Live. US-Kriegsminister: Chamenei verwundet und "wahrscheinlich entstellt"

French President Emmanuel Macron says that Paris continues to support its allies in the Middle East, stressing that “nothing could ever justify attacks against us.”

He made the remarks speaking after a French soldier was killed during a drone attack on a Kurdish military base in Iraq's Erbil region on Thursday.

“France will continue to show composure, calm and determination, remain reliable towards our partners, protect our citizens, and defend our interests and our security,” added Macron.

The Red Cross Society of China will provide $200,000 (€174,290) to offer condolences and support to the parents of students killed in a missile strike that hit an elementary school in Iran, the Chinese government said.

“Attacking schools and harming children is a serious violation of international humanitarian law and crosses the bottom line of human morality and conscience,” spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a daily Foreign Ministry briefing in Beijing.

The money will be disbursed through the Iranian Red Crescent Society, he said.

US President Donald Trump said his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin might be helping Iran fend off against continuing US and Israeli attacks.

His comments come after new intelligence indicated Russia has provided Iran with information that could help Tehran strike US warships, aircraft and other assets in the region.

“I think he might be helping them a little bit, yeah, I guess,” Trump said in an interview with US broadcaster Fox News that has yet to air. “And he probably thinks we’re helping Ukraine, right?”

“Yeah, we’re helping them also,” Trump continued. “And so he says that, and China would say the same thing, you know. It’s like, hey, they do it and we do it in all fairness.”

Hegseth offered new details on the operation against Iran at a Friday news conference from the Pentagon, noting the impact of US and Israeli air strikes on the Islamic Republic.

He detailed that over 15,000 enemy targets have been struck, at a rate of more than 1,000 a day since the war began on 28 February.

Iran’s drone and missile attacks in retaliation have been deadly and have spiralled the broader region into the conflict. Those attacks include a fatal strike in Kuwait that killed six US soldiers and more than a dozen in Israel over the course of the war.

The US defence chief told reporters on Friday that Iran is “exercising sheer desperation” with its threats that have blocked a significant portion of the world’s oil supply, sending global markets into a spiral, as crude prices soared to above $100 a barrel.

“We’re dealing with it,” he told reporters at the Pentagon, without giving further details.

US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine added that the US military has “made it a priority to target Iran’s minelaying enterprise” in the strategic waterway, through which around a fifth of the world’s energy supplies pass.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth says ending Iran’s nuclear weapons programme remains a “core mission” as US and Israeli strikes on the country continue for a 14^th consecutive day.

Speaking at a media briefing at the Pentagon, Hegseth said President Donald Trump is focused on ending Iran’s ability to manufacture nuclear weapons for good.

The defence secretary would not say whether ground forces will be needed to secure Iran’s supply of enriched uranium or its nuclear facilities, but said the Washington is considering a range of options.

Hegseth noted that he would welcome a decision by Iran’s leaders to voluntarily give up their programme. “We’ve said from the beginning: deny Iran nuclear weapons.”

Responding to a shouted question on Friday’s briefing about new Iranian mines impacting the Strait of Hormuz, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said: “We’ve heard them talk about it, just like you’ve reported recklessly and wildly about it, but we have no clear evidence.”

On Tuesday, Washington said it took out 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels after Tehran vowed to block the region’s oil exports, with one official saying Iran's enemies won't get “even a single litre” of crude. 

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that Iran’s new Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei remains injured after the strikes that killed his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei nearly two weeks ago.

"We know the new so-called, not-so-supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured," Hegseth told a press conference.

Khamenei was appointed as the Tehran regime's new leader following his father’s death in US-Israeli strikes on 28 February.

The younger Khamenei has not been seen or heard from publicly since the war began, leading to speculation about his whereabouts and health.

On Thursday he made his first public statements read by an anchor on state-run TV, resolving to keep fighting, promising more pain for Gulf Arab states and threatening to open “other fronts” in a war that has already disrupted world energy supplies, the global economy and international travel.

Hegseth did not elaborate or give evidence about Khamenei’s condition.

