By JON GAMBRELL, DAVID RISING, ELENA BECATOROS and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press
U.S. President Donald Trump says he should be involved in choosing Iran's next supreme leader. The U.S. and Israel are hammering the country for a sixth day. Iran has kept up its retaliatory attacks on Israel, American bases and countries around the region. The war has escalated each day, affecting an additional 14 countries across the Middle East and beyond. On Thursday, Azerbaijan accused Iran of attacking it with drones — though Tehran denied that. Israel meanwhile issued a mass evacuation warning for all of Beirut's southern suburbs as the fighting escalated with Lebanon's Iran-allied Hezbollah militants. U.N. peacekeepers reported ground combat in southern Lebanon as more Israeli troops crossed the border.
By JON GAMBRELL, ELENA BECATOROS and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press
Updated
Israel stepped up airstrikes on Iranian missile launchers and a nuclear research site, and Iran retaliated against Israel and across the Gulf region, disrupting energy supplies and travel. As explosions rang out in Tehran and in Lebanon — where Israel said it struck Hezbollah militants — the American embassy in Saudi Arabia came under drone attack. Four days into a war that President Donald Trump suggested would last several weeks but perhaps longer, hundreds of people have been killed in Iran, including people Trump said he had considered as possible future leaders of the country. As the conflict expanded across the region, the State Department said Tuesday it's preparing military and charter flights for Americans who want to leave the Middle East.
