Iran’s foreign minister rejects talk of dialogue with U.S. as strikes continue

The United Arab Emirates’ air defense systems were intercepting Iranian missiles and drones on Monday, the Gulf nation’s defense ministry said.

“UAE air defenses are currently responding to incoming missile and drone threats from Iran,” the UAE Ministry of Defense posted on social media.

Earlier, Dubai authorities said a “drone-related incident” had sparked a fire near the airport and flights had been temporarily suspended. 

Saudi Arabia has intercepted more than 60 drones since midnight, according to a tally of defense ministry figures released Monday.

The ministry posted a series of statements on X describing the interception of 61 drones in the country’s east in the early hours of Monday morning.

President Trump told reporters Sunday night that he has been in touch with “about seven” countries about assisting in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, but would not say which ones. 

Mr. Trump insisted, “It’s something that we don’t need. And these countries do need.”

Mr. Trump said that oil prices are “going to come tumbling down as soon as it’s over, and it’s going to be over pretty quickly,” but did not provide a timeline.

“They’re decimated. But, I think that we’ve done damage to them, right now, if we left right now, it would take them 10 years and more to rebuild. But I’m still not declaring it over,” Mr. Trump said.

Speaking to the Financial Times, President Trump urged NATO allies and China to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, telling the outlet, “It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there.”

“If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO,” Mr. Trump said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on social media that he spoke with Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian and called on him to  “immediately put an end to the unacceptable attacks that Iran is carrying out against countries in the region, whether direct or via proxies, as in Lebanon and Iraq.”

Macron said France is “intervening within a strictly defensive framework to protect its interests.”

The French president called for a new security framework that guarantees Iran “never acquires nuclear weapons while addressing the threats posed by its ballistic program as well as its regional and international destabilization activities.”

“Freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz must be restored as quickly as possible,” Macron added.

President Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke over the phone on Sunday to discuss the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, Downing Street said in a statement.

“The leaders discussed the ongoing situation in the Middle East and the importance of reopening the Strait of Hormuz to end the disruption to global shipping, which is driving up costs worldwide,” the prime minister’s office said in the statement. “The Prime Minister also expressed his condolences for the American service personnel who have lost their lives during the conflict.

The White House has not immediately commented on the call.

Texas GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw said sending U.S. troops to the Middle East should not be taken as a “boots on the ground deployment, especially with only 5,000 troops.”

The Pentagon plans to send up to 5,000 additional sailors and Marines to the Middle East as the conflict with Iran escalates, CBS News learned last week.

Crenshaw, who served as a Navy SEAL, said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday that these troops could be deployed for various operations that might be needed, including evacuating American citizens out of Gulf allied countries. 

“The rules of engagement will be very clear and in place and in writing for our troops,” he said.

Read more here.

The Israeli military said Sunday that the brother of Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, who is accused of carrying out last week’s attack at a Michigan synagogue, was a Hezbollah commander who was “eliminated” in a strike last week.

In a statement on social media, the Israel Defense Forces said Ibrahim Muhammad Ghazali was responsible for managing weapons operations for the unit within the U.S.-designated terrorist group.

“The unit is responsible for launching hundreds of rockets toward Israeli civilians throughout the war,” the IDF said, adding Ibrahim Ghazali was killed in an airstrike on a Hezbollah military structure last week.

A Lebanese official, who requested anonymity because he could not publicly discuss details of the airstrike, confirmed to the Associated Press that Ibrahim Ghazali was killed. 

Read more here.

Israeli carrier EL AL Airlines said Sunday that it will charter non-stop flights between Tel Aviv and New York for U.S. citizens looking to evacuate Israel.

In a statement, the airline said the flights are in coordination with the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, the U.S. Department of State and the Ministry of Transportation. Beginning on Monday, the airline will operate six dedicated flights for U.S. passport holders whose original flights were canceled after the start of the war.

“EL AL customers will receive priority for seat assignments, and those eligible will be offered a seat at no additional cost,” the statement said, adding: “We stand ready to add more recovery flights if needed, pending security and government authorization – our teams are working around the clock to make these flights possible for you.”

Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said “there was no imminent threat to the United States” when the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran late last month.

“The decision to go to war, in this case, was a choice by President Trump,” Warner said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

The Virginia Democrat said when U.S. intelligence leaders testified before the committee last year that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon, they weren’t wrong. Warner said he doesn’t believe there was an imminent threat to Israel either, though he noted that “over a period of time, particularly with the ballistic missile capability, Israel would be more under threat.”

Warner criticized the justification and objective for the war, while citing Mr. Trump’s comments on Fox News from Friday that the war will end “when I feel it in my bones.”

“Is that the criteria when we’ve got literally 13 service members killed?” Warner said. “I got a lot of those sailors on the (USS Gerald R.) Ford that are homeported in Norfolk, Virginia. And waiting for him to feel right in the bones? That doesn’t seem to be the right criteria.”

Asked about the deadly strike on an elementary school in Iran and where the error originated, Warner said he wants a “thorough investigation” and didn’t want to jump to a conclusion.

“Clearly, it was an American strike,” Warner said, adding that he’s disappointed that “the president tried to deny that at first or say it was even the Iranians.”

Warner said, “The words of the President of the United States are terribly important in moments like this, and unfortunately, President Trump has used his loose language all the time.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, “We don’t see any reason why we should talk with Americans,” as President Trump has claimed Iran is seeking a deal to end the war between the U.S. and Iran. 

“We never asked for a ceasefire, and we have never asked even for negotiation,” Araghchi said on “Face the Nation.”

As the war entered its third week, Mr. Trump has claimed in recent days that Iran wants to reach a deal. The president said in a post on Truth Social late Friday that Iran “is totally defeated and wants a deal – But not a deal that I would accept!” On Saturday, he told NBC News that “Iran wants to make a deal, and I don’t want to make it because the terms aren’t good enough yet.”

But Araghchi said, “We are ready to defend ourselves as long as it takes.”

Read more here. 

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi made a series of phone calls Sunday, speaking with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani; Jordanian King Abdullah II; and UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Egypt’s foreign minister is touring the Gulf region.

El-Sissi said in a statement that Egypt is intensifying efforts seeking a de-escalation of tensions in the region.

Director of the White House National Economic Council Kevin Hassett said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that the U.S. has the funds it needs at this point in the war, as lawmakers have prepared for a possible supplemental funding request from the White House. 

“I think right now we’ve got what we need. Whether we have to go back to Congress for more is something that I think that Russ Vought and OMB will look into,” Hassett said Sunday.

The top White House economic adviser said the war has cost $12 billion so far, based on his latest briefing. 

“So this is something that we’ve got the weapons that we’ve already got in place to do this, and so we’re not necessarily going to need any kind of supplemental,” Hassett said. 

Asked by Margaret Brennan how long the White House anticipates the war to continue, and the toll it’s expected to take on the economy, Hassett cited the Pentagon’s assessment that it would take four to six weeks in total to complete the mission, while noting that it’s ahead of schedule. 

