Iran pummelled by new airstrikes as it launches attacks on Israel, U.S. bases

Iran launched a new wave of attacks against Israel, American bases and countries around the region Thursday, while warning the U.S. would “bitterly regret” torpedoing an Iranian warship and calling for “Trump’s blood.” Tehran’s expanding retaliatory strikes and increasing shows of defiance came even Israel hammered it for a sixth day.

The war has escalated each day, expanding well beyond the Gulf. On Thursday, Azerbaijan accused Iran of attacking it with drones — though Tehran denied launching them. A day earlier, the U.S. said it sank an Iranian frigate in the waters off Sri Lanka.

All the while, Israel and the U.S. have battered Iran with nationwide strikes, targeting their military capabilities and security forces. Iran’s attacks have targeted their Arab neighbors, disrupted oil supplies and snarled global air travel.

In launching the war Saturday, the U.S. and Israel targeted Iran’s leadership, missile arsenal and nuclear program. Leaders have also suggested that toppling the government is a goal — and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on the first day of strikes. But the exact aims and timelines have repeatedly shifted, and the conflict increasingly appeared to be open-ended.

The war has killed more than 1,200 people in Iran, more than 70 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. It has disrupted the supply of the world’s oil and gas, snarled international shipping and stranded hundreds of thousands of travelers in the Middle East.

Israel announced multiple incoming missile attacks and air sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and Gulf countries also reported coming under fire.

In Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, a drone was shot down near the Al Dhafra Air Base, which hosts U.S. forces, and shrapnel fell to the ground, authorities said. Six people were wounded.
Qatar evacuated residents near the U.S. Embassy in Doha as a temporary precaution and later reported a missile attack on the city. Saudi Arabia said it destroyed a drone in its province bordering Jordan.

The Israeli military said it launched attacks in Lebanon on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group — which attacked Israel in the opening days of the war — and that a wave of strikes on Iran had hit long-range ballistic missile launch sites and other targets.

A drone crashed Thursday near the airport in Nakhchivan, a region of Azerbaijan bordering the north of Iran that is separated from the rest of the country by Armenia. Another drone fell near a school and two civilians were injured, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said.

Azerbaijan called it an attack, but Iran’s general staff of the armed forces denied it had launched a drone toward the country. The denial comes as Iran has repeatedly denied targeting oil infrastructure and other civilian targets during the war, despite its drone and missile fire hitting those sites.

A tanker apparently came under attack off the coast of Kuwait early Thursday, expanding the area where commercial shipping was in danger, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center run by the British military. It said there was an explosion but did not offer a cause.

Since the war began Saturday, ships have been attacked in the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped. That has caused oil prices to soar — though they briefly came down Wednesday, before resuming their climb Thursday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the U.S. Navy of committing an “an atrocity at sea” for sinking the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean, killing at least 87 Iranian sailors.

“Mark my words: The U.S. will come to bitterly regret (the) precedent it has set,” he said on social media.

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Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli later called on state television for the shedding of both Israeli and “Trump’s blood.”

The statement represented a rare call for violence by an ayatollah, which is one of the highest ranks within the clergy of Shiite Islam. There are dozens in Iran.

The Iranian ship sunk by the U.S. Navy was returning from participating in an exercise hosted by the Indian navy that the U.S. also participated in.

Sri Lankan authorities said 32 crew members were rescued, while its navy recovered at least 87 bodies. Araghchi said it had been carrying “almost 130” crew.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed Wednesday that an American submarine had sunk the ship with a torpedo.

Sri Lanka’s media minister and government spokesman, Nalinda Jayatissa, told parliament Thursday that another Iranian ship had arrived in its waters. Jayatissa did not provide further details about the ship or the number of people on board.

Among the 80 targets in Lebanon that the Israel military said it hit over the past 24 hours were “several command centers” used by Hezbollah in Beirut. It showed video footage of a building being hit, but provided no further details.

Another eight people were killed in Lebanon, including two in a building struck by the Israeli military in the Beddawi refugee camp in the coastal city of Tripoli on Thursday and three on a coastal highway, authorities said. The Israeli military did not immediately say who it targeted in the strikes.

U.S. and Israeli military officials say launches from Iran have declined as their attacks have taken out ballistic missiles, launchers and drones. Israel’s Homefront Command announced it was easing restrictions that closed workplaces nationwide, which could reopen Thursday if there is a shelter nearby. Schools would remain closed.

At least 1,230 people have been killed in Iran, the country’s Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs said Thursday. Eleven people have died in Israel. Six U.S. troops have been killed, including a major whose identity was released Wednesday.