US says it will strike ‘deeper’ into Iran as war spreads across region

• US to strike “deeper” into Iran: The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the US will start “striking progressively deeper” into Iran, and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cautioned Americans that it’s “very early” in military operations against Tehran.

• Widening conflict: Israel is launching a new wave of strikes across Tehran, the Israeli military said Wednesday. Earlier, Hegseth said a US submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean.

• Death toll rises: The White House didn’t rule out that a strike on a girls’ elementary school in southern Iran was carried out by US military personnel, but insisted that the US “does not target civilians.” More than 1,000 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, according to US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

Several aid workers told CNN that Lebanese people are still struggling to piece back their communities and livelihoods, after Israel’s offensive in Gaza spilled into Lebanon these past two years.

Now, those trying to survive renewed Israeli military attacks are being psychologically retraumatized by the sound of strikes, scenes of mass displacement and increased bloodshed as shelter becomes scarce, relief staffers say.

One humanitarian worker warned that “even small triggers, like a door slamming, cause people to jump in fear, reliving past experiences of violence and loss.”

“Each airstrike is not just a new danger: It brings back traumas from previous conflicts, including past wars and the Beirut blast,” Cyril Bassil, a staffer for CARE International in Lebanon, told CNN by email on Tuesday.

“The mental health of Lebanese communities, already severely strained by years of conflict, economic crises and social tension, is now further deteriorating under these attacks,” Bassil said. “In Beirut, the mood is one of pervasive fear, uncertainty and sleepless nights. The combined physical and psychological toll is immense.”

Between October 2023 and November 27, 2024, Israeli strikes in Lebanon killed more than 3,961 people, including 248 children, Human Rights Watch reported, citing the Lebanese Health Ministry. Entire villages were razed, and swaths of the capital, Beirut, were reduced to debris following the fierce Israeli campaign.

Another aid worker warned that humanitarian staff are inadequately prepared for the scale and scope of attacks.

“There’s no response preparedness,” Maya Andari, the director of program quality for CARE International in Lebanon, told CNN in a voice message on Wednesday. “People are extremely, extremely tired. They’re not ready for this.”

The president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region and the Iranian foreign minister pledged “cooperation” in a phone call on Wednesday, according to a readout from the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

The call comes a day after CNN reported that the CIA is aiming to foment rebellion in Iran by arming Iranian Kurds and sending them over the border from Iraqi Kurdistan.

During their call, Iraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi agreed to work toward “preventing any third parties from exploiting the situation to destabilize the region.”

A readout of the call from Barzani’s office likewise said the region “will not be part of the conflicts.”

Also on Wednesday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry reported that Araghchi held a call with Bafel Talabani, party leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, wherein the Iranian foreign minister emphasized security cooperation in the face of “terrorist movements” on the Iran-Iraq border.

The flurry of calls also included one between Iraqi Prime Minister Shia al-Sudani and Araghchi. Al-Sudani told the foreign minister that Iraq would not allow an attack on Iran from its territory, according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

Meghan Bodette, research director at the Kurdish Peace Institute, told CNN that Iraqi Kurdish leaders wouldn’t want to risk provoking Iran.

“Iraqi Kurdistan will aim to protect its own interests first, even if its leaders and people are sympathetic to the struggle of Kurds in Iran,” she said.

While Iraqi Kurds have previously offered support to Kurdish forces in Syria, Bodette said offering support to Iranian Kurds would be far riskier.

“Iran sees this war as existential,” Bodette said. “It is able and willing to threaten civilians, destroy infrastructure and devastate the economy in (Iraqi Kurdistan) if the region is seen as supportive of Iranian Kurdish aspirations. No such threat existed when (Iraqi Kurdistan) offered support for Syrian Kurds in January.”

CNN’s Michael Rios contributed to this report.

The Trump administration appears divided on how to label its military action on Iran.

President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have used the word “war” to refer to the military campaign, but Republican Party lawmakers refused to use it when pressed by CNN’s Manu Raju earlier today.

