Compiled from news service reports
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that the United States sank an enemy ship by torpedo in the war with Iran, the first such sinking since World War II.
He told reporters during a news briefing at the Pentagon that the sinking took place off the southern coast of Sri Lanka.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine said it was an “incredible demonstration of America’s global reach.”
“To hunt, to find and kill an out-of-area deployer is something that only the United States can do at this type of scale,” he said.
Regarding Iran’s position in the war, Hegseth said that only four days into the conflict, “they are toast, and they know it.”
“We have only just begun to hunt, dismantle, demoralize, destroy and defeat their capabilities just four days in. … America fights to win, and in Operation Epic Fury, we are. May God’s providence cover and protect our troops,” he said.
The U.S. military has sunk or struck 20 ships belonging to the Iranian regime since the start of the war with Iran.
Other updates from the war with Iran include the following:
Arab League chief urges Iran to stop strikes in region
Arab League Chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit demanded Iran stop its attacks on Gulf nations.
“Iran must come to its senses,” Gheit said in a statement.
Gheit suggested the regime was making a “strategic mistake” by striking countries in the region and said the strikes added an “unprecedented state of hostility.”
Trump: Iran was ‘two weeks’ from having nuclear weapon
President Donald Trump suggested Iran was two weeks away from having a nuclear weapon.
“If we didn’t hit within two weeks, they would have had a nuclear weapon,” Trump said during a roundtable at the White House.
If the U.S. had not sent in B-2 stealth bombers to strike three sites Iran was using to enrich uranium in June 2025, “they would have a nuclear weapon,” Trump reiterated.
“When crazy people have nuclear weapons, bad things happen.”
UN: 100,000 people fled Tehran in first 2 days of war
The United Nations’ Refugee Agency updated its “Middle East Situation” report Wednesday, estimating that 100,000 people fled Iran’s capital city in the first two days of the war.
Tehran has an estimated population of roughly 9.8 million people.
Approximately 1,000 to 2,000 vehicles were reported departing Tehran each day, moving mostly toward northern Iran. There was no indication of an increase in cross-border movements.
An estimated 275,400 people have been displaced in the Middle East since war broke out, the report found, with the most displacements occurring in Afghanistan, Iran and Lebanon.
“Intensifying violence across the Middle East and beyond has already triggered significant population movement,” UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch said on X.
2 soldiers wounded in Lebanon become first Israeli casualties in Iran War
Two Israeli service members were wounded Wednesday by anti-tank fire during operations in southern Lebanon, according to the Israeli military.
Hezbollah said it attacked Israeli troops that were nearing the village of Khiyam and issued a video of a missile hitting a tank.
On Tuesday, Israel said its troops were advancing farther into Lebanon to secure “forward defensive positions” to safeguard northern Israel.
Spain disputes White House claim it will cooperate with US
Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares denied a statement made by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt that his nation would cooperate with U.S. forces, after all.
“I can refute [the White House spokesperson],” Albares told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser. “The position of the Spanish government regarding the war in the Middle East, the bombing of Iran and the use of our bases has not changed one iota.”
His response came hours after Leavitt suggested that Spain, which has refused to allow U.S. forces to use its bases in support of Operation Epic Fury against Iran’s Islamic regime, had decided to cooperate after Trump threatened to “cut off all trade with Spain.”
Trump to attend dignified transfer of fallen US service members
Leavitt said the president is planning to attend the dignified transfer of the six U.S. service members who have been killed so far in the war with Iran. She said Trump intends to “stand in grief alongside their families.”
The Pentagon is working on scheduling the transfer, and the administration will offer updates at “the appropriate time,” she said.
Leavitt: US will soon announce additional measures to evacuate Americans
Leavitt was asked during a press briefing on Wednesday whether the administration should have done more to try to evacuate U.S. citizens from the Middle East before the president decided to strike Iran last week.
Leavitt said a series of travel advisories issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio since mid-January were sufficient to warn Americans to evacuate more than a dozen Middle Eastern nations that have since been impacted by the ongoing war.
“You can’t be much more clear than that: Do not travel to these following countries,” she said.
Some estimates suggest there are anywhere between 500,000 and more than 1 million U.S. citizens living in the Middle East. The State Department has already evacuated more than 17,500 Americans since the war began.
Leavitt said the administration is “actively and rapidly working to charter flights” and will announce additional measures in the coming days to evacuate more Americans from the region.
