Main PointsIsrael claimed on Tuesday to have killed Iran’s top security leader Ali LarijaniJoe Kent, one of the United States’ top counterterrorism officials, announced his resignation on Tuesday, citing his opposition to the Iran warDonald Trump, while meeting with Micheál Martin on St Patrick’s Day, blasted Nato and Keir Starmer for their approach to the war in the Middle East Key Reads
Jade Wilson – 11 minutes ago
Israel says Iranian intelligence Minister has been killed
Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib was “eliminated” in a strike overnight, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Kratz has said.
There has been no confirmation from Iran regarding Khatib’s reported death.
Katz said he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had authorised the military to kill any other senior Iranian official being targeted without the need for additional approval.
Jade Wilson – 56 minutes ago
Firefighters extinguish a burning destroyed vehicle that was targeted by Israeli bombardment in Lebanon’s southern coastal city of Sidon. Photograph: Mahmoud Zayyat / AFP via Getty Images Lebanon war leaves equivalent of a classroom of children hurt or dead every day, says UN
War in Lebanon has wounded or killed the equivalent of one classroom of children daily and robbed the remainder of their sense of normalcy since it began two weeks ago, a top official of the UN children’s agency said.
According to Lebanese health ministry figures, at least 111 children have been killed and 334 wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon since March 2nd, when Lebanese armed group Hizbullah joined the regional war by firing into Israeli territory. That equals nearly 30 children a day.
“That’s a classroom of children every day since the beginning of the war that’s either killed or injured in Lebanon,” Unicef deputy executive director Ted Chaiban said.
Lebanon’s child deaths are among 1,200 children killed across the region in recent weeks – nearly 200 in Iran, four in Israel and one in Kuwait.
“They’ve paid a terrible price. And the first thing we’re calling for is a de-escalation, a political way forward to this war,” Chaiban told Reuters in Beirut.
Israel says it does not deliberately target civilians and that its warnings give civilians enough time to leave before strikes take place.
Jade Wilson – 58 minutes ago
Nato deploys another US Patriot missile defence system to southern Turkey
Nato is deploying another US Patriot missile defence system to the southern Turkish province of Adana, where personnel from the US and other countries are located in the Incirlik Air Base, Turkey’s defence ministry said on Wednesday.
Turkey, which has Nato’s second-largest army and neigbhbours Iran, said last week the alliance had deployed a Patriot system to its southeastern Malatya province, near a Nato radar base, as part of steps to boost air defences against missile threats from the Iran war.
Adana hosts Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base, where personnel from the United States, Qatar, Spain and Poland are located, as well as Turkish troops.
“In addition to national-level measures taken to ensure the security of our airspace and our citizens, another Patriot system, commissioned by Allied Air Command in Ramstein/Germany, is being deployed in Adana, in addition to the existing Spanish Patriot system stationed there,” the ministry said at a weekly briefing.
Austria cuts petrol tax to counter war’s impact on prices
Austria will temporarily trim a tax on petrol and diesel fuel by 5 euro cents a litre and limit fuel retailers’ margins to counter the effect of oil prices driven up by the Iran war, the three-party ruling coalition said on Wednesday.
“We are reducing the petroleum tax and introducing measures to limit margins across the entire value chain. These specific measures will bring the price of diesel and petrol down by around 10 (euro) cents (12 cents) per litre,” Austrain chancellor Christian Stocker said in a statement.
The Israeli military has repeated its sweeping evacuation order for southern Lebanon, extending more than 40km from the Israeli border.
Avichai Adraee, the Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson, ordered people to head north of the Zahrani river this morning before the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began a bombing campaign against what he said were Hizbullah targets.
“The strikes are ongoing as the IDF is operating with considerable force in the area,” he said in a post on X.
“Therefore, for your safety, we reiterate our call for you to evacuate your homes immediately and head north of the Zahrani river.”
The Israeli military has already issued displacement orders for people south of the Litani river and Beirut’s southern suburbs. Nearly a million people in Lebanon have been internally displaced since the fighting began.
Jade Wilson – 2 hours ago
Israel confirms its tank fire hit UN Lebanon base on March 6th
Israel’s military has acknowledged its tank fire hit a UN position in southern Lebanon on March 6th, wounding Ghanaian peacekeepers.
Initial findings by an internal UN inquiry had suggested Israel was behind the attack, a western military source had told Reuters on Tuesday.
In a statement to Reuters, Israel’s military acknowledged its troops were behind the incident, but said they had responded to anti-tank missile fire from Hizbullah, which had moderately wounded two of its soldiers.
“A comprehensive investigation concluded in recent days determined that the fire that hit the Unifil personnel was mistakenly carried out by the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] troops that misidentified the Unifil troops as the source of the anti-tank fire moments earlier,” it said.
“The IDF regrets the incident and has conveyed its apologies through the appropriate channels to Ghana and the United Nations. The findings of the investigations have been disseminated within the IDF to prevent recurrence of similar incidents.”
