Israel strikes Tehran; Iran vows ‘complete destruction’ in region

Israel issued an evacuation order for all of Lebanon south of the Litani river, which constitutes roughly a quarter of the country. The order was unprecedented and larger in scope than any Israel had previously given, even at the height of its 13-month war with Hezbollah in 2024.

Later, the Israeli military said it had struck several targets, including rocket and missile launch sites south of the river. The Lebanese health ministry said on Wednesday night that three people had been killed and six wounded in the Israeli strikes.

Despite the regional escalation, US and Israeli officials said the war was so far going better than they expected, but it was unclear what the end goal of their campaign was as they had offered contradictory aims. The Trump administration has said at various times that its goal was regime change, destroying Iran’s ballistic missile capacity and its navy, preventing it from getting a nuclear weapon, and putting a stop to its support for proxies across the region.

In Iran, funeral proceedings for the late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were delayed as a result of the bombing. The ceremony, which had been scheduled to start in Tehran on Wednesday morning, was delayed indefinitely.

The postponement came as Iran’s senior clerics met to appoint a new supreme leader, a position that functions as both head of state and commander in chief of its vast military apparatus. The reported favoured candidate of clerics was Mojtaba Khamenei, the 56-year-old son of Ali Khamenei and preferred choice of the IRGC.

Iran’s security structures have been instrumental in putting down protest movements in the past, and the US has urged Iranians to overthrow the country’s government. Washington has also reportedly been exploring the possibility of using Kurdish separatist groups to invade parts of Iran and establish a safe zone in the predominantly Kurdish groups in the north-west.

The regional dimension of the conflict continued to expand, as Iran struck Gulf states and Hezbollah fired on Israel and Cyprus. Turkey said Nato air defences had intercepted a ballistic missile heading towards its airspace. Saudi Arabia also said on Wednesday night it had intercepted three cruise missiles, and the US said it had sunk an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean. Sri Lankan authorities said at least 80 people had been killed and 23 rescued. There were thought have been 180 people on board.

Drones were also reported near Baghdad airport and explosions heard in Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.

The death toll in Iran has soared, as estimates of those killed by strikes in the five days of war rose to between 1,045 and 1,500 people.

The continued mischief and deception by the United States in the region will come at the cost of the complete destruction of the region’s military and economic infrastructure,” it said in a statement to state media.

Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, on Wednesday condemned Iran’s attacks on Gulf states in a call with Tehran’s foreign minister – the first high-level contact since the Islamic republic launched its missile and drone campaign – and accused it of seeking to “harm its neighbours and drag them into a war that is not theirs”.

Gulf countries have borne much of Tehran’s response since the US and Israel launched a massive air campaign against Iran over the weekend. Thirteen people, seven of them civilians, have been killed in countries around the Gulf since the war began.

Iran also threatened to target Israeli embassies worldwide if Israel struck its embassy in Beirut. Israel’s military gave 24 hours on Tuesday for any “representatives of the Iranian terror ministry” to leave Lebanon before they were targeted. It was unclear if it was referring to Iranian diplomats or other Iranian personnel.