Iran launched strikes toward Israel and neighboring Gulf countries early Wednesday, with explosions heard in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar and interceptions reported in Saudi Arabia.
The attacks came hours after Iranian state media confirmed Israel's military killed top Iranian security official Ali Larijani in an overnight strike, as well as Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard's Basij force, known for its role in suppressing protests.
An Israeli airstrike struck an apartment building in Bachoura, central Beirut, completely flattening it as day broke. Two earlier strikes on residential apartments in other central Beirut neighborhoods early Wednesday killed at least six people and wounded 24 others, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Israeli strikes targeting central Beirut have become increasingly frequent in recent days, with or without prior warning. The attacks have hit far from the city’s southern suburbs, for which the army issued evacuation notices early in the war with Hezbollah.
The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has killed at least 1,300 people in Iran, more than 900 in Lebanon and 14 in Israel, according to officials in those countries. The U.S. military says 13 U.S. service members have been killed and about 200 wounded.
Here is the latest:
Israel says Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib killed
Israel’s defense minister said Wednesday that the Israeli military killed Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib.
Israel Katz made the announcement.
Khatib’s killing follows Israel killing top Iranian security official Ali Larijani and the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force.
Katz said “significant surprises are expected throughout this day on all the fronts,” without elaborating, in announcing Khatib’s killing.
Kremlin condemns Larijani killing
The Kremlin on Wednesday condemned Israel’s killing of Iran’s senior security officials.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “we resolutely condemn” the killing of members of the Iranian leadership, including Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and one of the country’s most powerful figures.
NATO deploys Patriot air defense battery to southern Turkey
Turkish military spokesperson Rear Adm. Zeki Akturk said a second Patriot missile system was being sent to Adana province, where the U.S. and other countries maintain a military presence alongside Turkish troops at Incirlik Air Base.
The battery was being sent by the Allied Air Command in Ramstein, Germany, he said Wednesday.
Three ballistic missiles have been fired toward Turkey from Iran since the start of the war. They were intercepted by NATO air defenses stationed in the eastern Mediterranean.
Turkey last week said NATO had positioned a Patriot system in the southeastern Malatya province where a NATO radar station is based.
Journalist with Hebzollah’s Al-Manar TV killed in airstrike
Al-Manar said that the head of its political program Mohammed Sherri was killed along with his wife in the strike on central Beirut’s Zokak Blatt neighborhood.
Al-Manar added that Sherri’s children and grand children were wounded in strike early Wednesday.
Sherri had been a presenter at the station for many years and had been well-known in the country.
Iraq resumes exports of Kirkuk oil via Turkey
Iraq said Wednesday it has resumed oil exports from fields in the city of Kirkuk through a pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
The development came after the Iraqi government reached a deal with the autonomous Kurdish administration north of the country, the Iraqi oil ministry said.
The move avoids the Persian Gulf altogether. The ministry said it will initially export 250,000 barrels per day of crude oil.
The war in the Middle East and the virtual closure of the Strait of Hormuz have severely impacted Iraq, whose economy depends overwhelmingly on oil.
Bahrain hit by missile and drone, sirens sound in Israel
Bahrain said Wednesday Iran fired a missile and a drone at the island kingdom that hosts the U.S. 5th Fleet.
Meanwhile sirens have sounded in parts of northern Israel warning of incoming missiles.
Lebanon ministry says Beirut airstrikes kill 10 people
The ministry said on Wednesday that the airstrikes, which began around midnight, have also wounded 27.
It said 912 people have been killed and 2,221 wounded in Lebanon since the latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began on March 2.
Israel suspends UNICEF shipments to Gaza
COGAT, Israel’s military body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, said Wednesday it found tobacco and nicotine products inside hygeine kits while inspecting a UNICEF aid shipment a day earlier at the Kerem Shalom crossing.
UNICEF didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Maj. Gen. Yoram Halevi of COGAT said the suspension will remain until UNICEF responds to the matter.
Israel has tightly controlled the entry of aid and commercial goods into Gaza since the Oct. 2023 start of the war, but smugglers manage get goods through.
Last month, Israel's Justice Ministry charged a dozen people, including Israeli soldiers, with systematically smuggling hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods including iPhones and batteries into Gaza.
Russia says no damage or injuries from strike on Iran’s nuclear power plant
Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom says Russian-built nuclear power plant in Iran had come under attack, but there was no damage or injuries.
Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev said on Wednesday that the strike a day earlier was near the meteorology service building close to the nuclear reactor. He said there was no increase in radiation levels.
It was the first attack on the plant in Bushehr, southern Iran since the start of the war. Likhachev condemned the strike as a “flagrant disregard for key rules and principles of international security.”
He said that Rosatom has evacuated 250 workers and family members from Iran, but another 480 remain in Bushehr and some of them will be evacuated.
