U.S. President Donald Trump posted a new threat to Iran’s leaders Friday on his Truth Social website, saying: “They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them,” Trump wrote. “What a great honor it is to do so!”
A large explosion struck Iran’s capital in an area filled with demonstrators for the annual Quds Day event in support of the Palestinians, Iranian state television reported. Thousands of people took to the streets in Tehran Friday, chanting “death to Israel” and “death to America.” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said more than 15,000 enemy targets have been struck.
Four of the six crew members aboard a U.S. military KC-135 refueling aircraft that crashed in western Iraq have been found dead, and efforts continue to recover the other two, the American military said in a statement.
Concerns are growing that the war's stranglehold on Gulf oil exports is destabilizing the global economy. Brent crude oil, the international standard, remained over $100 per barrel as Iran kept its stranglehold on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Here is the latest:
Explosion rocked area of mass demonstration in Tehran
There were no immediate reports of casualties after the midday explosion rocked the Ferdowsi Square area as thousands chanted “death to Israel” and “death to America.”
At least two of the Iranian leaders at the scene survived the blast:
US Navy destroyers intercept Iranian missiles over Turkey
The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Oscar Austin shot down the Iranian ballistic missile that was intercepted over Turkey on Friday, a U.S. official confirmed to The Associated Press.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss ongoing military operations, said it was the third time in the last two weeks that a US Navy destroyer in the Eastern Mediterranean intercepted an Iranian missile in Turkish airspace.
— By Konstantin Toropin
Michigan synagogue attacker lost family members in Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, official says
The man with a rifle who deliberately crashed into a Michigan synagogue had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon, an official said Friday.
Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was killed by security after ramming into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township and driving down a hallway in a vehicle that then caught fire, according to authorities.
The official, who requested anonymity because he could not publicly discuss details of the airstrike, told the AP that Kassim and Ibrahim Ghazali were killed in their home, along with Ibrahim Ghazali’s children, Ali and Fatima. Kassim was a soccer coach and Ibrahim a bus driver in their village.
The FBI described the attack on one of the nation’s largest Reform synagogues as an act of violence targeting the Jewish community. No one among the staff, teachers and 140 children inside was injured, the Oakland County sheriff said.
— By Alanna Durkin Richer and Corey Williams
Hegseth says an officer has been picked to lead probe into Iran school strike
Hegseth says U.S. Central Command has designated an officer to lead the investigation into a deadly strike on an elementary school in Iran.
The investigating officer was chosen from outside Central Command, which oversees the Middle East.
The strike on the school in the opening hours of the U.S. war in Iran killed more than 165 people, many of them children.
The Associated Press has reported that outdated intelligence likely led the U.S. to carry out the missile strike on the school.
Speaking at media briefing Friday, Hegseth wouldn’t answer questions about what led to the strike, but said the U.S. does not target civilians. He said the investigation will take “as long as necessary.”
“We’ll get to the truth and we’ll share it when we have it,” Hegseth said.
An airstrike hit near the Quds, or Jerusalem, Day parade after the Israeli military put out a warning in Farsi on X the area could be struck. Now Israeli military has posted a second message in Farsi, noting the head of Iran’s judiciary was there at the time.
“The leaders of the terrorist and bloodthirsty regime have for 47 years shown disregard for the lives of Iran’s citizens, placing people in danger for the sake of the ‘liberation of Jerusalem’ and turning them into human shields to advance their own objectives,” the message said.
The Israeli military also criticized Iran for cutting off the internet, blocking many from seeing their warning.
The French president was speaking after a French soldier was killed during a drone attack on a Kurdish military base in Iraq's Irbil region.
Macron said that France supports its allies in the Middle East and that “nothing could ever justify attacks against us.”
“France will continue to show composure, calm and determination, remain reliable toward our partners, protect our citizens, and defend our interests and our security,” Macron added.
People sat on prayer mats surrounded by rubble in central Gaza, where more than two years of war has damaged mosques, along with everything else.
“We pray in the streets or in small prayer rooms, there are no mosques,” said Bakr Al-Sahhar, a resident. Palestinians say that despite the five-month long ceasefire, Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip continue.
