US-Israeli airstrikes hit heavy water reactor, yellowcake production plant in central Iran

TEHRAN -- A heavy water research reactor facility in central Iran's Khondab was attacked by US-Israeli airstrikes on Friday, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported.

No casualties or danger to residents in the area have been reported so far, Fars added, citing local authorities.

The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran later confirmed the attack.

Meanwhile, a yellowcake production plant in central Iran's Yazd province was also hit by US-Israeli strikes, with no radioactive leaks reported so far, semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

The plant, inaugurated in May 2023, produces yellowcake, a uranium concentrate powder obtained from leach solutions and serving as an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores.

Separately, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported Friday that two people were killed and two others injured in US-Israeli strikes on a cement plant in the southwestern Fars province.

Earlier in the day, Fars news agency reported that two steel plants in Iran's Isfahan and Khuzestan provinces came under separate US and Israeli strikes on Friday.

The fresh attacks came amid a nearly month-long US-Israel-Iran conflict starting from Feb 28, with heavy fighting continuing between the relevant parties and no breakthrough on a ceasefire.