Where we are today
The White House pushed back against questions on US involvement in the Iran school bombing. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt batted down a question from a reporter about the US involvement in a strike on an Iranian girls’ elementary school, which killed 175 people. The press secretary did not accept US responsibility for the attack, and noted that the Pentagon is investigating the strike.
During the White House press briefing on Wednesday, Leavitt said that Spain had agreed to cooperate with US operations in the Middle East. But, shortly after, Spain’s foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, said that the Spanish government’s position “on the war in the Middle East, the bombings in Iran, and the use of our bases has not changed one iota”.
Leavitt also did not rule out the possibility of US troops on the ground in Iran. “They’re not part of the plan for this operation at this time,” Leavitt said. “But I certainly will never take away military options on behalf of the president of the United States … and he wisely does not do the same for himself.”
As Trump kicked things off for his roundtable event with tech companies today, he noted that those in the room “probably want to speak about war” rather than energy costs linked to the rapid build-out of datacenters across the country. “We’re doing very well on the war front,” he said.
Emirates airline has said that all scheduled Emirates flights to and from Dubai remain suspended until 11.59pm UAE time on 7 March, due to airspace closures across the region.
Reports came in that Kurdish Iranian militias had launched a ground offensive in north-western Iran. Shortly after, Iran’s Tasnim news agency denied those reports. The deputy chief of staff to the prime minister of Kurdistan region of Iraq said that “not a single Iraqi Kurd has crossed the border”.
The US state department urged US citizens currently in Iraq to leave the country as soon as possible. The department’s consular affairs official X account wrote on Wednesday that “US citizens in Iraq are strongly encouraged to depart as soon as they are safely able to do so, and shelter in place until such time as conditions are safe to depart.”
Key events
Oil price rises almost 2% in early Asian trade
New Zealand sends military planes for Middle East evacuations
Where we are today
‘Not a single Iraqi Kurd has crossed the border,’ says deputy chief of staff to prime minister of Kurdistan region of Iraq
US citizens urged to leave Iraq as soon as possible, state department says
Reports claim that Kurdish Iranian militias have launched a ground offensive in north-western Iran
All scheduled Emirates flights to and from Dubai remain suspended until 7 March, says airline
‘We’re doing very well on the war front,’ Donald Trump says
White House spokesperson refuses to rule out US boots on the ground but says ‘they’re not part of the plan’
Spain ‘has agreed to cooperate’ with US after Trump ire, says White House
White House pushes back against questions on US involvement in Iran school bombing
Today so far
Cost of living fears rise in UK as oil and gas prices spike with Iran conflict
Was it legal for the US to sink an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean?
From petrol to groceries: how Middle East crisis is driving up prices
Iranian president tells neighbouring countries that Iran respects their sovereignty
Israeli air force says it has dropped 5,000 bombs on Iran in current military campaign
At least 80 people killed after US submarine torpedoes Iran warship, officials say
Key points from Pentagon briefing
China and Russia are ‘non-factors’ in Iran war, says Hegseth
Hegseth: Iran cannot outlast us
Hegseth says Iran can no longer shoot volume of missiles as before
US is investigating deadly strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh school girls school in southern Iran, Hegseth says
US has ‘effectively neutralised’ Iran’s naval presence, Caine says
Hegseth: We have only just begun to fight
Person charged with attempted assassination of Trump killed, Hegseth said
Hegseth confirms sinking of Iranian warship
Rules of engagement designed to “unleash American power”, Hegseth says.
Hegseth: US and Israel will have ‘complete’ control of Iranian skies in ‘under a week’
Summary of developments so far
‘America is winning’ in Iran conflict, Hegseth says
IDF launch fresh attacks in southern Lebanon as people urged to flee north
Nato condemns Iran’s targeting of Turkey
Iran death toll reaches 1,045, officials say
Nearly 150 missing after Iranian warship sinks near Sri Lanka – report
Who is Mojtaba Khamenei? The son of late supreme leader Khamenei seen as potential successor
Iran state funeral for Khamenei postponed – report
UN ‘deeply disturbed’ by reports of Iran school strike that killed 160 children
Donald Trump ‘really does not care’ if Iran play at World Cup 2026
Tell us: how have you been affected by the latest events in the Middle East?
