Iran war: Israel hits Beirut, Tehran with fresh strikes

The US military said it has already struck nearly 2,000 targets by the fourth day of its war with Iran.

"We have severely degraded Iran's air defenses and destroyed hundreds of Iran's ballistic missiles, launchers and drones," Admiral Brad Cooper of US Central Command said in a video message.

The deployment represents the largest buildup by the US in the Middle East in a generation, he said. 

More than 50,000 US troops, 200 fighter planes, two aircraft carriers and bombers were participlating in Operation Epic fury in what is an "unprecedented" operation, Admiral Cooper said. 

The US is continuing with "24/7 strikes into Iran", he said in the message, and more US "capability is on its way." 

The US military has identified four of the first ‌American ⁠soldiers ⁠killed in the US-Israel war with Iran.

The Pentagon said they were members of the Army Reserve from different American states.

They were killed on Sunday when an Iranian drone a command center in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait. 

The soldiers worked in logistics and kept troops supplied with food and equipment, the Pentagon said. 

They were named as: 

• Capt. ‌Cody A. Khork, ‌35, ​of Winter Haven, Florida
• Sgt. 1st Class Noah ​L. Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska
• ⁠Sgt. ​1st Class ​Nicole M. Amor, ​39, of ‌White Bear Lake, Minnesota
• Sgt. ​Declan ⁠J. Coady, 20, of West ⁠Des ​Moines, Iowa

Qatar said it dismantled two spy cells linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the official government press office said in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

It said 10 suspects had been arrested. Seven of them were allegedly tasked with gathering intelligence and three who were allegedly assigned to conduct sabotage activities.

"During the investigations, the suspects confessed their links to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and stated that they had been assigned to conduct espionage and subversion missions," the Qatar News Agency said.

Qatar's Defense Ministry says an Iranian ballistic missile has hit the US-run Al-Udeid air base. 

It said late Tuesday that its territory was targeted by two missiles, one of which was "successfully intercepted." 

"The second missile struck Al-Udeid Qatari Base without causing any casualties," the ministry added. 

Tehran has sought to attack US military installations in several Gulf countries amid the US-Israeli strikes on Iran. 

A suspected Iranian drone has struck near the US consulate in Dubai, causing a fire. 

"A drone unfortunately struck a parking lot adjacent to the chancellery building and then set off a fire in that place. All personnel are accounted for," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Washington.

The official Dubai Media Office later said the fire had been "fully extinguished, with no injuries reported." 

Iran has stepped up its attacks on American diplomatic missions in the Gulf in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes. 

The US embassy in Riyadh was hit by drones that caused a small fire early on Tuesday morning, while two drones stuck in the vicinity of the US embassy in Kuwait on Monday. 

The UAE has been hit with over 1,000 attacks since the war began, more than the combined total for the other targeted countries, according to the Foreign Ministry.

"The United Arab Emirates reaffirms that it has not taken any decision to alter its defensive posture in response to the repeated Iranian attacks," the ministry said in a statement. 

"The UAE reiterates that it is not a party to this war and has not permitted the use of its territory, territorial waters or airspace for any attack against Iran," it added. 

The body of the slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is to be buried in the holy city of Mashhad, the Fars News Agency reported. No date for the burial was disclosed.

Khamenei was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Tehran on Saturday.

He was born in 1939 in Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city, where his father is buried at the Imam Reza shrine.

Before the burial, a "large farewell ceremony" will be held in Tehran, the Revolutionary Guard said on Telegram. 

Israel claims it has struck an underground nuclear site on the outskirts of Tehran where scientists were "covertly" developing a key component for an atomic weapon.

In a statement, the military said Iran had been working at the underground location after Israel struck Iranian nuclear sites during the previous war in June.

"The covert 'Minzadehei' compound was used by a group of nuclear scientists who operated to develop a key component for nuclear weapons," the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) posted on X.

"Using intelligence, the IDF tracked the activities at this new location, removing a key component of the Iranian regime's capability to develop nuclear weapons."

The information could not be independently verified.

Iran has always denied that it is seeking to build nuclear weapons and insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes. 

Separately, the Israeli military also announced that its strikes had disabled around 300 missile launchers in Iran since the start of the war on Saturday.

"This is the result of more than 1,600 sorties and a systematic, around-the-clock effort to locate and target launchers and missile stockpiles in order to reduce fire toward the Israeli home front," the IDF said.

The army also announced that its strikes on Tehran had killed Daoud Ali Zadeh, a senior commander of Iran's elite Quds Force responsible for Lebanon. The Quds Force is the branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards that oversees its foreign operations.

The first round of the new World Endurance Championship (WEC) season, the Qatar 1812km scheduled for March 26-28 at the Lusail International Circuit, has been called off. 

