Iran says carries out strikes on US, Israeli targets: state media

Iran has launched new strikes on Israeli and American targets in the Middle East, state broadcaster IRIB said on Wednesday.

The barrage was "the most intense and heaviest since the start of the war", lasting three hours, the broadcaster said, citing a statement from Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.

It targeted Israeli cities including Tel Aviv and Haifa, as well as "West Jerusalem", referring to the area of the contested city that sits under full Israeli control.

Israel's military said it detected missiles heading towards the country and had activated its air defences.

AFP journalists reported hearing air raid sirens in Jerusalem and the sound of explosions in the distance.

The broadcaster said the missile salvo also targeted "numerous US targets in Erbil" in Iraqi Kurdistan and the US Fifth Fleet naval base in Bahrain.

The Middle East war that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 has provoked waves of retaliatory Iranian missile fire.

In an earlier statement carried by Iran's Tasnim news agency, the Guards said "a mass" of ballistic missiles had been fired at the base of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and at three other facilities in the Kurdish region of Iraq.

The force also said Tuesday that no US Navy vessel has "dared" approach the Strait of Hormuz, after US Energy Secretary Chris Wright had initially said the navy had escorted an oil tanker through the strait, before deleting the post minutes later.

New attacks were reported across the Gulf region early Wednesday, with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates reporting interceptions of missiles and drones.