UAE dismantles Iran-linked terror cell as Tehran's attacks spread tensions across Middle East
United Arab Emirates authorities have brought down a "terrorist network" funded and operated by Hezbollah and Iran and arrested its members, a report said. The development comes as Iran continued to launch large-scale missile and drone attacks across the Gulf, with the UAE among the most heavily targeted countries since the conflict began.
IDF confirms eliminating Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp spokesperson: 'Main propagandist'
The Israel Defense Forces announced Friday that Ali Mohammad Naini, the spokesperson and head of the public relations array of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed overnight in an airstrike.
“Throughout the years, Naini served in several propaganda and public relations roles. For the past two years, he served as the IRGC's main propagandist as part of the Iranian terror regime,” the IDF said.
“In his role, Naini disseminated the regime's terrorist propaganda to its proxies across the Middle East in order to influence and advance terror attacks against the State of Israel from the different fronts,” it added.
Israel’s military said the strike was carried out by the Israeli Air Force, acting on IDF intelligence.
“Naini’s elimination joins a series of eliminations of dozens of senior figures of the Iranian regime during the operation,” the IDF added. “The IDF will continue to operate with determination against the commanders and senior officials of the Iranian terror regime.”
Fox News’ Yonat Friling contributed to this report.
UAE intercepts 4 ballistic missiles, 26 UAVs from Iran
The United Arab Emirates said Friday that its air defense systems "engaged 4 ballistic missiles and 26 UAVs launched from Iran."
"Since the onset of the blatant Iranian aggression, UAE air defenses have engaged 338 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles and 1,740 UAVs," its defense ministry wrote on X.
Heavy explosions shook Dubai early Friday as air defenses intercepted incoming fire over the city.
A missile alert sounded prior to the strike, with authorities activating air defenses to counter an Iranian barrage.
The Dubai Media Office said, “Authorities in Dubai confirm the success of all air interception operations, with no injuries reported."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
SEE IT: US forces shown 'striking military targets deep inside Iran'
U.S. Central Command released a new video on Friday, March, 20, saying American forces "continue to degrade Iranian combat capabilities by striking military targets deep inside Iran."
The footage showed one of the latest waves of airstrikes targeting Iranian military infrastructure.
"No adversary is too determined, and no mission is too difficult for American troops who make up the world's most powerful military force," CENTCOM said in another message late Thursday.
As of Wednesday, U.S. forces have struck more than 7,800 targets in Iran, according to CENTCOM.
"Iran has funneled decades of state resources not to their people, but into missiles and drones and proxies and buried facilities," Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said at a Thursday press conference. "But we are hunting them down methodically, ruthlessly, and overwhelmingly, like no other military in the world can do. And the results speak for themselves. To date, we've struck over 7,000 targets across Iran and its military infrastructure. That is not incremental. That is overwhelming force applied with precision. And again, today will be the largest, largest strike package yet, just like yesterday was. As I've said from day one, our capabilities continue to build. Iran's continue to degrade. We're hunting and striking death and destruction from above."
Hegseth added that U.S. forces have hit hundreds of Iranian defense industrial bases directly.
Pence backs Trump’s Iran strikes, says president ‘ignored’ GOP isolationists
As he praises President Donald Trump for "taking the fight directly" to Iran, former Vice President Mike also argues that the attacks show that the president isn't listening to the isolationist wing of the Republican Party.
"It's one of the things I give President Trump great credit for," Pence said this week in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.
Pence's comments come nearly three weeks into the military strikes against Iran, as some loud voices in the MAGA and America First orbits have pilloried the president over the attacks.
The former vice president, who has long been a proponent of strong American deterrence around the world, highlighted that "around this administration, and to some extent in this administration, there have been some increasingly loud voices calling for America to pull back from our role as leader of the free world. Isolationist voices have taken hold in some quarters of the Republican Party."
"But fortunately, President Trump turned a deaf ear to those voices last year when he struck Iran, and this year, when he launched Operation Epic Fury," Pence emphasized. "I think it's greatly to his credit."
Pence argued that it's "reflective of where the overwhelming majority of Republicans are. Republicans understand that America is the arsenal of democracy, that we're the leader of the free world, that we have obligations to lead."
Iran can no longer enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles, Netanyahu says
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran can no longer enrich uranium or manufacture ballistic missiles as it feels the impact of Operation Roaring Lion and Operation Epic Fury.
“After 20 days, I can tell you — Iran today has no ability to enrich uranium, and no ability to produce ballistic missiles,” he said in Jerusalem on Thursday, according to The Times of Israel. “We are continuing to crush these capabilities. We will crush them to dust, to ashes.”
“In [Operation] Rising Lion [in June], we destroyed missiles and we destroyed a lot of the nuclear infrastructure. But what we’re destroying now are the factories that produce the components to make these missiles and to make the nuclear weapons that they’re trying to produce,” Netanyahu reportedly added. “We’re wiping out their industrial base in a way that we didn’t do before.”
Netanyahu also denied Israel pushed the United States into war with Iran.
“This canard that we dragged the United States into this is not just a canard, it’s ridiculous,” he said.
Netanyahu said President Donald Trump had told him more than a year ago: “Bibi, we’ve got to make sure that Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons.”
“The world owes a debt of deep indebtedness, deep indebtedness to President Trump for leading this effort to safeguard our future,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu also waved off rising fuel prices as a “spike” that will come down and said he expects the U.S. will reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
UAE foils Hezbollah-Iran-linked terror cell, arrests suspects amid Gulf tensions
United Arab Emirates authorities have brought down a "terrorist network" funded and operated by Hezbollah and Iran and arrested its members, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The UAE’s state news agency said the network was involved in "money laundering, financing terrorism and threatening national security."
"The network had been operating within the country under a fictitious commercial cover and sought to infiltrate the national economy and carry out external schemes threatening the country's financial stability," the state news agency said.
The development comes as Iran continued to launch large-scale missile and drone attacks across the Gulf, with the UAE among the most heavily targeted countries since the conflict began.
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