CNN’s Dana Bash analyzes why that might be:

CNN’s Dana Bash breaks down why Republican lawmakers avoiding the word “war” is intentional as the war with Iran unfolds.

CNN’s Sophie Tanno contributed to this report.

Republicans rejected a resolution aimed at requiring that President Donald Trump seek congressional approval for future US military action against Iran.

The Senate voted 47 to 53 to put down the measure, with GOP Sen. Rand Paul joining almost all Democrats to advance it, and Democratic Sen. John Fetterman voting with Republicans to block it.

Even if the measure had advanced, it faced an uphill battle on Capitol Hill, as it would have needed to withstand a full amendment process in the Senate before moving to the House, and then a likely presidential veto that requires a two-thirds vote to override.

GOP senators’ decision to shield the president comes after Trump had railed against the five in the party who voted to advance a previous war powers resolution on military action in Venezuela. Of those five, only one — Paul — voted again to check the president’s powers.

The House is expected to take a vote on the same issue on Thursday.

Conditions in Iran are deteriorating badly as war spreads across the region, according to a pair of Austrian residents fleeing the country.

“All the people are afraid,” an Austrian resident named Omid told Reuters. “You see maybe in the social media that people … are happy because (Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) is dead, but that is, I think, just social media. Everybody in Iran, they are afraid.”

He said he had just taken a shower when he heard loud booming sounds near his hotel.

“I was very afraid,” he said. “It was really a very bad situation.”

Jawad, another Austrian resident leaving Iran, recalled seeing “a lot of rockets, jets.” He echoed Omid, saying that the situation was “really, really, really bad.”

The two also said it was difficult to leave Iran due to factors such as transportation problems and embassies shut down amid the war.

“I’m really sad about Iran, really sad. Because my family they are in Iran now, and I need to think about them,” Jawad said. “And they don’t have any internet, they can’t call to me. Last call was yesterday. We spoke a little bit, and then I said: ‘Well, maybe we don’t see each other.’ I don’t know what will happen.”

More than 1,000 people have been killed in Iran since the US and Israel launched its strikes on the country this weekend, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

Dozens have also been killed in Tehran’s retaliatory strikes in the same time period, according to local authorities.

As the conflict continues, here’s what we know about the death toll in the region since Saturday:

• Iran: At least 1,097 civilians had been killed in Iran as of yesterday afternoon ET, HRANA reported. Among the dead are 168 children and 14 teachers who were killed in a US-Israeli attack on a girls’ elementary school on Saturday, according to Iranian state media.
• Lebanon: At least 77 people have been killed in Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon, the country’s health ministry reported on Wednesday. Three of these people were paramedics, according to the head of the World Health Organization.
• Kuwait: At least 10 people have been killed as a result of Iranian attacks on Kuwait, including six US service members, according to CENTCOM, and two Kuwaiti service members, the country’s army said on Tuesday.
• Israel: At least 10 people have been killed by strikes in Israel since Saturday, according to Israel’s emergency services Magen David Adom.
• Iraq: At least four Popular Mobilization Force soldiers were killed in a US-Israeli airstrike on Diyala, Iraq, the militia’s media directorate said Sunday.
• UAE: At least three people have been killed by Iranian drones in the United Arab Emirates, according to the country’s defense ministry. Those killed were nationals of Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, the ministry said.
• Bahrain: One person was killed after debris from an intercepted missile sparked a fire on a “foreign vessel” in Bahrain’s Salman Industrial City, Bahraini state media said Monday.

This post has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Helen Regan, Ben Wedeman, Sana Noor Haq, Haley Britzky, Ruba Alhenawi, Lauren Izso, Rhea Mogul, Aqeel Najim, Michelle Velez, Lauren Kent and Antoinette Radford contributed to this reporting.

The White House press secretary took several questions today about the US military campaign against Iran.

