Schools, water, industry: What civilian targets have US, Israel, Iran hit?  - Guyana Inquirer – Daily Guyana

Since launching their military offensive on Iran on February 28, the United States and Israel have carried out thousands of strikes across the Middle East nation of about 90 million people, targeting military as well as civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and residential buildings. Iran says more than 2,000 people have been killed in US-Israeli strikes on roughly 90,000 civilian sites, including the attack on a school in the city of Minab on the first day of the war, which has spread to Lebanon, where Israel has been accused of extending its “Gaza playbook”. Israeli forces have killed more than 72,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including hundreds of medics and aid workers, during their genocidal war.

Iran has also carried out retaliatory strikes on military, industrial, civilian and energy facilities in Israel, killing at least 19 people and wounding thousands. Tehran has also carried out attacks on Gulf nations that host the US bases, where at least 25 people have been killed. At least 13 US soldiers have also been killed in Iranian attacks.

Israeli and US strikes have expanded to include civilian facilities such as power and water desalination plants, drawing an Iranian response. On Sunday, Iran also targeted a desalination plant in Kuwait, raising concerns in the Gulf nations, which overwhelmingly depend on desalinated water. We break down some of the key civilian targets the US, Israel and Iran have hit so far: School in Iran The war on Iran began on February 28 with a strike on an elementary girls’ school, Shajareh Tayyebeh (The Good Tree), in the city of Minab in southern Iran.

At least 170 people, most of them girls aged between seven and 12 years, were killed when the missiles struck the school. President Donald Trump denied that the US had attacked the school.

However, several independent investigations by media organisations, including Al Jazeera, and rights groups, including Amnesty International, have said the attack was likely deliberate and that a US-manufactured Tomahawk missile was likely used in the attack.

In retaliation, on March 1, Iran struck Israel, killing at least nine people in the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh. Universities in Iran On March 28, the Iran University of Science and Technology was hit by what Iranian media said were targeted Israeli-US strikes. It remains unclear what the damage and casualties from the strike look like.

A day later, a university in Iran’s central city of Isfahan said it was hit by US-Israeli air strikes for the second time since the war erupted, leaving four university staff members wounded. After these strikes, according to Iranian state media, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it would attack universities tied to the US and Israel across the Middle East in retaliation. On Sunday, in a post on X, the US Embassy in Baghdad warned that Iran and its proxies “may intend to target US universities in Baghdad, Sulaymaniyah, and Dohuk, as well as other universities perceived as connected to the United States” and advised US citizens to leave Iraq immediately.

Energy facilities In retaliation for the US and Israel’s strikes, Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz, which has led to a disruption in global oil and gas supplies, and many countries have begun tapping into their strategic oil reserves to avoid an economic crisis. While the world’s focus has been on this strait, and negotiations on how to reopen it are ongoing, attacks on energy infrastructure in Iran and across the Gulf region are also continuing, further upending global energy supply. On March 8, Israel hit Iran’s oil facilities for the first time since the war started, killing at least four people.

The Aghdasieh oil warehouse in northeast Tehran, Tehran oil refinery in the south, Shahran oil depot in the west of Tehran, and an oil depot in Karaj city were the key facilities targeted. Witnesses said oil from the Shahran depot also leaked into the streets. Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi also described seeing black raindrops on his windows early the next day.

Israel said it had struck “a number of fuel storage facilities in Tehran” that were used “to operate military infrastructure” in the March 8 attack. It provided no proof for its claims. Israel adopted similar tactics in Gaza, targeting schools and hospitals after accusing the facilities of being used by Hamas fighters.

Most of their accusations later turned out to be false. On March 18, Israel struck Iran’s critical South Pars gasfield. South Pars is part of the world’s largest natural gasfield, which spans 9,700sq km (3,745sq miles), and is shared by Iran and Qatar.

Trump has said neither the US nor Qatar had any involvement in or prior knowledge of Israel’s initial strike on the South Pars field. Iran retaliated by launching missiles and drones at targets across the Middle East, including energy infrastructure in nearby Arab Gulf states. On March 2, Iranian drones struck an energy facility in Ras Laffan belonging to QatarEnergy, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer.

QatarEnergy immediately announced that it had halted LNG production following the attacks. Qatar’s LNG exports represent 20 percent of the global market. Iranian officials have, however, publicly denied targeting QatarEnergy.

On March 19, Iranian missiles again struck an LNG facility in Ras Laffan Industrial City in northern Qatar, hours after Israel had struck the South Pars gasfield. Doha reported that the attack caused “extensive damage”. The attack wiped out about ⁠17 percent of Qatar’s LNG export capacity, causing an estimated $20bn in lost annual revenue, QatarEnergy CEO Saad Sherida al-Kaabi told the Reuters news agency.

Saudi Arabia On March 2, Saudi Arabia shut down operations at the Ras Tanura plant, its biggest domestic oil refinery operated by Saudi Aramco, after a fire broke out at the facility that officials said was caused by debris from the interception of two drones. Iranian officials have publicly denied targeting Saudi Aramco. United Arab Emirates On March 2, a fire broke out at Mussafah fuel terminal in southwest Abu Dhabi after it was struck by a drone.

A day later, falling debris from a drone interception caused a fire at the Fujairah oil terminal along the eastern coast of the UAE. No injuries were reported. On March 17, oil loading at the port of Fujairah was halted partly after an Iranian drone attack caused a fire at the export terminal, while operations at the Shah gasfield remained suspended after an earlier attack, officials said.

Fujairah, which lies just outside the strait and is typically the outlet for more than 1 million barrels per day of the state company’s Murban crude, is still operating but at reduced capacity, according ‌to ⁠Kpler, a data and analytics firm. On March 3, multiple Iranian drones struck fuel tanks and a tanker at the port of Duqm, with at least one direct hit on a fuel storage tank, causing an explosion. On the same day, a drone strike was recorded at Salalah port, which handles fuel and industrial minerals.

On March 20, Iranian drones struck Kuwait’s largest oil refinery, Mina al-Ahmadi, for the second time. In the second attack, fires broke out across multiple units at the refinery, which processes about 730,000bpd oil.