U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a Pentagon briefing Friday, without providing evidence, that Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei “ is wounded and likely disfigured. ” Khamenei has not been seen in public since taking over leadership. Hegseth also said in regards to Iran’s chokehold on global oil shipments that “we have been dealing with it and don’t need to worry about it.”
All six crew members aboard a U.S. military KC-135 refueling aircraft that crashed in western Iraq are dead and the circumstances are being investigated, the American military said. The crash brings the U.S. death toll in Operation Epic Fury to at least 13 service members.
A large explosion struck Iran’s capital, Tehran, near a square filled with people for annual Quds Day demonstrations in support of the Palestinians, Iranian state television reported. Thousands chanted “death to Israel” and “death to America.”
And more than 100 children are among the 773 people killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, the Lebanese Health Ministry said Friday. Israel said Friday its strikes on Hezbollah targets are “continuing and intensifying.” U.S. President Donald Trump said the war would end “when I feel it in my bones.”
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on X that the 30-day reprieve on sanctions applies to Russian oil already loaded on tankers as of Thursday. He said allowing this stranded oil to be sold provides no additional financial benefit for Russia, because the Kremlin already taxed it when the oil was extracted from the ground.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it shows how the war has boosted Moscow’s ability to profit from its energy exports, a pillar of the Kremlin’s budget as it presses its invasion of Ukraine.
“This easing alone by the United States could provide Russia with about $10 billion for the war,” Zelenskyy said. “It spends the money from energy sales on weapons, and all of this is then used against us.”
Israel says it has killed over 350 Hezbollah militants since renewed fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed group broke out in Lebanon almost two weeks ago.
In a statement, the military said among those killed are senior Hezbollah operatives as well as prominent commanders of other militant groups.
Italy’s travel industry says the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and spillover to Gulf countries is triggering widespread cancellations and could cost the country at least €1.5 billion in tourism revenue in 2026, according to the Italian Federation of Travel and Tourism Business.
Losses could reach €6 billion when Gulf transit hubs are included, as travelers cancel or delay trips to destinations Italians often use as gateways to places like the Maldives and Japan, the federation’s Vice President Luana De Angelis said.
“All those people who were about to book their summer and Easter holidays have been forced to wait and see what happens,” she said.
Protesters from Pakistan to Nigeria voiced their support for Palestinians on the last Friday of Ramadan, waving images of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque and denouncing Israel and the United States over the ongoing war with Iran.
The Jerusalem Day rallies were especially intense in countries with large Shiite Muslim populations. In Yemen’s capital Sanaa, crowds held posters of Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, killed at the start of the war, and chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” according to Houthi-run al-Masirah television.
In Karachi, Pakistan, demonstrators shouted similar slogans as women dragged coffins marked with U.S. and Israeli flags through the streets.
Residents of Iran’s capital are in a state of shock after two weeks of fierce U.S.-Israeli bombardment.
From Tehran’s central historic quarters to upscale northern areas, bombs are shaking the city day and night, with no sirens or warning systems to alert the public. With the internet shut down, families and friends rely on each other for news about the war and the latest damage caused by airstrikes.
“The psychological pressure is real,” said one person in northern Tehran.
Residents say security forces have increased their presence in the streets to prevent any show of dissent. At the same time, the government has encouraged its supporters to gather in street demonstrations.
In less than two weeks of war, a Lebanese Red Cross paramedic helping wounded civilians was killed by an Israeli airstrike, and other medics have been wounded, the groups said.
Iranian Red Crescent staff and volunteers also suffered casualties aiding civilians, the groups said. Red Cross and Red Crescent personnel have been killed this year in Sudan and Gaza too.
The heads of the organizations said humanitarian workers are protected under international law and must be safeguarded in conflicts.
“When humanitarian workers are protected, so is our shared humanity,” they said in a joint statement Friday. “The lives of our teams, and those they serve, depend on it.”
Shipping disruptions would also drive up costs for food, medicine and other lifesaving supplies, said Stephane Dujarric, the U.N. spokesperson.
Citing aid chief Tom Fletcher, the spokesperson said the world body is urging safe passage for humanitarian cargo. Fletcher told the Security Council the disruptions are already affecting Gaza, where flour prices have surged 270%, while global shipping costs are 16% higher than a year ago.
The flights arranged with U.S. diplomatic support aim to help thousands of Americans in Israel whose return flights were canceled due to the war.
El Al, Israel’s flag carrier, says it will begin operating six special non-stop flights at “full capacity” from Tel Aviv to New York starting Monday. It will contact U.S. citizens on Sunday who hold valid El Al tickets that were canceled and not yet reassigned.
While El Al has been flying a limited number of passengers out of Israel since March 8, but these are the first dedicated for U.S. citizens. The airline acknowledged it’s “a partial solution” and may add more flights pending government approval.
The U.S. State Department says most Americans who left the region took commercial flights, while about 50 charter flights evacuated others. Some departed Israel via overland routes.
Embassy staff and passengers who were stuck in transit when the war broke out made it home Friday evening on a Qatar Airways flight coordinated with the Bangladeshi government.
That’s according to Ragib Samad, executive director at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.
The war has forced widespread airspace closures, cancelling 447 flights at Dhaka’s airport.
President Joseph Aoun’s proposal that he put forward last week calls for Israel to halt its attacks on Hezbollah while international logistics support helps the Lebanese army deploy in the country’s south and take control of Hezbollah weapons and depots.
Speaking during a meeting with U.N. chief António Guterres, Aoun said that Israel’s attacks are threatening regional stability.
