Iran War Spreads as European Nations Drawn Further In

Meanwhile, a CNN team has entered Iran — the first US network to cross into the country since the conflict began — as the country’s internet blackout passes 120 hours.

Here are the newest developments:

Read more about what we know on day 6 of the Middle East war here.

Rescue workers carry a casualty of an airstrike in Tehran, Iran, on Wednesday.

Majid Khahi/Wana News Agency/Reuters

US and Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,230 people in Iran since Saturday, according to the state-affiliated Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), as regional hostilities flared overnight.

That figure, which has now surpassed the 1,190 deaths in US and Israeli strikes on Iran last June, came as a growing chorus of world leaders and analysts warn of the hollow legal basis for the US and Israeli military campaign. Elsewhere in the region, dozens of people, including children, have been killed by Tehran’s retaliatory strikes on neighboring countries, according to local authorities.

Now, Iranian authorities say US-Israeli attacks have hit “dozens of civilian centers” including residential neighborhoods, hospitals, schools and heritage sites spanning from the capital Tehran, in the country’s north, to the southern Minab province.

“In the past five days, following US and Israeli attacks on Iran, a large number of civilian areas have been targeted,” IRNA reported Thursday, quoting Ismaeil Baghai, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson.

In Tehran, a children’s park and the UNESCO-listed Golestan Palace were struck, according to IRNA. The capital’s Gandhi Hospital was also damaged in a strike on Monday, according to Iran’s state broadcaster.

Elsewhere, strikes killed at least 35 people in the southern Fars province, and 27 civilians in residential areas in Maragheh, in northwestern Iran, the agency said. On Wednesday, a densely populated residential complex in the western city of Sanandaj was also struck, IRNA added.

The single deadliest strike in Iran so far took place on Saturday, when at least 168 schoolgirls and 14 teachers were killed in a US-Israeli attack on a girls’ elementary school in Minab, according to Iranian state media. The White House did not rule out on Wednesday that US military personnel carried out the strike, but insisted that the US “does not target civilians.”

Multiple charter flights are “underway” to evacuate Americans from the Middle East, a State Department spokesperson told CNN, as countries around the world ramp up evacuation efforts.

Yesterday, the State Department said that one charter flight of Americans left the Middle East — the first confirmed US-facilitated evacuation flight — and added that “additional flights will be surged throughout the region.”

The State Department has not given information on where those flights originated, where they are heading or how many Americans were on board.

Pigott also told CNN that 20,000 Americans have returned to the US since the war began. He claimed 10,000 were directly assisted by the State Department’s task force. A senior State Department official noted Wednesday that they have been offering assistance by offering “critical information, assisting them with transportation options, etc.”

He did not explain why other countries were able to get out charter flights in some cases days before the US, pointing only to the State Department standing up a task force on the same weekend that the strikes on Iran began.

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer gives an update on the situation in the Middle East from the Downing Street Briefing Room on Thursday.

Jaimi Joy/Getty Images

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the “special relationship” between Britain and the US remains intact despite criticism from President Donald Trump over the country’s contribution to the war against Iran.

“The special relationship is in operation right now,” Starmer said at a press conference Thursday.

“We are working together in the region, we’re sharing intelligence on a 24/7 basis in the usual way. That is the special relationship,” he said.

President Trump lashed out at Starmer on Monday for denying the US permission to use British military airbases in the Chagos Islands for offensive strikes against Iran.

“This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” said Trump.

But Starmer played down any suggestion of a rift between the two leaders.

“Clearly it’s for the president to take decisions that he considers in the national interest the right decisions for the US,” he said.

“Equally, it’s for me as the British Prime Minister, to take decisions that I consider to be in the best interest of the United Kingdom. There’s nothing controversial about that,” added Starmer.

Assets deployed: The Prime Minister also defended Britain’s preparedness for the conflict with Iran, which has come under scrutiny after a British airbase on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus was hit by a drone attack on Monday.

Starmer said that defensive assets had been deployed to Cyprus in January and February, adding that officials “continue to bolster the capability that we have there to keep our people safe.”

The Prime Minister also mentioned that four more Typhoon fighter jets would be deployed to Qatar, and that the government has chartered an aircraft to help with repatriation efforts for those stranded in the Middle East.

In this file photo, a Qatari student walks to a building in the Texas A&M University campus at Education City, on October 18, 2011, in Doha, Qatar.

Osama Faisal/AP/File

As the US State Department urges Americans in the Gulf region to leave immediately, US universities with campuses in the region have adjusted their operations.

American universities with outposts in Doha, Qatar’s Education City — a research hub located roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Al Udeid Air Base — as well as other US schools with campuses in the United Arab Emirates, have transitioned to remote instruction until further notice. Here’s a look at how some universities are handling the ongoing conflict:

The White House is facing criticism for a social media video that mixed “Call of Duty” game footage with clips of American missile strikes inside Iran.

