US-Israel-Iran War Live News Updates: The tension between the United States, Israel and Iran entered Day 4, with heavy exchanges of fire across the region and mounting casualties. US President Donald Trump defended the offensive as the “last, best chance” to stop Iran’s leadership, as large-scale combat operations continued across Iranian territory. More than 1,250 targets have been struck so far in coordinated US-Israeli attacks, including ballistic missile facilities and naval assets, as reported by the BBC. Iranian authorities have vowed retaliation, while regional tensions continue to spill across borders
What we know
IRAN WAR INTENSIFIES: The United States and Israel hit thousands of targets inside Iran, continuing their joint campaign after they killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran’s Red Crescent said more than 550 people were killed in the strikes.
TEHRAN HITS BACK: Iran escalated attacks on Israel and targets across the Middle East, with six U.S. service members killed. Kuwait mistakenly downed three U.S. fighter jets. Eleven people were killed in Israel, officials said, and deaths were reported in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain.
CONFLICT SPREADS: Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon fired missiles at Israel, which responded with its own strikes. Dozens of people were killed, according to Lebanese authorities.
WAR WON’T BE ‘ENDLESS’: President Donald Trump says the U.S. operation is expected to last “four to five weeks” but could go “far longer.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said today that the war in Iran will not be “endless” and that the U.S. goal is not regime change. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said today that Trump won't "rule out anything," including using ground forces.
TEHRAN SAYS NO TALKS: Iran’s top national security official, Ali Larijani, vowed “we will not negotiate with the United States” after Trump said Iranian officials do want to talk with the U.S. and “are talking.”
GLOBAL DISRUPTION: The price of oil has risen sharply as the conflict disrupts supplies. Countries are also scrambling to evacuate their citizens from Gulf states under attack from Iran amid widespread flight cancellations and airport closures.
Iran’s counterstrikes
The country’s military has launched strikes and threatened further action against many of its Middle East neighbors.
by drones;
Asia markets slide on fears of instability brought by Iran war
Asia markets mostly fell as the war in Iran began its fourth day and investors worried about its implications for energy prices and the global economy.
Leading the losses was South Korea’s Kospi, which fell more than 5% by the afternoon after being closed for a public holiday, though some defense stocks saw substantial gains.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 2.75%, extending losses for a second day, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost about 1.4%. Stocks also fell in mainland China and Hong Kong.
In the United States, S&P 500 futures were off about 0.75% after closing flat amid a surge in crude oil prices and fears that trade could be disrupted around the world as the war chokes off the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route.
Trump, who campaigned against 'endless' wars, enters Iran with no end date
Trump has a long history of denouncing forever wars and promising, as president himself, to keep the U.S. out of the sorts of foreign entanglements that could lead to them. But one year into his second term, he has ordered military action in multiple countries, including the January strike on Venezuela to capture Nicolás Maduro.
And now with the war in Iran, Trump has plunged America into its most significant conflict since the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — without any congressional approval.
At a briefing today, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rejected suggestions that Iran could become Trump’s Iraq, pledging that it would not spiral into an “endless” war. But Trump himself indicated the U.S. could be engaged for longer than he bargained.
“Right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks,” Trump said at a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House. “But we have capability to go far longer than that.”
