The Latest: Explosions heard in Tehran and Jerusalem on fifth day of war

Explosions sounded in Tehran Wednesday as Iran's war with the U.S. and Israel entered a fifth day following earlier strikes on an Iranian nuclear site and retaliatory strikes by the Islamic Republic across the Gulf region.

The explosions around Tehran came at dawn, according to Iran state television, while Israel’s military said its air defenses had been activated to intercept incoming Iranian missiles and explosions were heard around Jerusalem.

The war has killed more than 1,000 people in Iran and dozens in Lebanon, while disrupting the supply of the world’s oil and gas, snarling international shipping, and stranding hundreds of thousands of travelers in the Middle East.

Here is the latest:

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says a torpedo from a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship.

In a Pentagon briefing on Wednesday, Hegseth said that the Tuesday night strike on an Iranian warship was the first such attack on an enemy since World War II.

“An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” Hegseth said. “Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo.”

An Israeli military official says top U.S. and Israeli commanders began planning the opening strike of the war against Iran three weeks ago.

The official says that once Israel’s government decided on its intention to attack Iran, Israel’s top military brass reached out to the Pentagon to coordinate the operation.

The militaries worked side by side during the opening strikes on Saturday, killing Iran’s supreme leader and dozens of other top officials. As part of the operation, top Israeli commanders went home for the weekend on Friday to deceive Iran into thinking that an attack was not imminent.

NATO spokesperson, Allison Hart, condemned “Iran’s targeting of Turkey” but she did not confirm whether the military organization’s air defenses were used to down the missile.

“NATO stands firmly with all allies, including Turkey, as Iran continues its indiscriminate attacks across the region,” she said. “Our deterrence and defense posture remains strong across all domains, including when it comes to air and missile defense.”

Asked whether NATO air defenses were used, Hart said she “can’t get into operational details.”

NATO has parts of a broader European ballistic missile defense system on Turkish soil, including an early warning radar at the Kurecik base which can detect missiles from Iran.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has spoken by phone with his Iranian counterpart after an Iranian ballistic missile that was detected heading toward Turkish airspace Wednesday was intercepted.

During the call with Abbas Araghchi, Turkey stressed that “all steps that could escalate the conflict and contribute to its spread” must be avoided, a Turkish official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government protocol.

A container ship was attacked Wednesday afternoon off the coast of Oman, causing fire in its engine room, an agency of the U.K. military said.

The vessel was transiting eastbound through the Strait of Hormuz, 2 nautical miles north of Oman, when it was hit by an unknown projectile, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, UKMTO.

Oman, long an intermediary between the West and Iran, has repeatedly come under attack by Iran.

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami is a member of the Assembly of Experts, the body charged with picking a new leader. His comments were aired on state television.

“The options have become clear,” Khatami said. Other top officials have indicated a decision may be close.

Sirens have gone off in Jerusalem and elsewhere for simultaneous launches from Lebanon and Iran.

Israel’s military earlier said it is seeing a decline in launches from Iran as the campaign enters its fifth day.

An Iraqi official says a senior Iranian official requested that Iraq take measures to prevent Iranian opposition groups based there from breaching the border.

A statement says Ali Bagheri, deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, made the request in a call with Iraqi National Security Advisor Qassim al-Araji.

The guard says it is prepared for the “complete destruction of the region’s military and economic infrastructure.” The statement came via Iranian state television.

“The continued mischief and deception by the United States in the region will come at the cost of the complete destruction of the region’s military and economic infrastructure,” it says.

It alleges, without offering evidence, that the U.S. military was using “civilian facilities ... as cover.”

The death toll in Iran from the ongoing war with the United States and Israel has reached at least 1,045 people, an Iranian government agency said Wednesday.

The Iran’s Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs offered the toll, saying it represented the number of bodies so far identified and prepared for burial.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry says NATO defenses have intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Iran before it entered Turkey’s airspace. A ministry statement said the missile was detected after crossing Iraqi and Syrian airspace. NATO air and missile defense units stationed in the eastern Mediterranean intercepted it in time.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney say he sees the war as an extreme example of a rupturing world order in which countries increasingly act without respect for international norms and laws.

“Geo-strategically, hegemons are increasingly acting without constraint or respect for international norms or laws while others bear the consequences. Now the extremes of this disruption are being played out in real time in the Middle East,” Carney said at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based international policy think tank.

