Live Updates: Hegseth says U.S. "just getting started" in Iran war as conflict intensifies and spreads

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine shared praise for the U.S. service members killed in an Iranian strike in Kuwait. All were from the 103rd Sustainment Command, U.S. Army Reserves, out of Des Moines, Iowa. 

The names of four of the troops were released yesterday; two others are being withheld while the military notifies their families.

"To our gold star families, to our wounded warriors and their loved ones: We will never forget your sacrifice. Our nation stands with you and we are eternally grateful for your courage, your resiliency, your devotion to this mission and to our nation," Caine said.

Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker sent a letter Wednesday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling for more action from the State Department to help Americans evacuate the Middle East. 

In the letter sent to Rubio and Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Nora Namdar, and first obtained by CBS News, Pritzker said that Illinois lawmakers have received "numerous requests from U.S. citizens seeking additional support to return to the United States." 

He called on the State Department to announce a plan to use charter flights or military aircraft to assist Americans trying to leave the region, explore emergency contracts with charter companies or commercial airlines, and provide clear guidance on how to sign up for flights. 

Pritzker also called for the State Department to identify safe locations to set up temporary diplomatic posts in areas where the U.S. embassies have been attacked or destroyed, and to authorize an emergency deployment of foreign service officers to alleviate challenges facing embassy staff.

When asked for reaction to Pritzker's letter, the State Department referred to a media release about their work so far to assist citizens looking to leave the region. They also pointed to social media posts of officials sharing information on the departments task force hot line, or how to register with the department's Smart Traveler Program (STEP) to enable embassies and consulates to contact them. 

The State Department says that 9,000 American citizens have returned from the Middle East since the start of war, and about 1,500 are requesting assistance with their departure. More than one million Americans are believed to be in the region, a source told CBS News.

The State Department has urged Americans to leave 14 countries across the Middle East. It said Tuesday afternoon it would waive any requirement for citizens to reimburse the government for travel expenses, and that it was already facilitating charter flights from four countries: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Egypt. 

Rubio said Tuesday the State Department is trying to carry out their plan to evacuate Americans, but that attacks on airports or airspace closures by countries have created problems. 

In addition to briefings Rubio gave on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, State Department staff held a call with congressional and gubernatorial offices about the war in Iran, according to two sources familiar with the call. 

One source on the call said they did not provide enough details on how Americans in the region can leave, or instill confidence that there's a plan to transport stuck Americans out of the region.

The State Department said Americans who need the government's help arranging travel could call +1-202-501-4444 from abroad or +1-888-407-4747 from the U.S. and Canada.

The U.S. war against Iran is "just getting started," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters at a Pentagon briefing on Wednesday. 

He said the U.S. is only ramping up its attacks and capabilities, while Iran's capabilities are being diminishing by the hour as the U.S. and Israel continue their blistering strikes on Iran and its military assets far and wide. 

"As President Trump said, more and larger waves are coming," Hegseth said. "We are just getting started. We are accelerating, not decelerating. Iran's capabilities are evaporating by the hour, while American strength grows fiercer, smarter and utterly dominant. More bombers and more fighters are arriving just today."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded to a question during a briefing Wednesday about what intelligence suggested Iran was a threat that required the U.S. to launch the ongoing operation, months after Iranian nuclear sites were damaged in June's Operation Midnight Hammer.

Hegseth said "the evidence in front of us" was "that Iran had no intention of actually negotiating a nuclear deal that truly meant they … did not have a pathway to a nuclear bomb."

He said special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff gave Iran "every single possible opportunity to release that ambition, and they didn't."

"And the intelligence that we saw, saw they didn't intend to do it in good faith, that they had the intentions eventually to get to a place where they could have that, a conventional shield to block their nuclear capabilities," he said.

"So, I would separate the what from the when a little bit," he said. "The what is: They've been killing Americans for 47 years. They have thousands of missiles pointed at us. They have ongoing nuclear ambitions, and they're at the weakest they've ever been. So the when became in a particular, 'Hey, what makes the most sense to do this, to ensure that the narrow objectives we have of ensuring they never have a nuclear weapon, have a maximum effect.'"

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at the Pentagon that the U.S. was "aware" of the apparent thwarted Iranian attempt to target Turkey with its retaliatory missile fire, but that he didn't expect the incident to prompt Turkey to trigger NATO's collective defense clause. 

