Live Updates: U.S. and Iran vow to step up strikes in expanding war as Gulf states run low on interceptors

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters in London on Thursday that the storied “special relationship” forged between the U.K. and the U.S. during World War II was still intact, despite sharp criticism leveled by President Trump earlier this week.

“We’re sharing intelligence on a 24/7 basis in the usual way. That is the special relationship. That is the special relationship in operation,” Starmer said.

Mr. Trump told Britain’s Sun tabloid newspaper this week that Starmer had taken a “not helpful” stance on the war with Iran, and that the relationship between the two close allies was “not like it used to be.”

The critique from Mr. Trump appeared to stem from Starmer declining to give the U.S. military permission to use British bases for offensive operations in Iran, thought he has permitted the use of several bases for “defensive purposes.”

On Monday, Starmer told U.K. lawmakers “the lessons of history have taught us that it is important when we make decisions like this, that we establish there is a lawful basis for what the United Kingdom is doing. That is one of the lessons from Iraq, and that there’s a viable thought-through plan with an objective that can be achieved or has a viable prospect of being achieved. That is the principle that I applied to the decisions that I made over the weekend.”

On Thursday, Starmer announced that the U.K. would send four more Typhoon fighter jets to Qatar to help the country defend against Iranian missile and drone attacks, “responding to requests,” he said, from Britain’s allies.

The United Nations’ International Maritime Organization says about 20,000 seafarers and 15,000 cruise ship passengers are stranded in the Persian Gulf due to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

In a statement, the IMO’s secretary general Arsenio Dominguez said the agency stood “ready to work with all stakeholders to help ensure the safety and well-being of the seafarers affected.”

“I urge all shipping companies to exercise maximum caution. Where possible, vessels should avoid transiting the affected region until conditions improve,” Dominguez said, adding that the IMO would “continue working closely with Member States and partners to support safe navigation and to uphold the principle that civilian mariners must never be harmed.”

The British newspaper Manchester Evening News said Thursday that there were at least six cruise ships stuck in ports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, which has been targeted repeatedly by Iranian drones and missiles.

The U.S. military’s Central Command said Thursday that ongoing U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran were taking a severe toll on the Islamic Republic’s ability to launch retaliatory attacks, as those attacks continued with new strikes targeting Gulf states and, for the first time, hitting Iran’s neighbor Azerbaijan.

“The Iranian regime’s ability to impact U.S. forces and regional partners is rapidly declining, while American combat power continues to build,” the CENTCOM social media post said, accompanied by clips of video showing apparent strikes against Iranian military assets.

Ten people believed to be Iranian agents were arrested earlier this week in Qatar on suspicion of planning attacks, the Gulf state’s official press agency said. 

“Close surveillance made it possible to arrest 10 suspects: seven were tasked with spying and gathering information about vital and military infrastructure in the country, and three were meant to carry out sabotage operations,” the Qatar News Agency said Tuesday.

Concern about possible sleeper cells and radicalization within Shiite Muslim populations has increased in some countries in the region, including Bahrain.

Arab states in the Persian Gulf are running dangerously low on interceptors to take down Iranian-fired missiles, two regional officials told CBS News on Thursday.

Governments in the region have asked the U.S. to expedite new supplies, and they’ve been told that officials in Washington are creating a task force to do so — but it isn’t happening as fast as needed. 

The hundreds of drones launched by Iran are an added complication. The officials speculated that Iran was intentionally hitting Arab states to get them to pressure the Trump administration to end the war. 

On Wednesday, Gen Caine pushed back on supply concerns and told reporters at the Pentagon that there were sufficient “precision munitions for the task at hand, both on the offense and defense.”

Three regional officials also said communication with Washington was challenging as, despite being more than a year into his term, President Trump has not sent ambassadors to many of the countries. 

Lebanon, Jordan, and Qatar do have ambassadors, but due to lack of nominations or slow-moving confirmations, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait are among the Gulf states without an ambassador-level U.S. envoy in their capitals, forcing them to rely instead on lower-level diplomats. 

In an interview aired Thursday by Iranian state TV, the deputy head of Iran’s central military command, Major General Amir Haidari, declared the embattled Islamic Republic unrelenting and unready to yield in the face of the six-day U.S.-Israeli assault.

