U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that the United States is winning its war against Iran "decisively, devastatingly and without mercy."
Speaking from the Pentagon’s briefing room, Hegseth said more forces, including jet fighters and bombers, will soon arrive in the region. He said that the U.S. “will take all the time we need to make sure that we succeed.”
Hegseth also said that a torpedo from a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship on Tuesday night, the first such attack on an enemy since World War II.
Earlier, explosions sounded in Tehran Wednesday as Iran's war with the U.S. and Israel entered a fifth day following earlier strikes on an Iranian nuclear site and retaliatory strikes across the Gulf region by the Islamic Republic and its proxies.
The war has killed more than 1,000 people in Iran and dozens in Lebanon, while disrupting the supply of the world’s oil and gas, snarling international shipping, and stranding hundreds of thousands of travelers in the Middle East.
Here is the latest:
Monitor says Iran has been without internet connectivity for about 4 days
Internet monitoring group NetBlocks says Iran has been offline now for 100 hours. This is the second such blackout this year imposed by Iranian authorities. The first was for nationwide protests in January.
NetBlocks says metrics show internet connectivity at 1% of normal levels.
NetBlocks during the previous shutdown in Iran estimated that it cost the country over $37 million.
Sri Lanka’s navy recovered 87 bodies from the sea where an Iranian warship sank
Navy spokesman Commander Buddhika Sampath says that by the time naval ships reached the location of the Iranian ship’s sinking, “there were only some oil patches and life rafts. We found people floating on the water.”
The U.S. military has said a torpedo from a U.S. submarine sank the ship.
US stock market looks steadier at its open
The S&P 500 rose 0.4% in early trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 197 points. The Nasdaq composite added 0.7%.
War has affected tens of thousands of flights
Over 20,000 of the more than 36,000 flights scheduled to fly to or from the Middle East between Saturday’s start of the war and today have been canceled. That’s according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
Tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is down by about 90%
Shipping tracker MarineTraffic.com reports the sharp trend.
The disruption is costly for the global oil trade. A fifth of the world’s oil passes through the strait.
Major shipping firms have routed vessels away from the area over security concerns.
More on the Iranian warship
The Iranian warship sunk by a U.S. submarine was in the Indian Ocean. Hegseth called the strike the first such attack on an enemy since World War II.
Sri Lankan authorities said 32 people were rescued from the ship, which sank off their country’s coast. They said others died, without giving a number.
More alerts in Israel
Sirens warning of incoming drones and projectiles have been going off almost nonstop for the past hour and a half in different parts of northern Israel. The Israeli military said that at least some of the fire came from Lebanon.
For the third time Wednesday, there are new sirens in central Jerusalem announcing incoming fire. One loud boom could be heard. Sirens also went off in Tel Aviv.
Israel’s rescue services said there were no immediate casualties from latest barrage.
US military is helping Americans leave the Middle East
“We’ve also opened up space available, seats, as C-17s and other airplanes come in to try to help folks get out,” the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says, referring to the large C-17 military transport planes.
Caine gave no details how many Americans are being helped. The U.S. State Department has urged citizens to leave more than a dozen countries.
Sirens in Bahrain
The country’s interior ministry has just announced them.
Israel says military coordination with the US means thousands of calls a day
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity under military protocol, estimates there are 4,000 to 5,000 calls daily to coordinate between Israel and the U.S. across the chain of command.
The official also says top U.S. and Israeli commanders began planning the war’s opening strike three weeks ago.
Hegseth says war with Iran could last 8 weeks
The defense secretary says the timeline could go further than previously speculated.
“You can say four weeks, but it could be six, it could be eight, it could be three,” he says. “Ultimately, we set the pace and the tempo.”
Analyst says some areas in Iran now resemble Gaza’s ruins
Stephane Cohen of Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies Data Analytics Center says that based on Israel’s announced targets and satellite imagery, the campaign resembles a dentist’s “root canal” — dismantling Iran’s defense infrastructure and preventing rapid reconstruction.
