23:10 Israel’s strikes on 30 Iranian fuel depots on Saturday went further than the United States expected, sparking concern in Washington that the attacks could backfire strategically, a US official, an Israeli official, and a source familiar with the matter told Axios.
Israeli and US officials told Axios that the Israeli army notified the US military ahead of the strikes, but Washington was surprised by their scale. The Israeli air force attacks triggered large fires in Tehran, with flames visible for miles and heavy smoke blanketing the capital.
The same US official told Axios that Washington fears strikes on infrastructure used by ordinary Iranians could rally public support behind the government in Tehran and drive up global oil prices. “We don't think it was a good idea,” the senior official said.
Iran warned it could retaliate with similar strikes across the region if attacks on its oil infrastructure continue, with one official saying such escalation could push oil prices as high as $200 a barrel.
22:45 US President Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are expected to arrive in Israel on Tuesday for talks as the war continues, according to Channel 12. The planned visit comes as disagreements have emerged between Israel and the United States over the strikes on Iranian oil facilities, Axios reported.
22:00 The US military on Sunday announced that a service member had died after being wounded in Saudi Arabia by an Iranian attack, the seventh American combat death since the war began.
US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees American military forces in the Middle East, said in a statement that the service member died Saturday night "from injuries received during the Iranian regime's initial attacks across the Middle East" on 1 March.
It did not provide further details about the circumstances of the attack and said the service member's identity was being withheld until 24 hours after notification of the person's family.
The six other US service members killed so far were all in Kuwait and also struck in the initial wave of retaliatory attacks from Iran.
20:30 Lebanon's social affairs minister said on Sunday that more than half a million people had been registered as displaced since the outbreak of the new war between Israel and Hezbollah.
In a press briefing, Haneen Sayed said that the total number of people who registered their names on a website affiliated with the ministry reached 517,000, including 117,228 people in government shelters.
20:00 "The governments of Islamic countries are expected to warn the criminal America and the savage Zionist regime of such cowardly, inhumane actions as soon as possible," Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesman for Iran's central military command, told state TV.
"Otherwise, similar measures will be taken in the region, and if you can tolerate oil at more than $200 per barrel, continue this game."
This video grab taken from UGC images posted on social media on March 8, 2026, shows fire erupting at an oil depot in Iran's capital, Tehran. AFP
19:30 A projectile killed two people and injured 12 others in Saudi Arabia’s Al Kharj governorate, south of Riyadh, the kingdom’s civil defence said Sunday.
The agency said an Indian and a Bangladeshi national were killed when an unspecified “military projectile” struck a residential area, according to a statement that did not mention Iran by name.
Al Kharj governorate is home to a massive air base and has been targeted repeatedly over the past week as Tehran struck US assets in the Gulf after Israel and the United States launched a war against the Islamic Republic.
Smoke from the fire at the Tehran Oil Refinery covers the skyline of Tehran on March 8, 2026. AFP
19:15 Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the Iranian people, not US President Donald Trump, will choose their next leader and demanded that Trump apologize for starting the war with Iran.
“We allow nobody to interfere in our domestic affairs. This is up to the Iranian people to elect their new leader,” Araghchi told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Earlier, Trump told ABC News that any future Iranian leader would have to receive approval from the United States.
His comments came as the clerical body responsible for choosing a successor to the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a US-Israeli strike, was reported to have voted and was expected to announce a name soon.
Araghchi declined to comment on who the successor might be. “We have to wait for the Assembly of Experts to convene and vote for the new supreme leader, and the one who is elected by them,” Araghchi told NBC.
In addition to rejecting the idea of the US president guiding Iran’s succession, Araghchi said Trump “should apologize to people of the region and the Iranian people for the killings and destruction they have done against us.”
He defended Iranian attacks that have hit Gulf neighbours during the war, saying the strikes targeted US bases in the region because Iranian missiles cannot reach the United States.