“We will only end this war when we feel we have achieved our objectives and made you regret and despair over your shameful actions,” said Haidari. “Rest assured, time means very little to us; we will not falter or be unable to continue.”

Haidari said the Hazrat Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters, Iran’s combined military command, of which he is the deputy commander, was directing and planning all operations in coordination with the Iranian Army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“We will not stop this war,” insisted Haidari. “It does not matter to us how many days it takes. We are ready.”

The Iranian Martyrs’ and Veterans’ Affairs Organization, a government agency responsible for supporting the families of people killed in service to the nation, said Thursday that as of the previous day, at least 1,230 people had been killed by U.S. and Israeli strikes on the country.

The previous death toll given by Iranian officials was just under 1,000. 

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said that according to its data, as of Wednesday, civilian deaths in Iran stood “at 1,114, including 181 children,” with another 926 reported deaths “under review pending verification and classification.”

Qatar Airways says it will offer “a limited number relief flights” from two Persian Gulf airports starting Thursday, “to support passengers who are stranded due to the current situation across the region.”

The Qatari airline said its normal operations would remain suspended due to the closure of Qatar’s airspace, which, along with the rest of the Persian Gulf, has been inundated by hundreds of Iranian drones and missiles fired in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli assault launched Saturday.

The limited evacuation flights beginning Thursday included departures from two Gulf airports, with planes leaving Oman’s capital Muscat for London, Berlin, Copenhagen, Madrid, Rome, and Amsterdam, and more departing from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to Frankfurt in Germany.

“Please ensure your contact details are up to date so we can reach you with flight information and instructions. Details can be updated at qatarairways.com or through the Qatar Airways mobile app,” the airline said in its social media post.

It said normal operations in Doha would resume, “once the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority announces the safe reopening of Qatari airspace,” adding that “a further update” would be provided on Friday.

The Trump administration, after taking criticism for offering little help to thousands of Americans stranded in the region by the war, said Wednesday that it was working on “a series of options” to get people home.

The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Defense said half a dozen missiles and 126 drones were intercepted as they targeted the Gulf state on Thursday alone, after Iran vowed to step up its attacks across the region in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli war launched on Saturday.

“UAE air defenses deal with 6 ballistic missiles and 131 drones. Today (March 5, 2026), UAE air defenses detected seven ballistic missiles, six of which were intercepted and destroyed, while one ballistic missile fell inside the country’s territory. They also detected 131 drones, 125 of which were intercepted,” the defense ministry said in a social media post.

Earlier Thursday, the government of the UAE’s capital Abu Dhabi said six people were injured by falling debris when drones were intercepted. Their injuries were not described as serious.

The private Institute for National Security Studies in Israel has offered a range of figures that highlight the scale of the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. According to the INSS, Iran has launched more than 1,600 drones at Israel, Jordan, Persian Gulf nations, and Cyprus:

Launches from Iran at:

• Israel: Approximately 200 missiles and more than 120 UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)
• UAE: 941 UAVs, 189 ballistic missiles, and 8 cruise missiles
• Bahrain: 92 UAVs and 74 missiles
• Qatar: 41 UAVs and 112 missiles
• Jordan: 36 UAVs and 13 missiles
• Oman: 5 UAVs, 3 missiles (Gulf of Oman)
• Kuwait: 178 ballistic missiles, 384 UAVs
• Cyprus: 2 missiles, 3 UAVs
• Iraqi Kurdistan: 70 missiles and UAVs
• Saudi Arabia: 14 UAVs, 5 cruise missiles
• Turkey: 1 missile

Launches from Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based:

• Israel: 27 UAVs and 35 rockets
• Cyprus: 6 UAVs  

The INSS said the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran had, as of Thursday, included at least 11 waves of attacks against some 600 targets. The joint strikes saw Israel fire some 5,000 munitions while the U.S. had used more than 2,000.

The latest casualty figures cited by the institute, which is affiliated with Tel Aviv University, said at least 1,097 people had been killed in Iran, citing data provided by the U.S.-based activist organization HRANA. INSS noted that at least 87 Iranian sailors were reportedly killed in a U.S. torpedo strike against an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday, off the coast of Sri Lanka.

