Iran war live updates: Regime issues threat against protesters; drone reportedly hits major US diplomatic facility in Iraq | World news

An Israeli strike hit an apartment in central Beirut on Wednesday, state media reported, the second targeting the heart of the Lebanese capital since the start of the latest war with Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said that “the enemy targeted an apartment in the Aisha Bakkar area” in central Beirut.

The US military said it attacked and destroyed 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the strait of Hormuz amid reports that Iran has begun laying explosive devices in the strategically vital waterway.

Citing intelligence sources, CNN on Tuesday reported that Iran has laid a few dozen mines in the strait in recent days and has the capability to sow hundreds more.

About one-fifth of the world’s oil passes through the strait, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said earlier this week it will not allow even “one litre of oil” to leave the region if US-Israeli attacks continue.

On Tuesday, Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social that “if Iran has put out any mines in the Hormuz Strait, and we have no reports of them doing so, we want them removed, IMMEDIATELY!” Less than two hours later, the US military released unclassified footage of its attacks on mine-laying vessels.

Read the full report here:

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) Centre says it has received a report of an incident 25 nautical miles northwest of the United Arab Emirates, in the strait of Hormuz.

According to the UKMTO, a container ship has sustained damage from an unknown projectile.

Crew members are said to be safe, but the extent of the damage of the vessel is currently unknown.

Maritime records show that only two vessels not linked to Iran or Russia have attempted to make the run through the strait of Hormuz since Donald Trump said he would “ensure the free flow of energy to the world.”

The Hormuz sea passage, one of the world’s most strategically important choke points, would normally have about 100 vessels a day either exiting or entering the Gulf. In response to the US and Israeli attacks, Iran has effectively shut the strait, attacking at least 10 ships which were seeking to traverse it in the early days of the crisis.

Over in Senate question time, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has confirmed embassies in Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv and the consulate in Dubai all physically closed in the last week.

Wong said the government’s number one priority is to “keep Australians safe at home and abroad”.

She continued:

“The dangerous and destabilising attacks by Iran put civilian lives at risk, including Australian lives.”

More than 3,200 Australians over 23 commercial flights have returned to Australia since the US and Israel attacked Iran, setting off a regional conflict and grounding thousands of international flights.

Wong criticised Nationals senators for “winding up people and stoking fear” to panic buy fuel.

The senator said:

“Petrol companies are telling us that fuel stock continues to arrive as expected and on time but there has been a large change in the pattern of demand and that is having an effect on the supply, particularly in regional communities. We have seen jerry cans coming off the shelves at Bunnings and lines at the pump.”

One of the two members of the Iranian women’s football teams provided with a humanitarian visa to stay in Australia has changed her mind and contacted the Iranian embassy, according to the country’s home affairs minister.

Tony Burke said he was advised shortly after 10am this morning that she had spoken to some of the teammates who had left, but that in contacting the embassy, gave away the team’s location to the embassy.

Burke says as soon as he was advised, the government and department then arranged for the rest of the team to be moved safely, and he says that’s been “dealt with”.

In Australia, people are able to change their mind, people are able to travel. So, we respect the context in which she has made that decision.

Unfortunately, in making that decision, she had been advised by her teammates and coach to contact the Iranian embassy and get collected … As a result of that, it meant that the Iranian embassy now knew the location of where everybody was.

You can read more about the Iranian squad and the decision made by some of them to stay in Australia here.

Following on from our previous report on a drone hitting a major US diplomatic facility in Iraq – Reuters has reported on an internal State Department alert that there were no injuries and everyone was accounted for at the facility.

The drone hit the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center, next to the Baghdad airport, impacting near a guard tower, the internal alert from the department seen by Reuters said. Individuals at the facility were ordered to “duck and cover”, it said. A separate alert said everyone was accounted for.

The Washington Post said a total of six drones were launched toward the compound in Baghdad and that five were shot down. It also said the attack was likely carried out by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed factions.

