Iran on Thursday launched the 19th wave of strikes against Israel and the American military bases in the Gulf countries as the war in the Middle East stretched into its sixth day.
Alerts were triggered in several areas in Israel, including Tel Aviv, and explosions were heard in Jerusalem, with the Israeli military issuing three separate alerts warning of Iranian missile fire in under two hours. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Several explosions were also heard in Tehran, according to local media reports.
Rocket trails seen in the sky above Tel Aviv amid a fresh barrage of Iranian missile attacks
Photo Credit: AFP
Israel also targeted a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut early Thursday. Prior to these strikes, officials had said 72 people had been killed and more than 83,000 others displaced since the start of a new round of fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut’s southern neighborhood
Photo Credit: AFP
The war began on Saturday when the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have claimed that they attacked Iran as it posed an imminent threat.
US Sinks Iranian Warship
The war spread to another region as an American submarine sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka on Wednesday, killing at least 80 people. The warship, IRIS Dena, had been on a friendly visit to India when it was attacked.
It was the first time since World War II that an American submarine had attacked a surface vessel.
The IRIS Dena frigate “thought it was safe in international waters”, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters.
Iran Fires Missile At Turkey
Turkey on Wednesday claimed that a ballistic missile launched from Iran and headed towards its airspace via Iraq and Syria was destroyed by NATO air defence systems.
The defence ministry said it had been “engaged and neutralised by NATO air-and-missile defence assets deployed in the eastern Mediterranean”.
Turkey hosts a number of military facilities used by the US and other NATO allies.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Funeral Postponed
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral, which was scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed “in anticipation of unprecedented turnout”, state television reported.
The body of the 86-year-old leader had been expected to lie in state in a vast Tehran mosque from Wednesday evening, but Iran announced that three days of farewell ceremonies had been indefinitely postponed and no funeral date had been announced.