The minute-long montage, captioned “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue,” has garnered more than 30 million views on Elon Musk’s X, according to the social network.

Commenters replied with a mix of astonishment, amusement and disgust. Many said they were shocked to see a “Call of Duty” sequence repurposed by the Trump administration.

“They think war is a video game,” wrote Paul Rieckhoff, the founder of Independent Veterans of America and a staunch Trump critic. He called it “inappropriate, juvenile and unacceptable.”

“Left out of this ‘video game’ are the Iranian school girls blown to bits & American troops killed,” Harvard professor and former NAACP President Cornell William Brooks wrote.

The White House has not ruled out that the US military carried out a strike on a girls’ elementary school in Iran during the initial joint US-Israeli strikes, which killed at least 168 children, according to Iranian state media. Six US service members were killed by an Iranian strike in Kuwait.

White House communications director Steven Cheung seemed to welcome the attention last night. He responded to a reporter’s post about the video and wrote, “W’s in the chat, boys!”

The “W” is short for win; the phrase is popularly used by live streamers to celebrate a gaming victory.

Women dressed in traditional Kurdish clothing take photos during a public gathering in Mahabad, Iran, on November 28, 2025.

Mobina/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images

The Kurdish people are an ethnic minority group in the Middle East without an independent state.

Estimates of their population range between 25 million and 45 million worldwide, with most living in the mountainous region that stretches across parts of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Armenia. But there are no official statistics because many regional countries do not register ethnicity in censuses. About half of the region’s Kurds are estimated to live in Turkey, where they are the country’s largest ethnic minority.

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Allied powers proposed a Kurdish state in what is now eastern Turkey, but the plan was dropped after the new Turkish government rejected it.

Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, but the Kurdish population has diverse religious, cultural, social and political traditions, as well as a variety of dialects.

In Iran today, Kurdish people make up an estimated 8% to 17% of the population, according to British government estimates. The Kurdish regions in western Iran have long pushed for greater autonomy or independence, as well as improved rights.

Amnesty International and other human rights groups have detailed widespread human rights abuses against Kurds in Iran. Teaching of the Kurdish language is often restricted, some Kurdish names cannot be officially registered, and Kurdish activists face arbitrary detention.

Armed Iranian Kurdish groups have fought the regime for decades, operating from outposts on the Iraq-Iran border, where they have thousands of forces.

What’s happening now? The CIA is working to arm Iranian Kurdish forces with the aim of fomenting a popular uprising in Iran, multiple people familiar with the plan told CNN. Several Iranian-Kurdish groups have released public statements since the beginning of the war hinting at imminent action and urging Iranian military forces to defect.

The war in Iran is reverberating 2,600 miles away in Sicily, which houses US and NATO bases.

So nervous are locals that on Wednesday when a minor earthquake struck the flanks of Mt. Etna, locals called emergency services asking if the island had been bombed, according to Italy’s Civil Protection authority.

On Thursday morning, Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Defense Minister Guido Crosetto addressed parliament to reassure lawmakers that regarding US bases, “Treaties govern their use.”

The ministers did not rule out the use of the bases in the future and echoed Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s announcement that Italy would send air defense systems to the region.

“We intend to deploy a multi-domain device in the Middle East, with anti-drone and anti-missile air defense systems,” Crosetto said, adding that they would be ready to consider a request to use the bases.

Sicily is home to the Sigonella, the main base of NATO’s Alliance Ground Surveillance and home to more than 2,000 active-duty US service members.

Ministers were also pressed on concerns that the island could be a target, which has led to some Sicilians evacuating to the mainland.

“Sicily has always been a land of peace and dialogue between peoples and cannot be used as a base for aggression and conflict,” Five Star MEP Giuseppe Antoci said.

Tanker anchored off Kuwait takes on water following a “large explosion”

A drone explodes at the airport of Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video released on March 5.

Reuters

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev called drone strikes in his country “an act of terror” and “ugly, cowardly, and shameless.” The strikes reportedly injured two people and damaged an airport terminal building in the first attacks on the country since the beginning of the conflict.

Azerbaijani authorities blamed the attack on Iran, but Tehran’s armed forces denied launching the drones and suggested the incident may have been a false-flag operation by Israel.

Azerbaijan’s armed forces have since been instructed to “prepare and implement retaliatory measures,” according to the president. “We are ready to show our strength against any evil force, and Iran should not forget this.”

The president called the strike on civilian targets “an example of great ingratitude,” pointing out that at the request of the Iranian deputy foreign minister, Azerbaijan had sent a plane to help evacuate employees of the Iranian embassy in Lebanon, who had become stranded.

“In return for all this, to strike Nakhchivan in an ugly, cowardly, and shameless manner? This stain will never be erased from their ugly and unsightly face,” Aliyev assured.

Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhchivan is separated from mainland Azerbaijan by Armenia.

Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said he spoke with his Azerbaijani counterpart today and condemned Iran’s “overt and deliberate aggression” against Azerbaijan. Sa’ar said the attack “once again proves that the Iranian regime is insane and unrestrained.”

This post has been updated with the Israeli foreign minister’s remarks.

Spanish nationals, who are trapped in the Middle East board a military repatriation flight at an unknown location in Oman, in this handout photo released on Wednesday.

Spanish Defence Ministry/Handout/Reuters

Repatriation flights from the Middle East are underway as countries around the world grapple with how to bring their citizens to safety amid the widening war with Iran.

At least six flights supported by the European Commission have left the region since Wednesday, bringing European citizens back home to Bulgaria, Italy, Austria and Slovakia, the European Commission said in a statement. Additional repatriation flights are planned in the coming days, the statement said.

The US State Department has pledged to increase flights “across the region” after saying late Wednesday that more than 17,500 American citizens had returned to the US from the Middle East since February 28.

Elsewhere, evacuations flights have departed from regional hubs like Dubai and Jeddah, while France, Germany and the Czech Republic have also begun arranging flights out of the Middle East.

The UK said today that technical issues delayed the country’s first charter flight out of the Omani capital of Muscat since the conflict began, but added the plane was due to take off shortly. More flights are planned in the coming days, it said.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte speaks during a press conference in Brussels, Belgium, on February 11.

Tom Nicholson/Reuters

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Thursday praised US President Donald Trump’s decision to launch strikes on Iran but rejected any suggestion the NATO alliance would participate in the conflict.

“We support the president in taking out that capability,” Rutte said, referring to the US military objective to eradicate the Iranian regime’s ballistic missile program. “We have to be sure going forward that Iran, this republic, is not able again to pose a death threat to its neighbors; to Israel, the Middle East, to Europe,” he added in a video interview.

Speaking the day after Turkey said NATO air defense systems shot down an Iranian missile that was traveling towards its airspace, Rutte condemned the “serious” incident, in which Iran denied any involvement. He described the successful interception as evidence of a “360-degree approach” to defending NATO territory.

Rutte rebuffed however any notion that NATO was actively involved in the conflict but emphasized that the alliance is essential to the effectiveness of the US in its campaign.

“NATO is not itself involved here,” he asserted, “NATO allies are providing key enabling support … NATO, in that sense, is also this power projection platform for the United States because without European allies, the US would have found it very difficult.”

The secretary-general defended his backing for Trump when challenged by Reuters journalist Andrew Gray, explaining: “This decisive action to take out this capability of Iran … as an exporter of terrorism and chaos … I think if the president of a country is providing that type of leadership, some praise is warranted.”

Crowds of women dressed in black abayas and men holding national flags cascaded down the streets of Iran late Wednesday, as they mourned the killing of the country’s Supreme Leader.

Others raised framed photos of the late Ayatollah Khamenei, who was killed by US and Israeli bombing in Tehran on February 28, sparking a wave of regional violence and killing hundreds of civilians over the course of five days – including at least 183 children in Iran alone, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

Worshippers took part in prayers at mosques and main squares in Tehran, including in the Narmak neighborhood and at Nabuwwat Square on the capital’s northeastern fringes, as well as in the central city of Arak. People also gathered in cities including Mashhad, Qom, Ahvaz, Karaj, Rasht, Zabol, Isfahan and Abadan, state-affiliated news agency IRNA reported.

The Iranian government announced 40 days of national mourning on Sunday, according to semi-official news agency Mehr News. Then on Wednesday, the official mourning ceremony for the country’s Supreme Leader was postponed, according to the state-affiliated Fars news agency.

Authorities have not given a new timeframe for Khamenei’s mourning ceremony. But as Iranian ruling clerics deliberate over a new incumbent, the Israeli defense minister threatened Wednesday that any leader would be an “unequivocal target for elimination.”

Debris litters a street following an Israeli airstrike that targeted the Haret Hreik neighbourhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Wednesday.

AFP/Getty Images

The Israeli military issued what it described as an urgent evacuation warning for entire neighbourhoods in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a significant expansion from previous orders that were typically limited to specific buildings.

In a post on X on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee urged residents of Burj al-Barajneh and Haret Hreik/Al-Hadath to evacuate via 2 main highways.

The statement warned residents not to head south, saying any movement in that direction could put their lives at risk, and said the military would announce when it is safe for residents to return.

The neighbourhoods are home to tens of thousands of people and are predominantly Shiite areas long regarded as Hezbollah strongholds. The scale of the warning is unprecedented in recent years, including during the 2024 confrontation.

Emergency workers respond after a projectile fired from Iran landed in Bareket, east of Tel Aviv, Israel, today.