Israelis living near Lebanon border find a missile fragment
First responders and the police bomb squad cordoned off part of a Kibbutz along the Lebanese border on Wednesday after a piece of a missile was found. It wasn’t initially clear if the missile was unexploded and still posed a threat.
Kibbutz resident Dorit Tamir said it’s the second or third time a fragment has been found since the war began more than two weeks ago.
Some 600 people live in the community just hundreds of meters from Lebanon. Tamir said she wouldn't be leaving her home this time, unlike when the army evacuated people during the 2024 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
Iran judiciary says ‘attack’ kills and wounds civilians and judicial staff
Iran’s judiciary reported Wednesday an enemy “attack” hit southern Iran, killing and wounding civilians and judicial staff.
The judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported the attack at a judiciary site in Larestan County in Iran’s Fars province.
The site “was targeted in an attack by the enemy,” Mizan said. “A number of staff members and civilians were ‘martyred’ and injured, the exact number is still unknown.”
Mizan described the site as a judiciary complex in Larestan County hit during working hours.
Mizan later called it airstrikes it blamed the United States and Israel.
Saudi ministry says second drone intercepted over Riyadh
Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry says its forces shot down a second drone Wednesday over the capital Riyadh.
The drone was approaching the city’s diplomatic quarter, where the U.S. embassy and other foreign missions are located.
Earlier Wednesday morning, the ministry reported it destroyed a drone that was headed for the diplomatic quarter.
Israeli strikes in central Beirut unsettle residents
Israeli strikes overnight against central Beirut have destroyed the illusion of safe areas in the capital, residents and first responders said.
In the renewed fighting with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Israel has concentrated most strikes where the group has a strong presence in southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs.
But several attacks early Wednesday hit city center neighborhoods, some without warning.
“Today, Beirut is no different from the southern suburbs,” fire brigade Capt. Neshat Berri said in the Bachoura neighborhood, where emergency crews dug through rubble.
Near a building damaged by a strike in the Basta neighborhood, resident Hassan Jaber said there was “no safety.”
“We will continue to be exposed to this. Beirut is no different (from other areas),” he said. “May God protect us.”
Latest reports of live fire
An Associated Press journalist heard loud explosions Wednesday morning in Irbil city in the Kurdish region of nothern Iraq.
Israeli strikes kill 2 in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley
Israeli airstrikes Wednesday killed at least two people in Lebanon’s western Bekaa valley, Lebanon's health ministry said.
The strikes in the town of Sohmor also wounded at least six others, the ministry said.
Islamic and Arab foreign ministers will discuss regional security
Saudi Arabia on Wednesday will host a consultative meeting of foreign ministers from Arab and Islamic countries as the Iran war shows no sign of abating.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry said the meeting in the capital Riyadh will include discussion of means to “support regional security and stability.”
Gulf Arab states have repeatedly come under fire from Iran, raising anger at Tehran, as well as the United States and Israel for launching the war.
Saudi forces destroy drone nearing diplomatic quarter
Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry says its forces shot down a drone Wednesday morning as it approached the diplomatic quarter in the capital Riyadh, which houses the U.S. embassy and other foreign missions.
Latest reports of live fire
Missile alerts sounded in Dubai again Wednesday morning as the noise of interceptors exploding overhead boomed across the city-state. Dubai authorities said all the interceptions had been successful with no injuries.
Israel said it detected a new missile launch from Iran targeting it Wednesday morning.
Iran executes man it accused of spying for Mossad
Iran’s judiciary said Wednesday it executed a man it accused of spying for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.
The judiciary’s Mizan news agency identified the man as Kourosh Keyvani.
It alleged he “provided images and information on sensitive locations” to the Mossad. Keyvani was the first publicly announced execution for spying during the current war.
Iran, one of the world’s top executioners, long has killed people convicted of spying charges in closed-door hearings where they can’t fully contest the cases against them.
Activists and rights groups have warned since Iran’s nationwide protests in January that the Islamic Republic could begin conducting mass executions. Iran violently suppressed the protests through violence that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands detained.
In the aftermath of Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s, international rights groups estimate as many as 5,000 people were executed.
No request from US to help keep Strait of Hormuz open, Australian minister says
A senior Australian government minister said he isn’t aware of any formal U.S. request for military support to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers was responding Wednesday to U.S. President Donald Trump’s complaint that Australia, Japan, South Korea and NATO had rejected his calls to help secure the strait from Iranian attack.
Asked if Australia had received any formal U.S. request for extra military support to keep the strait open, Chalmers told Australian Broadcasting Corp: “Not that I’m aware of.”
“It’s not something that we’ve been considering, in terms of sending battleships to the Strait of Hormuz,” Chalmers told Sky News television in another interview.
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