U.S. has struck or sunk over 20 Iranian ships, CENTCOM says

The Iranian foreign minister condemned yesterday’s U.S. attack on an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, calling it an “atrocity at sea” in his government’s first acknowledgment of the incident.

“Frigate Dena, a guest of India’s Navy carrying almost 130 sailors, was struck in international waters without warning,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X. “Mark my words: The U.S. will come to bitterly regret precedent it has set.”

Sri Lanka’s navy said yesterday that 87 bodies had been recovered while 32 people were rescued. The search is continuing today for about 60 others who remain unaccounted for, Reuters reported.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said yesterday that the U.S. had torpedoed an Iranian ship in international waters in the Indian Ocean, without naming the ship, one of more than 20 Iranian vessels the U.S. says it has struck or sunk. It was the first time since World War II that a torpedo launched from a U.S. Navy submarine had struck a vessel in combat.

The GOP-led Senate on Wednesday rejected a war powers resolution aimed at restricting President Donald Trump’s ability to carry out further military action against Iran.

The vote was 47-53, short of the simple majority needed to move the resolution to the Senate floor.

Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat to join Republicans in voting no, while Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only Republican to join Democrats in voting yes.

Read the full story here.

The president of Iran’s soccer federation said he does not see a “good outlook” for his country’s participation in this summer’s World Cup, which is being hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

“The U.S. is resentful, and we will have to see what happens regarding our participation,” Mehdi Taj said on the semi-official Tasnim News Agency.

The president is attempting to silence criticism about his administration's mixed messaging after Trump rejected comments by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Israel's plan to attack Iran forced Washington's hand.

"If anything, I might have forced Israel's hand, but Israel was ready and we were ready," Trump said yesterday.

Meanwhile, Democrats continue to reject the idea of Trump's war. But this is not stopping the administration from ramping up efforts.

Trump Addresses Mixed Messaging on Iran, Contradicting Rubio

02:18

Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., and U.S. Capitol Police officers try to remove Brian McGinnis from a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Andrew Harnik / Getty Images

Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., helped U.S. Capitol Police officers arrest a man protesting the war in Iran at a Senate hearing Wednesday.

Sheehy said on X that Capitol Police tried to remove a protester from the Armed Services hearing. “He was fighting back,” Sheehy said. “I decided to help out and deescalate the situation.”

Sheehy’s post included a repost of an apparent video of the incident, in which three officers and Sheehy aggressively try to remove the man while his hand is stuck in a door frame, appearing to injure him.

As the officers tried to remove him, he yelled out, “No one wants to fight for Israel.” Bystanders in the room called out, “his hand, his hand!”

With the man’s hand stuck in the doorway, the officers eventually put him back down after trying to pull him out of the room. As they did, Sheehy walked away and back toward the front of the room. One bystander asked, “Is your hand OK?” To which the man answered, “No, it’s not.”

Capitol Police identified the man arrested as Brian McGinnis, 44, of North Carolina, who faces three counts of assault on a police officer, as well as three counts of resisting arrest and crowding, obstructing and incommoding in the unlawful demonstration.

McGinnis is running for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina as a Green Party candidate. He is a Marine veteran, according to his campaign website.

Read the full story here.

Americans in Israel confront a lengthy and potentially dangerous journey home

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In the days after the U.S. and Israel launched an air war against Iran, the State Department issued new advisories warning Americans to reconsider traveling to several countries in the region. By then, it was too late.

Thousands of Americans are now stranded in the Middle East as Iran retaliates with drone attacks on U.S. facilities, prompting Democratic lawmakers and current and former State Department officials to sharply criticize the Trump administration for failing to plan for what they say was a predictable scenario.

“You would have had far fewer people in harm’s way,” a senior State Department official said on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

U.S. citizens marooned in countries like Jordan, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have received conflicting advice from the State Department.

Read the full story here.

The leaders of Canada and Australia have urged a de-escalation in the war with Iran.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at a news conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Thursday. David Gray / AFP - Getty Images

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described their nations as “middle powers” as they spoke to reporters today in Australia. 

Asked about Canada’s potential involvement, Carney said he can't “rule out participation.”

“You’ve asked a fundamental hypothetical in a conflict that can spread very broadly,” Carney told a reporter in response. 

“One can never categorically rule out participation,” he added. “We will stand by our allies.” 

Qatar’s Interior Ministry announced that authorities will evacuate residents who live near the U.S. Embassy. 

“Suitable accommodation has been provided for them as part of necessary preventive measures,” the ministry said on X. 

The announcement comes after Qatar attacked Iran with drones and two cruise missiles, all of which were intercepted, the Defense Ministry said.

A plume of smoke rises after a strike on the Iranian capital Tehran yesterday. Atta Kenare / AFP via Getty Images

A majority of registered voters disapprove of how Trump is handling the situation in Iran and believe the U.S. shouldn’t have taken military action against the country, according to a new NBC News poll.

Though support for the White House is mostly polarized along party lines, a small but notable slice of Republicans is unhappy with the decision to launch a war in the Middle East. There was also a significant split between younger and older voters in the early days of the attacks.

Read the full story here.

With war escalating in the Middle East, China is holding its biggest political meeting of the year, when the leadership sets economic targets, lays out policies and signals its tone to the rest of the world.

The event, involving thousands of delegates and overseen by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, is tightly scripted and almost entirely predetermined, yet it offers a rare glimpse at the inner workings of the ruling Communist Party. It comes weeks before Trump is set to visit China for a meeting with Xi at which both leaders will try to extend a fragile trade truce.