But whether the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran broke international law was “a judgment for others to make,” he said.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a prominent religious leader based in Iraq, condemned the “military aggression” against Iran. He said attacking a country that is a member of the United Nations without U.N. approval is a violation of international law.

The Iran-born al-Sistani, who is one of the world’s most influential Shiite clerics, warned that war would cause widespread chaos and prolonged unrest “that will bring calamities to the peoples of the region and to the interests of others as well.”

Al-Sistani is based in the holy Shiite city of Najaf.

Iranian state television on Wednesday afternoon said the mourning ceremony for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been postponed and would be held later after intense strikes targeted Tehran.

A Hong Kong expatriate living in Dubai moved hotels twice and encountered high prices for hotels and flights out of the country in her search for safety.

Agnes Chen Pun, a partner at an investment firm, said she was afraid her home in Dubai near the Burj Khalifa skyscraper could be targeted. That prompted her to move Monday into a resort in Fujairah on the eastern coast of the UAE, an around 1.5-hour drive from Dubai.

After spending a peaceful night in Fujairah, however, a fire broke at the port there.

“We see the dark smoke,” she said. “Everyone is like running, rushing in the (hotel) lobby.”

There were limited flights leaving UAE or Oman, and she considered taking a private jet from Oman back to Asia, as some others were doing. The cost, however, was as much as $268,000 for a 13-seat private jet flight.

She finally secured commercial flight tickets at around $2,200 per person for economy class seats for her family for an Emirates flight scheduled to fly out of Dubai to Singapore Wednesday evening.

The Iranian vessel that was sinking off of Sri Lanka, the IRIS Dena, is one of Iran’s newest warships.

The frigate was the centerpiece of a two-ship international tour in 2023 that included port calls in countries including South Africa and Brazil. It was accompanied by the support ship IRIS Makran, a converted oil tanker.

The U.S. Treasury Department included both ships on a sanctions designation in February 2023 along with eight executives of an Iranian drone manufacturer that supplied the weapons to Russia for use against civilian targets in Ukraine.

The Israeli military is ordering people living in dozens of villages in southern Lebanon close to the border with Israel to evacuate and move “immediately” north of the Litani River.

The Israeli army’s Arabic spokesperson warned people on X that if they decide to move south of the river they will be endangering their lives.

The area south of the Litani River is mostly along the border with Israel. The Lebanese government says it has cleared the area of Hezbollah’s military presence there over the past months.

Israel is seeing a decline in launches from Iran as the campaign enters its fifth day, military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said.

Defrin also said Israel is not surprised by any new weapons Iran may use and had prepared extensively for the confrontation.

He said Israel would continue to “hunt and destroy” Iran’s military capabilities.

Israel has struck more than 250 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon over the past 48 hours, an Israeli army spokesperson said Wednesday.

Spokesperson Effie Defrin said in a recorded statement that the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah had been launching rockets at Israel overnight.

Defrin said Israel would continue to target Hezbollah until “the threat is removed.”

“I emphasize: We have no issue with the people of Lebanon. The people of Lebanon are paying the price for the Iranian regime,” he said.

A top Sri Lankan official says 32 people have been rescued from a sinking Iranian naval ship off Sri Lanka’s southern coast have been admitted to a hospital.

Dr. Anil Jasinghe, a top health ministry official, says one of them is in critical condition, seven are receiving emergency treatment and others are treated for minor injuries.

Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told Parliament that Sri Lanka’s navy received information that the ship IRIS Dena with 180 onboard was under distress, and that the island nation sent ships and air force planes on a rescue mission.

There were no immediate details as to how the sailors were wounded and how the ship was damaged.

Kuwait’s military said a new wave of Iranian missiles and drone was targeting the tiny Mideast nation.

Iran’s judiciary chief threatened “those who say or do anything” in support of the U.S.-Israeli airstrike campaign targeting the Islamic Republic.

Gholam Hosseini Mohseni Ejehei’s remarks raised the possibility of those detained facing death-penalty charges, as cooperating with an enemy can carry execution if convicted.

Speaking on state television, he said: “Those who say or do anything in line with the will of America and the Zionist regime are on the enemy’s side and must be dealt with on revolutionary, Islamic principles and in accordance with the time of war.”

The British government says a chartered flight will take off from Oman late Wednesday to bring back some of the thousands of U.K. nationals in the Gulf.

It says the most vulnerable will be prioritized for the first of what is expected to be a series of flights.

