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3. Ankara Says NATO Deploys New Patriot Battery as Strikes Continue

Turkey's defence ministry said Wednesday NATO was deploying a new Patriot missile battery at Incirlik air base, just days after a third ballistic missile from Iran was shot down.

"Another Patriot system... is being deployed... in addition to the existing Spanish Patriot system stationed there," a ministry official told reporters at the Turkish air base, just outside the southern city of Adana.

The ministry did not say which country's troops would be operating the new PAC-3 system.

Last Friday, Turkey confirmed a third ballistic missile from Iran was shot down in Turkish airspace by NATO forces, the third such incident since the Middle East war started.

After the second interception, NATO deployed Patriot defences in the central Malatya region, where the Kurecik air base is located, which houses a NATO early-warning radar system manned by US troops that can detect Iranian missile launches.

The Patriot is a mobile air-defence system designed to intercept tactical ballistic missiles, low-flying cruise missiles and aircraft.

The PAC-2 version has an interception range of up to 70 kilometres (43.5 miles) against aircraft and cruise missiles, while the PAC-3 has a range of 20 to 35 kilometres against ballistic missiles, according to US army data.

Escalating Attacks

An Iranian missile barrage killed two people near Israel's commercial hub of Tel Aviv, medics said on Wednesday, while authorities said falling munitions hit multiple sites in central Israel overnight.

Police said a cluster bomb hit a residential building in Ramat Gan, a city just outside Tel Aviv, and the roof collapsed on an elderly couple.

Iranian media, meanwhile reported strikes in Lorestan province and Hamedan city, both in the west of Iran, as well as Fars province in the south.

And in Lebanon, state media said Israel struck central Beirut early Wednesday without warning, with the health ministry reporting at least 12 dead and 41 wounded in the Basta and Zuqaq al-Blat neighbourhoods.

An Israeli strike also hit a car in the centre of Sidon, southern Lebanon's largest city, killing two people including a civil defence rescuer, the health ministry said.

An AFP correspondent at the scene said the strike hit near the city's civil defence headquarters and the seaside road, where many displaced people are sleeping in their cars.

More than one million people have registered as displaced in Lebanon, which was drawn into the war when Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel over the ayatollah's death.

Israeli Political Assassinations

Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan lashed out at Israel on Tuesday, condemning its "political assassinations" of Tehran's leaders as "illegal activities outside the normal laws of war".

The Kremlin on Wednesday followed suit, condemninf what it called "the murder" of Iran's leaders in US-Israeli airstrikes.

Israel also said this week it had targeted Akram al-Ajouri, head of the military wing of the group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in a strike in Iran, part of a strategy since the October 7 attacks by Hamas to kill the leaders of its enemies.

It has vowed to target Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since he succeeded his father.

"We will track him down, find him, and neutralise him," military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin told reporters.

In contrast to Mojtaba Khamenei, Larijani, 68, had walked openly with crowds at a pro-government rally last week in Tehran.

He had "effectively been the figure in charge of the regime's survival, its regional policy and its defence strategy," David Khalfa, co-founder of the Atlantic Middle East Forum, told AFP.

With AFP