Blasts were heard in Tehran as Israel launched a new wave of strikes on targets in the Iranian capital Wednesday.
The United States Central Command released an update on Operation Epic Fury on Tuesday, reporting that nearly 2,000 targets have been hit, 17 Iranian naval vessels - including the country’s most operational submarine - have been destroyed, and US forces have deployed one-way drones against Iran’s military infrastructure.
Joint US-Israel strikes under Operation Epic Fury have disrupted Iran’s nuclear missile program, destroying key command centers, missile launchers, and radar sites, the Israeli ambassador to the United States said on Tuesday.
Iran's Assembly of Experts elected Ali Khamenei's son Mojtaba as the next Supreme Leader under pressure from the Revolutionary Guards, informed sources told Iran International.
President Trump said on Tuesday he had ordered the US Development Finance Corporation to provide political risk insurance and guarantees for maritime trade traveling through the Persian Gulf. He said the US Navy would also escort tankers if needed.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told Sergey Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, that continued war could disrupt oil exports and trigger a global energy crisis with rising prices, Iraq’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
An Iranian warship, the IRIS Dena, sank off the coast of Sri Lanka following a submarine attack, leaving at least 101 crew members missing and 78 wounded, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
It was unclear who was behind the attack on the ship, which sources confirmed has now sunk. The navy source added, "At this point, 79 people have been rescued and taken to the hospital, with one in serious condition. Another 101 are believed to be missing."
Sri Lanka's defense ministry confirmed that a search operation is underway to locate the missing crew, approximately 25 miles south of the island. The injured sailors have been taken to a hospital in Galle, in the southern part of Sri Lanka.
The 180-crew frigate issued a distress call at dawn. Sri Lankan officials, including Foreign Minister Vajitha Herath, are coordinating efforts to assist.
A Saudi defense spokesperson said on Wednesday an attempted attack on the Ras Tanura refinery was carried out by a drone, but no damage was reported.
Iranian exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi urged Iranians living abroad on Wednesday to intensify political advocacy and public campaigning, saying their recent mobilization had helped shift international opinion toward supporting Iranians.
In a message posted on social media, Pahlavi asked supporters to contact lawmakers and decision-makers in their countries of residence and push them to maintain support.
"In the challenging days and weeks ahead, your role in maintaining this support is crucial until the disgraceful rule of the Islamic Republic comes to an end," he said in a video message to the Iranian diaspora.
He also urged them to emphasize Iran’s territorial integrity, insist that Iranians should determine the country’s future political system, and press for maximum precautions to prevent harm to civilians.
He called on the diaspora to engage with media and civil society groups to convey the Iranian people’s demands, and to take part in demonstrations in the coming days and weeks.
“A heavy burden of destiny rests on all our shoulders. And together, we will walk this path until the final victory,” Pahlavi concluded.
Ahmad Khatami, a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, said that a new supreme leader will be appointed "at the earliest opportunity."
Khatami told state media that there had been questions about why a leader was not named immediately after the late supreme leader’s death, and said that earlier, there was no wartime context to speed that process.
He said that despite the delay, there was no problem in leadership selection and that the Assembly of Experts will decide on a successor.
Israel’s military said on Wednesday that it struck dozens of targets across Iran overnight, including what it described as a facility in Isfahan used to store, produce and launch ballistic missiles, including Ghadr missiles.
The IDF said the site was struck to reduce missile launches from the facility.
It added that Israeli aircraft also struck air defense systems and expanded aerial control over Iranian airspace.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi criticized the US negotiating team on Wednesday, writing on X: “When complex nuclear negotiations are treated like a real estate transaction, and when big lies cloud realities, unrealistic expectations can never be met. The outcome? Bombing the negotiation table out of spite.
A drone struck the headquarters of an Iranian Kurdish opposition group in Iraq's Kurdistan region on Wednesday, according to security sources cited by Reuters. No immediate information was available on casualties or damage.
An Israeli Air Force F-35I fighter jet shot down an Iranian Yak-130 warplane over Tehran's airspace earlier today, marking the world’s first downing of a manned aircraft by an F-35.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed the incident, which took place shortly before 8:35 AM local time.
Alireza Panahian, a hardline Iranian cleric close to the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, warned that failure to seek revenge for Khamenei’s death would jeopardize the security of future leaders.
"If revenge for Khamenei is not taken, the security of future leaders will be endangered," Panahian said during a speech on Wednesday. He also called on officials to reject any ceasefire requests, urging, "Now that we have the upper hand, destroy them."
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that they have downed “26 enemy drones” since the start of the war and brought an armed drone under their control intact, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported.
The Israeli military said it had begun “broad scale strikes targeting Iranian terror regime targets” in the Iranian capital Tehran.
Mohammad Mokhber, an advisor to Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said that Iran can continue the war if necessary and has no intention of negotiating with the United States.
“We have a history and civilization that shows we are not afraid of war, and we are not afraid to continue it,” Mokhber said, referring to Iran’s previous eight-year-long conflict with Iraq.
French fighter jets have already neutralized Iranian drones targeting the United Arab Emirates, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Wednesday.
Barrot also said that France plans several repatriation flights for French nationals in the Middle East.
“One will depart from the United Arab Emirates, another from Egypt... and one from Israel,” he told France 2 television.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said it carried out a drone swarm attack on what it described as a vital target in Jordan early Wednesday, the group said in a statement.
Any leader appointed by Iran’s ruling system to continue plans to destroy Israel, threaten the world, and suppress the Iranian people would be a clear target, Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday.
“We will continue to act with full force, together with our American partners, to crush the regime’s capabilities and create the conditions for the Iranian people to overthrow it and replace it,” Katz said in a post on X.
Israel would keep acting with full force together with its US partners to degrade the Iranian leadership’s capabilities and create conditions for the Iranian people to overthrow and replace it, the Israeli defense minister added.
Sri Lanka dispatched a rescue mission after receiving a distress call from an Iranian ship, the country’s defense ministry was cited as saying by Reuters on Wednesday.
Iran’s clerical body, the Assembly of Experts, has elected Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Ali Khamenei, as the Islamic Republic’s new Supreme Leader, according to his informed sources who spoke to Iran International on condition of anonymity.
The decision marks one of the most consequential moments in the history of the Islamic Republic, effectively transferring power within the same family for the first time since the 1979 revolution.
But who exactly is Mojtaba Khamenei?
Two drone attacks targeted a US military base and a hotel in Iraq’s Erbil early on Wednesday, Reuters cited security sources as saying.
Loud fighter jet activity and sounds of explosions were heard in Iran’s central city of Isfahan early on Wednesday, according to eyewitness accounts sent to Iran International.
