Iran's drone and missile strikes continue, hit new ground as war spreads

Qatari officials announced early Friday morning local time that their military stopped an Iranian drone targeting the Al Udeid airbase in Doha.

The Qatari Ministry of Defense said in a statement that its defense forces “successfully intercepted a drone attack” targeting Al Udeid, which is the largest U.S. base in the Middle East with about 8,000 to 10,000 U.S. troops.

Qatari’s defense ministry had reported Thursday that the country was targeted by 14 ballistic missiles and four drones from Iran. All but one of the missiles were intercepted, with the remaining missile landing in ocean waters.

The U.S. Embassy in Qatar on Wednesday announced that the State Department had ordered all non-emergency government employees and their families to leave Qatar. The embassy said it was under a shelter-in-place order for all remaining emergency personnel.

“To the extent possible, remain inside your residence, hotel, or another structure, and stay away from windows,” the embassy said.

In the week before an Iranian retaliatory strike that killed six American service members in Kuwait as the U.S.-Israeli war with Tehran began, Iranian intelligence was likely able to identify and track U.S. forces moving off military installations as a part of the Pentagon’s force protection plan.

The troops had moved in anticipation of the preemptive strikes on Iran, according to a U.S. Army Central memo reviewed by CBS News.

Smaller Iranian quad-copter drones were seen flying around the Shuaiba port in Kuwait and were suspected of conducting reconnaissance ahead of the drone strike attack, according to three U.S. military officials, speaking under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media outlets.

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With the war in the Middle East sending oil prices surging, the U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday said it would temporarily lift some of its sanctions to allow India to purchase Russian oil.

According to a license issued by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the lifted sanctions would run through April 4 and only apply to oil that was purchased by an Indian company and delivered and offloaded at an Indian port.

In October, the U.S.placed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, over Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.

Despite those sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putinvisited India in December, during which he and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an economic trade program. Indian officials have said they will abide by international sanctions, The AP reported.

U.S. officials tell CBS News that three American MQ-9 Reaper drones were downed. It’s not clear where exactly the three drones crashed, but one of the Reapers attempted to crash off the coast of Iran.

It was also unclear how they were brought down or by whom.

In a separate incident, another MQ-9 Reaper was shot down at some point over the last few days by what was believed to be friendly fire from the Qataris, the officials said.

United Arab Emirates’ two major carriers, Etihad Airways and Emirates, said they are resuming some flights.

Etihad said in asocial media post that it will resume limited flights Friday between Abu Dhabi “and a number of key destinations.”

Earlier Thursday, Emiratessaid that “with the limited re‑opening of airspace,” Emirates would be “operating a reduced flight schedule until further notice.”

UAE officials had also said Thursday that limited flights had resumed from Zayed International Airport in the UAE’s capital city of Abu Dhabi.

Airspace has been closed acrossmuch of the Gulf region since the war began Saturday, shuttering airports and stranding thousands of flyers. The U.S. has advised Americans in 14 countries in the region to evacuate.

Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told reporters Thursday the next phase of the war with Iran will focus on trying to “systemically dismantle Iran’s missile production capability.”

He said that mission is currently underway but will “take some time.”

Cooper said President Trump has directed the military to “raze or level” Iran’s missile industry.

“We’re not just hitting what they have. We’re destroying their ability to rebuild,” he said.

The torpedo that struck an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean earlier this week was fired by the USS Charlotte, multiple U.S. officials told CBS News on Thursday.

The USS Charlotte, a Los Angeles-class U.S. attack submarine, fired two MK 48 torpedoes at the Iranian warship IRIS Dena, the officials said. The first one missed, but the second one sank the Dena.

When reached by CBS News, the U.S. Navy referred questions to U.S. Central Command, which declined to comment.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegsethwas first to announce Wednesday the attack on the Dena, telling reporters that the Iranian warship “thought it was safe in international waters.”

The U.S. ordered the evacuation of its embassy in Kuwait’s capital of Kuwait City overnight Thursday into Friday local time, CBS News has learned.

The order included requirements that embassy staff destroy sensitive information and wipe classified servers, according to two U.S. officials.

U.S. officials told CBS News the embassy was attacked multiple times.

The State Department previously announced Thursday that it had suspended operations at the embassy.

“While there have been no reported injuries to U.S. personnel, the safety of Americans abroad remains the highest priority,” the State Department said in a statement announcing the suspension.

The evacuation also comes after six U.S. soldiers were killed in an Iranian strike in Kuwait earlier this week.

B-2 bombers dropped “dozens of 2,000-pound penetrators” on targets in Iran on Thursday, targeting deeply buried ballistic missile launchers, Adm. Brad Cooper told reporters Thursday.

Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command, also said Iran’s bomber force has struck nearly 200 targets in the last 72 hours, including targets near the capital of Tehran.

And he said U.S. forces have destroyed 30 Iranian naval vessels, including a large drone carrier.

Iran-based CBS News producer Seyed Bathaei reported Thursday that he heard heavy shelling coming from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard bases in east Tehran and in the city’s border areas.

