A US submarine torpedoed and sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka on Wednesday, the Pentagon said, as more nations were sucked into the Middle East war.
On another front, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted armed groups hostile to the Islamic republic in the autonomous Kurdish region of neighbouring Iraq.
Israel launched a new wave of air strikes on the Iranian capital and across Lebanon, where Tehran’s proxy Hezbollah said it responded by targeting Israeli sites including a military base near Tel Aviv.
Iran also claimed it had total control over the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global energy transit, and where several ships have reportedly been attacked in since the start of the war.
Sparked by a massive US-Israeli attack that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the war has seen Iran lash out with missile and drone strikes from Israel across the Gulf.
Cities like Dubai and Riyadh, which have long taken pride in their safety from the tumult of the region, have been drawn in, with the growing chaos sparing few countries in Iran’s vicinity and beyond.
‘Fighting to win’
A US submarine torpedoed an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean during an attack called “quiet death”, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced.
It was the first US sinking of an enemy ship by torpedo since World War II. “Like in that war,” Hegseth said, “we are fighting to win.”
Sri Lankan authorities said the bodies of 87 bodies of Iranian sailors had been recovered.
On another front, a missile launched from Iran was destroyed by NATO’s air defence system while heading towards Turkey’s airspace, drawing condemnation from Ankara and NATO.
A Turkish official told AFP that Turkey was not the target of the missile, but rather that it had “veered off course” and had been aimed at a base in Cyprus.
In the Gulf, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had total control of the crucial Strait of Hormuz, after President Donald Trump has said the US Navy was ready to escort oil tankers through the waterway.