The FBI has seized four website domains for an Iran-based hacking group that claimed credit for a cyberattack against a US-based company.

The US Justice Department said the seizure is part of an "ongoing effort to disrupt hacking and transnational repression schemes conducted by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS)".

The seized domains were used to call for the killing of journalists, regime dissidents, and Israeli people, according to the Justice Department.

"Iran thought they could hide behind fake websites and keyboard threats to terrorise Americans and silence dissidents,” said FBI Director Kash Patel.

“We took down four of their operation's pillars and we're not done.

"This FBI will hunt down every actor behind these cowardly death threats and cyberattacks and will bring the full force of American law enforcement down on them", Patel added.

Image source, Getty Images

Qatar's foreign ministry denounced Iran's attack on Ras Laffan - a major liquefied natural gas export facility - as a "dangerous escalation" and an "unacceptable violation" that threatens regional stability.

Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a social media post that Iranian attacks on Qatar represent "ongoing Iranian attempts to drag the region into this conflict".

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is both prime minister and foreign minister, said "such hostile acts, their continuation, and the expansion of war will only lead to a greater escalation in the region". He added that security of the region is "a collective responsibility".

After Israel hit Iran's South Pars - one of the world's largest natural gas field - on Wednesday, Tehran retaliated by striking the energy complex in Qatar. The attacks led to a spike in energy prices.

A large portion of the attack on the Qatari complex was intercepted, according to the ministry, but some facilities were hit. The extent of the damage is being assessed.

Ghoncheh Habibiazad
Senior reporter, BBC Persian

Three sources based in Tehran have told the BBC they were woken up by explosions a short while ago.

The blasts came just after Israel said it had launched a new wave of strikes on Iran's capital. In a statement, the Israeli military said it is targeting "infrastructure" of the Iranian government.

Iranian outlets are reporting that air defence systems have been activated in the city.

For weeks, Israel has been striking much of southern Lebanon, while parts of Israel have been hit by Iranian attacks.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Image source, Anadolu via Getty Images

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

The European Commission will propose that countries in the EU cut taxes on electricity as a way to soften sky rocketing energy prices, Reuters reports.

"In some cases, electricity is taxed much more than gas, up to 15 times more. And this cannot be so. We will propose to lower tax rates on electricity and to make sure that electricity is taxed less than fossil fuels," said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the commission.

She said she had also proposed to leaders a form of financial support to the industry through investments that would help companies move away from fossil fuels.

The price of gas in Europe is more than double the level seen before the conflict in Iran began.

Image source, EPA

"It's plausible that Israel could have acted on its own" in its attack on Iran's South Pars gas field, General Wesley Clark says.

The former Nato supreme allied commander tells BBC News that things are moving very quickly in this war and "it could have slipped through".

He says that the Iranians need to recognise that they're in a "no win position at this time" and an agreement needs to be reached to cut off heavy investment in ballistic missiles and surrounding regional security.

"Two and a half weeks is not that long in terms of the way the human mind works in conflict, so I suspect this is going on for a while longer", he says.

He adds that the leaders of the Iranian regime need to realise that "the majority of their own people are not supporting them and will not support them".

Image source, Reuters

• For those just joining our live coverage, sirens have sounded in Jerusalem amid Eid celebrations after booms were heard above the city
• Fresh strikes have also been reported in Tehran, Iran's capital city - Iran's foreign minister had earlier warned that there would be "zero restraint" if Iranian infrastructure was struck again, following yesterday's attacks on the South Pars gas field
• The energy crisis has continued to be a key topic of discussion, as prices continue to soar around the globe - the Strait of Hormuz remains at a standstill, but the chair of the International Maritime Organisation has told the BBC that he is confident that negotiations to re-open the channel will start soon

• A couple of hours ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a press conference, where he said that "Israel acted alone" in regards to the attack on the Iranian gas field
• He also explicitly stated the three goals of the US-Israeli operation in Iran - to remove the nuclear threat from Iran, eliminate the ballistic-missile threat, and create conditions that enable Iranians to "grasp their freedom"

Bahrain's defence force says it has intercepted and destroyed 139 missiles and 238 drones since the start of the conflict.

