What is the death toll in the Middle East?
As the war in Iran entered its fourth week, thousands of people have been killed across the Middle East.
Here is the death toll across the region so far:
US-based rights group HRANA said on Friday that 3,220 people have been killed. It said 1,398 of those were civilians, including at least 210 children.
The latest figures reported by state media put the toll at 1,270 people.
Lebanese authorities claim that around 1,024 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since 2 March. The World Health Organisation and Lebanese health authorities said more than 100 of those killed were children.
In Iraq, at least 60 people have been killed, according to authorities.
Fifteen civilians have been killed, including nine people in an Iranian missile strike on Beit Shemesh near Jerusalem on 1 March 1, according to Israel’s ambulance service.
The Israeli military said two of its soldiers were also killed in southern Lebanon.
Four Palestinian women were also killed in an Iranian missile attack in the occupied West Bank.
There have been 13 service members killed since the US launched an attack on Iran.
Six were confirmed dead after a US. military refuelling aircraft crashed over Iraq, the US military said, while seven others have been killed in action during operations against Iran.
Eight people have been killed in Iranian attacks, including two army soldiers, according to the UAE defence ministry.
Authorities have reported six deaths, including two people killed in Iranian attacks, two interior ministry officers and two army soldiers.
Four people were killed when an Iranian missile struck a building in the southern Syrian city of Sweida on February 28, state news agency SANA said.
Two people were reported killed on 13 March in a drone strike on an industrial zone in Sohar province, marking the first fatalities inside the country, which had been hosting mediation talks between the U.S. and Iran. One person died earlier when a projectile hit a tanker off the coast of Muscat, the vessel’s manager said.
Two people were killed when a projectile fell on a residential location in Al-Kharj city, southeast of the capital Riyadh.
Two people were killed in two separate Iranian attacks, with the most recent hitting a residential building in the capital Manama, according to the interior ministry.
One French soldier was killed and six others were wounded after a drone attack in northern Iraq, where they were providing counterterrorism training.
Harriette Boucher21 March 2026 18:08
Foreign secretary: UK supporting defensive action on Iran but will not be drawn into wider conflictForeign secretary: UK supporting defensive action on Iran but will not be drawn into wider conflict
Harriette Boucher21 March 2026 17:36
Israel carries out strikes targeting missile storage facility in IranIsrael carries out strikes targeting missile storage facility in Iran
Harriette Boucher21 March 2026 17:22
UK will not take offensive action against Iran, Yvette Cooper said
The foreign secretary has said the UK is taking “a different view from the US and Israel” will not be involved in offensive action against Iran, despite the missile attack on Diego Garcia.
Yvette Cooper said the government is supporting defensive action against “reckless Iranian threats”.
She told broadcasters: “We have continued to support defensive action to support UK interests, including defensive action against ballistic missile threats.
“But we want to see as swift as possible a resolution to this conflict.
“Our approach to this conflict has been the same throughout.
“We were not and continue not to be involved in offensive action, and we’ve taken a different view from the US and Israel on this.
“But we are supporting defensive action to support our interests. That includes recognising Iran’s escalating threats to international shipping, as well as their threats to our Gulf partners.”
Harriette Boucher21 March 2026 17:19
UAE and Kuwait bases ‘pounded’ by Iran, IRGC says
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it has struck air bases in Kuwait and the UAE which it says are used by the US and Israel.
IRGC Navy commander Alireza Tangsiri said it “pounded the facilities of the two Al-Minhad and Ali Al-Salem air bases, the hangars, and the fuel depots of American-Zionist aircraft with a massive volume of ballistic missiles and suicide drones.”
He said the sites were the origin of the aggression against Iran, and they had prepared the grave of aggressor child killers”.
Harriette Boucher21 March 2026 16:57
Starmer says bases on Cyprus will not be used in offensive military action
Keir Starmer has spoken to the president of Cyprus to confirm that RAF Akrotiri will not be used for offensive military actions in Iran.
Downing Street said the prime minister talked to Nikos Christodoulides this morning to reiterate that the British base “would not be involved in the UK’s continuation of its agreement with the US to use UK bases in collective self defence of the region.
“Discussing the economic impact of the ongoing conflict, the leaders agreed that deescalation in the region was the priority.”
A spokesperson for the Cypriot leader said: “The British prime minister reiterated … that the security of the Republic of Cyprus is fundamental to the United Kingdom and, to that end, a decision has been taken to enhance the means contributing to the preventive measures already in place.
“Finally, the prime minister reiterated that the British Bases in Cyprus will not be used for any offensive military operations.”
Harriette Boucher21 March 2026 16:48
Footage claims to show Israeli attack on Iranian air base and ammunition depot
A video appears to show an Israeli attack against an air force base and ammunition depot in Dezful, western Iran on Saturday.
The footage, uploaded to social media, shows plumes of smoke rising above the city, followed by a second explosion.
It comes after the Israeli defence minister pledged that attacks on Iran would “significantly increase” in the coming week.
It is unconfirmed whether the clip is showing an ammunition dump, or an Israeli airstrike, as stated.
Harriette Boucher21 March 2026 16:41
‘Iran’s ability to threaten freedom of navigation is degraded’, says US admiral
Admiral Brad Cooper from US Central Command has boasted the largest elimination of a navy in a three-week period since World War Two.
He said the US remained “zeroed-in on dismantling Iran’s decades-old threat to the freef low of commerce to the Strait of Hormuz”, adding that it had dropped multiple 5,000lb bombs earlier this week on an underground facility located along Iran’s coastline.
“Iran’s ability to threaten freedom of navigation in and around the Strait of Hormuz is degraded as a result and we will not stop pursuing these targets,” he added.
“So far, we have struck over 8,000 military targets, including 130 Iranian vessels, constituting the largest elimination of the Navy in a three-week period since World War Two”.
Harriette Boucher21 March 2026 16:29
Iran’s president says immediate cessation of US-Israeli aggression needed to end war
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that there needs to be an “immediate cessation” of what he described as US-Israeli aggression to end the war and wider regional conflict, Iran’s embassy in India said in an post on Saturday.
Pezeshkian spoke with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi by phone earlier in the day.
Pezeshkian told Modi that there should be guarantees to prevent a recurrence of such “aggression” in the future. He also called on the BRICS bloc of major emerging economies to play an independent role in halting aggression against Iran.
The Iranian president proposed a regional security framework comprising West Asian countries to ensure peace without foreign interference, according to the country’s embassy in India.
In a separate post on X earlier on Saturday, Modi said he condemned attacks on critical infrastructure in the Middle East in the discussion with Pezeshkian.
The Indian prime minister further reiterated the importance of safeguarding freedom of navigation and ensuring shipping lanes remain open and secure.
Holly Evans21 March 2026 15:50
Israeli defence minister warns attacks will ‘increase significantly’
Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz warned of an upcoming surge in attacks on Iran as the war in the Middle East entered its fourth week.
Mr Katz said in a video statement that next week “the intensity of the attacks” by Israel and the United States against Iran’s will “increase significantly”.
He spoke shortly after fragments from an Iranian missile slammed into an empty kindergarten near Tel Aviv.
Israeli army spokesman Nadav Shoshani posted a video on X of the kindergarten building; no casualties were reported as the place was empty at the time.
Holly Evans21 March 2026 15:20