In the speech or “work report” he delivered in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Premier Li Qiang said the government is rolling out economic policies “against U.S. tariffs.” Li announced a slightly lowered gross domestic product target for the year of 4.5% to 5%, the country’s lowest since 1991, “while striving for better in practice” (it was 5% last year).

The war in Iran creates a complicated scenario for Beijing, which has close ties with Tehran. China is the world’s largest oil and gas importer, and one-third of its supply of crude oil comes from Persian Gulf countries through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has all but shut down in retaliation for U.S.-Israeli strikes. China buys 80% of Iran’s crude oil exports — about 13% of China’s total oil imports — but it has built up significant reserves, according to analysts, to offset any short-term price or supply shocks. It’s unclear to what extent an energy crisis could hobble China’s economic growth.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said tonight on Fox News that no ships have taken up the U.S. Navy’s offer to escort them through the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright speaking in the Indian Treaty Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., today.  Win McNamee / Getty Images

“We’ll do that as soon as we can,” Wright told host Laura Ingraham. “Right now, our Navy and, of course, our military, is focused on other things, which is disarming this Iranian regime.”

Wright predicted that a rise in gas prices “will definitely be temporary” and that prices would soon dip below $3 per gallon.

Iran has long funded Hezbollah and worked in close consultation with its leaders. 

But the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made it much more difficult for Iran to connect with Lebanon. Assad had maintained a long-standing strategic alliance with Hezbollah, but that disappeared when he was forced to flee the country in December 2024.

Under strict sanctions, Iran’s economy has also shrunk in recent years, making it increasingly difficult for Iran to support Hezbollah financially. 

Hezbollah was significantly weakened when Israel killed its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in a 2024 airstrike, also blowing up other senior members with explosive pagers. 

The Defense Department identified a soldier tonight who died in the drone attack in Kuwait as Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien.

A second soldier, Chief Warrant Officer Robert Marzan, is believed to have died at the scene, but officials are still awaiting positive identification, the department said in a statement.

O’Brien, 45, and Marzan, 54, were Army reservists supporting Operation Epic Fury, according to the statement. They were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command in Des Moines, Iowa.

Maj. Jeffrey R. O’Brien, left, and Chief Warrant Officer Robert M. Marzan.   Department of Defense

On Monday two oil and gas tankers crossed the Strait of Hormuz, compared with more than 50 tankers three days earlier, according to tanker traffic data from MarineTraffic.

The strait is a key waterway that 20% of the world’s oil passes through.

Iran's top national security official said the country's armed forces are “fully in control of the situation" and issued a warning to separatist groups.

Those groups “should not think that a favorable wind has begun to blow and try to take action,” Ali Larijani said, according to the semiofficial Iranian Students' News Agency. “We will show them no leniency.”

Trump said the U.S. is doing “very well” in the war against Iran.

Speaking at the White House today, he said: “Somebody said on a scale of 1 to 10, where would you rate it? I said about a 15. And we’re going to continue to do well.” 

Bonnie Cash / UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images

He also claimed that Iran would already have a nuclear weapon had the U.S. not attacked its nuclear enrichment sites last year.

A war powers resolution to stop the war in Iran without future congressional approval was blocked in the Senate, 47-53.

The resolution needed a simple majority to pass.

Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democratic no vote. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only Republican to vote yes.

The resolution would direct the president “to remove the United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Iran, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or a specific authorization for use of military force.”

Cody Greene arrived in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates for a marketing conference the night before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. 

He has been trying to get home to Florida ever since in what he called a “rinse-wash-repeat” cycle of booked flights, canceled flights and no communication or assistance from U.S. officials.

Greene, 36, described calling a phone number Secretary of State Marco Rubio released for Americans in the Middle East who need help getting home. 

“I called immediately, and it was an automated line that told you that the U.S. has no plans to rescue you, and you need to make your own accommodations,” he said.

“I feel betrayed and left out to dry by my own government,” he added.

The Defense Department's rapid response X account posted a map that appears to show U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iranian soil during the first 100 hours of the war.

The map shows a number of hot spots in western and central Iran over the capital, Tehran, as well as strikes across the southern coast.

The map claims to mark Iranian air defenses, as well as sites across the Middle East that it says were struck by Iran, some of them in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq.

An accompanying timeline claims that air superiority along Iran's coast was established Sunday morning, before Israel established air superiority over Tehran that evening.

According to the timeline, there were no Iranian warships in the Persian Gulf (also known as the Arabian Gulf), the Strait of Hormuz or the Gulf of Oman by yesterday. It also says the U.S. sank an Iranian warship today, a claim Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made at an earlier news conference.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has told his country’s neighbors in the region that he respects their sovereignty after Iran launched a number of airstrikes at Gulf nations in recent days.

“We tried, with your help and through diplomacy, to avoid war,” he said on X. “However, the American-Zionist military attack left us with no option other than defending ourselves. We respect your sovereignty and still believe that the stability of the region must be ensured by the countries of the region themselves.”

Iran has launched airstrikes at U.S.-allied nations in the region, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain.

Pezeshkian earlier thanked “all the dear people who are standing by Iran” in a post on social media.

At one of Tel Aviv’s central bus stations this morning, a handful of Americans were among a few dozen foreigners lining up to take the long route out of Israel: a five-hour bus ride to the Egyptian border, followed by flights from Egyptian regional airports and onward home.

Tourists wait to board buses headed toward the Taba border crossing with Egypt in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. John Wessels / AFP via Getty Images

The expensive and time-consuming journey is worth it, travelers said, to avoid the regular barrages of Iranian missiles.