Here’s some of what Karoline Leavitt told reporters:

• The US goals are to destroy the regime’s ballistic missile program, “annihilate” Iran’s naval presence in the region, dismantle Iran’s terrorist proxies and prevent it from pursuing a nuclear weapon. Leavitt said regime change was not a primary objective.
• President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran was fueled by a “good feeling” the Tehran regime was planning to attack the US.
• She didn’t rule out that the US carried out the strike on a girls’ elementary school in southern Iran, but insisted the US military “does not target civilians.”
• The US has “more than enough” weapons to wage an extended war with Iran, Leavitt said, despite Trump’s earlier indications that supplies were not as extensive as he wanted.
• The US will have “complete and total dominance” over Iranian airspace in the next few hours, she said.
• The press secretary said Trump plans to attend the dignified transfer of American service members killed in Kuwait as part of Iran’s retaliation.
• She defended criticism of the media made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, telling CNN that it was a “fact” that the media aimed to paint Trump in a bad light. See more of the exchange below.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended criticism of the media made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, telling CNN during today’s White House press briefing that it was a “fact” that the media aimed to paint President Donald Trump in a bad light.

In other news today:

New strikes: Israel is launching a fresh wave of attacks across Tehran, the Israeli military announced.

Bipartisan split: Several Republican senators suggested they’re not ready to back the effort to bar Trump from taking further military action in Iran without congressional approval.

Messaging: The State Department updated the message on the assistance call line for Americans stuck in the Middle East who are trying to get out.

Iran-Qatar phone call: Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani that missile attacks in Qatar were directed at “American interests,” claims which Al-Thani “categorically rejected.”

Miserable drive to Beirut: South Lebanon residents described an 18-hour journey toward Beirut after Israel ordered them to leave the area.

CNN’s Donald Judd, Kevin Liptak, Adam Cancryn, Samantha Waldenberg, Tamar Michaelis, Alison Main, Manu Raju, Casey Riddle, Morgan Leason, Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler, Rebekah Riess, Max Saltman and Kareem El Damanhoury.

Sgt. Declan Coady’s father, Andrew Coady, described the day his son died following an Iranian strike on a makeshift operation center in Kuwait’s Shuaiba port.

Andrew Coady told the Associated Press that on Sunday, he and his family heard four people had been killed in the conflict with many injured.

“I will say most of us started to wonder and your gut starts to get a feeling,” he said. “So we got ready Sunday night to go to bed and we had just turned the lights off and went into the bedroom and the doorbell rang at 8 p.m. (local time).”

Andrew Coady said Declan Coady worked long days around the clock while overseas, but told his father that he loved the work. Andrew said his son was supposed to come home in May, but was considering extending his time for another nine months.

Of six US service members killed Sunday, the Pentagon has publicly identified four — including Declan Coady.

In Lebanon, children are waking up in the night to the sound of Israeli bombs and elderly people are collapsing in the streets from exhaustion.

Several aid workers told CNN that displaced families have been forced to sleep on the sidewalk at night, while others flee their homes in search of safety – often leaving without any possessions. One relief worker in Beirut recalled sleepless nights with her two sons as nearby strikes shook her home.

“In downtown Beirut, displaced families do not know where to go,” Michael Adams, the Lebanon country director for the non-profit CARE International said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Israeli military battered parts of Lebanon this week, including the capital Beirut, after the Iran-backed group Hezbollah fired projectiles from Lebanon into Israel. On Wednesday, it said it struck Hezbollah targets south of the Litani River, which runs 20 to 30 kilometers (12 to 20 miles) north of the Israeli border. Seventy-four people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon since Monday, the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported Wednesday.

One relief worker recalled Tuesday a wave of initial strikes that began “without any evacuation order.” “People were running out, leaving their homes,” said Maya Andari, the director of program quality for CARE International in Lebanon.

“I also have a friend who lives there in the southern suburbs (of Beirut) who was telling me she has two little daughters, and they just woke up to the sound of explosions all around them,” Andari told CNN in a voice note.

Displaced children are “dehydrated” over 36 hours of “relentless stress,” according to Cyril Bassil, a communications specialist for CARE International in Lebanon. “Those who remain in their homes face similar struggles: sleepless nights, fear of being forced to flee, and anxiety over whether they will be next. People live in constant terror,” he said.

