Israel launches strikes on Tehran as regional conflict widens; U.S. says it sank Iranian warship near Sri Lanka
Israel said it launched a wave of strikes on Tehran before dawn Friday, escalating a fast-spreading conflict that has rippled across the Middle East and beyond, disrupted vital energy routes and drawn in global powers.
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The Israel Defense Forces said it began a “large-scale wave of strikes against infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime across Tehran,” while also hitting targets in Lebanon and intercepting missiles launched from Iran. An airstrike struck a Hezbollah stronghold in a Beirut suburb, hours after the Iran-backed group vowed to avenge the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to the Israeli military and local reports.
Iran vowed to exact a heavy price and fired missiles across the region, while its Revolutionary Guard claimed to have closed the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s crude oil flows. Energy market intelligence firm Kpler said oil tanker transits through the strait had plunged by 90 percent. Britain’s maritime agency reported a large early-morning explosion near Kuwait with oil spilling into Gulf waters.
The widening conflict added to instability across the region. Iraq experienced a nationwide electricity blackout after what the electricity ministry called a sudden drop in gas supplies to a key plant, though it did not directly link the outage to the fighting. Iran also struck in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, killing a member of an exiled Iranian Kurdish group, a local representative said.
In a separate escalation, the United States said one of its submarines sank an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka, the country’s first torpedoing of a vessel since World War II. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters the IRIS Dena frigate, which had been on a friendly visit to India, “thought it was safe in international waters.” Sri Lankan officials said at least 87 people were killed, 61 were missing and 32 sailors were rescued, many of them wounded. The Pentagon released video it said showed the sinking. The claims could not be independently verified.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported that 1,045 military personnel and civilians have been killed since the war began Saturday, a toll that could not be independently confirmed. Tehran said more than 150 people, many of them children, died in a strike on a school in the southern town of Minab.
Air defenses across the region were activated repeatedly. NATO said a missile launched from Iran was destroyed while heading toward Turkish airspace. A Turkish official said Turkey was not the target; the missile had been aimed at a British base in Cyprus and veered off course. The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar said they intercepted Iranian missiles, including a drone apparently aimed at Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura refinery. Kuwait reported the death of an 11-year-old girl from falling shrapnel.
Israel’s northern front also intensified. Lebanese officials said Israeli strikes have killed 75 people and displaced more than 83,000 since the renewed fighting began. The Israeli army urged civilians to leave the area south of the Litani River, warning it was “compelled to take military action.” In Beirut’s suburbs, Israeli airstrikes hit a hotel in Hazmieh, the first reported strike on the predominantly Christian area near the presidential palace and several foreign embassies. Video from Khiam, about 6 kilometers inside Lebanon, showed what appeared to be two Israeli tanks among residential buildings, reviving memories of prior Israeli incursions.
French President Emmanuel Macron, in his first call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since Paris recognized a Palestinian state, warned against a ground offensive in Lebanon and urged respect for the country’s territorial integrity. He also pressed Lebanese leaders to rein in Hezbollah’s attacks, the Élysée said.
With air travel disrupted, the United States said it had sent a charter flight to evacuate Americans after advising them to leave the region, following similar moves by France and Britain. U.S. authorities said six American service members have died in the war.
Iran’s military warned it would target Israeli embassies worldwide if Israel attacks Tehran’s mission in Lebanon. As night fell, rocket trails arced over Tel Aviv amid another barrage, underscoring the risk of a broader regional war and the fragility of the global energy supply chain centered on the Gulf.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
