Middle East crisis live: Israel launches fresh strikes on Tehran; Iran claims to have targeted Kurdish groups in Iraq

From 44m agoIran claims strikes on Kurds in IraqIran says it has targeted Kurdish groups in Iraq and warned “separatist groups” against action in the widening war.Tehran said on Thursday it had hit Iraq-based Kurdish groups “opposed to the revolution”, as reports said the US was looking to arm Kurdish militias to infiltrate Iran.The strikes – which killed a member from an exiled Iranian Kurdish group, according to a representative – came after a warning from Iranian officials.“Separatist groups should not think that a breeze has blown and try to take action,” said the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, quoted by the AFP news agency. double quotation markWe will not tolerate them in any way. Key events14m agoInterim summary27m agoHamas official reportedly killed in Israeli strikes on Beirut44m agoIran claims strikes on Kurds in Iraq1h agoIsrael launches fresh attack wave on Tehran – report1h agoWarning war could disrupt semiconductor production2h agoBritish warship to depart for Cyprus next week – officials2h agoUS says charter flight repatriating Americans from Middle East3h agoOpening summaryShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureInterim summaryIn case you’re just joining us, here’s an overview of the latest news in the US-Israel war with Iran as the conflict entered its sixth day on Thursday and continues to expand across the Middle East and beyond. Iran launched a wave of missiles at Israel early on Thursday, sending millions of residents into bomb shelters, just hours after moves to halt the US air assault were blocked in Washington. The Israeli military said it was beginning a new widespread wave of attacks in Tehran. Israel also said it carried out strikes on Beirut targeting Hezbollah on Thursday while Lebanese state media reported an Israeli drone strike killed a Hamas official. A man stands near a damaged building after Israeli strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs. Photograph: Ahmad Al Kerdi/Reuters Republican senators in Washington voted against a motion aimed at stopping the US air campaign and requiring that military action be authorised by Congress, leaving Donald Trump’s power to direct the war largely unbound, as the conflict continues to widen across the Middle East and beyond. Nato air defences destroyed an Iranian ballistic missile fired towards Turkey. It the first time Turkey has been drawn into the conflict. But Iran armed forces were later reported as denied firing any missile towards Turkey’s territory and saying it respected the country’s sovereignty. A US submarine sank an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka on Wednesday, killing at least 80 people. Iran says it has targeted Kurdish groups in Iraq and warned “separatist groups” against action in the widening war. Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s slain supreme leader, emerged as a frontrunner to succeed him, suggesting Tehran was not about to buckle to pressure from the US and Israel’s military campaign that has killed hundreds and convulsed global markets. The war continued to paralyse shipping through the strait of Hormuz on Thursday, choking off vital Middle East oil and gas flows, with oil prices rising on Thursday. The US Navy would escort oil tankers through the strait of Hormuz “as soon as it can” but was focused on the conflict for now, US energy secretary Chris Wright said on Fox News. Repatriation flights departed the Middle East on Wednesday as governments rushed to bring home tens of thousands of citizens stranded by the war. A British flight to repatriate UK nationals did not take off as scheduled from Oman and was rescheduled for later on Thursday, Sky News reported. Plans were in doubt for a funeral for Iran slain supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed by Israeli forces on Saturday. The body had been expected to lie in state in a Tehran mosque from Wednesday evening but Iran said three days of farewell ceremonies had been indefinitely postponed and no funeral date had been announced.With news agencies Iran’s foreign minister has said the US will “bitterly regret” sinking an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka.Abas Araghchi posted on X: double quotation markThe U.S. has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores. Frigate Dena, a guest of India’s Navy carrying almost 130 sailors, was struck in international waters without warning. Mark my words: The U.S. will come to bitterly regret precedent it has set. US defence secretary Pete Hegseth earlier confirmed that a US submarine sunk the Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, saying the ship “thought it was safe in international waters”.He said: double quotation markInstead it was sunk by a torpedo, a quiet death – the first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since world war II. Like in that war, back when we were still the war department, we are fighting to win. Hamas official reportedly killed in Israeli strikes on BeirutIsrael has said it carried out strikes on Beirut targeting Hezbollah on Thursday while Lebanese state media reported an Israeli drone strike killed a Hamas official.Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported several strikes early in the day, including two in the Hezbollah stronghold of south Beirut, where smoke was seen rising.Israel’s military, which earlier told residents to leave the suburbs where the strikes were reported, said its forces hit several “command centres” of the Iran-backed militant group in the city. There were no immediate reports of casualties, an Agence France-Presse report said.City workers with supporters of Hezbollah remove a burned vehicle from a street along the highway leading to Beirut international airport after it was hit by an Israeli strike on Wednesday. Photograph: Wael Hamzeh/EPAThe NNA said a pre-dawn Israeli drone strike hit an apartment in Beddawi, a Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli, killing senior Hamas official Wassim Atallah al-Ali and his wife.This is the first reported targeted killing of a Hamas official since the regional war began on Saturday.The report noted that Ali’s brother, also a Hamas official from Beddawi, was killed in an Israeli airstrike during the war triggered by Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel.Iran claims strikes on Kurds in IraqIran says it has targeted Kurdish groups in Iraq and warned “separatist groups” against action in the widening war.Tehran said on Thursday it had hit Iraq-based Kurdish groups “opposed to the revolution”, as reports said the US was looking to arm Kurdish militias to infiltrate Iran.The strikes – which killed a member from an exiled Iranian Kurdish group, according to a representative – came after a warning from Iranian officials.