Image source, Mehr News/WANA via Reuters

As we've just reported, Iran says the US and Israel have attacked a clinic near the site of a fatal school strike on the first day of the war.

What happened?

On the first day of the US-Israeli war with Iran, a strike hit Shajareh Tayyebeh school, located in Minab, southern Iran.

It killed at least 168 people, including about 110 children, according to Iranian officials. Funerals were held for the victims on Iranian state TV.

The girls school was located near an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) base which has previously been a target.

What's been said since?

Following the attack, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian called the incident a "barbaric act", adding to the "countless crimes committed by the aggressors".

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was "not aware" of any Israeli military operations in the area.

Weeks later, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US did not target civilians, and the issue was being investigated.

US media have reported that US military investigators believe American forces were likely responsible for hitting the school unintentionally - but that they have not reached a final conclusion.

Since then, UN Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has urged the US to conclude its investigation and publish its findings on the deadly attack.

Ghoncheh Habibiazad
Senior reporter, BBC Persian

A clinic located close to the Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab county - which was hit on the first day of the war - has been attacked, an Iranian official has said.

The Political, Security, and Social Deputy Governor Ahmad Nafisi, of the southern Hormozgan province, says the attack caused "damage to the storage facilities" at the Martyr Absalan Clinic.

Iran's Fars News Agency, which is affiliated to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), cites Nafisi as saying the US and Israel used "several drones" in the attack on the medical complex.

"Fortunately, this attack did not lead to any casualties," he says, adding an investigation into the extent of the attack is under way.

The area had been evacuated following the fatal strike on the primary school on 28 February - when the US and Israel launched their offensive against Iran. Iranian officials say the attack on the school involved two missile strikes in quick succession, killing at least 168 people, including about 110 children.

US media have reported that American military investigators believe its own forces were likely responsible for hitting the school unintentionally, while US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the matter is being investigated.

Nafisi adds: "Today the whole world knows that the area targeted by the enemy is by no means military, yet we are once again witnessing an attack on this area, which clearly proves the deliberate nature of the attack on Shajareh Tayebeh School in Minab and the killing of 168 pupils and teachers."

Image source, Reuters

Lina Sinjab
Middle East correspondent, reporting from Beirut

Three Lebanese journalists have been killed in a targeted Israeli strike on their media car in southern Lebanon, local media is reporting.

Ali Shoeib, reporter for Al Manar TV - a network operated by militant group Hezbollah - and Al Mayadin reporters Fatima and Mohamed Fetoni were killed in an air strike in the town of Jezzine.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the attack as a "blatant crime" that violates international law under which journalists should be protected during war.

Israel's military has confirmed it killed Ali Shoeib in a strike, but accuses him of being a Hezbollah-operative posing as a journalist.

This is the second time Israel has been accused of targeting journalists in Lebanon since the war broke out.

Last week, Mohammad Sherri - a prominent presenter at Al Manar TV - and his wife were killed in a targeted strike.

So far, more than 1100 civilians, including 120 Children and 42 paramedics, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon.

Many in Lebanon are worried that Israel is using similar tactics which it has been accused of deploying in Gaza - including the deliberate targeting of civilians, journalists and paramedics, which Israel has denied.

Vitaliy Shevchenko
Chief analyst, BBC Monitoring

President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of helping Iran attack US and UK military bases in the Gulf as well as a joint US-UK base on Diego Garcia, part of the Chagos Islands - officially known as the British Indian Ocean Territory.

Speaking to journalists, Zelensky read off his phone what he said was an intelligence report saying that Russian satellites had been spying on US military bases in the Middle East, the Diego Garcia base and oil wells across the Gulf.

Zelensky suggested that this intelligence had been passed on to Iran to assist with its attacks.

Commenting on the war in Ukraine, he said he was working to ensure that his country's ability to fight Russia was unaffected by the global energy crisis which erupted because of the war in Iran.

Answering a question from the BBC, President Zelensky said the Ukrainian army had enough fuel - for now.