Sebastian Usher
Global affairs correspondent

Part of what Netanyahu did in his press conference was restate - from his perspective - what this war was meant to achieve.

The Israeli prime minister started with a long speech in Hebrew, very much directed at the Israeli people, in which he praised them for their resilience, their steadfastness - and suggested that they will need that for some time to come.

He gave a similar message to the world in the English part of his speech, saying it is a mistake to be short-sighted about this, you need to be steadfast.

He said that if this military action were not taken, nuclear warheads on missiles fire from Iran could be a possibility. And he tried to bring it home to people in the US, saying: you would be hit.

That's a stretch, there's no doubt about it.

But this is about selling this war, not just as dealing with Iran as an existential threat to Israel, but as an existential threat to the world.

Netanyahu was also very intent on giving a sense that there's no daylight between Israel and the United States on this, and that it's "fake news" to say there's any divergence between them.

Deeply embedded military alliance shores up Trump-Netanyahu relationspublished at 23:46 GMT 19 March

23:46 GMT 19 March

Tom Bateman
US State Department correspondent

In his news conference, Netanyahu rebuffed claims about the US-Israel relationship, which he knows are causing Trump problems with his own base. Namely that Israel dragged the US into war and that the two allies aren’t aligned on goals.

Netanyahu said this was nonsense as Trump had himself warned for decades about the existential risk he said Iran posed. He brushed aside questions about Trump’s social media post last night, which said Israel didn’t tell him before it bombed Iran’s South Pars gas field (Israeli officials say they did).

There’s a temptation with all this to draw out the differences, to highlight tensions between the leaders. To be clear, these do matter because they could become critical if and when Trump wants to pull out, potentially against Israeli objections.

But they can also get overplayed because a focus on them sometimes misses a more fundamental reality about the US-Israel relationship - which involves a deeply embedded military-to-military alliance underpinned in US law by Congress. This has seen America pay for more weapons for Israel than for any other country it arms since World War Two, making Israel militarily dominant in the region.

Just about every previous president has (usually privately) lost their temper at some point with an Israeli leader. The big picture here is that Trump decided to become the first to join one in launching a war with Iran. And it’s clear Trump is still allowing Netanyahu considerable latitude in how Israel conducts it.

An Iranian missile has landed in Ayn Farh, a village in southern Syria, after it was destroyed by the country's air defense systems.

Image source, Anadolu via Getty Images

Image source, Anadolu via Getty Images

The International Maritime Organisation (IOM) ended three days of meetings today.

IOM chair, Victor Jimenez Fernandez, told the BBC he is confident that the organisation, over the next week, will start negotiations with Iran and regional powers to find a solution to re-open the Strait of Hormuz and a framework for safe passage.

"No regional country can be outside of these negotiations," Fernandez said.

"All (of) the region needs to come to gather to find a solution to allow the safety and secure transit of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz."

Sebastian Usher
Global affairs correspondent, in Jerusalem

As families have been celebrating the first night of Eid out on streets jammed with traffic in East Jerusalem, there's been a series of sirens followed by booms in the skies above.

For an hour, the urgent alerts on mobile phones came one after another just before and after midnight.

The sirens then followed sounding over a city that has been experiencing a heavy storm for several hours.

Then one or two dull thuds could be heard in the sky. People here have become habituated to it and don't feel as endangered as in many other parts of Israel.

But the speed of the sirens and alerts have come as something of a surprise.

Iranian state television has confirmed that four salvos of missiles were fired in quick succession.

It comes after the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a lengthy news conference in which he asserted that Tehran's ability to manufacture ballistic missiles had essentially been destroyed in the first twenty days of the war.

Saudi Arabian media reports two drones have been intercepted and destroyed in the country's eastern region, citing the Saudi defence ministry.

