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US-Israel war on Iran live: death tolls rise in Israel, UAE and across region as Iran attacks continue and IDF strikes ‘heart of Tehran’

Donald Trump said on Sunday that Iran’s new leadership wants to talk to him and that he has agreed, according to an interview with The Atlantic. “They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them. They should have done it sooner. They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long,” Trump said in an interview from his Florida residence, the magazine reported. The president added that some of the Iranians involved in the previous negotiations were no longer alive. “Most of those people are gone,” he said. “Some of the people we were dealing with are gone, because that was a big—that was a big hit.”

Hundreds of thousands of travellers stranded or diverted by airspace closures in Middle East

The US and Israel’s attack on Iran continued to cause severe disruption to flights throughout the Middle East and beyond on Sunday. Countries across the region closed their airspace, and three of the key airports that connect Europe, Africa and the west to Asia halted operations. Hundreds of thousands of travellers were either stranded or diverted to other airports after Israel, Qatar, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain shut their airspace. There were also no flights over the United Arab Emirates, the flight tracking website FlightRadar24 said, after the government announced a “temporary and partial closure” of its airspace. That led to the closure of airports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha and the cancellation of thousands of flights by major Middle Eastern and global airlines, including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. The three major airlines that operate at those airports – Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad – typically have about 90,000 passengers a day passing through those hubs, and even more travellers headed to destinations in the Middle East, according to the aviation analytics firm Cirium. Dubai is the world’s busiest airport for international traffic. On Sunday, more than 3,400 flights were cancelled across the seven main airports in the Middle East. Emirates said all operations to and from Dubai had been suspended until 3pm UAE time on Monday. Qatar Airways said it would resume operations when the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority announced the safe reopening of Qatari airspace, adding that it would provide a further update by 9am Doha time on Monday. Etihad said flights to and from Abu Dhabi were suspended until 2am UAE time on Monday. Major international airports in the region also became targets of Iran’s retaliatory strikes. Dubai’s international airport and its landmark Burj Al Arab hotel sustained damage and four people were injured. Abu Dhabi Airports said in a post on X that an incident at Zayed international airport in the UAE’s capital resulted in one death and seven injuries. It later deleted the post. Airspace over Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Israel, Bahrain, the UAE and Qatar remained virtually empty, maps by Flightradar24 showed on Sunday. The tracking service said a new “notice to airmen” had extended closure of Iranian airspace until at least 8.30am UK time on Tuesday. Henry Harteveldt, an airline industry analyst and president of Atmosphere Research Group, said: “For travellers, there’s no way to sugarcoat this. You should prepare for delays or cancellations for the next few days as these attacks evolve and hopefully end.” According to Cirium, of about 4,218 flights scheduled to land in Middle Eastern countries on Saturday, 966 (23%) were cancelled. It said the number of cancellations rose above 1,800 if including outbound flights. The website FlightAware said more than 18,000 flights had been delayed globally and more than 2,350 cancelled worldwide as of 10.30pm GMT on Saturday. Airlines that are crossing the Middle East will have to reroute flights around the conflict, with many flights headed south over Saudi Arabia. That will add hours to those flights and consume additional fuel, adding to the costs airlines will have to absorb. So ticket prices could quickly start to increase if the conflict lingers. The added flights will also put pressure on air traffic controllers in Saudi Arabia who may have to slow traffic to make sure they can handle it safely. “It’s the sheer volume of people and the complexity,” said John Strickland, a UK-based aviation analyst. “It is not only customers, it is the crews and aircraft all over the place.” On Sunday, Austrian Airlines sent an evacuation