Live updates: Iran war brings new attacks on commercial ships and Dubai airport, as Tehran warns banks will be next

Iran’s state media said a funeral was being held in central Tehran on Wednesday for senior military commanders and civilians killed in the war with the United States and Israel.

“The procession began at Enghelab Square, with a massive participation of Tehran residents paying tribute to the fallen heroes,” state television said.

It was the second funeral of several people, including senior military officers, held in Iran in as many days.

The News themezone producer in Tehran was invited to attend a burial ceremony Tuesday south of the Iranian capital.

The Iranian government has not allowed the media to publish anti-regime voices from within Iran, and no one against the war or the regime would speak on News themezone camera at Tuesday’s burial ceremony, even with a promise of anonymity.

A Sri Lankan court ordered the recovery of the bodies of 84 Iranian soldiers killed in US submarine attack off the country’s southern coast to be returned to Iran, the AP and Reuters news agencies reported on Wednesday.

The Iranian warship IRIS Dena was returning from a naval exercise organized by India last Wednesday when it was hit by a torpedo fired by a US submarine.

The bodies of those killed are in the mortuary of the Galle National Hospital.

Sri Lanka has issued visas for 208 crew members of a second Iranian ship that experienced engine problems in the same area as the IRIS Dena, Reuters reported.

According to the news agency, 32 people survived the attack on the IRIS Dena.

Italy’s leader Giorgia Meloni suggested that the United States and Israel had violated international law with the ongoing war against Iran, according to Italian national news agency ANSA.

“It is in this crisis situation of the international system in which threats are increasingly terrifying and unilateral interventions carried out outside the perimeter of international law are multiplying that we must also situate the American and Israeli intervention against the Iranian regime,” Meloni told the Italian Senate on Wednesday, ANSA reported.

“We do not have a government here that is complicit in the decisions of others, much less one that is isolated in Europe, or guilty of the economic consequences that the crisis may have on citizens and companies,” Meloni said.

Meloni added his “firm condemnation of the massacre of girls at the Minab school in southern Iran,” according to the French news agency News, referring to an attack on the first day of the war that Iran attributed to the United States or Israel and which it said killed at least 168 children.

The Italian leader called for “responsibility for this tragedy to be quickly determined.”

Israel has denied any connection to the school attack, while President Trump blamed Tehran for the attack but also said Washington is investigating.

The U.S. preliminary assessment suggests that the United States was “probably” responsible for the deadly attack but did not intentionally target the school, with dated information possibly to blame, according to a person briefed on the preliminary intelligence. told News themezone on Mondays.

The Israeli military on Tuesday issued new evacuation orders for residents in six areas of southern Lebanon, claiming that activities carried out by the Iran-backed Hezbollah group were “forcing” the Israeli military to “take action against it.”

Residents have been ordered to move to locations north of the Litani River.

“Anyone present near Hezbollah elements, their facilities and their combat assets is putting their lives at risk,” an IDF spokesperson said. “Any house used by Hezbollah for military purposes will be targeted.”

Greece will limit profit margins on gasoline and a variety of food products for three months, the prime minister said on Wednesday, as the war in the Middle East raised fears of rising prices.

In a meeting with the country’s president, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the government was “vigilant” for further effects of the conflict and warned retailers against “profiteering.”

State limits mean that targeted sectors, such as gas stations and supermarkets, can only make a certain margin on retail sales to consumers. The objective is to avoid an artificial increase in margins when international prices rise.

Reza Pahlavi, an exiled Iranian opposition figure and son of the former shah whose name was chanted during some of the protests that spread across the country earlier this year, said Tuesday that Iran was “at a very sensitive stage of our final struggle,” in a statement shared on social media.

“I ask you to prepare your essential needs as soon as possible and, for the sake of your own safety, leave the streets and stay in your homes,” Pahlavi said, addressing the Iranian people. “Continue the strike and do not show up for work. To show your unity, keep the nightly chants in full force.”

Pahlavi warned Iran’s military and security forces that it was their “last chance to break away from the repressive forces and join the people.”

Pahlavi told the Iranians to “wait for my final call,” without providing further information about any action he expected in the coming hours or days.

The United Arab Emirates said it was diverting a new round of missiles and drones launched by Iran on Wednesday morning.

“The UAE’s air defenses are currently facing missile and drone attacks originating from Iran,” the country’s Defense Ministry said in a social media post, explaining the blasts heard in several parts of the country as “the result of air defense systems intercepting ballistic missiles and fighter jets intercepting drones and other aerial vehicles.”