“It is Americans who started this war against us, attacking us, and we are defending ourselves. So it is obvious that our missiles cannot reach the US soil,” Araghchi said.
“What we can do is to attack American bases and American installations around us, which are unfortunately in the soil of our, you know, neighbouring countries.”
18:30 British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump held a call on Sunday about the war in the Middle East, the UK government said in a statement.
The pair discussed the United States' use of British air bases "in support of the collective self-defence of partners in the region," according to Downing Street's readout of the call.
17:00 United States Senator Mark Warner questioned what he says are the Trump administration’s shifting justifications for attacking Iran.
“We have had four different answers as to the reasons for the war,” the Virginia Democrat told Fox News on Sunday.
Warner, the vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, added, “This is a war of choice … There was no imminent threat. There was not even an imminent threat to Israel.”
Warner questioned repeated claims by the Trump administration that the war would be brief and involve no US ground forces. He asked what would happen if mass protests took place in Iran, as Trump has called for, and the Revolutionary Guard responded by violently cracking down on demonstrators.
“That would put an obligation on us that I don’t think Americans want,” he said.
He criticized Trump’s diplomatic approach, saying the president had ignored the warnings of both European and Arab allies to join with Israel and launch a unilateral war.
“We are always better with allies,” Warner said. “Unfortunately, this president has insulted virtually all of our allies.”
16:45 The Israeli military said Sunday that it had struck more than 3,400 targets in Iran and more than 600 in Lebanon since the Middle East war began last week.
The death toll in Iran from attacks carried out by Israel and the United States has risen to 1,332, according to the Iranian Red Crescent. Iranian Red Crescent President Hossein Kolivand said Friday that since the first day of the strikes, 3,464 civilian buildings have been targeted.
In Lebanon, the health minister said 83 children are among the 394 people killed in Israeli strikes over the past week.
16:30 Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is pushing back against US President Donald Trump's comments rejecting mounting evidence that a US airstrike caused an explosion at a school in Iran that killed more than 165 people, most of them children. Without providing any evidence, Trump has accused Iran of being behind the incident.
Araghchi told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “it is funny. It is our school, these are our students and our girls, and they are attacked by an American fighter, a jet fighter, and they have been killed. Why (is) Iran responsible?”
Asked for evidence that it was an American warplane, Araghchi said, “If it was not U.S., then who was that? Maybe Israelis. But who else is attacking us?”
Satellite images, expert analysis, a US official and public information released by the US and Israeli militaries have suggested that the explosion was likely caused by US airstrikes that also hit an adjacent compound associated with the government’s Revolutionary Guard.
16:21 Badr Albusaidi, the foreign minister of Oman, condemned the escalating Israeli-American war on Iran, calling the attacks on Iran immoral and illegal.
“Israel and the United States’ actions against Iran are immoral and illegal,” Albusaidi said, adding that Iran’s retaliation against its neighbours was “deeply regrettable and unacceptable.”
He called on all sides to exercise restraint, implement a ceasefire and urgently return to diplomacy to prevent further escalation in the region.
16:16 Iran IRGC released footage of Kheibar Shekan, Emad, and Ghadr ballistic missile launches toward Israel and US bases in the 28th wave of Operation True Promise 4.
16:07 A spokesperson for the Iranian Armed Forces said that four radars belonging to the US (THAAD) missile defence system were destroyed in the past few hours.
16:00 Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi expressed concerns about the war on Iran and its "grave repercussions, including rising energy prices and disruptions to supply chains and air and maritime traffic."
He warned of the dangers of the conflict expanding, which he said could plunge the entire region into chaos and called for intensified international efforts to stop it.
El-Sisi’s comments came in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron.
15:49 Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says his country is looking for a permanent end to war, not a ceasefire
However, before Tehran might even consider a ceasefire, Araghchi said, “They have to explain why they started this aggression.” Araghch did not specify who he was speaking.
Araghchi also told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “there should be a permanent end to the war, and unless we get to that, I think we need to continue fighting for the sake of our people and our security.”