Turkey is a NATO member, and its military said Wednesday that NATO defenses had shot down an Iranian missile headed for the country's airspace, without specifying what defensive weapon was used, or which NATO member it belonged to. 

Hegseth said there was "no sense that it would trigger anything like Article 5."

"On the matter with Turkey, I'll have to get back to you on exactly what the intercept looked like," Hegseth said. "We're aware of that particular engagement, although no sense that it would trigger anything like Article 5." 

Article 5 is NATO's cornerstone defense principle, which says effectively that if any NATO nation is attacked, it will be responded to as an attack on all.

The clause has been invoked only once in the seven-decade-old alliance's history, in 2001, by the United States in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed Wednesday that it was a torpedo fired by a U.S. submarine that sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, near Sri Lanka.

"Yesterday in the Indian Ocean, and we'll play it on the screen there, an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II," Hegseth said.

Sri Lanka's navy said earlier that it had recovered "a few bodies" of Iranian sailors from an Iranian navy frigate and that it was working to rescue others after the vessel sank off the island nation's southern coast.

"We have found a few bodies from the area where the ship had gone down," local navy spokesman Buddhika Sampath told reporters in Colombo, according to the AFP news agency, adding that a search for other survivors was underway. 

U.S. joint chiefs chair Gen. Dan Caine said the U.S. and Israeli strikes had "effectively neutralized" Iran's naval capacity by Wednesday, the fifth day of the war against the Islamic Republic.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared Wednesday that "America is winning" at a news briefing at the Pentagon as the U.S. campaign against Iran entered its fifth day.

Appearing with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine in their second briefing since the war began, Hegseth stressed that the operation is only four days old, noting that "metrics are shifting, dust is settling and more forces are arriving."

"It's very early, and as President Trump has said, we will take all the time we need to make sure that we succeed," Hegseth said. 

Sri Lanka's navy recovered "a few bodies" of Iranian sailors from an Iranian navy frigate that sank off the island's southern coast, after what crew members reported as an explosion, a spokesman said Wednesday.

The Reuters news agency cited three unnamed U.S. officials saying the warship had been hit in a U.S. strike, including one who told Reuters the attack was carried out by a U.S. submarine.

"We have found a few bodies from the area where the ship had gone down," local navy spokesman Buddhika Sampath told reporters in Colombo, adding that the search for others was continuing.

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told parliament earlier Wednesday that 180 people were aboard the IRIS Dena, which sank after issuing a distress message following an apparent explosion.

The U.S. and Israel have targeted the Iranian navy in recent days, largely in Iran's coastal waters. If it is confirmed that the Dena was struck by the U.S., some 1,000 miles from Iran in the Indian Ocean, it would be one of the most distant strikes against Iran's naval assets since the war began, highlighting the broadening nature of the conflict.

CBS/AFP

QatarEnergy, the Gulf nation's state-run petroleum firm that handles all of its oil and gas business, said Wednesday that was declaring Force Majeure, a measure that relieves a company of its contractual obligations when it is impacted by circumstances beyond its control. 

"Further to the announcement by QatarEnergy to stop production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and associated products, QatarEnergy has declared Force Majeure to its affected buyers," the state-owned company said in a statement shared on social media, adding that it "values its relationships with all of its stakeholders and will continue to communicate the latest available information."

Qatar's economy relies heavily on its natural gas resources, and the shutdown of its LNG production will be a major blow not only nationally, but potentially impacting global markets.

Production was halted over the weekend as Iran started targeting Gulf states, and their energy infrastructure, in response to the blistering attacks launched Saturday by the U.S. and Israel. 

NATO defenses intercepted a ballistic missile launched by Iran that was heading toward Turkish airspace on Wednesday, Turkey's defense ministry said.

Turkey is a member of the transatlantic NATO alliance, and the launch was Iran's first apparent attempt to target any of the alliance's members since the war began on Saturday.

The missile was detected after crossing Iraqi and Syrian airspace, the defense ministry said in a statement. NATO air and missile defense assets in the eastern Mediterranean engaged and neutralized the weapon. 

"It has been determined that the ordnance that fell in Dörtyol district of Hatay province belonged to an air defense munition that intercepted the threat in the air. There were no casualties or injuries in the incident," the defense ministry said.

