US-Israeli strikes hit nuclear plant, pilot missing after Iran downs US jet

HEADLINES IN BRIEF

• Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they targeted an Israel-linked ship in the Strait of Hormuz in a drone attack, setting it on fire, adding that the ship was called the MSC Ishyka. 

• Iranian state media said a US-Israeli attack hit near the country's Bushehr nuclear power plant killed one of the site's guards but did not damage the facility. 

• Iranian and US forces raced each other to recover a crew member from the F-15 US warplane that went down inside Iran on Friday. US media reported United States special forces had rescued one of its two crew members. Iran's military also said it downed a US A-10 ground attack aircraft in the Gulf, with US media saying the pilot of that plane was rescued.

• Iran's oil exports from the key island of Kharg have increased even as the war with the United States and Israel rages, Iranian media reported. READ MORE BELOW

• 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. READ MORE BELOW

• Iran has authorized the passage of vessels carrying essential goods to its ports,  including those currently in the Gulf of Oman, through the Strait of Hormuz, according to a letter cited by Iran's Tasnim news agency. 

• Iran's foreign minister has said the country has "never refused to go to Islamabad" for mediation talks and that it cares about "conclusive and lasting end to the illegal war that is imposed on us."

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

• An attack killed a fighter in the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) in Iraq, near the Syria border, the former paramilitary coalition said, blaming a US-Israeli strike. 

• Iraq closed its southern Shalamcheh border crossing with Iran after airstrikes on the Iranian side killed an Iraqi citizen, security sources told reporters.

• Shrapnel from intercepted drones injured four people in Bahrain, authorities said. 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.

• 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."

IN DETAIL

Iran's Kharg oil exports rise

Iran's oil exports from the key island of Kharg have increased even as the war with the United States and Israel rages, Iranian media reported. 

"Following the visits carried out and meetings held on Kharg island, I must say that in recent days not only have oil exports not decreased, but they have increased," ISNA news agency quoted Moussa Ahmadi, the head of the Iranian parliament's energy commission, as saying. 

Kharg Island, located off Iran's western coast, is a vital oil export terminal for the country. 

US President Donald Trump has recently threatened to destroy the island if a deal to end the war is not reached soon and the Strait of Hormuz does not "immediately" reopen. 

On March 13, the US said it had bombed military targets on the island but refrained from hitting oil infrastructure there. 

Iranian officials have in recent days warned that the United States may be planning a ground attack, particularly targeting one of Iran's islands, and have repeatedly cautioned against such a move. 

The warnings came as the USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship carrying around 3,500 Marines and sailors, arrived in the Middle East last week.

Israeli airstrikes damage Lebanese Italian hospital

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.

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, 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.

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.