Iran's army said on Thursday it had launched a drone attack on a US site in the Iraqi Kurdistan city of Erbil. "The headquarters of the American aggressor forces in Erbil, Iraq, was attacked by the army's ground forces' attack drones," the army said in a statement broadcast by state TV.
Some Western diplomats in Riyadh were told to shelter in place, diplomatic sources told AFP on Thursday, with drone debris injuring six people in Abu Dhabi as Iran pressed attacks across the Gulf. The unprecedented air campaign by the Islamic republic, targeting US military assets but also American embassies and civilian infrastructure across the Gulf, continued into its sixth day after US-Israeli air strikes that devastated Iran's leadership.
At least 13 people have been killed in the Gulf, including seven civilians, since Iran began its attacks on Saturday. Washington said six US servicemen were killed, including four in Kuwait.
In addition to the shelter-in-place order to diplomats, in Riyadh a witness said the diplomatic quarter in the Saudi capital, home to many foreign missions and diplomatic residences, had been closed off.
The witness and diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive security matter. Authorities in Abu Dhabi responded to falling debris at two sites in an industrial zone after air defences intercepted a drone, the emirate's media office said.
Six Pakistani and Nepalese nationals were injured, while the UAE later said its air defences detected seven ballistic missiles, intercepting six as one fell inside the country.
Fresh waves of explosions, most from interceptions, also rocked Dubai, Doha and Manama on Thursday.In Doha, AFP journalists saw a plume of smoke rising from the Qatari capital and reported loud blasts across the city and Qatar's defence ministry said its military was working to intercept incoming missiles.
Earlier, Qatari authorities said they were evacuating residents living near Doha's US embassy.
The fresh salvos came hours after Qatari premier Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani lambasted his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, during a call.
The conversation was the first high-level contact between Tehran and a Gulf leader since the start of the attacks. The Qatari premier accused Iran of seeking to "harm its neighbours and drag them into a war that is not theirs", according to a statement from Qatar's foreign ministry. In Saudi Arabia, officials said they had intercepted three cruise missiles and several drones.
"Three cruise missiles were intercepted and destroyed outside the city of Al-Kharj," the Saudi defence ministry posted on X.
Elsewhere, a tanker was hit by a "large explosion" in waters off Kuwait, causing an oil spill, British maritime security agency UKMTO reported.
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have said they had "complete control" of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial chokepoint connecting the Gulf to the Indian Ocean and one of the world's most vital shipping routes for energy.
20,000 seafarers, 15,000 passengers stuck in Gulf: UN agency
The UN's International Maritime Organization told AFP on Thursday that around 20,000 seafarers and 15,000 cruise ship passengers are stuck in the Gulf because of the Middle East war. The shipping regulator's secretary general Arsenio Dominguez said that the "IMO is ready to work with all stakeholders to help ensure the safety and well-being of the seafarers affected."
EU, Gulf states urge Iran to end attacks threatening 'global security'
EU and Gulf ministers called following crisis talks Thursday for Iran to immediately end its "indiscriminate" attacks against Gulf countries, warning the strikes threatened international security.
"The ministers strongly condemned the unjustifiable Iranian attacks against the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries which threaten regional and global security and called on Iran to cease immediately its attacks," said a joint statement issued after the talks held by videolink.
Turkey 'closely' monitoring Kurdish groups as Iran war rages
Turkey's defence ministry on Thursday said it was "closely" following the actions of Kurdish militant groups over concerns they are being drawn into the war, reportedly by US-led efforts to destabilise Iran.
The conflict began on Saturday when US-Israeli strikes hit Iran, which retaliated with strikes across the region, with Tehran on Wednesday saying it had hit Kurdish militant groups based in Iraq.
The move came as reports suggested Washington was looking to arm Kurdish guerrillas to infiltrate Iran -- a move that would likely raise hackles in Turkey.