Emergency workers and civilians stand near a crater after a projectile landed in Bareket, east of Tel Aviv, Israel, on Thursday.

Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

A man holds a piece of shrapnel after the projectile landed.

Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Emergency workers respond after the attack.

Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Fuel prices are displayed at a pump at a gas station in Baltimore on Wednesday.

Stephanie Scarbrough/AP

Gas prices shot higher by another 5 cents a gallon in the latest reading from AAA, taking the average price in the US to $3.25 a gallon, the highest average price in 11 months.

This 26-cent-a-gallon increase since Friday is a reaction to the war in Iran and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial channel through which 20% of the world’s oil passes. Gas prices have also risen after Iran launched retaliatory attacks on the oil facilities of its oil-rich neighbors, such as the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter.

Most of the increase has come in the last three days, although today’s 5-cent jump in prices is less than the 9-cent increase in Wednesday’s reading and the 11-cent spike in prices on Tuesday, which had been the biggest one-day increase since the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Still, the 25-cent gain in gas prices in the last few days is the largest three-day rise since March 2022, shortly after sanctions were imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Diesel prices are rising even faster. The average price of diesel rose 12.8 cents to $4.17 a gallon in Thursday’s reading, taking it up 40 cents in just that last three days. While few American drivers have cars powered by diesel, the spike may be felt by the average consumer in coming weeks. Most heavy trucks use diesel, and most trucking companies have a fuel surcharge they add onto their rates. Fuel surcharges are also being put in place on ocean shipments. So, moving goods is becoming more expensive and could be passed onto consumers in higher prices.

High diesel prices could also hurt farmers, who use diesel in their farm equipment, just as they prepare for the spring planting season. And homeowners in the Northeast who use heating oil will be hurt since that is the same product as diesel.

And more prices hikes could be on the way. Wholesale gas prices, along with West Texas Intermediate oil and Brent Crude, the two benchmark readings for oil prices, were all slightly higher in early trading today.

The Greek frigate Keimon is seen in Limassol, Cyprus, on Wednesday as European nations pledge to work together to protect the island.

Alexis Mitas/Getty Images

European nations are working together to shore up defenses in Cyprus after a British airbase on the Mediterranean island was hit by a drone attack on Monday.

France cut short the deployment of its aircraft carrier strike group to the Baltic to respond to the Iranian bombing campaign, and on Thursday a source close to French President Emmanuel Macron told CNN that the country will coordinate with Italy and Greece in shoring up defenses in Cyprus.

Italy’s defense minister Guido Crosetto confirmed his country’s involvement, saying “we must reassess our assets in the region and respond to the requests of friendly countries in difficulty.”

Spain is sending its Cristóbal Colón frigate to Cyprus as part of a joint deployment with the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and vessels from the Greek Navy, the country’s defense ministry said in a statement Thursday.

The Cristóbal Colón is Spain’s “most technologically advanced frigate,” said the ministry, which added that the deployment shows the country’s “commitment to defending the European Union and its eastern border.”

Monday’s drone attack targeted RAF Akrotiri, a key hub for UK air operations in the Middle East, and is believed to be the first attack on the British base since 1986.

Smoke rises over the damaged Azadi sports complex following an attack in Tehran, Iran, on Wednesday.

Majid Asgaripour/Wana News Agency/Reuters

Tehran’s iconic Azadi sports complex has been hit by a US-Israeli attack, according to state media.

The attack hit the complex’s indoor, multi-purpose stadium, the Azadi 12,000 Capacity Hall. It is mainly used for volleyball, wrestling and futsal.

Tehran’s Persepolis Football Club issued a statement condemning the attack, saying that sports venues symbolized peace and fair competition.

The complex was built by Iranian architecture firm AFFA for the 1974 Asian Games, which were the first Asian Games held in the Middle East.

France has permitted US non-combat aircraft to use an airbase on the French mainland with the “complete guarantee” that these aircraft “do not participate in any way in US operations in Iran” only in defense of regional partners, a spokesperson for the French Armed Forces told CNN Thursday.

Non-combat support aircraft have been permitted to use the Istres air base outside of Marseille in the south of France. The spokesperson added that this was a “routine procedure” with the framework of NATO.

France has not permitted US aircraft to use the country’s air bases in the Middle East region.

According to a source close to French President Emmanuel Macron, France will `also coordinate with Italy and Greece in shoring up defenses in Cyprus, which was hit by a drone attack.

European dilemma: Like other US allies in Europe, France has faced tough choices about how far to get involved in the conflict. President Emmanuel Macron said the US-Israeli attacks were “conducted outside the framework of international law” while blaming Iran for the escalation that follows.

France cut short the deployment of its aircraft carrier strike group to the Baltic to respond to the Iranian bombing campaign, with French aircraft already credited with shooting down drones in defense of Gulf allies.

