UAE, Qatar say they downed waves of Iranian missiles and drones as Tehran’s cross-border campaign entered a fifth day on Tuesday, while Iran’s opaque succession process quickened after the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Israel expanded strikes across Iran and Lebanon.
The United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Defence said its air defenses “successfully engaged” three ballistic missiles and detected 129 drones, intercepting 121 while eight fell on Emirati territory. Qatar’s military said it intercepted all 10 drones and two cruise missiles that targeted the country at dawn, describing them as “coming from the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
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Regional tallies continued to rise. The Gulf Defence Ministry said that since fighting began Saturday, Iran has launched 189 ballistic missiles at the UAE, with 175 intercepted, 13 falling into the sea and one striking Emirati territory. Qatar detected 101 ballistic missiles over five days, the ministry said, with 98 intercepted. It added that 39 drones were detected over Qatar, 24 intercepted, and three cruise missiles detected and downed.
Inside Iran, succession maneuvering accelerated. Two Iranian sources said Mojtaba Khamenei, the powerful son of the late leader, is alive and favored to succeed him. Plans for a Tehran funeral for Ali Khamenei, 86—killed by Israeli forces on Saturday—were postponed amid fresh explosions in the capital and uncertainty over logistics, state media reported. The Assembly of Experts said it would announce a new supreme leader soon, only the second such decision since 1979.
“The Supreme Leader will be identified in the closest opportunity, we are close to a conclusion. However the situation in the country is a war situation,” Assembly member Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami told state TV, without naming candidates.
Israel warned it would target any successor. “Every leader appointed by the Iranian terror regime … will be an unequivocal target for elimination,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said.
Israel said its forces struck targets across Iran for a fifth day. An Israeli F-35 fighter jet shot down an Iranian Yak-130 over Tehran, in what is believed to be the first shootdown of a manned aircraft by the stealth jet in combat.
International concern mounted over civilian casualties. A United Nations panel said it was “deeply disturbed” by the deaths of children in the bombing of the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in southern Iran at the start of the war. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said U.S. forces “would not deliberately target a school,” while Israel said it is investigating. “The committee is alarmed by reports of strikes on civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals,” the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said, urging protection of children.
Tensions spilled into the Gulf’s energy chokepoint. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they have total control of the Strait of Hormuz. With oil prices already rising, U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. Navy is ready to escort tankers. Several shipping firms have suspended transits after reported attacks on vessels, and markets whipsawed—Asian stocks slumped while European shares steadied on hopes of a shorter war.
On Israel’s northern front, the military ordered residents of southern Lebanon to move north of the Litani River. Lebanese media reported Israeli troops entered the border town of Khiam, about 6 kilometers from Israel, the deepest incursion since hostilities began. An Israeli strike on a four-story residential building in Baalbek killed at least four people and wounded six, the NNA news agency said, as rescue teams searched rubble. Hezbollah said it fired a salvo of rockets near Metula in response to Israeli strikes across dozens of Lebanese towns, including Beirut’s southern suburbs. Additional strikes hit a hotel and an apartment in eastern Lebanon, NNA reported.
The U.S. military said its opening bombardment of Iran under “Operation Epic Fury” was “nearly double” the size of the first day of the 2003 Iraq war. Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, said Iran’s air defenses were badly degraded, its navy had no operational vessels on key waterways after 17 were sunk, and more than 2,000 Iranian targets were hit. He said roughly 50,000 U.S. troops are involved and more assets are inbound. Iranian state media put deaths from the attacks at 1,045, including 165 girls killed on the first day when their school was bombed—a toll that could not be independently verified.
The regional picture remained volatile late Tuesday, with air raid sirens, interception claims and succession intrigue underscoring how the Iran-Israel confrontation has widened into a multi-front crisis stretching from the Gulf to the Levant and the world’s vital energy lanes.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