Katy Watson
Reporting from Doha

Image source, Reuters

Qatar and Ukraine have signed a defence agreement which will enable the two countries to share expertise in countering threats from both missiles and drones.

It’s the latest in a round of deals and discussions that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has had on his whistlestop tour of the Gulf this week.

According to a statement from Qatar’s Ministry of Defence, the two sides discussed the security developments in the region and areas in which they could cooperate. An agreement was then signed by Ukraine’s Chief of the Armed Forces Lt Gen Andriy Hnatov and the Chief of Staff of Qatar Armed Forces Lt Gen Jassim bin Mohammed Al-Mannai.

The agreement will enable collaboration in technology as well as defence investments.

Ukraine wants to offer support to Gulf states that have come under attack in the past month since the war with Iran started (Ukraine prides itself on its drone expertise) but also wants more support from allies that could help support the war against Russia - allies with deep pockets and capacity to back Kyiv, especially with US attentions focused elsewhere right now.

Ghoncheh Habibiazad
Senior reporter, BBC Persian

Image source, Getty Images

Moving away from Zelensky's visit to the Middle East now, we can bring you the latest from Tehran:

Tehran has had another night of heavy strikes on the city. There was also rain and temporary power cuts in some parts of Tehran, I've heard.

"I saw that right beneath my window, the glass above my head was shaking hard, so I got up and went into the sitting room just in case it shattered and fell on me," a man in his twenties in Tehran tells me.

"It didn’t end there, and the strikes got worse. My family got so scared that they all screamed and ran out of the house."

There are still some I’m talking to who support the strikes. A man in his thirties tells me: "I still want it to keep going until the clerics are gone. I don’t have a problem with it. Might as well see it through to the end now that we’ve come this far."

It has been a month since the war started, and some are getting used to the sound of the strikes.

"I heard the strikes last night, but I was so tired that I went back to sleep. I went out to the park for a walk in the morning and also got a takeaway coffee," says a woman in her twenties in Tehran.

But with the strikes ongoing, more people have decided to leave the capital. "I’ve decided to go to northern Iran. It’s very relaxed and chill here. Compared to Tehran, it’s as if there’s no war," a woman in her twenties tells me.

Zelensky cultivating relationships in Middle East, as war takes spotlight off Ukrainepublished at 12:49 GMT

12:49 GMT

Katy Watson
Reporting from Doha

As we reported a little earlier, Ukraine’s president Volodomyr Zelensky has touched down in Qatar - the latest leg in his whistle stop tour of the Gulf region.

Ukraine’s had to become an expert in drone technology in the past few years of the war with Russia – and now, Kyiv’s looking to leverage that expertise by helping Gulf states counter Iranian drones that have attacked the region in the past month.

Earlier this week Ukraine signed a deal with Saudi Arabia and Zelensky also had meetings in the United Arab Emirates.

And what will Ukraine get out of these visits?

Well, building better relationships with Gulf states that have deep pockets could help Ukraine with much-needed air defence from Russia’s ballistic missiles.

And it couldn’t come at a more important time – with the war in the Middle East, US defence efforts are stretched and the spotlight has come off Ukraine somewhat.

Zelensky no doubt realises he needs to build broader relationships with other allies to ensure Ukraine has the support it needs to defend itself from Russia.

Vitaliy Shevchenko
Chief analyst, BBC Monitoring

Earlier, Iranian media reported that a Ukrainian air defence depot in Dubai had been destroyed.

Ukraine's foreign ministry spokesperson, Heorhii Tykhyi, denies the report in a message to journalists.

"It's a lie. We officially deny this report. The Iranian regime often carries out such disinformation operations, and is no different from the Russians in this respect," he says.

It comes amid Ukrainian President Zelensky's visits to several Gulf countries - our next post from the BBC's Katy Watson will explore how he is cultivating relationships.

Ghoncheh Habibiazad
Senior reporter, BBC Persian

Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesperson for Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the country's highest operational command unit co-ordinating the armed forces, has said in a statement that Iran has targeted a warehouse "stockpiling Ukrainian counter-drone systems" in Dubai.