“It was terrifying when we heard that first siren and we were asleep on Saturday morning, and it was just jarring and frightening, really frightening,” said Helene Shenkman, who had been visiting Israel from Redwich, Connecticut, with her husband, Jonathan.

The bus service, which the Israeli government paid for, was noted by the U.S. Embassy in Israel as the State Department launches an effort to give tens of thousands of Americans in the Middle East an escape route from the conflict.

The Strait of Hormuz is nearly empty as threats from Iran deter oil and gas tankers from passing through the key choke point.

Tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is now around 90% lower than last week, according to the ship tracker MarineTraffic. Its map shows oil and gas tankers clustering just outside the strait.

Marine traffic through the Strait of Hormuz at 12:30 p.m. ET today. MarineTraffic / NBC News

Trump said yesterday on Truth Social that the U.S. Navy would start "escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz" if necessary. But since then, traffic in the strait has remained at a near standstill.

Around 20% of the world’s daily oil demand typically flows through the Strait of Hormuz. With shipping through the strait mostly at a halt, oil and gas prices have spiked.

Spain has denied a claim from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt that it has now agreed to cooperate with the U.S. military, after earlier refusing to allow the U.S. to use its jointly run bases for strikes on Iran.

Leavitt said that Spain has heard Trump’s message “loud and clear” and that the president expects all European allies to cooperate with the operation.

But Spain's position on the war in the Middle East and the use of U.S. military bases in the country has not changed, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said today, saying he had no idea what Leavitt was referring to.

"I categorically deny it. The Spanish government's position on the war in the Middle East... and the use of our bases has not changed at all," Albares told radio station Cadena Ser, according to a Reuters translation.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez reiterated his opposition to war in the Middle East earlier today.

Spain’s position is “the same as in Ukraine and Gaza,” Sanchez said in a video address posted on X, which urged countries not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

“No to the collapse of international law that protects us all,” he said. “No to assuming that the world can only resolve its problems through bombs.”

The U.S. wants freedom and democracy for the American people, Leavitt said when asked about reports that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, could be named his successor.

Asked about The New York Times' reporting that clerics were considering announcing the younger Khamenei as his father's successor, Leavitt said she had seen the reports, but officials would "wait and see."

Semiofficial Iranian news agency Mehr reported that Khamenei’s son was alive and well after the deadly strikes launched by the U.S. and Israel that killed his father and other family members, including Mojtaba Khamenei’s wife.

Mehr reported yesterday that Mojtaba Khamenei was “overseeing matters related to the martyrs of the family, managing affairs, and providing consultation and review on important national issues.”

Israel has vowed to kill anyone appointed to the job.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt takes questions today. Win McNamee / Getty Images

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says the U.S. aims to “permanently extinguish” Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Iran “chose this path of violence and destruction and they are reaping the consequences,” she told reporters in Washington, adding that Iran “lied and delayed and tried to string the U.S. along” during negotiations.

She said Iran's leaders were "paying in blood" for what she called crimes, referring to Iranian government actions since the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

U.S. Central Command said today that it has "struck or sunk" more than 20 Iranian ships "to the bottom of the ocean."

The statement, posted on X, was accompanied by a video appearing to show a number of smoking vessels.

The claim comes after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier today that the U.S. had torpedoed an Iranian ship in international waters in the Indian Ocean, without naming the ship.

Sri Lanka’s navy said it had recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people, The Associated Press reported, after receiving a distress signal from the IRIS Dena, an Iranian ship, in international waters this morning.

Healthcare workers in Sri Lanka carry the bodies of Iranian sailors killed in a U.S. torpedo attack today. Ishara S. Kodikara / AFP - Getty Images

Iran’s strategy is to “sow chaos ​and set the region on ​fire,” the European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said today.

“The war in the Middle East is rapidly widening,” Kallas told reporters during a visit to Poland, adding that Tehran was “making a strong case for its own demise.” 

“Of course, the dream scenario would be a democratic Iran that poses no threat to its neighbors, but this outcome is far from certain,” she said. “Right now, no one can predict which direction this war will take.”

Kallas said the war in the Middle East is diverting attention from Ukraine, but it was important ​not to ​let ⁠that conflict “slip off the agenda.”

“Moscow might have lost an ally in Tehran, but the same drones that are hitting Dubai are also hitting Kyiv,” she added.

The assault on Iran could bring about a new “architecture” for the Middle East, leaving the Islamic Republic forever changed and “weaker,” according to one Israeli analyst.

“It will not be Iran that we used to know, and it will not be a capable Iran,” Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, said in a phone interview yesterday.

Michael, who is also a member of the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, said he believed a redefined landscape in the region was the intended “endgame” of the strikes.

While he hoped regime change would be the outcome of the U.S. and Israel’s strikes, either way, “we will have a different Middle East,” he said.

He added that he did not foresee the current conflict becoming an “endless war,” but it could “last some weeks.”

However, he said he believed it was possible Israel and the U.S. would “finish destroying the main assets of the current regime” within weeks and “weaken Iran in a way that Iran will not be able to reconstitute itself militarily.”

The main nerve center for Israel’s primary emergency service could resemble any dispatch hub in any American city — a hive of uniformed first-responders surrounded by ceiling-height monitors and an expanse of computers.

But Magen David Adom’s dispatch unit in Ramla, about 12 miles southeast of Tel Aviv, is more than 100 feet underground, safeguarded by thick walls and a sophisticated respirator system capable of providing clean air in case of conventional and nonconventional attacks.

“You wouldn’t imagine any other emergency services, civilian emergency services, in the world working in a shelter. But for us, this is a need, a basic need,” said Uri Shacham, MDA’s deputy director and chief of staff. The MDA’s role, he said, was “to make sure that no matter what happens outside, no matter how challenging the situation, this brain actually continues to function.”