“And so we’re a couple of weeks in, and I think that should give you some clarity about when we expect that the president will decide that we’ve achieved his objectives,” Hassett said. 

Hassett stressed that “America is not going to have its economy harmed by what the Iranians are doing.” He said, “Our economy has got all this momentum in the world, and we’ve got lots of lots of oil.” And he added that “we expect that the global economy is going to have a big positive shock as soon as this is over.”

The parents of Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, 28, who died in a military refueling aircraft crash over Iraq last week, said their son was a “trailblazer,” “the light of the party,” and “always smiling.”

“Even in school, teachers always commented on how well-behaved he was,” his father, Mylo Simmons, told CBS News, adding, “He loved being in the military. He loved serving.”

Simmons was assigned to the 121st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base, Columbus, Ohio. He and five other service members died on March 12 when an aerial refueling aircraft taking part in operations against Iran crashed in western Iraq.

His mother, Cheryl Simmons, said they knew that once the war broke out two weeks ago, their son was most likely going to be deployed.

“We cannot fight a war without having tankers, without gas, you can’t have a war,” she said. “That’s how important his job was to the whole picture.”

She added: “In the pit of your stomach, you’re saying, you know, we have a 50-50 chance of our son coming home…. when you hear the knock on the door, you’re hoping that it’s not a knock that, you know, you just don’t want. And when they knocked on the door, and Milo answered the door, I heard him say, ‘Oh no,’ and I knew, I knew. And it was, you know, from there on, life would never, ever, ever be the same. It will never be the same.”

Mylo Simmons said since receiving the news of their son’s death, they have been coping “day by day.”

“It’s so surreal, unbelievable. The worst news a parent wants to get,” he said. “I feel like I am in a movie. I am waiting to wake up.”

Cheryl Simmons said that while they are hurting, they know that their son made an impact on the world.

“He was a hero to his family, he was a hero to his friends,” she said. “They loved him, and he loved them. He was a man of purpose.”

The latest barrage of Iranian missiles targeting Israel on Sunday injured four people and damaged an apartment building in the central Israeli ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, officials said.

The country’s Magen David Adom rescue services said on social media that one man was injured by glass shrapnel. Photos and videos showed a blackened hole in place of the apartment’s windows.

Magen David Adom also said paramedics were treating another man in the nearby city of Ramat Gan who sustained blast injuries.

In Petah Tikva, paramedics were treating a 46-year-old woman and an 18-year-old woman as a result of the blast.

It comes after an earlier barrage hit 23 sites in the Tel Aviv area and injured two people.

CBS/AP

Pope Leo XIV escalated his appeal for peace on Sunday, directly addressing the leaders who launched the war in Iran two weeks ago.

“On behalf of the Christians of the Middle East and all women and men of good will, I appeal to those responsible for this conflict,” the U.S.-born pope said. “Cease fire so that avenues for dialogue may be reopened. Violence can never lead to the justice, stability, and peace that the people are waiting for.”

While Leo didn’t mention the U.S. or Israel by name, he mentioned the bombings that targeted a school — an apparent reference to the missile strike on an elementary school in Iran in the opening days of the war that killed over 165 people, many of them children.

“Thousands of innocent people have been killed, and many others have been forced to abandon their homes. I renew my prayerful closeness to all those who have lost their loved ones in the attacks that have struck schools, hospitals, and residential areas,” he added.

The Vatican has highlighted the carnage of the Minab strike, running a photo of the mass grave for the victims on the front page of its official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, under the headline “The Face of War.”

CBS/AP

Iran’s Cultural Heritage Ministry said on Sunday that at least 56 cultural sites have been damaged by strikes in the first two weeks of the war. The sites include museums and bazaars, historic government buildings and mosques, it said.

Among the damaged sites are the ornate Qajar-era Golestan Palace in Tehran and the Shah Abbas Mosque and the 17th-century Chehel Sotoun palace in Isfahan.

The damage isn’t limited to Tehran and Isfahan. The ministry said sites in Kurdistan, Lorestan and Kermanshah were also affected.

CBS/AP

Israel and the United States attacked Iran on Feb. 28, saying they were striking nuclear and military sites and encouraged the Iranian people to rise against the country’s leaders. Iran responded with attacks against Israel and U.S. assets in neighboring states in the Persian Gulf.

The war, which shows no signs of ending soon, has upended global air travel, disrupted oil exports from the region and sent fuel prices rising across the world.

This map shows the latest known locations of attacks by the U.S. and Israel and retaliatory strikes by Iran.

U.S. intelligence has circulated to President Trump and to a small circle around him that Iran’s late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had misgivings about his son replacing him, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.

The analysis showed the elder Khamenei was wary of his son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, ever taking power because he was perceived as not very bright, and was viewed as unqualified to be leader, according to sources. 

The information gathered also indicated that the father was aware that his son had issues in his personal life, according to sources within the administration, the intelligence community and people close to the president.

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, was selected to become Iran’s supreme leader last weekend by the country’s council of religious clerics after serving as a close aide to his father for years.

Read more here.

The president said on Saturday that he’s not ready to make a deal to end the war with Iran, telling NBC News in an interview that “the terms aren’t good enough yet.” He added that the terms of any deal have to be “very solid.” The interview came after the president said late Friday on Truth Social that Iran “is totally defeated and wants a deal – But not a deal that I would accept!”

In the interview, Mr. Trump also said he’s asking other countries to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, and he said it’s “possible” that the U.S. Navy would begin escorting ships through the key waterway. The president also questioned whether Iran’s new leader is “even alive.”

On gas prices, Mr. Trump said he expects them to “go lower than they were before,” expressing confidence that the prices will fall soon. The president said he’s “not concerned at all” about how gas prices could affect the midterm elections. 

The Defense Department has identified all six U.S. service members who were killed when a refueling aircraft taking part in operations against Iran crashed in western Iraq on Thursday.

The six service members were identified as: 

• Maj. John A. Klinner, 33, of Auburn, Alabama; 
• Capt. Ariana G. Savino, 31, of Covington, Washington; 
• Tech. Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt, 34, of Bardstown, Kentucky, 
• Capt. Seth R. Koval, 38, of Mooresville, Indiana; 
• Capt. Curtis J. Angst, 30, of Wilmington, Ohio; 
• Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, 28, of Columbus, Ohio 

Klinner, Savino, and Pruitt were assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing of MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. 

Koval, Angst and Simmons were assigned to the 121st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus, Ohio.

The Pentagon said Saturday the incident is still under investigation. 

Read more here. 

The Iraqi men’s national soccer team will travel to Mexico for a 2026 World Cup qualifier match despite calls for it to be postponed due to the Middle East war, the country’s football association said Saturday.

The national team plans to depart at the end of next week via a private plane ahead of the match scheduled for March 31 in the Mexican city of Monterrey.

Iraq will face either Surinam or Bolivia with a chance for a spot in the World Cup this summer. 

Iraqi airspace remains closed. On Saturday, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad warned all U.S. citizens to leave Iraq amid what it said were attacks on Americans and  U.S.-associated targets by Iranian backed militia groups. 

