Explosions sounded in Iran’s capital on Wednesday as the war involving the U.S. and Israel entered its fifth day, according to Iranian state television and Israel’s military announcements. The reporting came after earlier strikes that targeted an Iranian nuclear site and after Iran carried out retaliatory strikes across the region, with attacks also reported beyond Iran’s borders.
Iran’s state television reported that explosions occurred around Tehran as dawn broke. Israel said its air defenses were activated due to incoming missile fire from Iran, as the conflict continued to expand in both geography and intensity.
The fighting showed no sign of slowing in its early days. The Associated Press reported that five days into the war, nearly 800 people had been killed in Iran, including deaths President Donald Trump said he had considered some “possible future leaders” of the country. Israel also said it was retaliating against Hezbollah militants, and Lebanon’s state-run media reported at least four people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a residential complex in Baalbeck.
Earlier, Israel had launched airstrikes against Iranian missile launchers and a nuclear research site, and Iran struck back against Israel and others, including attacks described as targeting U.S. embassies and disrupting energy supplies and travel. Israel and U.S. officials also described additional actions aimed at limiting Iran’s military capabilities, while Iran maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful and said it has not enriched uranium since June.
The conflict also drew attention to possible leadership changes inside Iran after the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled for 37 years. Iran’s leaders were described as scrambling to replace him, with a new supreme leader being chosen in what the AP described as only the second time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that such a selection has taken place. Trump later said he had not considered in depth exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi and told reporters, “the people we had in mind are dead,” adding that “the worst case” would be that someone takes over who is “as bad as the previous person.”
On the U.S. side, the Pentagon identified four U.S. Army Reserve soldiers killed in a drone strike Sunday at a command center in Kuwait, and said the strike also killed two other service members. In separate military reporting, the AP said the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, Adm. Brad Cooper, said American forces had struck nearly 2,000 targets in Iran since the war began and that U.S. forces had “severely degraded Iran’s air defenses,” taken out hundreds of ballistic missiles, launchers, and drones, and that it was “just begun.”
The AP also reported additional claims by both sides about targets and damage inside Iran. It cited satellite images published Tuesday by Colorado-based Vantor showing the domed roof of Iran’s presidential complex in Tehran was destroyed, and said Iran did not acknowledge the damage or report any casualties. Israel’s military spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said the Israeli military struck a building in Qom where clerics were expected to meet to discuss selecting a new supreme leader, and said the army was still assessing whether anyone was hit.
Israel said it conducted further airstrikes on Iranian sites related to ballistic missiles and it also said it destroyed what it called Iran’s secret, underground nuclear headquarters used to develop a key component for nuclear weapons, without providing evidence. The AP said there was no immediate public comment from the U.S. or Iran about the specific site Israel named.
Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites also featured in the day’s developments. The Saudi Arabian Defense Ministry said an attack from two drones hit the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh and caused a “limited fire,” and that the embassy urged Americans to avoid the compound. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in Washington that an Iranian drone struck a parking lot outside the U.S. consulate in Dubai, sparking a small fire, and that all personnel were accounted for.
The U.S. State Department ordered the evacuation of non-emergency personnel and family members in Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates, the AP reported, and said Tuesday it was preparing military and charter flights for Americans wanting to leave the Middle East. Embassies in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Lebanon said they were closed to the public.
The AP reported casualty figures across the region, including deaths in Lebanon and in multiple Gulf countries following the exchange of strikes. It said Lebanon’s health ministry reported that 50 people were killed, including seven children, and that in Kuwait, which previously reported a single death, a Kuwaiti 11-year-old girl was killed by falling shrapnel as Kuwaiti forces were intercepting “hostile aerial targets.” The AP also reported deaths in the United Arab Emirates and in Bahrain, and said the U.S. military confirmed six deaths of American service members, including four identified by name.
The reporting also included an update from the AP noting corrections to details about communications in Iran and clarification that more than one drone hit the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia in at least some instances described earlier.