Israeli airstrikes pounded the capitals of Iran and Lebanon as the U.S. apparently struck an Iranian drone carrier at sea, intensifying its campaign targeting the Islamic Republic's fleet of warships.
Iran launched new retaliatory attacks early Friday against neighboring countries that host U.S. forces. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The latest strikes mark a full week of attacks affecting countries across the Middle East.
The Israeli military said that the fighting has destroyed most of Iran’s air defenses and missile launchers, while U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that strikes against Tehran were “about to surge dramatically.”
The strikes in Lebanon were the heaviest since a 2024 ceasefire ended the last war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, who fired rockets at Israel in the opening days of the latest conflict. Tens of thousands have fled Beirut's suburbs and southern Lebanon after sweeping Israeli evacuation warnings.
The war has escalated to affect more than a dozen countries across the Middle East and beyond.
Here is the latest:
Thousands march and hold prayers in Tehran
Thousands of men and women gathered in Tehran’s streets Friday in a show of defiance and to hold prayers in the open.
Waving clenched fists and Iranian flags as they filed past a poster of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the marchers chanted “We’ll fight, we’ll die, we won’t accept humiliation” and “No compromise, no surrender, destruction of Israel.”
Hassan Fathollahi, 54, said he had brough his children to “make our enemies understand that we and our children will sacrifice our lives for the (Islamic) revolution.”
“We will not give up the blood of our leader. Every single son of Iran is ready to fight America and Israel until victory, God willing,” he said.
UAE says 3 drones hit its territory
Three aerial drones hit the United Arab Emirates on Friday, the country’s Defense Ministry said on X. It did not elaborate on where they fell or any damage caused.
The UAE’s air defenses destroyed nine ballistic missiles and intercepted a further 109 drones on Friday, the ministry added. Since the start of the war, 205 ballistic missiles and 1,184 drones have been detected in UAE territory, with most destroyed, officials said.
IEA chief warns of likely bidding war for gas
The International Energy Agency director says the conflict in Iran has halted exports of Iranian gas to largely Asian markets, a stoppage that if drawn out will likely lead to a bidding war between Europe and Asia and energy prices will soar.
“If the crisis continues this way, the Asian buyers and the European buyers will need to compete for the LNG which will get scarcer and scarcer," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said Friday after meeting with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.
“So this will be the challenge for European countries if the crisis continues in the next days or weeks to come," Birol added.
Israel tells people to leave industrial area of Qom
Israel’s military has issued a warning that people should flee an industrial area of Qom, the Shiite seminary city south of Iran’s capital, Tehran.
Tehran hit by powerful airstrikes
Witnesses say intense airstrikes hit Iran’s capital, Tehran, on Friday afternoon.
Iran says ‘mediation efforts’ ongoing
Iran’s president says that there are “mediation efforts” ongoing about the war in the Middle East.
Masoud Pezeshkian says “some countries” had started mediating, without naming them.
“Let’s be clear: we are committed to lasting peace in the region yet we have no hesitation in defending our nation’s dignity & sovereignty,” the president wrote on X. “Mediation should address those who underestimated the Iranian people and ignited this conflict.”
Iran fires new missiles at Israel
Israel’s military says Iran has launched a new salvo of missiles targeting the country.
Israeli strike in Lebanon kills 5
An Israeli strike in the southern coastal city of Sidon in Lebanon killed five people and wounded seven others, Lebanon’s health ministry says.
There was no immediate statement from the Israeli military.
As of Thursday evening, 123 people had been killed in Lebanon and 683 wounded in the resurgence of hostilities between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. It’s not clear how many were civilians.
Azerbaijan pulls all diplomats from Iran
Azerbaijan Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov says the country will evacuate its diplomats from Iran after the Iranian drone attacks.
Bayramov said the staff of Azerbaijan’s Embassy in Tehran and its Consulate General in Tabriz will return home on orders from Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev.
Azerbaijan said Thursday that Iranian drones attacked its exclave of Nakhchivan, wounding four civilians and damaging an airport building in what Aliyev denounced as a “groundless act of terror and aggression.”
Red Cross says ‘hundreds of thousands’ displaced in Lebanon
Hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon have been displaced so far in the dayslong conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group, the International Committee of the Red Cross says.
“Across Lebanon, hundreds of thousands of people have had to flee their homes,” said Hachem Osseiran, ICRC spokesperson for the Middle East.
“The intensification of hostilities, coupled with evacuation orders covering entire districts in Beirut, southern Lebanon, and the Bekaa Valley, has sown panic and confusion. Many people have fled, some on foot, with nothing but the clothes on their backs and no clear sense of where to go.”