People look at the damage caused by missiles launched from Iran in central Israel on Thursday.

Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

Iran has continued retaliatory strikes, using drones and missiles to hit various locations throughout the Middle East, as well as allegedly hitting Azerbaijan for the first time.

Six Pakistani and Nepali nationals were injured in an Iranian strike on Abu Dhabi, the emirate’s media office said Thursday, while Qatari air defense systems intercepted Iranian missiles over the capital Doha.

CNN journalists on the ground reported that explosions caused by missile intercepts rattled buildings as booms rang out across the city, and video shot by CNN shows smoke in the sky where the intercepts took place.

Iran launched further attacks on Israel, with a projectile landing in Bareket, east of Tel Aviv, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had launched missiles at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport.

Drone strikes in Azerbaijan reportedly injured two people and damaged an airport terminal building in the first attacks on the country since the beginning of the conflict.

Azerbaijani authorities blamed the attack on Iran, but the country’s armed forces denied launching the drones and suggested the incident may have been a false-flag operation by Israel.

A South Korean dealer works at Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday.

Jeon Heon-Kyun/EPA/Shutterstock

Asian stocks staged a strong recovery Thursday after steep declines the previous day, while European stocks were slightly higher. US stock futures, after rebounding Wednesday, were broadly flat Thursday morning.

South Korea’s Kospi index closed 9.6% higher after a record 12% selloff Wednesday.

One explanation for the massive declines in Seoul earlier this week is “that Korea’s equities have (recently) benefitted from extreme exuberance, perhaps speculative excess, and were due a break,” Thomas Mathews, head of markets analysis for Asia-Pacific at consultancy Capital Economics, said Thursday. “Indeed, earnings expectations had grown sky-high.”

A rebound in other Asian stock indexes was less stark after Wednesday’s smaller falls. Europe’s benchmark STOXX Europe 600 was up 0.5%, building on a bigger rise the previous day after sliding earlier in the week.

US futures signaled a mixed open on Wall Street. The Dow was on track to open 0.1% down, while S&P 500 and NASDAQ futures were little changed.

More broadly, markets have “remained very sensitive to headlines,” Deutsche Bank said in a note Thursday, noting that oil prices had fallen during the day on Wednesday after the New York Times reported that Iran had made indirect contact with the United States to discuss negotiations to end their conflict.

Likewise, Mohit Kumar, economist at Jefferies, wrote Thursday that the report had helped “set a tone for higher markets.”

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, still ended Wednesday’s session up on the day, settling at the highest level since January 2025. It rose 2.4% in morning trade Thursday to $83 a barrel. WTI, the US benchmark, was up 3%.

Tearful reunions have been taking place in airports around the world as thousands evacuate from the Middle East. Many travelers spent days stranded in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and other regional airports.

Several countries, including the UK, India, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia and the Czech Republic, are working to increase flights and safe border crossings from the region.

The first Spanish people evacuated from the Middle East arrive at Terminal T4 of Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport, on Tuesday in Madrid, Spain. The government has begun evacuating, both by land and air, the more than 30,000 Spaniards affected by the escalating violence in the Middle East.

Diego Radamés/Europa Press/AP

The first military evacuation flight for Czechs who were stranded in the Middle East after the American and Israeli attack on Iran landed in Prague at night on Tuesday at the Vaclav Havel Airport in Prague, Czech Republic.

Roman Vondrous/CTK/AP

Lee Hak-joong, 66, who was stranded in Dubai, explains a photo to the media upon his arrival today at Incheon International Airport, in Incheon, South Korea.

Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters

Indian Muslim passengers are welcomed upon arrival at the airport of Ahmedabad late Tuesday after they were stranded in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as they visited for special prayer in ongoing Ramadan month.

Shammi Mehra/AFP/Getty Images

People arrive at the International Airport in Frankfurt, Germany, after being evacuated from Dubai on a commercial flight, on Tuesday.

Michael Probst/AP

A CNN team has crossed over into Iran, becoming the first US network to cross into the country since the war with the US and Iran began.

After crossing into Iran today, CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen says he and his team are now trying to make it “to the capital Tehran as fast as possible,” having a received a visa from the government to report inside the country.

“We also don’t know what the situation on the road to Tehran is going to look like, how many checkpoints there’s going to be, and of course we know at the same time there are massive combat operations,” Pleitgen says during a short report filed from the road.

Pleitgen and team are mindful that their destination Tehran “has been under almost sustained attacks with massive airstrikes going on there” and suffered extensive damage and casualties due to US-Israeli bombardment, he said.

Iran has continued to strike a host of countries across the Gulf and vowed to continue its retaliatory campaign for the forseeable.

A satellite image shows precision strikes at the Garmdarah Missile Base, Iran, on Wednesday.

Vantor/Reuters

The Israeli military said it carried out a wave of airstrikes overnight against targets in Tehran, including ballistic missile infrastructure and launch sites above and below ground.

