Israel hits Iran's notorious Evin prison

EXPLOSIONS BOOMED MONDAY night in Qatar, home to a major US air base, shortly after its airspace was closed due to Iranian threats of retaliation after American forces pounded its nuclear sites.

- REUTERS

Witnesses said they saw what appeared to be missiles in the skies over the country.

There was no immediate acknowledgment from Qatari authorities of an attack. Iran did not immediately acknowledge an attack.

However, its President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on the social platform X just before the explosions: "We neither initiated the war nor seeking it. But we will not leave invasion to the great Iran without answer."

Qatar closed its airspace amid Iranian threats to retaliate against the United States over its bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites early Sunday.

Earlier in the day, Israel expanded its war against Iran to include targets associated with the country's struggling theocracy, striking the gate of a Tehran prison notorious for holding political activists and hitting the headquarters of the military force that suppressed recent protests.

In the past, Iran has threatened American forces at Al Udeid Air Base, which hosts the forward headquarters of the US military's Central Command.

Qatar, across the Persian Gulf from Iran, maintains diplomatic relations with Iran and shares a massive offshore

ISRAEL STRUCK THE most notorious jail for political prisoners in Tehran on Monday in a potent demonstration that it was expanding its targets beyond military and nuclear sites to aim squarely at the pillars of Iran's ruling system.