UK to aid in ‘defending’ Bahrain
The British ambassador to Bahrain says the U.K. would be part of “defending” Bahrain by having Royal Air Force fighter jets flying over the island kingdom as it faces attacks from Iran.
Ambassador Alastair Long made the announcement in an Instagram post.
“Today, I’m delighted to tell to people that the U.K. will be flying RAF jets above Bahrain as a contribution to the defense of Bahrain, one of our closest allies in the whole world,” Long said.
“This matters hugely to the U.K. that we are part of defending Bahrain and making sure it prevails in this terrible attack against it by Iran.”
UN health agency’s Dubai hub beginning to resume operations
The World Health Organization said earlier this week that operations were on hold because of insecurity, airspace closures and restrictions of the Strait of Hormuz.
But WHO’s eastern Mediterranean chief, Dr. Hanan Balkhy, said Friday that after the “temporary pause,” they are resuming as airspace reopens.
Balkhy said that more than 50 emergency supply requests regarding 25 countries and meant to benefit more than 1.5 million people had been hit by the enforced pause. Those included shipments destined for Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen and Somalia.
She said that “what we’ll be doing over the next few days is to identify now the urgent shipments that need to go out quicker than others.”
UK antisemitism group thanks London police
The Campaign Against Antisemitism says it’s grateful to police “for foiling this alleged plot,” after four men were arrested in and around London on suspicion of aiding Iran by spying on the Jewish community.
But the group accused the U.K. government of not taking the threat from Iran seriously enough.
“The U.K. may not be acting against Iran but Iran is acting against us,” it said in a statement.
“The government’s failure to keep its promise to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — the main instrument that the Islamic Republic uses to foment antisemitic violence worldwide — has sent the message that support for the brutal Iranian regime and its Jew-hating and West-hating ideology is perfectly acceptable in Britain,” the statement said.
Qatar condemns Iranian attack on Bahrain
Qatar has denounced an Iranian attack on Bahrain that targeted buildings housing elements of its forces there.
Doha says the attack targeted the unified military command of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a six-nation bloc in the region.
It says none of the Qatari sailors were hurt and called the assault “a direct threat to its security and stability and the security of the region.”
Lebanon’s prime minister calls for international help
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is calling on the international community to help Lebanon amid the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah war.
“A humanitarian disaster is looming” because of huge displacements of people, Salam said.
Salam criticized both Israel and Hezbollah over the current crisis saying that the Lebanese state and people “did not choose this war.”
Speaking to heads of diplomatic missions in Beirut, Salam appealed to the friends of Lebanon to support “us in this endeavor” and called on the international community to help stop Israel’s attacks and spare the country’s infrastructure.
Iran launches a new missile attack
Iranian state television announced a new missile attack, including the Islamic Republic firing off its larger Khorramshahr-4 missiles.
Some Chinese airlines resume flights to Mideast
Air China, China Southern and a few other Chinese carriers are resuming direct flights to Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
Air China resumed a flight from Beijing to Riyadh Thursday, state media reported.
China is also helping citizens evacuate from the region, saying it received a plane carrying 300 passengers from Dubai on Wednesday.
“We once again remind that the situation in the Middle East remains complex and severe, with considerable uncertainty,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning said about the evacuations and flights.
UN rights chief pleads for peace
Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, says that “the world urgently needs to see steps to contain and extinguish this blaze.”
He lamented that “instead we are only seeing more inflammatory, bellicose rhetoric, more bombings, more destruction, killings and escalation, that fuels it further.”
Türk is urging the countries involved in the war “to take immediate steps to de-escalate, to give peace a chance.” And he says that other countries should “call clearly on those involved to pull back.”
He’s also “extremely concerned” about the situation in Lebanon following Hezbollah’s strikes on Israel and Israel’s counterstrikes.
Türk said he’s particularly worried about what he described as “blanket, massive displacement orders” by Israel to civilians in Lebanon.
“Obviously, this raises serious concern under international humanitarian law and in particular when it comes to issues around forced transfer," he said.
Israel targeting Lebanon’s capital again
The Israeli military says it’s conducting new strikes on Beirut.
Australian Greens say country part of ‘illegal war’
The Australian Greens party says Australian sailors’ presence aboard the U.S. submarine that torpedoed an Iranian warship made Australia “part of an illegal war.”
Australia’s government confirmed that three Australians were aboard a submarine that sank the Iranian frigate in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka this week, killing at least 87 people.
Sen. David Shoebridge, the influential party’s defense spokesperson, told reporters on Friday: “This makes Australia obviously, clearly, unambiguously, part of an illegal war.”
The Australians were aboard the boat as part of the trilateral U.S., Australian and British partnership known as AUKUS that will deliver Australia a fleet of submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology.