"We are closely following PJAK's activities in Iran and regional developments," the Turkish defence ministry said of an Iran-based Kurdish group which is an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdish militant PKK.
"Activities of groups like the PJAK terrorist organisation, which promote ethnic separatism, negatively affect not only Iran's security but also the overall peace and stability of the region," the ministry said.
"Turkey supports the territorial integrity of neighbouring states, not their fragmentation." On February 22, the PJAK (the Kurdistan Free Life Party) and four other exiled Kurdish groups announced a political coalition to seek the overthrow of the Islamic Republic and ultimately to secure Kurdish self-determination.
Spread across Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, the Kurds are one of Iran's most important non-Persian ethnic minority groups and have long supported anti-government protests in the Islamic Republic. Turkey has been seeking to end its conflict with the PKK, which formally disbanded last year after four decades of violence that claimed some 50,000 lives.
Although most PKK-linked groups embraced the call to disarm, the PJAK did not, with Ankara concerned any regional unrest could embolden recalcitrant Kurdish separatists.
In late January, following a wave of deadly anti-government protests in Iran, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi that "the complete neutralisation of PJAK constitutes an urgent necessity for Iran's security".
A drone launched from Iranian territory struck an airport building in Azerbaijan's exclave of Nakhichevan Thursday and exploded, Azerbaijani media reported.
Two drones crossed from Iran Thursday before one of them crashed into Nakhichevan's airport, the Azerbaijani news outlet Report said, without providing further details.
Video published on social media appeared to show smoke rising from the airport.
Later, Azerbaijan summoned the Iranian envoy after two people were wounded in drone hits on an airport and near a school.
"We strongly condemn these drone attacks launched from the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which resulted in damage to the airport building and injuries of two civilians," Azerbaijan's foreign ministry said in a statement.
Earlier, Israel launched new attacks on Lebanon early Thursday and said it intercepted missiles from Iran as a widening war launched by the United States and Israel also brought fresh turmoil to Iraq.
An air strike in the pre-dawn hours struck a Beirut suburbs stronghold of Hezbollah, the Tehran-backed force that has vowed to avenge the death of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the war's first moments Saturday.
Israel, which had warned residents beforehand to flee, also said it was working to intercept a new barrage of missiles fired by Iran, even though the US military had boasted of crippling the Islamic republic's capacities.
Iran launched several rounds of missiles at Israel early Thursday, the Israeli military said, triggering alerts in several areas and explosions heard in Jerusalem but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
After a lull of more than seven hours, Israel's military issued three separate alerts warning of Iranian missile fire in under two hours.
Iran's state broadcaster IRIB also reported the launches.
AFP reporters in Jerusalem heard explosions following the third reported launch.
But Israel's emergency services, the Magen David Adom, said it had received no reports of casulaties following Thursday's early rocket fire, and the military has cleared people to leave their shelters.
On Wednesday, the military's Home Front Command said it would ease some war‑related restrictions effective midday Thursday, citing a decline in the number of missiles fired by Iran.
Iran has vowed to exert a heavy price for the attacks and has fired missiles across the region, and its elite Revolutionary Guards claimed Wednesday to have closed the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint into the Gulf through which a fifth of the world's crude oil flows.
"The Americans' mischief and deceit could lead to the collapse of the entire military and economic infrastructure of the region," the Iranian military command warned in a statement.
Oil tanker transits through the strait have plunged by 90 percent, energy market intelligence firm Kpler said.
Britain's maritime agency reported a large early-morning explosion near Kuwait, with oil spilling into Gulf waters.
Nearby Iraq was hit by a total electricity blackout though it was not clear if it was connected to the war, with the electricity ministry blaming a sudden drop in gas supplies to a key plant.
Iran struck Wednesday in northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdish area, killing a member from an exiled Iranian Kurdish group, a representative said, amid reports that the United States was looking to arm the guerrillas to infiltrate Iran.
"Separatist groups should not think that a breeze has blown and try to take action," said Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council. "We will not tolerate them in any way."
