Israel has launched wide-ranging attacks on Tehran’s infrastructure as the week‑long Middle East conflict widens, as U.S. President Donald Trump encourages Iranian Kurdish forces in Iraq to attack Iran.
Israel on Friday (6 March) said it had started a "broad-scale" wave of attacks against infrastructure targets in Tehran, as Gulf cities came under renewed bombardment by Iran.
The seven-day war has now seen Iran target Israel, the Gulf states, southern Cyprus, Türkiye and Azerbaijan, and spread to the Indian Ocean off Sri Lanka where a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian naval ship.
On the possibility of the Iranian Kurdish forces entering Iran, Trump told Reuters on Thursday: "I think it's wonderful that they want to do that, I'd be all for it."
Iranian Kurdish militias have consulted with the United States in recent days about whether, and how, to attack Iran's security forces in the western part of the country, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.
The Iranian Kurdish coalition of groups based on the Iran-Iraq border in the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan has reportedly been training to mount such an attack in hopes of weakening the country's military.
Trump, speaking with Reuters in a telephone interview, also said the United States must have a role in deciding who will be the next leader of Iran after airstrikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last week.
"We're going to have to choose that person along with Iran. We're going to have to choose that person," he said.
U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that the U.S. was not expanding its military objectives in Iran, despite what Trump said about choosing the country's next leader.
"There's no expansion in our objectives. We know exactly what we're trying to achieve," he said.
Hegseth and Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads U.S. forces in the Middle East, said during a briefing about operations that the U.S. has enough munitions to continue its bombardment indefinitely.
"Iran is hoping that we cannot sustain this, which is a really bad miscalculation," Hegseth told reporters at Central Command headquarters in Florida.
"Our munitions are full up and our will is ironclad," he said.
The Pentagon earlier this week said the military campaign, known as Operation Epic Fury, is focused on destroying Iran's missiles, missile production and navy, while not allowing Tehran to have a nuclear weapon.
Cooper said the U.S. had now hit at least 30 Iranian ships, including a large drone carrier that he said was the size of a World War Two aircraft carrier.
He added that B-2 bombers had in the past few hours dropped dozens of 2,000 penetrator bombs targeting deeply buried ballistic missile launchers, and that bombings were also targeting Iran's missile production facilities.
Iran's ballistic missile attacks had decreased by 90% since the first day of the war, while drone attacks had decreased by 83% in that time frame, he said.
In Iran, at least 1,230 people have been killed, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, including 175 schoolgirls and staff killed at a primary school in Minab in the country's south on the first day of the war.
Another 77 have been killed in Lebanon, its Health Ministry says. Thousands fled southern Beirut on Thursday after Israel warned residents to leave.
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Kuwait arrested four members of an IRGC-linked group as they tried to enter the country by sea, the Gulf state's KUNA news agency reported on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a senior IRGC officer said Iran had expanded its definition of the Strait of Hormuz to include a far wider area.
Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has passed a law establishing a special military tribunal to try hundreds of Palestinian's accused of taking part in the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, in a move lawmakers say is aimed at addressing national trauma.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday dismissed Iran’s response to a U.S. peace proposal as a “stupid proposal,” saying Tehran failed to commit to abandoning its pursuit of a nuclear weapon, while warning the fragile ceasefire was on “massive life support”.
The Eurovision Song Contest is again under pressure over Israel’s participation, but this year attention is also turning to changes in the competition’s public voting system.
Kuwait arrested four members of an IRGC-linked group as they tried to enter the country by sea, the Gulf state's KUNA news agency reported on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a senior IRGC officer said Iran had expanded its definition of the Strait of Hormuz to include a far wider area.
Australia confirmed it will repatriate citizens from the MV Hondius cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak, with quarantine on arrival. Spain, France are evacuating nationals as three deaths are confirmed. In the U.S., two passengers have been isolated after testing positive for the virus.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday dismissed Iran’s response to a U.S. peace proposal as a “stupid proposal,” saying Tehran failed to commit to abandoning its pursuit of a nuclear weapon, while warning the fragile ceasefire was on “massive life support”.
Metropolitan Shio of Senaki and Chkhorotsku has been elected the 142nd head of the Georgian Orthodox Church at a meeting of clergy in Tbilisi following the death of longtime Patriarch Ilia II.
Afghanistan has signed a five-year gold mining contract with Afghan and Azerbaijani companies in a deal worth more than $20m, the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum has said.
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Japan’s first import of crude oil from Azerbaijan has highlighted the country’s energy vulnerability and renewed efforts to diversify supply chains beyond the Middle East, according to Professor Sejiro Takeshita of the University of Shizuoka.
A key border crossing between southeastern Türkiye and northern Syria reopened to limited civilian traffic on Tuesday after remaining closed since 2014 amid the Syrian conflict.
Three Afghan journalists have been detained by Afghan intelligence officials in Kabul, according to media support groups, raising fresh concerns about press freedom in Afghanistan.
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