Blasts heard in Tel Aviv
The sound of explosions could be heard in Tel Aviv, Israel, after the warning about incoming missile fire from Iran, as air defense systems worked to intercept the barrage.
UK police say 4 arrested for aiding Iran
London police say four men have been arrested on suspicion of aiding Iran by spying on the Jewish community.
The suspects, one Iranian and three dual British-Iranian nationals, have been taken into custody on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service, the Metropolitan Police said.
The force said the men, ages 22, 40, 52 and 55, were arrested at addresses in and around north London shortly after 1 a.m.
The men are suspected on spying on locations and individuals.
“We understand the public may be concerned, in particular the Jewish community, and as always, I would ask them to remain vigilant and if they see or hear anything that concerns them, then to contact us,” said Metropolitan Police Commander Helen Flanagan, who is in charge of counterterrorism policing in London.
Israeli military warns of missile fire coming from Iran
The Israeli military is warning its public about incoming missile fire from Iran.
Phone alerts go off in Dubai
Mobile phone alerts sounded just before noon in Dubai, warning of a possible missile attack.
Indonesia holds off on Board of Peace discussions
The Indonesian government is currently holding off on all discussions related to Trump’s Board of Peace as the country focuses on the safety of Indonesian nationals in the Middle East, officials said Friday.
Yvonne Mewengkang, spokesperson for Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs, said “any decision regarding Indonesia’s participation in any international mechanism will be based on the principle of Indonesia’s foreign policy and the most important thing, our national interests.”
More than 519,000 Indonesian nationals live across the Middle East, including 329 in Iran, mostly students.
Indonesia plans to begin evacuating its citizens from Iran on Friday.
3 Australian personnel were on U.S. sub that fired torpedo
Australia’s government revealed on Friday that three Australian personnel were aboard a U.S. submarine that sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean this week, killing at least 87 people.
The Australians were part of the trilateral US, Australian and British AUKUS training program.
Neil James, executive director of the Australian Defense Association policy think tank, says it is “reasonably rare” for Australians embedded with another nation’s military to go to war against a country such as Iran that Australia wasn’t at war with.
James said an Australian would not have fired the torpedo that sank the Iranian ship.
South Korea says it will receive 6 million barrels of oil from UAE
South Korea says it reached an agreement with the United Arab Emirates to receive 6 million barrels of crude oil, aiming to stabilize energy prices spiked by the escalating war in the Middle East.
Kang Hoon-sik, chief of staff for South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, said in a briefing Friday that the emergency supplies are intended to curb fuel costs which surged this week.
Iranian semioff
icial news agency says wave of missiles, drones fired at Israel
Iran launched a new wave of missiles and drones targeting Tel Aviv, Israel, on Friday morning, the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported.
South Korea’s foreign minister declines to comment on possible shift of US assets
South Korea’s foreign minister told a legislative hearing that the United States has not requested military or non-military assistance from Seoul over the war in the Middle East, but declined to comment on reports that Washington could relocate some of its assets in South Korea to support the fighting.
When asked by a lawmaker about a media report that U.S. forces were moving some of its Patriot anti-missile defense systems to a major air base near Seoul, Cho Hyun said he couldn’t confirm details related to U.S. military operations.
Cho said Seoul and Washington were maintaining close communication and that the allies’ combined defense posture would not be affected by developments in the Middle East.
U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement it does not “comment on the movement, relocation, or potential repositioning of specific military capabilities or assets” for operational security reasons.
The USFK statement came in response to questions from The Associated Press about a Yonhap News report, citing anonymous sources, that said U.S. forces moved multiple Patriot systems from other bases in South Korea to Osan Air Base, where transport aircraft were also spotted.
Yonhap said it wasn’t immediately clear whether the movements were linked to the war or joint U.S.-South Korea military drills beginning Monday.
“United States Forces Korea remains focused on maintaining a strong, ready, and combat-credible force posture on the Korean Peninsula,” the USFK said.
Etihad Airways to restart ‘limited flight schedule’ from Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways said it is restarting a “limited flight schedule” from its hub in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi starting Friday.
The government-backed carrier has operated some flights in recent days, but its latest announcement suggests it is moving toward more regular operations.
Etihad said that previously booked passengers as well as new customers will be able to travel on the flights, assuming “all safety criteria are met.”
It listed more than 70 destinations it planned to fly to between Friday and March 19.
Saudi Arabia says it destroyed another drone near Riyadh
Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry reported the destruction of another drone near Riyadh, this one to its northeast.
Saudi Arabia says it intercepted drones east of Riyadh
The Saudi Defense Ministry said it destroyed three drones in the eastern areas of Riyadh.
The ministry said earlier Friday that it intercepted a cruise missile over the city of Kharj.
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