CBS/AFP

Another three members of the Iran women’s soccer team who accepted refugee visas to stay in Australia have decided to return to their homeland, an Australian government minister said on Sunday local time.

The departure leaves three of an initial seven squad members in Australia.

“Overnight, three members of the Iranian Women’s Football Team made the decision to join the rest of the team on their journey back to Iran,” Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said in a statement.

“After telling Australian officials they had made this decision, the players were given repeated chances to talk about their options,” Burke added.

Iran’s team arrived in Australia for the Women’s Asian Cup last month, before the war in the Middle East began on Feb. 28.

Initially, six players and a support staff member from a squad list of 26 players accepted humanitarian visas to stay in Australia before the rest of the Iranian contingent flew from Sydney to Malaysia on March 9.

One later changed her mind and left Australia. The other three left Sydney for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Saturday night, a government official said. The rest of the team has remained in Kuala Lumpur since they left Australia.

Read more here. 

CBS News has learned that Tech. Sgt. Tyler Simmons, an airman with the 121st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in central Ohio, was one of the six service members killed when a KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq on Thursday while supporting operations against Iran.

Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, who represents the Columbus area, offered condolences to Simmons’ family on X, saying she was “heartbroken” to hear of Simmons’ death. 

Simmons’ mother, Cheryl Simmons, recalled to CBS affiliate WBNS the moment Friday uniformed officers arrived at their home to deliver the news of his death.

“When he opened the door he said, ‘Oh no,’ and I jumped up and ran in there and they were lined up out on the porch,” Cheryl Simmons told the station. “‘You got to be kidding me.'”

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Saturday that three of the six soldiers killed in the crash were members of the Ohio Air National Guard. 

Formula One races scheduled to take place in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia next month have been canceled because of the Middle East conflict.

“While several alternatives were considered, it was ultimately decided that no substitutions will be made in April,” the International Automobile Federation, which governs the sport, said in a statement Saturday evening.

The F1 calendar this year included 24 Grand Prix races. The cancellations will cut it down to 22.

The war has had a major impact on the sporting world so far. On Thursday, President Trump said he believed it would not be “appropriate” for the Iranian men’s national soccer team to take part in the World Cup this summer due to concerns “for their own life and safety.” 

This marked an apparent change in tone, after the president on Tuesday had informed FIFA representatives that Iran was welcome to play in the tournament, U.S. officials told CBS News.

Multiple members of the Iranian women’s soccer team applied for asylum this week in Australia while taking part in the Asian Cup tournament.

Also in soccer, several Asian Champions League matches have been postponed.

And the U.S. men’s field hockey team canceled a Men’s FIH Hockey World Cup qualifier that was to take place in Ismailia, Egypt. 

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has advised Americans to leave Iraq “immediately.”

In a lengthy social media post, the embassy wrote that Iran-aligned terrorist militias had “carried out indiscriminate attacks against U.S. citizens and U.S.-associated targets throughout Iraq, including in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.”

Americans were also warned not to come to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad or the U.S. Consulate General in Erbil, which is the U.S.’s diplomatic office in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region. 

The Associated Press reported earlier Saturday that a missile had struck a helipad inside the embassy compound, which has been repeatedly targeted by Iraqi militias since the war began. Cell phone video showed smoke rising from the area of the embassy.

Neither the embassy or U.S. Central Command, which manages U.S. military operations in the Middle East, have commented on the alleged strike.

The embassy said in its post that commercial flights were not operating from Iraq, but there were land routes available through Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

“Most land border crossings are open but may close at any time with short notice,” the embassy said.

The State Department has issued a Level 4 advisory for Iraq, meaning Americans should not travel there becuase of “terrorism, kidnapping, armed conflict, civil unrest, and the U.S. government’s limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in Iraq.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said late Saturday they had launched a missile salvo at U.S. forces stationed at Prince Sultan Air Base, a major base in Saudi Arabia’s Al-Kharj that has long hosted U.S. forces.

The Guards said the base was being used to equip “F-35 and F-16 fighter jets and is the storage place for fuel tankers.”

While there has been no immediate confirmation of the attack from Saudi Arabia, the kingdom’s defense ministry said earlier it intercepted six ballistic missiles headed towards Al-Kharj.

On March 1, the second day of the war, U.S. service member Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington was killed in an Iranian attack on Prince Sultan Air Base. 

CBS/AFP

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr threatened to revoke broadcast licenses on Saturday, echoing criticism from President Trump over news networks’ coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. 

The FCC chair did not name specific networks or cite any stories he believes were reported incorrectly, but Carr’s statement referenced a Saturday morning Truth Social post from the president about five U.S. tanker aircraft in Saudi Arabia.

Read more here.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNN in an interview set to air tomorrow that Russia has provided Iran with drones, suggesting deeper assistance in the war than previously reported. 

Zelenskyy said that Russia shares intelligence with Iran and equates it to Europe sharing information with the U.S.

Multiple sources told CBS News last week that Moscow is providing intelligence to Iran regarding U.S. positions in the Middle East during the war.

Two drones targeted an airbase in Kuwait housing U.S. military staff, injuring Kuwaiti personnel and causing damage, the defense ministry said Saturday.

“Three members of the armed forces sustained minor injuries” after the attack on Ahmed Al-Jaber Air Base, spokesperson Colonel Saud Al-Atwan said in a statement. The base is near Camp Arifjan, a major U.S. facility.

A drone attack in Kuwait in the early hours of the war killed six service members at a tactical operations center at the Shuaiba port outside Kuwait City. Dozens of soldiers were also injured, multiple sources told CBS News.

CBS/AFP

After Mr. Trump called on foreign governments to send warships to escort vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said it was speaking with its allies and partners about “a range of options to ensure the security of shipping in the region.”

In addition to the United Kingdom, Mr. Trump called on Japan, South Korea, France and China to send warships to the waterway. The United Kingdom is the first country named in Mr. Trump’s comment to publicly respond. 

Exactly one week ago, Mr. Trump said on Truth Social that the U.K. was “finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,” but said “we don’t need them any longer.” 

“We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!” Mr. Trump wrote at the time.

In an interview with MS Now’s Ayman Moyheldin, Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s minister of foreign affairs, said that there is “no problem with the Supreme Leader.” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth previously said the newly elected leader was wounded and “likely disfigured.”

Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen publicly since the war began. A statement credited to him was read by a presenter on Iranian state TV on Thursday. 

“He is performing his duties according to the Constitution, and he will continue to do that,” Araghchi said. He added that other state duties are functioning and that the “system is working.”

President Trump said the U.S. military “totally obliterated” every military target on Kharg Island during large-scale precision strikes Friday, thrusting the strategic small isle into the global spotlight. 

Just 20 miles off Iran’s northern Gulf coast, Kharg Island is Iran’s hub for oil exports and a key bargaining chip Trump plans to use to leverage as Iran keeps the Strait of Hormuz largely closed, threatening energy markets worldwide. 