In the Gulf region, INSS said casualty figures include:

• Israel: 13 killed (including 3 from related medical issues, not direct fire); 1,524 wounded
• United States: 6 killed, 18 wounded
• Lebanon: 72 killed, 347 wounded
• Iraq: 11 killed, 8 wounded
• Syria: 5 killed, 7 wounded
• Kuwait: 4 killed, 35 wounded
• UAE: 3 killed, 68 wounded
• Oman: 3 killed, 4 wounded
• Bahrain: 2 killed, 8 wounded
• Qatar: approximately 20 wounded
• Jordan: 5 wounded

CBS News has not independently verified all of the INSS data, which the organization says is based on constant monitoring of “intelligence assessments, open-source information, and media reports.”

Residents of the British enclave of Akrotiri, on the Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, were reportedly ordered to shelter in place Thursday as authorities warned of an ongoing security threat.

The U.K. has a sovereign military base in Akrotiri, which it has granted the U.S. use of for “defensive purposes” amid the ongoing war with Iran, that has already been targeted at least twice by missiles or drones since the conflict began.

According to the Cypriot news outlet in-cyprus, an alert sounded Thursday and residents were instructed to remain in place until further official notification, and to move away from windows and take shelter behind or underneath sturdy furniture. The Cypriot government later announced that no threat was detected, in-cyprus said.

A runway on the British Akrotiri base sustained damage on Monday from a suspected Iranian drone strike, though there were unconfirmed reports on Thursday that it could have been launched from Lebanon, where the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah is based.

Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands were set to deploy naval assets to Cyprus following the drone strikes, the Reuters news agency cited Italian Defense Minister Guido Crusto as saying Thursday.

Six people were hurt Thursday as debris fell to the ground from drone interceptions, the government of the United Arab Emirates’ capital Abu Dhabi said Thursday. 

Iran has launched dozens of rounds of missiles and drones at countries across the Persian Gulf in retaliation for the ongoing U.S.-Israeli attacks which began on Saturday.

“Abu Dhabi authorities have responded to an incident of debris falling in two locations,” the Abu Dhabi Media Office said in a statement shared on social media, adding that “following the successful interception of drones by air defense systems” six Pakistani and Nepali nationals sustained minor or moderate injuries.

According to data compiled by the private Institute for National Security Studies in Israel, Iran has launched 941 drones, 189 ballistic missiles and 8 cruise missiles at the UAE since the war began on Saturday. The vast majority of the weapons have been intercepted.

The administration of the United Arab Emirates’ capital Abu Dhabi said Thursday that limited flights had resumed from its major airport — offering hope for thousands of people stranded by the shutdown of aviation hubs across the Persian Gulf due to the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

In a statement, Abu Dhabi authorities said Zayed International Airport had “resumed limited flight operations following a period of disruption in a significant display of resilience from Abu Dhabi’s ecosystem.”

“Efforts were conducted over the past few days under strict coordination on safety protocols and in close cross-sector collaboration to ensure comprehensive support. This unified response included the provision of more than 4,300 complimentary hotel rooms across 74 hotels for approximately 7,000 passengers, ensuring those affected by scheduling changes were accommodated in comfort,” the official Abu Dhabi Media Office said in its statement. 

“Passengers holding confirmed tickets are requested to contact their airlines for the latest flight schedules and are urged to travel to the airport only after receiving specific guidance on when to arrive at AUH for departure,” the statement said.

Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said Iranian drones hit an airport terminal and a school building on Thursday, warning that it reserved “the right to take appropriate retaliatory measures” against its southern neighbor.

It was the first impact reported by Azerbaijan amid the widening war sparked by the joint U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran on Saturday.

“One drone crashed into the terminal building of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic Airport, and another drone crashed near a school building in the village of Shekarabad,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“We strongly condemn these drone attacks carried out from the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which resulted in damage to the airport building and the injury of two civilians,” the ministry said, demanding that “Iran clarify the above issue within a short period of time, provide an explanation, and take the necessary and urgent measures to prevent such incidents from recurring in the future.”

“The Azerbaijani side reserves the right to take appropriate retaliatory measures,” it said, adding that Iran’s top diplomat in the country had been summoned.

Iran’s official state news agency Fars quoted a commander of the country’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as saying Thursday that the coming days would bring “more intense and widespread” attacks by the Islamic Republic.