The United States and Israel have struck more than 15,000 targets since the start of the Iran war on 28 February, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday.

"Between our air force and that of the Israelis, over 15,000 enemy targets have been struck. That's well over 1,000 a day," Hegseth told a news conference.

Hegseth also said Friday would mark the highest volume of strikes yet in the campaign.

European Council President Antonio Costa said Friday that Washington's "unilateral decision" to lift sanctions on Russian oil exports was "very concerning, as it impacts European security."

"Increasing economic pressure on Russia is decisive for it to accept a serious negotiation for a just and lasting peace," Costa wrote on X.

"Weakening sanctions increases Russian resources to wage the war of aggression against Ukraine," he added.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Thursday that the department is issuing a temporary authorisation allowing countries worldwide to purchase Russian oil currently stranded at sea.

According to Bessent's statement shared on X, the step aims “to increase the global reach of existing supply” while addressing instability caused by the Iran war.

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The first French soldier killed in the Iran war was hit by an Iranian Shahed UAV, his commanding officer said on Friday.

Arnaud Frion, 42, was "killed by a Shahed drone strike on the position where he was located," said Colonel Francois-Xavier de la Chesnay.

President Emmanuel Macron earlier Friday announced the French soldier had lost his life in an attack in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, after France's military said drones on Thursday hit a base where troops were taking part in counter-terrorism training.

Read more here:

French soldier killed, Gulf under drone assault in Iran war escalation

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Iran vowed on Friday to inflict what its foreign ministry spokesman described as an "unforgettable lesson" on the United States and Israel, as the Iran war neared the two-week mark.

"We cannot accept that they talk about dialogue and ceasefire every now and then and after that we face the repetition of these crimes and war. Our armed forces are very determined to firmly teach the enemy an unforgettable lesson," Esmaeil Baqaei said.

Earlier on Friday, US President Donald Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform Iran's army was "decimated".

“Iran’s navy is gone, their air force is no longer, missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the Earth," Trump said.

“Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today," the US president said.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized the US decision to ease sanctions on Russian oil on Friday.

“Six members of the G7 expressed a very clear view that this is not the right signal to send,” Merz said during a press conference with his Norwegian counterpart in Andenes, Norway.

“We learned this morning that the US government has apparently decided otherwise. Once again, we believe this is the wrong decision,” said Merz.

The German leader noted that there was “a price problem, but not a supply problem,” adding that he wished to know what additional motives led Washington to its decision.

UN secretary-general António Guterres began a visit to Beirut on Friday despite daily Israeli attacks on the city as the IDF looks to target what it claims are Iran-backed Hezbollah positions.

Guterres announced his arrival at the Lebanese capital in a post on X, which he says aims to display solidarity with the people of Lebanon.

“They did not choose this war. They were dragged into it,” wrote the UN boss, referencing the latest round of fighting that broke out 2 March when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel.

The UN chief added that he will “spare no effort in striving for the peaceful future that Lebanon and this region so richly deserve.”

The hardliner who leads Iran’s judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi, was giving an interview to a state television reporter at a demonstration when a strike hit in the area of Tehran’s Ferdowsi Square.

His bodyguards quickly encircled him, but he raised his fist and said Iran “under this rain and missiles will never withdraw.”

The UK is accusing Russia and Iran of working together to inflict military and economic pain on the West.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Friday during a trip to Saudi Arabia that Moscow and Tehran are trying “to support each other and try to benefit together from attempting to hijack the global economy.”

The US has moved to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian oil as crude prices continue to soar following Iran’s attacks on vessels in the chokepoint Strait of Hormuz.

Washington is however only allowing countries to buy oil from Moscow already at sea, with the White House saying the move is not expected to substantially increase the Kremlin’s revenues.

London says it won’t follow suit but has declined to criticise the US’ decision.

UK Defence Secretary John Healey has previously said that Moscow and Tehran are collaborating on drone technology and tactics.

The British military is still investigating whether a drone that struck a UK air base on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus at the start of the conflict contained Russian components.