An Iranian civil defence member walks with a hose next to a destroyed fuel tanker vehicle near an ongoing fire following an overnight airstrike on the Shahran oil refinery in northwestern Tehran on March 8, 2026. AFP
He says the war “was imposed on us” by the United States and Israel, and that “what we are doing is legal acts of self-defence and we have every right to do that.”
15:46 Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian drone experts will be “on site” in the Middle East next week as he seeks US air defence missiles in exchange for drone expertise.
"I think that next week, when the experts are on site, they will look at the situation and help," Zelensky told a press conference.
Zelenskyy said earlier this week that Ukraine is ready to provide drone interceptors in exchange for missiles, though he did not specify which countries could be involved.
He also said that Ukraine is prepared to share its expertise with countries facing Iranian attacks to help protect civilians and oil infrastructure in the Middle East.
"We received a request from the United States for specific support in protection against 'shaheds' in the Middle East region," Zelenskyy said in a statement on Thursday.
Since 2022, Kyiv has developed a complex and multi-layered air defence system against Russian drones, which includes mobile fire groups, often using pickup trucks armed with heavy machine guns, various electronic warfare, and Ukraine’s domestically developed interceptors.
According to Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, over 70 percent of all Shahed-type drones targeting the capital and the Kyiv region were shot down by interceptors in February.
15:31 The UAE foreign ministry said the country does not seek to be drawn into wider conflict or escalation, but “affirms its full right to protect its sovereignty and security.”
“We are in a state of self-defence in the face of the treacherous Iranian aggression,” the Ministry added in a statement.
15:27 Hezbollah claims further attacks on Israel's Haifa naval base.
15:25 The World Food Programme office for the Middle East and North Africa shared testimony from displaced Lebanese women describing the impact of Israeli attacks and the worsening humanitarian crisis.
In a social media post, the agency highlighted the story of Rokaya, a mother from Lebanon who has been forced from her home by the fighting.
“There are no proper facilities. We can’t even wash or shower. My home was my shelter — now it may already be gone,” she said.
15:03 Ahmed Aboul Gheit, secretary-general of the Arab League, condemned "Iran’s escalation against civilian targets and vital facilities in the Gulf," warning that the attacks risk pushing the region toward further instability.
In remarks carried by his office, Aboul Gheit said the targeting of civilian sites and critical infrastructure represented a “dangerous escalation” that Iran should reconsider.
He said that Iranian attacks on several member states were "reckless," urging Tehran to reverse what he called a "massive strategic mistake."
A dark smoke cloud engulfs destroyed vehicles near an ongoing fire following an overnight airstrike on the Shahran oil refinery in northwestern Tehran on March 8, 2026. AFP
14:30 Iran condemned the US-Israeli strikes on energy infrastructure as “chemical warfare.”
Esmaeil Baqaei, head of the Centre for Public Diplomacy and spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the US and Israeli campaign against Iran has entered a “dangerous new phase” with deliberate strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure.
“These attacks on fuel storage facilities amount to nothing less than intentional chemical warfare against the Iranian citizens,” Baqaei said, adding that the strikes release hazardous materials and toxic substances into the air, poisoning civilians, devastating the environment, and endangering lives on a massive scale.
“The consequences of this environmental and humanitarian catastrophe will not be confined within Iran’s borders.”
In a post on X, he described the attacks as “war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide—all at once.”
Baqaei also criticised the strikes for undermining diplomacy and international law, writing that the “unlawful US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran has torpedoed diplomatic efforts, shattered the very foundations of international law, and unleashed a devastating assault on humanity itself.”
He emphasized that Iran is now exercising its “inherent right to self-defence under international law” and warned that silence or indifference in the face of such violations would further erode the credibility of the global legal order and embolden future aggressors.
14:29 At least six people were injured after fragments of Iranian missiles showered down over central Israel, Israeli media reported.