flight to Muscat, the capital of Oman, to return staff and crew unable to fly from Dubai. The airspace closures in the Middle East could be exacerbated by the fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan, squeezing airlines into even narrower flight corridors. “Any escalation in the conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan that results in the closure of airspace would have drastic consequences for travel between Europe and Asia,” said Ian Petchenik, a communications director at Flightradar24. It is unclear how long the disruption to flights could last. The situation was changing quickly and airlines urged passengers to check their flight status online before heading to the airport. Nearly half – 24 out of 56 – of the flights scheduled to depart from London Heathrow to destinations in the Middle East were cancelled on Sunday, according to data from Cirium. Some airlines issued waivers to travellers that will allow them to rebook their flight plans without paying extra fees or higher fares. Jonathan Escott and his fiance had arrived at the airport in Newcastle, England, on Saturday only to find out that his direct flight to Dubai on Emirates airline was cancelled, leaving everyone on the flight stuck there. Escott left to go back to where he was staying with family, about an hour from the airport, and had no idea when he may be able to travel. “No one knows,” Escott said. “No one really knows what’s going on with the conflict, really. Not Emirates, Emirates don’t have a clue. No one has a clue.” The cancellations Numerous airlines cancelled international flights to Dubai through the weekend, as India’s civil aviation agency designated much of the Middle East – including skies above Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon – as a high security risk zone at all altitudes. Air India cancelled all flights to Middle East destinations, as well as some other destinations including London, New York and Paris. Turkish Airlines said flights to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Jordan were suspended until Monday and flights to Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman were suspended. US-based Delta Air Lines and United Airlines suspended flights to Tel Aviv at least through the weekend. The Dutch airline KLM had already announced earlier in the week that it was suspending flights to and from Tel Aviv. It has now also cancelled services to Dubai, Dammam and Riyadh. Lufthansa suspended services to and from Tel Aviv, Beirut and Oman until Saturday, and flights in and out of Dubai. Pegasus Airlines has cancelled all services to Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. Airlines including Air France and Transavia cancelled all flights to Lebanon, while American Airlines suspended flights from Philadelphia to Doha. Virgin Atlantic said it would avoid flying over Iraq, meaning flights to and from India, the Maldives and Riyadh could take slightly longer. The airline was already not flying over Iran and said all flights would carry appropriate fuel in case they need to reroute on short notice. British Airways said flights to Tel Aviv and Bahrain would be suspended until next week, and flights to Amman, Jordan, were cancelled on Saturday. It said customers booked up to Wednesday could request a full refund. Wizz Air has suspended all flights to and from Israel, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Amman until next Sunday. LOT suspended flights to Tel Aviv until 15 March, and cancelled flights to Dubai and Riyadh until Monday. FlyDubai suspended flights to and from Dubai until 3pm local time on Monday. Air Canada cancelled flights to Dubai until Tuesday, and to Israel until next Sunday. Aegean Airlines, Greece’s largest carrier, suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv, Beirut and Erbil until Monday. Air Astana has cancelled all flights to the Middle East until the end of Tuesday Airspace closures Iran swiftly closed its airspace as the strikes began “until further notice”, according to its Civil Aviation Organisation. Israel also closed its airspace to civilian flights, the transport minister, Miri Regev, announced. Qatar’s civil aviation authority said it had temporarily closed the Gulf state’s airspace. Iraq shut down its airspace, state media said. The United Arab Emirates said it was closing its skies “partially and temporarily”. Syria closed part of its airspace in the south along the border with Israel for 12 hours, the civil aviation authority said. Jordan’s air force was conducting drills to “defend the kingdom’s skies”, its military said. Kuwait closed its airspace. With Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse

Suspected Russian ‘shadow fleet’ tanker seized in North Sea

Belgium has seized an oil tanker believed to form part of the so-called “shadow fleet” used by Russia to circumvent western sanctions over the war in Ukraine. Special forces assisted by French helicopters boarded the ship in a clandestine operation in the North Sea on Saturday night, Belgium’s defence minister, Theo Francken, said on Sunday. Prosecutors said the tanker, identified as the Ethera, was falsely flying the flag of Guinea and was believed to be on its way back to Russia when it was seized in Belgium’s exclusive economic zone. Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office said the ship’s captain, a Russian citizen, was being questioned and a criminal investigation was under way. In a statement, the office added that ship’s documents found on the Ethera were also suspected of being false. Francken said the vessel was escorted to Zeebrugge harbour, where it will be officially confiscated. The seizure suggests a hardening of Europe’s attitude towards Russia’s shadow fleet. Since the start of the year, western naval forces have intensified their tracking of shadow fleet vessels in the Baltic and North Sea. The US, the UK, France and Germany in particular have been increasing surveillance operations and possess a higher readiness to board vessels at gunpoint using helicopters. The often dilapidated tankers, which tend to be either uninsured or under-insured, sail under the flags of countries such as Panama, the Gambia, Barbados or the Comoros and transport Russian crude oil to destinations including China and India. The oil is processed in the destination countries and then sold on international markets. By this point, it is no longer identified as Russian, and therefore circumvents international sanctions imposed on Moscow as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine. Russia has previously described the seizure of its tankers and other vessels carrying its cargoes as acts of piracy. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, praised Belgium on Sunday for its “strong action against Moscow’s floating purse” and thanked France for its support of the operation. “This particular vessel has long been under US, EU and UK sanctions, but nonetheless continued to illegally transport Russian oil using a false flag and forged documents,” he said. The Belgian prime minister, Bart De Wever, congratulated the military on its “successful operation of the past night”. On social media, he thanked France for its support and added: “Belgium will uphold international maritime law and the security of its territorial waters.” In December, De Wever blocked the EU from using Russian frozen assets to fund Ukraine, citing fears that Belgium, where the assets are mostly held, could face a multibillion-euro legal challenge from Moscow. France has estimated the size of Russia’s shadow fleet to be somewhere between 1,000 and 1,200 ships. Of these, more than half are now subject to sanctions, with the rest evading detection through the use of shell companies and reflagging to disguise their true origins. The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, called the seizure of the Ethera a “serious blow” to Russia’s shadow fleet. “Last night in the North Sea our French Navy helicopters contributed to the boarding of an oil tanker subject to international sanctions by Belgian security forces,” he wrote on social media, also including footage of Belgian forces rappelling from the aircraft to the deck of the ship. Russia’s shadow fleet has also been involved in what has been judged to be the deliberate vandalising of western underwater infrastructure, including electricity and data cables and gas pipelines. Eagle S, a tanker bearing the flag of the Cook Islands, is alleged to have severed several underwater cables connecting Finland to Estonia and Germany in December 2024 by trailing its anchor along the sea bed. The EU has also warned that shadow fleet ships could be serving as platforms for drone launches, radar jamming and general espionage. Due to the often dilapidated nature of the fleet, which cannot easily put in for repairs due to sanction restrictions, it is also considered a growing danger to the environment and other shipping