Iranian state television aired a message earlier in the day from an ayatollah in Iran calling for the “shedding” of blood from Israelis and President Trump.

The message from Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli represented one of the few statements from Iran’s powerful Islamic clerics since the war began.

“We are now on the verge of a great test and we must be careful to fully preserve this unity, to fully preserve this alliance,” Amoli said, adding a call for “the shedding of Zionist blood, the shedding of Trump’s blood.”

Israel’s airspace reopened for limited incoming flights Thursday after being closed since the joint U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began.

Under the phased plan, one passenger flight per hour will be allowed in the first 24 hours, totaling about 5,000 people, with more later depending on security.

Outgoing commercial flights are still prohibited.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claimed an attack Thursday on an American oil tanker in the northern reaches of the Persian Gulf, but it appears to have been a Bahamas-flagged ship that reported a possible sea-drone strike.

Maritime security agencies including Vanguard said the attack claimed by Iran was likely against the Sonangol Namibe, which was tracked off the coast of Kuwait on Thursday.

The company that operates the oil tanker, Sonangol Marine Services, told CBS News in a statement on Thursday that it was “approached by an unknown small vessel while anchored near Khor Al Zubair, Iraq” early on Thursday, “and a short time later a loud bang was heard.”

“All 23 crew members are safe and accounted for and have mustered inside the ship. The crew reports that a port ballast tank is losing water which suggests some form of hull breach but the ship remains stable and safely afloat. The ship was in ballast with no cargo on board and there currently are no reports of any pollution,” the company said.

The British maritime security agency UKMTO earlier reported an explosion off the port side of the tanker, which lines up with information provided by the Namibe’s operators. Public tracking data showed the tanker near the Iraq-Kuwait border in the far northern Persian Gulf. 

CBS News has obtained satellite imagery showing the site of a school in Minab, southern Iran, where Iranian officials say a U.S. or Israeli strike killed as many as 175 people over the weekend, many of them schoolgirls. 

CBS News had previously confirmed that the building was located in close proximity to two sites controlled by the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including the IRGC’s Seyyed Al-Shohada Barracks.

Analysis of images shared by Planet Labs shows the school was not the only building damaged at the site. Imagery captured four days after the purported Feb. 28 strike shows another collapsed building more clearly within the IRGC site, and a hole in the roof of another building, as well as rubble in the area.

Neither the U.S. nor Israel has said it was behind the strike. An Israel Defense Forces spokesman told CBS News earlier in the week that the IDF had not “found any connection to our operations.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the Pentagon was investigating.

“Mr. Trump! Was this the hymn you composed for freedom in Iran?!,” Ali Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, raged in a social media post on Thursday, condemning what he called “the mass martyrdom of innocent girls in Minab at a school by Israeli–American criminals.”

The Israeli military said it launched targeted attacks in Lebanon at the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, along with a “large-scale wave of strikes against infrastructure” in Iran’s capital, without elaborating. 

Explosions were heard in multiple locations in Tehran a short time later.

CBS/AP

The Senate defeated a war powers resolution that sought to block President Trump from using further military force against Iran, rejecting a Democratic push to rebuke the president amid the administration’s shifting justifications for the war and warnings about more American casualties to come.

The measure was voted down 47-53.

Read more here.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Wednesday that Israel and the U.S. did not have “much of a choice” but to “take action” and strike Iran. 

In an interview with “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil, Herzog said there were concerns that Iran was going to expand its weapons arsenal, and that the U.S. and Israel believed Iran had “another new secret plan to rush” to develop a nuclear weapon.

“When you know that they have invested all their nation’s resources and money in creating havoc in the Middle East as you try to make peace with Muslim countries,” Herzog said. “When you know that they have another new secret plan to rush to the bomb, you have to take action.” 

The U.S. intelligence community assessed last year that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon, and the U.S. and Israel haven’t provided evidence of a new plan to develop nuclear bombs. Iran has long insisted its uranium enrichment program is only intended for peaceful purposes, though it enriches well beyond the level needed for non-weapons uses.

Herzog also said that Israel is not calling for a ground invasion of the country.

“Let me be clear, I’m not calling on any boots on the ground. I’m not asking any American or anyone else,” Herzog said.

Read more here.