Inside an ambulance bus at Magen David Adom dispatch unit in Ramla, Israel. Dave Copeland / NBC News

When NBC News visited the facility Tuesday, the mood seemed busy but relaxed as about a dozen uniformed dispatchers handled phone calls and plotted routes for emergency vehicles on an array of screens.

Read the full story here.

Turkey has drawn up plans to deal with a potential inflow of people fleeing ​the war in neighbouring Iran, Interior Minister Mustafa ‌Ciftci said today, with preparations including possible buffer zones along the frontier and tent camps.

There was currently ​no unusual movement at the three border ​gates along the Iran-Turkey border, Ciftci added.

Speaking in ⁠Ankara, Ciftci said three contingency plans had ​been drawn up by authorities: managing any potential migrant ​flow on the Iranian side of the border; creating buffer zones along the frontier if movement cannot be stopped; ​and letting people into Turkey under controlled conditions.

He ​added that Turkey had prepared initial capacity to host up ‌to ⁠90,000 people in the event of a sudden inflow, including tent camps and temporary accommodation sites.

The White House has invited executives from the largest U.S. defense contractors to attend a meeting on Friday to discuss weapons production, according to a White House official.

It comes as there are growing concerns about depleted munitions used to defend American forces in the Middle East, as NBC News reported today.

The companies expected Friday include Lockheed Martin and Raytheon parent RTX, among others, the official said.

President Donald Trump claimed earlier this week that the U.S. has a “virtually unlimited supply” of munitions and that wars can be waged “forever.” On Tuesday, he told reporters that “we have unlimited middle and upper ammunition, which is really what we’re using in this war,” though there is no unlimited stockpile.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has thanked "all the dear people who are standing by Iran" in a post on social media.

Pezeshkian declared deceased Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei a martyr on Sunday and vowed revenge for his killing.

“This great crime will not go unanswered and will create a new chapter in the history of the Islamic and Shia world,” he said. “The pure blood of this respected leader will rise like a flowing spring and will root out American-Zionist oppression and crime.”

The U.S. Mission in the UAE postponed all routine visa and U.S. Citizen Services appointments "due to the current security situation."

The agency said it will contact those with appointments to reschedule when services resume.

A photo provided to NBC News via satellite imagery company Planet Labs shows the destruction at the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab, Iran, which was struck by a deadly airstrike on Saturday as the U.S. and Israel launched joint operations.

Iranian authorities said at least 168 people, many of them children, were killed in the strike on the school.

Asked about the deaths on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said: “All that I know is that we’re investigating that. Of course, we never target civilians, but we’re taking a look at investigating that.”

From left: the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab, southern Iran, on Dec. 1, and again on Mar. 4, following a deadly airstrike. Vantor; Planet Labs

Shipping company Maersk is suspending all cargo in and out of seven Middle Eastern nations until further notice, it said today.

“We are taking operational measures to ensure the safety of our personnel, safeguard your cargo and maintain service stability across affected trades in the Middle East,” it said in a statement.

The blockade affects ports in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, it said. 

“Jeddah and King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia and Salalah, Oman remain operational and are not affected by this measure at this stage,” the statement added. 

An unexploded Iranian missile landed near Qamishli International Airport in northeastern Syria today.

Civilians were pictured next to the missile, part of which was buried in the ground.

Orhan Qereman / Reuters

Sri Lanka's navy has recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people, The Associated Press reported, after receiving a distress signal from the IRIS Dena, an Iranian ship, in international waters this morning.

Navy spokesman Cmdr. Buddhika Sampath told the AP that those rescued were admitted to a hospital in Sri Lanka, and the bodies recovered were being brought to land.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier that the U.S. had torpedoed an Iranian ship in international waters in the Indian Ocean, without naming the ship.

The Department of Defense says periscope footage shows a U.S. Navy submarine firing on and sinking an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean.  Dept. of Defense via AFP - Getty Images

The Omani navy rescued 24 crew members from a cargo ship flying the Maltese flag that was hit by two missiles today, the country's state news agency reported.

The sailors were rescued and provided with necessary medical care and are all in good health, it said.

Earlier today, the United Kingdom’s Maritime Trade Operations said it had received a report of a container ship being hit by an “unknown projectile” in the Strait of Hormuz, off Oman’s north coast.

“The crew have now abandoned the vessel and all crew are accounted for with no reported injuries,” it said.

Information provided by U.S. officials to American citizens living in Dubai has been “pretty poor,” one resident told NBC News this morning. 

Liza Thompson, 45, said she had tried to contact a hotline set up by the U.S. government, but she “couldn’t get ahold of anybody.” 

“I’ve been told that Americans who have actually gotten ahold of people have been unable to get any help,” she added. “They just get a lot of, ‘I’m sorry, we’re not doing anything.’ To be honest, the information that we’ve received from the U.S. has been pretty poor.” 

Thompson said she lived quite close to missile interceptors in Dubai and Saturday afternoon into overnight Sunday had been a busy period for them. 

While it was “frightening,” she said most of the explosions they heard were “defensive in nature.” 

“What you have to keep coming back to is that this is a very, very well-protected country and they’ve done so far an amazing job to protect us,” she added.

Passengers arrive from a Dubai flight at the international airport in Sydney today. Izhar Khan / AFP - Getty Images

International travelers have begun returning home after thousands of flights were delayed or canceled following the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran.