In a statement published by Iranian outlets, Zolfaghari claims that a "warehouse storing counter-drone systems belonging to Ukraine in Dubai to help the US military and where 21 Ukrainians were also on site, was targeted and destroyed in a combined operation by the Aerospace and Naval forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)."

In the statement, Zolfaghar says that "there is no information about the fate of the Ukrainian personnel present at that warehouse".

Ukraine has since denied Iran's reports, we'll have more on that in our next post.

Matt Spivey
Live editor

Image source, Reuters

Missile and drone strikes continue across the Middle East as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, Lebanon, Kuwait and Israel all report attacks overnight.

In the backdrop to the conflict, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a deal with Saudi Arabia to share its drone defence expertise and technology. Ukraine's president has also met with military leaders in the UAE, before landing today in Qatar.

He says Saudi Arabia is facing the same type of ballistic missile and drone attacks from Iran that Ukraine had been resisting for more than four years from Russia. Several Ukrainian drone companies tell the BBC they have been approached by Gulf states for help.

"We are ready to share our expertise and systems with Saudi Arabia and to work together to strengthen the protection of lives," Zelensky says.

We're now seeing reports that Iran has destroyed a Ukrainian air defence depot in Dubai, Kyiv denies this. In our next few posts we'll shift our attention to this development - stay with us.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has intercepted 20 ballistic missiles and 37 drones, its defence ministry says.

It adds the country's air defences have now intercepted 398 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles and 1,872 drones since the start of "the blatant Iranian attacks".

The defence ministry says attacks have led to 11 deaths, including two members of the armed forces as well as a Moroccan civilian contracted by the armed forces.

As we reported earlier, five people were injured after a missile was intercepted in Abu Dhabi - the capital of the UAE.

Houthis see themselves as pivotal player in Iran's 'axis of resistance'published at 12:07 GMT

12:07 GMT

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent

It was always expected that Yemen’s Houthis would join this war if it dragged on.

Their ties to Iran don't run as deep as Lebanon's Hezbollah. But if Tehran asked for assistance, they couldn't say no to an ally which has armed and trained their forces in recent years.

The Houthis, who hold sway in north west Yemen, have so far not wielded their most potent weapon – their ability to disrupt traffic through Bab al-Mandeb, the maritime chokepoint linking the Red Sea to global trade routes.

Opening up this front would pose risks for the Houthis too.

Bab al-Mandeb is now the main route for neighbouring Saudi Arabia’s oil exports and the kingdom is the main backer of the Houthis’ rivals in southern Yemen.

But the Houthis see themselves as a pivotal player in what Iran and its allies call their "axis of resistance" against Israel and the US.

Their attacks on Red Sea shipping from 2023 to 2025 put them on the world stage. Air strikes by the US, UK and other countries inflicted damage on their forces but also sparked even greater defiance.

Image source, Getty Images

Turkey's foreign minister has reaffirmed the country's readiness to play a "constructive role" in resolving the Middle East war, the Iranian foreign ministry says.

It says that the foreign ministers for Turkey and Iran held a phone call in which Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi thanked his counterpart for Ankara's efforts to try and end the war so far.

Turkey has been one of the nations pursuing diplomatic methods to end the conflict.

Earlier, Pakistan said that Turkey - alongside Saudia Arabia and Egypt - would attend talks on de-escalation in Islamabad on Monday.

Turkey has a delicate path to tread in this conflict - as a Nato member but also a neighbour of Iran, sharing a more than 300-mile border.

Iran's military says it has targeted a US support boat near an Oman port.

A logistics vessel was targeted "a considerable distance" from the port of Salalah, says the Tasnim News Agency, which is linked to the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps).

It comes after two drones targeted the port in the south of Oman, injuring a foreign worker.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis have launched a missile strike on Israel for first time since the war began.

The BBC's James Waterhouse looks at whether it could lead to further shipping disruption - this time in the Red Sea.

Freya Scott-Turner
Live reporter

Image source, Anadolu via Getty Images

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis have launched a missile at Israel for the first time in the month-long war.

