The spokesman for Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard insisted Friday that Tehran was still building missiles, seeking to counter a claim by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it no longer could.
Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini also said the Iran war would go on. A short time later, Iranian state television reported Naeini was killed in an airstrike.
"These people expect the war to continue until the enemy is completely exhausted," the general said of the Iranian public. "This war must end when the shadow of war is lifted from the country."
The war persisted Friday in drawing Arab neighbors directly into the conflict, with heavy explosions shaking Dubai early in the morning as air defenses intercepted incoming fire over the city as people observed Eid al-Fitr, the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Bahrain's Interior Ministry reported a fire erupted Friday morning after shrapnel fell on a warehouse in the island kingdom, while Kuwait said it worked to intercept incoming Iranian fire. Saudi Arabia reported shooting down multiple Iranian drones targeting its oil-rich Eastern Province.
Israel hit the Iranian capital Tehran with airstrikes Friday morning. Activists reported sounds of the strikes around the city as Iranians marked Nowruz, the Persian New Year.
The morning attacks followed Israel's pledge the previous day to refrain from more strikes on a key Iranian gas field, while Iran kept up its wave of attacks on oil and gas facilities around the Gulf, which have caused millions of people to move into shelters and sent shock waves through the global economy.
The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, has spiked since Israel and the U.S. started the war with Iran. The death toll from Israeli strikes in Lebanon topped 1,000 people on Thursday during renewed fighting with the militant group Hezbollah.
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