Iranian security official Ali Larijani called the suspected Israeli attack in the area of Tehran’s Ferdowsi Square, where demonstrators had gathered to partake in the annual Quds Day protest in solidarity with Palestinians against Israel, a “sign of its desperation.”

Larijani, who’s promised an unrelenting Iranian response to the war launched by the United States and Israel against his country, also responded to recent Trump remarks in which the US president suggested he wants to see a quick end to the war, and claimed victory.

“The problem with Trump is that he is not smart enough to see that the Iranian nation is a mature, strong and determined nation,” Larijani told Iranian media. “The more pressure he puts on the people, the greater their willpower becomes.”

In a post on X, Larijani called out Trump for his “grave miscalculation” in starting the war, and has pledged continued Iranian attacks until the US president is “sorry”. 

Turkey’s defence ministry says NATO air and missile defence forces intercepted a ballistic missile in Turkish airspace, launched from Iran amid its war with the United States and Israel.

In a statement shared on X, the ministry said the defence alliance’s assets stationed in the Eastern Mediterranean responded timely to the threat. The attack comes after local media outlets reported earlier that sirens were sounded at NATO’s Incirlik base near Adana, Turkey.

“All necessary measures are being taken decisively and without hesitation against any threat directed at our country’s territory and airspace,” the statement read. “Consultations are being conducted with the relevant country to clarify all aspects of the incident.”

Ankara added that it is carefully monitoring all developments in the region.

Four of the six crew members aboard a US military refuelling aircraft were killed after it crashed in western Iraq, the US military’s Central Command said on Friday.

Search and rescue efforts are underway to locate the two remaining crewmembers.

The US military says it has also launched an investigation to determine the cause of the crash, but did preliminarily rule out hostile or friendly fire against the aircraft as possible causes.

“The circumstances of the incident are under investigation. However, the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire,” wrote the US Central Command in a post on X.

The post added that the identities of the deceased US troops are being withheld for 24 hours until their families and loved ones are notified. 

A large explosion struck Iran’s capital Tehran on Friday at a square filled with demonstrators participating in the annual Quds Day protests, in solidarity with Palestinians against Israeli occupation, Iranian state television reported.

The explosion hit Ferdowsi Square, just down Enghelab Street from Tehran University, the epicentre of demonstrations which have been every year since the Islamic Republic was founded following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Videos published by the semi-official Tasnim news agency showed a plume of smoke rising as demonstrators screamed “Death to Israel!” and “Death to America!”

The cause of the blast was not immediately clear, but Israel’s defence forces had issued “emergency warnings” notifying people in the square and other areas across the capital that Israeli attacks were imminent.

Just before the Tehran strike, an explosion shook the city of Qazvin, which Israel also had warned it would target.

People reported other strikes in Tehran around the same time, though there was no immediate information on what may have been struck, though Israel earlier stated that its attacks on Friday have targeted over 200 places, including many infrastructure sites.

Washington says it has temporarily waived sanctions on Russian oil stranded at sea as a temporary relief to global oil supply and export instabilities, caused by the US and Israel’s war on Iran, which has expanded to neighbouring Gulf states, responsible for much of the world’s gas and crude production and export.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the temporary measure late on Thursday, allowing countries to buy the Kremlin’s crude, which it had previously sanctioned as part of its efforts to pressure Moscow into ending its war in Ukraine.

Trump administration officials are hoping the measure can restore low prices of oil, which has recently seen prices soar to above $100 a barrel, and a few days earlier, Brent crude spiking to around $120.

“This narrowly tailored, short-term measure applies only to oil already in transit and will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government, which derives the majority of its energy revenue from taxes assessed at the point of extraction,” Bessent claimed.

It comes as Iran continues to target Gulf Arab nations’ energy infrastructure, disrupting production, as well as shipping, as it moved to strike commercial vessels in the chokepoint Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global oil passes.

US President Donald Trump has previously stated that the US Navy will soon be able to escort oil tankers through the tight waterway, and provide it coverage from Iranian attacks.