Bathaei also said he observed Tehran residents moving from eastern to central parts of the city to avoid heavy bombardments from the U.S.-Israeli strikes.

There were reports that the Parchin military base in northeast Tehran was being targeted, Bathaei said.

Unlike the Israel-Iran war in June 2025, Iranian state media is broadcasting limited information about the strikes, albeit with some exaggeration, Bathaei said.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking in Tampa with Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command leading U.S. forces in the Middle East, told reporters Thursday regarding the Iran war, “Our timeline is ours and ours alone to control.”

While Iran is hoping the U.S. cannot sustain its operation against the country, America can “sustain the fight for as long as it takes,” Hegseth said.

He also said the U.S. has “no shortage of munitions.” CBS News reported earlier Thursday that Arab states in the Persian Gulf region are running dangerously low on interceptors to take down Iranian retaliatory attacks.

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Speaking at the White House while honoring the 2025 Major League Soccer champions, the president said the actions the U.S. is taking in Iran will boost the U.S. economy in the “long term.” Gas prices are climbing and the stock market is down since the war began.

“In the long term, the actions we’re taking will dramatically increase the stability of the region and oil prices and stock markets and everything else,” he said. “You know, we set the all-time record in history with the Dow going to 50,000.”

The Dow closed at under 48,000 points — having shed 785 points, or about 1.6% — on Thursday.

At an event at the White House honoring the 2025 Major League Soccer champions, Inter Miami CF, the president said Iran is calling to make a deal, but it’s too late.

“They’re calling, they’re saying, ‘How do we make a deal?’ I said, ‘You’re being a little bit late,'” Mr. Trump said. “We want to fight now more than they do.”

The president said the U.S. military and Israelis continue to “totally demolish the enemy far ahead of schedule.”

“The United States military, together with the wonderful Israeli partners, continues to totally demolish the enemy far ahead of schedule, and at levels that people have never seen before, actually,” he said. “We’re destroying more of Iran’s missiles and drone capability every single hour, knocking them out like nobody thought was possible.”

“Their navy is gone, 24 ships in three days, that’s a lot of ships,” he said. “Their anti-aircraft weapons are gone, so they have no air force, they have no air defense. All of their airplanes are gone. Their communications are gone. Missiles are gone, launchers are gone, about 60% and 64%, respectively. Other than that, they’re doing quite well.”

The House declined to limit President Trump from taking further military action against Iran without congressional support, a day after a similar effort fell short in the Senate.

The measure failed in a 212 to 219 vote, with four Democrats joining all but two Republicans to kill it.

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President Trump said to “forget about” what happens next in Iran after the U.S. destroys its nuclear capabilities.

In a phone interview, ABC News’ Jonathan Karl said he told the president that nobody questions the success of the military operation the U.S. is carrying out against Iran, but the concern is what happens next.

“Forget about next,” the president responded. “They are decimated for a 10-year period before they could build it back.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is scheduled to give a press briefing soon with Admiral Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command leading U.S. forces in the Middle East.

Hegseth is participating in the press conference during a visit to U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa. This is the first time Cooper is giving a press briefing since the campaign began over the weekend.

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The Israeli military said late Thursday it had detected new missiles launched from Iran towards Israel and the country’s defence systems were operating to intercept them.

“A short while ago, the IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel. Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat,” the military said.

The U.S. military has formally designated artificial intelligence firm Anthropic a supply chain risk, a senior Pentagon official and a source directly familiar with the situation told CBS News, a sweeping move that could cut it off from military contracts.

The Trump administration and Anthropic — the only AI company deployed on the Pentagon’s classified networks — are at an impasse over Anthropic’s push for guardrails that would explicitly ban the U.S. military from using its Claude model to conduct mass surveillance on Americans or power fully autonomous weapons. The Pentagon has said it needs the ability to use Claude for “all lawful purposes.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced last week that Anthropic would be cut off from its government contracts and designated a supply chain risk, but Anthropic had not received formal notification of that step until Thursday.

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President Trump told Reuters he’s not concerned about rising gas prices stemming from the conflict with Iran.

“I don’t ‌have any concern about it,” the president said. “They’ll drop very rapidly when this is over, and if they rise, they rise, but this is far more important than having gasoline price go up a little bit.”

Gas prices are on the rise in the U.S. since the war began. The average price of a gallon of gas across the U.S. was $3.25 on Thursday afternoon, according to GasBuddy, up more than 26 cents a gallon from the week before. Prices are expected to continue to rise.

The House is set to vote Thursday on a measure to block President Trump from taking further military action against Iran without congressional support, a day after a similar effort fell short in the Senate.

The war powers vote comes amid concerns that the U.S. could be engaged in another lengthy war in the Middle East, and as a CBS News poll shows the majority of Americans disapprove of U.S. military action against Iran. And further, two-thirds say the administration should obtain approval from Congress for further military action. Barring any last-minute surprises, however, the resolution is expected to meet the same fate in the House as it did in the Senate.

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who has been one of the few Republican critics of the Trump administration’s offensives against Venezuela and Iran, introduced the war powers resolution days before the U.S. bombed three of Iran’s nuclear facilities last June. He backed away from forcing a vote last year after a ceasefire was reached.