A traveler speaks to a reporter as she arrives at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol on a flight from the Middle East today. Ramon Van Flymen / AFP - Getty Images

A passenger is embraced by a loved one in Sydney today after disembarking from an Emirates flight coming from Dubai. Izhar Khan / AFP - Getty Images

The first Spaniards evacuated from the Middle East arrive in Madrid yesterday. Diego Radamés / Europa Press via AP

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during his remarks at the Pentagon that the U.S. has enough munitions to carry out its military operations against Iran.

"I know there have been a lot of questions about munitions. We have sufficient precision munitions for the task at hand — both on the offense and defense," he told reporters.

He added: "I know there's been a great debate about that. I appreciate the interest, but just know that we consider that an operational security matter."

There have been concerns over U.S. stockpiles of munitions as the military ramps up its efforts in Iran. NBC News reported today that it could prompt the Trump administration to force defense companies to quickly manufacture more weapons.

A surgeon at Firoozgar Hospital in Tehran tells NBC News that he was stuck at work overnight because so many injured civilians had flooded the facility.

Medical services aren't the only ones to appear overwhelmed, he added.

The surgeon, who asked not to be named because he did not want it to be known he was speaking to a foreign news organization, said a security guard had caught a robber trying to steal from the hospital last night.

A call to the police went unanswered, however, and the guard went on to release the robber.

Russia accused the United States today of using an imaginary threat from Iran as pretext for striking the country, adding that Washington’s call for Iranians to overthrow its government “cynical and inhumane.”

“There is no doubt that the imaginary, invented ‌Iranian ⁠threat, repeatedly stated over many years, was merely a pretext for the implementation of a long-cherished plan to violently overthrow the constitutional order of a sovereign state,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already condemned what he called a cynical murder of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the weekend.

Announcing the strikes Saturday, Trump had issued a call for Iranians to “take over your government.”

Without mentioning Trump, Zakharova said that it was “even more cynical and inhumane to hear calls for the Iranians to seize power, as ⁠the ​West says, when the West is ​literally tearing ripping these hands from the Iranians.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez reiterated his opposition to war in the Middle East today after Trump threatened to end trade with Spain following a row over the country’s air bases.

Spain’s position is “the same as in Ukraine and Gaza,” Sanchez said in a video address posted on X, which urged countries not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

“No to the collapse of international law that protects us all,” he said. “No to assuming that the world can only resolve its problems through bombs.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez delivers an official statement in response to Trump's remarks, at La Moncloa Palace in Madrid today.  Borja Puig De La Bellacasa / AFP via Getty Images

Iran cannot outlast the U.S., Hegseth said at his news conference, adding that the war could continue for, three, four, six or eight weeks.

"We’re going to ensure through violence of action and our offensive capabilities and our defensive capabilities, as I said, that we set the tone and the tempo of this fight," he said.

"The only limits we have in this is President Trump’s desire to achieve specific effects on behalf of the American people," he added. "We could say four weeks, but it could be six, it could be eight, it could be three."

Hegseth finished by saying Iran was "off balance," and that the "difference gets wider every day."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called President Donald Trump last Monday to tell him that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be meeting with his high-ranking members of his leadership team, a senior U.S. official told NBC News.

Netanyahu told the president and his advisers that the entire group could be killed in a single strike Saturday morning because they were meeting in one location, the American official said, adding that the CIA quickly confirmed the intelligence.

The call, first reported by Axios, was held in the White House Situation Room, the official said, and it marked a defining moment that led to the exact timing of those initial strikes on Iran.

The call was one of several critical factors that led to Trump’s decision to strike Iran, the official said, adding that he also considered Iran's efforts to build nuclear weapons, the failure to achieve any progress in direct talks with the Islamic Republic and the expansion of its ballistic missile program.

The U.S. is investigating reports that a strike on an Iranian elementary school killed 168 people on the weekend.

"All that I know is that we're investigating that," he said during his press conference. "Of course, we never target civilians, but we're taking a look at investigating that."

The aftermath of a strike on an Iranian elementary school in Minab on Saturday. Abbas Zakeri / Mehr News via Reuters

Three airstrikes hit Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab in southern Iran, killing 168 people, many of them children according to the town’s mayor.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Saturday on X that the school was “bombed in broad daylight, when packed with young pupils.”

Over the weekend, U.S. Central Command said it was looking into reports of civilian deaths. The Israeli military has so far declined to comment.

Hegseth addressed a question about how the U.S. took out a leader of a group that he says tried to assassinate Trump.

The defense secretary said that the U.S. has known for a long time that Iran has tried to kill the president and other top officials.

"While that was not the focus of the effort by any stretch of the imagination, in fact, never raised by the president or anybody else, I ensured, and others ensured that those who were responsible for that were eventually part of the target list," he said.

Hegseth said it wasn't the priority of the U.S. effort, which he said was mainly focused on taking out missiles and launchers in Iran.

While the U.S. defensive shield is "formidable" and uses the most sophisticated air and missile defense networks, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at his news conference it's not possible to stop everything that Tehran is firing at its neighbors in the Middle East.

"Thousands of Iranian missiles and drones have been intercepted and vaporized," he said. "We have pushed every counter-UAS [Unmanned Aircraft System] system possible forward, sparing no expense or capability," he continued, talking about drones, adding: "This does not mean we can stop everything."

The attack on Iran was never meant to be a fair fight, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at his news conference.

“We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be,” Hegseth said.

“They are toast, and they know it, or at least, soon enough, they will know it, And we have only just begun, to hunt, dismantle, demoralize, destroy and defeat their capabilities,” he added.

In under a week, he said the U.S. and Israel would “have complete control of Iranian skies, uncontested airspace.”