The International Energy Agency has proposed the largest release of oil reserves in its history, in an effort to bring down crude prices that have soared in the last 10 days, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The release would exceed the 182m barrels of oil that IEA member countries put onto the market in two releases in 2022 when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Journal said, citing officials familiar with the matter

The IEA is convening an extraordinary meeting of its member states on Tuesday, and countries are expected to decide on the proposal on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal said.

Benchmark oil prices surged to almost four-year highs on Monday but lost ground on Tuesday after Donald Trump predicted the war in the Middle East could end soon. G7 energy ministers stopped short of agreeing on a release of strategic oil reserves on Tuesday and instead asked the IEA to assess the situation before acting.

In a departure from previous US conflicts, the war in Iran is opposed by most Americans, according to polls analysed by the New York Times.

In the days after Trump launched the US attack against Iran, support for the strikes is far lower than what it has been at the beginnings of previous foreign conflicts, it reports.

Polls have found most Americans oppose the attack on Iran and even the highest level of public support falls lower than that shown in the early days of most other conflicts.

Sarah Maxey, an associate professor of international relations at Loyola University of Chicago, told the NYT previous presidents have taken the time to sell wars to the public, which could account for some of the difference in opinion over this conflict.

Meanwhile, researchers have described how presidents usually experience a “rally around the flag effect” at the beginning of wards, where support swells for leaders. But that effect has diminished in the past few decades as Americans have drifted further apart politically.

Matthew Baum, a professor at Harvard University who studies public opinion on foreign policy, told the NYT Democrats are not going to rally behind Trump, while his own base may be cautious with its support.

For this president, to the extent that he has any rally from his base, he has a base who thinks they hired him to get him out of wars.

Iran had launched missiles towards Israel, said Israel’s military on Wednesday.

“Defence systems are operating to intercept the threat,” it said in a post to X, and urged the public to act in accordance with directives sent to mobile phones in the area.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they targeted a satellite communications centre in Haifa, along with military bases in Israel, and US targets elsewhere in the region, including Iraqi Kurdistan and the US Fifth Fleet naval base in Bahrain.

“We will continue our sustained attacks with purpose and power, and in this war, we contemplate nothing but the enemy’s complete surrender,” the Guards said on their website Sepah News.

A drone struck a major US diplomatic facility in Iraq on Tuesday in suspected retaliation by pro-Tehran militias over the US-Israeli war on Iran, the Washington Post reported, citing an unidentified security official and an internal US state department alert.

The strike hit the diplomatic support centre, a logistical hub for US diplomats near Baghdad airport and Iraqi military bases, it reported. It was not clear whether there were any injuries. Five other drones were intercepted.

The state department issued an internal alert saying a drone hit near a guard tower and that individuals at the facility were ordered to “duck and cover,” according to the Post.

The attack was likely carried out by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed factions, the security official said.

US Central Command has said in a post on X that it “eliminated” 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.

Earlier Donald Trump said that the US had hit and “completely destroyed” 10 inactive mine-laying vessels, warning that more would follow.

His comments came not long after he said there had been “no reports” of Iran placing mines in the strait, but warned that if Iran had placed mines in the crucial waterway, they must be moved “IMMEDIATELY” or Iran would face military consequences “at a level never seen before”.

US officials earlier told CBS News that Iran may be preparing to deploy naval mines in the strait to further disrupt the crucial shipping lane. According to CNN, a few dozen mines have been laid in recent days.

Iran’s police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan has warned Iranians on state TV that anyone who takes to the streets “at the enemy’s request” will be “confronted as an enemy, not a protester”.

We will do to them what we do to enemies. We will treat them the way we treat enemies.

All of our men have their fingers on the trigger and are ready to defend their revolution, to support their people and their homeland.

Radan said security forces are stationed in the streets “day and night”.

Both Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have called on Iranians to take to the streets and overthrow their regime in recent weeks.

Iran has brutally cracked down on protesters involved in a wave of anti-establishment demonstrations since late December. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said it had confirmed the killing of at least 7,000 people, including children and people not involved in the protests, during that period.

Hello and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Here are the main developments:

• Iran’s police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan has warned Iranians on state TV that anyone who takes to the streets “at the enemy’s request” will be “confronted as an enemy, not a protester”. Radan said security forces are stationed in the streets “day and night”.