The Foreign Office says more than 130,000 British nationals in the Middle East have registered their presence with the government since the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict broke out, though not all are trying to leave. Many of those are in the United Arab Emirates, and the government has advised against trying to travel overland to Oman.

Commercial airlines are also starting to resume some flights, with Etihad, Emirates and Virgin Atlantic all due to operate flights from the UAE to London on Wednesday.

The Israeli military said one of its F-35 stealth fighter jets shot down a piloted Iranian Air Force YAK-130 fighter over Tehran on Wednesday. Israel described it as the first air-to-air combat kill of a piloted aircraft by the fighter jet.

Iran’s top diplomat is again criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump as America and Israel continue their airstrike campaign targeting his country in the war.

Abbas Araghchi said that “Trump betrayed diplomacy and Americans who elected him.”

“When complex nuclear negotiations are treated like a real estate transaction, and when big lies cloud realities, unrealistic expectations can never be met,” Araghchi wrote on X. “The outcome? Bombing the negotiation table out of spite.”

The war began Saturday after Israel launched an airstrike killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The U.S. and Iran had held three rounds of nuclear negotiations prior to the start of the war, but no deal had been reached.

As the fighter jets roared overhead, those still in Tehran looked anxiously to the skies.

One man who ran a clothing shop said he didn’t know what, if anything, he could do.

“It’s very difficult to decide what to do. If I leave the city, how am I supposed to earn money and survive?” said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

“I just hope the Arabs do not get involved. If they do, their missiles won’t be as precise as these.”

By Jon Gambrell

Airstrikes also were reported in the Iranian cities of Urmiah and Kermanshah.

The Israeli military said it had begun “broad scale strikes” in Tehran.

Airstrikes struck eastern Tehran later Wednesday morning, witnesses said.

Israel’s defense minister on Wednesday threatened whoever Iran picks to be the country’s next supreme leader, saying he will be “a target for elimination.”

Israel Katz made the statement on X.

“Every leader appointed by the Iranian terror regime to continue and lead the plan to destroy Israel, to threaten the United States and the free world and the countries of the region, and to suppress the Iranian people — will be a target for elimination,” he wrote.

Israel targeted a building Tuesday associated with Iran’s Assembly of Experts, which will select the new supreme leader.

Israel killed the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a strike Saturday that started the war.

A man carries an Iranian flag to place on the rubble of a police facility struck during the U.S.–Israeli military campaign in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

The rubble of a police facility struck during the U.S.–Israeli military campaign is seen in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Workers remove the rubble of a police facility struck during the U.S.–Israeli military campaign in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A man carries an Iranian flag to place on the rubble of a police facility struck during the U.S.–Israeli military campaign in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Israeli tanks maneuver near the Israel-Lebanon border, in northern Israel, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

An Iranian flag is placed among the ruins of a police station struck Monday during the U.S.–Israeli military campaign in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Firefighters inspect the rubble as smoke rises from a building hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Jewish men covered in prayer shawls pray in an underground parking garage as a precaution against possible Iranian missile attacks, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

A coffin is carried during the funeral of mostly children killed in what Iranian officials said was an Israeli-U.S. strike Feb. 28 at a girls' elementary school in Minab, Iran, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (Abbas Zakeri/Mehr News Agency via AP)

A man takes shelter in an underground metro station as a precaution against possible Iranian missile attacks, in Ramat Gan, Israel Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

NEW YORK (AP) — The Iran war has effectively halted oil tanker movement in the key Strait of Hormuz. But it's also disrupting the wider global supply chain beyond oil, affecting everything from pharmaceuticals from India, semiconductors from Asia and oil-derived products like fertilizers that come from the Middle East.

Cargo ships are stuck in the Gulf or making a much longer detour around the southern tip of Africa. Planes carrying air cargo out of the Middle East are grounded. And the longer the war drags on, the more likely that there will be shortages and price increases on a wide range of goods.

“This is really causing some major impacts within the global supply chain,” said Patrick Penfield, professor of supply chain practice at Syracuse University. “As this conflict keeps progressing, you’ll start to see some shortages, you’ll see some major price increases.”

Clarksons Research, which tracks shipping data, estimates that about 3,200 ships, or about 4% of global ship tonnage, are idle inside the Persian Gulf, but that includes about 1,231 that likely only operate within the Gulf. About 500 ships, or 1% of global tonnage, are currently “waiting” outside the Gulf in ports off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and Oman, according to the firm.