The resolution directs the president “to remove United States Armed Forces from unauthorized hostilities in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

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The assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the early hours of the war has raised a simple but enormously consequential question: Who will replace him?

Several names have already surfaced, but the leading contender is Mojtaba Khamenei, the late leader’s second son.

Unlike many figures in Iran’s hierarchy, he has never held elected office. But for years he has operated quietly behind the scenes from within his father’s office, cultivating influence across the security establishment, particularly within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Formally, the decision rests with Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the powerful clerical body tasked with selecting the country’s supreme leader. In practice, however, the outcome will almost certainly emerge from a much smaller circle: senior clerics, the Revolutionary Guard and the security establishment that has long underpinned the Islamic Republic’s power structure.

Read more here.

The State Department said it is suspending operations at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait City.

“While there have been no reported injuries to U.S. personnel, the safety of Americans abroad remains the highest priority of the U.S. Department of State,” the department said in a statement. “U.S. citizens in Kuwait should depart the country, if they can do so safely, using commercial or other available transportation options. U.S. citizens unable to depart should shelter in place.”

The department reiterated calls for U.S. citizens in the country to enroll in the STEP program and call 1-202-501-4444 for assistance.

NATO has “increased its Alliance-wide ballistic missile defence posture” in the wake of the interception of a missile that was heading toward Turkey on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the alliance said.

“This immediate action was taken by the commander of NATO’s Air Command, who further recommended NATO’s ballistic missile defence posture remain at this heightened level until the threat from Iran’s continued indiscriminate attacks across the region subsides,” the spokesperson said, adding that “the adjustment gives the Supreme Allied Commander Europe exactly what he needs to defend the Alliance based upon the current threat and defend it he will!”

“As the world witnessed yesterday, NATO perfectly executed its ballistic missile defence procedures. In less than 10 minutes, NATO service members identified a threat to Allies, a ballistic missile, confirmed its trajectory, alerted land- and sea-based missile defence systems, and launched an interceptor to defeat the threat and protect our territory and its people,” the statement continued. “That is real strength!”

Turkey is a NATO ally, and the missile attack raised questions about whether the alliance would invoke Article V of the NATO charter, which states that a strike against one member should be considered an attack against all.

Israel has been zealous about deconflicting operations with the U.S., especially after multiple friendly-fire incidents during the war in Gaza. The division of labor has largely been Israel targeting Iranian leadership and launchers, while the U.S. hits Iran’s Navy and Revolutionary Guard targets — focusing on southeast Iran, long-range bomber strikes, and keeping the Strait of Hormuz open.

Israel’s original plan was a two week military campaign, Israeli sources said.

Israeli officials now believe the U.S. and Israel have debilitated Iran’s missile capacity by up to 80%. They said Iran has basically lost command and control inside the country, and the regime itself is in such disarray that it might not know how weakened it really is.

These sources said that in the coming days, with full control over Iranian skies, they can spend more time on targeting over Iran, and the U.S. could start sending B-52 bombers and using other significant weapons platforms. They said the U.S. will start picking off means of production and factories — anything having to do with the production of weapons.

The sources reckoned the U.S. is also likely to lean into cyberattacks and some of the technology used in the operation to capture Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.

But these sources were realistic. One acknowledged that “you can’t kill an idea.” They do not expect the regime to fall quickly, easily, or at all, and said that was not part of the original plan.

From the Israeli military perspective, at least, the war is all about degrading Iran’s military capacity to buy enough time to change the regional dynamic and perhaps let another sort of ideology emerge in the region, with the understanding that revolutions often spark periods of reactionary backlash.

Until June 2023, the Israeli government’s Iran portfolio in terms of offensive action — mostly cloak-and-dagger operations, assassinations of key nuclear figures and the aspiration to use long-range weaponry — was in the hands of the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service.

Yoav Gallant, then the country’s defense minister, believed that arrangement was too cumbersome. He decided to fold Mossad’s operations under military intelligence and the Air Force to plan much bigger, much more aggressive offensive action.

So, in June 2023, the Israelis war-gamed the kind of strike that would ultimately take out the ayatollah, according to Israeli sources. They realized it was not possible as long as their airfields were in range of Hezbollah rockets and missiles.

Then, in September 2024, came the pager attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which virtually destroyed the group’s leadership. A month later, Israel struck Iranian and regional air defenses and some weapons manufacturing facilities, which “paved the way” for further attacks, as one official put it.

It was clear that the plan to kneecap Iran’s missile and nuclear capabilities required at the very least U.S. consent and, at best, active U.S. support. That came in June 2025, when U.S. bombers struck three nuclear sites inside Iran.

Last Friday, hours before the strike that launched the current war, Gallant posted on X that “The coming weeks will shape the coming decades in the Middle East.” The first attack was massive and came predominantly from Israeli war planes. The strikes killed more than 40 senior Iranian figures, including the ayatollah, in the span of 40 seconds, sources said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the war was something he had “been hoping to do for 40 years — to strike the terrorist regime squarely in the face.”