• Lebanese health authorities said Israel’s raids on the southern town of Qana, in the Tyre district, on Wednesday have killed five people and wounded five others.

• The Israeli military said it had begun an “additional wave” of strikes on targets in Tehran. It followed the IDF saying earlier that it had struck key command centres of the Iranian armed forces in Tehran and Tabriz.

• It comes as Iran’s UN ambassador accused the US and Israel of deliberately targeting civilians – saying that almost 10,000 civilian sites have been hit in the country, including about 8,000 residential homes, and the death toll has reached more than 1,300 people. Amir Saeid Iravani said “populated residential areas” and “critical civilian infrastructure” had been hit in attacks he described as “horrific crimes”.

• Donald Trump said the US has hit and “completely destroyed” 10 inactive mine-laying vessels, warning that more would follow. US Central Command added that it “eliminated” 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the strait of Hormuz. The updates came shortly after the US president initially said there had been “no reports” of Iran placing mines in the strait, but warned that if it had, they must be moved “IMMEDIATELY” or Iran would face military consequences “at a level never seen before”. US officials earlier told CBS News that Iran may be preparing to deploy naval mines in the strait to further disrupt the crucial shipping lane. According to CNN, a few dozen mines have been laid in recent days.

• White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the US Navy has not escorted an oil tanker through the strait of Hormuz, after the US energy secretary Chris Wright said it had happened in a swiftly deleted X post. Leavitt also said that the US military is “drawing up additional options” to keep strait open.

• Leavitt also said that the US and Israel’s war won’t end until Iran’s “complete and unconditional surrender” and when Trump decides his objectives have been met and determines that Iran does not pose a direct threat. She told reporters that the US military is “making tremendous strides towards achieving our military objectives”, and is now moving to “dismantle Iran’s missile production infrastructure”.

• Meanwhile, the Trump administration is reportedly considering the deployment of special forces into Iran to secure its stockpile of highly enriched uranium (HEU), which experts say could be used to make at least 10 nuclear warheads. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has told Congress that “people are going to have to go and get it”. Here’s our story.

• The United States reportedly asked Israel to halt strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure, marking the first time the US has reined in its ally since they went to war 11 days ago. It comes after an Israeli bombing of fuel storage facilities blanketed Tehran – a city home to some 10 million people – in toxic black smoke and acid rain over the weekend, raising urgent health warnings for ordinary Iranians.

• Israel is set to expand its defence budget by almost 40 billion shekels (US$13bn) to fund the war in Iran, according to a finance ministry official, who wished to remain anonymous, Bloomberg reports. The defence budget will be expanded by 28bn shekels, with an additional 10 billion put aside as reserves for possible military needs, the offical said.

• A total of seven members of the Iranian women’s football team have now been granted humanitarian visas in Australia, home affairs minister Tony Burke has confirmed. An additional two women had sought asylum before the rest of the Iranian team departed Sydney on a flight to Malaysia on Tuesday night, one player and one support member, Burke told a press conference on Wednesday morning.

• Russia denied sharing intelligence with Iran on US military assets in the Middle East, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said. It follows reports on Friday that Moscow was providing Tehran with targeting information that included locations and movements of US warships and aircraft in the region. “Yesterday on the call with the president, the Russians said that they have not been sharing,” Witkoff said when asked if Washington thought Moscow had shared intelligence about the location of US military assets with Tehran. “We can take them at their word. But they did say that. And yesterday morning, independently, Jared [Kushner] and I had a call with [Kremlin aide Yuri] Ushakov who reiterated the same.”

• Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed repeated claims from the Trump administration that Iran was planning a preemptive or preventive strike against the US or its military forces as “a sheer and utter lie”. “The sole purpose of that lie is to justify Operation Epic Mistake, a misadventure engineered by Israel and paid for by ordinary Americans,” Araghchi said in a post on X – riffing on the US’s name for the military operation, Operation Epic Fury.

• Approximately 140 US service members have been wounded since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, according to the Pentagon, eight of them severely.