Targets have included missile sites, Revolutionary Guard stations, naval bases and air defense systems.
The volume of munitions and scale of visible damage far exceed last year’s 12-day war, Cohen said. In some places, the ash, dust and rubble resemble strikes on Gaza.
Cohen says it’s “everything related to the regime.”
Hegseth acknowledges that the US can’t fend off all Iranian drone attacks
“We have pushed every counter-UAS system possible forward, sparing no expense or capability,” Hegseth says, referencing drones. “Like I said, this does not mean we stop everything.”
On Sunday, six American soldiers were killed at an operations center targeted by an Iranian drone strike in the heart of a civilian port in Kuwait.
American weapons stockpiles remain strong
Top U.S. military officials say U.S. forces have adequate munitions for ongoing operations against Iran.
Gen. Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was speaking to reporters.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the military used more advanced weapons at the start of the campaign, but was switching to gravity bombs now that the U.S. has control of Iranian skies, and stockpiles of the advanced weapons remain “extremely strong.”
US submarine sinks Iranian warship
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says a torpedo from a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship.
In a Pentagon briefing on Wednesday, Hegseth said that the Tuesday night strike on an Iranian warship was the first such attack on an enemy since World War II.
“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” Hegseth said. “Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo.”
Planning for opening strike of war began 3 weeks ago, Israeli official says
An Israeli military official says top U.S. and Israeli commanders began planning the opening strike of the war against Iran three weeks ago.
The official says that once Israel’s government decided on its intention to attack Iran, Israel’s top military brass reached out to the Pentagon to coordinate the operation.
The militaries worked side by side during the opening strikes on Saturday, killing Iran’s supreme leader and dozens of other top officials. As part of the operation, top Israeli commanders went home for the weekend on Friday to deceive Iran into thinking that an attack was not imminent.
NATO condemns Iran's targeting of Turkey
NATO spokesperson, Allison Hart, condemned “Iran’s targeting of Turkey” but she did not confirm whether the military organization’s air defenses were used to down the missile.
“NATO stands firmly with all allies, including Turkey, as Iran continues its indiscriminate attacks across the region,” she said. “Our deterrence and defense posture remains strong across all domains, including when it comes to air and missile defense.”
Asked whether NATO air defenses were used, Hart said she “can’t get into operational details.”
NATO has parts of a broader European ballistic missile defense system on Turkish soil, including an early warning radar at the Kurecik base which can detect missiles from Iran.
Turkey talks with Iran over intercepted missile
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has spoken by phone with his Iranian counterpart after an Iranian ballistic missile that was detected heading toward Turkish airspace Wednesday was intercepted.
During the call with Abbas Araghchi, Turkey stressed that “all steps that could escalate the conflict and contribute to its spread” must be avoided, a Turkish official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government protocol.
Container ship attacked off Oman
A container ship was attacked Wednesday afternoon off the coast of Oman, causing fire in its engine room, an agency of the U.K. military said.
The vessel was transiting eastbound through the Strait of Hormuz, 2 nautical miles north of Oman, when it was hit by an unknown projectile, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, UKMTO.
Oman, long an intermediary between the West and Iran, has repeatedly come under attack by Iran.
A top cleric says Iran is ‘close’ to choosing its next supreme leader
Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami is a member of the Assembly of Experts, the body charged with picking a new leader. His comments were aired on state television.
“The options have become clear,” Khatami said. Other top officials have indicated a decision may be close.
Sirens go off again in Israel
Sirens have gone off in Jerusalem and elsewhere for simultaneous launches from Lebanon and Iran.
Israel’s military earlier said it is seeing a decline in launches from Iran as the campaign enters its fifth day.
Iran wants Iraq to lean on opposition groups
An Iraqi official says a senior Iranian official requested that Iraq take measures to prevent Iranian opposition groups based there from breaching the border.
