The US-Israel war on Iran spread to the Indian Ocean on Wednesday when a US submarine torpedoed an Iranian frigate off Sri Lanka, killing at least 87 people, and Nato air defences shot down an Iranian ballistic missile headed for Turkey.
US officials said there would be no let-up in strikes, which they said had devastated Iran’s ballistic missile programme and its naval fleet.
On day five of the war, Israeli jets carried out repeated sorties over Iran, and human rights groups said more than 1,000 civilians had been killed, while Tehran launched projectiles and drones at Israel and Gulf Arab states.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said the joint US-Israeli military campaign has dealt “sheer destruction for our radical Islamist Iranian adversaries.”
“They are toast, they know it, or they will know it soon enough,” he added, declaring that the US and Israel will soon have complete control over Iranian skies.
“We will fly all day, all night – finding, fixing and finishing the Iranian military and their leaders,” adding that the campaign will end when the two countries “decide that it’s over”.
A US submarine sinks Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in support of Operation Epic Fury off Sri Lanka’s coast on March 4th. Photograph: US department of defence via Getty
He repeatedly said that the campaign is “seven times the intensity” of Israel’s operation during the 12-day war in June, saying additional US warplanes were on their way to the region.
He praised Israel, saying their part in the war was being executed with “unmatched skill and iron determination” and that fighting alongside such a capable ally was a “breath of fresh air”.
A day after Israel’s defence minister Yisrael Katz said he had authorised the military to advance and take control of additional positions, Israeli troops had moved into at least nine towns in southern Lebanon, a senior Lebanese security official told Reuters.
The Israeli military declined to comment on any specific new deployments in Lebanon.
Iran war: How will it end? Israel has dropped 5,000 bombs on Iran since Saturday. Israel said its jets on Tuesday destroyed a secret underground site on the outskirts of Tehran where Iran transferred much of its nuclear programme after the war with Israel in June.
An Israeli air force F-35 shot down an Iranian fighter jet over Tehran on Wednesday, marking the first time that an F-35 has taken down a manned fighter aircraft.
Chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff Dan Caine said that the US military campaign is “beginning to expand inland and striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory”, and that Iran’s ballistic capabilities were down 86 per cent from the first day of the war and its drone launching was down 73 per cent.
Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of Iran’s former leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has reportedly emerged as the leading candidate to succeed him following his assassination.
Katz warned that any successor to Khamenei could be targeted if Iran continues threatening Israel.
Rescuers rush to the site of an Israeli strike on a vehicle along the highway leading to Beirut International airport on Wednesday. Photograph: Fadel Itani/AFP via Getty
About 300,000 residents of south Lebanon have fled the area as exchanges of fire continue between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hizbullah. The Israeli military issued urgent evacuation orders for all of southern Lebanon, calling on residents to evacuate their homes “immediately” and move north of the Litani river.
Lebanon’s social affairs minister said there was no more room to house displaced people in Beirut or Sidon.
Israel said it has already struck more than 250 Hizbullah targets across Lebanon, including rocket launchers, command centres, weapons depots and senior Hizbullah commanders.
Iran said it will target Israeli embassies worldwide if the Jewish state attacks the Iranian embassy in Beirut, a spokesman for Tehran’s armed forces warned on Wednesday.
Iranian attacks on Gulf states also continued on Wednesday. Qatar intercepted 10 drones and two cruise missiles and a drone was also directed at a Saudi oil refinery.
Gulf states have faced repeated drone and missile launches in recent days as the regional war has expanded.
The sinking of the Iranian frigate off Sri Lanka, meanwhile, is the first time a US submarine has been used to fire a torpedo against an enemy ship in combat since the second World War. – Additional reporting: Reuters