Category News

EXPLAINER

On the sixth day of the United States-Israeli war  against Iran, the situation is escalating inside Iran while regional tensions are intensifying across the Gulf, Lebanon and Iraq.

Iran has threatened global shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, and fighting is spreading across multiple fronts in the Middle East. Further afield, a US submarine has sunk an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka.

In Iran

• Death toll: According to Iranian state media, the death toll from five days of US-Israeli attacks has reached 1,045, with more than 6,000 people wounded.

• Next supreme leader: Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has emerged as a leading contender to take up the country’s top post after years spent cultivating influence within the establishment and forging close ties with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
• Civilian infrastructure: Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accused the US and Israel of strikes on 33 civilian sites across the country. These locations reportedly include hospitals, schools, residential areas, the Tehran Grand Bazaar and the historic Golestan Palace complex.
• US submarine sinks Iranian warship: On Wednesday, a US submarine fired a torpedo and sank the Iris Dena, an Iranian frigate, in the Indian Ocean off the south coast of Sri Lanka, expanding the warzone. Sri Lanka’s navy said it had recovered 87 bodies and rescued 32 people.
• Kurdish ground offensive: There are growing signs that Kurdish-Iranian armed groups have launched a ground offensive in northwest Iran against the Islamic government.
• Iraqi Kurds possibly joining conflict: US officials have reportedly asked Iraqi Kurds to assist in cross-border military operations, and Kurdish forces in northern Iraq are currently said to be on “standby” to join the conflict against Iran.
• Strait of Hormuz: On Wednesday, the IRGC announced the closure of the strait, where Iranian threats to attack ships have brought maritime activity to a virtual standstill.
• Spain’s refusal to join: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian commended Spain for refusing to allow the US to use its bases for the war. US President Donald Trump threatened to cut off all trade with Spain.

In Gulf nations

• Retaliatory strikes: Iran’s counterstrikes are disrupting oil flows across the Middle East.
• Saudi Arabia: The US secretary of state and the Saudi foreign minister discussed “the continued threats the Iranian regime poses to regional stability”, and the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned an Iranian drone attack on the US embassy in Riyadh on Tuesday.
• Qatar: The Qatari government is evacuating residents who live near the US Embassy in Doha. Qatar’s Ministry of Interior stated this is a “temporary precautionary measure”.
• Diplomatic pushback: Qatar’s foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, reached out to his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, for the first time since the conflict began.
• Sheikh Mohammed demanded an “immediate halt” to the strikes and said Iran was trying to drag neighbouring countries into a war that is not theirs.
• Kuwait tanker explosion: An explosion was reported near a tanker anchored approximately 30 nautical miles (equivalent to about 56km) southeast of Kuwait’s Mubarak al-Kabeer.
• Support from Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with officials in Qatar and other Gulf nations about plans to deploy Ukrainian experts to the region to help defend against Iranian drone and missile attacks.

In Israel

• Intensifying strikes: Israel’s military has announced a new “wave of strikes” against military infrastructure in Tehran.
• Military success: US and Western officials stated that the US and Israel have successfully destroyed a significant portion of Iran’s military capabilities. With air supremacy achieved, they said, Israeli and US jets are able to fly uncontested over Iranian territory.
• Domestic impact: The Israeli military has slightly relaxed wartime safety rules, shifting from “essential” to “limited” activities.

In the US

• Congress and War Powers: On Wednesday, the US Senate voted 53-47 against requiring the Trump administration to obtain Congressional approval to continue the war with Iran, halting a bipartisan War Powers resolution.
• Public opinion: Public support for the war appears to be low. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, only about 25 percent of respondents supported the US-Israeli attacks, while 43 percent disapproved.
• The administration’s stance: The White House has strongly defended the military action. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that the administration’s goals are to eliminate Iran’s nuclear ambitions and destroy its navy.
• President Trump himself claimed that Iran was close to obtaining a nuclear weapon, stating, “If we didn’t hit within two weeks, they would’ve had a nuclear weapon.”

In Lebanon, Iraq, Turkiye, China

• Lebanon conflict: The situation is escalating in Lebanon, with Israel attacking areas including Beirut and Khiam, and exchanging heavy fire with Hezbollah.
• Iraq: A drone hit a building near Erbil airport, and Kurdish forces in northern Iraq are reportedly on “standby” for a potential cross-border operation into Iran.
• Missile interception: NATO air defences in the eastern Mediterranean intercepted and shot down an Iranian ballistic missile that had entered Turkiye’s airspace. “This was a deliberate attempt by the Iranian military to shoot out of their country, into a country that is not directly associated with the Gulf,” Mark Kimmitt, a retired US general, told Al Jazeera.
• China: China’s foreign minister called for an “immediate cessation” of the US and Israeli action in a phone call with his Israeli counterpart, the ministry said.