Strikes on the island’s oil infrastructure would be a massive escalation in the war that could send global oil markets into a panic and threaten Tehran’s energy system. 

Read more here.

Tehran on Saturday threatened for the first time to attack infrastructure of a neighboring country, urging people to evacuate three major ports in the United Arab Emirates it claimed the U.S. military was using to launch strikes on Iran. Previous threats have focused on military targets. 

The warning sharpens fears of an escalating war on the vital infrastructure for global energy supplies, as the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed.

Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Gulf neighbors, saying it targets U.S. assets even as airports and oil facilities have been hit or threatened. America and Israel have struck thousands of targets across Iran during the war, now in its third week.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s minister of foreign affairs, said Tehran will respond to any attack on its energy facilities, according to Iranian state media. 

Aragachi said Iranian forces will target facilities of American companies in the Gulf or companies in which the U.S. has shares, state media reported. 

 Mr. Trump said on Truth Social that “many countries” will join the United States and send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz “open and safe.” 

He did not specify which countries were sending ships to the region. 

Mr. Trump said that he hoped other nations “affected by this artificial constraint,” such as China, France, Japan and the U.K. would also “send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a Nation that has been totally decapitated.” 

The president said the U.S. will continue “bombing the hell out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian Boats and Ships out of the water.” 

“One way or the other, we will soon get the Hormuz Strait OPEN, SAFE, and FREE!” Mr. Trump said. 

Iranians are having to make hard choices about whether to flee for safer locales during the war. 

Thus far, relatively few people have chosen to leave Iran: The U.N. estimates 3.2 million people have been displaced by the fighting but that only about 1,300 Iranians have fled via Turkey each day since the war started, and on some days, more people cross into Iran than depart. 

Among those who did leave was 32-year-old hairdresser Merve Pourkaz, who told The Associated Press she decided to head to Turkey after bombs exploded near her home in the eastern Iranian city of Golestan. 

Experts say that if Iran’s critical infrastructure is destroyed, that could lead to waves of people trying to flee the country.

Oil export operations from Iran’s Kharg island in the Gulf were “continuing as normal” Saturday after U.S. strikes on the crude export hub, a regional official said.

Ehsan Jahaniyan, the deputy governor of Iran’s southern Bushehr province, said there were no casualties from the strikes. Daily life and routine activities of island residents are “fully maintained,” Jahaniyan said. 

MacLean said that Iran is unlikely to reopen the Strait of Hormuz soon as the war continues and oil prices rise worldwide. 

MacLean highlighted the statement from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, noting it was “not conciliatory,” and the Trump administration’s efforts to link the safety of oil infrastructure on Kharg Island to the reopening of the strait. 

“This is a war. In a war, both sides get a vote,” MacLean said. “Iran’s best card to play was always going to be the closure of this strait. It’s now played it. I think it’s unlikely that they will back down in the days to come.” 

MacLean said the United States may launch an operation to reopen the strait, but that “is going to take time.” 

“It’s quite clear that it will take probably weeks to even get to the point where U.S. Navy ships can go into that strait,” MacLean said.

Hamas on Saturday called on Iran to refrain from targeting neighboring countries, while affirming Tehran’s right to defend itself against Israel and the United States.

Hamas, which the U.S. continues to designate as a terrorist group, also urged the international community to take steps to end the war that has gripped the Middle East since it began on February 28.

“While affirming the right of the Islamic Republic of Iran to respond to this aggression by all available means in accordance with international norms and laws, the movement calls on the brothers in Iran to avoid targeting neighboring countries,” Hamas said in a statement — its first such public appeal to Tehran.

Read more here.

U.S. Central Command shared a video of the attack on Kharg Island, calling it a “large-scale precision strike.” 

More than 90 Iranian military targets were hit, CENTCOM said, including naval mine storage facilities and missile storage bunkers. Oil infrastructure on the island was preserved, the agency said. 

A version of the video was previously shared by Mr. Trump on Truth Social on Friday.

National security analyst Aaron MacLean said that the deployment of a Marine expeditionary unit to Iran is “pretty significant,” calling the group “the kind of unit you would want in the region if you were contemplating all manner of limited ground action.” 

MacLean said that it’s unlikely the unit will take part in large-scale actions, but they may be used to seize oil resources at Kharg Island or as part of operations on nuclear sites.

Israel said its air force destroyed an Iranian factory producing air defense systems, as well as a site used for space research. 

The air force shared a video showing multiple target sites in northern Iran. 

Iran’s ambassador to India said Saturday that some Indian vessels have been allowed through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Reuters. 

Ambassador Mohammad Fathali made the comments at broadcaster IndiaToday’s conclave in New Delhi, Reuters said. Fathali did not say how many ships were crossing the waterway. 

Reuters reported that 22 Indian-flagged vessels carrying liquified gas are sailing through the strait. Two have crossed through, according to an Indian government official.

Mr. Trump said on Truth Social that Iran is “totally defeated” as the war enters its second week. He and other government officials have made similar comments throughout the conflict. 

He added that Iran “wants a deal – But not a deal that I would accept!” and criticized the media for its reporting about the war. 

Mr. Trump did not offer any more details about a deal or what negotiations might entail. 

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was struck by a missile on Saturday, two security officials said. The projectile struck the helipad, the sources said. Video obtained by the Associated Press showed smoke billowing from inside the compound. 

The embassy did not immediately comment on the incident. 

The sprawling embassy complex is one of the largest U.S. diplomatic facilities in the world. It has been reportedly targeted by rockets and drones by Iran-aligned militias, who have recently stepped up their attacks on bases hosting U.S. and coalition troops. 

On Friday, the embassy renewed its Level 4 security alert for Iraq, warning that Iran and Iran-aligned militia groups have previously carried out attacks against U.S. citizens, interest and infrastructure, and “may continue to target them.”

CBS/AP

The humanitarian crisis in Lebanon has deepened, with more than 815,000 displaced according to the United Nations as Israel has continued waves of strikes against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.

An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon hit a health care center in the village of Burj Qalaouiyah, killing 12 doctors, paramedics and nurses, the Lebanese Health Ministry said early Saturday local time.

At least eight people were killed in a strike on the southern coastal city of Sidon, the ministry said Friday.

The ministry said 773 people — including more than 100 children and 18 paramedics — have been killed since fighting erupted between Israel and Hezbollah 10 days ago.

Hezbollah, a proxy and ally of the Tehran regime, began launching rocket attacks on Israel from Lebanon after the U.S. and Israel began its assault on Iran. 

Earlier Friday, the Israeli military said it had carried out about 1,100 strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since the start of the war.

CBS/AP

The U.S. State Department on Friday ordered non-emergency government staff and their families to leave Oman “due to safety risks.”

In its advisory, the State Department’s travel risk for Oman was listed at a Level 3, which recommends that Americans “reconsider travel” due to “risk of armed conflict and terrorism.” 

Oman’s state news agency reported earlier Friday that two foreign workers were killed in an Iranian drone attack on the Al Awhi Industrial Zone in northern Oman. 

