the damage.

Strikes destroyed two buildings nearby, an AFP correspondent saw, shattering windows and causing suspended ceilings to collapse in the hospital, the facility's management said.

A series of attacks hit the Tyre region on Saturday, including one on its port that struck a small boat and damaged others moored nearby, the AFP correspondent said.

Israel has been carrying out strikes across Lebanon and launched a ground invasion in the south after Hezbollah entered the war in the Middle East on the side of its backer Iran on March 2.

Tens of thousands of people have left Tyre, but around 20,000 remain, including 15,000 displaced from surrounding villages, despite Israeli evacuation warnings covering most of the city and a broad swathe of southern Lebanon.

The NNA also reported that Israeli forces abducted a man in Shebaa, near the Israeli border in the east, at around 3:00 am on Saturday.

- Iran executions -
Iran executed two men convicted of membership in a banned opposition group and carrying out disruptive actions aimed at overthrowing the Islamic republic.

The executions were the latest in a series targeting members of the banned People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), after four other convicted members of the group were executed earlier in the week.

- Four injured in Bahrain -
Shrapnel from intercepted drones injured four people in Bahrain, authorities said, as Iran pressed its attacks on its Gulf neighbours.

Separately, two buildings in Dubai were hit by debris, including one housing the US cloud computing firm Oracle, authorities in the United Arab Emirates said.

- Blasts in Tehran -
Several blasts shook northern Tehran, an AFP journalist heard, as the Middle East war neared its sixth week.

The blasts occurred at about 7:30 am (0400 GMT) and were accompanied by a loud sound from above as if coming from a drone, said AFP's correspondent in the Iranian capital.

- Israel strikes Beirut -

The Israeli military said Saturday it had begun striking "Hezbollah infrastructure sites" in Lebanon's capital Beirut.

An AFP journalist heard two loud explosions in the capital within a half-hour period early Saturday and saw smoke billowing from one of them.

Local media reported two airstrikes on the southern suburbs.

- Missiles fired toward Israel -

The Israeli army said its air defences responded to missiles fired from Iran, which medics reported wounded one person.

Israel's Magen David Adom emergency services said a 45‑year‑old man was treated for minor injuries from glass shrapnel in the central city of Bnei Brak and taken to hospital.

- Man killed in Syria -

State media in Syria said Israeli fire killed a man in Quneitra province in the country's south near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The SANA agency said the man had been killed in an attack by "an Israeli tank", while state television said a car was targeted.

- One killed at UAE gas site -

An Egyptian national was killed and four others wounded after a fire at a gas complex in Abu Dhabi, caused by falling debris from an intercepted attack, the government media office said.

Two of the four people hurt were from Egypt, while the others were from Pakistan, it said.

- Lebanon university warning -

The US embassy in Lebanon, where the Tehran-backed Hezbollah militant group is at war with Israel, said that Iran and allied groups could seek to target universities in the country.

Among other universities, Lebanon is home to the American University of Beirut, one of the most prominent US institutions in the region, whose campus and hospital are in the heart of the capital.

- Trump seeks $1.5tn defence budget -

Trump asked lawmakers to approve a massive $1.5 trillion defence budget for 2027, as the United States faces rising costs from its war with Iran and mounting global security commitments.

The proposal would lift Pentagon spending by more than 40 percent in a single year -- the sharpest increase since World War II.

- UN peacekeepers wounded -

The United Nations force in Lebanon said a blast at one of its positions had wounded three peacekeepers, two of them seriously -- the third such incident in a week.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is deployed in the country's south near the border, where Israel and Hezbollah have been at war for a month and where Israeli troops are carrying out a ground invasion.

- 'Immediate ceasefire' urged -

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East war during a phone call, the Kremlin said.

"It was noted that intense military action is leading to serious negative consequences not only regionally but also globally, including in the areas of energy, trade, and logistics," it added.

- Tankers cross Hormuz -

Three tankers, including one co-owned by a Japanese company, crossed the Strait of Hormuz by hugging close to Oman's shore, a rare transit route as Iran maintains a chokehold on the key war-torn passageway.

Their passage was notable because they sailed close to the Omani Musandam Peninsula to the south of the waterway, maritime traffic data showed Friday.

Peacekeepers wounded in Lebanon are Indonesian: UN

The three United Nations peacekeepers wounded in a blast in southern Lebanon on Friday were from Indonesia, UN officials said, just days after three other Indonesians were killed in separate explosions.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said the blast occurred inside a UN facility near El Adeisse on Friday afternoon, injuring three peacekeepers who were rushed to a hospital. Two were seriously wounded.

UN Information Centre (UNIC) in Jakarta said the "origin of the explosion" was unknown but identified the wounded peacekeepers as Indonesian.

Friday's incident came just days after an Indonesian peacekeeper died when a projectile exploded on March 29 in southern Lebanon, where Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting since Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2.

A UN security source told AFP on condition of anonymity Tuesday that fire from an Israeli tank was responsible.

A day later, two more Indonesian peacekeepers died after an explosion struck a UNIFIL logistics convoy, also in Southern Lebanon.

The bodies of the three fallen peacekeepers are scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Saturday evening, according to the military.

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