It warned "all parties to refrain from actions that would further spread the conflict in the region" and said it would continue to consult with NATO and other allies.

Turkey's foreign ministry said Minister Hakan Fidan held a call with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, in which he stated that any steps that could lead to the conflict spreading should be avoided.

The Israel Defense Forces issued another urgent warning to people in the country Wednesday, saying it had "identified that missiles were recently launched from Iran towards the territory of the State of Israel."

Repeating warnings issued many times since Israel and the U.S. launched their attacks on Iran on Saturday, the IDF urged anyone who received alerts from the country's Home Front Command "to show responsibility and act according to the guidelines" and head for bomb shelters.

At least 12 people have been killed in Israel amid Iran's retaliatory missile and drone attacks since Saturday, including 10 civilians hit directly by the fire, an elderly person who died trying to reach shelter, and another individual who suffered a heart attack during an air raid alarm.

The United Hatzalah volunteer emergency medical service said there were no injuries immediately reported following the latest wave of missiles launched by Iran, but it was still assessing reports of impacts in the center of the country.

The U.S. State Department has ordered non-emergency government employees and their families to leave Qatar "due to the threat of armed conflict." The U.S. Embassy in Qatar said Tuesday that a shelter-in-place order was in effect for emergency personnel who remain in the country, and it advised other Americans in Qatar to also shelter in place until further notice.

"If safe to do so, Americans should leave Qatar now," the alert added.

It is not possible to leave by air due to a closure of Qatar's airspace, and the U.S. embassy didn't mention any assistance it was providing for Americans to find transportation to leave the country. 

It noted that a land border crossing to Saudi Arabia was open, but that "the U.S. government cannot guarantee your safety if you choose to depart using this option."

Israel's military called on thousands of people in southern Lebanon to immediately evacuate their homes on Wednesday and move north to avoid an expanding Israeli military operation against the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah.

Expanding on an order issued Tuesday for more than 80 communities to evacuate, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee warned Wednesday in a post on X that anyone south of the Litani River — an area home to an estimated 200,000 people before Israel's war with Hezbollah — should leave and head north. 

Israel has hammered alleged Hezbollah sites across southern Lebanon and in the capital Beirut for days, and on Tuesday the military announced that troops were sent across the border into Lebanon.

Israeli officials told journalists Wednesday that intelligence indicated Iran could have enriched uranium to 90%, or weapons grade, within two weeks if it had decided to do so, before the U.S. and Israel launched strikes over the weekend. 

They said, however, that Iran's weaponization group was "still far from producing a classic nuclear bomb." 

In terms of risk management, the officials said there was a clear decision that they had to act when they did. Iran's nuclear capacity was not totally wiped out, and they "still maintained certain capabilities," according to Israel.

President Trump on Tuesday defended his decision to launch the war with Iran, saying there would have been a nuclear war without the intervention, and that Iran "would have taken out many countries."

Mr. Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff said Monday that Iranian officials claimed during recent negotiations to have enough enriched uranium to make 11 nuclear bombs, before the U.S. and Israel launched their attack

Witkoff told Fox News that Iran's negotiators had told him before the strikes that the country had about 460 kilograms of uranium at 60% enrichment, echoing reports from the U.N.'s IAEA nuclear watchdog, but adding that it could have been enriched to weapons-grade within a week to 10 days.

Iran insisted right up until the war began that it would not seek to build a nuclear weapon, and the IAEA chief said 10 days before strikes started that the agency had seen no evidence of Iran working toward developing such a capability.

Iran is now preparing for three to four weeks of war and is preserving its weapons stockpiles, the Israeli officials said, adding that, "Israel did not drag the U.S. into the war." 

The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Center said it received a report Wednesday that another commercial vessel had been hit by a projectile seven nautical miles east of Fujairah, on the United Arab Emirates coast.

The projectile caused damage to the vessel's steel plating, but no fire or water intake was reported and all crew members were reported safe.

The UKMTO said the incident was being investigated, and that "vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity."

Fujairah sits just south of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for the transport of global oil supplies which has been virtually shut down since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began on Saturday.

Iran's military has vowed to attack any vessel attempting to transit the strait, and a number of commercial ships, including the U.S.-flagged Stena Imperative, have been hit in recent days.

