Iranian cluster bombs smash into empty daycare, several other sites in Rishon Lezion

Mayor stresses city will keep all education facilities closed after 8 a.m. strike: ‘Look what time it happened; there could have been kids at this kindergarten’; no injuries reported in 4 salvos since midnight

Iran fired four ballistic missile salvos at Israel on Saturday since midnight, including one with a cluster bomb warhead that hit an empty kindergarten and other sites in central Israel’s Rishon Lezion, without any injuries reported.

The launches at southern and central Israel came as The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran fired two ballistic missiles at the Indian Ocean US-UK military base Diego Garcia, missing both times but indicating that Iran’s ballistic missile range was longer than acknowledged.

Meanwhile, Iran’s military threatened “heavy strikes” on a major Emirati cargo port should the United Arab Emirates allow attacks from its territory on two disputed islands in the Persian Gulf, near the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Kuwait also reported a missile and drone attack early Saturday and Saudi Arabia said it intercepted more than two dozen drones.

Iran has launched missile and drone strikes across the region in response to the bombing campaign that the US and Israel launched on the Islamic Republic on February 28 in a bid to destabilize its clerical regime and destroy its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

‘There could have been kids at this kindergarten’

Iran’s ballistic missile attacks on Israel since midnight triggered sirens in parts of southern and central Israel on Saturday, sending millions repeatedly into bomb shelters. The day’s fourth strike, at about 8 a.m., targeted central Israel and included a ballistic missile carrying a cluster bomb, according to rescue services.

Footage showed craters caused by the cluster munitions in Rishon Lezion, as well as damage at an empty daycare in which children’s toys and dolls were strewn among the rubble.

Rishon Lezion Mayor Raz Kinstlich told the Ynet news site at the daycare that the city would keep its education system closed “until we feel that our kids are secure,” noting that the strike “could just as easily” have happened on a weekday when the kindergarten was in session.

“You tell me if you would send your kids to a kindergarten like this,” he said. “Look what time it happened — there could have been kids at this kindergarten.”

Most Israeli educational institutions have been closed since the start of the war.

Failed Diego Garcia strike indicates Iran FM lied about missile range

Citing multiple US officials, The Wall Street Journal reported late Friday that Iran had fired two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia, both of which missed.

The report did not specify when the missiles were fired. The White House and the British embassy in Washington and the UK’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

According to the Journal, one of the missiles failed in flight, and the second was targeted by an SM-3 interceptor fired by a US warship, though it was unclear if the interception succeeded.

Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency later also reported that Iran had fired two ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia, calling the launch a “significant step … that shows that the range of Iran’s missiles is beyond what the enemy previously imagined.”

The base lies some 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) away from the Islamic Republic — a greater distance than that from Iran to major cities in central Europe such as Berlin and Vienna.

The Journal noted that Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had claimed in an interview last month that Iran had deliberately limited the range of its ballistic missiles to 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles), which falls short of most of Europe but includes the entire Middle East.

Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands is one of two bases Britain is allowing the United States to use for “defensive” operations in Iran.

American forces have stationed bombers and other equipment at the base, a key hub for Asia operations, including the US bombing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Britain has agreed to hand back the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after holding them since the 1960s, and maintains a lease for the base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands.

US President Donald Trump has slammed the decision.

Iran warns UAE over Hormuz islands, pledges safe passage for Japanese ships

The reports of the Iranian attack on Diego Garcia came after the UK government on Friday gave the US permission to use the base to carry out strikes on Iranian missile sites that are attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Shipping in the vital Persian Gulf waterway — through which a fifth of the world’s oil usually passes — has come to a virtual standstill after Iran threatened to attack vessels there.

The closure has sent energy prices soaring worldwide, and the US scrambling for international partners to help secure the strait.

On Saturday, Iran’s military warned the UAE against letting its territory be used for attacks on Abu Musa and the Greater Tunb islands, which are located in the Gulf near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz. The islands are controlled by Iran but claimed by the UAE, and have long been a source of dispute between the two countries.

“We warn the United Arab Emirates that if any further aggression originates from its territory against the Iranian islands of Abu Musa and Greater Tunb in the Persian Gulf, Iran’s powerful armed forces will subject Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE to heavy strikes,” the military’s operational command Khatam Al-Anbiya said in a statement carried by Tasnim news agency.

Gulf states have repeatedly denied Iran’s accusations that they were letting their territory be used by US forces to carry out attacks on the Islamic Republic.

Meanwhile, Araghchi told Japan’s Kyodo News that Tehran was willing to ensure safe passage for Japanese ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

“We have not closed the strait. It is open,” Araghchi claimed in a telephone interview published Saturday, insisting instead that countries attacking Iran face restrictions, while others were being offered assistance.

Japan, the world’s number-four economy and fifth-biggest importer of oil, imports 95% of its oil from the Middle East, with 70% passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

On Monday, Tokyo said it was beginning the release of its strategic oil reserves — among the world’s largest. The country holds reserves equivalent to 254 days of domestic consumption.

Members of the International Energy Agency agreed on March 11 to tap oil stockpiles to cushion the surge in prices caused by the war in the Middle East — by far the largest-ever response of its kind. The US has also temporarily lifted sanctions on some Iranian oil to ease upward pressure on prices.

Agencies contributed to this report.