Organizers said the event was being postponed "in light of the current and evolving geopolitical situation in the Middle East." They said the event would be held "later in the year."

The decision follows disruptions to football, basketball and tennis events in the region. 

The WEC championship, most commonly associated with its flagship race the 24 Hours of Le Mans, will now start with the Six Hours of Imola in Italy from April 17-19. 

The FIA's world motorsport federation's biggest money series, Formula 1, could also be at risk of disruption amid the flight restrictions in the Gulf. 

The season starts in Melbourne, Australia this weekend, but the arrival of team personnel has been disrupted by the closure of airspace and airports in the transit hubs in the Middle East. However, the series has not indicated any risk to the event as yet, and teams likely started transporting much of their key freight to Australia prior to Saturday's strikes. 

F1 is also scheduled to hold four Grands Prix in the Gulf this season, including a race in Bahrain on April 12 and another in Saudi Arabia a week later. It will then return to the region in November and December as the season winds down. 

French President Emmanuel Macron has ordered the redeployment of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle from the Baltic to the Mediterranean Sea.

He said that Rafale fighter jets, air-defense systems and airborne radar systems had already been deployed in the Middle East, pointing to the threat of Iranian attacks similar to the strike on the British Air Force base in Cyprus on Monday.

"This requires our support. That is why I have decided to send additional air-defense assets there as well, along with a French frigate, the Languedoc, which will arrive off the coast of Cyprus later this evening," Macron said.

The president also said that French forces had been active in shooting down drones in the early hours of the conflict as Iran retaliated against Israeli and US strikes by firing on US targets in nearby Arab countries.

"We reacted immediately and shot down drones in self-defence in the early hours of the conflict to defend the airspace of our allies, who know they can count on us," Macron said, in reference to agreements with Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

He was also critical of those Israeli and US strikes, saying the two countries were acting "outside international law."

According to reports in Iranian media, Revolutionary Guard forces have launched a new wave of missile and drone attacks against Israel.

It wasn't immediately clear what extent the barrage might take or when exactly it was launched.

Iran's strikes on Israel have had only modest effect so far, but some have penetrated defenses and are known to have killed 11 people in the country. 

Israel's military said that several projectiles were fired at the country from Lebanon on Tuesday, although a preliminary statement suggested that the damage had been minimal. 

"Several projectiles that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory were identified. Majority of the projectiles were intercepted, and an additional projectile fell in an open area," said a military statement.

It said sirens had sounded in northern and central Israel. 

Lebanon's government has declared military activity by the Iran-backed Hezbollah group illegal and called on it to hand over weapons, but it seems unlikely that it will be able to enforce these edicts. Israel, meanwhile, has said it will continue striking Hezbollah until it is disarmed.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had discussed Iranian strikes in calls with United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. 

Zelenskyy sought to highlight Ukraine's experience trying to counter Russian drone attacks in recent years and offer assistance in exchange for help from the Gulf states. 

"We discussed how we can help in this situation and support the protection of lives," he said on X. "It was agreed that our teams will work on this." 

Zelenskyy expressed solidarity with both countries, and said that Ukrainian and Qatari teams would remain in contact to "determine how we can jointly provide greater protection to people." 

While it's not clear how tempted Gulf states might be, officials in Kyiv have said they would be ready to send drone specialists to the Middle East to help intercept Iranian drones in exchange for assistance brokering a ceasefire with Russia. 

Zelenskyy also said on Tuesday that Ukraine would be open to exchanging interceptor drones with Middle East allies for air defense missiles.

US President Donald Trump spent much of his time in front of the cameras as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrived in Washington on Tuesday talking about the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

Asked if Israel had pushed the US to start the attack, Trump said that he had decided to go ahead with the assault based on the "way negotiations were going" with Iran, saying that he "had a feeling" Iran was about to launch its own attack.

He said that the first few days of the war had knocked out much of Iran's military capabilities, "just about everything has been knocked out," he told the press.

While Iran has continued to fire rockets, including at its Arab neighbors, Trump predicted they couldn't last much longer.

"They've shot a ⁠lot ​of them, and we're knocking out a lot," he said.

Merz, meanwhile, told Trump that "we are on the same page in terms of getting rid of the regime in Tehran" but added that they would have to talk about "the day after."

On day four of the war, Iran expert Fawaz Gerges explains how the conflict is widening, with growing uncertainty over possible further US military action.

The US Embassy in Beirut has announced that it will remain closed until further notice, in the aftermath of the strikes on Iran, and as Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah also exchange fire. 

"Due to ongoing regional tensions, US Embassy Beirut will be closed until further notice," the embassy said on X on Tuesday, a day after it renewed calls for US citizens to leave Lebanon immediately.