In a statement published Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strikes hit an underground facility used to store ballistic missiles, as well as additional missile storage sites it claimed were intended to target aircraft. The IDF also said it struck several long-range ballistic missile launchers that it described as posing an “immediate threat” to Israel.

The military added that an Israeli Air Force fighter jet identified Iranian operatives preparing a loaded launcher intended for use against aircraft and struck both the launcher and the operatives.

As it enters its sixth day, the latest Middle East conflict continues to widen, with explosions rocking the Iranian capital Tehran again this morning as Qatar said it was intercepting a fresh missile attack.

Overnight, Israel launched another wave of attacks against Iran, as well as striking Hezbollah targets in Beirut. Iran also launched three waves of missiles towards Israel overnight, according to the Israeli military.

Here’s what to know on day 6:

Read more about the latest developments here.

The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government said on Thursday that reports claiming it is part of a plan to arm and send Iranian Kurdish opposition parties into Iranian territory are “completely unfounded.”

“On the contrary, we call for peace and stability in the region,” Hawramani added. “We strongly condemn the cowardly attacks targeting the Kurdistan Region, and we call on the federal government and the international community to intervene to stop these assaults and protect our land, our people, and our region.”

For context: The CIA is working to arm Iranian Kurdish forces with the aim of fomenting a popular uprising in Iran, multiple people familiar with the plan told CNN on Wednesday. The Trump administration has been in active discussions with Iranian opposition groups and Kurdish leaders in Iraq about providing them with military support, the sources said.

However, several Iraqi Kurdish parties have denied any involvement in the Iran war.

Any attempt to arm Iranian Kurdish groups would need support from the Iraqi Kurds to let the weapons transit and use Iraqi Kurdistan as a launching ground.

“[It’s] very dangerous, but what can we do? We cannot stand against America,” one senior Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government official told CNN on Wednesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

This post has been updated for clarification.

Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence says it targeted “separatist terrorist groups (that) intended to enter the country’s western borders” with the support of the United States. The ministry statement, reported by the country’s state media, is believed to have been referring to attacks by Iranian forces on Iraq-based Kurdish groups.

Iran’s ISNA News Agency reported on Thursday that explosions have been heard at the headquarters of forces in Iraqi Kurdistan.

It comes after sources told CNN that the CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces, with the aim of fomenting a popular uprising in Iran. The Trump administration has been in active discussions with Iranian opposition groups and Kurdish leaders in Iraq about providing them with military support, multiple people familiar with the plan told CNN.

On Thursday, Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said they destroyed “a significant part of the positions and facilities of these mercenaries” and said that heavy losses were inflicted on them, likely referring to Iraq-based Kurdish groups. The Iranian ministry statement also claimed they were working in cooperation with Kurdish men in Iran and monitoring the country’s border areas.

For context: Iranian Kurdish armed groups have thousands of forces operating along the Iraq-Iran border, primarily in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. Several of the groups have released public statements since the beginning of the war hinting at imminent action and urging Iranian military forces to defect.

Meanwhile, several Iraqi Kurdish parties have denied any involvement in the Iran war.

Drone attacks have injured two people and damaged the terminal building of an airport near the Iran-Azerbaijan border, Azerbaijani authorities said, the first strikes on the country since the beginning of the conflict.

The attacks took place around midday local time (3 a.m. ET), and another drone fell near a school in Shakarabad, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said in a statement Thursday.

The drones hit Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhchivan, which is separated from mainland Azerbaijan by Armenia.

“We strongly condemn these drone attacks launched from the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” reads the statement.

“This attack against the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan constitutes a violation of the norms and principles of international law and serves to increase tensions in the region,” added the ministry.

Iran’s armed forces denied launching drones at Azerbaijan and suggested the incident may have been a false-flag operation by Israel.

“Such actions by the fake Zionist regime to disrupt relations among Muslim countries through various means have a precedent, and according to investigations conducted, such an action was carried out to accuse the Islamic Republic of Iran by that regime,” the armed forces were cited as saying by Nour News.

Rising tensions: Azerbaijan and Iran are both majority Shiite Muslim nations, and millions of ethnic Azeris live in Iran.

However tensions between the two nations have risen recently as Azerbaijan has increased security cooperation with Israel.

Qatar has been “subjected to a missile attack,” the Ministry of Defence said in a post on Instagram, adding that air defense systems were intercepting the strike.

Intercepts in the skies over the capital Doha at around 11.55 a.m. local (03.55 a.m. ET) rattled buildings as booms rang out across the city, according to CNN journalists on the ground.

At least another two rounds of interceptions took place shortly after.

CNN staff in Doha did not receive an emergency alert ahead of the barrage.

Evacuation flights out of the Middle East have ramped up with thousands leaving the region as the US-Israeli war with Iran continues to cause aviation chaos.

