US President Donald Trump threatened that "all hell would rain down on" Iran if it did not make a deal, prompting Tehran to respond with similar rhetoric. An Iranian military spokesman warned that the entire region would become "hell" if the US and Israel continued to escalate the conflict. These threats came alongside additional missile strikes by Iran on Saturday targeting Gulf States, Iraq, and Israel, with falling debris causing damage.
Meanwhile, US and Iranian forces are searching for a missing American crew member after a US F-15 fighter jet was shot down over southern Iran on Friday. The pilot has been rescued, according to US media reports. Iranian officials are urging citizens to find the missing crew member "alive" and are offering rewards for his capture. A US A-10 Warthog aircraft that was part of the search-and-rescue mission for the downed jet was also shot and damaged, but its pilot was rescued.
On March 27, Trump announced he was pausing attacks on energy plants for 10 days for Iran to "make a deal." On Saturday, he reiterated his threat on Truth Social that "all Hell will reign down on them" if they failed to do this or to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. Later, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, stated: "If hostility escalates, the entire region will turn into hell for you; the illusion of defeating the Islamic Republic of Iran will become a quagmire into which you will sink."
The US and Israel continued their bombardment of Iranian military, energy, and other industrial sites on Saturday. Trump shared a video on his Truth Social platform which he claims shows a "massive strike" on the capital Tehran; however, the video appeared to be 24 hours old, and Iran has not commented. Iran reported that the area around its Bushehr nuclear power plant had been attacked for the fourth time during the current war.
One of the plant's employees was killed in the attack, according to Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, which blamed the US and Israel, though neither country has confirmed carrying it out. Bushehr is Iran's only operational nuclear power plant, completed with Russia's assistance. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had been informed of the strike and expressed "deep concern," noting "no increase in radiation levels" and emphasizing that nuclear power plant sites and nearby areas "must never be attacked," calling for "maximum military restraint" to avoid a nuclear accident. Iran's statement on the Bushehr attack indicated the main parts of the plant did not appear damaged and its operation was "not affected." Moscow has evacuated many of its staff from the plant; the head of Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom, Alexei Likhachev, said on Saturday that the evacuation of the remaining 198 people had started that morning. Iran's nuclear programme has long been a point of contention, leading to extensive international sanctions. The US-Israeli war with Iran began on February 28, two days after a third round of indirect US-Iran nuclear talks in Geneva.
Source: www.bbc.com