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Residents of Tehran awoke to the unsettling sound of explosions at dawn, as Iranian state television broadcasted images of devastated buildings in the heart of the capital. The attacks also targeted the holy city of Qom and several other locations across the nation.
As fighter jets soared through the skies above Tehran, the remaining residents watched with trepidation. Among them was a shopkeeper, who expressed his uncertainty about the future. “If I leave the city, how am I supposed to earn money and survive?” he questioned, speaking anonymously due to fears of repercussions.
The Israeli military announced that one of its F-35 stealth fighter jets successfully intercepted and downed an Iranian Air Force YAK-130 fighter over Tehran on Wednesday. Additionally, Israeli air defense systems were engaged to counter Iranian missiles targeting various sites throughout Israel, with explosions reportedly echoing around Jerusalem.
The intensity of the military strikes was such that Iranian officials were compelled to delay the mourning ceremony for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who, according to Iranian state media, was killed amid the ongoing conflict.
The tempo of the strikes on Iran was so intense that authorities postponed the mourning ceremony for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the conflict, according to Iranian state television.
Meanwhile, an Iranian naval frigate was reported in distress off the coast of Sri Lanka, prompting authorities there to respond and rescue 32 people, Sri Lanka officials said.
It was not immediately clear what happened to the ship, which Sri Lankan authorities identified as the IRIS Dena, and is armed with heavy guns, surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship missiles and torpedoes and can carry a helicopter. The US military said earlier it had already destroyed 17 Iranian vessels and that its goal was sinking “the entire navy”.
US Embassies and oil in the crosshairs
With Iran’s stranglehold on tanker movement through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which about a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped, Brent crude prices hit $84 a barrel, up more than 15 per cent since the start of the conflict and at its highest price since July 2024.
Global stock markets have been hammered over worries that the spike in oil prices may grind down the world economy and sap corporate profits.
Iran has also attacked regional infrastructure. Saudi Arabia said Wednesday its Ras Tanura oil refinery, one of the world’s largest, was again targeted after an unsuccessful drone attack on it earlier in the week. The kingdom’s oil ministry said the latest attack did not cause any damage and supplies were not affected.
The American Embassy in Saudi Arabia and the US Consulate in the United Arab Emirates came under drone attacks on Tuesday, and the US State Department said Wednesday it had authorised non-emergency government personnel to evacuate the kingdom.
US Navy Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, said Iran has launched more than 500 ballistic missiles and 2000 drones so far.
“We’ve already struck nearly 2000 targets, with more than 2000 munitions. We have severely degraded Iran’s air defences and destroyed hundreds of Iran’s ballistic missiles, launchers and drones,” Cooper said in a prerecorded message shared online on Wednesday.
Five days into a war that US President Donald Trump suggested could last a month or longer, nearly 800 people have been killed in Iran, including some Trump said he had considered as possible future leaders of the country.
Both sides are unrelenting in attacks
Air sirens sounded in the morning across the island kingdom of Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, and Qatar’s Ministry of Defence said Iran launched two ballistic missiles against it. One hit Al-Udeid Qatari Base but didn’t cause casualties.
Lebanon was hit in multiple strikes and Israel said it’s retaliating against Hezbollah militants after the Iran-backed group fired on Israel. More than 50 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 300 wounded, according to the Health Ministry.
Iranian-linked militant groups in Iraq have also been launching attacks.
Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin reported a decline in launches from Iran as the country’s military capabilities are degraded. In airstrikes overnight, the Israeli military said it hit a missile storage and production plant in Isfahan.
The spiraling nature of the war raised questions about when and how it would end. Trump’s administration has offered various objectives, including destroying Iran’s missile capabilities, wiping out its navy, preventing it from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensuring it cannot continue to support allied armed groups.
Israel presses attacks on Iranian forces and leadership
While the initial US-Israeli strikes killed Khamenei and Trump urged Iranians to overthrow their government, senior administration officials have since said regime change was not the goal.
Trump on Tuesday seemed to downplay the chances of the war ending Iran’s theocratic rule, saying that “someone from within” the Iranian regime might be the best choice to take power once the US-Israel campaign is finished.
Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said Wednesday on X that whoever Iran picks as the country’s next supreme leader, he will be “a target for elimination”.
The Israeli military also said it hit buildings in Tehran associated with the Basij, the all-volunteer force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard that conducted the bloody crackdown on protesters in January that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands detained in the country.
Iran’s judiciary chief, Gholam Hosseini Mohseni Ejehei, threatened on Wednesday anyone who supports the US-Israeli campaign, saying on Iranian state television that they are “on the enemy’s side and must be dealt with on revolutionary, Islamic principles and in accordance with the time of war”.
Iran’s leaders are scrambling to replace Khamenei, who ruled the country for 37 years. It’s only the second time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that a new supreme leader is being chosen. Among those considered as possible candidates is Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of the late ayatollah.
Defrin, the Israeli military spokesman, said the military struck a building in the Iranian city of Qom on Tuesday where clerics were expected to meet to discuss selecting a new supreme leader. He said the army was still assessing whether anyone was hit.
The semi-official Fars and Tasnim news agencies, both believed to be close to the Guard, said on Wednesday there was no meeting there at the time of the attack.
Hundreds have died, including children
The US-Israeli strikes have killed at least 787 people in Iran, according to the Red Crescent Society. Eleven people in Israel have been killed since the conflict began.
Kuwait, which had previously reported a single death, said on Wednesday that an 11-year-old girl was killed by falling shrapnel as Kuwaiti forces were intercepting “hostile aerial targets”. In addition, three people were killed in the United Arab Emirates and one in Bahrain.
Six US Army Reserve soldiers were killed Sunday in Kuwait.