A US flag flutters in the wind as the CHIOS crude oil tanker sits anchored off the coast of the Chevron's El Segundo Refinery in El Segundo, California
Image: PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP
Here are the latest main events related to the war in the Middle East:
Iranian news agency Tasnim reported that several explosions were heard in Tehran on Thursday morning.
It said the country had activated its defences in response.
Iran launched a fresh round of missiles at Israel earlier Thursday, triggering alerts in several areas including Tel Aviv, according to the Israeli military and Tehran's state media.
Explosions were heard in Jerusalem after warnings of incoming Iranian missile fire, according to AFP journalists, but Israel's emergency services said there were no known casualties.
An air strike hit the Hezbollah stronghold of south Beirut early Thursday, after Israel had issued a warning to residents.
Elsewhere, three people were killed in a pair of Israeli strikes on vehicles along Beirut's airport highway, Lebanon's health ministry said.
A tanker was hit by a "large explosion" in the waters off Kuwait, causing an oil spill, British maritime security agency UKMTO said.
"The Master of a tanker at anchor, reports witnessing and hearing a large explosion on the port side then seeing a small craft leave the vicinity" off the Gulf state's Mubarak Al-Kabeer area, the agency posted on X.
Qatar has begun evacuating residents of its capital living near the US embassy as a precautionary measure, the interior ministry said, after Iranian strikes.
A ballistic missile launched from Iran and heading towards Turkish airspace via Iraq and Syria was destroyed by NATO air defense systems, Turkish officials said.
The defense ministry did not specify the missile's intended target, but the foreign ministry summoned Iran's ambassador.
A Turkish official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the missile had been "aimed at a base in Greek Cyprus but veered off course".
President Donald Trump hailed the US performance in the war, saying Iran's leaders were rapidly being killed, and vowing to push on.
"We're doing well on the war front, to put it mildly. Somebody said on a scale of 10, where would you rate it? I said about a 15," Trump told a gathering of tech bosses.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said that Israel and Washington had made "historic gains" in the war.
The US Senate rejected a bipartisan resolution aimed at curbing Trump's authority to continue military strikes on Iran, in a narrow congressional show of support for a conflict launched without explicit approval from lawmakers.
With Republicans holding a 53–47 majority in the upper chamber of Congress, the resolution fell short by exactly that margin.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that he couldn't "rule out participation" in the escalating war.
"We will stand by our allies," he said alongside local counterpart Anthony Albanese in Canberra.
Spain doubled down on its opposition to Washington's use of its bases against Iran, after Trump's threats of trade reprisals.
The White House said Madrid had now agreed to cooperate, but Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said its stance on "bases, on the war in the Middle East, on the bombardment of Iran, has not changed at all."
China will send a special envoy to mediate in the Middle East, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.
Beijing is a close partner of Iran and has said it backs Tehran in defending its sovereignty, while urging the United States and Israel to cease their attacks.
Qatar's PM Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani lambasted Iran's foreign minister during a call, accusing Tehran of trying to drag their neighbors into war.
Danish shipping giant Maersk and Germany's Hapag-Lloyd said they were suspending bookings in the Gulf until further notice following a risk assessment, after China's Cosco announced a similar halt.
Oil prices had risen as Iran warns vessels against using the narrow Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes and crucial for oil tankers, in the Gulf.
The Omani navy rescued 24 crew members of a container ship struck by missiles in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian forces claimed "complete control" of the strait a day after Trump said the US Navy was ready to escort tankers through the channel.
A US submarine torpedoed and sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka.
"We have collected 87 bodies," a Sri Lankan navy official told AFP.
AFP