Responding to a shouted question at Friday’s briefing about new Iranian mines impacting the Strait of Hormuz, Hegseth said “we’ve heard them talk about it, just like you’ve reported recklessly and wildly about it, but we have no clear evidence.”
On Tuesday, the U.S. said it took out more than a dozen mine-laying Iranian vessels. Iran has vowed to block the region’s oil exports, with one official saying Iran's enemies won't get “even a single liter.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says ending Iran’s nuclear weapons program remains a “core mission” as U.S. and Israeli strikes on the country continue.
Speaking at a media briefing at the Pentagon, Hegseth said President Donald Trump is focused on ending Iran’s ability to manufacture nuclear weapons for good.
Hegseth would not say whether ground forces will be needed to secure Iran’s supply of enriched uranium or its nuclear facilities, but said the U.S. is considering a range of options. He said he would welcome a decision by Iran’s leaders to voluntarily give up their program.
“We’ve said from the beginning: deny Iran nuclear weapons,” Hegseth said.
The defense secretary has told reporters that Iran is “exercising sheer desperation” with its threats that have blocked a significant portion of the world’s oil supply.
“We’re dealing with it,” he told reporters at Friday at the Pentagon. He not give details.
Caine added that the U.S. military has “made it a priority to target Iran’s minelaying enterprise” in the strategic waterway.
Hegseth has applauded the U.S. Vice President JD Vance as a “key voice” on Iran, calling him “an incredible member, leader of this team.”
Trump said while dismissing the notion of a disagreement this week that Vance was “philosophically a little bit different than me” at the war’s outset.
Vance, a former Marine, has often reinforced Trump’s vision of an America more focused on solving problems at home than intervening in conflicts abroad. In a 2023 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal getting renewed attention, Vance wrote that Trump had his support because “I know he won’t recklessly send Americans to fight overseas.”
On the eve of the strikes, Vance told The Washington Post there was “ no chance ” the U.S. would become involved in a drawn-out war as it did in Iraq.
Hegseth has said that “war is chaos” and that the sacrifice of those killed “will only recommit us to the resolve of this mission” as he acknowledged the crash of an American KC-135 military refueling plane taking part in the operation against Iran.
Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that four airmen had been recovered in what he described as an incident “over friendly territory in western Iraq” that was not the result of hostile or friendly fire.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said Thursday that two aircraft had been involved, and one landed safely while the other went down.
Israel Katz said Friday that the army destroyed a significant bridge over the Litany River used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons.
The defense minister warned the strike was just the beginning, and that Lebanon would pay a price until Hezbollah was disarmed.
Hegseth offered new details on the operation against Iran at a Friday news conference from the Pentagon, noting the impact of U.S. and Israeli air strikes on the Islamic Republic.
Hegseth said that over 15,000 enemy targets have been struck, which is more than 1000 a day since the war began on Feb. 28.
Iran’s drone attacks in retaliation of the operation have been deadly and include a fatal attack in Kuwait that killed six American soldiers.
Hegseth has said that Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is wounded and “likely disfigured.”
Khamenei took over Iran’s leadership following his father’s death. The younger Khamenei has not been seen or heard from publicly since the war started, leading to speculation about his whereabouts and health condition.
On Thursday he made his first public statements, resolving to keep fighting, promising more pain for Gulf Arab states and threatening to open “other fronts” in a war that has already disrupted world energy supplies, the global economy and international travel.
Hegseth did not elaborate on or give evidence about Khamenei’s condition.
The Red Cross Society of China will provide $200,000 to offer condolences and support to the parents of students killed in a missile strike that hit an elementary school in Iran, the Chinese government said.
“Attacking schools and harming children is a ... serious violation of international humanitarian law and crosses the bottom line of human morality and conscience,” spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a daily Foreign Ministry briefing in Beijing.
The money will be disbursed through the Iranian Red Crescent Society, he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin might be helping Iran.
His comments come after U.S. intelligence indicated Russia has provided Iran with information that could help Tehran strike American warships, aircraft and other assets in the region.
