US and Iran trade threats to unleash 'hell'

US President Donald Trump has threatened that "all hell would rain down on" Iran if it did not make a ceasefire deal and reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz by Monday, prompting Tehran to respond with similar warning.

An Iranian military spokesman warned that the entire region would become "hell" if the US and Israel continued to escalate the conflict, BBC and Al Jazeera reported.

On Saturday Iran fired more missiles at the Gulf States, Iraq and Israel, with falling debris from intercepted missiles causing damage.

Meanwhile, US and Iranian forces are searching for a missing American crew member after a US F-15 fighter jet was shot down over southern Iran on Friday. The pilot has been rescued, according to US media.

Iranian officials are urging citizens to find the missing American "alive" and are offering rewards for his capture.

A US A-10 Warthog aircraft that was part of the search-and-rescue mission for the downed jet was also shot and damaged, but its pilot was rescued.

On 27 March Trump announced he was pausing attacks on energy plants for 10 days for Iran to "make a deal".

On Saturday he reiterated his threat on Truth Social that "all Hell will reign down on them" if they failed to do this, or to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 hours.

Later Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson for Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, says: "If hostility escalates, the entire region will turn into hell for you; the illusion of defeating the Islamic Republic of Iran will become a quagmire into which you will sink."

It has been more than a month since the start of the war effectively closed off the Strait of Hormuz – a vital transport route through which about a fifth of the world's oil and gas usually passes.

Global fuel prices haver soared due to energy export disruptions.

The price of a barrel of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil prices, has jumped from $73 (£55) to well over $100 in recent weeks.

On Friday, a French-owned carrier became the first ship owned by a major Wester European firm to go through the strait since the conflict began.

While Iran has said "non-hostile vessels" can use the waterway, the ongoing conflict - in which several ships have been attacked - has halted normal transport activity.

US and Israel continued its bombardment of Iranian military, energy and other industrial sites on Saturday.

Trump shared a video on his Truth Social platform which he says shows a "massive strike" on the capital Tehran. However, the video appeared to be 24 hours old.

Trump claimed in his post that "many of Iran's Military Leaders, who have led them poorly and unwisely, are terminated, along with much else", following the strike.

There has been no response from Tehran to Trump's claims, nor have the US provided further details to the post.

Israel said explosions have been heard over Jerusalem. Meanwhile Iran has continued to fire missiles at Gulf States and Iraq.

Iran said the area around its Bushehr nuclear power plant had been attacked for the fourth time during the war.

One of the plant's employees was killed in the attack, Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation said. It blamed the US and Israel for the attack, but neither country has confirmed carrying it out.

Bushehr is Iran's only operational nuclear power plant and was completed with Russia's help.

The International Atomic Energy Agency - the UN's nuclear watchdog - said it had been informed of the strike and had expressed "deep concern".

"No increase in radiation levels was reported," it wrote on X.

It said nuclear power plant sites and nearby areas "must never be attacked" and called for "maximum military restraint" to avoid a nuclear accident.

The Iranian statement on the Bushehr attack said the main parts of the plant did not appear to be damaged and its operation had not been "not affected".

Moscow has evacuated many of its staff from the plant. The head of Russia's state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, Alexei Likhachev, said on Saturday that the evacuation of 198 people remaining in the plant had started that morning.

Iran's nuclear programme has long been a point of contention, leading to extensive international sanctions. The US-Israeli war with Iran began on 28 February, two days after a third round of indirect US-Iran nuclear talks in Geneva.