The U.S. sank an Iranian warship in international waters, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday, as it intensified its bombardment with Israel of Iranâs security forces and other symbols of power. Tehran vowed to completely destroy the Middle Eastâs military and economic infrastructure â signaling the war was nowhere near over and could expand further.
The tempo of the strikes on Iran was so intense that state television announced the mourning ceremony for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the conflict, would be postponed. Millions attended the funeral of his predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.
In addition to striking Tehran on the fifth day of the conflict, Israel hit the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, while Iran fired on Bahrain, Kuwait and Israel. As the conflict spiraled, Turkey said NATO defenses intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Iran before it entered Turkeyâs airspace.
The war has killed more than 1,000 people in Iran and dozens in Lebanon, while disrupting the supply of the worldâs oil and gas, snarling international shipping, and stranding hundreds of thousands of travelers in the Middle East.
War Glance
As groups of families and others gathered Sunday evening at cafes around Niloofar Squareâa middle-class area in eastern Tehranâafter breaking their fast for Ramadan, a series of explosions struck the area, leveling several buildings and killing over 20 people, according to witnesses at the scene and later reports from local news sources.
We shouldnât beat around the bush: Donald Trumpâs and Benjamin Netanyahuâs military attack on Iran is an illegal act of aggression. There is no lawful justification for it. It is no different from Russian president Vladimir Putinâs invasion of Ukraine or Rwandan president Paul Kagameâs invasion of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Events are still unfolding rapidly across the Middle East, so here's a quick recap:
Dozens of teenage girls were attending their regular training sessions of volleyball, basketball, and gymnastics in the main sports hall in Lamerd, a city near the Persian coast, when a missile slammed into the building at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Additional strikes hit two nearby residential areas and a hall adjacent to a school, as the U.S. and Israel pounded targets across Iran on the first day of what President Donald Trump declared as a regime change war. According to local officials cited in Iranian state media, the strikes on Lamerd killed at least 18 civilians and wounded scores more.





