CNN’s Ben Wedeman contributed reporting.

President Donald Trump’s leadership PAC appears to be fundraising off the strikes in Iran, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, according to a donation page viewed by CNN.

“It’s Team Trump, and we’re asking every SINGLE Trump supporter who stands with President Trump and our brave U. S. troops in carrying out this mission to let us know by signing the Official Trump Supporter List NOW,” the fundraising page says.

The page then asks: “Do you stand with President Trump and our brave U.S. troops in carrying out this mission?”

Beneath that, potential donors can contribute to the PAC in select amounts including $26, $47, $100, and $250.

The president converted his 2024 presidential campaign committee into a leadership PAC called Never Surrender, Inc., which the fundraising page says is where contributions will go.

After a US-Israel strike killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, the most powerful position in the Islamic Republic was left open. Amidst external pressure, Iran’s clerical regime is quickly working to decide who will succeed him. CNN’s International Correspondent Isobel Yeung reports.

After a US-Israel strike killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, the most powerful position in the Islamic Republic was left open. Amidst external pressure, Iran's clerical regime is quickly working to decide who will succeed him. CNN's International Correspondent Isobel Yeung reports.

Israel’s Home Front Command is set to ease restrictions on daily activities on Thursday, allowing for larger public gatherings and for people to return to their workplaces, both of which had been restricted since Saturday morning.

Educational activities remain prohibited.

The shift is an indication of what Israel sees as a diminished threat from Iran. The vast majority of ballistic missiles launched at Israel have been intercepted, and the quantity of ballistic missiles has decreased by the day.

Authorities in Bahrain have arrested four more people for posting footage related to Iran’s attacks, including content “expressing sympathy” with them, the country’s Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

“The Ministry explained that the posting of such content contributes to misleading public opinion and spreading fear among citizens and residents, which could harm security and public order,” it said.

The arrests mark the latest crackdown on the publishing of content that Bahrain deems sympathetic toward Iranian aggression, an act it has described as “a betrayal of the nation.”

Bahrain is ruled by a Sunni Muslim government but has a Shiite-majority population that has often expressed support for Iran, a Shiite-dominated country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has offered to help other countries fend off Iranian drones and missiles.

Ukraine has plenty of experience in battling the Iranian Shahed drones seen striking targets in the Middle East this week. Russia has frequently deployed the one-way attack drones, which detonate on impact, since it began its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“Ukraine can contribute to protecting lives and stabilizing the situation (in the Middle East). Partners are reaching out to us,” Zelensky wrote on X on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian leader said that military and intelligence officials would “present options for assisting the relevant countries and to provide aid in a way that does not weaken our own defense here in Ukraine.”

“Ukrainian experts will operate on-site, and teams are already coordinating these efforts,” Zelensky continued. “And we are ready to help protect lives, defend civilians, and support real efforts to stabilize the situation and, in particular, restore safe navigation in the region.”

Israel is launching a wave of flyover strikes across Tehran, the Israeli military announced Wednesday night.

The strikes are targeting “military infrastructure belonging to the Iranian regime,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

The flyover attacks follow an earlier wave of strikes on Wednesday, which dismantled “dozens of assets belonging to the regime’s ballistic missile array” in western and central Iran, the IDF said. Some missile launchers “were struck while Iranian operatives were preparing to use them” to attack Israel, it said.

The latest strikes were Israel’s 11th wave of attacks against Tehran since February 28.

“We hit the regime with much force, and we do not intend to stop for one moment. We’re striking its most sensitive and significant targets, and we have been undermining its stability,” IDF spokesperson Effie Defrin said in a press conference Wednesday evening.

President Donald Trump declared the war with Iran a major success in its opening days.

“We’re doing very well on the war front, to put it mildly,” Trump said during an unrelated event at the White House. “I would say — somebody said on a scale of 10, where would you rate it? I said about a 15.”

Trump’s assessment matched that of other administration officials who provided updates on the conflict earlier Wednesday.