Trump appears to link Iran attack to his 2020 election loss

Donald Trump on Saturday appeared to link the massive attack he ordered against Iran to his persistent claims about his 2020 election loss to former president Joe Biden, in a social media post about allegations that Tehran’s government interfered in the US president elections. “Iran tried to interfere in 2020, 2024 elections to stop Trump,” his Truth Social post said, “and now faces renewed war with United States”. Those words, written in the first hours of the bombardment of Iran, repeated the headline of an article to which he linked from Just the News, a Trump-friendly news site. “Iranian intelligence sought to undermine Trump’s re-election bid in 2020 through a variety of election influence efforts,” the article said. It also said Iran worked against him in 2024, when he beat Kamala Harris at the polls. This is the second military operation of the Trump administration where he alluded to allegations concerning the 2020 election. He made similar comments on social media in January, days after Trump ordered the Delta Force “rendition” of Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro. Trump reposted links that repeated discredited conspiracy allegations that Venezuela interfered in the 2020 election by controlling voting machines. Previously, he had hinted at support for those theories in a post, linking to a podcast about the Venezuela theory and writing: “We must focus all of our energy and might on ELECTION FRAUD!!” As the Guardian reported in November the Trump justice department began investigating the long discredited Venezuela theory last year. The White House did not respond to requests for comment for this story. While a central tenet of the Maga movement’s America First doctrine is an aversion to foreign wars, another core Maga obsession has been to dig into Trump’s election grievances. Where the Venezuela allegations have not been seen as credible by experts, Iran has indeed been accused of election interference, including by mainstream Biden era officials. In August of 2024, in the heat of the presidential campaign, officials said Iran was responsible for hacking internal Trump campaign records which appeared to have been sent to journalists. One document included research on JD Vance. The FBI, the ODNI and CISA wrote that Iran had done the hack “to compromise former President Trump’s campaign”, and said the intelligence community “is confident that the Iranians have through social engineering and other efforts sought access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties”. Three alleged Iranian hackers were later indicted. It is also true that in 2020 officials said Iran was behind a strange hoax email incident whereDemocratic-registered voters received threatening emails telling them to vote for Trump. The emails were crudely faked to seem like they came from the Proud Boys far-right group but were then traced to Iran. In spite of that, there is no known evidence that Iran really played a key role in Trump’s 2020 election loss. But among believers, Iran is also a player in some of the more outlandish conspiracy theories. A recent book called Stolen Elections, which repeated the Venezuela allegations, listed Iran among the countries that purportedly help Venezuela remotely rig elections. “Iran,” the book said, “provides technical advice and computer engineers”.

US military says three of its service members killed in Iran operation

Three US service members have been killed in action as part of US military operations against Iran, the US Central Command said in a statement on Sunday. These are the first confirmed deaths since the US began launching strikes against Iran on Saturday. Five additional personnel have been reported seriously wounded as part of Operation Epic Fury, the US military said. Authorities have not yet publicly identified the three soldiers who were killed. While announcing the military action targeting Iran, Donald Trump cautioned that “the lives of American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties. That often happens in war”. On Sunday, Israel and the US carried out another round of heavy attacks across Iran, marking the second day of a military effort aimed at removing the country’s government. The campaign has pushed the Middle East into a broader regional confrontation with no clear end or predictable outcome. The escalation followed increasingly tense exchanges between officials in Washington and Tehran, signaling the possibility of further military developments in the near future. Trump stated on Sunday that the US would strike Iran “with a force that has never been seen before” if Tehran followed through on threats of retaliation after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday. The strikes extended beyond current government leaders. The home in Tehran belonging to former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was also destroyed, and his condition or whereabouts were not immediately confirmed. Meanwhile, Iranian state media reported that the number of people killed in a missile attack on a girls’ school in southern Iran has climbed to nearly 150. The school was hit on Saturday morning and appears to represent the deadliest single incident of the US-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran so far. Following the attack on Iran, anti-war demonstrations took place across the US, including gatherings outside the White House and in New York’s Times Square, where protesters expressed opposition to American military involvement in the region. Protest organizers released a statement saying: “Trump’s unprovoked, illegal attack on Iran is an act of war that threatens to cause unthinkable death and destruction. But the people of this country reject another endless war and will take to the streets now and make our voices heard.”

A visual guide to US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s response