President Trump said Friday night that Iran “had plans of taking over the entire Middle East, and completely obliterating Israel.”

“JUST LIKE IRAN ITSELF, THOSE PLANS ARE NOW DEAD!” he wrote on social media.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Friday that three of the six U.S. service members killed when an aerial refueling aircraft involved in the war against Iran crashed Thursday in western Iraq were from Ohio. 

DeWine posted on social media that he had been “advised” by the state’s adjutant general that the three service members were Ohioans deployed in the Ohio Air National Guard’s 121st Air Refueling Wing.

“Fran and I are deeply saddened by this news and offer our sincere condolences to their families,” DeWine wrote. 

President Trump said he thinks gas prices “are going to come tumbling down, along with everything else,” when the war ends. 

“But we had to end the nuclear threat in the Middle East and throughout the world,” he told reporters Friday before departing for Florida. “We will have done that.”

Asked how long he thinks the war might last, Mr. Trump said “it’ll be as long as it’s necessary,” later adding: “I won’t give you a time, but we’re way ahead of schedule.” 

President Trump said the Iran war “is going very well” and that there were “a lot of big hits today, a lot of big wins today.”

Speaking to reporters Friday before departing for Florida, Mr. Trump said the U.S. is in a position “of dominance that nobody’s ever seen before.” 

“Their navy is gone, their air force is gone, most of their military is gone, their big threat is gone in every way,” he said of Iran.

Asked if the U.S. Navy will start escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, the president said “it’ll happen soon.”

President Trump said Friday that the U.S. military had conducted “one of the most power bombing raids” on Iran’s Kharg Island.

The president wrote on social media that the assault launched on his orders by U.S. Central Command “totally obliterated every MILITARY target in Iran’s crown jewel.”

Kharg Island, located in the Persian Gulf, is a vital oil hub that serves as Iran’s main oil export terminal.

In his post, Mr. Trump wrote that he had “chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island,” but said that if Iran interfered with safe passage of ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, he would “immediately reconsider this decision.”

However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision.

Several key areas of Qatar are being evacuated as Iran continues to strike Gulf countries amid its war with the U.S. and Israel, officials said.  

Agence France-Presse journalists later reported hearing explosions heard in central Doha.

The Qatari interior ministry said in a social media post that it was “evacuating a number of specified areas as a temporary precautionary measure until the threat has subsided.”

In Doha’s central Musheireb district some residents received phone alerts telling them to “evacuate immediately.”

Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. knows Iran’s new supreme leader is hurt but not the full extent of his injuries.

Asked by CBS News’ Jennifer Jacobs in North Carolina if Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was hurt by a U.S. airstrike, Vance said, “Well, it’s not totally clear, actually.”

“It’s obviously a very chaotic environment over there,” Vance said. “And you have the Israelis striking, you have, obviously, the United States striking a number of targets. So we know that he’s hurt. We don’t know exactly how bad, but we know that he’s hurt.”

More than 50,000 Americans have returned from the Middle East to the U.S. since the beginning of the war, a senior State Department official said.

The State Department has directly provided security guidance and travel assistance to nearly 34,000 Americans, the official said. The department, the official said, has reached out to every American who has expressed interest in support.

Taking questions from reporters at a political event in North Carolina, Vice President JD Vance acknowledged the increase in oil prices and said the Trump administration is working to bring them down.

“One thing I can promise you is that Chris Wright, our great secretary of energy, and Scott Bessent, our secretary of the treasury, have been running our administration’s response to the economic element of this,” Vance said. “Because we know, obviously when the president takes action to make sure the American people are safe, we have got to do everything we can to deal with the consequences of that economically.”

“And it’s not just oil, there’s a whole host of things that we’re focused on in the administration to try to ensure that we do the right thing by the American people,” he continued. “What the president has said very clearly is that he does not like higher oil prices and neither do I, but he also believes that we’re going to make the American people safer and that we’re going to bring those prices at the pump back down to the levels they need to be for the American people.”

While delivering a speech in North Carolina, Vice President JD Vance recognized veterans and service members in the audience. North Carolina has a number of bases and a high veteran population.

“You all know that right now, we are engaged in a military operation to ensure, as the president has said repeatedly, that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon,” he said. “That is a simple, simple principle and standard. Frankly, every president has taken affirmative steps to ensure that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.” 

Many in the crowd clapped. 

“But we also know that there are a lot of people from the state of North Carolina who are in harm’s way right now,” Vance said. “And so I want all of us, when we go home, when we leave this event, I want all of us to say a prayer. Not just for the North Carolinians, but for the people of all of our 50 states who put on the uniform and are willing to sacrifice for the safety and security and freedom of the United States of America.”

In an interview with professional boxer Jake Paul posted to YouTube on Friday, President Trump said Iran was “going to attack us” if the U.S. didn’t attack first.

“With Iran, we knew we had to do something because they were going to be attacking us,” he said. “If we didn’t attack them, they were going to attack us. And we did it first. And by going first, we wiped out thousands of missiles that would have been shot. And you know, you can shoot them down, but you need a lot of, a lot of very expensive weaponry to shoot them down. We wiped out thousands and thousands of missiles by going early, and it made a big difference.”

The Pentagon is expected to send more ships and Marines to the Middle East, two U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News.

The reinforcements were expected to come from elements of an amphibious ready group and its embarked Marine expeditionary unit, the officials said.

One official said the group is led by the USS Tripoli, which is currently deployed to Japan. The group typically consists of 5,000 sailors and Marines across several warships.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the development.

The U.S. says it is offering up to $10 million for information on Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and other top leaders, including some whose names the U.S. appears not to know.

The U.S. State Department’s Rewards for Justice program announced the reward on Friday for information on Khamenei and nine other Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “key leaders.”

Four of those who are listed are identified only by title, with no listed names. They are the secretary of the defense council, adviser to the supreme leader, military officer chief of the supreme leader’s office, and the IRGC commander.

“Got information on these Iranian terrorist leaders?” the program asks in a post on social media. “Send us a tip. It could make you eligible for a reward and relocation.”

The Israeli military said its air force fighter jets targeted over 150 Iranian military sites in strikes on Friday in western and central Iran.

Weapons storage facilities, UAV storage facilities, ballistic missiles, defense systems and missile launchers were struck, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Since the start of Israel’s campaign against Iran in late February, the Israeli Air Force has completed hundreds of waves of strikes against Iranian infrastructure aimed at reducing missile fire toward Israeli territory, it said. 

The airline El Al said Friday it will operate some flights out of Tel Aviv specifically for Americans whose flights were canceled due to the Iran war.

Six non-stop flights to New York will operate starting Monday as part of an arrangement between the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and El Al, the airline said. The flights are expected to leave Israel at full capacity.

The airline said that on Sunday it will start contacting El Al ticket holders whose flights were canceled and not yet reassigned, to offer them seats on the dedicated flights at no additional cost. American customers were asked to complete a registration form on the airline’s website.

“We are prepared to expand the Flight Schedule for dedicated flights for American citizens, understanding that the current number of flights provides only a partial solution and does not meet the high demand. Any expansion of activity will be carried out Subject to additional Government Approvals,” El Al said.

