Iran launches new attacks, saying US will 'bitterly regret' sinking warship, calls for Trump's blood

The U.S. Navy sank the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena Tuesday night in the Indian Ocean, killing at least 87 Iranian sailors, which Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi decried Thursday as “an atrocity at sea.”

“Frigate Dena, a guest of India’s Navy carrying almost 130 sailors, was struck in international waters without warning,” he wrote on social media. “Mark my words: The U.S. will come to bitterly regret (the) precedent it has set.”

Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli, in one of the few clerical statements so far from Iran, said the country was “on the verge of a great test” and called on state television for "the shedding of Zionist blood, the shedding of Trump’s blood.”

"Fight the oppressive America, his blood is on my shoulders,’” he said in a rare call for violence from an ayatollah, one of the highest ranks within the clergy of Shiite Islam.

The U.S. and Israel launched the war Saturday, targeting Iran’s leadership and killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as its missile arsenal and nuclear program. Leaders have suggested that toppling the government is a goal, but the exact aims and timelines have repeatedly shifted, signaling an open-ended conflict.

The war has killed more than 1,000 people in Iran, more than 70 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. It has disrupted the supply of the world’s oil and gas, snarled international shipping and stranded hundreds of thousands of travelers in the Middle East.

Threats expanding across the Middle East

A drone crashed Thursday near the airport in Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijan exclave that borders the north of Iran and is separated from the rest of the country by Armenia. Another drone fell near a school and two civilians were injured, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said.

Iran has not acknowledged targeting Azerbaijan, but its attacks have spread erratically as the war has gone on involving regional countries and beyond.

Qatar evacuated residents near the U.S. Embassy in Doha as a temporary precaution and fighter jets could be heard overhead early in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai.

Saudi Arabia said it destroyed a drone in its province bordering Jordan, and a new attack off the coast of Kuwait appeared to expand the area where commercial shipping was in danger.

An explosion rocked the area early Thursday, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center run by the British military. It said a tanker apparently came under attack, but the agency did not offer a cause. Iran in the past has attacked ships by attaching limpet mines to them.

Prior attacks since fighting began Saturday have happened in the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz, which connects it to the Persian Gulf and through which about a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped.

U.S. stocks rebounded Wednesday after oil prices stopped spiking and reports gave encouraging updates on the American economy. But oil prices resumed their ascent early Thursday and Brent crude, the international standard, is now up some 15% from the start of the conflict as Iranian attacks have disrupted traffic through the strait.

Buildings of Iranian military and security forces targeted

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said a torpedo from an American submarine sank an Iranian warship Tuesday night in the Indian Ocean.

Sri Lankan authorities said 32 crew members were rescued, while its navy recovered 87 bodies.

The Iranian ship was on its way back from participating in a February exercise hosted by the Indian navy. The U.S. Navy also participated in the same exercise with a P-8A Poseidon aircraft, which is employed for anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare as well as surveillance and reconnaissance.

Shifting timelines for US operations

During his Pentagon briefing, Hegseth did not give a definitive timeline for U.S. operations, which Trump has said could last for a month or longer.

“You can say four weeks, but it could be six. It could be eight. It could be three,” Hegseth said. “Ultimately, we set the pace and the tempo. The enemy is off balance, and we’re going to keep them off balance.”

U.S. and Israeli military officials say launches from Iran have declined as their attacks have taken out ballistic missiles, launchers and drones. Israel's Homefront Command announced it was easing restrictions that closed workplaces nationwide. It said workplaces could reopen Thursday if there is a shelter nearby. Schools would remain closed.

Still, explosions sounded early Thursday in Israel, which said its defensive systems were moving to intercept at least three waves of Iranian missiles.

At least 1,045 people have been killed in Iran, the country's Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs said Wednesday. Eleven people have died in Israel. Six U.S. troops have been killed, including a major whose identity was released Wednesday.

Another eight people were killed in Lebanon, including two in a building struck by the Israeli military in the Beddawi refugee camp in the coastal city of Tripoli on Thursday and three on a coastal highway, authorities said. The Israeli military did not immediately say who it targeted in the strikes.

In two near-simultaneous Israeli drone strikes in Beirut's southern suburbs late Wednesday, two vehicles were hit, killing three people and wounding six, the health ministry said. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hezbollah member, adding that further details would follow.

Israel's military also said it had hit “several command centers” used by Hezbollah in Beirut and showed video footage of a building being hit, but provided no further details.

Iran’s clerics are choosing a new supreme leader

Iran’s leaders are scrambling to replace Khamenei, who ruled the country for 37 years. It is only the second time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that a new supreme leader is being chosen.

Potential candidates range from hard-liners committed to confrontation with the West to reformists who seek diplomatic engagement. Mojtaba Khamenei, Khamenei’s son, has long been considered among them, though he has never held a government position.

In a sign that Iran’s leadership will only seek to consolidate its power, the head of the judiciary warned that “those who cooperate with the enemy in any way will be considered an enemy.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on X that Iran's next supreme leader “will be a target for elimination” if he continues to threaten Israel, the U.S. and others.

Rising reported from Bangkok, Becatoros from Athens, Greece, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut, Lebanon, Elaine Kurtenbach in Bangkok, Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Giovanna Dell'Orto in Miami contributed to this report.