Iran has accused the United States of a ‘barbaric’ strike near a children’s cancer hospital in the city of Ahvaz, saying the facility had to be evacuated. According to the Guardian, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said the hospital was cleared following the nearby attack, as the confrontation between Tehran and Washington intensified.

Al Jazeera reported that Iran condemned the strike as a ‘cowardly war crime’, with a doctor describing the blast as ‘so close’ that staff initially believed the hospital itself had been hit. Iranian officials characterised the attack as ‘barbaric’.

The escalation extended to the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global oil shipments. Iranian news agencies said a US missile struck an island near Qeshm, according to the Guardian, following reports that the US had attacked an oil tanker in the strait. Strikes were also reported in Tehran.

Elsewhere in the region, Kuwait said it was responding to renewed Iranian drone attacks, indicating the crisis was spreading beyond the immediate Iran-US confrontation.

In Lebanon, the foreign minister, Youssef Raggi, said the country had made a decision to ‘end Hezbollah’s military presence’ and that decisions on war and foreign policy are the ‘exclusive prerogative of the Lebanese state’. The Lebanese government is pushing to disarm Hezbollah, one of the most heavily armed militias in the Middle East, a step that has become central to US-brokered talks between Lebanon and Israel.

Raggi said Lebanon would see ‘no return to dual authority’ and that there was ‘no longer any place for weapons outside the authority of the state’. He described the move to end Hezbollah’s military presence as a sovereign Lebanese decision that preceded and paved the way for a Framework Agreement affirming state control over war, peace and foreign policy.