“Separatist groups should not think that a breeze has blown and try to take action,” said the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, quoted by the AFP news agency. double quotation markWe will not tolerate them in any way. Iran’s armed forces respect Turkey’s sovereignty and deny firing any missile towards its territory, they were reported as saying in a statement carried by state media on Thursday.Turkey’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that a ballistic missile fired from Iran toward Turkish airspace after passing Syria and Iraq was destroyed by Nato air and missile defence systems over the eastern Mediterranean.Tom McIlroyAustralia’s government has deployed military assets as part of contingency planning to assist Australians stranded in the Middle East.As the conflict sparked by American and Israeli strikes on Iran spreads around the region, the government is planning contingencies to help tens of thousands of Australian citizens and permanent residents.While the government is urging Australians to take up commercial options to get home, the defence department has launched Operation Beech, part of the consular effort to provide assistance.A Royal Australian Air Force C-17A Globemaster heavy transport aircraft and KC-30A multi-role tanker transport have been deployed today as a precautionary measure.File shot of a KC-30A aircraft taking off from an Australian air base. Photograph: CPL Brett Sherriff/© Commonwealth of Australia, Department of DefenceThe government will not discuss further specifics like their destination for operational security reasons.As many as 24,000 Australians are stuck in the United Arab Emirates alone. Some commercial flights to Australia have already started to resume.The New Zealand government announced on Thursday it would send two defence force aircraft to repatriate its citizens from the region.Israel launches fresh attack wave on Tehran – reportThe Israeli military has reportedly said it is beginning a new widespread wave of attacks in Tehran.We’ll bring you more on this soon.Warning war could disrupt semiconductor productionThe US-Israel war with Iran could disrupt supplies of key semiconductor manufacturing materials, a South Korean ruling party lawmaker said on Thursday.South Korea’s chip industry – which supplies around two-thirds of global memory chips – was also concerned that a prolonged conflict in Iran would lead to higher energy costs and prices, Kim Young-bae said after meeting executives from companies such as Samsung Electronics and trade groups.“Officials raised a possibility that semiconductor production could be disrupted if some of these key materials cannot be sourced from the Middle East,” he said at a press briefing cited by Reuters. He added that South Korean firms sourced some key chip-making materials such as helium from the Middle East.Helium is essential for heat management during semiconductor production and it has no viable alternatives currently. It is only produced in a handful of countries, with Qatar and the US among the leading players in the industry.The caution comes as chipmakers grapple with severe supply bottlenecks due to surging chip demand from AI data centre operators that has tightened supplies to many other industries including smartphones, laptops and automobiles.South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix said it had sufficient helium inventory and did not expect disruption to its procurement. Samsung declined to comment.With most of the region’s airspace closed, tens of thousands of travellers have been left stranded by the conflict.Airlines in the Middle East have been brought to a virtual standstill this week. Emirates and Etihad Airways are now operating a limited number of services from Dubai and Abu Dhabi.An Emirates plane arrives in Frankfurt from Dubai on Wednesday Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/ReutersQatar Airways, based in Doha, has just put out a statement reiterating that its operations remained “temporarily suspended” due to the closure of Qatari airspace, but announcing a handful of relief flights. double quotation markQatar Airways will start operating a limited number relief flights from 05 March to support passengers who are stranded due to the current situation across the region. This included flights from Muscat to London Heathrow, Berlin, Copenhagen, Madrid, Rome and Amsterdam, and a flight from Riyadh to Frankfurt. Passengers would be contacted directly if assigned seats on these services, it said.The airline is promising a further update on Friday.British warship to depart for Cyprus next week – officialsA UK warship due to be sent to Cyprus amid the US-Israeli war with Iran will not set sail from Britain until next week, western officials have been cited by the AFP news agency as saying.Prime minister Keir Starmer announced on Tuesday that he was deploying HMS Dragon – a Type 45 defence destroyer – to aid Britain’s “defensive operations” in the region. He also said he was sending two Wildcat helicopters with counter-drone capabilities.The announcement came after several drone attacks from Iran targeted UK allies in the Middle East and after the UK Royal Air Force base Akrotiri was struck overnight from Sunday to Monday.Opposition legislators have accused the government of being too slow to deploy additional resources after the war started on Saturday, with no British warship in the region.HMS Dragon was being resupplied with ammunition and would sail next week, the officials told reporters in London on Wednesday.“We’ve had to change weapon systems on it, finish welding, get it up and running, and get it sailing as fast as possible,” defence minister Al Carns told Sky News.Its voyage to the eastern Mediterranean is expected to take several days.US says charter flight repatriating Americans from Middle EastA US government charter flight was bringing Americans to the US from the Middle East and additional flights were being arranged for locations across the region, the US State Department has said.The agency on Wednesday provided no details on the number of passengers aboard the flight, the countries they were leaving or the departure and arrival times of the flight, Reuters is reporting.Since US and Israeli forces launched initial strikes on Iran on Saturday, more than 17,500 Americans have safely returned to the US from the Middle East, including about 8,500 on Tuesday, the state department said. Many more had left the Middle East to other countries in Europe and Asia since Saturday, the department said.On Monday the state department urged Americans across 14 countries in the Middle East to immediately depart the region using “available commercial transportation”. But many US citizens face challenges due to global air travel disruptions caused by the war.The situation prompted sharp criticism from some US lawmakers, who accused the state department of inadequate planning and late warnings.The department responded by saying it was “facilitating charter flights” from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan for US citizens in need of such assistance.Here are some of the latest images coming out of the Middle East amid the US-Israeli war with Iran.