Explosions sounded in Tehran Wednesday as the war between the US, Israel and Iran entered a fifth day following earlier strikes on Iran and retaliatory strikes by the Islamic Republic across the Gulf region.
Welcome to day five of our live coverage as we continue to track developments in the Middle East and the ongoing conflict between the United States and Israel on one side and Iran on the other.
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Explosions sounded around Tehran at dawn, according to Iran state television, while Israel’s military said its air defences had been activated to intercept incoming Iranian missiles and explosions were heard around Jerusalem.
Five days into a war that US 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.
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Trump administration scrambles for congressional support
The US Senate is headed towards a vote Wednesday on President Donald Trump's decision to embark on a war against Iran, an extraordinary test in Congress for a conflict that has rapidly spread across the Middle East with no clear US exit strategy.
The legislation, known as a war powers resolution, gives lawmakers an opportunity to demand congressional approval before any further attacks are carried out. The Senate resolution and a similar bill being voted on in the House later this week face unlikely paths through the Republican-controlled Congress and would almost certainly be vetoed by Trump even if they were to pass.
After launching a surprise attack against Iran on Saturday, Trump has scrambled to win support for a conflict that Americans of all political persuasions were already wary of entering. Trump administration officials have been a frequent presence on Capitol Hill this week as they try to reassure lawmakers that they have the situation under control.
“We are not going to put American troops in harm’s way,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in a raucous news conference at the Capitol Tuesday. Six US military members were killed over the weekend in a drone strike in Kuwait.
Trump has also not ruled out deploying US ground troops. He has said he is hoping to end the bombing campaign within a few weeks, but his goals for the war have shifted from regime change to stopping Iran from developing nuclear capabilities to crippling its navy and missile programmes.
Almost all Republican senators were readying to vote Wednesday against the war powers resolution to halt military action, but a number still expressed hesitation at the idea of deploying troops on the ground in Iran.
Canadian PM Carney says US-Israeli strikes on Iran 'inconsistent with international law'
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he believes that Israeli-US strikes on Iran were not consistent with international law.
"It would appear, prima facie, not to be consistent or to be inconsistent with international law," Carney told a gathering at the Lowy Institute in Sydney.
Earlier, Carney said the war represented "another example of the failure of the international order".
"Canada calls for a rapid de-escalation of hostilities and is prepared to assist in achieving this goal," he said, adding that "Canada reaffirms that international law binds all belligerents."
Carney has backed the Israeli-US strikes targeting Iran, saying Tehran had failed to dismantle its nuclear programme and cease support for militant groups, but expressed "regret" on Wednesday that international efforts had failed to disarm Iran.
He noted that "the United States and Israel have acted without engaging the United Nations or consulting with allies, including Canada".
Qatar says it dismantled two spy cells linked to Iran's Guards
Qatar said it had dismantled two spy cells linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, its official press agency reported just after midnight Wednesday.
"Close surveillance made it possible to arrest 10 suspects: seven were tasked with spying and gathering information about vital and military infrastructure in the country, and three were meant to carry out sabotage operations," the agency said.
It added the suspects "admitted during the investigation their links to the Revolutionary Guards and having been instructed to conduct espionage and sabotage activities".
Authorities also found in their possession locations and coordinates of sensitive facilities and installations, along with communication devices and technological equipment.
During the investigations, the suspects confessed their links to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and stated that they had been assigned to conduct espionage and subversion missions, QNA reports.
In a parallel development, Israeli media quoting Israeli officials is reporting that Israel quietly and covertly extracted part of its embassy staff in the United Arab Emirates after two Iranian attempts to attack Israeli diplomats were foiled in recent days.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed the evacuation saying that “in light of concrete threats against Israeli missions in the UAE, and at the request of security authorities, non-essential staff were evacuated from the United Arab Emirates.”
A senior Israeli official told Channel 12 news that the two attacks were part of “a specific effort to hunt the Israeli diplomats” and “were already underway.”
Three-day-long state funeral for Khamenei to start Wednesday evening
Iran will hold a three-day-long state funeral starting on Wednesday evening for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, state TV said.
Hojjatoleslam Mahmoudi, head of Iran’s Islamic Propagation Council said "the Mosalla (prayer hall) will be receiving visitors and the dear people can attend and take part in the farewell ceremony and mark a strong presence once again," in comments carried by Iranian media.
Khamenei, the Islamic Republic's supreme leader, was killed in the US-Israeli strikes that sparked the war on Saturday.
After the funeral's announcement, Israel's defence minister warned that any successor would be a "target for elimination".
Israeli defence minister says Iran's next leader is a 'target for elimination'
Israel’s defence minister threatened whoever Iran picks to be the country’s next supreme leader, saying he will be “a target for elimination" in a post on X.
“Every leader appointed by the Iranian terror regime to continue and lead the plan to destroy Israel, to threaten the United States and the free world and the countries of the region, and to suppress the Iranian people — will be an unequivocal target for elimination,” he wrote. It does not matter what his name is or the place where he hides.
Israel targeted a building Tuesday associated with Iran’s Assembly of Experts, which will select the new supreme leader. It killed the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a strike Saturday that started the war.
US military says it has struck nearly 2,000 targets in Iran
The US military commander in the Middle East said Tuesday that American forces had struck nearly 2,000 targets so far in Iran as part of the largest firepower buildup in the region in a generation.
"We've already struck nearly 2,000 targets with more than 2,000 munitions. We have severely degraded Iran's air defenses and destroyed hundreds of Iran's ballistic missiles, launchers and drones," Admiral Brad Cooper of US Central Command said in a video message.
"The first 24 hours of this operation were nearly double the scale" of the first day of shock-and-awe strikes on Iraq in 2003, "and we continue with 24/7 strikes into Iran," he added.
US grants non-emergency staff permission to leave Cyprus
The US State Department has given its non-emergency personnel and their families in Cyprus permission to leave, the US embassy said Wednesday.
The department "authorised non-emergency US government employees and US government employee family members to leave Cyprus due to the safety risks."
Several killed in Israeli strikes across Lebanon
Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli strikes on two towns south of Beirut, outside of Iran-backed Hezbollah's traditional strongholds, killed six people and wounded eight.
Later in the morning, Lebanese state media said Israeli strikes hit a hotel in the Beirut suburb of Hazmieh and a four-storey building in the eastern city of Baalbek. I added that four people were killed and six more were wounded in the strike.
Responding to the attack, Baalbek's mayor said only civilians lived at the complex that hosts the building.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which earlier announced "broad-scale strikes" against Hezbollah in Lebanon's south.