It’s not yet clear when Washington would be able to securely offer such service, leaving much of the world in a frenzy and rattling global markets. 

Residents in the northern Israeli city of Zarzir heard loud explosions as they ran into a shelter early on Friday morning and emerged to find much of the area in ruins.

Authorities say nearly 60 people were injured in the missile strike on the Arab-Israeli city near the Lebanese border.

Hezbollah said that it fired several rocket salvos towards northern Israel and Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

Residents said missiles from Hezbollah destroyed houses and left people scrambling to help relatives between the rubble.

Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry says the remains of 84 Iranian sailors killed in a US submarine attack on 4 March have been handed over to Iranian representatives for repatriation.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Thushara Rodrigo said Colombo completed the procedure for repatriating the remains of foreigners and handed over the bodies of the crew members from Iranian warship IRIS Dena, which was sunk by a US torpedo attack.

They will be flown to Iran from Hambantota airport in southern Sri Lanka on Friday, added Rodrigo.

Another 32 sailors from IRIS Dena were rescued by Sri Lanka’s navy.

More than 200 Iranian sailors also were brought ashore by Sri Lanka’s navy from a second Iranian warship. The vessels were returning from a naval exercise in India.

Israel issued a strike warning Friday for an area near Tehran University that was hosting the annual Quds Day demonstrations.

The warning showed a strike being possible along Enghelab Street near the university. The area is filled with demonstrators at the moment.

Tehran University is the site of Friday prayers in the city, where demonstrators will gather later at noon.

The warning in Farsi said the Israeli military “will conduct operations in this area in the coming hours.”

“We kindly urge you to immediately evacuate the designated area indicated on the map,” the message said. “Your presence in these areas puts your life at risk.”

Iranian state television aired footage on Friday showing thousands of people taking part in the annual Quds Day celebrations across the country. Quds is the Arabic name of Jerusalem.

Demonstrators chanted “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” while carrying Iranian flags in support of the military forces fighting against the US and Israel.

People joined the rallies in Tehran despite ongoing US-Israeli strikes taking place during the commemoration.

Iran has been marking Quds Day on the last Friday of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan since its 1979 Islamic Revolution.

A building at the Dubai International Financial Centre sustained damage on Friday after what authorities described as a “successful interception” of an incoming Iranian drone.

The building, known as the DIFC Innovation Hub, bore fire damage, with pieces of its facade having reportedly been torn away.

The Dubai Media Office earlier described the incident as “a successful interception.” It did not elaborate on what had been intercepted, nor did it acknowledge the damage done to DIFC.

DIFC is an economic free zone for banks, capital traders and wealth managers, home to exclusive restaurants and nightclubs for the city-state’s elite.

Iran’s joint military command on Wednesday said banks and financial institutions were now a target in the Middle East after an airstrike hit a historic bank in Tehran.

The Israeli military says it has destroyed a bridge on the Litani River in south Lebanon.

The military’s Arabic spokesman, Avichae Adraee, posted on X that the bridge destroyed in the village of Zrariyeh was used by Hezbollah fighters to move between the areas south and north of the river.

The military added that Hezbollah forces near the bridge fired rockets into Israel during the current Israel-Hezbollah war.

In a separate post, Adraee issued immediate evacuation orders to residents of seven settlements across the Lebanese capital’s southern Dahieh neighbourhood, warning of imminent wide-scale Israeli operations.

The area has been a daily target for Israel, which it claims harbours Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters, logistics and command centres and critical infrastructure for the group. 

Israel’s air force struck more than 200 targets in western and central Iran in the past day, the army said.

Fighter jets struck ballistic missile launchers, defence systems and weapon production sites.

The IDF said on Friday it began a wave of strikes targeting infrastructure across Iran.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological arm of the country's military, warned on Friday that any new protests against the authorities would be met with a stronger response than in January, when several thousand people were killed.

"The evil enemy, failing to achieve its field battle goals, is once again pursuing the instillation of fear and street riots," the Guards said in a statement broadcast on state-run broadcasters, promising "a stronger blow than on January 8" in the event of new unrest.

