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US and Iran trade threats to unleash 'hell' as search for US airman continues
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US President Donald Trump has threatened that "all hell would rain down on" Iran if it did not make a deal, an ultimatum that Tehran has rejected. Senior Iranian military officer, Gen Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, echoed Trump's rhetoric, saying "the gates of hell will open for you". On Saturday Iran fired more missiles at the Gulf States, Iraq and Israel, with falling debris from intercepted missiles causing damage. Since then, more strikes have been reported in Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE overnight. The threats from the US and Iran came as both countries searched 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. Iranian state media reported that at least four people were killed in a US-Israeli airstrike in the same region being searched for the missing US weapon systems officer. Missile strikes hit telecommunications towers in the city of Dehdasht, Tasnim news agency, which is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, reported. Unverified videos on social media show hundreds of people heading to a mountainous area in southwestern Iran to join the search for the missing American. Iranian officials have been urging citizens to help find the missing crew member "alive" and are offering bounties for his capture. A US A-10 Warthog aircraft that was part of an initial search-and-rescue mission for the downed jet was also shot and damaged, but its pilot was rescued after they ejected over the Gulf. On 27 March Trump had 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. Iran waved off the threats and rejected Trump's demand. Gen Aliabadi, of Iran's central military command, said Trump's threat was a "helpless, nervous, unbalanced and stupid action". Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesperson for Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, added: "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." US and Israel continued its bombardment of Iranian military, energy and other industrial sites on Saturday. In Kuwait, an Iranian drone attack damaged two power generation stations and water desalination plants, the local government said. A statement said the power plants were now offline. Earlier attacks caused significant damage to a government office complex and a fire at the Kuwaiti oil ministry. Meanwhile Israel said it was targeted by missiles launched from Iran and that the military had intercepted them. On Saturday Trump shared a video on his Truth Social platform which he said showed a "massive strike" on the capital Tehran. However, the video appeared to be 24 hours old. Trump claimed in his post that "many of Iran's Military Leaders, who have led them poorly and unwisely, are terminated, along with much else", following the strike. There has been no response from Tehran to Trump's claims, nor have the US provided further details to the post. A major petrochemical hub in south-western Iran was struck, state media reported. Five people were killed and 170 were injured, it reported. The Israeli military said the strike on the facility in Mahshahr occurred earlier on Saturday. Israel said it was used for producing materials for explosives and other weaponry. Iran also said the area around its Bushehr nuclear power plant had been attacked for the fourth time during the war. One of the plant's employees was killed in the attack, Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation said. It blamed the US and Israel for the attack, but neither country has confirmed carrying it out. Bushehr is Iran's only operational nuclear power plant and was completed with Russia's help. The International Atomic Energy Agency - the UN's nuclear watchdog - said it had been informed of the strike and had expressed "deep concern". "No increase in radiation levels was reported," it wrote on X. It said nuclear power plant sites and nearby areas "must never be attacked" and called for "maximum military restraint" to avoid a nuclear accident. The Iranian statement on the Bushehr attack said the main parts of the plant did not appear to be damaged and its operation had not been "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 198 people remaining in the plant 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 28 February, two days after a third round of indirect US-Iran nuclear talks in Geneva. Residents say they support the administration's immigration agenda - but not its plans to build a detention centre in their backyard. Two men have been arrested over the shooting of a seven-month-old baby in Williamsburg. The niece and grand-niece of Qasem Soleimani are in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, officials said. A former US marine tells the BBC the priority of any recovery team would be to look for signs of life. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi calls the plan a "stupid notion that would be nothing more than a waste of taxpayer dollars".
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