Several Tehran checkpoints under bridges targeted overnight

Iran said logistical and service facilities supporting the US aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford in the Red Sea are targets for its armed forces.

A spokesman for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya central command said the deployment of the carrier in the Red Sea is viewed as a threat against Iran.

He added that logistical and service centers providing support to the carrier group in the Red Sea “are targets for Iran’s armed forces.”

Strikes on residential areas in Iran’s Markazi province killed five people and wounded seven others early on Monday, the deputy governor of Markazi province told semi-official Mehr news agency.

A missile strike around 4:30 am hit an area in a village near the city of Arak, killing four people, with the toll possibly rising, he was quoted as saying.

Another building in the city of Mahallat was struck, killing one person and injuring seven.

In the nearby city of Khomein, the Imam Reza school was hit, causing damage to nearby homes but no casualties.

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Monday that Tokyo had made no decision to dispatch naval vessels to escort ships in the Middle East and was still examining what it could do on its own and within its legal framework.

Takaichi is due to travel to Washington this week for talks with US President Donald Trump, and she said the Iran war will be on the agenda.

"We have not made any decisions whatsoever about dispatching escort ships. We are continuing to examine what Japan can do independently and what can be done within the legal framework," Takaichi told the parliament.

Explosions, fighter jet activity and heavy security deployments were reported in several Iranian cities on Sunday night and early Monday, according to eyewitness accounts sent to Iran International.

In Karaj, near Tehran, the Aghigh complex was hit around 2:50 am and nearby streets were later sealed off by Revolutionary Guards forces. Fighter jets had operated several times over the city around 2:45 am, rattling windows in nearby buildings as five loud explosions were heard in the Golshahr and Mehrshahr areas.

In the capital Tehran, witnesses reported a large presence of security forces around Chaharbagh mosque in the Jannatabad area, where checkpoints were set up near the Hemmat highway on-ramp.

In the southern port city of Bandar Siraf, the sound of fighter jets was heard on Sunday night and, about a minute later, the city’s maritime base was struck. Witnesses said the first blast was very intense and a second strike followed about five minutes later.

Six loud explosions were reported around 3:20 am in Jam in the southern Bushehr province, with white smoke covering parts of the sky. Witnesses also reported the presence of IRGC forces and ammunition at the Podol-Lamzan outpost in the southern port city of Bandar Lengeh.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society said the latest air raids on Tehran damaged one of its clinics and an aid relief post, posting footage online that appears to show broken glass and damaged equipment scattered across the floor in a facility.

The report came after Israel announced a new wave of attacks on Tehran early hours of Monday local time.

Several hospitals and other health facilities across Iran have been damaged since US-Israeli strikes began on February 28.