The warning comes two weeks into Iran's war with the United States and Israel in which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says one of the aims is to "create, for the Iranian people, the conditions to bring down" the Iranian government.

US President Donald Trump has also called for Iranians to rise up and overthrow their government.

Sirens wailed early on Friday at Turkey's Incirlik airbase, a key NATO facility where US troops are stationed near the southern city of Adana, state news agency Anadolu reported.

There was no immediate official comment on the incident, which took place four days after NATO air defences shot down a ballistic missile in Turkish airspace that was fired from Iran, the second in five days.

Residents of Adana, which lies 10 kilometres (six miles) from the base, were woken up at 3:25 am local time by sirens, which sounded for around five minutes, according to local media outlets.

It said a red alert sounded at the base.

The Israeli military said it launched a new wave of strikes in Tehran on Friday morning, on the 14th day of its joint campaign with the United States against the Islamic Republic.

"The IDF has just begun a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime across Tehran," the military said.

The Israeli Defence Forces issued a warning on Friday morning that Iranian missiles were detected headed to the country, announcing that air defences actively targeting the fire.

US President Donald Trump issued a new threat online to Iran, writing in a post on his own social media platform, Truth Social: “Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today.”

Trump shared the post on Friday, adding that “Iran’s Navy is gone, their Air Force is no longer, missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth.”

“They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them,” Trump wrote. “What a great honour it is to do so!”

A missile alert sounded on mobile phones of residents in Dubai on Friday morning as authorities warned that air defences were engaging against incoming Iranian fire.

Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry said early on Friday that its air defences had downed 10 more drones headed toward the kingdom’s eastern and central provinces, bringing the total to nearly 50 drones entering Saudi airspace over the span of a few hours on Friday.

The barrage represents a higher-than-usual number of aerial threats for the kingdom, which has seen sites including the US Embassy in Riyadh, oil infrastructure, and a military base hosting US troops targeted as the war in Iran intensifies.

An Israeli strike hit a car in Jnah, a coastal neighbourhood in southwestern Beirut, killing one person, the Lebanese health ministry said early on Friday.

A separate strike targeted an apartment in the Nabaa neighbourhood, leaving it engulfed in flames, according to reports circulating on local media.

Nabaa, on Beirut’s northern outskirts within the densely populated Burj Hammoud district, is home to a sizable Armenian community. No casualties were immediately reported.

It was the first time such an area has been struck in this conflict or during the 2024 war between Hezbollah and Israel.

Following the strikes, the Israeli army said it had targeted a Hezbollah member in Beirut

Both neighbourhoods are far from the southern suburbs of Beirut, which the Israeli military has declared unsafe and issued evacuation notices for.

Israel’s ambulance service said some 58 people were wounded in a missile attack on Zarzir, a city around 100 kilometres north of Jerusalem near the border with Lebanon, amid attacks launched from Iran and its Lebanon-based proxy, Hezbollah.

Officials said one person was in moderate condition and 57 sustained very minor injuries from glass shards.

Footage shared by the ambulance service from the impact site showed damaged cars and scattered debris. The Israeli military said it was operating with emergency services at the scene to clear debris.

Hezbollah said early on Friday that it had fired several rocket salvos toward northern Israel and Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

A French soldier was killed in an attack in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday, confirming the first French military death in the Middle East war.

Since US-Israeli strikes on Iran last month engulfed the Middle East in war, multiple attacks attributed to pro-Iranian factions have targeted the region where foreign forces are based as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition.

The member of the armed forces "died for France during an attack in the Erbil region of Iraq," Macron posted on X, adding that several soldiers were also wounded. He did not say who was behind the attack.

"The war in Iran cannot justify such attacks," Macron said, calling the strike "unacceptable".

Read the full article: 

French soldier killed in Iraq as Iran war fallout spreads

Saudi forces intercepted more than two dozen drones on Friday after renewed Iranian threats against oil facilities, as the regional conflict killed a French so…