Here’s the latest on evacuation flights:

A plume of smoke rises after a strike on the Iranian capital of Tehran on Thursday.

Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images

Explosions rocked Tehran again this morning leaving more residents unsure whether to leave or stay put, a man who fled the city told CNN.

Loud bangs were heard in the Iranian capital Thursday morning, the semi-official state news agency Tasnim reported.

The man – who fled Tehran with his wife, a doctor, a few nights ago – described the uncertainty of living under continuing attacks. “You never know what or who is a target.”

Earlier this week, a TV and radio antenna near their home was hit, shaking the entire neighborhood.

Now they are settled in a small town near Damavand, Iran’s tallest peak, he said the nights are filled with the sound of fighter jets, though no impacts have reached their area.

“A lot of friends and family are staying put in Tehran for now, because the thinking is no matter where you go, something there will be targeted,” he said.

Heading south means fearing foreign forces at the borders, while going north risks getting trapped on the congested Chalus highway, he added. “Many people are thinking it’s better to just stay where you are.”

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni attends a press conference in Rome on January 23, 2026.

Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images/File

Italy is planning to send air defense aid to Gulf countries in the face of Iranian air strikes, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Thursday.

“Like the United Kingdom, France and Germany, Italy intends to send assistance to Gulf countries, specifically in the field of defense and in particular air defense,” Meloni told radio station RTL 102.5.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz –– one of the world’s most important shipping lanes, which has seen traffic dry up since the war began –– is only closed to ships from the US, Israel, Europe and other Western allies.

If vessels belonging to the US, Israel, Europe “and their supporters … are observed, they will certainly be hit,” the IRGC warned.

The strait has been effectively closed since the US and Israel launched their joint operation against Iran on Saturday, sending oil prices surging and threatening to upend the global economy.

A U.S. submarine sinks Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in support of Operation Epic Fury off Sri Lanka’s coast in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday.

U.S. Department of Defense/Getty Images

The US submarine sinking of an Iranian warship in international waters has raised uneasy questions for key White House partner New Delhi, an analyst said, as the vessel was destroyed shortly after leaving an Indian port where it had completed joint naval exercises.

Sri Lanka’s foreign minister identified the vessel as the IRIS Dena. The frigate had been sailing home from an east Indian port, following a visit where it was welcomed by the Indian Navy last month. Over 80 people have been confirmed killed.

The attack took place in the Indian Ocean, thousands of kilometers away from the Gulf, where US and Israeli forces are striking Iran, and Tehran is retaliating with missile and drones.

It was the first time a US attack submarine had used a torpedo to sink a combat ship since 1945.

Why it matters for India: While the incident took place in international waters, it will likely rankle New Delhi because the attack took place in an area of ocean that India views as its backyard and it had only finished hosting the crew.

He noted that while the Iranian ship was in international waters, it was “going from an Indian fleet review, through what is not an active war zone, and definitely an area of India’s influence.”

India’s “non-negotiables” are “protecting commerce and energy routes, avoiding entanglement in US–Iran escalation, and preventing any normalization of third‑party kinetic actions so close to its maritime periphery,” he added. “All of them have been challenged by the US naval action,” Singh said.

India hasn’t publicly commented on the incident. CNN has reached out to its foreign ministry and navy for a response.

Cargo ships and tankers are seen off coast city of Fujairah, in the Strait of Hormuz in the northern Emirate on February 25.

Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images

The Middle East conflict continues to disrupt the global economy, with much of the upheaval caused by a chokehold in one of the world’s most important shipping lanes: the Strait of Hormuz.

The strait connects the oil-rich Persian Gulf to the rest of the world. Around 20% of global production flows through the waterway – but that has shuddered to a near-halt, with many ships stranded at anchor and avoiding the Strait.

In Asia, South Korea and Japan rely on imports of liquified natural gas from the Middle East, leaving their economies and markets particularly vulnerable. At least seven oil tankers carrying crucial South Korean supplies are unable to pass through the strait, a South Korean lawmaker said.

In the US, oil prices surged early this week, already beginning to hike gas prices as Americans struggle with affordability. But by Wednesday, prices paused their surge while US and European stocks rebounded

Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, two of the world’s largest maritime cargo companies, have notified customers that they are no longer accepting most cargoes bound for ports in the Persian Gulf because of fighting in the region.

The chokehold threatens more than just oil or cargo. Six Gulf Arab nations – Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait – import about 85% of their food, since their climate is too arid for large-scale farming.

These Gulf states have few alternatives, since maritime food shipments must pass through Hormuz. But most have large emergency grain and food reserves that could last several months.

Iran’s foreign minister has decried the deadly US torpedo attack on an Iranian warship as an “atrocity,” which he warned the US will come to regret.

At least 87 people were killed, and a number remaining missing, after the IRIS Dena sank off the coast of Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

“The US has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X.

