The semi-official Iranian news agency Fars reported that a heavy water research reactor in Khondab, central Iran, was attacked by US and Israeli airstrikes on Friday. According to the agency, citing local authorities, no casualties or danger to residents in the area have been reported so far. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran later confirmed the attack. Meanwhile, a uranium concentrate production plant in Yazd province, central Iran, was also hit by US and Israeli airstrikes, with no radioactive leaks reported so far, the semi-official news agency Mehry learned from Agencia Noticias Argentinas. The plant, inaugurated in May 2023, produces uranium concentrate, a concentrated powder of uranium obtained from leaching solutions and serving as an intermediate step in uranium ore processing. Separately, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported on Friday that two people were killed and two others injured in US and Israeli airstrikes on a cement plant in the southwestern province of Fars. Hours earlier, the Fars news agency reported that two steel plants in Iran's Isfahan and Khuzestan provinces were separately attacked by the United States and Israel on Friday. These new attacks come amid a conflict between the United States, Israel, and Iran that has been ongoing since February 28, with intense fighting between the involved parties and no progress towards a ceasefire.