EU sees no immediate effect of Iran conflict on gas supply security – report
Hezbollah says it targeted Israel’s major aerospace and aviation company
Iran close to choosing new supreme leader – report
Senior Khamenei aide says Iran won’t negotiate with US
Trump ‘betrayed diplomacy and Americans who elected him’, says Iran foreign minister
IDF says Israeli F-35 fighter jet shot down manned Iranian warplane in Tehran
Spain’s position is ‘no to war’, says Sanchez
Israel-US strikes on Iran appear ‘inconsistent with international law’, says Canadian PM
Summary of developments so far
Loud explosion in Tehran – report
Dozens rescued from sinking Iranian warship near Sri Lanka
Israel threatens to assassinate Ali Khamenei’s replacement
Iran Guards say launched more than 40 missiles at US, Israeli targets
Iranians to bid farewell to late Supreme Leader Khamenei in Tehran
UK government charter flight for British nationals in Oman
Conflicting claims over the strait of Hormuz
Global markets roiled by conflict
Six killed in Israeli strikes south of Beirut
Opening summary
Oil price rises almost 2% in early Asian trade
The price of oil rose nearly 2% in early Asian trade on Thursday off the back of persistent worries about supplies because of the Middle East conflict.
Around 11.10pm GMT, West Texas Intermediate – having closed barely changed on Wednesday at $74.66 per barrel – was up 1.86% at $76.05 a barrel.
Brent North Sea Crude, which ended the previous day flat at $81.40 a barrel, was not being traded, Agence France-Presse is reporting.
The US and Israeli war on Iran has effectively closed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. A fifth of the world’s seaborne crude oil travels through the waterway as well as considerable volumes of liquefied natural gas.
Hugo Lowell
Top military officials told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing on Tuesday that the US was rapidly depleting its supply of defensive missile interceptors to shoot down Iranian attack drones, even as the Trump administration has publicly dismissed those concerns.
The officials, including the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Dan Caine, said Iran had been deploying its drones in a way designed to force the US to use its sophisticated Patriot and Thaad interceptors while holding its own hi-tech supersonic and ballistic missiles in reserve.
As a result, officials said, the US was racing to destroy as many of Iran’s drone and missile launch sites as quickly as possible – before it has to begin prioritising which incoming targets to intercept, according to two people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details.
A spokesperson for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the joint chiefs of staff declined to comment due to operations security.
In retaliation against US strikes, Iran has been launching thousands of one-way Shahed drones at American military installations and assets in the region. By flying slow and low to the ground, the drones are better able to evade conventional air defences than ballistic missiles.
New Zealand sends military planes for Middle East evacuations
New Zealand has ordered two military aircraft to the Middle East in preparation for evacuations of its citizens from the region.
Foreign minister Winston Peters urged New Zealanders to “shelter in place” and leave the region if it was safe to do so.
He said on Thursday that Wellington would deploy “consular staff and two defence force planes to the region so that they can be ready when conditions allow to assist with any civilian evacuation operations”.
Speaking while on a tour of South America, Peters added:
We cannot be sure when and how any civilian evacuation operations might be possible, but we want to be ready if and when conditions on the ground make them possible.
The report from Agence France-Presse also quoted Peters as saying the C-130 Hercules planes would ferry people out of danger to a safe country where they could use a commercial carrier to get home.
He said more than 3,000 New Zealanders were registered as living in the Middle East, with 23 in Iran and 62 in Israel.
He said New Zealand may also evacuate other nationalities.
If they’ve got any remote reason to be on our plane, we’ll grab them.
Neighbouring Australia has said it has 115,000 citizens in the region.
Countries have rushed to evacuate their citizens from the Middle East this week after the US-Israeli strikes on Iran that sparked a regional war.
Where we are today
The White House pushed back against questions on US involvement in the Iran school bombing. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt batted down a question from a reporter about the US involvement in a strike on an Iranian girls’ elementary school, which killed 175 people. The press secretary did not accept US responsibility for the attack, and noted that the Pentagon is investigating the strike.
During the White House press briefing on Wednesday, Leavitt said that Spain had agreed to cooperate with US operations in the Middle East. But, shortly after, Spain’s foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, said that the Spanish government’s position “on the war in the Middle East, the bombings in Iran, and the use of our bases has not changed one iota”.
Leavitt also did not rule out the possibility of US troops on the ground in Iran. “They’re not part of the plan for this operation at this time,” Leavitt said. “But I certainly will never take away military options on behalf of the president of the United States … and he wisely does not do the same for himself.”