The US-Israeli war against Iran entered its second day on Sunday, as news of the assassination of the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, shook the Islamic Republic and the wider region. Donald Trump announced Khamenei’s death while Israel claimed to have killed at least 40 senior Iranian commanders in the first day of attacks. Both countries continued to pound Iran, conducting hundreds of airstrikes across the country overnight and on Sunday. Despite the apparent loss of a significant portion of its senior military and political leadership, Iran did not slow its retaliation on Sunday, bombing targets in the Gulf and unleashing waves of ballistic missiles towards Israel. On Saturday, Israel announced the beginning of what it called Operation Lion’s Roar in tandem with Trump, which an Israeli military official said was intended to “degrade the regime’s capabilities”. They said operations would continue for “as long as necessary”. Trump went further, saying in a video posted on his Truth Social platform as the assault began that the aim was regime change. Strikes hit across the country on Saturday and were followed up on Sunday with further rounds, including in central Tehran. The strikes hit key security and political targets in Tehran, including Khamenei’s residence, and ballistic missile caches elsewhere in the country. Satellite footage showed black smoke coming from the supreme leader’s badly damaged compound, and Iranian state media later confirmed he had been killed. Hundreds of strikes hit at least 14 cities across Iran in what an Israeli military official said was a much more wide-ranging campaign than the previous US-Israeli attack on Iran in the 12-day war last summer. Strikes were aimed at intelligence and security headquarters, homes of Iranian officials, as well as ballistic missile launchers and caches – a tactic intended to limit Iran’s ability to respond to the US and Israeli attacks. Israel also said it had targeted Iran’s air defence systems in the west of the country to help establish air supremacy. Almost 150 people were killed and at least 95 wounded in a strike on a girls’ school in Minab, in the southern Hormozgan province, according to state media. The attack was verified by Reuters. There is an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base in the same city. Reuters said it had verified the footage as being from the school. Iran’s retaliation pushed past previous red lines that had excluded the Gulf from conflict. Much of the Middle East had been affected by Sunday. Iran struck targets including luxury hotels in Dubai and Bahrain and airports in Dubai, Kuwait and Bahrain. It also struck a port facility in Oman and a ship north-west of Muscat, as the Iranian military broadcast radio warnings to ships intending to cross the strait of Hormuz. People in Damascus, south Lebanon and Amman were shaken by explosions as Israel intercepted incoming Iranian missiles in the sky. Strikes on Gulf countries and the wider region left travellers stranded as major hubs in Dubai and Qatar were closed. Flights around and through the region were cancelled or delayed and it was unclear when the airspace above Gulf countries would reopen. The speed at which the conflict turned regional was dizzying. The geographical scope of the conflict exceeded that of the 12-day war within just a few hours. Satellite imagery from Vantor showed Iranian vessels burning at the Konarak naval base on Saturday. Thousands of people gathered in Tehran’s Enghalab Square to mourn the supreme leader on Sunday afternoon, waving flags and chanting slogans. Women wailed and beat their chests in grief and men holding aloft images of Khamenei called for retaliation against the US and Israel for the assassination. Protests broke out across the Middle East and the wider region as Shia Muslims gathered to express their shock and anger over Khamenei’s killing. As an ayatollah, he was a major religious figure for members of the Shia faith. In Pakistan, hundreds of pro-Iran protesters attempted to storm the US consulate in Karachi, prompting security forces to disperse the crowd. At least nine people were killed and several others injured. Protests also broke out in Baghdad’s green zone, as the Iraqi Shia leaders Ali Sistani and Moqtada al-Sadr expressed their condolences for Khamenei’s death. Hezbollah called for a rally in Beirut on Sunday afternoon. Panic consumed the streets of Tehran as explosions rocked the densely populated city. Israeli military spokespeople told Iranians to distance themselves from military and industrial facilities. Iranian authorities instructed citizens to flee big cities for safety in scenes reminiscent of the mass exodus from Tehran this summer when Israel last attacked the city. Many security institutions and officials are located in residential areas, making civilian casualties likely. Israelis spent much of Sunday in air raid shelters as sirens sounded almost constantly. One person was killed and dozens were injured when an Iranian missile hit Tel Aviv on Saturday night. Another eight people were killed and 20 injured when a missile hit the town of Bet Shemesh on Sunday afternoon. Israel’s home command instructed its citizens to take shelter as Iran launched wave after wave of ballistic missiles at the country. Most of them were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system, which hits projectiles heading towards populated areas in mid-air.