Trump spoke with Putin earlier this week.
“I think he might be helping them a little bit, yeah, I guess,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News that will air in full later Friday. “And he probably thinks we’re helping Ukraine, right?”
Host Brian Kilmeade noted the U.S. is aiding Ukraine.
“Yeah, we’re helping them also,” Trump continued. “And so he says that, and China would say the same thing, you know. It’s like, hey, they do it and we do it in all fairness.”
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Friday he hopes Israel and Hezbollah end their conflict through a ceasefire.
“My strong appeal to both parties, to Hezbollah and Israel, is for a ceasefire to stop the war,” Guterres told reporters after meeting Lebanon President Joseph Aoun.
“Lebanon was dragged into a war that is not a war that its people would be willing to have,” he said.
Guterres added that he hopes to visit Lebanon in the future when the country is at peace and “where the state has a monopoly for the use for force.”
The Israeli military says an academic who was killed in a drone strike Thursday in Beirut was a Hezbollah operative.
Prof. Mortada Srour was an expert in the field of weapons manufacturing within the organization, the military said Friday.
Srour, one of two academics killed in the strike, was employed as a chemistry lecturer at the Lebanese University campus just south of Beirut.
The military said Srour was the brother of Mohammad Srour, commander of Hezbollah’s aerial unit, who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024.
The military said Hezbollah’s weapons manufacturing operatives operate from various locations in Lebanon to increase the group’s ability to supplying its own weapons.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday criticized the U.S. decision to ease sanctions on Russian oil.
“Six members of the G7 expressed a very clear view that this is not the right signal to send,” Merz said during a press conference with his Norwegian counterpart in Andenes, Norway.
“We learned this morning that the U.S. government has apparently decided otherwise. Once again, we believe this is the wrong decision,” Merz said.
Merz said there was “a price problem, but not a supply problem,” adding that he wished to know what additional motives led to the U.S. decision.
The hard-liner who leads Iran’s judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi, was giving an interview to a state television reporter at a demonstration when a strike hit in the area of Tehran’s Ferdowsi Square.
His bodyguards encircled him, but he raised his fist and said Iran “under this rain and missiles will never withdraw.”
The secretary-general of the United Nations began a visit to Beirut on Friday during the Israel-Hezbollah war.
António Guterres posted on X that his visit is in solidarity with “the people of Lebanon.”
Speaking about the latest round of fighting that broke out March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israeli, Guterres wrote that the Lebanese people “did not choose this war. They were dragged into it.”
The U.N. chief added that he will spare no effort in striving for the peaceful future that Lebanon and this region “so richly deserve.”
Britain is accusing Russia and Iran of working together to inflict military and economic pain on the West.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Friday during a trip to Saudi Arabia that Moscow and Tehran are trying “to support each other and try to benefit together from attempting to hijack the global economy.”
The U.S. has eased Russian oil sanctions as oil prices climb following Iran’s attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, saying it will temporarily allow countries to buy Russian oil already loaded on vessels at sea.
Britain says it won’t follow suit but has declined to criticize the American decision.
U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey has said Moscow and Tehran are collaborating on drone technology and tactics.
The British military is investigating whether a drone that struck a U.K. air base on Cyprus at the start of the conflict contained Russian components.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says the U.S. decision to allow purchases of Russian oil currently stranded at sea will help stabilize global energy markets.
Peskov told reporters Friday that the world was facing a growing energy crisis.
“It’s impossible to stabilize the market without significant volumes of the Russian oil,” he said.
NATO defenses on Friday intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Iran over Turkey, the third such incident since the start of the war.
Turkey’s Defense Ministry said the missile was destroyed by NATO air defenses deployed in the eastern Mediterranean.
Residents in the southern city of Adana reported hearing a loud explosion and sirens sounding at Incirlik Air Base, which is used by U.S. forces, in the early hours of Friday.
No casualties were reported.
NATO deployed an additional Patriot air defense system this week in the southeastern province of Malatya, where the Kurecik radar station is based.
