The US-Israeli attacks have killed at least 787 people in Iran, according to the Red Crescent Society; global markets spooked. What we know on day five of war.
The US military has claimed that the number of strikes carried out on Saturday in the first 24 hours of its war on Iran was nearly double that of the "shock-and-awe" strikes on Iraq in 2003, and that nearly 2,000 targets had been hit so far in Iran. Cooper also said the US was also sinking "all of the Iranian navy" and had already destroyed 17 Iranian ships.
The US navy could begin escorting oil tankers through the strait of Hormuz if necessary, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, in one of the administration's most aggressive steps yet to attempt to contain soaring energy prices sparked by the war.
Global oil and gas prices have spiked as the war has halted energy exports from the Middle East. Iran has attacked ships and energy facilities, closing navigation in the Gulf and forcing production stoppages from Qatar to Iraq.
The conflict has caused turbulence on global markets. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 continued to fall on Wednesday, and was down about 3.9% during early trading. In Seoul, the Kospi - which dropped 7.2% on Tuesday - fell by a further 8.1% before trading was suspended on Wednesday. But Wall Street looks set to open only marginally lower in New York, according to pre-market trading data.
Israel said it had launched a "broad wave" of strikes on Iran early on Wednesday that were targeting launch sites, defence systems, and additional Iranian infrastructure.
Trump said the US would cut off all trade with Spain over its refusal to let the US military use its bases for missions linked to strikes on Iran. Trump also vented his displeasure towards the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, who has not joined the attacks on Iran but did let US forces use UK bases. "This is not Winston Churchill that we're dealing with," he said, referring to Starmer.
Lebanon's health ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli strikes on two towns south of Beirut killed six people and wounded eight. Aramoun and Saadiyat are both towns outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds. At least 30,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon, according to the UN, after heavy Israeli airstrikes.
The US Department of Defense on Tuesday identified four of the six American soldiers who were killed Sunday during a drone strike on a US base in Kuwait. Donald Trump said there will probably be more service members killed before the war ends.
Donald Trump has claimed Iran was going to attack before the US did, walking back Marco Rubio's assertion that Israel triggered the war. "I think they were going to attack first, and I didn't want that to happen. So, if anything, I might have forced Israel's hand," he said.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said at least 787 people had been killed since the conflict began. The worst mass casualty event of the US-Israeli military assault so far has been the direct strike on a girls' elementary school in Minab on Saturday, which killed up to 168 people.
Emmanuel Macron ordered France's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to move from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean to help protect allied assets. The Charles de Gaulle carrier will be escorted by frigates and its air wing.
Iran has continued to fire dozens of ballistic missiles at Israel, though most incoming fire has been intercepted. Eleven people in Israel have been killed since the conflict began.