DUBAI/ JERUSALEM/ANKARA: The US-Iran war widened sharply on Wednesday after a US submarine sank an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka, killing at least 87 people, and Nato air defences destroyed an Iranian ballistic missile fired towards Turkiye. While US President Donald Trump and his advisors were discussing what role the United States could have in Iran after the military campaign, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday.
Whereas Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani said President Trump had dragged the American people into “an unfair war” with Iran. “Mr. Trump, with Netanyahu´s clownish antics, dragged the American people into an unfair war with Iran,” Larijani posted on X.
The escalation came as the powerful son of Iran’s slain supreme leader emerged as a frontrunner to succeed him, suggesting Tehran was not about to buckle to pressure, five days after the United States and Israel launched a military campaign that has killed hundreds and convulsed global markets.
The missile incident is the first time that Turkiye—which borders Iran and has Nato’s second-largest military - has been drawn into the conflict, but US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said there was no sense that it would trigger the Atlantic alliance’s collective-defence clause.
In a sign of the conflict’s expanding reach, Hegseth said the US submarine strike hit an Iranian vessel off Sri Lanka’s southern coast, thousands of miles from the Gulf, as fighting paralysed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz for a fifth day, choking off vital Middle East oil and gas flows.
President Trump has pledged to provide insurance and naval escorts for ships exporting energy from the region to contain soaring prices, but at least 200 vessels remain anchored off the coast, according to Reuters estimates.
The United States and Israel pressed on with their round-the-clock assaults on Iran, with Hegseth saying the US was winning the conflict. “This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down,” Hegseth, sounding supremely confident, told a briefing at the Pentagon. “We can sustain this fight easily for as long as we need to.” By contrast, Iran is firing fewer missiles, signalling its military capabilities are greatly diminished, said Dan Caine, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Israeli military said its aircraft had struck a compound in eastern Tehran housing all Iran’s security bodies, including the Republican Guard, intelligence, cyber warfare and internal police in charge of cracking down on protests.
Israel also told residents to leave a swathe of southern Lebanon on Wednesday as it presses its assault on the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, which has again dragged Lebanon into conflict by firing drones and rockets into Israel on Monday.
As new explosions rang out in Tehran, plans were in doubt for a funeral for the elder Khamenei, 86, killed by Israeli forces on Saturday in the first assassination of a nation’s top ruler by an airstrike.
The body had been expected to lie in state in a vast Tehran mosque from Wednesday evening, but state media reported a farewell ceremony had been postponed.
Two Iranian sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Iran’s slain supreme leader, was not in Tehran when his father was killed.
Iran said the Assembly of Experts that will select the new leader would announce its decision soon, only the second time it will have done so since the Islamic Republic’s founding in 1979. Assembly member Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami told state TV the candidates had already been identified but did not name them. Israel said it would hunt down whoever was chosen.
Other candidates for supreme leader include Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the Islamic Republic’s founder and a champion of the reformist faction sidelined in recent decades.
But the favourite appears to be Mojtaba Khamenei, who has amassed power as a senior figure in the security forces and the vast business empire they control, the Iranian sources said. Choosing him would signal that hardliners remain in charge.
US Central Command said in a statement it had “struck or sunk to the bottom of the ocean” more than 20 Iranian ships, including the warship sunk off Sri Lanka in the first such action by a U.S. submarine since World War Two.
A Sri Lankan official identified the boat as the frigate IRIS Dena, saying it had been heading back to Iran from eastern India. Local authorities said 32 people had been rescued while 87 bodies had been recovered. About 60 sailors were unaccounted for from the estimated 180-strong crew. “An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death,” Hegseth said.
Despite voicing misgivings about the war on Iran, some European nations found themselves drawn militarily into the Middle East to safeguard their citizens and strategic interests.
Britain and France said they would use naval and air forces to help defend against Iranian retaliation. Greece has also moved aircraft and warships to nearby Cyprus.
The US State Department said on Wednesday that more than 17,500 Americans have returned to the United States since the country and Israel launched war on Iran last weekend. More than 8,500 Americans returned on Tuesday, assistant secretary of state Dylan Johnson said.
An exiled Iranian Kurdish group in Iraq told AFP a strike by Iran killed one of its fighters on Wednesday.
Iran´s Revolutionary Guards later confirmed they had fired missiles at armed opposition groups in Iraq´s autonomous Kurdish region.
While Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed 72 people and displaced more than 83,000 since the start of a new round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanese officials announced Wednesday.
The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it detected new missiles launched from Iran. “A short while ago, the IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel”, the military said in a statement, adding aerial defence was working to intercept them.
Qatar´s prime minister condemned Iran´s attacks on Gulf states in a call with Tehran´s foreign minister Wednesday, the first high-level contact since the Islamic republic launched its missile and drone campaign.
Qatari premier Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani accused Iran of seeking to “harm its neighbours and drag them into a war that is not theirs”, on the call with Iran´s Abbas Araghchi, according to a statement by Qatar´s foreign ministry. Thirteen people, seven of them civilians, have been killed in countries around the Gulf since the war began. The Pentagon has announced the deaths of six US servicemen since Saturday, four of them in Kuwait.
The Qatari prime minister urged “an immediate halt to these attacks” on the call and said Iran had “struck civilian and residential areas” despite Araghchi´s assertion “the Iranian missile attacks were directed at US interests and did not target the State of Qatar”. ”These attacks cannot pass without a response,” Sheikh Mohammed added.