The ruins of a police station that was struck during U.S.-Israeli attacks on Tehran yesterday. Morteza Nikoubazl / NurPhoto via Getty Images

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. military will begin to expand “inland,” striking deeper into Iran.

“We will now begin to expand inland striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory and creating additional freedom of maneuver for U.S. forces,” he said at the Pentagon.

Caine said the U.S. is ensuring that Iran “cannot rapidly rebuild or reconstitute its combat capability or combat power.”

As of this morning, he said that U.S. Central Command is making “steady progress.”

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's top military force, said a continued American military campaign imperiled the military and economic infrastructure of the Middle East.

“The continued mischief and deception of the Americans in the region could result in the collapse of all military and economic infrastructure in the region,” the group said in a statement carried by Iranian semi-official news agency ISNA.

Hegseth says the U.S. torpedoed an Iranian ship in international waters today.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaking at the Pentagon today. Konstantin Toropin / AP

The U.S. sank “an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” he said. “Instead it was sunk by a torpedo.”

The Sri Lankan navy said earlier today it had rescued 32 people who were on board an Iranian warship and recovered several bodies from the sea, according to Reuters reports.

Hegseth did not confirm the name of the ship that was attacked.

He claimed it was the first ship sunk by a submarine since World War II; however, a British submarine named Conqueror sank an Argentine ship, the Belgrano, during the Falklands War in 1982.

Hegseth: U.S. sank Iranian ship with a torpedo

01:01

Sri Lanka’s navy said it rescued 32 people this morning after receiving a distress call from an Iranian navy ship, the IRIS Dena.

“Though it was beyond our waters, it was within our search and rescue region. So we were obliged to respond as per international obligations,” Budhika Sampath, a Sri Lankan navy spokesperson, told the BBC.

The IRIS Dena in the Gulf of Oman in 2024. Iranian Army Office / Zuma via Reuters file

“We found people floating on the water, rescued them, and later when we inquired we found that those people are from an Iranian ship,” he added.

According to the ship's documentation, 180 people are believed to have been on board, Sampath said.

He also rejected reports of a submarine attack, saying the cause of ship's sinking was unknown.

An injured man is wheeled into a hospital after being rescued from an Iranian military ship in Galle, Sri Lanka, today. Thilina Kaluthotage / Reuters

Air Vice Marshal Sampath Thuiyakontha, the secretary for the Sri Lankan Air Defense Ministry, had earlier told BBC Sinhala that around 140 people were thought to be missing.

The United Kingdom's Maritime Trade Operations says it has received a report of a container ship being hit by an “unknown projectile” today in the Strait of Hormuz, off Oman’s north coast.

"The crew have now abandoned the vessel and all crew are accounted for with no reported injuries," it said.

The projectile hit the ship just above the water line, the updated added, causing a fire in the engine room.

The U.S. “is winning decisively, devastatingly and without mercy,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a briefing at the Pentagon.

“We are only four days in”, he said, but the U.S. “will take all the time we need” to make sure the operation is a success.

People walk past damaged buildings in central Tehran today. Abedin Taherkenareh / EPA via Shutterstock

Gas prices are now higher than they were a year ago, with a major jump happening in the last few days. The national average as of this morning is $3.19.

Ships carrying oil are largely unable to travel through the Strait of Hormuz due to threats from Iran.

Shipping through the narrow body of water between Iran and Oman, which carries around 20% of the world's oil as well as large amounts of liquefied natural gas, has practically stopped as Iran retaliated to Israeli and American strikes.

Trump has said that, if necessary, the U.S. Navy could escort tankers through the waterway to get things moving.

Gas prices spike as war expands and escalates in Middle East

02:26

The International Atomic Energy Agency said today that it has detected no damage to Iranian facilities containing nuclear material, based on the analysis of the latest available satellite imagery.

However, the nuclear watchdog said in a post on X damage was visible at two buildings near Isfahan nuclear site in central Iran.

There was also no additional impact detected at Natanz nuclear facility, the IAEA said, after previously reported damage at entrances, and no impact at other nuclear sites, including Bushehr nuclear power plant on Iran’s west coast.

Satellite imagery released Monday shows an overview of the Natanz nuclear complex in Iran's Isfahan province, with damage observed on several buildings. Vantor / AFP - Getty Images

A ballistic missile fired from Iran and heading toward Turkish airspace was shot down by NATO air and missile defense systems, the Turkish Defense Ministry said today.

The missile was detected after "passing through through Iraqi and Syrian airspace," it said in a statement, noting that there were no casualties or injuries in the incident.

"While Turkey is on the side of regional stability and peace, it is capable of ensuring the security of its territory and citizens, regardless of who or where it comes from," the statement added. "We warn all parties to refrain from taking steps that would lead to further spread of conflict in the region."

A first charter flight carrying French nationals home from the Middle East landed in Paris today.

With an estimated 400,000 citizens in the 15 countries across the region, France is among the Western countries most impacted by the war. This morning's flight departed Muscat, the capital of Oman.

Trump said yesterday that there was no evacuation plan for Americans in the Middle East, “because it all happened very quickly.”

The State Department has urged Americans to leave more than a dozen ​Middle Eastern countries immediately using commercial options, advising travelers to register with the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program.

The State Department said yesterday that it “is facilitating charter flights from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan for American citizens, and will continue to secure additional capacity as security conditions allow.”

The war in the Middle East is expanding as the U.S. and Israel continue to pound Iran, and Israel also strikes Lebanon. Iran, meanwhile, is retaliating by launching drones and missiles across the Middle East and beyond.

War in Middle East escalates as Iran moves to select new leader

02:34

The farewell ceremony for slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been postponed, Iran’s state media is reporting.