Houthis enter conflict: The Iran-backedrebel group launched a missile strike on Israel from Yemen, a day after they warned of intervention if attacks on Iran continued. Israel said it intercepted the missile.

Who are the Houthis? They are an armed political and religious group which champions Yemen's Shia Muslim minority, the Zaidis. They have controlled much of north west Yemen since 2014, when they ousted the internationally-recognised government from the capital, Sanaa.

The intervention of the Houthis now raises the prospect of an expanded war, writes our Middle East bureau chief in Jerusalem.

Across the Middle East

• Sources in Iran told the BBC heavy strikes hit the capital Tehran overnight, as the country's internet blackout has entered its fourth week
• Several towns across southern Lebanon were hit by Israeli strikes overnight, the BBC's Hugo Bachega spoke to displaced families there
• Saudi Arabia said it intercepted a ballistic missile heading towards Riyadh, and Kuwait media reported the country's international airport sustained "limited damage" in a drone strike

Economic impacts of the war continue to be felt. Shares in all three major US indexes sank again on Friday, capping the fourth week of losses since the war began, our New York business reporter writes.

Resumption of Houthi attacks a headache for Israel, a potential disaster for shippingpublished at 10:29 GMT

10:29 GMT

Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent

Houthi missile attacks on Israel, which began in mid-October 2023, following the outbreak of the Gaza war, did very little damage. The attacks were sporadic and most missiles were intercepted.

However, in July 2024, an Israeli civilian was killed when a Houthi drone evaded Israeli air defences and struck a residential building in Tel Aviv.

The resumption of attacks will be an additional headache for Israel, but is unlikely to pose a significant challenge.

However, if the Houthis decide to start attacking Red Sea shipping, the effects could be dramatic.

Saudi Arabia is currently diverting around 4 million barrels of oil through a pipeline to Yanbu, on the Red Sea coast, in order to avoid the Strait of Hormuz.

Shipments bound for the Asian market then sail south, past Yemen.

From November 2023 to early 2025, the Houthis launched almost 200 attacks on ships in the Red Sea, damaging over 30 ships and hijacking at least one.

Traffic through the Bab al-Mandab Strait (at the southern end of the Red Sea) and Suez Canal (at the northern end) dropped by around 50% - not as great as the impact of Iran’s de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, but hugely damaging.

If this happens again, the simultaneous closure of both vital waterways could be disastrous.

Image source, Reuters

In further diplomatic news from Pakistan, PM Shehbaz Sharif says he held a "detailed" phone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian earlier today. The call lasted over an hour, he says.

Writing on X, Sharif says he "apprised him of Pakistan’s ongoing diplomatic outreach", engaging the US and Gulf states to "facilitate dialogue and de-escalation".

Pakistan has previously offered to host talks between the US and Iran.

Sharif also condemned Israeli strikes on Iran and conveyed Pakistan's "solidarity with the brave people of Iran", he says.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar says the country will host the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt in Islamabad from 29-30 March.

They will hold "in-depth discussions", including on efforts to "de-escalate tensions in the region", he writes in a statement shared on X.

Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has now put out a statement confirming its foreign minister has travelled to the Pakistani capital for the talks.

Pakistan has been making efforts to play the role of peace facilitator in the region.

Separately, it has offered to host talks between the US and Iran - there has not yet been any confirmation of whether these will take place. Earlier this week, Dar said "indirect talks" were taking place through "messages being relayed by Pakistan".

Trump also shared a screenshot of an X post from Pakistan's PM Shehbaz Sharif earlier this week, posting it on Truth Social. In the post, Sharif said Pakistan "stands ready" to host talks.

Image source, NetBlocks

Iran has been "plunged into digital darkness" for a month due to the war in the Middle East, reports internet monitoring group NetBlocks.

NetBlocks says the internet blackout has been in effect for four full weeks "violating Iranians' right to communicate and stay informed".

The Iranian regime also imposed a blackout in January for weeks as protests took place across the country.

Authorities in Iran use a two-tiered system where only members of the regime are allowed online, with most citizens restricted to a domestic 'National Information Network'.