Kuwait´s health ministry said “resuscitation was performed in the ambulance while the girl was being transported to the hospital,” adding attempts continued for nearly half an hour at Al-Amiri Hospital but she “passed away due to her injuries”.
The United Arab Emirates and Qatar said they had intercepted Iranian drone and missile barrages, with the UAE reporting it engaged three ballistic missiles and intercepted 121 of 129 drones, while Qatar said it shot down 10 drones and two cruise missiles.
Earlier, Kuwait´s military said it detected incoming projectiles and was working to intercept the missiles and drones in its airspace.
Bahrain said residents could register as volunteers to aid war efforts in sectors including health.
In Saudi Arabia, the defence ministry said two cruise missiles were intercepted over an area south of the capital Riyadh, which is also home to the sprawling Prince Sultan air base, and several drones were destroyed after entering its airspace.
Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it intercepted a drone targeting its massive Ras Tanura refinery on the Gulf coast.
Qatar authorities also announced they had dismantled two spy cells linked to Iran´s Revolutionary Guards, its official press agency reported.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius on Wednesday said it was “illusory” to think that conflicts in the Middle East can be resolved “by military force and unilateral action alone”. “We must emphasise this repeatedly to our American and Israeli friends, and we will continue to do so,” Pistorius told the German parliament.
Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who is on death row in Tehran´s notorious Evin prison, says prisoners have been left locked up without food and few guards following US-Israeli strikes on Iran´s capital, his wife told AFP on Wednesday.
Iran´s armed forces threatened on Wednesday to target Israeli missions worldwide if Israel were to attack Tehran´s mission in Lebanon, a military spokesman said.
Danish shipping giant Maersk said Wednesday that it was suspending bookings in the Gulf “until further notice”, following a risk assessment as the Middle East conflict spreads across the region.
A ballistic missile launched from Iran and heading towards Turkish airspace via Iraq and Syria was destroyed by Nato air defence systems, Turkish officials said on Wednesday. The defence ministry said it had been “engaged and neutralised by Nato air-and-missile defence assets deployed in the eastern Mediterranean”.
Israel said Wednesday it had struck a major Iranian military compound in Tehran housing command centres of the Revolutionary Guards, the elite Quds Force and the Basij paramilitary force.
France said Wednesday it is planning to host a meeting of G7 finance ministers on the Middle East crisis early next week as the war fuels fears for the global economy.
China will send a special envoy to mediate in the Middle East, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday. China “will send a special envoy on Middle East issues to regional countries for mediation”, Wang said during a call with his Saudi Arabian counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan, according to a readout by Beijing.
The Lebanese army said Wednesday it had arrested 27 people in the past two days for “illegally possessing weapons and ammunition”, following a government decision to ban Hezbollah´s military activities.
US forces killed the leader of an Iranian unit that tried to assassinate President Donald Trump, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday. “Iran tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh,” Hegseth told a news conference at the Pentagon. He said the United States has known “for a long time that Iran had intentions on trying to kill President Trump and or other US officials.”
The Omani navy rescued 24 crew members of a Malta-flagged container ship struck by missiles while transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, state media said, as Iran pressed its Gulf retaliation campaign. The cargo ship was “hit by two missiles” and Oman´s royal navy rescued its “crew of 24 people” who are now in good health, the Oman News Agency said.
The US Senate was set to vote on Wednesday on a resolution aimed at curbing President Donald Trump´s authority to continue military strikes on Iran, in the first congressional test of support for a conflict launched without explicit approval from lawmakers. The bipartisan measure, introduced by Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Rand Paul, would require the withdrawal of US forces from hostilities against Iran unless Congress authorizes the campaign. But with Republicans holding a 53-47 majority in the upper chamber of Congress and largely backing the president´s decision to attack Iran alongside Israel, the resolution was widely expected to fail.
Hezbollah said Wednesday its fighters were engaged in “direct” clashes with Israeli forces in the southern Lebanese town of Khiam, located about six kilometres from the border. This is the first claim of a direct confrontation between the two sides since the war started on Monday.
Hezbollah also said it had targeted an Israeli military base near Tel Aviv in central Israel and a naval base in Haifa in the north with swarms of attack drones.
Britain said on Wednesday it had temporarily withdrawn some staff and their dependents from its embassy in Bahrain as a precautionary measure as the US stepped up its military campaign against Tehran. The embassy in Bahrain continued to operate, the government added.
Two drones were shot down on Wednesday evening near Baghdad´s international airport, hours after a similar attack on the facility, two security sources told AFP. “Two drones were downed near Baghdad airport, with no casualties or material damage reported,” an Iraqi security source said. The airport includes a military base that hosts a US diplomatic facility and previously housed US-led coalition troops.
The UN nuclear watchdog IAEA said Wednesday facilities housing nuclear material in Iran suffered no damage in the recent US-Israeli strikes and there was no risk of a radiation leak.
The United States has seen reports that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s slain supreme leader, has emerged as a frontrunner to succeed him, and U.S. intelligence agencies are closely monitoring this, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told a news briefing on Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia will take all necessary measures to defend its security and protect its territory, citizens and residents, the state news agency reported early on Wednesday, citing a cabinet statement.
The United Nations on Wednesday said an estimated 100,000 people fled Tehran in the first two days of the US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 and March 1.
”In Iran, an estimated 100,000 people left Tehran in the first two days following the attacks,” UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said in a situation report.
President Trump on Tuesday tried to tamp down an uproar over whether Israel had dragged the United States into a war with Iran, but he and top officials offered contradictory explanations for why, exactly, Mr. Trump had ordered military action, the New York Times reported.