Israeli strikes have hit the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, state-run media have said, as Israel’s deadline for Iranian officials to leave Lebanon expired, as it bombards the south and entrenches troops on the ground across the border, a volatile front in the wider regional war.

The Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) on Thursday reported several strikes in the early morning hours on the southern Beirut neighbourhoods of Ghobeiry and Haret Hreik. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israel’s military had earlier issued forced displacement orders for the suburbs where the strikes were reported, warning it was about to hit what it said were targets linked to Hezbollah.

It said targets included a facility used by the group’s aerial units, without providing evidence.

Israel on Wednesday gave Iran’s representatives in Lebanon 24 hours to leave the country. That deadline has since expired.

Al Jazeera’s Heidi Pett, reporting from Beirut, said “the Iranians seem to believe that this is a threat against their embassy and are threatening any Israeli embassy if their mission is struck”.

Human Rights Watch called the threats deeply concerning, saying this signals an intent to commit a war crime, as people who are not directly involved in hostilities cannot be targeted under international law.

Pett said gunfire could be heard throughout the night in the Lebanese capital as residents shot in the air to warn of imminent Israeli strikes.

Forced evacuation warnings “come in the middle of the night, and the city’s residents are not usually glued to X in the middle of the night,” the reporter said.

“So locally, when people become aware of these warnings, they start firing in the air throughout the southern suburbs of Beirut to warn people that the Israeli military has issued an imminent threat to their homes and lives.”

Southern Lebanon bombarded, Israeli ground troops entrench

In Lebanon’s south, Israeli attacks have killed six people, including four members of one family, NNA reported.

In a village near Kfar Tebnit, two children and their parents were killed, while another attack in the Nabatieh region killed the mayor of a village and his wife.

Israeli strikes were also reported in the al-Shahabiya district of Tyre.

Hezbollah on Wednesday said its fighters were engaged in armed confrontations with advancing Israeli troops in the town of Dahira in the far south of Lebanon. The group has also been carrying out aerial attacks in northern Israel.

This comes as Israeli ground troops continued to push deeper into Lebanon in a ground offensive north of the Israeli-Lebanese border, with the declared intent of creating a buffer zone and pushing back Hezbollah.

The army on Thursday issued another evacuation threat for residents of southern Lebanon, warning them to “continue evacuating to the north of the Litani River”.

“Anyone present near Hezbollah elements, facilities, or combat means endangers their life,” it said. “Any home used by Hezbollah for military purposes may be subject to targeting.”

Hezbollah later claimed it attacked Israeli troops inside Lebanese territory, something the Israeli army has acknowledged while confirming that two soldiers were injured.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said Hezbollah’s strategy appeared to be making the conflict and Israel’s advance in the south as costly as possible by firing missiles, rockets and drones across the border.

“Meanwhile, the Lebanese government is simply too weak to influence the situation,” she said. “The Lebanese army has been forced to pull back from the border, and the government has taken the unprecedented step of banning Hezbollah’s military wing.”

“However, that is about as far as it can go without risking internal strife in the country,” Khodr added.

A strike was also reported in northern Lebanon in the Beddawi refugee camp, close to the city of Tripoli, far from where the majority of Israeli attacks on Lebanon have taken place.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said the attack killed at least two people.

Local sources in the Palestinian refugee camp told Al Jazeera a Hamas official was killed in the attack, which appeared to be a targeted assassination.

At least 75 people have already been killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon since Monday, with more than 400 wounded and tens of thousands displaced.

Thousands of Chinese officials have gathered in Beijing for the opening session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), where delegates are approving the country’s economic and political roadmap for the next five years.

China has set a target of 4.5 to 5 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2026, according to a government report reviewed by the state’s official Xinhua News Agency on Thursday, down from a recent target of “around 5 percent”.

The lowered growth figure reflects China’s economic slowdown, triggered in part by the collapse of the country’s property sector, which once accounted for between 25 and 30 percent of GDP.

“The growth target is quite realistic,” the Economist Intelligence Unit’s China economist Tianchen Xu said, noting the figure reflected China’s trend towards more conservative expectations.

“It’s a further shift from a ‘number-first’ mindset towards a ‘quality-first’ one,” Xu told the Reuters news agency.

“Beijing does not necessarily see high growth rates as a good thing, because it may incentivise local officials to exaggerate growth with white elephant projects and data manipulation,” Xu said.

“It’s about delivering more tangible economic results such as household income growth and expanded access to public services,” Xu added.

China also intends to expand defence spending by 7 percent, the lowest rate in five years, according to Reuters, albeit higher than the rest of the region.

Facing a long-term economic slowdown, China is trying to transition from an economy driven by manufacturing and exports to one driven by consumption and cutting-edge technology. It is also aiming for more industrial self-reliance in the face of political headwinds from the United States.