Supreme leader killed as US and Israel wage war on Iran: what we know so far on day two

Israel says it is hitting targets “in the heart of Tehran” on the second day of attacks to overthrow Iran’s government. The US president, Donald Trump, said on Sunday that the US would strike Iran “with a force that has never been seen before” if Tehran carried out threats to retaliate after the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed yesterday. Trump has urged Iranians to “take back their country”. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the killing of Khamenei was “a cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law”. Other senior figures in the Iranian regime who were killed in Saturday’s strikes reportedly include the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Gen Mohammad Pakpour, and defence minister Aziz Nasirzadeh. Israel says at least 40 Iranian “commanders” were killed in the “opening” strikes. All three members have now been appointed to Iran’s temporary leadership council, which fulfils the role of the supreme leader until a successor is chosen. It means the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, the judiciary chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, and senior cleric Alireza Arafi will reportedly lead Iran in the transitional period following Khamenei’s death. The death toll from a US-Israeli missile strike on a girls’ school in southern Iran has risen to almost 150, according to Iranian state media. At least 133 civilians have been killed and 200 civilians injured during US-Israel strikes on Iran on Saturday, according to the US-based organisation HRANA (Human Rights Activists News Agency). Iran has launched retalitory missiles and drones targeting Israel. Strikes have also been reported in Dubai, Qatar’s capital Doha, Bahrain and Kuwait. Officials in Tel Aviv said about 40 buildings were damaged by retaliatory Iranian ballistic missile strikes, with two people reportedly killed. The UK’s defence secretary, John Healey, said Iranian missiles and drones had landed within “a few hundred yards” of about 300 British troops at a base in Bahrain. Hundreds of thousands of travellers were either stranded or diverted to other airports after Israel, Qatar, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain closed their airspace. Ships have reported hearing a radio broadcast purporting to come from the Iranian navy announcing that transit through the vital strait of Hormuz, was banned, raising expectations of a sharp jump in oil prices. But there’s been no formal announcement from Tehran about the status of the strait, one of the world’s most important shipping routes. Iran has launched a new round of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and several Gulf cities, after vowing retaliation for the killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who had ruled the country since 1989. In a statement posted to social media, the Israel Defense Forces said it was now striking “targets” of the Iranian “regime in the heart of Tehran”. Multiple rounds of sirens were heard across central Israel and parts of the occupied West Bank on Sunday morning, and explosions were reported in Doha, Dubai and Manama. Blasts were also heard near Erbil airport, which hosts US-led coalition troops, in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region. The speaker of Iran’s parliament warned that US President Donald Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “crossed our red lines” that they would “suffer the consequences”. Trump, in a post on social media, said Iran should not retaliate, or it would be hit with a force that has “never been seen before”. Iranian state media announced the deaths of several high-level military officials, including armed forces chief of staff Abdolrahim Mousavi, defence minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, Revolutionary Guards chief Mohammad Pakpour, and head of the defence council Ali Shamkhani, saying they were killed “during a defence council meeting”. More names would follow, it said. At least 133 civilians have been killed, and 200 civilians injured during US-Israel strikes on Iran on Saturday, according to the US-based organisation HRANA (Human Rights Activists News Agency), which said it had recorded incidents across 18 provinces in Iran. Ali Larijani, Iran’s top national security adviser, has warned “secessionist groups” they will face a harsh response if they attempt any action, and called for unity. Trump previously urged the Iranian people to “take over” the government, saying: “This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their country.” Thousands of people have gathered in central Tehran to mourn the death of Khamenei, who had ruled Iran since 1989. Mourners, who were dressed in black and carried photos of the former leader, chanted “death to America” and “death to Israel”. However, others celebrated, with reports describing people cheering from rooftops, blowing whistles and letting out ululations. Protesters rallied in support of Iran in several cities, attempting to storm the US consulate in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, and to enter the fortified Green Zone of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, where the US embassy is located. Thousands also rallied in Indian-administered Kashmir on Sunday. The United Nations’ nuclear agency said it will hold an extraordinary meeting on Monday at the request of Russia. The meeting is in response to the US-Israel strikes, which Trump has said are a response to Iran attempting to “rebuild their nuclear program”.