Iran warns US as war expands across Asia
The conflict between Iran and Israel intensified dramatically on Thursday as Tehran launched a new wave of attacks across the Middle East, targeting Israeli territory, American military bases and several regional countries. The escalation came with a stern warning to the United States that it would “bitterly regret” sinking an Iranian warship earlier this week.
The expanding war, now in its sixth day, has drawn in at least 14 countries across the region and beyond. Iranian strikes and retaliatory military actions by Israel and the United States have widened the battlefield from the eastern Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf and parts of Central Asia.
Air raid sirens sounded across major Israeli cities as incoming missiles were reported. Israel carried out new strikes against Iranian ballistic missile launch sites in response.
Elsewhere, Gulf States reported attacks near US military facilities. In Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, a drone was shot down near the Al Dhafra Air Base, which hosts American forces. Debris from the interception injured six people. Authorities in Doha, Qatar temporarily evacuated residents near the U.S. Embassy following reports of a missile attack. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia said its air defenses destroyed a drone in a province bordering Jordan.
In the Caucasus, Ilham Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan, accused Iran of launching drones toward the country after one crashed near an airport in the exclave of Nakhchivan, injuring four airport workers. Tehran denied responsibility for the incident.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the US Navy for sinking the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena earlier in the week near Sri Lanka, calling the incident an “atrocity at sea” that killed at least 87 sailors.
“Mark my words: The US will come to bitterly regret the precedent it has set,” Araghchi said on social media.
The conflict has also disrupted global shipping routes. A tanker reportedly came under attack off the coast of Kuwait, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center run by the British military. Commercial ships have already been targeted in the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes, pushing global oil prices sharply higher.
Israel also issued a mass evacuation warning for residents of the southern suburbs of Beirut in Lebanon, signaling the possibility of heavy bombardment of areas where the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah operates.
The Israeli military said it struck about 80 targets in Lebanon over the past 24 hours, including command centers used by Hezbollah. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported that peacekeepers observed ground combat near the border village of Kfar Kila, as well as airstrikes and explosions around the town of Khiyam.
Since the war began Saturday, officials say the fighting has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 70 in Lebanon, and about a dozen in Israel. The United States has confirmed six American troops killed.