Both men called for Israel and Lebanon to begin negotiations. Israel has said Lebanon’s government is not serious about disarming Hezbollah so the Israeli military must do it instead.
During a surprise visit to Lebanon, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made the emergency appeal to fund food, water, health care and other aid over the next three months.
In addition to the hundreds of Lebanese civilians killed during the fighting, Guterres said about 850,000 people have been displaced.
“For years, Lebanon has opened its doors to those fleeing conflict,” he said. “Now, the world must show the people of Lebanon our strongest support in this hour of grave danger and profound need.”
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam spoke after meeting U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to launch a humanitarian appeal of more than $300 million.
“Lebanon did not choose this war,” Salam said, criticizing Hezbollah’s rocket fire into Israel. “There is no justification in holding an entire nation hostage.”
He said more than 500 Hezbollah military positions and weapons depots in southern Lebanon have been dismantled, pushing back on Israeli claims that Beirut has failed to act against the group.
“These actions are not symbolic gestures,” Salam said.
Israeli Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said Friday that the air force had struck an Iranian intelligence directorate while senior Iranian officials were present, as well as other command centers and missile production and storage sites.
The Israeli military spokesperson said strikes were “continuing and intensifying” in both Iran and Lebanon and that more combat troops would be sent to Israel’s northern border. “Despite the long-term degradation of the Iranian regime’s and Hezbollah’s strike capabilities, the threat remains,” he said.
The military said it has struck more than 7,600 sites in Iran and more than 1,100 in Lebanon.
The Old City contains an area Jews call the Temple Mount — the holiest site in Judaism and home to the ancient biblical temples. Muslims call it the Noble Sanctuary and today it is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. Holy sites have been closed to worshippers of all faiths throughout the war.
Israeli police have deployed extra forces and the country’s Home Front Command has cited wartime safety concerns as a reason for restrictions, though Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem has little shelter infrastructure.
Jerusalem-based nonprofit Ir Amim questioned why the restrictions have remained in place as other synagogues and mosques have remained open, saying they “cannot be separated from the long-standing Israeli policy aimed at reducing Palestinian presence” at the holy site.
Unlike other Middle Eastern states touched by the war, Iraq hosts both entrenched Iran-aligned forces and significant U.S. interests. As in past upheavals, Iraqis have learned to adapt to daily violence that intrudes on everyday life.
But Iraq’s economy depends overwhelmingly on oil, so the longer the conflict lasts, the greater the risk that economic shocks, political paralysis and friction with Iran‑backed militias will combine to unravel Iraq’s hard‑won relative stability.
The government might not be able to meet its oversized public‑sector payroll as soon as next month, risking widespread unrest, two Iraqi Kurdish officials said.
In the meantime, a parallel conflict to the wider war has escalated between Iran-backed Iraqi militia groups and the U.S. — near-daily drone strikes have targeted American interests across the country, while the U.S. has struck back against militia bases to defend its troops.
Hinting at voter anxieties in the U.S. as the conflict in the Middle East continues, the president said the economy and American life will soon return to what it was before he launched strikes on Iran.
“This will bounce right back when it’s over, and I don’t think it’s going to be long,” Trump said in his interview with Fox News personality Brian Kilmeade.
Asked when the war will be over, Trump responded: “When I feel it — when I feel it in my bones.”
Friedrich Merz spoke Friday alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at military exercises in Norway.
Merz said the world is witnessing “a dangerous escalation,” and said Iran is “indiscriminately” carrying out attacks on countries across the Gulf region.
“With every day this war lasts, more questions are coming up, more than can be answered yet,” Merz said. “And one thing becomes increasingly clear, we need a convincing plan on how this war can come to an end.”
The president said, “No, not at all,” when asked if the U.S. would attempt to retrieve the material, which is believed to be buried underground in Iran.
“We’re not focused on that,” Trump said. “But at some point, we might be.”
Trump, in an interview on Fox News Radio that aired Friday, said that when it comes to the U.S. Navy escorting ships through the shipping lane, “We would do it if we need to.”
“Hopefully things are going to go very well,” Trump said.
The military says the circumstances of the incident are being investigated.
Earlier, U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said the crash followed an unspecified incident involving two aircraft in “friendly airspace,” and that the other plane landed safely.
The military said the loss of the aircraft was “not due to hostile or friendly fire.”
The defense secretary told reporters that Iran is “exercising sheer desperation” in the Strait of Hormuz, which the Iran war has closed, blocking a significant portion of the world’s oil.
“And as the world is seeing, they are exercising sheer desperation in the Straits of Hormuz, something we’re dealing with. We have been dealing with it and don’t need to worry about it. We’re on plan to defeat, destroy, disable all of their meaningful military capabilities at a pace the world has never seen before.”
Hegseth did not give details. But Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that the U.S. military has “made it a priority to target Iran’s minelaying enterprise” impacting the strategic waterway.
The summit of the Developing Eight group of nations in Jakarta, scheduled for April 13-15, was delayed because of security concerns linked to the fighting, said Tri Tharyat, director general of multilateral cooperation at Indonesia’s foreign affairs ministry. No new date has been set.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation and Southeast Asia’s largest economy, was set to host leaders from Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey. The group meets to boost economic cooperation among Muslim‑majority nations across Asia and Africa.
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:
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 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 U.S. Central Command has designated an officer to lead the investigation into the airstrike on an elementary school that killed more than 165 people, many of them children, in the opening hours of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. The investigating officer was chosen from outside Central Command, which oversees the Middle East.
The Associated Press has reported that outdated intelligence likely led the U.S. to carry out the missile strike on the school.
Hegseth wouldn’t answer questions Friday 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.
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.
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.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