The United Arab Emirates has been hit by relentless drone and missile attacks by Iran since the war began on February 28, and multiple sources told News themezone on Tuesday that the White House was aware that US allies in the Gulf are falling short on missile interceptors, forcing them to choose which objects to fly and which not to fly.

The White House has discussed the matter, sources told News themezone.

News themezone Margaret Brennan first reported on March 5 that the Gulf states were running dangerously short of missile interceptors and had asked the United States to expedite new supplies. U.S. allies in the region were told that officials in Washington were creating a task force to get them new supplies, but sources said it was not happening as quickly as they needed.

An Iranian military spokesman said Wednesday that the country would begin attacking banks across the Middle East linked to the United States and Israel, following an alleged attack on an Iranian bank.

“After their failed campaign, the American terrorist army and the cruel Zionist regime (Israel) have attacked one of the country’s banks,” said Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesman for the Islamic Republic’s central military command, quoted by Iranian state media.

“With this illegitimate and unusual action, the enemy is forcing us to attack economic centers and banks linked to the United States and the Zionist regime in the region.”

He warned people to stay at least a kilometer, or about half a mile, away from the region’s banks.

The Dubai government said Wednesday that four people suffered minor to moderate injuries when drones fell in or near the United Arab Emirates’ main airport.

“Authorities confirm that two drones fell in the vicinity of Dubai International Airport (DXB) recently, causing minor injuries to two Ghanaian citizens and one Bangladeshi citizen, and moderate injuries to an Indian citizen. Air traffic is operating normally,” Dubai administration said on its official social media channels.

Dubai has been repeatedly hit by Iranian missile and drone attacks during the war, and the United Arab Emirates has seen at least six people killed and more than 100 injured in the attacks.

A projectile hit a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz early Wednesday, causing damage and a fire on board, after President Trump warned Iran to stop impeding shipping traffic through the vital waterway.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations centre, run by the British military, said the vessel, identified by News themezone Confirmed as the Thai-flagged bulk carrier Mayuree Naree, was hit on Wednesday just north of Oman in the strait.

In a later update, the UKMTO said the fire was out, there was no environmental impact and a skeleton crew remained on board the ship.

British authorities said a container ship was hit off the coast of the United Arab Emirates early Wednesday, about 25 nautical miles northwest of the pu erto of Ra’s al Khaymah in the United Arab Emirates.

“The captain of a container ship has reported that the vessel has been damaged by a suspicious but unknown projectile. The extent of the damage is currently unknown but the crew is investigating. The captain further reports that all crew members are safe and accounted for,” UKMTO said.

News themezone Confirmed identified the vessel as the Japanese-flagged container ship ONE Majesty.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre, run by the British military, said it had received a report of a cargo ship about 50 nautical miles northwest of Dubai, west of the Strait of Hormuz, which had been hit by an unknown projectile.

“There is no report of any environmental impact. The crew are reported to be safe and sound. Authorities are investigating,” the UKMTO said, without naming the ship.

News themezone Confirmed identified the ship as the Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier Star Gwyneth.

Two more members of the Iranian women’s national soccer team were granted asylum in Australia before their teammates left, but one of the women later changed her mind and decided to return to Iran, Home Secretary Tony Burke told reporters on Wednesday.

He said the two met with five players granted humanitarian visas a day earlier.

One of the women later changed her mind and will return to Iran, Burke said. The rest of the team left Sydney to return to Iran on Tuesday night.

Read more here.

News/AP

Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei is “safe and healthy” despite reports of an injury during the war with Israel and the United States, the Iranian president’s son said Wednesday.

“I heard the news that Mr. Mojtaba Khamenei had been injured. I asked some friends who had connections. They told me that, thank God, he is safe and sound,” Yousef Pezeshkian, who is also a government adviser, said in a post on his Telegram channel.

State television had called Khamenei a “wounded veteran of the Ramadan war” but never specified his injury.

The new supreme leader is the son and successor of the Islamic republic’s former ruler, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 that sparked a war across the Middle East.

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, a low-key figure who has rarely appeared in public or spoken at official events, has not addressed the nation or issued a written statement since he was declared supreme leader on Sunday.

In a report on Wednesday, The New York Times cited three unnamed Iranian officials as saying that Khamenei “had suffered injuries, including to his legs, but was alert and sheltered in a highly secure location with limited communication.”