IDF says it launched a ‘broad wave’ of attacks ‘in the heart of Tehran’
Here are some of the latest images coming out of the Iranian capital as the Israeli military said in an update to X that its air force launched a “broad wave” of attacks in the “heart of Tehran”.
The IDF said earlier that it was attacking Lebanon and Iran “simultaneously”.
Iranian security forces stand guard next to the huge billboard of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at Valiasr Square in Tehran, Iran. Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA
Explosions heard in Tehran as new strikes hit Iranian capital. Photograph: Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu/Getty Images
Debris is seen in a room of Tehran’s Gandhi hospital, which was damaged when a strike hit a state TV communications tower and nearby buildings across the street, during the ongoing joint US-Israeli war on Iran. Photograph: Vahid Salemi/APShare
Updated at 09.23 EST
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The war in the Middle East triggered by the joint US and Israeli attack on Iran expanded dramatically on Monday, with casualties and destruction reported across at least nine countries in under 10 hours.
Israeli and US warplanes launched a fresh wave of strikes across Iran, where the Iranian Red Crescent Society said more than 500 people have been killed since the conflict began. Israel also launched an intense wave of attacks into Lebanon after Hezbollah struck at northern Israel in retaliation for the Israeli strike on Saturday that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iranian attacks were reported on oil infrastructure and other targets across a 2,000km swathe of the region – with damage inflicted from the Gulf of Oman, where a bomb-carrying drone boat exploded against an oil tanker, to Cyprus, targeting a British military base.
The US military said Kuwait’s air defences had mistakenly shot down three American F-15E fighters during an Iranian attack. All six crew members were safely recovered. Video showed one of the planes spiralling out of the sky, an engine lit up in flames, until it hit the ground and exploded in a fireball.
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Helena Smith
Fears that Cyprus is now the target of sustained attack by Iran appear to have been reinforced by statements made by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp.
General Sardar Jabbari has been quoted this afternoon as saying: “The Americans have relocated most of their fighter jets to Cyprus. We will launch attacks on Cyprus until the Americans are forced to leave it too.”
Media in Greece, where the threat has made headlines, reported that the country’s defence minister Nikos Dendias with the commander in chief of the armed forces, Dimitris Choupis will be flying to Cyprus on Tuesday to coordinate defence efforts.
Athens has announced the deployment of two state-of-the-art frigates and two F-16 fighter jets following the overnight drone strikes against RAF Akrotiri on the island.
Updated at 11.10 EST
Meanwhile, the UK prime minister Keir Starmer addresed Parliament on Monday afternoon to defend his decision to not get involved with the initial US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
“We believe that the best way forward for the region and for the world is a negotiated settlement in which Iran agrees to give up any aspirations to develop a nuclear weapon and ceases its destabilising activity across the region,” he said, adding that this was the “longstanding position of successive British governments.”
Starmer continued: “President Trump has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to get involved in the initial strikes. “But it is my duty to judge what is in Britain’s national interest. That is what I’ve done and I stand by it.”
ShareTrump on Iran strikes: ‘The big wave hasn’t even happened’
Shrai Popat
In an interview with CNN, Donald Trump said that the “big wave” of strikes against Iran is yet to come.
“We haven’t even started hitting them hard,” the US president said.
“We’re knocking the crap out of them,” Trump told CNN’s Jake Tapper during a nine-minute phone interview. “I think it’s going very well. It’s very powerful. We’ve got the greatest military in the world and we’re using it.”
When asked about the length of the war, Trump said he didn’t “want to see it go on too long”. Earlier, his defense secretary Pete Hegseth was belligerent with reporters, and insisted that he would not put a timeframe on the conflict.
“I always thought it would be four weeks,” Trump told CNN, “And we’re a little ahead of schedule.”
My US-based colleague is follwing the latest lines on Iran from Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth and the Washington corridors over in the US politics live blog.
Updated at 11.09 EST
Sam Jones
Spain has denied the US permission to use jointly operated military bases on its territory to attack Iran as Madrid stepped up its criticism of the “unjustified and dangerous military intervention”.
Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has explicitly condemned the US and Israel’s “unilateral military action” against Iran, warning that it is contributing to “a more hostile and uncertain international order”. The rebukes have been reinforced by his government’s refusal to allow the US to use bases in Rota and Morón for the continuing strikes against Iran.
José Manuel Albares, Spain’s foreign minister, said on Monday that while the government wanted “democracy, freedom and fundamental rights for the Iranian people”, it would on no account allow its bases to be used in the ongoing military action.
Footage circulating on social media appears to show a military aircraft falling from the sky in Kuwait.
US Central Command (Centcom) said on Monday that three US F-15 fighter jets flying in Iran-related operations had mistakenly been shot down by Kuwait air defences and that the cause of the incident was under investigation.
The US and Israel launched a large-scale attack on Iran on Saturday, killing several top Iranian leaders including the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Footage shows military jet plummeting from the sky in Kuwait – videoShare
Dubai Airports said “limited” flights would resume on Monday evening, three days after they were cancelled as Iran began striking targets in the Gulf, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports.
“Dubai Airports announces a limited resumption of flights from Dubai International Airport (DXB) and Dubai World Central – Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) starting this evening, Monday, March 2, 2026,” it said in a statement.
Emirates and low-cost carrier flydubai both said they would resume some flights Monday evening.
Etihad Airways, which operates flights from Abu Dhabi, said it would resume flights on Tuesday.
Lebanon’s government has decided on an “immediate ban” of Iran-backed Hezbollah’s military and security activity, prime minister Nawaf Salam said Monday, in an unprecedented move as Israel retaliated to rocket fire.
Hezbollah is represented in both the government and parliament and the move came hours after the party announced it had launched rockets and drones towards Israel early Monday, to avenge the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli attacks Saturday.
Israel began bombarding Beirut’s southern suburbs and dozens of villages in south Lebanon, vowing to make the group pay a “heavy price” and killing at least 31 people and wounding at least 149 according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Unidentified projectiles hit an oil tanker at a Bahrain port on Monday, causing a fire that was extinguished, local authorities said, with the ship’s owner reporting that one crew member was killed.
“US-flagged tanker Stena Imperative was struck by two unknown projectiles in the Port of Bahrain at 02:57 UTC (0257 GMT),” private maritime security company Vanguard Tech said in a statement.
It added that “all crew members are safe and have evacuated the vessel.”
The vessel’s Swedish owner, Stena Bulk, also told AFP that “mariners have reported no injuries and a damage assessment is being conducted.”
ShareIran Revolutionary Guards say targeted 500 US, Israeli sites
The Iran Revolutionary Guards has issued a statement saying it has so far targeted 500 US and Israeli sites.
“Since the start of the conflict, the brave soldiers of the Iranian armed forces have attacked 60 strategic targets and 500 American military targets and targets of the Zionist regime (Israel),” the Guards said in a statement.
It added they had launched more than 700 drones and hundreds of missiles.
Updated at 10.28 EST