Two pro-Iran fighters were killed in a separate strike on their base inside Iraq.
- Iranian warship torpedoed -
The United States said that one of its submarines sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka, the nation's first torpedoing of a vessel since World War II.
The IRIS Dena frigate had been on a friendly visit to India when it was hit.
The ship "thought it was safe in international waters", US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters.
Hegseth, who has previously boasted that the war would not be "politically correct", called the strike "quiet death" and said of the United States, "We are fighting to win".
The United States killed at least 87 people in the strike, Sri Lankan officials said, with 61 remaining missing. The island nation rescued 32 sailors, many of them wounded, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath said.
Iran's official IRNA news agency said 1,045 military personnel and civilians had been killed since the war began, a toll AFP could not independently verify.
Iran says more than 150 people, many of them children, died in a strike on a school Saturday in the southern town of Minab, with state television showing a large crowd of mourners over bodies in white shrouds.
AFP reporters could not independently access the site to verify the toll.
US authorities say six soldiers have died in the war.
- Missile over Turkey -
In another first, a missile launched from Iran was destroyed by a NATO air defence system while heading towards Turkey's airspace, drawing condemnation from Ankara and NATO.
A Turkish official told AFP that Turkey was not the target of the missile, which had been aimed at a British base in Cyprus and "veered off course".
Turkey, which has criticised the war, summoned the Iranian ambassador, and its Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in a telephone call that "any steps that could lead to the spread of conflict should be avoided".
Iranian strikes have caused fear and damage in Gulf cities such as Dubai and Riyadh, which have long taken pride in their safety from the tumult of the region.
The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar all said they had intercepted Iranian missiles on Wednesday, including a drone set to hit the Saudis' huge Ras Tanura refinery.
Kuwait has also been struck, with the health ministry announcing the death of an 11-year-old girl after she was hit by falling shrapnel.
Thirteen people, seven of them civilians, have been killed in countries around the Gulf since the war began, and air travel has been severely disrupted.
The United States said it sent its first charter flight to bring back Americans after urging them to leave the region, following similar moves by France and Britain.
- France lets US use bases -
France has allowed US aircraft on some of its bases in the Middle East during the conflict, the French military said Thursday, adding that they "contribute to the protection of our partners in the Gulf".
Spain has come under intense US pressure for refusing to allow Washington to use its bases.
- No call for aid -
Iran has not requested military aid from its ally Russia since Israel and the United States began striking the country last week, the Kremlin said Thursday.
- Cyprus ring of steel -
Spain will send its most advanced frigate to protect Cyprus after a drone strike on a British base on the Mediterranean island sucked it into the Middle East war, the defence ministry said on Thursday.
The "Cristobal Colon" will join French aircraft carrier "Charles de Gaulle" and Greek navy ships to offer protection and help evacuate civilians, the ministry said. Italy also said it would send "naval assets" to the EU member state in coming days.
Britain's Defence Minister John Healey arrived in Cyprus on Thursday.
- Fresh Israeli strikes -
Israel's military said Thursday it had "just begun a large-scale wave of strikes against infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime across Tehran".
Iranian news agency Tasnim and local media reported several explosions heard in Tehran Thursday morning.
Earlier, AFP journalists heard explosions in Jerusalem as Iran launched a fresh round of missiles at Israel, according to Iranian state media and the Israeli military.
- Blasts in Doha -
Another round of explosions were heard over the Qatari capital Doha Thursday, AFP journalists reported, describing a column of black smoke rising on the horizon.
Qatar's defence ministry said its military was working to intercept an incoming missile attack.
Earlier, Qatar began evacuating residents living near the US embassy in Doha.
- Warning on Lebanon -
In Lebanon, which Hezbollah dragged into the war by firing rockets on Israel, Israeli strikes have killed 75 people and displaced more than 83,000 since the start of the new round of fighting, officials said Wednesday.
