Iran launched a Khorramshahr-4 heavy missile toward Israel early Thursday, according to state media, as the West Asia conflict raged on after the US-Israel began strikes against Iranian regime on Saturday. The missile is reported to carry a 1 ton warhead and has an estimated range of about 2,000 kilometres.
Iran continued to launch missiles at Israel early Thursday as aerial attacks across West Asia entered a sixth day. The escalation followed the sinking of an Iranian warship by a United States submarine and Tehranโs warning that military and economic infrastructure across the region could face destruction.
Israel reported multiple incoming missile attacks, with air raid sirens sounding in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The alerts came shortly after the Israeli military announced fresh strikes in Lebanon targeting the Iranian backed militant group Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
The fighting intensified after the United States and Israel expanded their bombardment of Iran on Wednesday. The scale of the attacks was so severe that Iranian state television said the mourning ceremony for the countryโs Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the start of the conflict, would be postponed. Millions had attended the funeral of his predecessor Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.
The United States and Israel launched the war on Saturday, targeting Iranโs leadership, missile arsenal and nuclear programme while suggesting that toppling the Iranian government could be one of the objectives. However, the exact aims and timelines of the campaign have repeatedly shifted, indicating the possibility of a prolonged conflict.
US President Donald Trump praised American forces on Wednesday, saying the military was โdoing very well on the war front, to put it mildlyโ. At the same time, Republican lawmakers in the US Senate backed the administration by voting down a resolution that sought to halt the war.
As the conflict escalated, Iran fired missiles towards Bahrain, Kuwait and Israel. Turkey said that NATO defence systems intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Iran before it could enter Turkish airspace.
Officials say the war has so far killed more than 1,000 people in Iran, over 70 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel. The conflict has also disrupted global oil and gas supplies, slowed international shipping routes and left hundreds of thousands of travellers stranded across the Middle East.
Threats expanding across the Middle East
Countries across the region were bracing for further escalation on Thursday, a day after Iranโs paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned of โthe complete destruction of the regionโs military and economic infrastructureโ.
Authorities in Qatar said residents near the US Embassy Doha were being evacuated as a temporary precaution, although officials did not provide further details.
In the United Arab Emirates, fighter jets were heard flying over the city of Dubai on Thursday morning as regional tensions mounted.
There were also signs that the conflict could begin affecting commercial shipping. An explosion was reported early Thursday off the coast of Kuwait. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre, run by the British military, said a tanker appeared to have come under attack but did not confirm the cause. In previous incidents, Iran has targeted ships using limpet mines attached to vessels.
Earlier maritime attacks linked to the conflict had taken place in the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow entrance to the Persian Gulf through which roughly one fifth of the worldโs oil shipments pass.
Oil prices have surged as Iranian strikes disrupted shipping through the strait, while global stock markets have also faced pressure amid fears that rising energy prices could slow the world economy.
Iranian military facilities targeted
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said a torpedo fired from an American submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday night.
Authorities in Sri Lanka said 32 people were rescued from the vessel, while the countryโs navy reported recovering 87 bodies from the sea.
Israel also said it struck buildings linked to Iranโs Basij, an all-volunteer paramilitary force associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that has been accused of carrying out a violent crackdown on protesters earlier this year.
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