IRAN accused the US today of carrying out a “barbaric attack” near a children’s cancer hospital, as Washington launched strikes across the country and Tehran retaliated on its US-backed neighbours.

Shahid Baqaei Hospital, a children’s cancer treatment centre in the western city of Ahvaz, was temporarily evacuated on Wednesday night after a US missile landed nearby.

It’s not clear how close the strike landed to the hospital, or what was hit, but according to Iranian media, patients heard a large bang, and many chose to flee. Only the most critically ill patients are reported to remain in the hospital.

“This barbaric attack, reminiscent of Israel’s atrocities against healthcare facilities, caused severe suffering and anxiety upon the hospitalised children,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said on social media today.

Mr Baqaei said 211 patients undergoing chemotherapy were forced to evacuate the hospital.

“This constitutes a cowardly war crime against the most innocent of human beings — children who are bravely fighting for their lives,” he said.

“Those who ceaselessly preach human rights, yet deliberately turn a blind eye to the targeting of hospitals and health centres, have forfeited every shred of moral credibility.”

The US strikes today also hit the area around Tehran, and the provinces of Semnan, Hamedan, Hormozgan, Khuzestan, Lorestan, Markazi, and Sistan and Baluchestan.

US Central Command said early yesterday morning that its overnight strikes had hit “Iranian command centres, air defence sites, missile and drone capabilities, and coastal surveillance facilities.”

Iran’s Brigadier General Ebrahim Zolfaghari said today that, should US attacks on the country continue, then “all the infrastructure in the region will be crushed under the steel blows of the powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, so that no trace of them will remain, as if they had never existed in the first place.”

But army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia walked back on Mr Zolfaghari’s threats today, saying: “Iran has no intention of confronting its neighbouring countries or the Islamic nations of the region.”

Nevertheless, Iran did launch attacks on Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan. There were no reports of injuries from these as the Star went to press today.