Live updates: U.S. sub torpedoes Iranian ship as public mourning delayed for Khamenei

Expect an “overwhelming” and bigger wave of military strikes on Iran in the coming days, top Trump administration officials told lawmakers in classified briefings.

What we know

IRAN SHIP TORPEDOED:The U.S. has torpedoed an Iranian ship in international waters in the Indian Ocean, the first sunk by a submarine since World War II, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says. Earlier, Sri Lanka’s navy said it had rescued 32 people after receiving a distress call from an Iranian navy ship, the IRIS Dena.MOURNING FOR LEADER DELAYED:Iranian state media reported the government is delaying public mourning ceremonies for slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose body was set to go on display in Tehran today.GULF UNDER ATTACK:Iran's escalating retaliationhas hit U.S. sites, travel hubs and oil facilitiesacross the Gulfas Washington scrambled to ensure Americans leave the Middle East.STRAIT OF HORMUZ:President Donald Trump said the U.S. Navy may escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for oil and gas that Iran is attempting to block.MOUNTING DEATH TOLL:Hundreds of people have died across the Middle East. More than 1,000 people have been killed by Israeli and American strikes, Iranian state media reports, and 11 have died in Israel as Iran fired back. The U.S. government identified four of the six service members killed in a drone strike on a port in Kuwait.

Tearful reunions as travelers return from the Middle East

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 cancelled 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 a 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

U.S. has 'sufficient' munitions for operations against Iran, General says

General 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.

Injured civilians flood Tehran hospital

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 condemns U.S. calls for Iranians to seize power

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 PM issues rebuttal after Trump trade threats

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

Trump said yesterday that he would impose a full trade embargo on the European nation after Spain refused to allow the U.S. to use its jointly run bases for strikes on Iran.

“We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” he said.

Trump also said that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is “no Winston Churchill” in a row over the U.K.’s refusal to allow the U.S. to use its bases for the initial strikes on Iran. Starmer has since agreed to the U.S. request to use British bases for subsequent “defensive” strikes on Iranian missile sites.

Starmer defended his government's approach today, saying protecting British nationals was his "number one priority."

War could continue for eight weeks, Pete Hegseth says

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."

Call from Benjamin Netanyahu influenced Trump's decision to strike, senior U.S. official says

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.

U.S. investigating school strike, Pete Hegseth says

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 says U.S. targeted team behind Trump assassination plot

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.

"But ultimately, if we have the opportunity to get at those who are trying to get at America specifically, we would, and so we eventually had the opportunity to do that from the air," he said.

Hegseth didn't provide any additional details.

In recent days, Trump has alluded to an Iranian assassination plot against him in 2024, which Iran has denied.

Pete Hegseth says U.S. can't stop everything fired from 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."

U.S. and Israel will have complete control of Iranian skies, Pete Hegseth says

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

“I hope all the folks watching understand what uncontested airspace and complete control means,” he said. “It means we will fly all day, all night, day and night, finding, fixing and finishing the missiles and defense industrial base of the Iranian military,”

“Iran will be able to do nothing about it,” he added.

Gen. Dan Caine says the U.S. military will begin to expand 'inland,' striking deeper into Iran

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.”

“Iran’s theater ballistic missile shots fired are down 86% from the first day of fighting, with a 23% decrease just in the last 24 hours. And their one-way attack drone shots are down 73% from the opening days,” he said.

Caine added that the progress has allowed CENTCOM “to establish localized air superiority across the southern flank of the Iranian coast and penetrate their defenses with overwhelming precision and firepower.”

Iran’s IRGC says war could end with 'collapse' of Mideast military and economic infrastructure

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.

Pete Hegseth says U.S. sank Iranian ship in Indian Ocean

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.

Sri Lankan navy rescues 32 after Iranian ship sinks

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.

Container ship hit by strike in Strait of Hormuz, British agency says

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.

U.S. is 'winning decisively,' Pete Hegseth says

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 spike as war escalates

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.

Damage detected near Iranian nuclear site, watchdog says

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

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi called for “maximum restraint” to help avoid any danger of a radiological incident.

Meanwhile, Russia warned earlier today that Bushehr was "under threat" because explosions are hitting within miles of its protective perimeter.

More than 600 Russian employees remain at the plant, Alexey Likhachev, director general of the Russian nuclear agency Rosstom, said yesterday, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

NATO defenses shoot down Iranian missile flying toward Turkey

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."

Charter flight brings French nationals home as U.S. struggles to help Americans

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.”

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

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.

Farewell ceremony for Khamenei postponed, state media says

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.

Is it a birdie? No, its a drone flying over a Dubai golf course

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.

Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura oil refinery hit again

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.

Analysis: Israel faces a weaker Hezbollah

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.

That changed after Hezbollah began attacking Israel in solidarity with Hamas after the Oct. 7 attacks.

This time, Israel had a tremendous amount of intelligence and killed its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an airstrike, along with other senior leaders, while other members were killed by explosive pagers.

This, combined with the destruction of a lot of Hezbollah's military hardware, made the group significantly weaker. And while it has fired on Israel after its recent attacks on Iran, those attacks have been incredibly limited compared with previous campaigns.

Trump betrayed ‘diplomacy and Americans,’ Iran’s foreign minister says

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.

Volunteers pray next to ruins in Tehran

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 displaced in Lebanon, World Food Programme says

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.

Could Khamenei's son become Iran's new supreme leader?

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."

Questions around who will succeed Khamenei have been complicated by the death of Iran’s former President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May 2024.

Mojtaba Khamenei is known to hold significant influence over the administrators and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but he is not particularly popular in Iran, with father-to-son succession also being frowned upon in the country, particularly after the toppling of U.S.-backed monarchy of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1979.

Meanwhile, he also lacks the religious credentials of his father to lead a clerical regime, which claims to represent God's will on Earth.

If he's not already, Mojtaba Khamenei's appointment to supreme leader would make him an immediate target, with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warning today that any new leader would become "an unequivocal target for elimination."

What we know about the strike on a school in Iran as the death toll rises

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.”

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.

People in Dubai 'scared' but government is working to help, stranded Americans say

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.”

New supreme leader close to being chosen, senior cleric says

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.

Sri Lanka rescues 30 people from distressed Iranian ship, foreign minister says

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.

Israel says it shot down Iranian fighter jet over Tehran

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.

Beirut hotel damaged in intense Israeli strikes

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.

IDF launches 'broad scale strikes' on Tehran

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 to begin mourning slain Supreme Leader Khamenei today

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, Cyprus, others added to countries nonemergency U.S. personnel can leave

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.

Israel says it killed commander of Iran’s Quds Force

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.

South Korea slump leads Asia stock rout as markets brace for energy shock

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.

Cheap, effective and battle-tested by Russia: Iran leans on Shahed drones to penetrate U.S. defenses

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.

What we know about the strike on a school in Iran as the death toll rises

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.”

Any new leader in Iran will be ‘target for elimination,’ Israel’s defense minister says

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.”