US President Donald Trump has said Washington may launch further strikes against Iran’s underground nuclear facilities, including the site known as Pickaxe Mountain, as he seeks to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon, Reuters reported.

In an interview with Newsmax on Thursday night, Trump said the United States was determined to ensure Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon, arguing that such a development would pose a serious threat.

“Their nuclear is buried under millions of tons of mountain. Now we’re looking at Pickaxe Mountain. We may have to go there. We’ll take a shot at that one. We’ll knock it out fast,” Trump said.

Pickaxe Mountain is a heavily fortified underground facility linked to Iran’s nuclear programme, located near one of the country’s major nuclear sites.

Trump also ruled out the use of nuclear weapons in the conflict, saying conventional military capabilities would be sufficient to achieve US objectives.

“I wouldn’t use nuclear. We don’t have to,” he said.

The US president reiterated that he was not considering deploying American ground troops into Iran, signalling that Washington’s military approach would continue to rely on other forms of military action.

Trump did not confirm whether he had authorised the use of the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb, commonly known as the “Mother of All Bombs,” against Iranian energy infrastructure or nuclear facilities. He stressed that the weapon was not nuclear, read the report.

The remarks come amid escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran following US-Israeli strikes on Iran that began in February, with Iran’s nuclear programme remaining a central issue in the conflict.

The potential targeting of deeply buried nuclear facilities could further intensify the conflict and raise concerns about the broader regional security situation.

Twenty-one pupils and a teacher were killed on Thursday after a roof collapsed at a school in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar, a hospital official said.

Asim Khan from Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital confirmed the toll to AFP, adding that over 30 people were injured, with six believed to be in a critical condition.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a statement expressed “deep sorrow and grief over the loss of precious lives”.

“The Prime Minister extends his condolences to the bereaved families and prays for them to have the strength and patience to bear this irreparable loss,” the statement said.

Roof and building collapses are common across Pakistan, mainly because of poor safety standards and shoddy construction materials in the South Asian country of more than 240 million people.

In June this year more than a dozen children were killed in a roof collapse at a tutoring centre in the eastern city of Lahore.

In 2025, 27 people were killed and 10 injured when a five-storey building collapsed in the impoverished area of Lyari in the southern city of Karachi. – AFP

An administrative building belonging to Saudi Arabia’s ​state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco in the eastern city of Dhahran was attacked, causing a limited fire, the Energy Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday as ‌fighting between Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthis and the kingdom intensified.

Authorities responded to the incident late on Tuesday and took necessary measures, the ministry said, adding that there were no injuries or deaths.

A company source told Reuters earlier that a ballistic missile hit the Aramco headquarters complex in Dhahran. The source said an office tower in the complex was struck and that its top three floors were damaged. The source and two other people with knowledge of the matter said ​the building was on fire.

The complex hosts a major operations centre for Aramco, which oversees a vast network of onshore and offshore oil rigs, pipelines, refineries and export terminals.

The ​Houthis have for a week been firing ballistic missiles and drones at key Saudi sites in retaliation for the kingdom’s backing of government forces ⁠in Yemen’s reignited civil war. Riyadh’s international airport has received four strikes, including one on Saturday that killed 13 people.

Saturday’s ballistic missile strike on Riyadh airport was the deadliest in Saudi Arabia in ​a decade, with further attacks grounding flights across the country.

Earlier, six sources told Reuters they heard loud booms near the Aramco complex.

The Saudi-led coalition said fragments of a missile that it had intercepted ​and destroyed in Dhahran had fallen on a residential area, without providing further details.

Authorities also reported that drones and missiles were intercepted and destroyed in the capital, Riyadh, and the country’s southern region.

Four people were injured in Riyadh after fragments from two Houthi missiles fell following their interception and destruction, Saudi Civil Defense said on Wednesday. The debris caused limited damage to 15 homes in the capital, the Civil Defense spokesperson said, adding that the ​injured were two women, a man and a child.

The Houthis had threatened a “harsh and painful” response to Saudi-led strikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa, with spokesperson Yahya Saree saying targets could include ​the Saudi Aramco headquarters in Dhahran and an oil refinery in Riyadh.

The group has warned oil workers in Saudi Arabia to stay away from sites that could be targets.

The Houthis earlier on Tuesday said Saudi Arabia ‌was attacking ⁠Sanaa, and the Saudi-led coalition warned civilians to stay away from an oil depot on the city’s outskirts.

Houthi-run Al-Masirah television reported that the Saudi-led coalition had targeted the Yemen Petroleum Company’s Sabah central station, a fuel depot on the outskirts of Sanaa.

The coalition said in a statement on Tuesday evening that it attacked the station and other sites in an operation aimed at “neutralizing the capabilities of Houthis” to threaten Saudi Arabia, Yemen and international waterways.

The Saudi cabinet, chaired by de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, issued a statement on Tuesday before the strike on Saudi Aramco saying the Houthis would ​face consequences for their repeated attacks on the ​kingdom.

REIGNITED YEMEN WAR

Saudi Arabia resumed its military campaign ⁠in Yemen in support of the internationally recognised government in a bid to reverse the Houthis’ sudden gains last month, when they swept down the Red Sea coast to the critical Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The strait, the southern gateway to the Red Sea, has become a more vital route for Saudi ​and other global energy supplies since the start of the Iran war in February, when Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz leading from the ​Gulf to the Indian ⁠Ocean.

While a government offensive that began a week ago pushed the Houthis from the area closest to the strait, the group remains embedded nearby and has made gains around the city of Taiz this month.

Saudi Arabia has been seeking wider support from allies for its campaign against the Houthis and to help it ward off their missile and drone attacks.

Washington, Saudi Arabia’s strongest ally and longtime security guarantor, has so far ⁠rebuffed Saudi efforts ​to bring it directly into the war against the Houthis.

The Yemen conflict has resumed as a spillover from the wider ​US-Iran war that began with the US-Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic on February 28.

Iran, Saudi Arabia’s longtime regional rival, has offered to mediate between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, its foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday in statements reiterated ​by the ministry on Monday.