“We are also bringing to this campaign the assistance of the United States, my friend, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, the U.S. military,” Netanyahu said. “This combination of forces allows us to do what I promised.”

In an interview with Reuters, the president said he is “all for” the Kurds launching an offensive in Iran.

“I think it’s wonderful that they want to do that, I’d be all for it,” he said. But asked if the U.S. would provide cover or had offered air cover for such an offensive, the president responded, “I can’t tell you that.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Kyiv will send drone experts to the Middle East to help the U.S. and its partners defend against Iran’s Shahed drones, given Ukraine’s experience with countering a modified version used by Russia.

“We received a request from the United States for specific support in protection against ‘shaheds’ in the Middle East region. I gave instructions to provide the necessary means and ensure the presence of Ukrainian specialists who can guarantee the required security,” Zelenskyy said on X. “Ukraine helps partners who help ensure our security and protect the lives of our people.”

In an earlier post on Wednesday, Zelenskyy noted that the “Iranian attack drones are the same ‘shaheds’ that have been striking our cities, villages, and our Ukrainian infrastructure throughout this war.”

During the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Iran supplied Russia with its low-cost Shahed drones, which Russia quickly modified and began producing independently. Russia now produces nearly 5,000 Shahed-type drones per month,according to Ukrainian Major General Viktor Yahun, forcing Ukraine to develop innovative techniques to bring them down.

The key to Ukraine’s air defense is its cost-effective “anti-Shahed interceptor drones,” said Roman Korzh, founder of Ukraine’s Global Drone Academy.

“We were forced to find such a solution. It is effective, it is low budget, and it allows us to create layered air defense systems,” Korzh said, noting that it is unfeasible to use expensive missile interceptors to counter the low-cost drones.

Gulf allies are now learning this lesson themselves. Regional officials told CBS News on Thursday that their missile interceptor stocks are running low just days into the war.

Zelenskyy confirmed at a press briefing Wednesday that Gulf states have already used over 800 Patriot air defense missiles — more than Ukraine has received during four years of war — to defend against Iranian air strikes.

“Everyone can now see that Ukraine’s experience in defense is, in many respects, irreplaceable,” Zelenskyy said in a statement on X. “We are ready to share this experience and help those nations that helped Ukraine this winter and throughout this war.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC News that he is “confident” that the country could withstand a ground invasion.

“No, we are waiting for them,” he said, when asked if he was worried about the use of ground troops. “Because we are confident that we can confront them, and that would be a big disaster for them.”

President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have not ruled out deploying troops within Iran if necessary.

Araghchi added that the regime is not seeking a ceasefire with the U.S. and Israel.

“The fact is that we don’t have any positive experience of negotiating with the United States. You know, especially with this administration. We negotiated twice last year and this year, and then in the middle of negotiations, they attacked us,” the foreign minister said. “So we see no reason why we should engage once again with those who have, who are not honest in negotiation, and they don’t and do not enter into negotiation in good faith.”

As the war between the U.S. and Iran expands with Iranian strikes around the region, concerns have swirled about possible threats on American soil.

Iran has launched attacks on U.S. allies in the Middle East, with the Institute for National Security Studies in Israel saying Thursday that Iran has launched more than 1,600 drones so far at Israel, Jordan, Persian Gulf nations and Cyprus.

On “CBS Mornings,” two former counterterrorism officials and CBS News national security contributors, Sam Vinograd and Joe Zacks, discussed the potential threats to the U.S. and what Americans should know to help protect themselves.

Read more here.

In a new interview with Axios, President Trump said he must be involved in selecting the next leader of Iran, and said the son of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is an “unacceptable” choice.

Mr. Trump said Iranian officials who are working on selecting the next supreme leader are “wasting their time.”

“Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy [Rodriguez] in Venezuela,” Mr. Trump said, referring to the interim president of Venezuela who took power after the U.S. captured Nicolás Maduro.

Axios said the president recognized that Mojtaba Khamenei, the late supreme leader’s son, is the most likely to succeed him. But he told the outlet that “Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me.”

“We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran,” Mr. Trump said.

Iran’s 88-member Assembly of Experts is responsible for choosing the next supreme leader under the country’s constitution. One member said on state TV on Wednesday that the group was close to making a selection.

Earlier this week, Mr. Trump said the worst-case scenario in Iran would be if the next leader is just as bad as the leadership the U.S. took out.

“I guess the worst case would be we do this and then somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person, right?” he said. “That could happen. We don’t want that to happen. That would probably be the worst.”

The Lebanese health ministry said Thursday that 77 people had been killed and more than 500 wounded by Israeli attacks between Monday and Wednesday, as Israel continued its air and ground offensive against the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah.

“The death toll from the Israeli aggression, from dawn on Monday, March 2nd, until midnight on Wednesday, March 4th, had risen to 77 martyrs and 527 wounded,” the Public Health Emergency Operations Center of Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said in a statement.

“In recent hours, hospitals have received more casualties,” the statement said.

Israel’s military said earlier Thursday that its Navy was “targeting Hezbollah’s infrastructure in Lebanon and identifying and intercepting aerial threats launched toward the State of Israel on a daily basis.”

