President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Tehran had 48 hours left to reach a deal or face “all hell” as US and Iranian forces scrambled to find a downed US airman.
Trump’s latest threat came after an attack near an Iranian nuclear power plant prompted evacuations and as Tehran announced new attacks in the region, with the Revolutionary Guards saying they struck a merchant ship in Bahrain suspected of being linked to Israel.
The war erupted more than a month ago with US-Israeli attacks on Iran, sparking a retaliation that has spread the conflict across the Middle East and rattled the global economy — notably by closing the Strait of Hormuz, a vital conduit for oil and gas.
“Remember when I gave Iran 10 days to make a deal or OPEN THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ,” Trump wrote on Social Truth, referring to an ultimatum issued on March 26.
“Time is running out – 48 hours before all Hell reigns (as) upon them.”
Tehran said on Friday it had shot down an F-15 fighter jet, and US media reported that US special forces had rescued one of its two crew members, while the other was still missing.
Iran’s military also said it shot down a US A-10 ground attack jet in the Persian Gulf, with US media saying the pilot of that plane was rescued.
Local Mehr news agency on Saturday quoted the deputy governor of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, Fattah Mohammadi, as saying that the search for the missing pilot included “the presence of popular and tribal forces alongside military forces and is still ongoing”.
He added that “last night people shot with rifles at enemy helicopters and did not allow them to land”.
Images posted on social media and verified by AFPTV showed Iranian police shooting at a US helicopter in southwestern Iran as US forces searched for the plane.
Mohammad Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, mocked the Trump administration, saying “the war they started has now been reduced from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can someone find our pilots?'”
“What incredible progress, absolute genius.”
Retired US Brigadier General Houston Cantwell, who has 400 hours of combat flight experience, said a pilot’s training likely begins before he or she parachutes to the ground.
“My priority would be, first of all, to hide because I don’t want to be caught,” he said. AFP.
Bushehr nuclear power plant
An attack near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant on Saturday killed a guard and prompted Russia, which partly built the facility and helps operate it, to announce it was evacuating 198 workers.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that continued attacks on the power plant on the southern coast could eventually lead to radioactive fallout that would end life in GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) capitals, not Tehran.
Bushehr is significantly closer to Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar than to the Iranian capital.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, wrote in X that no increase in radiation levels had been reported in the country, but still expressed “deep concern” at what he said was the fourth such attack in recent weeks.
NPP (nuclear power plant) sites or nearby areas should never be attacked,” he said.
There were other attacks in Tehran, where one AFP the reporter saw a thick haze of gray smoke covering the horizon.
“This war was not about freedom… we just ended up stuck with something even more vicious,” said 31-year-old Faezeh. AFP through messaging app from Tehran.
“They bomb randomly, there is no sign of any specific targets these past few days.”
Maryam, a 35-year-old from Khansar in Isfahan province, said Iranians are divided between those who hope for an end to their government and those who fear economic disaster more.
“Honestly, I’m very scared for our future,” she said AFP. “Things are a disaster right now. Mass layoffs, widespread closings … everything seems overwhelming.”
Attacks from all sides have increasingly targeted economic and industrial countries, raising fears of wider disruption of global energy supplies.
US-Israeli strikes on Saturday hit a petrochemical plant, a cement plant and a commercial terminal on the Iran-Iraq border, where one person was reported killed.
Iran has retaliated with missile and drone strikes against Israel and US allies in the Persian Gulf.
Shrapnel from intercepted drones injured four people in Bahrain on Saturday and two buildings in Dubai were hit by debris, including one that houses US cloud computing firm Oracle, authorities said.
On their Sepah News website, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also said they had targeted a merchant ship, the MSC Ishyka, “owned by the Israeli regime and flying the flag of a third country” in Bahrain’s Khalifa Bin Salman port.
Explosions in Beirut
On another front, Israel’s military said on Friday it had struck more than 3,500 targets across Lebanon in the month since the latest round of fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah began.
Lebanese state media reported that Israel destroyed a bridge in the Bekaa region, and local media said a second bridge was hit after Israel said it would hit them.
A AFP reporter heard two loud explosions in Beirut early Saturday and saw smoke coming from one of them.
A hospital in the Lebanese coastal city of Tire was damaged by Israeli attacks on nearby buildings that wounded 11 people, the health ministry said.
The Israeli military later issued an emergency evacuation warning to the city’s residents ahead of further planned attacks.
Tens of thousands of people have fled Tire but about 20,000 remain, including 15,000 displaced from surrounding villages.