The Israeli military said Friday that since it launched joint operations with the U.S. on Feb. 28, it has carried out more than 7,600 strikes across Iran and over 1,100 targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Israel Defense Forces’ update said the attacks in Iran included “more than 2,000 strikes against headquarters and assets of the Iranian terror regime, and roughly 4,700 strikes against the Iranian missile program. Additionally, acting on precise IDF intelligence, thousands of operatives of the Iranian terror regime have been struck and eliminated.”

In Lebanon, the IDF said forces were continuing “targeted operations to remove threats and dismantle enemy capabilities,” and it touted “a powerful operational effort” to “inflict severe damage on all key Hezbollah centers, which deliberately chose to attack Israel on behalf of the Iranian terror regime.”

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said that more than 630 people had been killed in the country amid Israel’s ongoing offensive as of Wednesday. 

Smoke rose from two locations around Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv on Friday, AFP journalists reported, after explosions were heard following a warning that Iran had launched more missiles at the country.

Israel’s national Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency medical agency said it had “searched locations where reports were received; no casualties were located.”

The MDA shared a photo and video online of thick black smoke billowing into the sky from what appeared to be a burning warehouse at one of the locations near a highway, with emergency crews on the scene.

The explosions were heard after air raid sirens blared in Tel Aviv. Prior to the sirens, the Israeli military said it had “identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel” and that air defense systems were “operating to intercept the threat.”

Israeli authorities have issued thousands of similar alerts since the U.S. and Israel launched their joint strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, sparking the ongoing war.

In an interview with Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade, President Trump said the conflict in Iran will be over “when I feel it.”

Kilmeade asked the president when Operation Epic Fury, soon to enter its third week, would conclude. 

“When I feel it,” the president responded. “When I feel it in my bones.” 

The president also told Kilmeade the U.S. doesn’t need Ukraine’s help with drone defense, despite the Pentagon apparently seeking Ukrainian assistance in defending America’s Gulf allies from Iranian drones late last week. 

“We don’t need their help with drone defense,” he said. “We know more about drones than anybody.” 

An Israeli military spokesman said Friday that while Israel had “achieved significant results” in its ongoing operations against Iran and its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon, there were still “many objectives to strike, many threats to neutralize.”

“We have achieved significant results against the Iranian terror regime, which remains destabilized, and we continue to undermine and strike it,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Brigadier Gen. Effie Defrin said Friday. “In Lebanon, Hezbollah are paying a heavy price. We continue to strike around the clock and target its operatives.”

“IDF troops across all domains — air, sea, and ground — are ready and prepared to defend you, the Israeli civilians. The IDF is looking forward. We still have many objectives to strike, many threats to neutralize, and we are determined to meet all our goals,” Defrin said.

President Trump said this week that he would end the war “very soon,” on his own timetable, though he wasn’t more specific. He told Axios on Wednesday there was “practically nothing left to target” in Iran. 

A growing number of social media users, including foreigners, are facing charges in the United Arab Emirates under the Gulf state’s broad cybercrime laws for sharing or possessing digital content that depicts or comments on the impact of ongoing Iranian attacks, the advocacy group Detained in Dubai has warned.

The arrests highlight the strict regulations around online content in the UAE, which has expressly forbidden anyone from taking or sharing imagery that shows Iranian drone or missile impacts or efforts to intercept the weapons.

Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai and Due Process International, and an expert on legal and extradition issues in the Gulf region, warned in a social media post that even minor posts, reshares, commentary, photos and opinions can lead to detention in the UAE, “even if it was made outside the UAE.” 

Stirling said 21 people were facing charges under the UAE’s cybercrime laws as of Thursday, including a 60-year-old British tourist who deleted his video immediately when authorities asked him to, but was still charged.

Read more here.

Iran listed a number of major U.S. tech companies as potential targets this week, as it expands its attacks across the Middle East in retaliation for the ongoing U.S. and Israeli strikes on its military and security forces and leadership.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency, which is linked to the country’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, published a list of major U.S. tech companies in a social media post on Tuesday, which included Amazon, Microsoft, Palantir, and Oracle, with the caption: “Enemy’s technological infrastructure: Iran’s new goals in the region.”

Iranian drone strikes have already damaged data centers in the region, hitting Amazon facilities in two countries last week.

The list published by Tasnim was accompanied by a threat that, “with the expansion of regional war dimensions into infrastructure, cyberwarfare, and scope, Iran’s legitimate targets are gradually expanding.”

Read more here.

All six crew members who were aboard a U.S. military refueling aircraft that crashed in western Iraq on Thursday are confirmed dead, U.S. Central Command said Friday.

CENTCOM confirmed earlier that four crew members died in the crash. The two additional confirmed deaths bring the confirmed U.S. military death toll in the Iran war to 13.

“The circumstances of the incident are under investigation,” CENTCOM said in a statement. “However, the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.”

The military said the identities of the service members are being withheld until 24 hours after next of kin are notified.

The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Defense said Friday that the Gulf state was “currently responding to incoming missile and drone threats from Iran.”

“The UAE’s air defenses are currently dealing with missile attacks and incoming drones originating from Iran, and the Ministry of Defense confirms that the sounds heard in scattered areas of the country are the result of air defense systems intercepting ballistic missiles, as well as fighter jets intercepting drones and loitering munitions,” the ministry said in a social media post.

According to regularly updated data from the independent National Institute for Security Studies, in Israel, the UAE has been targeted by Iran more than any other Gulf state, with at least 282 missiles and more than 1,500 drones detected flying at the country. Most have been intercepted or fallen in the sea or on empty ground, but as least six people have been killed in the UAE and over 130 wounded since the war began, according to the INSS.

Ukraine and America’s G7 partners have balked at the Trump administration’s decision to temporarily ease sanctions on Russian oil sales, saying the impact on global energy prices from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran can not justify any letup in the pressure on Moscow as the war in Ukraine continues.

“This single easing by the U.S. could provide Russia with around $10 billion for the war,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday during a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. “It certainly does not help (to achieve) peace.”

Germany’s Chancellor Fredrich Merz said Friday that, during a conference call on Wednesday among the leaders of the G7, the world’s biggest democratic economies, he and all other leaders, apart from President Trump, “were very clear” that lifting sanctions on Russia was “not the right signal to send.”

“Six members of the G7 expressed a very clear view that this is not the right signal to send,” Merz said during a news conference with his Norwegian counterpart in Norway on Friday. “We learned this morning that the U.S. government has apparently decided otherwise. Once again, we believe this is the wrong decision.” 

Merz said there was “a price problem, but not a supply problem” facing global energy markets, adding that he hoped to learn more about what led to the Trump administration’s decision.

“We will not allow” our Ukraine support “to be distracted or dissuaded by the war in Iran,” he said.

France’s Macron also said the G7’s collective position remained that the war with Iran could not justify lifting sanctions on Russian oil.

