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Iran claims 'complete control' of strait: Latest developments in Middle East war Paris, France, March 4 (AFP) Mar 04, 2026 Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday they had "complete control" of the crucial Strait of Hormuz and Israel launched new strikes on Iranian and Lebanese targets as the war engulfing the Middle East continued into its fifth day. Here are the latest developments:
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday the US Navy was ready to escort oil tankers through the crucial Gulf shipping route. The Guards said they had also launched more than 40 missiles at US and Israeli targets in a new wave of strikes.
Khamenei, the Islamic Republic's supreme leader, was killed in the US-Israeli strikes that sparked the war on Saturday. After the funeral's announcement, Israel's defence minister warned that any successor would be a "target for assassination".
The military said it was "operating to intercept the threat", and the alert was lifted after several minutes with no immediate reports of casualties -- though shrapnel caused a fire near Jerusalem, according to Israeli media.
No information was immediately available on the cause. The Sri Lankan foreign minister said the country had sent ships and aircraft to rescue 30 Iranian sailors aboard the frigate, the Iris Dena.
"We have severely degraded Iran's air defences and destroyed hundreds of Iran's ballistic missiles, launchers and drones," he said.
AFPTV footage showed an air strike hit Hezbollah's bastion in the southern suburbs of Beirut, after an evacuation order from the Israeli army. Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli strikes on two towns south of Beirut -- outside of Iran-backed Hezbollah's traditional strongholds -- killed six people and wounded eight. Lebanese state media later said Israeli strikes had hit a hotel in the Beirut suburb of Hazmieh, as well as a four-storey building in the eastern city of Baalbek, where five people were reportedly killed.
A drone was also shot down near the international airport in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a security source said,
Ten suspects were arrested who "admitted during the investigation their links to the Revolutionary Guards and having been instructed to conduct espionage and sabotage activities", the nation's official press agency said.
The army said it had struck "dozens" of targets, including security command centres in the capital, Tehran.
Residents told AFP they heard a bang and one said she then saw the blaze.
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