Iran war LIVE: Israel and Tehran fire more missiles as UK rescue flight fails to leave Oman

Sri Lanka is trying to “safeguard lives” on another Iranian vessel off its coast after the sinking of a warship yesterday, the country’s cabinet spokesperson said.

Cabinet spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa said that the vessel, which is currently just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters, has sought the government’s permission to make an urgent port call. M

More than 80 Iranian sailors were killed yesterday when a US submarine torpedoed the IRIS Dena, an Iranian warship off the south coast of Sri Lanka.

32 people have been rescued, and the search for survivors is continuing with more than 60 people believed missing.

Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport has reopened today, after authorities approved a partial reopening of airspace in stages, subject to security developments.

The first repatriation flight from Athens landed this morning, bringing home the first of an estimated 100,000 Israelis who had been stranded abroad.

The airport, on the outskirts of Lod, is the busiest airport in the country, and was shut down five days ago at the start of the joint Israeli and US military strikes on Iran.

The Azerbaijan foreign ministry has said that two civilians have been injured by an Iranian drone.

The announcement comes shortly after reports of missiles and drones flying from the direction of Iran near the airport in the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, about six miles from the border with Iran.

The ministry said: “One drone struck the terminal building of the airport in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, while another drone fell near a school building in the village of Shakarabad.”

The ministry added that the Iranian ambassador to Azerbaijan has now been summoned.

Iran’s foreign minister said America “will come to bitterly regret (the) precedent it has set” by sinking an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka.

The comment by Abbas Araghchi on X is the first Iranian government acknowledgement of the US Submarine torpedoeing the IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday.

Some 140 people are feared dead following the attack, with Araghchi saying “the U.S. has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores.”

Iranian forces have hit a US oil tanker this morning in the northern Persian Gulf, according to state television.

A statement from the Tasnim news agency said that the ship was hit by a missile by forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and is currently on fire.

The IRGC has previously said it had full control of the Straits of Hormuz, which runs in between the Gulf to the Indian Ocean, effectively closing it to oil and gas exports.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has earlier said that the US “will come to bitterly regret the precedent it has set” after the sinking of an Iranian warship yesterday by a US submarine.

The Qatar Ministry of Interior has announced that it is evacuating residents who live near the U.S. Embassy in Doha as a temporary precautionary measure, after US embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and the US consulate in Dubai, were attacked by drones earlier this week.

Explosions have been heard in Doha this morning according to a reporter from the AFP news agency.

The US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has told his Israeli counterpart to “keep going until the end – we’re with you”.

Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz has said he spoke to Hegseth over the phone overnight, during which he expressed his condolences over the deaths of US soldiers in the Iran conflict, and thanked Hegseth and US president Donald Trump for their “great support for Israel”.

A statement from Katz’s office said: “The cooperation between president Trump and prime minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu against Iran is changing regional and global history”.

More than 3,000 flights a day across the region have been cancelled, with wider long-haul routes also affected due to airspace closures.

As of 8am on Thursday, 27 flights out of Heathrow to the Middle East have been cancelled, but a number of flights remain on the schedule, and 12 arrivals from the region are still currently expected to go ahead to bring stranded Britons back home.

The first Government rescue flight to bring vulnerable people out of the Middle East has been described as a “total shambles” after it was delayed.

The flight was due to take off from Muscat last night and was expected to land in the UK early on Thursday, but the Foreign Office has now confirmed the charter flight did not leave Oman as planned last night.

A spokesperson said: “The UK government charter flight was not able to depart from Oman yesterday as planned due to technical issues. The flight is now expected to depart later today.”.

The Israeli military says it has launched new strikes on Iran overnight.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say they’ve struck a ballistic missile launcher in the Iranian city of Qom overnight that was “ready to fire at Israel”.

Fresh blasts have also been heard in Tehran.

Israel has also targeted the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.

At least eight people were killed there late Wednesday into Thursday according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry and the state news agency.