An 11-year-old girl who was injured by shrapnel in a residential area of Kuwait died from her injuries, the country's ministry of health said Wednesday.

Attempts to resuscitate the girl were made and she was taken to the hospital but succumbed to her wounds. Four of her family members, including the girl's mother, were hospitalized and undergoing medical evaluation.

Kuwait, along with other Persian Gulf nations, has been hit by repeated Iranian missile and drone strikes as Tehran seeks to retaliate for the U.S.-Israeli assault by attacking perceived American allies.

The only U.S. casualties from the war so far have been six American troops killed in an Iranian strike that hit a military installation in Kuwait on Saturday.

Iran's official state news agency Fars said Wednesday that the three-day state funeral for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which had been set to begin later in the day, was being postponed until further notice.

"Due to the expected unprecedented attendance of mourners, the farewell ceremony for the martyred Imam of the Ummah has been postponed and the time will be announced soon," Fars said, sharing a video of a presenter making the announcement on state TV.

The announcement came not long after Israel announced a new and "intensifying" wave of strikes against the Iranian regime's security infrastructure in Tehran.

Iran's 88 member Assembly of Experts ⁠is close to picking a new supreme leader to ⁠replace Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a ‌member of the assembly told Iranian state TV on Wednesday, according to the Reuters news agency.

"The ⁠Supreme Leader will be identified in the ‌closest opportunity, we are close to a conclusion, however the situation in the ‌country is ‌a war situation," ⁠Ayatollah Ahmad ‌Khatami ⁠told state TV.

The New York Times says his son Mojtaba Khamenei has emerged as a likely successor.

The Iranian-backed Houthi rebel movement, which controls a large portion of Yemen, was still mulling a decision on whether to engage directly in the war between its benefactors in Tehran and the U.S. and Israel.

On Sunday, the leader of the Houthis, a well-armed force long supplied with weapons and financial support by Iran's theocratic rulers, delivered a speech voicing solidarity with Iran and declaring a "general mobilization" of the group's armed forces, but offering no hints of any immediate plan to intervene in the war.

The group's leaders are likely torn between their loyalty to Iran and the potential consequences of wading into a conflict with two of the world's most powerful militaries.

Houthi political bureau member Hizam al-Assad, a powerful figure within the group, told the Qatari network Al Jazeera on Tuesday night that the decision to join the fighting remained "subject to assessments by the supreme leadership and the competent authorities monitoring developments on the ground and responding in accordance with their responsibilities."

"If American and Israeli aggression expands and reaches levels that threaten security and stability across the region more broadly, then every scenario will be on the table," he said.

The largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, was struck by an Iranian ballistic missile, Qatari officials said Wednesday. 

No casualties were reported.

Qatar was targeted by two ballistic missiles fired from Iran, the country's ministry of defense said, but one was successfully intercepted.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez hit back Wednesday at President Trump's criticisms of Madrid's refusal to let U.S. planes use Spanish bases to attack Iran.

"The position of the government of Spain can be summed up in four words: no to war," he said in a televised address, a day after Mr. Trump threatened to sever all trade with Spain.

"We will not be complicit in something that is harmful to the world and contrary to our values and interests, simply out of fear of retaliation," Sanchez said.

"This is how humanity's great disasters start. ... You cannot play Russian roulette with the destiny of millions," Sanchez said, according to the Reuters news agency.

CBS/AFP

Israel's military said Wednesday that one of its fighter jets had shot down one of Iran's over the Iranian capital as Israel stepped up attacks on Tehran.

"An Israeli Air Force F-35I 'Adir' fighter jet shot down an Iranian Air Force YAK-130 fighter jet a short while ago over the skies of Tehran. This is the first shootdown in history of a manned fighter aircraft by an F-35 'Adir' fighter jet," the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement shared on social media..

The "Adir" is the Israeli variant of the U.S.-made F-35 II Lightning, which is heavily customized by Israel's military.

Israel's military announced Wednesday morning the beginning of a new "broad wave of strikes targeting infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime in Tehran." 

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Avichay Adraee said earlier that Israeli strikes were targeting dozens of military sites across Iran's capital, including headquarters of the notorious Basij paramilitary force linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards. He said missile launchers and defense systems were also being hit, along with supply and logistics facilities "affiliated with the regime's ground forces."