A statement says Ali Bagheri, deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, made the request in a call with Iraqi National Security Advisor Qassim al-Araji.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard issues most intense threat yet
The guard says it is prepared for the “complete destruction of the region’s military and economic infrastructure.” The statement came via Iranian state television.
“The continued mischief and deception by the United States in the region will come at the cost of the complete destruction of the region’s military and economic infrastructure,” it says.
It alleges, without offering evidence, that the U.S. military was using “civilian facilities ... as cover.”
Death toll in Iran rises
The death toll in Iran from the ongoing war with the United States and Israel has reached at least 1,045 people, an Iranian government agency said Wednesday.
The Iran’s Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs offered the toll, saying it represented the number of bodies so far identified and prepared for burial.
Turkey says NATO defenses intercept ballistic missile launched from Iran
Turkey’s Defense Ministry says NATO defenses have intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Iran before it entered Turkey’s airspace. A ministry statement said the missile was detected after crossing Iraqi and Syrian airspace. NATO air and missile defense units stationed in the eastern Mediterranean intercepted it in time.
Canada’s leader says the world order is rupturing
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney say he sees the war as an extreme example of a rupturing world order in which countries increasingly act without respect for international norms and laws.
“Geo-strategically, hegemons are increasingly acting without constraint or respect for international norms or laws while others bear the consequences. Now the extremes of this disruption are being played out in real time in the Middle East,” Carney said at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based international policy think tank.
But whether the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran broke international law was “a judgment for others to make,” he said.
Shiite leader in Iraq says attack on Iran is a violation of international law
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a prominent religious leader based in Iraq, condemned the “military aggression” against Iran. He said attacking a country that is a member of the United Nations without U.N. approval is a violation of international law.
The Iran-born al-Sistani, who is one of the world’s most influential Shiite clerics, warned that war would cause widespread chaos and prolonged unrest “that will bring calamities to the peoples of the region and to the interests of others as well.”
Al-Sistani is based in the holy Shiite city of Najaf.
Mourning ceremony for Khamenei postponed
Iranian state television on Wednesday afternoon said the mourning ceremony for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been postponed and would be held later after intense strikes targeted Tehran.
Sinking vessel is one of Iran's newest warships
The Iranian vessel that was sinking off of Sri Lanka, the IRIS Dena, is one of Iran’s newest warships.
The frigate was the centerpiece of a two-ship international tour in 2023 that included port calls in countries including South Africa and Brazil. It was accompanied by the support ship IRIS Makran, a converted oil tanker.
The U.S. Treasury Department included both ships on a sanctions designation in February 2023 along with eight executives of an Iranian drone manufacturer that supplied the weapons to Russia for use against civilian targets in Ukraine.
Israel orders people in villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate
The Israeli military is ordering people living in dozens of villages in southern Lebanon close to the border with Israel to evacuate and move “immediately” north of the Litani River.
The Israeli army’s Arabic spokesperson warned people on X that if they decide to move south of the river they will be endangering their lives.
The area south of the Litani River is mostly along the border with Israel. The Lebanese government says it has cleared the area of Hezbollah’s military presence there over the past months.
Israel sees decline in launches from Iran
Israel is seeing a decline in launches from Iran as the campaign enters its fifth day, military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said.
Defrin also said Israel is not surprised by any new weapons Iran may use and had prepared extensively for the confrontation.
He said Israel would continue to “hunt and destroy” Iran’s military capabilities.
Israel says it struck more than 250 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in 2 days
Israel has struck more than 250 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon over the past 48 hours, an Israeli army spokesperson said Wednesday.
Spokesperson Effie Defrin said in a recorded statement that the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah had been launching rockets at Israel overnight.
Defrin said Israel would continue to target Hezbollah until “the threat is removed.”
“I emphasize: We have no issue with the people of Lebanon. The people of Lebanon are paying the price for the Iranian regime,” he said.
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