Seyed Mohsen Mahmoudi, the head of the Islamic Propagation Coordination Council of Tehran, said the main reason for postponing was numerous requests from people in different provinces who wanted more time to attend the funeral procession, the IRIB state TV channel reported.

Golfers got more than they bargained for over the Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai earlier this week when a drone flew above the course.

A resident of Dubai who lives next to the course in the UAE recorded the unusual site and shared the video with NBC News.

It was unclear who had launched the drone or where it had landed.

00:26

Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura oil refinery, one of the Middle East’s largest, was struck again this morning, two days after an initial attack temporarily shut it down.

Early estimates indicate that the attack was carried out by a drone and did not result in any damage, the Saudi Defense Ministry spokesman said in a post on X.

A satellite image shows smoke rising from the Ras Tanura oil refinery in Saudi Arabia on Monday.  Satellite image ©2026 Vantor

The Ras Tanura complex, on the kingdom’s Gulf coast, has a capacity of 550,000 barrels per day and serves as a critical export terminal for Saudi crude. It was temporarily shut down Monday after it came under attack from drones, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported.

The powerful Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah has been a long-running threat to Israel, intermittently firing rockets over the border and making life miserable for many residents. 

Its attacks on Israeli forces are widely considered in Lebanon to have been instrumental in Israel's decision to end its 18-year occupation in 2000. 

Six years later, Hezbollah fighters launched a massive cross-border attack, triggering an Israeli response. More than 1,100 people, most of them civilians, were killed in Lebanon during the 34-day war, as well as 119 Israeli soldiers and 45 civilians.

Hezbollah supporters mourn Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Beirut on Monday. Anwar Amro / AFP via Getty Images

But some analysts believed that Israel came off worse. Within the country, there was also quite a bit of criticism that the Israel Defense Forces were physically out of shape and the commanders were not up to the task of facing a battle-hardened Hezbollah. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has accused President Donald Trump of betraying “diplomacy and Americans who elected him.”

“When complex nuclear negotiations are treated like a real estate transaction, and when big lies cloud realities, unrealistic expectations can never be met,” he wrote on X today. “The outcome? Bombing the negotiation table out of spite.”

Iran and the United States were engaged in intense negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program when Trump joined Israel in launching the war.

A group of volunteers known as Servants of the Lady Zahra pray next to the rubble of a destroyed police station in Tehran today.

Majid Asgaripour / WANA via Reuters

More than 65,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon by the recent outburst of violence between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, with numbers rapidly rising, the World Food Programme said this morning.

Within two days of escalation, the World Food Programme said in a post on X it has reached 9,000 people in 44 shelters across Lebanon.

The country emerged as a new front in the escalating conflict in the Middle East after Hezbollah fired at Israel on Monday in retaliation for the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel responded with its own strikes, saying yesterday its forces were now operating on the ground, where they would “advance and seize additional” territory.

A son of Iran's assassinated supreme leader has emerged as favorite to succeed his father, amid Israeli vows to kill anyone appointed to the job.

Clerics charged with choosing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s successor were considering announcing Mojtaba Khamenei's new role as soon as this morning, The New York Times reported, citing three Iranian officials familiar with the discussions.

The New York Times report comes after semiofficial Iranian news agency Mehr news reported that Khamenei's son was alive and well after the deadly strikes launched by the U.S. and Israel that killed his father and other family members, including Mojtaba Khamenei's wife.

Mojtaba Khamenei in 2019. Morteza Nikoubazl / NurPhoto via Getty Images file

Mehr reported yesterday that Mojtaba Khamenei was "overseeing matters related to the martyrs of the family, managing affairs, and providing consultation and review on important national issues."

The elementary school called with an urgent message about her son. “The war has started,” she was told. Come pick him up.

The mother, who asked not to be identified, said she had only just dropped the boy off and couldn’t leave immediately since she had patients to see in her job as a midwife. Then the earth shook. And she ran.

Iran reports 168 dead in strike on elementary school

01:53

It was too late. Three airstrikes had hit Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab in southern Iran, killing 168 people, according to the town’s mayor. Many of them were children. One of them was her son.

“By the time we arrived, the entire school had collapsed on top of the children,” the mother told NBC News. “People were pulling out children’s arms and legs. People were pulling out severed heads.”

Four days later, grief and outrage grew over the school deaths, which have become a flash point for opposition to the U.S. and Israeli strikes. There are also anger and uncertainty over the fact that no one has admitted responsibility for the most publicized civilian casualties since the start of the war.

Read full story here.

People in Dubai “are scared” but the government of the United Arab Emirates is working hard to keep people safe and informed, Kiran Ali, an American woman who lives in the city told NBC News. 

Kiran Ali and Raakin Iqbal.  NBC News

Ali, 38, who moved to the city from New York with her husband, Raakin Iqbal, 37, said there was conflicting information from different governments about ways to leave the city.

She said they had planned a party Saturday to celebrate iftar, the meal eaten by Muslims at sunset to break their fast during Ramadan, when they “started to hear loud booms and we started seeing missiles over air.”

“It sounded like a cannon except you could see a flare in the air and overhead and the windows shook and the house shook,” she said. 

Iqbal said the government was looking out for people by mandating hotels for people who were stranded and they were seeing “the amount of compassion and care that they have.”

Iran is close to selecting a new supreme leader, a member of the body tasked with choosing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 's replacement said on Iranian state TV this morning.

“The leader will be chosen at the earliest appropriate opportunity, but right now the country is in a state of war,” Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, was quoted as saying.