“The Hezbollah terrorist organization chose to attack Israel on behalf of the Iranian regime, and it will bear the consequences of its actions,” the Israel Defense Forces said.

Israel ordered all Lebanese residents south of the Litani river — a vast portion of the country’s south home to some 200,000 people before the war — to evacuate northward as it continued its offensive on Wednesday. It added several parts of the capital Beirut to its evacuation orders on Thursday.

The U.S. State Department, under pressure from frustrated Americans stranded in the Middle East, said Thursday that it had “assisted over 10,000 Americans abroad, including offering security guidance and travel assistance.”

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Dylan Johnson said in a statement that a total of almost 20,000 Americans had “safely returned to the United States from the Middle East” since the war began, but it was unclear how many of them managed to do so with any help from the U.S. government.

Johnson said the figures he presented on Thursday did not include “many Americans who have safely relocated to other countries or those who have departed the Middle East but are still in transit back to the United States.”

He added that U.S. government “charter flight and ground transportation operations are underway and will continue to ramp up with additional flights and ground transports taking place today,” and he urged U.S. nationals in Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Israel to fill out a Crisis Intake Form to receive further information.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called his counterpart in neighboring Azerbaijan on Thursday and expressed regret for drone strikes that injured two people earlier in the day, but he denied the drones were part of Iran’s widespread retaliatory attacks and blamed them on Israel.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev accused Iran of “a groundless act of terror and aggression” with the strikes, which struck an airport and near a school earlier in the day, wounding two people, according to the Azerbaijani foreign ministry.

Aliyev said he’d ordered the Azerbaijani military to prepare and take retaliatory measures.

Araghchi told Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov that Tehran wished to expand relations with its neighbor “in all fields” during their phone call, according to a statement from the Iranian foreign ministry.

Referring to the explosions in Azerbaijan, Araghchi “denied any launching of projectiles toward that republic from Iran and stated that the Iranian armed forces are conducting the necessary investigations in this regard. He particularly pointed to the role of the Israeli regime in such attacks to mislead public opinion and undermine Iran’s good relations with its neighbors, noting that other similar incidents have occurred in recent days,” according to Tehran’s readout of the call.

Araghchi has said repeatedly that Iran is only targeting U.S. and Israeli interests in the Middle East, but it has infuriated many of its neighbors this week, including Gulf states that had maintained close ties and helped facilitate negotiations with the U.S., with a seemingly indiscriminate and deadly barrage of missiles and drones.

Azerbaijan closed part of its southern airspace later Thursday, along its shared border with Iran, and said it would remain off limits to aircraft for at least 12 hours.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth didn’t discuss Iran in a speech he delivered to leaders of mostly Latin American nations at an inaugural Americas Counter Cartel Conference in Doral, Florida. The conference is taking place at U.S. military’s Southern Command Headquarters.

Hegseth spoke repeatedly about the importance of being willing to go on the “offense,” even alone, when necessary. The defense secretary lambasted “uncontrolled mass migration” leading to “unchecked violence,” as well as “globalism” and erasing borders in the name of “compassion,” urging leaders to spend more to crack down on crime and secure their borders.

“We will make the Americas great again,” he said.

President Trump is scheduled to travel to Florida this weekend to meet with the heads of state of Latin American countries. The president’s national security strategy focuses on the Western Hemisphere.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters in London on Thursday that the storied “special relationship” forged between the U.K. and the U.S. during World War II was still intact, despite sharp criticism leveled by President Trump earlier this week.

“We’re sharing intelligence on a 24/7 basis in the usual way. That is the special relationship. That is the special relationship in operation,” Starmer said.

Mr. Trump told Britain’s Sun tabloid newspaper this week that Starmer had taken a “not helpful” stance on the war with Iran, and that the relationship between the two close allies was “not like it used to be.”

The critique from Mr. Trump appeared to stem from Starmer declining to give the U.S. military permission to use British bases for offensive operations in Iran, thought he has permitted the use of several bases for “defensive purposes.”

On Monday, Starmer told U.K. lawmakers “the lessons of history have taught us that it is important when we make decisions like this, that we establish there is a lawful basis for what the United Kingdom is doing. That is one of the lessons from Iraq, and that there’s a viable thought-through plan with an objective that can be achieved or has a viable prospect of being achieved. That is the principle that I applied to the decisions that I made over the weekend.”

On Thursday, Starmer announced that the U.K. would send four more Typhoon fighter jets to Qatar to help the country defend against Iranian missile and drone attacks, “responding to requests,” he said, from Britain’s allies.

The United Nations’ International Maritime Organization says about 20,000 seafarers and 15,000 cruise ship passengers are stranded in the Persian Gulf due to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

In a statement, the IMO’s secretary general Arsenio Dominguez said the agency stood “ready to work with all stakeholders to help ensure the safety and well-being of the seafarers affected.”

“I urge all shipping companies to exercise maximum caution. Where possible, vessels should avoid transiting the affected region until conditions improve,” Dominguez said, adding that the IMO would “continue working closely with Member States and partners to support safe navigation and to uphold the principle that civilian mariners must never be harmed.”

