Israel launched fresh strikes on Iran early on Wednesday, as the US military said it had hit nearly 2,000 targets inside the Islamic Republic, which sought to retaliate by expanding its missile and drone barrage across the region.
With global energy prices rising, President Donald Trump said the US Navy stood ready to escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, the vital Gulf chokepoint that Iran has threatened to close.
Israel’s military said it carried out a “broad wave of strikes” shortly after midnight across Iran, which in the preceding hours had launched three separate missile barrages at Israel, causing minor injuries to a woman in Tel Aviv.
The US military has struck nearly 2,000 targets since joining Israel’s offensive on Saturday, targeting ballistic missiles and “all the things that can shoot at us”, said Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command.
“These forces bring a massive amount of firepower, representing the largest US build-up in the Middle East in a generation,” he said in a video message, describing the first day’s bombardment as exceeding the scale of the 2003 “shock and awe” campaign against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
US and Israeli strikes have killed 787 people in Iran, according to the Iranian Red Crescent, a figure that could not be independently verified.
Iran vowed to exact a heavy price. Drones struck near the US consulate in Dubai, igniting a fire but causing no casualties, and also targeted the US military base at Al Udeid in Qatar.
The attacks followed strikes a day earlier on US embassies in Riyadh and Kuwait City, as well as on a US air base in Bahrain.
“We are telling the enemy that if it decides to strike our main centres, we will hit all economic centres in the region,” said Islamic Revolutionary Guard general Ebrahim Jabbari.
Trump says no more talks
The United States and Israel launched their assault on Saturday, killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, within days of US envoys holding nuclear talks with Iranian officials in Geneva.
Trump insisted Iran wished to resume negotiations but that it was now “too late”.
He also appeared to contradict Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had suggested the timing of the US action was influenced by Israel’s plans.
“If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand,” Trump said during a meeting at the White House with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Trump claimed that “just about everything’s been knocked out” in Iran, including its navy, air force and air defence systems, and suggested that potential successors to Khamenei had also been killed.
“Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” he said. “Now we have another group. They may be dead also, based on reports.”
Iranian media reported that US and Israeli strikes on Tuesday targeted a building in the holy city of Qom used by the committee responsible for selecting a new supreme leader. The Tasnim news agency said the body’s main headquarters in Tehran had been struck the previous day.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have urged Iranians to rise up, although Trump said regime change was not the objective.
The offensive came weeks after Iranian authorities suppressed mass protests, reportedly killing thousands.
Lebanon's violence widens
The regional conflict has also intensified in Lebanon, where Hezbollah — the Shiite armed movement long backed by Tehran — launched drones and rockets at Israel in retaliation for Khamenei’s killing.
Hezbollah said it targeted the Israeli naval base in Haifa, while Israel said it struck Beirut’s predominantly Shiite southern suburbs. Loud explosions were heard early on Wednesday.
Israeli strikes have killed at least 52 people in Lebanon, according to the government, while the United Nations said more than 30,000 people had been displaced.
In a move reminiscent of previous conflicts, Israel said it was deploying troops across the border to establish a buffer zone inside Lebanon.
In Tehran, photographs showed damage at Mehrabad Airport, which primarily handles domestic flights. The Israeli military also announced a strike on an underground facility on the eastern outskirts of the capital, alleging that scientists were covertly advancing a nuclear programme there.
The United States ordered non-essential personnel to leave embassies across much of the region. The Washington Post reported that an Iranian drone in Riyadh struck a CIA station.
Washington urged all Americans to depart the region if commercial flights were available, despite severe disruption to air travel. The State Department said around 9,000 Americans had managed to return home.
Qatar said it had intercepted missiles targeting Hamad International Airport in Doha. Oman reported drone attacks on the port of Duqm, and in the United Arab Emirates, falling debris from an intercepted drone caused a fire at an oil storage and trading zone, authorities said.
Ghost town
In Tehran, residents who had not fled largely remained indoors amid fears of further bombardment.
The Iranian capital, normally home to around 10 million people, appeared deserted. “There are so few people that you would think no one ever lived here,” said Samireh, a 33-year-old nurse.
Authorities had previously urged residents to leave, and police, armed security forces and armoured vehicles were deployed at major junctions, conducting random vehicle checks.
In the affluent northern districts of Tehran, the usual traffic noise was replaced by the sound of birds and stray cats.
Iranian authorities said a strike on a school in the city of Minab on the first day of the war killed more than 150 people, although the claim could not be independently verified.
The US military began releasing the names of the first six troops killed. In Israel, nine people died on Sunday when a missile struck the town of Beit Shemesh.
At least eight people have died across the Gulf.
Support for the United States and Israel has been limited, with Western nations largely restricting their involvement to assisting Gulf states and repatriating citizens.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who had backed the strikes, said in Sydney on Wednesday that it was time for a “rapid de-escalation”.