Other ongoing challenges facing the world’s second-largest economy include deflationary pressure, weak consumer confidence, high youth unemployment and the fallout from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and trade war.

‘Childbirth-friendly society’

Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s annual Government Work Report, presented at the NPC on Thursday, showed China’s GDP grew 5 percent to 140.19 trillion renminbi (RMB) ($20.28 trillion) last year.

The lengthy report also detailed other targets, such as China’s plans for its 2026 fiscal stimulus, including a target of about 30 trillion RMB ($4.3 trillion) in public spending, according to Xinhua.

China will continue state support for advanced industries such as “integrated circuits, aviation and aerospace, biomedicine, and the low-altitude economy”, the work report said, referring to the use of drone technology in everything from logistics to agriculture and emergency services.

Officials have, according to reports, started targeting the problem of “involution” or over-competition between domestic firms, which often leads to overproduction and low-quality products.

The work report also touched on how China plans to tackle social and environmental issues, such as population decline, which has been triggered by its ageing society, falling birthrate and the long-term impact of its now-abandoned one-child policy.

China aims to become a “childbirth-friendly society”, Xinhua reports, and the country intends to expand services for its growing population of people over 60.

It also aims to hit peak carbon emissions by 2030 as it transitions to more renewable energy sources from coal and other fossil fuels, the report said.

The NPC is being held in Beijing alongside the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a separate advisory body to the country’s leadership that submits feedback and proposals for future legislation.

Together, the NPC and CPPCC are known as the “Two Sessions”.

Iranian forces have launched an operation targeting Kurdish groups in their semi-autonomous region of neighbouring Iraq, as they also began their 19th wave of missile and drone attacks against Israel and United States assets in the Middle East on the sixth day of a regional war that has embroiled much of the region in the conflict.

Iran’s Press TV reported early on Thursday that the military was targeting “anti-Iran separatist forces”, without specifying the location of the strikes.

Iran’s ⁠intelligence ⁠ministry confirmed that it targeted posts ⁠of “separatist groups” who intended to enter through ⁠western borders, adding that they sustained heavy losses. The Iranian ministry ⁠statement, which ⁠was carried by state media, said Iranian forces are cooperating ‌with “noble Kurds” to thwart the “Israeli-American” plan to attack ‌Iranian ‌soil.

The new strikes on Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region come nearly one week into the US-Israel war against Iran, which has killed at least 1,045 people across the country since Saturday, according to Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency.

Video clips posted on X by Press TV showed explosions lighting up the night sky during the operation.

Earlier, multiple blasts were reported in the province of Sulaimaniyah in northern Iraq. According to local media, at least four explosions were heard in the province, near the areas of Arabat, Zarkuiz and Surdash.

Local sources said the attacks targeted the headquarters of the Kurdistan Toilers Association, or Komala, an Iranian Kurdish armed group in Iraq.

The attacks come amid reports that Iranian Kurdish armed groups have consulted with the US in recent days about whether, and how, to attack Iran’s security forces in the western part of the country and what support they might receive from Washington.

According to the Reuters news agency, the Iranian Kurdish coalition of groups based on the ‌Iran-Iraq border has been training to mount such an attack in hopes of weakening the country’s military.

Earlier, Iran’s Tasnim news agency denied reports of Kurdish fighters crossing into Iran from Iraq.

Iran hits back at Israel, US presence

As the attacks on Kurdish groups were launched, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also announced the latest round of attacks against Israel and US assets in the Middle East early on Thursday.

Israel’s air defence system intercepted two drones over the western Galilee region, Israel’s Channel 12 reported. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted at least three drones, while Qatar ordered the evacuation of homes near the US Embassy in Doha.

Residents flee Tehran

Meanwhile, the US and Israel continue to pound Iran, with explosions shaking Tehran as well as the Kurdish cities of Sanandaj, Saqqez and Bukan.

The Israeli military, on Monday morning, confirmed a new widespread wave of attacks on Iran, with a spokesperson stating that its air force “attacked and destroyed” a ballistic missile platform that had been preparing to launch an attack from the Iranian city of Qom.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM), in turn, said it aimed to “eliminate” Iran’s mobile missile launch capabilities.

Iran, in response to the attacks, has activated its air defences, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported.

“Starting from midnight, we saw another wave of these strikes begin, and an hour ago, we heard the sound of massive blasts from the eastern part of the capital and could even feel the shockwaves where we are,” said Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran.

“It is not yet clear what the targets are. There have also been attacks on the Kurdish cities of Sanandaj, Saqqez and Bukan overnight. We know that, all in all, more than 150 cities in Iran have been attacked since Saturday.”

Asadi said “a considerable portion” of Tehran’s population has decided to evacuate Tehran amid the ongoing US and Israeli strikes, mainly those who have homes outside the Iranian capital.