JERUSALEM, March 18 (Reuters) - Three Palestinian women were killed in an Iranian missile attack in the occupied West Bank late on Wednesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, in the first deadly Iranian strike there — and the first to kill Palestinians — since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

The missile struck a hair salon in the town of Beit Awwa, southwest of Hebron, the Palestinian Authority's official news agency WAFA reported. Six women were wounded, one of them seriously.

Iranian missile attacks have killed three Palestinian women in the occupied West Bank and a foreign worker in central Israel, medics said Thursday.

Falling shrapnel struck a hair salon in the West Bank town of Beit Awa near Hebron late Wednesday, killing the three women, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, marking the first Palestinian deaths from Iranian attacks in the ongoing Middle East war.

The victims include 17-year-old Mays Ghazi Masalmeh, according to the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa.

US President Donald Trump attended the return Wednesday of six crew members killed when their refueling aircraft crashed during the Iran war.

It was the second time since the start of the conflict that Trump has traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the remains of US troops are returned to American soil.

The KC-135 plane crashed in western Iraq on Thursday, bringing the number of US troops killed in the joint US-Israeli operation to at least 13. A second aircraft damaged in the incident landed safely.

CAIRO, March 18 (Reuters) - The Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah said on Wednesday it would suspend attacks on the U.S. embassy for five days with conditions.

The conditions listed by the group in a statement included Israel's halt of displacing and striking residents of Beirut's southern suburbs and a commitment to not shelling residential areas in Baghdad and other provinces.

(Reporting by Muayad Suadi, writing by Jaidaa Taha, editing by Chris Reese)

By Maggie Michael

TEHRAN, March 18 (Reuters) - Nearly three weeks of war on Iran have hit the usually teeming alleys of Tehran's grand bazaar, shutting many of the shops and driving up prices for Iranians already suffering from years of sanctions that have throttled the economy.

The days before the Persian new year and Muslim Eid al-Fitr holidays would normally fill the bazaar with traders racing to finalise deals and families shopping for gifts but, despite people browsing, fewer than usual were out buying on Wednesday.

STOCKHOLM, March 18 (Reuters) - Iran executed a Swedish citizen on Wednesday, Sweden's foreign minister said, adding that she had summoned the Iranian ambassador in Stockholm to condemn the decision.

The person, who was not named, was arrested in Iran in June of last year and Sweden has repeatedly raised the case with Iranian officials, Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said.

"The death penalty is an inhumane, cruel and irreversible punishment. Sweden, together with the rest of the EU, condemns its application in all circumstances," Stenergard said.

NEW YORK, March 18 (Reuters) - Syria on Wednesday launched a plan supported by Washington to rid the Middle Eastern country of legacy chemical weapons that were used against its people by forces under ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.

For decades, Assad ran a large-scale program for chemical weapons, the use of which killed and injured thousands during Syria's long-running civil war.

Despite Damascus' signing onto the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013 and declaring a 1,300-tonstockpile, prohibited use continued and the size of the program remains unclear.

LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) - Britain said it was working to provide more support for its partners in the Gulf who are under attack from Iran, as it announced plans to buy extra missiles to protect the region.

Britain's fighter jets and other forces have been helping shoot down Iranian drones, and one of its warships is heading to the eastern Mediterranean, although the government has been criticised for not being able to send it sooner.

Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has taken steps to ensure it is not reliant on a single security force but rather multiple structures to defend the Islamic republic against external and internal threats.

All these forces have been mobilised since the start of the war between Iran and the United States and Israel, which began on February 28 with the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and has seen the deaths of several key security officials.

By Daren Butler

ISTANBUL, March 18 (Reuters) - Thousands of Turks gathered in central Istanbul on Wednesday in support of jailed mayor Ekrem Imamoglu at an opposition rally, one year after President Tayyip Erdogan’s main rival was arrested on corruption charges.

Supporters waving red party banners and Turkish flags gathered at city hall for the rallyby Imamoglu’s party, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which has been the target of an unprecedented judicial crackdown since late 2024.