Israel on Wednesday killed Iran’s Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib even as Tehran responded with renewed missile and drone attacks on its neighbours and Tel Aviv, while the US targeted sites along the Iranian coastline near the strategic Strait of Hormuz in a bid to secure a safe shipping passage.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Khatib was killed in an overnight strike and promised that “significant surprises were expected throughout this day on all fronts”, without elaborating. Iran hit Australian military base Al Minhad in the UAE, with a projectile “causing a small fire, but no injuries”. Australian PM Anthony Albanese confirmed the incident, saying no soldier of his country was injured.Khatib’s killing is the third high-profile death of a leader of the Iranian regime in two days. On Tuesday, Israel killed Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani and Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ all-volunteer Basij force head Gholamreza Soleimani.Khatib led the agency responsible for domestic surveillance, counter-espionage and suppressing internal dissent. He also oversaw intelligence gathering, monitored anti-regime activity and coordinated with other security forces. A Shia cleric, he worked in a variety of positions in Iran’s judiciary and the intelligence ministry. He served in the Revolutionary Guards during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s and was wounded in combat.The US Treasury Department had sanctioned Khatib in 2022, accusing him of indulging in cybercrime against the US and its allies. “Khatib directs several networks of cyber-threat actors involved in cyber espionage and ransomware attacks in support of Iran’s political goals,” the US Treasury Department had then said.Meanwhile, Turkiye has called out Israel’s targeting of Tehran’s leaders. “Israel’s political assassinations, especially those targeting Iranian statesmen and politicians, are truly illegal activities outside the normal laws of war,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at a news conference.The US today said that in an effort to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, it last night bombed Iran’s coast-based missile sites that could pose a risk to international shipping. The US Central Command, which has major detachment operating out of Bahrain, said it had hit Iranian missile sites. “Hours ago, US forces successfully employed multiple 5,000-pound-deep penetrator munitions on hardened Iranian missile sites along Iran’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz,” the US Central Command said in a post on X. The Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles at these sites posed a risk to international shipping in the strait, it said.The strikes came a day after US President Donald Trump’s plan to have collective multi-nation force to keep the Hormuz open received a tepid response from NATO allies and other nations. The strait, a 33-km-wide waterway between Iran and Oman, has been strategically blocked, impacting crude oil and LPG supplies.