TEHRAN: The Iranian capital was rocked by a fresh wave of explosions on Wednesday, including blasts near the former US embassy while attacks also hit industrial complexes in other parts of the country.
An AFP journalist said strikes hit near the diploamtic site – which now a museum known as the "Den of Spies" and has become a symbol of the decades-long animosity between Tehran and Washington.
The wall of the former embassy appeared damaged in state TV footage.
Other footage carried by Mehr news agency showed the aftermath of the strikes in central Tehran, with shops damaged, windows blown out and debris scattered across the area near the building.
The Israeli military confirmed it had carried out strikes on the capital on Wednesday. Meanwhile, emergency services said an Iranian missile attack wounded 14 people including an 11-year-old girl.
Iranian media said steel factories in central and southwest Iran suffered "significant damage and destruction."
“Initial assessments indicate massive attacks, with significant damage and destruction to production units” at the complex of the Mobarakeh Steel Company, one of Iran’s biggest, in the central province of Isfahan, Fars news agency reported, quoting a statement by the company.
It added that one of the company’s subsidiaries, Sefid Dasht Steel, in the southwestern Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, had also “sustained damage and losses.”
The attacks came as US President Donald Trump said the war with Iran could be over in two or three weeks.
The conflict began when the US and Israel launched airstrikes across Iran that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, quickly mushrooming into a regional war that has threatened to torpedo the global economy.
Trump, whose statements on the war have swung from combative to conciliatory, said late on Tuesday that the fighting could be over in "two weeks, maybe three".
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the Islamic republic had the "necessary will" to end the war, provided its enemies guaranteed it would not flare up again.
With diplomatic efforts uncertain.
Thousands of people have been killed throughout the region during the conflict, which has displaced millions more from their homes.