At least 10 explosions were reported over Israel's commercial hub, Tel Aviv, according to AFP, following the Israeli army's announcement that it had detected new missiles launched from Iran.
Recent footage shows the aftermath of the Iranian missile strike in Tel Aviv.
13:55 US-Israeli airstrikes in Iran have damaged about 10,000 civilian structures across the country, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said.
The Red Crescent said the structures include 7,943 residential units and 1,617 commercial units along with several medical and educational facilities.
13:45 Pope Leo XIV prayed that the "roar of bombs" in the Middle East would cease.
News from the region "continues to arouse deep dismay," the US-born pope said at the end of the Angelus prayer.
"Added to the episodes of violence and devastation and the widespread climate of hatred and fear is the fear that the conflict will spread, and that other countries in the region, including beloved Lebanon, may once again sink into instability," he said.
“If states were to be recognized as having a right to ‘preventive war,’ according to their own criteria and without a supranational legal framework, the whole world would risk being set ablaze,” Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin told Vatican Media this week.
13:40 Swiss Defence Minister Martin Pfister said the US and Israel have violated international law with their attacks on Iran.
“The Federal Council believes that the attack on Iran constitutes a violation of international law,” Pfister told Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung, calling on all parties involved to stop the attacks to protect civilians.
13:30 Two other civilians, from Nepal and Bangladesh, have been killed by missile debris in Dubai since the US and Israel launched a war against Iran on 28 February, triggering Iran to respond with missile and drone attacks in the Gulf region.
Earlier, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he is “deeply saddened by the tragic death of two Pakistani nationals in Dubai caused by missile debris.”
13:21 Israel's occupation army announced that two of its soldiers were killed, including one from the engineering corps, after a D9 military bulldozer was struck in southern Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it had launched precision missiles targeting the Haifa naval base in Israel.
The Lebanese resistance group also stated that it carried out a second drone strike toward the northern Israeli city of Nahariya.
13:18 Three Indonesian crew members are missing after the United Arab Emirates-flagged tugboat Mussafah 2 sank in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, Jakarta's foreign ministry said in a statement.
There have been numerous attacks on ships navigating the Strait since the US-Israeli war on Iran started.
The Mussafah 2 had seven crew members from Indonesia, India, and the Philippines, the ministry said, adding that four survived and three others, all Indonesians, were missing.
The UN's International Maritime Organization (IMO) also confirmed the incident but said it resulted in four fatalities and three others severely injured, the body said in a list on its website.
It was unclear why there was a discrepancy between the ministry's tolls and the IMO's.
Before it sank, the boat experienced an explosion that caused it to catch fire, the ministry statement said, adding that an investigation by local authorities was ongoing.
The security firm Vanguard said the tugboat was struck by two missiles while attempting to assist the Malta-flagged container ship Safeen Prestige.
That ship was struck by a missile on Wednesday, Vanguard said in a statement.
One Indonesian survivor was receiving burn treatment at a hospital in the Omani city of Khasab, while local authorities were searching for the other three, the Indonesian ministry said.
Another Indonesian national was at the location of the incident, but now on a different vessel and is currently safe, the statement added.
13:12 Lebanese health ministry says death toll from Israeli strikes rises to 394, including 83 children, while 1,130 others were wounded.
12:57 The United Arab Emirates says Iran has launched 16 ballistic missiles and over 117 drones in new barrages.
The UAE’s Defence Ministry says it intercepted all 16 missiles, while a 17th fell into the sea. It says it intercepted most of the drones, but four fell in UAE territory.
The Emirati statement did not specify the locations of the attacks.
Iran’s president earlier Sunday said to increase attacks on US targets across the region.
12:50 Iran's Revolutionary Guards said that they had launched missiles towards the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Beersheba, as well as an airbase in Jordan.
"The 28th wave of the Operation Honest Promise 4 was launched by the next-generation missiles of the Guards aerospace force against the areas of Beersheva, Tel Aviv, and the Al-Azraq airbase," the Guards said in a statement, according to state TV.