Israel urged people to leave the section of Lebanon south of the Litani river -- an area of hundreds of square kilometres -- as the army was "compelled to take military action".
Israeli air strikes also hit a hotel in Hazmieh, the first reported attack on the predominantly Christian area in Beirut's suburbs, which is near the presidential palace and several foreign embassies.
The strikes revived memories of previous long-term Israeli occupations in Lebanon, and AFP video footage showed what appeared to be two Israeli tanks amid residential buildings in Khiam, about six kilometres into Lebanon.
French President Emmanuel Macron, in a telephone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warned Israel against a ground offensive and to "preserve Lebanon's territorial integrity",
It was Macron's first conversation since last year with Netanyahu, who had voiced anger over France's historic recognition of a Palestinian state.
The French leader also said he spoke to Lebanese leaders to urge them to press Hezbollah to cease its attacks.
Iran's military threatened to target Israeli embassies worldwide if Israel were to attack Tehran's mission in Lebanon.
- Qatar evacuations near US embassy -
Qatar has begun evacuating residents of its capital living near the US embassy as a precautionary measure, the interior ministry said, after Iranian strikes.
- Trump, Netanyahu hail war effort -
President Donald Trump hailed the US performance in the war, saying Iran's leaders were rapidly being killed, and vowing to push on.
"We're doing well on the war front, to put it mildly. Somebody said on a scale of 10, where would you rate it? I said about a 15," Trump told a gathering of tech bosses.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said that Israel and Washington had made "historic gains" in the war.
- Canada can't rule out war role -
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that he couldn't "rule out participation" in the escalating war.
"We will stand by our allies," he said alongside local counterpart Anthony Albanese in Canberra.
- Spain denies US claim of cooperation -
Spain doubled down on its opposition to Washington's use of its bases against Iran, after Trump's threats of trade reprisals.
The White House said Madrid had now agreed to cooperate, but Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said its stance on "bases, on the war in the Middle East, on the bombardment of Iran, has not changed at all."
- China to send envoy to mediate -
China will send a special envoy to mediate in the Middle East, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.
Beijing is a close partner of Iran and has said it backs Tehran in defending its sovereignty, while urging the United States and Israel to cease their attacks.
- Qatar ire -
Qatar's PM Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani lambasted Iran's foreign minister during a call, accusing Tehran of trying to drag their neighbors into war.
- Cargo crisis deepens -
Danish shipping giant Maersk and Germany's Hapag-Lloyd said they were suspending bookings in the Gulf until further notice following a risk assessment, after China's Cosco announced a similar halt.
Oil prices had risen as Iran warns vessels against using the narrow Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes and crucial for oil tankers, in the Gulf.
- Hormuz crew rescued -
The Omani navy rescued 24 crew members of a container ship struck by missiles in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian forces claimed "complete control" of the strait a day after Trump said the US Navy was ready to escort tankers through the channel.
- Sri Lanka recovers 87 bodies -
A US submarine torpedoed and sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka.
"We have collected 87 bodies," a Sri Lankan navy official told AFP.
Iran FM says US will 'bitterly regret' sinking ship
Iranian Foreign Minister Abas Araghchi accused the United States of committing an atrocity by sinking an Iranian navy ship off Sri Lanka and warned it would "bitterly regret" the precedent set.
"The US has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran's shores. Frigate Dena, a guest of India's Navy carrying almost 130 sailors, was struck in international waters without warning," he posted on X.
"Mark my words: The US will come to bitterly regret precedent it has set", he added.
Hamas official killed
Israel said it carried out strikes on Beirut targeting Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah on Thursday, while Lebanese state media reported an Israeli drone strike killed a Hamas official.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on Monday, when Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during US-Israeli strikes over the weekend.
Israel has since struck targets across the country and sent ground forces into border towns.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported several strikes early Thursday, including two in the Hezbollah stronghold of south Beirut, where AFPTV footage showed smoke rising.