Explosions have sounded in Iran’s capital city as its war with the US and Israel enters a fifth day following earlier strikes on an Iranian nuclear site and retaliatory strikes by the Islamic Republic across the Gulf region.
Iranian state television reported explosions around Tehran as dawn broke on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Israel said its air defences were activated due to incoming missile fire from Iran.
Five days into a war that US President Donald Trump suggested would last several weeks or longer, nearly 800 people have been killed in Iran, including some Trump said he had considered as possible future leaders of the country.
Explosions also hit Lebanon, where Israel said it is retaliating against Hezbollah militants.
Lebanon’s state-run media reported that at least four people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a residential complex in the city of Baalbeck.
A day earlier, Israel launched airstrikes against Iranian missile launchers and a nuclear research site, and Iran struck back against Israel and others, targeting US embassies and disrupting energy supplies and travel.
The American embassy in Saudi Arabia and the US consulate in the United Arab Emirates came under drone attacks.
Iran has fired dozens of ballistic missiles at Israel, though most of the incoming fire has been intercepted. Eleven people in Israel have been killed since the conflict began.
In other developments, the Pentagon identified four US Army Reserve soldiers who were killed in a drone strike on Sunday at a command centre in Kuwait. The strike also killed two other service members.
The spiralling nature of the war raised questions about when and how it would end.
Trump’s administration has offered various objectives, including destroying Iran’s missile capabilities, wiping out its navy, preventing it from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensuring it cannot continue to support allied armed groups.
While the initial US-Israeli strikes killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Trump urged Iranians to overthrow their government, senior administration officials have since said regime change was not the goal.
Trump on Tuesday seemed to downplay the chances of the war ending Iran’s theocratic rule, saying that “someone from within” the Iranian regime might be the best choice to take power once the US-Israel campaign is finished.
Trump said Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s toppled shah, is not someone that his administration has considered in depth to take over.
As far as possible leaders inside Iran, “the people we had in mind are dead”, Trump said.
“I guess the worst case would be do this, and then somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person, right? That could happen,” Trump said.
“We don’t want that to happen.”
Iran’s leaders are scrambling to replace Khamenei, who ruled the country for 37 years.
Admiral Brad Cooper, the top US military commander in the Middle East, said American forces have struck nearly 2000 targets in Iran since the war began.
In a video posted on X, Cooper said the US has “severely degraded Iran’s air defences” and taken out hundreds of ballistic missiles, launchers and drones.
“We’ve just begun,” Cooper said.
Satellite images published olorado-based company Vantor showed the domed roof of Iran’s presidential complex in Tehran had been destroyed, supporting Israel’s claim of an overnight strike.
The Israeli military said it also conducted airstrikes on Iranian sites that produce and store ballistic missiles, and that it destroyed what it called Iran’s secret, underground nuclear headquarters. Without providing evidence, it said the site was used for research “to develop a key component for nuclear weapons”.
Iran has said it has not enriched uranium since June.
An attack from two drones on the US Embassy in Riyadh caused a “limited fire,” according to the Saudi Arabian Defense Ministry, and the embassy urged Americans to avoid the compound.
An Iranian drone struck a parking lot outside the US consulate in Dubai, sparking a small fire, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in Washington. He said all personnel were accounted for.
US embassies in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Lebanon were closed to the public.
The US State Department ordered the evacuation of non-emergency personnel and family in Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. And US citizens were urged to leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries, though many were stranded because of airspace closures.
The State Department said it’s preparing military and charter flights for Americans wanting to leave the Middle East. Other countries were arranging flights for their citizens.
The US-Israeli strikes have killed at least 787 people in Iran, according to the Red Crescent Society.
In Lebanon, where Israel launched retaliatory strikes on the Iranian-supported militant group Hezbollah, 50 people were killed, including seven children, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
Kuwait, which had previously reported a single death, said Wednesday that an 11-year-old girl was killed by falling shrapnel as Kuwaiti forces were intercepting “hostile aerial targets.” In addition, three people were killed in the United Arab Emirates and one in Bahrain.
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