Adraee said the IDF would "intensify their strikes" on the Iranian regime's infrastructure.

Iran's semi-official student news agency ISNA reported loud explosions in eastern Tehran on Wednesday. 

Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee warned residents in Lebanon's capital Beirut on Wednesday to evacuate an area near a specific building he said was affiliated with the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.

"Urgent Alert for Those Present in the Southern Suburbs of Beirut, Especially in the Haret Hreik Neighborhood," Adraee said in a social media post, sharing a map with a building highlighted in red. He said anyone in or within 300 meters (about 300 yards) of the building was "required to evacuate these buildings immediately and stay away from them."

Israel has hammered alleged Hezbollah sites in Beirut and across southern Lebanon for days, and on Tuesday the IDF warned people in at least 80 southern Lebanese cities, towns and villages to evacuate and not return as it announced that troops had been sent across the border into the neighboring country "to create an additional layer of protection for our towns." 

Video from the AFP news agency showed an airstrike had hit Hezbollah's longtime stronghold in the southern Beirut suburbs, after a series of deadly raids that killed at least 11 people, according to local authorities. 

Iran will hold a three-day state funeral for supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed Saturday in the first wave of U.S.-Israeli strikes, Iran's official IRNA news agency said Wednesday.

"The faithful will be able to pay a final homage to the body of the martyred guide of the nation, by visiting the Imam Khomenei grand mosque" in Tehran, IRNA said, citing a statement from the country's Islamic Development Coordination Council.

Khamenei will be buried in his home city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran. Arrangements for the funeral procession to Mashhad will ‌be announced when ‌they are ⁠finalized, state media added, according to the Reuters news agency.

The three day funeral was to begin Wednesday evening.

CBS/AFP 

At least 1,097 civilians have been killed in Iran since the U.S. and Israel launched their strikes on Saturday, sparking the ongoing war, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said Wednesday.

"According to aggregated data since the outbreak of the conflict on February 28, the total number of reported civilian deaths has reached 1,097, including 181 children under the age of ten," the organization said. "An additional 880 reported deaths are currently under review for verification and classification. The number of reported civilian injuries since February 28 has reached 5,402, including 100 children."

CBS News' producer in Tehran, Seyed Bathei, said there were unconfirmed reports circulating inside the country of thousands of fatalities as early as Sunday.

The U.S. military declined again on Tuesday to respond to CBS News' request for information on reports that dozens of the youngest victims of the war in Iran were killed in a strike that hit a girl's elementary school in the southern city of Minab.

Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani told CBS News that the IDF had not "found any connection to our operations," when asked about the alleged school strike. 

Asked by CBS News' Matt Gutman if he was saying the claim of a strike on the school was Iranian misinformation, Shoshani said he was suggesting "caution when using information that's provided by a regime that massacres their own people."

The New York Times reported, citing unnamed Iranian officials, that former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's son, Mojtaba Khamenei, had emerged as a front-runner to replace his father, with a decision by the country's Assembly of Experts expected as soon as Wednesday morning.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has warned that any new supreme leader who carries on with Iran's "plan to destroy Israel, to threaten the United States" and to "suppress the Iranian people," will be an "an unequivocal target for elimination."

On Tuesday, Israel's Mossad intelligence agency issued a similar warning with a post on social media, in Iran's primary Farsi language, that it did not "matter who is chosen today; his fate has been decreed. Only the Iranian nation will choose their future leader." The message was accompanied by a graphic depicting senior Iranian clerics being toppled as dominoes.

The Reuters news agency cited two Iranian sources on Wednesday as saying Mojtaba Khamenei survived the most recent round of attacks on Tehran.

The head of content for Elon Musk's X said Tuesday that the company would bar for 90 days members of the social media platform's revenue-generating plan if they post "AI-generated videos of an armed conflict — without adding a disclosure that it was made with AI."

"Today we are revising our Creator Revenue Sharing policies to maintain authenticity of content on Timeline and prevent manipulation of the program. During times of war, it is critical that people have access to authentic information on the ground. With today's AI technologies, it is trivial to create content that can mislead people," said X product chief Nikita Bier in a post on the platform.

"Starting now, users who post AI-generated videos of an armed conflict—without adding a disclosure that it was made with AI—will be suspended from Creator Revenue Sharing for 90 days. Subsequent violations will result in a permanent suspension from the program."