Live updatesNATO shoots down Iran’s missile heading toward Turkey; U.S. submarine sinks Iranian ship
What to know
Return to menu- Shifting tactics: After a blistering campaign that has hit more than 2,000 Iranian targets and sunk 20 Iranian warships, the U.S. military campaign will shift inland, the Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Dan Caine, told reporters Wednesday. At the same briefing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said U.S. and Israeli forces will obtain “complete control of Iranian skies” within days, and they will soon begin a second massive air assault dropping 500- and 2,000-pound bombs on targets.
- Israeli strikes pound Iran: The Israeli military announced fresh strikes against Iran on Wednesday, including on missile facilities; dozens of targets belonging to the Basij, a volunteer paramilitary branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; and internal security force commands.
- Israel and Hezbollah escalate attacks: Israel issued an extensive evacuation order for a huge swath of southern Lebanon as troops push in further and strikes continue to rock the country. Israel Defense Forces spokesman Nadav Shoshani said Israel was facing simultaneous barrages of missiles from Iran and Hezbollah.
- Khamenei funeral delayed: The funeral for Iran’s assassinated leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been postponed “until further notice,” Iranian state media reported, saying the delay was to allow mourners time to reach Tehran.
- A scramble to evacuate Americans from the Middle East: Iran’s retaliatory strikes on American interests and allies across the region continued as the U.S. warned Americans to leave the region immediately. The evacuation of U.S. citizens has been complicated by embassy and airspace closures.
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Thousands of Americans have returned from the Middle East since the start of the conflict with Iran, State Department officials said Wednesday.
Dylan Johnson, assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, wrote on X that 17,500 American citizens have returned to the U.S. from the Middle East since Saturday. A State Department task force has “assisted nearly 6,500 Americans abroad, including offering security guidance and travel assistance.”
A senior State Department official declined to say whether any U.S. government-chartered flights with American citizens have left the Middle East, citing security concerns. The official said some flights would be “in progress very soon.”
Trump concedes Iran war may push up oil prices for Americans
Return to menuPresident Donald Trump acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday the economic toll for Americans of his assault on Iran, saying that oil prices were likely to spike as a result of the fighting in the Persian Gulf but insisting they would eventually dip.
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Senate will vote on forcing Trump to end Iran strikes
Return to menuThe Senate is scheduled to take an initial vote Wednesday around 4 p.m. Eastern time on blocking President Donald Trump from ordering further strikes on Iran, offering the first test of Congress’s support for a campaign that Trump launched without its consent.
Iran can continue firing missiles at its present pace for “several more days” before its capacity to hit targets in the Middle East diminishes, Western officials said. U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian launch sites and missile depots have already caused a drop in the rate of Iranian fire, officials said. “If the current rates continue, we assess that Iran has several more days of capability,” one official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the subject. The official stressed that Iran could decide to curtail the pace of strikes to extend its campaign, which has been aimed at spreading the cost of the conflict to Middle East neighbors and U.S. allies. The combined use of high-arcing missiles and low-flying drones has posed a test to air defense systems across the Middle East, officials said, prompting the British government, along with others, to consult experts from the war in Ukraine.
The Omani navy said Wednesday that it had rescued the 24-person crew of a Malta-flagged cargo ship hit by two missiles near the Strait of Hormuz, off Iran. The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Center reported earlier that a fire had broken out in the ship’s engine room after it was hit by an unknown projectile. Ships have largely stopped moving through the key shipping corridor amid attacks by Iran, pushing up prices, including for oil.
Anthropic’s AI tool Claude central to U.S. campaign in Iran, amid a bitter feud
Return to menuIn order to strike a blistering 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours of its attack on Iran, the U.S. military leveraged the most advanced artificial intelligence it’s ever used in warfare, a tool that could be difficult for the Pentagon to give up even as it severs ties with the company that created it. The military’s Maven Smart System, which is built by data mining company Palantir, is generating insights from an astonishing amount of classified data from satellites, surveillance and other intelligence, helping provide real-time targeting and target prioritization to military operations in Iran, according to three people familiar with the system.
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