The Defense Ministry stressed Thursday that Incirlik is a Turkish base and that a foreign troop presence does not alter the base’s status.
The statement was an apparent response to warnings from Tehran to regional countries not to host U.S. military bases.
Iranian security official Ali Larijani called the suspected Israeli attack in the area of Tehran’s Ferdowsi Square on Friday a “sign of its desperation.”
“The problem with Trump is that he is not smart enough to see that the Iranian nation is a mature, strong and determined nation,” Larijani told Iranian media. “The more pressure he puts on the people, the greater their willpower becomes.”
France says a drone attack Thursday killed one of its soldiers and wounded six others.
The attack targeted a Kurdish military base where French soldiers were training Iraqi units.
France’s ministry of armed forces said in a statement Friday that a drone struck the center of the Mala Qara base in the Irbil region.
The ministry says Chief Warrant Officer Arnaud Frion was treated by medical teams on site and later died of his wounds at a hospital. Frion had been deployed to Iraq since Jan. 24 as a member of the 7th Alpine Chasseurs Battalion.
The other six soldiers remain in a hospital and arrangements are being made for their repatriation to France, the ministry says.
A large explosion struck Iran’s capital Tehran on Friday at a square filled with demonstrators, Iranian state television reported.
The explosion hit Ferdowsi Square, just down Enghelab Street from Tehran University, the epicenter of ongoing Quds, or Jerusalem, Day demonstrations. The area is home to many government buildings.
Video published by the semiofficial Tasnim news agency showed a plume of gray smoke rising as demonstrators screamed “Death to Israel!” and “Death to America!”
The strike came as Iranian media published videos showing top members of the country’s theocracy at the demonstration in Tehran, including security official Ali Larijani and Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi, the hard-line cleric who heads the country’s judiciary.
The cause of the blast was not immediately known. The Israeli military declined to immediately discuss the strike when reached for comment. Israel had warned it could strike in the area just before the blast.
Residents in the northern Israeli village of Zarzir heard loud explosions as they ran into a shelter early Friday morning and emerged to find much of the area in ruins.
Authorities say nearly 60 people were injured in the missile strike on the Arab-Israeli village near the Lebanese border.
Hezbollah said early Friday that it fired several rockets toward northern Israel and Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.
Residents said missiles from Hezbollah destroyed houses and left people scrambling to help relatives between the rubble.
“It’s terrifying,” resident Khalid Ghrifat said. “This scene I witnessed is unforgettable.”
Israel issued a strike warning Friday for an area near Tehran University that was hosting the annual Quds Day demonstrations.
The warning showed a strike being possible along Enghelab Street near the university. The area is filled with demonstrators at the moment.
Tehran University is the site of Friday prayers in the city, where demonstrators will gather later at noon.
The warning in Farsi said the Israeli military “will conduct operations in this area in the coming hours.”
“We kindly urge you to immediately evacuate the designated area indicated on the map,” the message said. “Your presence in these areas puts your life at risk.”
Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry says the remains of 84 Iranian sailors killed in a U.S submarine attack on March 4 have been handed over to Iranian representatives to be repatriated.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Thushara Rodrigo said the ministry completed the procedure for repatriating the remains of foreigners and handed over the bodies of the crew members from Iranian warship IRIS Dena.
They will be flown to Iran from Hambantota airport in southern Sri Lanka on Friday, he said.
Another 32 sailors from IRIS Dena were rescued by Sri Lanka’s navy.
More than 200 Iranian sailors also were brought ashore by Sri Lanka’s navy from a second Iranian warship. The vessels were returning from a naval exercise in India.
Iranian state television aired footage Friday showing thousands of people across the Islamic Republic taking part in the annual Quds Day.
Quds is the Arabic name of Jerusalem.
Demonstrators chanted “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” while carrying Iranian flags in support of the military forces fighting against the U.S. and Israel.
People joined the rallies in Tehran despite ongoing American-Israeli strikes taking place during the commemoration.
Iran has been marking Quds Day on the last Friday of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan since its 1979 Islamic Revolution.