Merz: Germany ‘on the same page’ with US
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz met with Trump at the White House on Tuesday, with the U.S. leader saying Berlin is aligned with Washington on the ongoing war with Iran.
“We are on the same page in terms of getting this terrible regime in Tehran away,” Merz said during the meeting.
“Tough times call for strong partnerships,” Merz wrote in a Tuesday post on X after the talks.
US military planes transporting Americans from Middle East
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Wednesday that the U.S. military is helping Americans to flee the Middle East after the U.S. State Department warned citizens that they need to leave roughly a dozen countries in the region as strikes on Iran continue.
“We’ve also opened up space available, seats, as C-17s and other airplanes come in to try to help folks get out,” Caine told a news conference on Wednesday morning, referring to Boeing C-17 Globemasters, a heavy military transport aircraft.
During the news conference, Hegseth said that the U.S. military operation would be “accelerating, not decelerating” its strikes against Iran and indicated that more assets would be sent to the region.
This week, the State Department urged U.S. citizens to leave countries and territories, including Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
Turkey-bound missile intercepted
NATO defense systems intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Iran as it headed toward Turkey’s airspace, the Turkish Ministry of National Defense said on Wednesday.
“Every step taken to defend our territory and airspace will be taken resolutely and without hesitation,” the defense ministry said. “We remind all parties that we reserve the right to respond to any hostile actions against our country.”
Container Ship Hit by Projectile in Hormuz
A container ship has been hit by an unknown projectile north of Oman, while transiting eastbound in the Strait of Hormuz, the UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre said on Wednesday.
It said the ship reported being hit just above the water line, causing a fire in the engine room.
The crew abandoned the vessel and all were accounted for with no reported injuries. No environmental impact was reported.
Maltese media identified the ship as Malta-flagged container ship Safeen Prestige. The vessel departed from Ghantoot, the United Arab Emirates, on Wednesday, heading to Jeddah Port in Saudi Arabia, according to global ship-tracking website MarineTraffic.
Pentagon: Iran firing fewer missiles than at start of war
Iran has reduced the number of missiles it is launching compared to the beginning of the war, according to Caine.
Caine said that Iran’s military capabilities have been significantly weakened as the U.S. military broadens its campaign inside the country.
“We will now begin to expand inland, striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory and creating additional freedom of maneuver for U.S. forces,” he said.
Hegseth: Iranian official who plotted to assassinate Trump killed
Hegseth said on Wednesday that the leader of an Iranian unit who allegedly made an assassination attempt on Trump has been “hunted down and killed.”
Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon that Iran “tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh.”
Senior Israeli security officials said that Israel has eliminated Rahman Moghadam, the alleged head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Special Operations Division.
Moghadam was allegedly behind a 2024 assassination attempt on Trump, the officials said.
Hegseth said at the same briefing that the United States and Israel will soon have complete control of Iranian airspace.
“Starting last night and to be completed in a few days, in under a week, the two most powerful air forces in the world will have complete control of Iranian skies, uncontested airspace,” he told reporters during a press conference at the Pentagon.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a Wednesday post on X that anyone appointed to replace deceased Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “will be an unequivocal target for elimination.”
“[Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] and I have instructed the IDF to prepare and act by all means to carry out the mission as an integral part of the objectives of Operation Roaring Lion,” Katz said, using the name for the Israeli operation being conducted alongside the U.S. Operation Epic Fury.
On Tuesday, Israel targeted a building associated with Iran’s Assembly of Experts, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency. According to Tasnim, the building was empty at the time.
The Assembly of Experts is an 88-member assembly tasked with selecting a new so-called supreme leader, after 86-year-old Khamenei was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday.
Khamenei ruled Iran for 37 years, succeeding Ruhollah Khomeini, who served as the first supreme leader following the 1979 Islamic Revolution until his death in 1989.
The supreme leader has the final say on all major decisions in Iran, including on war and the country’s nuclear program.
Contenders to replace him include Mojtaba Khamenei, the former leader’s son. Mojtaba Khamenei is a mid-level Shiite cleric who has strong ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. He has never held office, and his selection could prove difficult as the Islamic Republic has long criticized hereditary rule.
Victoria Friedman, Jackson Richman, Evgenia Filimianova, Jack Phillips, Owen Evans, T.J. Muscaro, Jacob Burg, Jacki Thrapp, Savannah Hulsey Pointer, Guy Birchall, Ryan Morgan, The Associated Press, and Reuters contributed to this report.