12:03 The body tasked with selecting Iran's new supreme leader, following the assassination of Ali Khamenei by Israel and the US, has reached a decision, members said, although the name has yet to be announced.
"The most suitable candidate, approved by the majority of the Assembly of Experts, has been determined," said Mohsen Heydari, a member of the selection body who represents Khuzestan province, according to Iran's ISNA news agency.
Another member, Mohammad Mehdi Mirbagheri, confirmed in a video carried by Iran's Fars news agency that "a firm opinion reflecting the majority view has been reached."
11:48 Iran’s parliament speaker said oil prices will continue to soar, inflicting pain on the global economy as long as the war in the Middle East goes on.
Oil prices have soared since the US and Israel attacked Iran, reaching their highest levels since 2023.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude jumped 8.5 percent to $92.69 on Friday, up from nearly $70 a barrel just late last week. Meanwhile, benchmark US crude climbed 12.2 percent to $90.90 a barrel on Friday.
“If the war continues like this, there will be neither a way to sell oil nor the ability to produce it,” Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said in a social media post.
He said the war is not only impacting the US, but also the Middle East and the whole world “due to Netanyahu’s delusions."
11:44 US and Israeli strikes in Iran have killed 200 children and around 200 women, the Iranian Health Ministry said.
They are among more than 1,200 people killed in the war, spokesman Hossein Kermanpour said in a social media post.
He said more than 1,000 others, including about 400 women, have been injured since the war started on 28 February.
A woman walks past an image of Iran's slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along a street close to Tajrish Square in Tehran. AFP
11:36 US Air Force B-1 Lancer bombers are seen sitting on the tarmac at RAF Fairford in south-west England early morning.
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer has approved for Washington to use the bases of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and RAF Fairford in south-west England to bomb Iranian missile sites.
Photo by AFP
11:09 Iran's players sang the national anthem and saluted before their last group match at the Women's Asian Cup in Australia.
When Iran faced South Korea on Monday in their opening game, the players stood motionless, two days after the US and Israel began a war against the country.
On Thursday, in their second game against hosts Australia, all the Iranian players saluted and sang the anthem on Queensland's Gold Coast.
Against the Philippines today, they again sang and saluted. Coach Marziyeh Jafari has said her team had "so much concern" about their families as the war raged and that players felt "fully disconnected" from their loved ones.
Photo by AP
10:38 Fuel distribution in the Iranian capital has been "temporarily interrupted" after US and Israeli strikes on oil depots in and near the city, Tehran's governor Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian said.
"Due to damage to the fuel supply network, distribution has been temporarily interrupted," he added, as quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
"The problem is being resolved," he added.
10:32 Air raid sirens sounded across Israel, warning of incoming missiles from Iran.
Israeli army statements said air defences were responding to at least four waves of missiles launched from Iran toward Israel within about five hours.
Retaliatory missile attacks in the war, sparked by US-Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February, have killed 10 people in Israel.
Israeli Ministry of Health says at least 1,929 people have been hospitalized, including 157 in the past 24 hours, since the start of the war.
10:20 Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country "will be forced to respond" to any attack or invasion attempt from a neighbouring country, in remarks aired by state TV.
If Iran's enemies "try to use any country to attack or invade our land, we will be forced to respond to that attack. Responding does not mean we have disputes with that country or wish to harm its people; we would be responding out of necessity," said Pezeshkian.
10:19 The US embassy in Oslo was hit by an explosion in the early hours, but no one was injured, police in the Norwegian capital said, adding the cause was not immediately known.
Public broadcaster NRK quoted police incident commander Michael Dellemyr saying the blast hit the entrance of the embassy's consular section.
"There is minor damage," he said.
10:11 Iran can fight an intense war against the United States and Israel for at least six months, the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement carried by the Fars news agency.
"The Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran are capable of continuing at least a 6-month intense war at the current pace of operations," said Guards spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini, according to Fars.