The British newspaper Manchester Evening News said Thursday that there were at least six cruise ships stuck in ports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, which has been targeted repeatedly by Iranian drones and missiles.

The U.S. military’s Central Command said Thursday that ongoing U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran were taking a severe toll on the Islamic Republic’s ability to launch retaliatory attacks, as those attacks continued with new strikes targeting Gulf states and, for the first time, hitting Iran’s neighbor Azerbaijan.

“The Iranian regime’s ability to impact U.S. forces and regional partners is rapidly declining, while American combat power continues to build,” the CENTCOM social media post said, accompanied by clips of video showing apparent strikes against Iranian military assets.

Ten people believed to be Iranian agents were arrested earlier this week in Qatar on suspicion of planning attacks, the Gulf state’s official press agency said.

“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 Qatar News Agency said Tuesday.

Concern about possible sleeper cells and radicalization within Shiite Muslim populations has increased in some countries in the region, including Bahrain.

Arab states in the Persian Gulf are running dangerously low on interceptors to take down Iranian-fired missiles, two regional officials told CBS News on Thursday.

Governments in the region have asked the U.S. to expedite new supplies, and they’ve been told that officials in Washington are creating a task force to do so — but it isn’t happening as fast as needed.

The hundreds of drones launched by Iran are an added complication. The officials speculated that Iran was intentionally hitting Arab states to get them to pressure the Trump administration to end the war.

In a statement provided to CBS News on Thursday night, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said that “Iran’s retaliatory ballistic missile attacks” had decreased by 90% because the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes were “crushing” Iran’s “ability to shoot these weapons or produce more.”

“President Trump is in close contact with all of our regional partners, and the terrorist Iranian regime’s attacks on its neighbors prove how imperative it was that President Trump eliminate this threat to our country and our allies,” Kelly said.

On Wednesday, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, pushed back on supply concerns and told reporters at the Pentagon that there were sufficient “precision munitions for the task at hand, both on the offense and defense.”

Three regional officials also said communication with Washington was challenging as, despite being more than a year into his term, President Trump has not sent ambassadors to many of the countries.

Lebanon, Jordan and Qatar do have ambassadors, but due to lack of nominations or slow-moving confirmations, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait are among the Gulf states without an ambassador-level U.S. envoy in their capitals, forcing them to rely instead on lower-level diplomats.

Read more here.

In an interview aired Thursday by Iranian state TV, the deputy head of Iran’s central military command, Major General Amir Haidari, declared the embattled Islamic Republic unrelenting and unready to yield in the face of the six-day U.S.-Israeli assault.

“We will only end this war when we feel we have achieved our objectives and made you regret and despair over your shameful actions,” said Haidari. “Rest assured, time means very little to us; we will not falter or be unable to continue.”

Haidari said the Hazrat Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters, Iran’s combined military command, of which he is the deputy commander, was directing and planning all operations in coordination with the Iranian Army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“We will not stop this war,” insisted Haidari. “It does not matter to us how many days it takes. We are ready.”

The Iranian Martyrs’ and Veterans’ Affairs Organization, a government agency responsible for supporting the families of people killed in service to the nation, said Thursday that as of the previous day, at least 1,230 people had been killed by U.S. and Israeli strikes on the country.

The previous death toll given by Iranian officials was just under 1,000.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said that according to its data, as of Wednesday, civilian deaths in Iran stood “at 1,114, including 181 children,” with another 926 reported deaths “under review pending verification and classification.”

Qatar Airways says it will offer “a limited number relief flights” from two Persian Gulf airports starting Thursday, “to support passengers who are stranded due to the current situation across the region.”

The Qatari airline said its normal operations would remain suspended due to the closure of Qatar’s airspace, which, along with the rest of the Persian Gulf, has been inundated by hundreds of Iranian drones and missiles fired in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli assault launched Saturday.

The limited evacuation flights beginning Thursday included departures from two Gulf airports, with planes leaving Oman’s capital Muscat for London, Berlin, Copenhagen, Madrid, Rome, and Amsterdam, and more departing from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to Frankfurt in Germany.

“Please ensure your contact details are up to date so we can reach you with flight information and instructions. Details can be updated at qatarairways.com or through the Qatar Airways mobile app,” the airline said in its social media post.

It said normal operations in Doha would resume, “once the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority announces the safe reopening of Qatari airspace,” adding that “a further update” would be provided on Friday.

The Trump administration, after taking criticism for offering little help to thousands of Americans stranded in the region by the war, said Wednesday that it was working on “a series of options” to get people home.

The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Defense said halfa dozen missiles and 126 drones were intercepted as they targeted the Gulf state on Thursday alone, after Iran vowed to step up its attacks across the region in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli war launched on Saturday.

“UAE air defenses deal with 6 ballistic missiles and 131 drones. Today (March 5, 2026), UAE air defenses detected seven ballistic missiles, six of which were intercepted and destroyed, while one ballistic missile fell inside the country’s territory. They also detected 131 drones, 125 of which were intercepted,” the defense ministry said in a social media post.