“Frigate Dena, a guest of India’s Navy carrying almost 130 sailors, was struck in international waters without warning,” he added.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed a US submarine had torpedoed an Iranian ship in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka has recovered scores of bodies and its Navy rescued 32 people –– leaving 11 people unaccounted for, according to Araghchi’s figure for the number of sailors onboard at the time.

People fill up their cars at a gas station in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday.

Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters

At least seven oil tankers carrying crucial South Korean supplies are unable to pass through the Strait of Hormuz as conflict rages in the region, the office of South Korean lawmaker Kim Young Bae told CNN Thursday.

Kim made the comments after an emergency meeting with parliamentary members and major industry players including Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor, LG, HD Hyundai Oil Bank, SK, GS Caltex and Hanwha Ocean.

Iran has threatened to attack any ships that attempt to navigate the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil passes.

Kim said the vessels, carrying millions of barrels of crude oil bound for South Korea were stuck, threatening potential supply shortages, and he urged the government to step in to strengthen energy security.

More than 70% of the country’s crude oil and about 20% of its gas imports come from the Middle East, according to the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) data.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday urged ministers to swiftly implement emergency measures to stabilize supplies of crude oil and gas.

Iran and its proxies kept up attacks on US allies in the Gulf on Thursday morning as the war entered a sixth day and expanded to impact ships, with one sinking in international waters off Sri Lanka.

Here’s what we’re seeing:

International waters: Over 80 people have been killed after an Iranian warship sank in the Indian Ocean, Sri Lankan officials said, after a US submarine fired a torpedo.

Iran: Israeli military launched a wave of flyover strikes across Tehran targeting “military infrastructure belonging to the Iranian regime,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Wednesday night. The latest strikes were Israel’s 11th wave of attacks against Tehran since February 28. More than 1,100 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

Israel: Iran launched three waves of missiles towards Israel overnight, according to Israel’s military. The latest barrage, just before 4 a.m., triggered sirens in Jerusalem and central Israel. Hours earlier, Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, carried out their first coordinated attacks on Israel of the war, the Israeli military told CNN.

Lebanon: Israel’s overnight strikes hit several command centers in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, belonging to Hezbollah, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Saudi Arabia: The kingdom intercepted and destroyed four waves of missiles approaching central and northern regions, the defense ministry said. It did not specify where the weapons launched from.

Bahrain: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched a drone attack on an Amazon data center, Iran’s state-affiliated Fars News Agency reported. The attack was carried out to identify how such centers support the military and intelligence activities of Tehran’s adversaries, Fars said.

Kuwait: Oil is leaking from a tanker anchored offshore after a nearby explosion. The crew reported seeing a large explosion on the vessel’s left-hand side before a small craft left the area, a British marine tracking agency said.

At least 1,114 civilians in Iran have been killed since the war began on Saturday, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

That toll includes 183 children, most of them under the age of 10, according to the latest figures released by HRANA on Thursday. The organization is still working to verify more than 900 reported deaths.

Some of the latest strikes in the past day have reportedly hit civilian sites protected by humanitarian international law, HRANA added –– including a high school and several medical sites and clinics.

The death toll for this latest conflict is now approaching the total toll of last summer’s 12-day war between Iran, Israel and the US – which HRANA estimates killed 1,190 people in Iran.

The head of Iran’s National Emergency Organization said as many as 6,000 people have been wounded so far.

Dozens of people, including six US troops, have also been killed elsewhere in the Middle East by Tehran’s retaliatory strikes, according to local authorities.

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut’s southern neighborhood on Thursday.

Fadel Itani/AFP/Getty Images

Israel’s overnight strikes into Thursday hit several command centers in the Lebanese capital Beirut belonging to the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The IDF described the attack as “a wave of intelligence-based strikes,” saying one of the command centers had been used by Hezbollah’s aerial unit.

Israel has battered parts of the country all week, after the Iran-backed military group fired projectiles from Lebanon into Israel. The IDF has issued evacuation orders for dozens of villages and settlements in southern Lebanon, as well as near Beirut.

Outside of Iran, Lebanon has had the highest death toll since the latest Middle East conflagration exploded.

An Iranian man stands among the ruins of a diplomatic police station that is completely destroyed during a U.S.-Israeli military campaign in Tehran, Iran, on Wednesday.

Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty Images

As it enters its sixth day, the latest Middle East conflict continues to disrupt travel, rock markets and endanger civilians.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated the US goals to destroy the regime’s ballistic missile program, “annihilate” Iran’s naval presence in the region, dismantle Iran’s terrorist proxies and prevent it from pursuing a nuclear weapon.

She didn’t rule out that the US carried out the strike on a girls’ elementary school in southern Iran that killed more than 150 girls, but insisted the US military “does not target civilians.”

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