US deploys powerful bunker-buster bombs on Iranian missile sites as Tehran pledges retaliation over security chief’s killing.

By Muhammad MubashirPublished On 18 Mar 2026
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  • The US military says it has used powerful "deep penetrator" bombs to hit Iranian missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz

  • Iran's army chief warns of a "decisive" response after the death of security chief Ali Larijani, the most senior official to be killed since Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei

  • His death deepens a crisis at the heart of Iran's leadership, 

  • Overnight retaliatory strikes by Iran and its allied militia groups continue - in Israel, two people are dead in Tel Aviv, after suffering "severe shrapnel injuries", the ambulance service says

  • In Lebanon, Israel launches a series of deadly strikes in central Beirut and orders evacuations in southern Lebanon, as it continues its offensive against Hezbollah

  • The blast flattened a building in Beirut's city centre, an area surrounded by businesses and hotels, writes Wyre Davies, who is at the scene

  • In Iran, residents are living in constant dread, with a woman in Tehran telling the BBC's Fergal Keane she is too scared to go to work as leaving her home "is like gambling with my life"