Iran continues firing missiles, drones at neighboring states, with multiple interceptions reported
Iran launched a new wave of attacks on Thursday, with explosions reported in the region and Tehran threatening that the U.S. would “bitterly regret” sinking an Iranian warship.
Iran’s strikes on Thursday targeted Israel, American bases and countries in the region. Israel announced multiple incoming missile attacks as air raid sirens blared in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense on Thursday said Iran used unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in an attack on Nakhchivan International Airport and other civilian infrastructure. The ministry said the details of the attack and the capabilities of the UAVs were being investigated.
“The Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan strongly condemns the attacks carried out by the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran against civilian infrastructure on the territory of Azerbaijan in the absence of any military necessity. The Islamic Republic of Iran bears the entire responsibility for the incident,” the ministry’s statement read.
Iran has not acknowledged targeting Azerbaijan, despite the country’s ministry of defense pointing the finger at Tehran.
Qatar evacuated residents near the U.S. Embassy in Doha on Thursday, with its Ministry of Defense confirming that the country was “subjected to a missile attack” and that its air defense systems were able to intercept it. The ministry urged the public to remain calm and avoid unofficial information.
Abu Dhabi announced that its authorities were responding to an incident involving falling debris in ICAD 2, which is part of the Industrial City of Abu Dhabi. Six people, identified by Abu Dhabi as Pakistani and Nepali nationals, suffered minor to moderate injuries.
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Iran has carried out retaliatory strikes since the launch of Operation Epic Fury, with the latest wave coming one day after the U.S. sunk an Iranian warship, killing at least 87 Iranian sailors. Sri Lankan navy spokesman Cmdr. Buddhika Sampath said 32 people were rescued from the wreck and were admitted to a hospital.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth defended the move during a news briefing at the Pentagon.
“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. Like in that war, back when we were still the War Department, we are fighting to win,” Hegseth said.
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Iranian leaders condemned the attack, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accusing the U.S. Navy of committing “an atrocity at sea.” Meanwhile, Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli appeared on state television and called for the shedding of Israeli and “Trump’s blood.”
“Fight the oppressive America, his blood is on my shoulders,” he said in a rare call for violence from an ayatollah, one of the highest ranks within the clergy of Shiite Islam.
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The U.S. and Israel launched the war on Saturday with strikes targeting Iran’s leadership, including the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed. Iran’s missile arsenal and nuclear facilities were also hit.
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A massive joint air campaign by the United States and Israel is dismantling Iran’s missile network in what officials and analysts describe as one of the most coordinated allied operations in modern warfare.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the campaign is rapidly establishing dominance over Iranian skies.
“Starting last night and to be completed in a few days … the two most powerful air forces in the world will have complete control of Iranian skies,” Hegseth said Wednesday. “Uncontested airspace.”
“We will fly all day, all night … flying over Tehran, flying over Iran, flying over their capital… Iranian leaders are looking up and seeing only U.S. and Israeli air power every minute of every day until we decide it’s over.”
Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrintold Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview Tuesday that “the cooperation between us and the American military is amazing. We have mutual planning and mutual executing for the plans in Iran and beyond.”
John Spencer, executive director of the Urban Warfare Institute, told Fox News Digital Israel effectively matched the U.S. military’s opening airpower surge.
“Israel matched the United States in the number of aircraft in the air,” Spencer said. “For Israel, that represents roughly 80% of its air force capability.”
He added that the level of coordination between Washington and Jerusalem represents a new model for allied warfare.
“This isn’t separate work,” Spencer said. “This is combined work. Integrated, synchronized operations combining powers.”
“In the past, we’ve had coalitions of dozens of countries,” Spencer said. “But having a partner that is both willing and capable of bringing immense capabilities like this is very rare.”
Largest Israeli air operation in history
The Israeli campaign, known as Operation Roaring Lion, began with roughly 200 fighter jets launching the largest coordinated air operation in the history of the Israeli air force.
Within the first 24 hours of the campaign, Israeli fighter jets had already opened a corridor allowing sustained operations over Tehran, according to the Israeli military.
Israeli aircraft struck missile launch sites and air defense systems across western and central Iran in an opening wave targeting hundreds of sites simultaneously using intelligence gathered by Israel’s Intelligence Directorate and the CIA.
In the joint operation, Israeli aircraft dropped hundreds of munitions on approximately 500 targets, including missile launchers, command centers and air defense batteries.
The opening strike achieved a level of surprise rarely seen in modern warfare, according to Israeli intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder.
“In 40 seconds, we eliminated more than 40 of the most important people in Iran,” Binder said, referring to senior regime and military officials, including Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. “We are sending a clear message to our enemies — there is no place where we will not find them.”
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Spencer said the strategy behind the opening strike represents a dramatic shift in modern warfare.
“What Israel did in this opening campaign just wasn’t imaginable in the history of war. It never happened,” he said. “To start off by cutting off the brain… usually you target the military first. Here they targeted the political and military leadership and had the ability to wipe them out in a matter of hours.”
