Sawt Falasteen - Middle East war spirals as Iran hits Kurds in Iraq

A conflict ignited Saturday with US-Israeli attacks that killed Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has spread rapidly, snarling global shipping and energy markets, and sowing panic and chaos in previously safe-haven Gulf nations.

In Lebanon, AFPTV images showed buildings in rubble and plumes of black smokes drifting over Beirut after Israeli strikes aimed at Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

AFP reporters in Tehran heard fighter jets screaming across the skies in the west of the city and several explosions as Israel launched a fresh barrage.

Earlier Thursday, Tehran said it had hit Iraq-based Kurdish groups, as the United States reportedly seeks to arm Iranian Kurdish guerillas to infiltrate Iran.

The strikes which killed a member of an exiled Iranian Kurdish group, according to a representative, followed a warning from Iranian officials.

"Separatist groups should not think that a breeze has blown and try to take action," said Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

"We will not tolerate them in any way."

The strikes were further evidence of how the war is drawing in parties across the region and also further afield.

Australia deployed two military aircraft to the theatre while Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney said he could not rule out his armed forces taking part in hostilities.

The war has also dragged in NATO member Turkey after a missile launched from Iran was destroyed by NATO air defences as it headed towards its airspace.

While a Turkish official said the missile appeared to have been aimed at a British base in Cyprus, Turkey summoned the Iranian ambassador over the incident.

The conflict even reached the coast of Sri Lanka, where a US submarine sank an Iranian warship, Washington's first torpedoing of a vessel since World War II.

The strike killed at least 87 people, Sri Lankan officials said, with 61 remaining missing. Thirty-two sailors were rescued, many wounded, said Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath.

"Mark my words: The US will come to bitterly regret the precedent it has set", said Iranian Foreign Minister Abas Araghchi about the attack that he described as "an atrocity at sea."

Iran's official IRNA news agency said 1,045 military personnel and civilians have been killed since the war began, a toll AFP could not independently verify.

- 'We will not surrender' -

In the early hours of Thursday, AFP reporters in Jerusalem heard explosions following warnings of incoming Iranian missile fire, but residents were quickly cleared to leave their shelters.

Across the border in Lebanon, Israel said its forces had hit "several command centres belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation" in south Beirut.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) said a separate pre-dawn Israeli drone strike hit an apartment in Beddawi, a Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli, killing senior Hamas official Wassim Atallah al-Ali and his wife.

Hezbollah's leader vowed Wednesday to step up its fight against Israel, saying the group had targeted Israeli positions as far as Tel Aviv in at least 15 attacks.

"We are facing aggression... our choice is to confront it until the ultimate sacrifice, and we will not surrender," Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem declared in his first speech since the latest round of fighting broke out.

Lebanese authorities said at least 72 people had been killed, 437 wounded and 83,000 displaced from their homes since Monday.

Iran has retaliated by hitting US-linked interests in its Gulf neighbours, as well as energy infrastructure.

Thirteen people, seven of them civilians, have been killed in countries around the Gulf since the war began, including an 11-year-old girl in Kuwait.

Qatar said Thursday it was evacuating residents living near the US embassy in Doha, after earlier announcing it had thwarted attacks on Hamad International Airport.

The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar all said they had intercepted Iranian missiles on Wednesday, including a drone set to hit the Saudis' huge Ras Tanura refinery.

- 'Catastrophic' -

In Washington, the US Senate rejected a resolution aimed at limiting US military action, voting largely along party lines, with Republicans backing Trump.

Even if the measure had cleared the Senate and the House -- where a vote on a similar resolution is expected Thursday -- Trump would have been able to veto it.

The war could usher in a "prolonged period of flux" for the global economy, International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva warned on Thursday.

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have claimed the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf chokepoint through which a fifth of the world's crude oil flows, with oil tanker transits down 90 percent, according to market intelligence firm Kpler.

A tanker in the waters off Kuwait became the latest casualty of the conflict, after it was hit with a "large explosion" that caused an oil spill, the British maritime security agency UKMTO reported.

Facing energy shortages, South Korea said it was activating a $68-billion market stabilisation fund, while China reportedly told oil refiners to stop exporting diesel and gasoline.

With flights scrapped and travellers stranded or hastily repatriated, the war is also hammering tourism in a region that has become a prized destination for holidaymakers worldwide.

"My last group of tourists left three days ago, and all the other groups planned for March have been cancelled," said Nazih Rawashdeh, a tour guide near Irbid, in northern Jordan.

"This is the start of the high season here. It's catastrophic," he told AFP.

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L.Hussein--SF-PST