“We are close to selecting the leader, we must act according to the law,” Khatami said, adding that “options” have already been identified.

A poster of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran on Monday. Vahid Salemi / AP

Meanwhile, Israel vowed that anyone chosen to replace him will also be a target.

The Sri Lankan military has rescued at least 30 people on board a sinking Iranian ship near Sri Lankan waters today, the country’s foreign minister told Parliament.

The Sri Lankan navy dispatched a rescue mission after a distress call from the Iranian ship, a Defense Ministry spokesperson said earlier today.

Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath did not give further details but said Sri Lanka would take appropriate action.

Local media reported the ship reported distress off the coast of Galle in the southern part of the country, and that the injured had been admitted to a hospital in Galle.

An Iranian fighter jet was shot down by an Israeli fighter jet over Tehran, the Israeli military has said, the first such claim during this war.

An Israeli air force F-35I fighter jet (“Adir”) shot down an Iranian Air Force YAK-130 fighter jet over Tehran, the IDF said. It said this was the first shootdown in history of a manned fighter aircraft by an F-35.

There was no immediate confirmation from Iran, and NBC News has not independently verified the claims.

Overnight and this morning have been the most intense bombardment across Lebanon since Sunday night. We could hear the strikes throughout the morning from our location.

A notable strike in Beirut was on a hotel in the southeast of the capital that is outside the usual Dahiyeh suburb where the strikes have been concentrated.

Ibrahim Amro / AFP via Getty Images

Ibrahim Amro / AFP via Getty Images

Ibrahim Amro / AFP via Getty Images

We're yet to receive any confirmation as to why the site was targeted, though Israel says it is striking Hezbollah operatives.

The Israeli military has launched what it says are "broad scale strikes" targeting Iranian regime targets in Tehran this morning.

Iranian state media were reporting explosions heard in east Tehran, and smoke could be seen rising in the area.

Iran will begin mourning its slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei today, Iranian state media has reported.

Women mourn the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran on Sunday. Majid Saeedi / Getty Images

Starting later today, Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Mosque will host the body of the country's leader, killed in the U.S.-Israeli attack over the weekend, as part of a three-day farewell ceremony that will kick off funeral proceedings.

The three-day long farewell will also include special programs. A funeral is also being planned with details yet to be confirmed.

The start of the public mourning comes as the country's ruling clerics move forward with selecting a new leader.

Saudi Arabia is one of the latest additions to the State Department’s list of nations where nonemergency U.S. government employees and their families can evacuate.

The same order was issued overnight for Oman, Pakistan and even Cyprus.

Due to safety risks, the travel advisory states that government employees working in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to travel within 20 miles of the Yemen border. Houthis in Yemen have launched missile and drone attacks into Saudi Arabia, the advisory notes.

“The U.S. government has limited ability to offer emergency services to U.S. citizens in the Yemen border region due to the safety risks,” it says.

The Israeli military has killed the highest-ranking commander of Iran’s Quds Force, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said.

The IDF killed Davoud Alizadeh, responsible for Iranian activity in Lebanon, Avichay Adraee said. The Quds Force is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard’s force that handles Iran’s relationship with regional militias.

“He instructed Hezbollah to attack Israel in defense of Iran, rather than in defense of the Lebanese state and its citizens,” Adraee said on X.

Operatives working for Iran’s government have 24 hours to leave Lebanon, Adraee said. He said Israel will not tolerate “representatives of the Iranian terrorist regime in Lebanon” any longer, at least after that 24-hour stretch is up.

“There will be no safe haven for representatives of the Iranian regime in Lebanon, and the IDF will target them wherever they are found,” Adraee said.

Asian stocks tanked as the war in Iran entered its fifth day, with investors dumping crowded positions in chipmakers on worries that the conflict will drive an oil shock that raises inflation and delays interest rate cuts.

Deep falls in South Korea triggered a circuit breaker as the Kospi shed more than 11%, with two-day losses at 17% and the heaviest since 2009 while the won currency slumped to a 17-year low.

Japan’s Nikkei fell 4.3% and Taiwan stocks dropped 3.6% as investors race out of what has been one of the hottest bets of the last few months in semiconductor makers.

S&P 500 futures eased 0.6% and European futures gave up an early bounce to fall just below flat.

As the United States and its Middle East allies face Tehran’s response to President Donald Trump’s renewed bombardment of Iran, they must find a solution to a growing problem: drones.

  Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images

Cheap and simple to produce, Iran’s Shahed drones are unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used to overwhelm air defenses in conjunction with other missiles. They have been used to successfully bombard a U.S. embassy, a radar system, an airport and a high-rise, videos on social media show.

The issue, experts say, is the long-term ability to intercept them.

Read the full story here.

The elementary school called with an urgent message about her son. “The war has started,” she was told. Come pick him up.

The mother, who asked not to be identified, said she had only just dropped the boy off and couldn’t leave immediately since she had patients to see in her job as a midwife. Then the earth shook. And she ran.

It was too late. Three airstrikes had hit Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab in southern Iran, killing 168 people, according to the town’s mayor. Many of them were children. One of them was her son.

“By the time we arrived, the entire school had collapsed on top of the children,” the mother told NBC News. “People were pulling out children’s arms and legs. People were pulling out severed heads.”

Read the full story here.

Any new leader in Iran “will be an unequivocal target for elimination,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has said this morning.

“It doesn’t matter what his name is or where he hides,” Katz wrote in a post on X. His comments come as Iranian clerics moved forward with the process of selecting a replacement for slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Katz added that Israel and the U.S. will work together “to crush the regime’s capabilities and create conditions for the Iranian people to overthrow and replace it.”