Spencer, a veteran of the 2003 Iraq War, said the operation reflects advances in intelligence and strike capabilities.
“I was part of the invasion in 2003,” he said. “Something like this was unthinkable even 20 years ago.”
Massive strike campaign
An IDF spokesperson announced Wednesday what he described as a historic milestone: an Israeli air force F-35 fighter jet shot down an Iranian aircraft, marking the first time anywhere in the world that an F-35 has downed a manned aircraft and the first time in 40 years that an Israeli aircraft has shot down an enemy aircraft in combat.
Since the start of the operation, Israeli aircraft have carried out more than 1,600 sorties and deployed more than 5,000 munitions, according to figures released Wednesday.
The strikes have destroyed roughly 300 missile launchers and targeted more than 600 Iranian military infrastructure sites, according to the IDF.
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Destroying Iran’s missile threat
Israeli intelligence assessments before the operation indicated Iran was accelerating its ballistic missile production with plans to reach 8,000 missiles by 2027. At the start of the campaign, Israel estimated Iran possessed roughly 3,000 missiles.
The strikes have already prevented the production of at least 1,500 ballistic missiles while destroying hundreds already in Iran’s arsenal, according to the IDF.
Israeli officials say the missile program represented a direct threat not only to Israel but also to American forces and allies in the region.
“The possession of missiles by a regime that openly declares its intent to destroy the State of Israel constitutes an existential threat,” the IDF said.
Casualties
Six U.S. service members have been killed, and several others injured, during Operation Epic Fury.
In Israel, 13 civilians had been killed as of Wednesday night and more than 1,000 injured in Iranian missile and drone attacks launched in response to the operation, according to Israeli emergency services. The United Arab Emirates has reported three deaths and 68 injuries since the war started
Precise casualty figures in Iran remain difficult to verify. Media reports say dozens of senior Iranian commanders were killed in the opening phase of the campaign, along with additional military personnel and civilians following strikes on military facilities and infrastructure.
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Fighting on multiple fronts
As the conflict expands beyond Iran, Israeli forces have struck more than 160 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in recent days. To sustain the multifront campaign, Israel has mobilized approximately 110,000 reservists.
“Wars are contests of will,” Spencer said. “Iran’s strategy is to break the will of the United States and Israel to continue the operation. The question is whether they can endure the pressure long enough to make that happen.”
Trump is realigning world energy markets and the Iran strikes are actually helping
Iran’s tyrannical and ruthless regime is disintegrating. After yet again massacring thousands of its own citizens for voicing their dreams for liberty and better governance, the Iranian regime, meanwhile, resumed pursuing nuclear capability and its aggressive ICBM program. The regime’s overconfidence in U.S. inaction cost it its leader, and its core military capabilities are going up in smoke. Against this backdrop, the conflict has spread to the Gulf, threatening the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point for roughly one-fifth of the world’s petroleum, and forcing the rest of the world to rethink how it prices energy risk and political alignment.
This is not another regional flare-up. This is a rupture of an old equilibrium in which sanctioned oil, shadow fleets and calibrated escalation kept markets stable enough to function. That equilibrium is now breaking. A rapid political-military shift in the Middle East is unfolding alongside a restructuring of the global energy order.
When I was in Afghanistan during the surge, Tehran’s active support for the insurgency fighting the United States and Afghan forces fomented instability and amplified violence for which civilians paid the biggest price, a dynamic that so many across several nations have tragically encountered for decades. But Iran was never a contained regional problem.
While its terrorism was widely perceived as a Middle East issue, its cyber and intelligence operations spanned continents, with assassination plots that included the American president. As to global effects, Iran’s energy has always made its regime globally significant.
At this stage of the conflict, the most economically significant and immediate geography is the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran is working to choke off. Roughly one-fifth of global petroleum and a substantial portion of liquefied natural gas move through that narrow corridor. As strikes intensified, vessels paused transit, insurers reassessed exposure and operators rerouted cargoes. Markets adjusted immediately. Energy security and geopolitical stability are now inseparable; maritime risk has become the pressure valve through which regional conflict spills into global consequence.
This realignment did not begin in the Gulf this weekend. It started with U.S. actions in Venezuela. Caracas holds the world’s largest proven crude reserves — about 303 billion barrels — and even marginal normalization under a more U.S.-cooperative government alters the supply calculus for Washington and its allies.
The new U.S.–Venezuela arrangement has already generated roughly $2 billion in transactions in just weeks, pulling Venezuelan barrels back into wider circulation and altering the discount ecosystem Moscow had grown accustomed to. Stack that with a post-crisis Iran re-entering markets on different terms, and the shadow ecosystem of discounted, sanctioned crude — Russia, Iran, Venezuela — begins to fracture and reprice simultaneously.
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But the most consequential energy recalibration runs through Beijing. China is essentially Iran’s oil export market. In 2025, China bought more than 80% of Iran’s shipped oil, averaging ~1.38 million barrels per day (bpd), about 13.4% of China’s seaborne crude imports — meaning Beijing is simultaneously Tehran’s economic lifeline and its strategic choke chain.