“It is entirely true that the United States has granted limited exemptions,” Macron said at the joint news conference with Zelenskyy. “As for the G7, the common position has indeed been to maintain sanctions against Russia, and for the Europeans and France, it is also to maintain them. The current situation in no way justifies lifting these sanctions.”

Friday will “yet again” see “the highest volume of strikes that America has put over the skies of Iran and Tehran … ramping up and only up,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday in a Pentagon briefing. 

He said President Trump “holds the cards” in the Iran war, and only Mr. Trump “will determine the pace, the tempo and the timing of this conflict.”

While President Trump has said he will end the war “very soon,” he has not offered specifics about any timeline for an end to the conflict.

The Strait of Hormuz is a “tactically complex environment,” Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said Friday, acknowledging the difficulty in acting on plans to escort commercial shipping traffic safely through the strategic waterway.

“It’s a tactically complex environment. Before, I think, we want to take anything through there at scale, we want to make sure that we do the work pursuant to our current military objectives,” Caine said.

Asked if the Trump administration had adequately planned for Iran blocking the strait, through which a fifth of global crude oil supplies typically flow, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said yes, but did not provide details.

“We’re actually closing in on, grabbing hold of and controlling what objectives we want to achieve, and how we want to achieve them,” he said.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Thursday that the U.S. military was “not ready” to escort tankers through the strait, with forces focused on striking Iran, but he added that it was “quite likely” such escorts would be taking place by the end of the month.

CBS/AFP

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked at a Pentagon briefing Friday if Iran was “placing new mines” in the Strait of Hormuz. 

“We have no clear evidence of that,” he said. 

U.S. officials told CBS News earlier this week that Iran may be getting ready to deploy naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz in an effort to keep the shipping lane, which is critical for the global oil trade, gridlocked.

The military’s Central Command said Thursday that at least 30 Iranian mine-laying vessels had been destroyed since the war began.  

Pressed for information about U.S. casualties, Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Dan Caine said Friday that a “large, large majority” of the service members injured in the war had received medical treatment and returned to duty.

He said U.S. forces had been wounded in places including Kuwait, where six were killed in an Iranian strike that hit a tactical operations center, as well as Jordan and Saudi Arabia, adding that most were hurt in one-way strikes rather than an exchange of fire.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said during the same briefing that the Pentagon was trying to “clarify those numbers … be more clear about that,” but that the “overwhelmingly majority” had suffered only minor injuries and returned to duty.

“That number can look a certain way, and our job is to add some fidelity to it,” Hegseth said.

The Iranian drone attack that killed six U.S. service members in Kuwait in the early hours of the war was more severe than previously revealed, CBS News learned earlier this week from multiple sources, leaving dozens of Americans with injuries including brain trauma, shrapnel wounds and burns. 

The sources described a chaotic scene in the aftermath of the strike and said more than 30 U.S. service members remained in hospitals as of Tuesday night.

The U.S. military plane that crashed Thursday, killing at least four crew members, was in friendly territory over western Iraq during a combat mission when the incident happened, Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine said at the Pentagon Friday.

The military is still “treating this as an active rescue and recovery operation,” he said.

CENTCOM said earlier that recovery efforts were still underway, without giving any information on the condition of two other crew members who were aboard the aircraft, which went down at about 2 p.m. Eastern on Thursday.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. military’s Central Command had designated an officer from outside the command to investigate a strike that hit an Iranian girls elementary school in the early hours of the war, and he said the probe would take “as long as necessary.”

Hegseth said Iran was the only nation involved in the war that deliberately targets civilians.

“We have a very high-fidelity process in that case. We don’t target. Iran does,” Hegseth said. “We will investigate. We’ll get to the truth and we’ll share it when we have it.”

Sources have told CBS News the U.S. may have been responsible for the bombing of the girls school, which killed 168 people on Feb. 28.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mentioned the fatal crash of the KC-135 refueling aircraft in Iraq during his Pentagon briefing Friday, saying, “bad things can happen.”

“War is hell,” he said. “War is chaos.”

He called the plane’s crew American heroes and said “their sacrifice will only recommit us to the resolve of this mission.”

“But war in this context and in pursuit of peace is necessary,” he said.

U.S. Central Command confirmed Friday that four crew members from the KC-135 were killed in the crash in western Iraq. CENTCOM said recovery efforts were still underway, but it did not provide any information about the condition of two other crew members who were on the plane.

Asked by a reporter about the Strait of Hormuz and when it might be fully open again to commercial shipping traffic, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said it was Iran’s attacks restricting transit through the vital shipping lane.

“It is open for transit should Iran not do that,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth noted that Iran had previously used the strait as leverage, and he said the Trump administration had plans for potential actions by Tehran.

“That’s not a strait that we’re going to allow to remain contested, or with a lack of flow of commercial goods, so we’re aware of that,” he said.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, in the same briefing at the Pentagon, said the U.S. still had a “range of options to solve a whole variety of problems” related to the strait.

A group of Iranian-backed militias that collectively refer to themselves as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed Friday that they had caused the deadly crash of an American KC-135 refueling tanker plane in western Iraq, and hit a second aircraft of the same kind. 

The U.S. military’s Central Command confirmed Friday that four crew members were killed the previous day when a KC-135 Stratotanker crashed in western Iraq, but the statement from the command said while the circumstances of the incident remained under investigation, “the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.”

CENTCOM said rescue efforts were still underway for two other crew members.

U.S. officials told CBS News separately that they believed the incident may have involved a mid-air collision, though they also stressed that an investigation was still underway.

Officials told CBS News Thursday that a second U.S. KC-135 Stratotanker was damaged but landed later safely. CENTCOM did not mention a second aircraft in its statement on Friday.

According to flight tracking service FlightRadar24, a KC-135 tanker declared an emergency before landing in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Thursday evening.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, in a second claim issued online Friday, said it had “targeted, with appropriate weapons, a second KC-135 aircraft belonging to the American occupation in western Iraq during the past twenty-four hours. Its crew managed to escape after it was hit, and it made an emergency landing at one of the enemy’s airports.”

Iran doesn’t have the ability to build more missiles, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday.

“As of two days ago, Iran’s entire ballistic missile production capacity, every company that builds every component of those missiles, has been functionally defeated,” with buildings destroyed by ongoing U.S.-Israeli airstrikes, he said.

Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei “is wounded and likely disfigured,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a Pentagon briefing on Friday, without specifying what intelligence had led to his assessment.

Hegseth belittled the first statement attributed to Khamenei, which was read Thursday by a presenter on Iranian state TV, calling it “weak” and noting there was no voice or video to prove the new leader’s condition. 

“Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement?” Hegseth said. “I think you know why: his father, dead. He’s scared. He’s injured. He’s on the run, and he lacks legitimacy. It’s a mess for them. Who’s in charge? Iran may not even know.”

An Iranian official said Wednesday that the new supreme leader was injured in the attack, but was “alive and well.” He has not been seen publicly since the war began.

In the statement, Khamenei said Iran should continue using the closure of the Strait of Hormuz as leverage and vowed that attacks against U.S. targets will continue.