As Trump kicked things off for his roundtable event with tech companies today, he noted that those in the room “probably want to speak about war” rather than energy costs linked to the rapid build-out of datacenters across the country. “We’re doing very well on the war front,” he said.
Emirates airline has said that all scheduled Emirates flights to and from Dubai remain suspended until 11.59pm UAE time on 7 March, due to airspace closures across the region.
Reports came in that Kurdish Iranian militias had launched a ground offensive in north-western Iran. Shortly after, Iran’s Tasnim news agency denied those reports. The deputy chief of staff to the prime minister of Kurdistan region of Iraq said that “not a single Iraqi Kurd has crossed the border”.
The US state department urged US citizens currently in Iraq to leave the country as soon as possible. The department’s consular affairs official X account wrote on Wednesday that “US citizens in Iraq are strongly encouraged to depart as soon as they are safely able to do so, and shelter in place until such time as conditions are safe to depart.”
Jason Burke
Intense waves of airstrikes have hit dozens of military positions, frontier posts and police stations along northern parts of Iran’s border with Iraq in what appears to be preparation by US and Israel for a new front in their war.
A US official with knowledge of the discussions between Washington and Kurdish officials said the US was ready to provide air support if Kurdish peshmerga fighters crossed the border from northern Iraq. A spokesperson for Israel’s military said the air force had been “heavily operating in western Iran to degrade Iranian capabilities there and to open up a way to Tehran and create freedom of operations there”.
Both Axios and Fox News, citing a US official, on Wednesday reported that the militias had begun their offensive inside Iran. There was no official confirmation or any immediate detail about how many fighters were involved or where they were operating from.
Read more:
‘Not a single Iraqi Kurd has crossed the border,’ says deputy chief of staff to prime minister of Kurdistan region of Iraq
Iran’s Tasnim news agency also says its reporters in three border provinces deny earlier reports of armed Kurdish militants crossing into Iran from Iraq.
Aziz Ahmad, the deputy chief of staff to the prime minister of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, also denied the reports. “Not a single Iraqi Kurd has crossed the border. This is patently false,” he wrote in response to the report from Fox News.
The Axios correspondent who had reported the offensive posted this update after deleting the initial post: “There are conflicting reports regarding what is currently happening in northwestern Iran near the border with Iraq. It is unclear whether a ground offensive by the Iranian-Kurdish militias has already begun or may be launched in the coming hours. A senior official in one of the Iranian-Kurdish factions denied to me that a ground offensive has started.”
An Iranian official said the country has not sent any messages to the US, in response to an earlier Axios report, Iran’s Tasnim news agency said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Axios reported the Iranians had sent messages to the US over the last few days but the US did not respond, citing an American official and a second source.
“No message has been sent from Iran to the US, nor will any response be given to US messages. Iran’s armed forces have prepared themselves for a long war,” the official, who was not named, was quoted as saying by Tasnim.
US citizens urged to leave Iraq as soon as possible, state department says
The US state department is urging US citizens currently in Iraq to leave the country as soon as possible.
The department’s consular affairs official X account wrote on Wednesday that “US citizens in Iraq are strongly encouraged to depart as soon as they are safely able to do so, and shelter in place until such time as conditions are safe to depart. Have a supply of food, water, medications, and other essential items.”
Reports claim that Kurdish Iranian militias have launched a ground offensive in north-western Iran
Reports are coming in that Kurdish Iranian militias have launched a ground offensive in north-western Iran.
Israeli news television channel i24News says a US official has confirmed the offensive in Iran. A correspondent for Axios also reported confirmation from a senior American official, and a correspondent for Fox News wrote on X that “thousands” of Iraqi Kurds have launched a ground offensive in Iran according to a US official source.
Kurdish Iranian dissident groups based in northern Iraq are preparing for a potential cross-border military operation in Iran, and the US has asked Iraqi Kurds to support them, Kurdish officials told the Associated Press.
Kurdish party leaders have also discussed the Iran crisis with Trump, according to Iraqi Kurdish officials. One official says Trump has asked them to open the border and back the groups militarily.
The Kurdish groups are widely seen as the most well-organized segment of the fragmented Iranian opposition and are believed to have thousands of trained fighters. Their entry into the war could pose a significant challenge to the embattled authorities in Tehran and could also risk pulling Iraq further into the conflict.
