THE US and Israel continued to pound Iran with air strikes today as the Islamic Republic attacked commercial ships and targeted Dubai International Airport.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) said that nearly 20,000 civilian buildings across the country gave been damaged by the US-Israeli air strikes.

Speaking on Iranian state television today, IRCS spokesman Mojtaba Khaledi said that more than 70 health facilities had been affected but didn’t say if any of these were hospitals or if they had been struck directly.

“Some of them are out of order, so we can’t admit patients in them,” he said, adding that medical operations had to be halted because of the strikes.

More than 60 schools have also been forced to close across the country because of the war.

Mr Khaledi did not elaborate on any of this and information from inside Iran is hard to come by due to the government having cut off the internet since the US and Israel launched its illegal and unprovoked war.

Still, according to the Iranian authorities, at least 1,300 civilians have been killed in the 11-day conflict so far. The US has confirmed seven military deaths and over 140 injuries, while Israel admits to 13 deaths and over 2,000 wounded. Iran claims to have inflicted higher casualties than these.

The US military issued a warning to Iranian civilians today to avoid ports along the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has managed to effectively close, disrupting the flow of oil and global commerce.

“Iranian dockworkers, administrative personnel and commercial vessel crews should avoid Iranian naval⁠ vessels and military equipment,” the US military said in a statement.

It’s not clear if this message managed to breach Iran’s internet blackout.

Meanwhile, two Iranian drones hit near the Dubai airport today. Four people were wounded but flights continued, the Dubai Media Office said.

A projectile hit a Thai cargo ship off the coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, setting it ablaze. Authorities are searching for three missing crew members from the Mayuree Naree after 20 were rescued by the Omani navy, according to Thailand’s Marine Department.

At least 12 incidents have been confirmed involving vessels in and around the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all traded oil passes, since the war began, according to two global trackers.

The International Maritime Organisation says at least seven mariners have been killed.

Israeli strikes set a building ablaze in central Beirut, engulfing the top two floors. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said four people were wounded.

Other Israeli strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon killed 14 people, and a Red Cross worker also died on Wednesday of wounds sustained on Monday, when his team was hit by an Israeli strike while they were rescuing people from an earlier attack.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday that 570 people have been killed in the country since the latest fighting began.