Explosions sounded in Tehran Wednesday as Iran's war with the U.S. and Israel entered a fifth day following earlier strikes on an Iranian nuclear site and retaliatory strikes by the Islamic Republic across the Gulf region.
The explosions around Tehran came at dawn, according to Iran state television, while Israel’s military said its air defenses had been activated to intercept incoming Iranian missiles and explosions were heard around Jerusalem.
Five days into a war that U.S. President Donald Trump suggested could last a month 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.
Here is the latest:
Beirut wakes up to drones and another evacuation warning
Strikes hit Lebanon overnight, including in several towns and on a hotel in a suburb right next to the capital.
Beirut woke up to the sounds of drones whizzing overhead.
The Israeli military warned residents in a southern suburb to flee ahead of a morning airstrike, as more displaced people fleeing the conflict pour into the capital seeking shelter.
Israel strikes towns near Beirut, killing at least 6
Overnight Israeli strikes on towns near Beirut have killed at least six people, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said early Wednesday.
Israel struck the towns of Aramoun and Saadiyat just south of Beirut’s international airport, killing six and wounding eight others.
It also struck a hotel in the Beirut suburb of Hazmieh. No casualties were immediately reported there.
The strikes came without warning and the Israeli military did not immediately disclose the targets.
Israeli attacks target Iranian security forces in Tehran
The Israeli military said Wednesday it conducted a series of strikes across Iran’s capital targeting its security forces.
It said it hit buildings associated with the Basij, the all-volunteer force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard that conducted the bloody crackdown on protesters in January that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands detained in the country.
The Israeli military also said it hit buildings associated with Iran’s internal security command, which also has suppressed demonstrations in the past.
Israel and the U.S. have said they want to see the Iranian public overthrow its theocracy.
Strikes against counterprotest forces likely are part of that effort.
Iraqi militant group says it fired drones toward Jordan
An Iranian-backed militant group in Iraq said it fired drones toward Jordan.
The group, Saraya Awliya al-Dam, said that drones were aimed at “a vital target” in the kingdom.
Earlier Wednesday, Jordan’s state-run television reported that sirens sounded across the country.
Iraqi militants on Tuesday threatened to target Jordan over allegations that U.S. aircraft that bombed their facilities took off from a Jordanian air base.
Airstrike hits building linked to Iranian clerical panel in Qom
A building associated with the clerical panel that will pick Iran’s next supreme leader came under attack in an airstrike in the holy seminary city of Qom, semiofficial media reported.
The attack Tuesday hit the building in the Resalat neighborhood of Qom.
The semiofficial Fars and Tasnim news agencies, both believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, linked the building to Iran’s Assembly of Experts and said there was no meeting ongoing there at the time of the attack.
Fars further went on to say the assembly is meeting remotely, without elaborating.
It added that meetings over naming a new leader are ongoing — suggesting there could be an announcement by Iran in the coming days over who will replace the 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli strike at the start of the war Saturday.
There was no report on if anyone was hurt in the strike.
Israel’s public broadcaster KAN said Israel carried out the attack, though there’s been no confirmation from its military.
The Assembly of Experts is an 88-member panel which “must, as soon as possible” pick a new supreme leader under Iranian law.
The panel consists entirely of Shiite clerics who are popularly elected every eight years and whose candidacies are approved by the Guardian Council, Iran’s constitutional watchdog.
Death toll rises to 5 after strike in Lebanon’s Baalbeck
The death toll from the strike on a residential complex in Baalbeck, Lebanon, rises to five, the state-run National News Agency reported.
Fifteen others were wounded and three are missing, it said.
Sirens go off in Jordan
Sirens have sounded Wednesday morning across Jordan, the kingdom’s state television reported.
Israeli airstrike hits hotel outside of Beirut
An Israeli airstrike hit a hotel outside of Beirut, Lebanon’s state-run news agency reported Wednesday.
The strike came in Hazmieh, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) southeast of downtown Beirut.
The report from Lebanon’s National News Agency said ambulances had been dispatched to the scene.
It did not elaborate in its short report.
Asian shares tumble as oil prices climb
Asian shares tumbled Wednesday, with South Korea’s benchmark plunging as much as 11%, while oil prices climbed even higher.
Worries over the widening conflict with Iran have hammered most world markets.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 shed 3.4% to 54,346.73.
Japan, like South Korea, depends heavily on imports of oil and natural gas from the Middle East that are now stranded in the Persian Gulf.
The price of U.S. benchmark crude oil climbed 1.2% to $75.46 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 1.5% to $82.61 per barrel.
Higher oil prices and how much they might worsen inflation are spooking investors worried that more spikes for oil prices may grind down the global economy and sap corporate profits.
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