The U.S. and Israel have struck more than 15,000 “enemy targets” during the war with Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday.

“That’s well over 1,000 a day,” he said. “No other combination of countries in the world can do that.”

He said the U.S. was flying over Iran on Friday with “fighters and bombers, all day, picking targets as they choose.”

He said the volume of Iran’s missile launches was down 90% on Thursday, and the frequency of its “one-way attack drones” was down 95%.

The United Kingdom will not loosen sanctions on Russian oil, despite a move announced Thursday by the Trump administration to do so as the ongoing Iran war drives energy prices up.

“The U.K. government will not be loosening sanctions on Russia at all. This is an absolutely critical moment in the Russian aggression against Ukraine and sanctions are important. And what we absolutely can’t have is Putin sitting in the Kremlin thinking this is an opportunity to invest more in the war machine,” Michael Shanks, U.K. Minister for Energy, told CBS News’ partner network BBC News on Friday. “Sanctions are important and they’ll stay in place from the U.K.”

When asked about the U.S. decision to ease oil sanctions on Russia to try to mitigate the economic impact of the war, Shanks said he was “not going to be drawn into what other countries do. That’s decisions that they will choose to make. But we’ve been really clear throughout that the U.K. government stands with Ukraine. We’ve been working to build a coalition of the willing to make sure we are supporting Ukraine’s war effort. These sanctions against Russia are a really important part of that and the U.K. won’t be changing its position.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said one French soldier had been killed in the line of duty during an attack in Erbil, northern Iraq. He identified the soldier as Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion, and added that others had been wounded.

“Several of our soldiers have been wounded. France stands by their side and with their loved ones,” Macron said in a statement Friday on social media. “This attack against our forces engaged in the fight against [ISIS] since 2015 is unacceptable. Their presence in Iraq is part of the strict framework of the fight against terrorism. The war in Iran cannot justify such attacks.”

Iran’s president and foreign minister were among the senior officials who joined thousands of people marching through downtown Tehran on Friday, showing defiance as U.S.-Israeli airstrikes continued, sending up plumes of smoke not far from a crowd according to videos posted online.

Iran marks “Quds [Jerusalem] Day” on the final Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in solidarity with Palestinians, and that was the occasion for the large rally in Tehran, but the top officials showing up was a clear signal to the U.S. and Israel that their ongoing strikes had not dislodged the nearly 50-year-old theocracy that rules Iran.

New Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei was not seen during the rally, and there have been rumors this week that he may have been seriously wounded — possibly even left in a coma — in the same strike that killed his father and predecessor on Feb. 28. But Iran watchers say, from past experience, it would be unusual for the supreme leader to appear in such an open forum as a public street rally.

“Today is Quds Day in Iran, and despite the brutal attacks carried out today by the Zionist regime and the United States, we are witnessing a massive turnout — millions of people — not just in Tehran, but across all cities,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a video posted online, which showed him walking amidst flag-waving Iranians. “This demonstrates the firm resolve of the Iranian people in support of the Islamic Republic, the cause of Jerusalem, Palestine, and all the principles we have upheld over the years that have brought us to this point. God willing, we will continue with the same strength and power, and we will compel our enemies to acknowledge the strength of the Iranian people.”

President Masoud Pezeshkian was also seen in videos walking through Tehran with other rally attendees, while another clip showed the head of Iran’s powerful Judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, leading a prayer.

Speaking with a reporter surrounded by other people during the march, Mohseni-Ejei was interrupted briefly by the sound of another U.S. or Israeli strike hitting nearby. 

As he was saying Iran’s leaders “want to stand with the people, beside the people, until the last breath and the last moment,” a loud boom is head and he and the others around him look toward the apparent explosion, before he continues: “The people are not intimidated by these enemy attacks. They take precautions, but under this rain and under these missile bombardments, they will in no way retreat from resistance.”

Four of six crew members were killed in the crash Thursday of a U.S. KC-135 refueling aircraft in western Iraq, U.S. Central Command said Friday, adding that rescue efforts were ongoing for the other two.

“The circumstances of the incident are under investigation,” CENTCOM said. “However, the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.

“The identities of the service members are being withheld until 24 hours after next of kin have been notified.”

A second Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker was damaged but landed safely in Tel Aviv, officials told CBS News. Flight tracking service FlightRadar24 said a KC-135 tanker declared an emergency before landing in Tel Aviv Thursday evening.

U.S. officials have told CBS News they believe the incident may have involved a mid-air collision, but they were still investigating.

Saudi Arabia said it had downed nearly 50 drones sent in multiple waves throughout the early morning hours on Friday, including one that had targeted the diplomatic quarter in the capital Riyadh, which houses foreign embassies, the defense ministry said Friday.

The “hostile drone” was downed “during an attempt to approach the Diplomatic Quarter,”, the ministry posted on X.

In Oman, two people were killed when drones crashed into an industrial area in the region of Sohar, the Oman News Agency reported.

Sirens also sounded in Bahrain warning of incoming fire, and in Dubai black smoke billowed from an industrial area after a blaze authorities said was sparked by debris from an interception.

CBS/AP

President Trump issued a vague new threat to Iran’s leaders early Friday, as he also took a swipe at The New York Times.

Mr. Trump said on his Truth Social platform that the U.S. was “totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise, yet, if you read the Failing New York Times, you would incorrectly think that we are not winning. Iran’s Navy is gone, their Air Force is no longer, missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth. We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time – Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today. They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so!”

Turkey’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement Friday morning that NATO air and missile defense systems deployed in the eastern Mediterranean had neutralized a ballistic missile fired from Iran that had entered Turkish air space.

“All necessary measures are being taken resolutely and without hesitation against any threat directed at our country’s territory and airspace, and discussions are being held with the relevant country to clarify all aspects of the incident,” Turkey’s ministry of defense said.

At least two previous Iranian missile launches targeting Turkey were also intercepted by NATO defenses since the war in Iran began.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the country’s military, warned Friday that any new protests against authorities would be met with a stronger response than in January, when several thousand people were killed.

“The evil enemy, failing to achieve its field battle goals, is once again pursuing the instillation of fear and street riots,” the Guards said in a statement broadcast on TV, promising “a stronger blow than on January 8” in the event of new unrest.

The warning comes two weeks into Iran’s war with the United States and Israel in which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says one of the aims is to “create, for the Iranian people, the conditions to bring down” the Iranian government.

President Trump has also called for Iranians to rise up and overthrow their government.

In December, protests against the high cost of living in Iran turned into a broad protest movement against authorities.

They peaked on Jan. 8 and Jan. 9 with what Iranian authorities called “riots” blamed on “terrorists” working on behalf of Israel and the United States.

The official death toll from Iranian authorities stands at more than 3,000, with the government saying the vast majority were members of security forces or passers-by.

Mr. Trump said last month that 32,000 people were killed, a far higher death toll than had previously been reported.

Two sources, including one inside Iran, told CBS News at least 12,000, and possibly as many as 20,000 people were killed throughout Iran in the protests.  

CBS/AFP