US President Donald Trump encouraged Iranian Kurdish forces in Iraq to launch attacks against Iran as the Middle East conflict widened, with Azerbaijan warning it would retaliate for being targeted by Iranian missiles.
Israel said it had started a "broad-scale" wave of attacks against infrastructure targets in Tehran, as Gulf cities came under renewed bombardment by Iran.
Iran launched an overnight drone attack on the US Al Udied airbase in Qatar, the biggest US base in the Middle East, Qatari officials said. There were no reported casualties.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Iranian forces had targeted the Ramat David airbase and a radar site in Israel, the Al-Adiri camp in Kuwait where US forces are stationed, and a drone attack on a base hosting US troops in Erbil, Iraq.
An IRGC spokesperson said new initiatives and weapons would soon be deployed to confront Israeli and US aggression, without giving details.
The seven-day war has now seen Iran target Israel, the Gulf states, Cyprus, Turkey and Azerbaijan, and spread to the Indian Ocean where a US submarine sank an Iranian naval ship.
"This was an 'existential war' for Iran, leaving us with no choice but to respond wherever American attacks originate from," Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said at the Raisina Dialogues conference in Delhi today.
On the possibility of the Iranian Kurdish forces entering Iran from neighbouring Iraq, Mr Trump said yesterday: "I think it's wonderful that they want to do that, I'd be all for it."
Two Iranian drone attacks targeted an Iranian opposition camp in Iraqi Kurdistan yesterday, security sources said.
Iranian Kurdish militias have consulted with the United States about whether, and how, to attack Iran's security forces in the country, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.
Mr Trump, speaking with Reuters in a telephone interview, also said the United States must have a role in deciding who will be the next leader of Iran after airstrikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last week.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said yesterday that the US was not expanding its military objectives in Iran, despite what Mr Trump said about choosing the country's next leader.
"There's no expansion in our objectives. We know exactly what we're trying to achieve," he said.
Mr Hegseth said the objectives are to destroy Iran's ballistic missile capabilities and prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.
On Wednesday, Mr Hegseth acknowledged the US military was investigating a strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children on Saturday.
Two US officials said that military investigators now believed US forces were likely responsible, but had not yet reached a final conclusion.
The attack on Iran is a political gamble for the Republican president, with opinion polls showing little public support and Americans concerned about the rise in gasoline prices caused by disruption to energy supplies. Mr Trump dismissed that concern.
Shares on Wall Street fell yesterday, weighed by surging oil prices, as the economic impact of the campaign intensified, with countries around the world cut off from a fifth of global supplies of oil and liquefied natural gas and air transport still facing chaos and global logistics increasingly snarled.
Azerbaijan preparing unspecified retaliatory measures
Azerbaijan was preparing unspecified retaliatory measures yesterday after it said four Iranian drones crossed its border and injured four people in the Nakhchivan exclave.
"We will not tolerate this unprovoked act of terror and aggression against Azerbaijan," President Ilham Aliyev told a meeting of his Security Council.
Iran, which has a significant Azeri minority, denied it targeted its neighbour.
Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militia warned Israeli residents today to evacuate towns within 5km (3 miles) of the border.
"Your military's aggression against Lebanese sovereignty and safe citizens, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and the expulsion campaign it is carrying out will not go unchallenged," Hezbollah said in a message posted on its Telegram channel in Hebrew.
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French President Emmanuel Macron said France would provide armoured transport vehicles and other support to strengthen its cooperation with the Lebanese Armed Forces.
Mr Hegseth and Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads US forces in the Middle East, said during a briefing that the US had enough munitions to continue its bombardment indefinitely.
"Iran is hoping that we cannot sustain this, which is a really bad miscalculation," Mr Hegseth told reporters at Central Command headquarters in Florida. "Our munitions are full up and our will is ironclad."
Earlier this week, the Pentagon said the military campaign, known as Operation Epic Fury, was focused on destroying Iran's offensive missiles, missile production and navy, while not allowing Tehran to have a nuclear weapon.
Admiral Cooper said the US had now hit at least 30 Iranian ships, including a large drone carrier the size of a World War Two aircraft carrier.
B-2 bombers had dropped dozens of penetrator bombs targeting deeply buried ballistic missile launchers, and bombings were also targeting Iran's missile production facilities, he said.
Iran's ballistic missile attacks had decreased by 90% since the first day of the war, while drone attacks had decreased by 83%.
In Iran, at least 1,230 people have been killed, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, including 175 schoolgirls and staff killed at the primary school in Minab on the first day of the war.
Another 77 have been killed in Lebanon, its Health Ministry says. Thousands fled southern Beirut yesterday after Israel warned residents to leave.