The president said Iran’s “missiles are being wiped out rapidly, their launchers are being wiped out.”

He acknowledged Iran’s attacks on its neighbors, but did not dwell on them.

“They’re attacking their neighbors. They’re attacking their, in some cases, allies, or, not so long ago allies. And, you know, it’s really a nation that was out of control.”

And the president suggested, again, that he doesn’t have a view of who might lead Iran next after its senior leaders were killed.

“Their leadership is just rapidly going,” he mused. “Everybody that seems to want to be a leader, they end up dead.”

Here’s a look at Iran’s current leadership structure:

President Donald Trump on Wednesday again said that he believes Iran would have attacked Israel and possibly the US if he did not order strikes on the country first.

“I think if we didn’t do it first, they would have done it to Israel and give us a shot if that was possible,” he said during a White House event, touting the war as an “amazing thing that’s taking place before your eyes.”

Trump’s remarks represent the latest iteration of the administration’s rationale for going to war, with some officials initially suggesting Israel was poised to attack Iran first, while others later asserted that it was Iran that was preparing to fire the first salvo at Israel, the US, or both. On Tuesday Trump said: “They were getting ready to attack Israel. They were getting ready to attack others.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt earlier on Wednesday said Trump ordered the assault on Iran based on a “good feeling” that Iran was planning to target US forces in the region.

The US State Department is now calling on US citizens in Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to fill out a crisis intake form to “receive departure assistance information from the Department of State about available aviation and ground transportation options.”

Americans in other countries who wish to receive assistance are still told to call the 24/7 hotline: +1-202-501-4444.

The State Department has said it has gotten several hundred Americans out of Israel but has not confirmed if any charter flights have left.

“There are a number in progress very soon,” a senior State Department official said Wednesday.

The department has used such forms in the past for situations like Israel after the October 7 attacks and violence in Sudan. It asks for citizenship, whether the person plans to stay in the country, plans to leave on their own, whether they need assistance to leave, or if they have already left the country.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the administration’s lack of warning to Americans to leave parts of the Middle East before US and Israeli military action and argued that Americans had ignored the “many signs” the State Department had provided.

Leavitt said the State Department had issued Level 4: Do Not Travel advisories “for many of these countries” before the military operations began.

However, the only countries that had the highest travel advisory before the war began were Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, and Israel are still not listed as Level 4 countries as of Wednesday, despite Iranian action against each of those countries.

They are all now listed as Level 3: Reconsider Travel. Before the start of the military strikes nearly all of those countries were at lower levels of alert.

“On January 14, the US mission to Saudi Arabia advised personnel and Americans to exercise increased caution and limit non essential travel to any military installations,” Leavitt said. Most US citizens would only be aware of that advice if they were enrolled in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) and received the alerts or followed them on social media.

The State Department only changed the diplomatic posture of two embassies prior to the start of the military operation: Israel and Lebanon, the latter of which was done just one day prior to the beginning of the conflict.

It wasn’t until Monday that the US State Department’s top official for consular affairs – days after the start of military strikes – called on US citizens to “DEPART NOW” on “available commercial travel” from more than a dozen countries in the Middle East.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended criticism of the media made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, telling CNN during today’s White House press briefing that it was a “fact” that the media aimed to paint President Donald Trump in a bad light.

During a morning briefing at the Pentagon, Hegseth suggested that the press prominently covers service member casualties to “make the president look bad.”

But pressed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins during the briefing on whether the administration believes media should cover the deaths of service members, in light of Hegseth’s comments, Leavitt called the question “disingenuous.”

“The press does only want to make the president look bad — that’s a, that’s a fact,” she said. “The Secretary of Defense cares deeply about our warfighters and our men and women in uniform.”

Leavitt went on to say that press should cover the dignified transfer “as you should,” but continued to insist that media outlets — and CNN — “take every single thing this administration says and tries to use it to make the president look bad.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper responded today, saying there’s nothing political about covering fallen service members.

CNN's Jake Tapper debunks Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's suggestion that the press prominently covers service member casualties to “make the president look bad.”

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