While those may seem like small percentages, they have a domino effect that will lead to congestion elsewhere, said Michael Goldman, general manager North America of CARU Containers.

“The supply chain is kind of like a long train with many cars and each car represents, let’s say, a port in the world. Well, if one car gets derailed, it can very often have a domino effect to many other cars behind it or in front of it,” he said. “So although we only have a small number of ports affected by this military action, it can really have a big effect on the total supply chain.”

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump pitched a plan aimed at getting oil and trade moving again through the Strait.

Trump said on social media he ordered the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. to provide political risk insurance for tankers carrying oil and other goods through the Persian Gulf “at a very reasonable price.”

Political risk insurance is a type of coverage intended to protect firms against financial losses caused by unstable political conditions, government actions, or violence. Marine insurers had been canceling or raising rates for insurance in the region.

He said that, if necessary, the U.S. Navy would escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. The Navy has at least eight destroyers and three, smaller, littoral combat ships in the region. These ships have previously been used to escort merchant shipping in the region and in the Red Sea.

A wide range of products are shipped through the Mideast region. Along with about 20% of the worlds oil that comes from the region, products made with natural gas such as petrochemical feedstock — used to make plastic and rubber — and nitrogen fertilizer come from the Middle East. Pharmaceuticals exported from India and semiconductors and batteries exported from Asia to the rest of the world are all shipped through the region and could face delays.

In addition to constraints on the Strait of Hormuz, the instability has put a damper on transit in the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, which had just begun to see more transit after years of instability due to Houthi attacks on ships in the region. Shipping company Maersk had resumed transit in the Suez Canal and Red Sea but said Sunday it was rerouting that traffic around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, a move other companies have been making to avoid the volatile region.

That journey adds 10 to 14 days to the trip and about $1 million extra in fuel per ship, Syracuse' Penfield estimates.

With higher fuel prices, longer routes and higher risk in the region, shippers have begun adding fuel and “war risk” or “emergency conflict” surcharges to what they're charging clients, leading to higher costs all around, he said.

Air cargo has also been constrained. Closed airspace and airports in countries including UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran have stranded tens of thousands of people - and cargo.

Each of the three major Middle Eastern airlines — Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways — operate fleets of cargo aircraft, and the airlines also transport goods in the belly of their passenger planes.

The amount of goods that travels through the air typically accounts for less than 1% of all freight moving globally, but the products that do travel by air tend to be perishable or high-value goods like pharmaceuticals, electronics and produce that together account for about 35% of the world trade value, Boeing estimated in its World Air Cargo Forecast.

The longer these airports in the Middle East remain closed the greater the potential disruption to the economy if these sensitive shipments don’t arrive or have to be rerouted around the conflict. Even before the war in Iran began over the weekend, air freight and airlines were already contending with closed airspace over Ukraine and Russia.

Flights through these Middle Eastern airport hubs are a key route for passengers and cargo from India. Henry Harteveldt, an airline industry analyst with Atmosphere Research Group, said it’s going to be hard to get to India now, and passengers may have to switch to different routes that fly west across Asia. Airlines may have to resort to longer flights, and in some case even add fuel stops on some routes.

“Remember, there’s a lot of pharmaceutical products that are made in India and then exported to different countries around the world. If that’s disrupted, that has a huge, huge, huge impact,” Harteveldt said.

Air cargo costs are expected to rise due to reduced capacity, increased demand, and surcharges.

Maersk said in an operational update Tuesday that it expects air freight rates to rise due to capacity constraints.

“Airlines are also introducing or reviewing the possibility of introducing war risk surcharges on shipments routed through or near the impacted regions,” Maersk said in a statement. “There may also be added costs linked to jet fuel which in turn can push up costs.”

Despite the supply chain upheaval, however, Michael Goldman, general manager North America of CARU Containers, said the industry will adjust. Over the past few years it has faced other major disruptions like COVID supply shortages and other recent Mideast conflicts and has become more nimble.

“The specific situation that’s happening is pretty unprecedented, so it’s very unique from that perspective,” he said. “(But) for the last few years the industry just kind of runs on disruption. So in terms of our industry having disruption, that is nothing new. That's more of the same.”

Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska and Fatima Hussein and Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed to this report.

FILE - Fishermen work in front of oil tankers south of the Strait of Hormuz Jan. 19, 2012, offshore the town of Ras Al Khaimah in United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File)