Jade Wilson – 2 hours ago
Unreasonable to expect Lebanon to disarm Hizbullah as bombings continue, France says
A municipality worker stands amid debris following an overnight Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon. Photograph: AFP via Getty Images
It would be unreasonable to expect Lebanon’s government to disarm Iran-backed Hizbullah while the country is being bombed by Israel, France’s special envoy for Lebanon said on Wednesday.
Only a negotiation would resolve the crisis, Jean-Yves Le Drian told France Info radio.
“Israel occupied Lebanon for a very long time and failed to eradicate Hizbullah’s military capacity. Therefore, they cannot now ask the Lebanese government to do that job in three days under bombardment,” he said.
Jade Wilson – 2 hours ago
Iran launches attack on airbase in UAE where Australian soldiers are stationed
Iran launched an attack on an airbase in the UAE where Australian soldiers are stationed, causing a fire that damaged medical and accommodation facilities, the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said.
An Iranian projectile hit a road just outside the Al Minhad base, which hosts more than 100 Australian military personnel.
Albanese confirmed that no Australian personnel were injured.
It was not clear if the projectile was a missile or drone strike, but Albanese said it started a fire that caused “minor damage” to an accommodation block and medical facility.
He could not confirm if Iran directly targeted the Al Minhad base while maintaining Australia was not at war.
“The Iranian regime is engaging in random attacks right across the region. We know that is the case,” he said.
Jade Wilson – 2 hours ago
Iranian missile barrage kills two in Israel
An Iranian missile barrage killed two people in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv.
Israel’s national railway company said shrapnel had also disrupted train services.
Authorities reported that falling munitions had hit multiple sites in central Israel in the overnight barrage that triggered air raid sirens across the area, after another day of heavy Israeli bombardments in Iran and Lebanon.
That brings the number of deaths from missile attacks on Israel since the start of the Middle East war to 14 people.
Emergency workers respond to a ballistic missile attack in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan, Israel. Photograph: Alexi J Rosenfeld/Getty Images
Jade Wilson – 2 hours ago
Alerts on Dubai resident’s phones went off throughout the night and into this morning, warning them of the risk of missiles and drones and to seek shelter away from windows and open areas.
It was yet another heavy night of Iranian missiles and drones being launched over the United Arab Emirates.
Several loud booms rang out over Dubai’s popular marine area this morning, and six military helicopters were seen flying low over the bay.
Footage sent to Al Jazeera shows missiles and drones being intercepted in Dubai overnight, with debris falling down on the city’s international convention centre.
In a statement this morning, the UAE’s ministry of defence confirmed that “the sounds heard in scattered areas of the country are the result of air defence systems intercepting ballistic missiles, as well as fighter jets intercepting drones and loitering munitions”.
All air interception operations had been successful, they said.
While tens of thousands of residents and tourists fled Dubai as the conflict broke out, many people have stayed behind.
Jade Wilson – 3 hours ago
A fire onboard the USS Gerald R Ford injured sailors and destroyed 100 beds, and the carrier will reportedly set sail for Crete for repairs.
The American aircraft carrier has been at sea for almost nine months, and is stationed in the Red Sea to support the war on Iran.
Officials did not say how long the $13 billion vessel was expected to remain in Crete.
One of the officials said nearly 200 sailors were treated for smoke-related injuries when the fire broke out in the ship’s main laundry area. The fire took hours to bring under control and had an impact on roughly 100 sleeping berths.
Jade Wilson – 3 hours ago
US targets Iran coastline with ‘bunker buster’ bombs near Strait of Hormuz
The United States military said it has targeted sites along Iran’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz with powerful “bunker buster” bombs because Iranian anti-ship missiles posed a risk to international shipping there.
The strait, a transit point for a fifth of the global oil trade, remains largely closed as Iran threatens to attack tankers linked to the US and Israel. Oil prices have soared.
Jade Wilson – 3 hours ago
Call for ex-counter-terror chief to face Congress after resigning over Iran
A senior Democrat has called on Joe Kent, director of the US National Counterterrorism Center and a far-right political figure, to testify to Congress about why he resigned from his job over the war on Iran.
California representative Ro Khanna’s call came after Kent, a supporter of Trump, wrote on X that “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation” before blaming Israel.
“The American people deserve to know why this Administration dragged us into war in Iran,” Khanna wrote on social media. “Joe Kent should come before Congress. If even officials like Joe Kent do not believe Iran posed an imminent threat, why are we sending more Americans to die in this war?”
Jade Wilson – 3 hours ago
Iran attacks Israel and Gulf countries after security chief killed
Iran launched strikes towards Israel and neighbouring Gulf countries early on Wednesday, with explosions heard in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, and interceptions reported in Saudi Arabia.
The attacks came hours after Iranian state media confirmed Israel’s military killed top Iranian security official Ali Larijani in an overnight strike, as well as gen Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s Basij force, known for its role in suppressing protests.
Meanwhile, an Israeli air strike struck an apartment building in Bachoura, central Beirut, flattening it as day broke.