The explosions in Iran’s capital came as the conflict’s geographic reach widened beyond Iranian territory, with reported strikes affecting nearby countries and U.S. facilities in the Gulf and Middle East. Iranian state television reported explosions in the Tehran metropolitan area early Wednesday, while Israel said its air-defense systems were responding to missiles that it said were arriving from Iran. The reporting from both sides highlighted the pace of the escalation as the war entered its fifth day.

The overnight pace of attacks and counterattacks also underscored how the conflict was being framed by each government’s officials and military statements. On the U.S. side, the Pentagon identified four U.S. Army Reserve soldiers killed Sunday in a drone attack on a command center in Kuwait. The attack also killed two other military personnel, according to the Pentagon’s identification.

In the wider region, Israel and Iran traded blows with reported strikes extending to Lebanon and the broader Gulf. Lebanese state media said at least four people died in an Israeli strike that hit a residential complex in Baalbeck, while Israel said it was confronting Hezbollah fighters. Iran also carried out attacks elsewhere in the region, including drone strikes reported against U.S. facilities in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to officials cited in the reporting.

U.S. officials described the regional attacks as requiring protective measures for Americans and other civilians. In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a drone hit a parking area outside the U.S. consulate in Dubai, causing a small fire, and added that all staff were located. The U.S. State Department also ordered evacuation of nonessential personnel and family members in Kuwait and Bahrain, as well as in Iraq, Qatar, Jordan, and the UAE, and urged U.S. citizens to leave more than a dozen countries in the Middle East. Officials said the closures of airspace left some people stranded even as evacuation options were being arranged.

President Donald Trump, speaking Tuesday from the Oval Office, sought to address both the war’s duration and the leadership future in Iran. The reporting said Trump indicated that “someone from within” the Iranian regime could be the best option to take power once the U.S. and Israel’s campaign ends, and he said “the people that we had in mind are dead.” The dispatch also said Trump indicated Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s deposed shah, was not someone the U.S. government had considered in depth.

The same window of statements also pointed to the political uncertainty inside Iran following the start of the conflict. The reporting said Iran’s leadership process for selecting a replacement for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had begun, and said Khamenei had governed for 37 years. It described the set of possible candidates as ranging from hard-line figures committed to confrontation with the West to reformists seeking diplomatic engagement.

On the military side, the U.S. commander in the Middle East described a broad campaign of strikes across Iranian targets. Adm. Brad Cooper, the senior U.S. military commander for the region, said in a video posted Tuesday that U.S. forces had attacked nearly 2,000 targets in Iran since the start of the war. He also said the United States “severely degraded” Iran’s air defenses and eliminated hundreds of ballistic missiles, launchers, and drones, adding, “We just started.”

Israeli military reporting also focused on nuclear-related targets and other sites described as supporting missile or weapons development. A spokesperson for Israel’s military, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, said the Israeli army attacked a building in Qom where clergy were expected to gather to discuss selecting a new supreme leader, and that the army was still assessing whether anyone was injured or killed. The reporting said Israel also described attacks on Iranian sites that produce and store ballistic missiles, and Israel said it destroyed what it called a secret and underground nuclear headquarters, adding that it was used for scientific research aimed at developing a key component for nuclear weapons.

The casualty counts cited in the reporting reflected the widening toll of the conflict. The reporting said the Iranian Red Crescent put the death toll in Iran at at least 787 people, and it said Lebanon’s health ministry reported 50 deaths, including seven children. Kuwait previously reported a single death and said Wednesday that an 11-year-old girl died from shrapnel after it fell while Kuwaiti forces intercepted “hostile air targets,” while the dispatch said three people also died in the UAE and another in Bahrain. The U.S. Army confirmed the deaths of six service members described in the Pentagon’s identification, including Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; 1st Sgt. Noah L. Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; 1st Sgt. Nicole M. Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; and Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa, who received a posthumous promotion in rank, the reporting said.

sources:

  • id: src_001 url: https://apnews.com/article/iran-israel-eeuu-e497d719fbd714dd7996d4e219b48a68 outlet: Associated Press outlet_class: wire author: Jon Gambrell publication_date: 2026-03-03 title: Explosiones estremecen la capital iraní mientras la guerra con EEUU e Israel entra a su quinto día access_date: 2026-05-24 reliability_tier: 1 originating_or_republishing: originating metadata: framework_version: 1.3.0 generation_timestamp: 2026-05-24T00:00:00Z source_cluster_id: cluster_ap_2026-03-04_iran-israel-eeuu-e497d719fbd714dd7996d4e gdelt_event_ids: [] consensus_floor_version: “current” publication_mindspec_version: “current” ai_disclosure: This article was generated algorithmically by Main Street Independent’s News Article Generator framework from the public sources listed under sources. Specification: /methodology. Human review: not_triggered. human_review_status: not_triggered human_review_triggers: [] license: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ primary_entities:
    • Iran
    • United States
    • Israel
    • Tehran
    • Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
    • Donald Trump
    • Brad Cooper
    • Effie Defrin
    • Marco Rubio primary_themes:
    • Middle East conflict escalation
    • Regional attacks and air-defense responses
    • Nuclear infrastructure and military targeting geographic_location: International floor_values_engaged:
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