The Guards, Iran's elite force, also said they had targeted "more than 200" locations related to American and Israeli bases and facilities across the region.
10:10 US President Donald Trump evoked the idea of sending ground troops into Iran, allegedly to secure the country's stockpiles of enriched uranium.
"At some point, maybe we will. That would be a great thing," he told reporters during a briefing aboard Air Force One.
"We haven't gone after it, but it's something we could do later," he said.
Asked about the use of ground troops in general, Trump did not rule it out, saying, "Could there be? Possibly, for a very good reason, it'd have to be a very good reason."
"And I would say if we ever did that, they would be so decimated that they wouldn't be able to fight at the ground level," he said.
10:05 Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said an Iranian drone attack had damaged a water desalination plant, after Tehran accused the United States of striking one of Iran’s desalination plants from a base in Bahrain.
Moreover, falling missile debris injured three people and damaged a university building in Bahrain, the ministry said.
"As a result of the blatant Iranian aggression, 3 people were injured, and material damage was inflicted on a university building in the Muharraq area after missile fragments fell," the ministry said in a statement, referring to an island area northwest of Manama.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait all reported new attacks. Kuwait's national oil company announced a "precautionary" cut to its crude production.
The military said fuel tanks at Kuwait's international airport were targeted in a drone attack.
Saudi Arabia's defence ministry reported intercepting 15 drones, including an attempted attack in the diplomatic quarter of the capital, Riyadh.
The UAE's defence ministry said air defences were responding to "incoming missile and drone threats from Iran."
Qatar's defence ministry said that the country was targeted yesterday by 10 ballistic missiles and two cruise missiles fired from Iran, but most of them were intercepted and caused no casualties.
10:04 Lebanon's health ministry said that an Israeli strike on a hotel in central Beirut killed at least four people and wounded 10 others.
In southern Lebanon, the official National News Agency said at least 12 people were killed in three separate Israeli strikes overnight.
10:00 Explosions hit Iran's central Yazd province, state media reported.
It was not immediately clear what was hit in the strikes, but the official IRNA news agency said the blasts occurred on the periphery of Yazd city.
Earlier explosions were reported in other parts of the country, including the Iranian capital, Tehran, and the central Isfahan province.
Fars news agency reported that Saturday’s US-Israeli strikes hit four oil storage facilities and an oil production transfer centre in Tehran and Alborz. Four tanker drivers in the centre were killed, it reported.
"Last night, four oil depots and a petroleum products transport centre in Tehran and the Alborz were attacked by enemy aircraft," the CEO of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company, Keramat Veyskarami, told state TV.
"Four of our personnel, including two oil tanker drivers, were killed in the incident," he added, saying the facilities were damaged, but the "fire was brought under control."
The Iranian Red Crescent said the oil depot explosions released into the air "significant quantities of toxic hydrocarbon compounds, sulfur, and nitrogen oxides."
"In the event of precipitation, the resulting rain is extremely dangerous and highly acidic," it added in a statement, warning of skin burns and severe lung damage.
The Red Crescent warned people in Tehran to take extra precautions to avoid toxic amounts of pollutants in the air. It advised the public to avoid turning on air conditioners or going outside immediately after rainfall due to concerns about toxic acid rain.
It also encouraged people to protect exposed food and to gargle salt water to clean their throats from oily soot particles they may have inhaled. Tehran’s governor recommended everyone wear masks outside.
The strikes sent up pillars of fire, and the sky over Iran’s capital was blanketed with smoke this morning.
The targeting of Iran's oil infrastructure will deepen global markets' concerns about crude production and exports from the Gulf region, where shipping transport has been effectively halted.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a US airstrike damaged an Iranian desalination plant on Qeshm Island, warning that in doing so “the US set this precedent, not Iran.”
Such infrastructure is critical for drinking water supplies in the parched deserts of the Gulf.
At least 1,230 people have been killed in Iran in the US and Israeli attacks since the war began on 28 February.
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