Earlier Thursday, the government of the UAE’s capital Abu Dhabi said six people were injured by falling debris when drones were intercepted. Their injuries were not described as serious.

The private Institute for National Security Studies in Israel has offered a range of figures that highlight the scale of the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. According to the INSS, Iran has launched more than 1,600 drones at Israel, Jordan, Persian Gulf nations, and Cyprus:

Launches from Iran at:

• Israel: Approximately 200 missiles and more than 120 UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)
• UAE: 941 UAVs, 189 ballistic missiles, and 8 cruise missiles
• Bahrain: 92 UAVs and 74 missiles
• Qatar: 41 UAVs and 112 missiles
• Jordan: 36 UAVs and 13 missiles
• Oman: 5 UAVs, 3 missiles (Gulf of Oman)
• Kuwait: 178 ballistic missiles, 384 UAVs
• Cyprus: 2 missiles, 3 UAVs
• Iraqi Kurdistan: 70 missiles and UAVs
• Saudi Arabia: 14 UAVs, 5 cruise missiles
• Turkey: 1 missile

Launches from Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based:

• Israel: 27 UAVs and 35 rockets
• Cyprus: 6 UAVs

The INSS said the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran had, as of Thursday, included at least 11 waves of attacks against some 600 targets. The joint strikes saw Israel fire some 5,000 munitions while the U.S. had used more than 2,000.

The latest casualty figures cited by the institute, which is affiliated with Tel Aviv University, said at least 1,097 people had been killed in Iran, citing data provided by the U.S.-based activist organization HRANA. INSS noted that at least 87 Iranian sailors were reportedly killed in a U.S. torpedo strike against an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday, off the coast of Sri Lanka.

In the Gulf region, INSS said casualty figures include:

• Israel: 13 killed (including 3 from related medical issues, not direct fire); 1,524 wounded
• United States: 6 killed, 18 wounded
• Lebanon: 72 killed, 347 wounded
• Iraq: 11 killed, 8 wounded
• Syria: 5 killed, 7 wounded
• Kuwait: 4 killed, 35 wounded
• UAE: 3 killed, 68 wounded
• Oman: 3 killed, 4 wounded
• Bahrain: 2 killed, 8 wounded
• Qatar: approximately 20 wounded
• Jordan: 5 wounded

CBS News has not independently verified all of the INSS data, which the organization says is based on constant monitoring of “intelligence assessments, open-source information, and media reports.”

Residents of the British enclave of Akrotiri, on the Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, were reportedly ordered to shelter in place Thursday as authorities warned of an ongoing security threat.

The U.K. has a sovereign military base in Akrotiri, which it has granted the U.S. use of for “defensive purposes” amid the ongoing war with Iran, that has already been targeted at least twice by missiles or drones since the conflict began.

According to the Cypriot news outlet in-cyprus, an alert sounded Thursday and residents were instructed to remain in place until further official notification, and to move away from windows and take shelter behind or underneath sturdy furniture. The Cypriot government later announced that no threat was detected, in-cyprus said.

A runway on the British Akrotiri base sustained damage on Monday from a suspected Iranian drone strike, though there were unconfirmed reports on Thursday that it could have been launched from Lebanon, where the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah is based.

Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands were set to deploy naval assets to Cyprus following the drone strikes, the Reuters news agency cited Italian Defense Minister Guido Crusto as saying Thursday.

Six people were hurt Thursday as debris fell to the ground from drone interceptions, the government of the United Arab Emirates’ capital Abu Dhabi said Thursday.

Iran has launched dozens of rounds of missiles and drones at countries across the Persian Gulf in retaliation for the ongoing U.S.-Israeli attacks which began on Saturday.

“Abu Dhabi authorities have responded to an incident of debris falling in two locations,” the Abu Dhabi Media Office said in a statement shared on social media, adding that “following the successful interception of drones by air defense systems” six Pakistani and Nepali nationals sustained minor or moderate injuries.

According to data compiled by the private Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, Iran has launched 941 drones, 189 ballistic missiles and 8 cruise missiles at the UAE since the war began on Saturday. The vast majority of the weapons have been intercepted.

The administration of the United Arab Emirates’ capital Abu Dhabi said Thursday that limited flights had resumed from its major airport — offering hope for thousands of people stranded by the shutdown of aviation hubs across the Persian Gulf due to the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

In a statement, Abu Dhabi authorities said Zayed International Airport had “resumed limited flight operations following a period of disruption in a significant display of resilience from Abu Dhabi’s ecosystem.”

“Efforts were conducted over the past few days under strict coordination on safety protocols and in close cross-sector collaboration to ensure comprehensive support. This unified response included the provision of more than 4,300 complimentary hotel rooms across 74 hotels for approximately 7,000 passengers, ensuring those affected by scheduling changes were accommodated in comfort,” the official Abu Dhabi Media Office said in its statement.

“Passengers holding confirmed tickets are requested to contact their airlines for the latest flight schedules and are urged to travel to the airport only after receiving specific guidance on when to arrive at AUH for departure,” the statement said.

Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said Iranian drones hit an airport terminal and a school building on Thursday, warning that it reserved “the right to take appropriate retaliatory measures” against its southern neighbor.

It was the first impact reported by Azerbaijan amid the widening war sparked by the joint U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran on Saturday.

“One drone crashed into the terminal building of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic Airport, and another drone crashed near a school building in the village of Shekarabad,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“We strongly condemn these drone attacks carried out from the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which resulted in damage to the airport building and the injury of two civilians,” the ministry said, demanding that “Iran clarify the above issue within a short period of time, provide an explanation, and take the necessary and urgent measures to prevent such incidents from recurring in the future.”

“The Azerbaijani side reserves the right to take appropriate retaliatory measures,” it said, adding that Iran’s top diplomat in the country had been summoned.

Iran’s official state news agency Fars quoted a commander of the country’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as saying Thursday that the coming days would bring “more intense and widespread” attacks by the Islamic Republic.

Iranian state television aired a message earlier in the day from an ayatollah in Iran calling for the “shedding” of blood from Israelis and President Trump.

The message from Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli represented one of the few statements from Iran’s powerful Islamic clerics since the war began.

“We are now on the verge of a great test and we must be careful to fully preserve this unity, to fully preserve this alliance,” Amoli said, adding a call for “the shedding of Zionist blood, the shedding of Trump’s blood.”

Israel’s airspace reopened for limited incoming flights Thursday after being closed since the joint U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began.

Under the phased plan, one passenger flight per hour will be allowed in the first 24 hours, totaling about 5,000 people, with more later depending on security.

Outgoing commercial flights are still prohibited.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claimed an attack Thursday on an American oil tanker in the northern reaches of the Persian Gulf, but it appears to have been a Bahamas-flagged ship that reported a possible sea-drone strike.

Maritime security agencies including Vanguard said the attack claimed by Iran was likely against the Sonangol Namibe, which was tracked off the coast of Kuwait on Thursday.

The company that operates the oil tanker, Sonangol Marine Services, told CBS News in a statement on Thursday that it was “approached by an unknown small vessel while anchored near Khor Al Zubair, Iraq” early on Thursday, “and a short time later a loud bang was heard.”

“All 23 crew members are safe and accounted for and have mustered inside the ship. The crew reports that a port ballast tank is losing water which suggests some form of hull breach but the ship remains stable and safely afloat. The ship was in ballast with no cargo on board and there currently are no reports of any pollution,” the company said.

The British maritime security agency UKMTO earlier reported an explosion off the port side of the tanker, which lines up with information provided by the Namibe’s operators. Public tracking data showed the tanker near the Iraq-Kuwait border in the far northern Persian Gulf.

CBS News has obtained satellite imagery showing the site of a school in Minab, southern Iran, where Iranian officials say a U.S. or Israeli strike killed as many as 175 people over the weekend, many of them schoolgirls.

CBS News had previously confirmed that the building was located in close proximity to two sites controlled by the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including the IRGC’s Seyyed Al-Shohada Barracks.

Analysis of images shared by Planet Labs shows the school was not the only building damaged at the site. Imagery captured four days after the purported Feb. 28 strike shows another collapsed building more clearly within the IRGC site, and a hole in the roof of another building, as well as rubble in the area.

Neither the U.S. nor Israel has said it was behind the strike. An Israel Defense Forces spokesman told CBS News earlier in the week that the IDF had not “found any connection to our operations.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the Pentagon was investigating.

“Mr. Trump! Was this the hymn you composed for freedom in Iran?!,” Ali Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, raged in a social media post on Thursday, condemning what he called “the mass martyrdom of innocent girls in Minab at a school by Israeli–American criminals.”

The Israeli military said it launched targeted attacks in Lebanon at the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, along with a “large-scale wave of strikes against infrastructure” in Iran’s capital, without elaborating.

Explosions were heard in multiple locations in Tehran a short time later.

CBS/AP

The Senate defeated a war powers resolution that sought to block President Trump from using further military force against Iran, rejecting a Democratic push to rebuke the president amid the administration’s shifting justifications for the war and warnings about more American casualties to come.

The measure was voted down 47-53.

Read more here.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Wednesday that Israel and the U.S. did not have “much of a choice” but to “take action” and strike Iran.

In an interview with “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil, Herzog said there were concerns that Iran was going to expand its weapons arsenal, and that the U.S. and Israel believed Iran had “another new secret plan to rush” to develop a nuclear weapon.

“When you know that they have invested all their nation’s resources and money in creating havoc in the Middle East as you try to make peace with Muslim countries,” Herzog said. “When you know that they have another new secret plan to rush to the bomb, you have to take action.”

The U.S. intelligence community assessed last year that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon, and the U.S. and Israel haven’t provided evidence of a new plan to develop nuclear bombs. Iran has long insisted its uranium enrichment program is only intended for peaceful purposes, though it enriches well beyond the level needed for non-weapons uses.

Herzog also said that Israel is not calling for a ground invasion of the country.

“Let me be clear, I’m not calling on any boots on the ground. I’m not asking any American or anyone else,” Herzog said.

Read more here.