Israel bombarded Tehran, the Iranian capital, with a new wave of strikes on Sunday afternoon, as both sides dismissed international calls to de-escalate the conflict and warned of more to come in a clash that is rapidly expanding in scope and intensity.

Rising tensions with Iran and fears of an Israeli strike prompted the U.S. to move some of its nonmilitary personnel out of the region.

Two drones launched from Iran towards Israel were shot down over Iraq by the US-led international coalition to defeat the Islamic State group,

Israel has multi-layered air defences against attacks by Iran, which has fired hundreds of ballistic missiles and suicide drones at Israel over the past two days as the Middle East rivals traded heavy blows.

Israel may be trying to take advantage of a window: Iran has reportedly not yet rebuilt air defences which were degraded by an Israeli attack in October, and Iran’s strongest proxy in the region, Hezbollah in Lebanon, has been significantly weakened by Israeli action.

Britain is deploying assets to the Middle East amid tensions between Iran and Israel, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Saturday as he flew to Canada for G7 talks.

Iran and Israel targeted each other with airstrikes early on Saturday after Israel launched its biggest-ever offensive against its longtime foe in a bid to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.