We can now bring you more from the statement issued by the European Council regarding the conflict in the Middle East.

The European Union "stands firmly and unequivocally in support of member states close to the region", it says.

The council adds that it also "acknowledges the intention of Cyprus to initiate a discussion with the UK on the UK bases in Cyprus, and stands ready to provide assistance as needed".

It comes after Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides told the BBC the UK's two military bases on Cyprus are a "colonial consequence" on the island and talks on their status and future need to take place.

"When the situation is over in the Middle East we are going to have an open and frank discussion with the British government," he said as he arrived for an EU leaders' summit in Brussels.

RAF Akrotiri was targeted by drones this month shortly after the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran and the UK has faced some criticism for its response to the attack.

The European Council says it "strongly condemns" Iran's "indiscriminate military strikes against countries in the region and expresses its solidarity with countries affected".

In a statement issued on behalf of EU leaders, the council says it recalls the need to safeguard regional airspace and ensure maritime security, and vows to contribute to de-escalation.

It also welcomes the increased efforts announced by member states to "ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, once the conditions are met".

It is "ready to fully mobilise its diplomatic, legal, operational and financial tools to prevent uncontrolled migratory movements to the EU and preserve security in Europe", the statement adds.

We'll have more from this statement in our next post.

US-Israel unity over war aims brought into question by strikes on Iran's gas fieldpublished at 21:40 GMT 19 March

21:40 GMT 19 March

Sebastian Usher
Global affairs correspondent, in Jerusalem

The attack on Iran's main natural gas field has raised questions over how united Israel and the US remain in their war aims.

Clearly mindful of this, Netanyahu sought to dismiss such speculation as fake news, especially claims that Israel dragged the US into the war.

As he has done many times before, the Israeli prime minister drew a stark picture of what he believes is the global threat that the Iranian regime has posed - and insisted that Trump had long shared the same view.

In Hebrew, he praised the Israeli public for their resilience and implied that the world needed to share a similar long-term view of the conflict.

He also claimed that after the first 20 days of war, Iran had no ability to enrich uranium and no capability of manufacturing ballistic missiles.

But Tehran has continued to launch rockets at Israel, with fragments of one missile hitting an oil facility in the northern city of Haifa.

Ghoncheh Habibiazad
Senior reporter, BBC Persian

Strikes are happening on Tehran, two sources tell me.

Iranian media are also reporting a fresh attack on the Iranian capital.

BBC Persian

Image source, Getty Images

BBC Persian has been speaking to Iranians following Israel's attack on Iran's South Pars, part of the world's largest natural gas field.

“They’re not really thinking about the people, and their own objectives matter more to them", says one woman in her 20s, from Tehran.

"But even if you want to weaken the regime, there’s no need to attack infrastructure", she adds.

One man in his 20s, from Karaj, says he's "really sad about the attack on the gas field in Iran", adding that he is scared "nothing will be left of Iran besides burnt land" after the war.

Another man in his 30s, from Tehran, says "if either side ends up winning the war" it is "in their interest for the infrastructure to remain intact so they can make better use of it afterwards".

• BBC Persian is the Persian language service of BBC News, used by 24 million people around the world - the majority in Iran - despite being blocked and routinely jammed by Iranian authorities.

Image source, Reuters

During his earlier news conference, Netanyahu denied that the US had been dragged into a war in the Middle East by Israel.

"Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do? Come on," he said.

The war in Iran began on 28 Feburary when the US and Israel launched a joint strike across the country, killing its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The attack came after negotiations between the US and Iran over its nuclear programme, and Trump has consistently denied that his hand was forced by Israel.

Speaking at the White House at the start of March, Trump reiterated: "I might have forced their hands. You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they [the Iranians] were going to attack first".

But, there have been questions about whether the US and Israel remain in lockstep, external, after Trump criticised Israel for its attack on Iran's South Pars gas field - which he said he "knew nothing" about.