By turning a sanctioned producer into a quasi-captive supply relationship — sustained through gray-market routing, reflagging and intermediary hubs — Beijing secured discounted barrels in normal times and leverage in crisis. Any sustained disruption of Iranian flows forces China into replacement buying that tightens global markets and exposes China’s own energy security; Iran exports about 1.6 million bpd mainly to China and such disruptions pushes Beijing to pivot to alternatives.
The relationship is therefore best understood as a dependency loop: Iran needs China for revenue and sanctions relief-by-proxy; China uses Iran as a discount supplier and as a pressure valve in the sanctioned crude system — one that can be tightened or loosened depending on Beijing’s broader negotiation posture with Washington and its appetite for risk in the Gulf. That Iran-China dependency is no longer stable. With Iranian oil flows disrupted, China faces a choice between turning to alternative suppliers at higher cost or even tapping strategic reserves. Tightening global crude markets resulting from U.S. actions in Venezuela and now Iran give Washington leverage in energy pricing.
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Beyond the tanker decks, this shift underscores the larger theme of reconfiguration: resources once bundled to manage sanctions are now subject to heightened geopolitical risk, forcing China to rethink dependencies while the U.S. and its partners are positioning to shape the post-conflict energy order. Energy supply patterns will restructure global power relations. And where China is recalibrating exposure, Russia is recalculating opportunity.
The same forces reshaping China’s calculations are altering Moscow’s. As India trims Russian purchases, Moscow has been pushing more barrels into China, and Reuters reports China’s Russian crude imports hitting new records in February while Russian sellers widened discounts to keep demand — Urals trading roughly $9–$11 below Brent for China deliveries, and other Russian grades also cutting hard as sellers chase Chinese refiners.
The new U.S.–Venezuela arrangement has already generated roughly $2 billion in transactions in just weeks, pulling Venezuelan barrels back into wider circulation and altering the discount ecosystem Moscow had grown accustomed to.
This matters because China is also the anchor buyer for sanctioned Iranian crude; the “discount market” is not infinite, so Russia and Iran are now competing for the same limited pool of Chinese buyers, driving deeper concessions and leaving cargoes idling — exactly the kind of sanctions-economy dynamic.
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Add the West’s tightening focus on Russia’s “shadow fleet” and the risk of seizures or insurance denial, and you get an energy chessboard where coercion moves from rhetoric to logistics: who can ship, insure and clear payments reliably becomes as strategic as who can produce.
In that context, Russia’s loud warnings about Hormuz disruption are not just diplomacy, they are a reminder that Moscow profits from volatility, but also needs a functioning gray-market channel to China, and Iran’s crisis threatens to scramble the very discount ecosystem Russia has used to finance its war in Ukraine. Structural realignment threatens the very gray-market architecture on which Moscow has relied.
Energy is only one layer of a global shift. Strategic minerals remain critical. The Trump administration has increased economic and maritime pressure on Cuba, tightening an effective oil blockade that choked off fuel imports. President Donald Trump has authorized tariffs targeting countries supplying oil to Havana.
This is not simply punitive policy. It reflects a broader strategic doctrine: deny adversarial regimes energy lifelines while repositioning the Western Hemisphere’s resource base toward U.S. leverage. Oil is only one domain. Rare earth elements are a strategic asset. Cuba’s nickel and cobalt output, combined with China’s tightening grip through rare-earth export controls indicates that leverage is not just oil fields but also supply chains. America achieving rare earth elements sovereignty will remain a strategic goal and such a global realignment on this front is much needed.
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By the close of the first weekend, Iran appeared intent on accelerating its own collapse by compounding strategic error with strategic error. Iran felt it wise to respond to U.S. and Israeli strikes by pushing a half dozen other nations against it. On Saturday afternoon, Feb. 28, Iran launched attacks on seven sovereign nations – Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and Israel. It added Oman shortly after.
These nations now have a legal and political basis to deepen security ties with the U.S. and Israel that they could never have justified domestically before today. Iran has arguably done more to consolidate the anti-Iran regional architecture in one afternoon than a decade of American diplomacy. Watch for accelerated Abraham Accords-adjacent normalization with Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks.
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Any sustained disruption of Iranian flows forces China into replacement buying that tightens global markets and exposes China’s own energy security…
After massacring thousands of its own citizens for demanding better governance, the regime’s long-standing presumption of U.S. inaction cost the 1979 Revolution its dream of ruling over Iranians perpetually. After 47 years, its leader is gone, and its core military capabilities are being dismantled.
The lesson is not simply that the Iranian regime is falling. It is that when it falls amid energy choke points and great-power competition, supply chains, alliances and leverage structures shift simultaneously. Iran’s collapse is not the end of the story; it is the catalyst for a broader redistribution of power across energy, alliances, and great-power leverage. America should exploit these shifting dynamics fully.