Asked about reports that the Trump administration was considering arming Iranian Kurdish groups, the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, told reporters Wednesday: “None of our objectives are premised on the support or the arming of any particular force. So, what other entities may be doing, we’re aware of, but our objectives aren’t centered on that.”
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has offered to help other countries in their fight against Iranian drones and missiles.
“I held a meeting to discuss developments in the situation in the Middle East and the Gulf region, and we discussed the challenges facing Ukraine and our partners, as well as our potential to contribute to protecting lives and preventing the expansion of war and helping to stabilize global markets,” he wrote on X on Wednesday.
Zelensky said that military and intelligence officials would “present options for assisting the relevant countries and to provide aid in a way that does not weaken our own defense here in Ukraine”.
He added: “Our army has the necessary capabilities for that. And Ukrainian experts will work on the ground, and the teams have already begun coordinating in this regard. And we are ready to contribute to protecting lives, protecting civilians, and supporting real efforts to achieve stability and restore security, including resuming safe navigation in the region.”
Ukraine has much experience fending off drones, as Russia has frequently deployed one-way attack drones, which detonate on impact, since the start of its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The state department has said that the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, spoke with Hakan Fidan, the foreign minister of Turkey, on Wednesday about the recent developments in Iran and throughout the Middle East.
“The secretary told the foreign minister that attacks on Turkey’s sovereign territory were unacceptable and pledged full support from the United States,” the press release reads. “Both leaders reiterated the continued strength of the bilateral relationship.”
All scheduled Emirates flights to and from Dubai remain suspended until 7 March, says airline
Emirates airline has said that all scheduled Emirates flights to and from Dubai remain suspended until 11:59pm UAE time on 7 March, due to airspace closures across the region.
“Emirates continues to operate a limited flight schedule” they said. “We are accommodating customers with earlier bookings as a priority on these limited flights. Customers transiting in Dubai will only be accepted for travel if their connecting flight is operating.”
The Dubai international airport has announced that “most flights remain suspended” and advised people not to come to the airport unless their airline has confirmed their departure time.
“Guests without a confirmed flight may not be able to access the terminals” it said in a statement on social media. “Please contact your airline directly for the latest updates on your flight.”
‘We’re doing very well on the war front,’ Donald Trump says
Shrai Popat
As Donald Trump kicked things off for his roundtable event with tech companies today, he noted that those in the room “probably want to speak about war” rather than energy costs linked to the rapid build-out of datacenters across the country.
“We’re doing very well on the war front,” the president added. “If we didn’t do it first, they would have done it to Israel … If we didn’t hit within two weeks, they would have had a nuclear weapon.”
He added that the ongoing military action against Iran is depleting the regime’s leadership. “Everybody that seems to want to be a leader, they end up dead,” the president said.
The Israeli military has said that it has launched a new wave of strikes on Tehran.
The Associated Press is reporting that the Israeli military says the strikes on the Iranian capital are targeting “military infrastructure”.
White House spokesperson refuses to rule out US boots on the ground but says ‘they’re not part of the plan’
Shrai Popat
During today’s White House press briefing, Karoline Leavitt did not rule out the possibility of US troops on the ground in Iran.
“They’re not part of the plan for this operation at this time,” Leavitt said. “But I certainly will never take away military options on behalf of the president of the United States … and he wisely does not do the same for himself.”
She noted that “many leaders in the past” have taken options off the table “without having a full understanding of how things could develop”.
The question mark around American troops on the ground is in stark contrast to Donald Trump’s campaign, which focused on not embroiling the US in foreign conflicts.
More details have emerged about four of the American service members who were killed in an unmanned aircraft system attack in the Shuaiba port in Kuwait on Sunday, the first known US fatalities since the US and Israel launched its military campaign against Iran on Saturday.
The US Department of Defense identified the US soldiers on Tuesday evening as Capt Cody A Khork, 35; Sgt first class Nicole M Amor, 39; Sgt Declan J Coady, 20; and Sgt first class Noah L Tietjens, 42.
Read about the four US service members here:
Donald Trump and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, spoke on Wednesday about US military operations in its conflict with Iran, a source close to Macron told Reuters.
Macron also raised in the call the issue of Lebanon, which has been drawn into the spillover of the crisis, the French source said, according to Reuters.
