Here's the latest
• Iranian missiles hit southern Israel: Israeli officials declared a mass casualty event in the city of Arad as Iranian missiles hit multiple cities in southern Israel Saturday evening. Israel said earlier that the US and Israeli strikes on Iran will “increase significantly” this week, despite President Donald Trump saying he is considering “winding down” US military efforts in the Middle East.
• US-UK base targeted: The UK denounced what it called “Iran’s reckless attacks” after ballistic missiles were fired toward the joint US-UK Diego Garcia military base in the Indian Ocean.
• Oil markets: The US has lifted sanctions on 140 million barrels of Iranian oil, including temporarily removing sanctions on oil currently at sea, as the Trump administration seeks to tackle a worsening energy crisis.
Many business owners are left with a handful of bad choices as fuel costs soar
Shirley Modlin was in meetings all day Thursday searching for costs to cut. Her small manufacturing facility in Powhatan, Virginia, relies on carbide tools made of tungsten to make precise cuts.
The chemical element is used in armor-piercing artillery, which means carbide tool prices have more than doubled in the past two weeks, Modlin says.
Modlin, owner of 3D Design and Manufacturing, said customers won’t tolerate increased prices to cover the rising tool costs.
“Now, with gas prices going up, it’s costing me more, eating away at my profit, and it’s making it very, very difficult for me to sustain,” she added.
Modlin offers her staff competitive benefits and raises every year to retain and attract new workers. But last year, tariffs rocked the US manufacturing industry, sending the costs of imported raw materials surging – Modlin’s aluminum and steel costs jumped 65%.
She wasn’t able to give any raises last year. And on Thursday, facing another round of surging costs, Modlin had to cut an administrator back from full-time to part-time without benefits.
“He’s got a house payment; he’s got bills he’s gotta pay. It’s just awful,” Modlin said. “We have to do something. You can only cut so many breakroom supplies.”
Modlin was one of four business owners — a clothing store owner, a bread baker, a spot shipper and a factory owner — CNN spoke to about how they plan to deal with surging fuel costs.
Read about how they are planning here.
Dozens wounded and mass casualty event declared after Iranian missiles hit southern Israel
Dozens of people were wounded and Israel’s emergency response service declared a mass casualty event after an Iranian missile hit a city in southern Israel Saturday evening.
Magen David Adom (MDA) said at least 74 people were injured at two different impact sites in Arad, including seven in serious condition. MDA said there were still people missing at the scene. The strike on Arad appears to have resulted in the highest number of people injured in a single attack since the start of the war with Iran.
Videos from United Hatzalah, another emergency response service, showed multiple buildings that took major damage, including outer walls ripped off and smoke rising from at least one building.
It is the second time in a matter of hours that Iranian missile appears to have pierced Israel’s missile defense array and struck cities in southern Israel.
Social media footage shows the moment of impact and the aftermath of a strike hitting Dimona, Israel. A spokesman for the Fire and Rescue Services said the missile destroyed a one-story building in Dimona.
Iran strike on Dimona shows “effective command and control,” says Israel’s top Iran expert
The Iranian missile strike on the city of Dimona in southern Israel shows Tehran retains “effective command and control,” argued one of Israel’s top Iran experts.
Danny Citrinowicz, a senior fellow on Iran at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said the Saturday evening attack on Dimona, which is home to Israel’s nuclear program, is part of a pattern of escalation management.
“The Iranian strike on Dimona and the Haifa refinery following the Israeli attack on the South Pars gas field highlights a clear and consistent pattern: escalation managed through deliberate signaling,” Citrinowicz said on social media. He said the decision to strike Dimona shows “effective command and control, with strategic guidance translating into precise operational execution at the tactical level.”
Iran’s national broadcaster said the attack on Dimona was in response to what Tehran called a US-Israeli strike on the Natanz nuclear facility. The Israeli military said it was “not familiar” with a strike on Natanz. The US carried out a strike on Natanz during the 12-day war in June.
Israel has repeatedly said it is dismantling Iran’s command and control by killing the country’s leaders, making it difficult for the military to function coherently. But Citrinowcz said, “This is not random retaliation. It is structured deterrence, designed to shape behavior and impose costs.”
Gas prices are soaring across the US. Check what they're like in your state
Gas prices have skyrocketed since the start of the war, largely due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which is responsible for 20% of the world’s oil supply. Prices hit a nationwide average of $3.91 per gallon on Friday, up 93 cents from February 28, when the conflict began.
See what gas prices are in each state:
Taken collectively, the figures are staggering. Drivers have pumped nearly $4.5 billion more into their gas tanks since the US and Israel first attacked Iran, estimated Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, an online price tracker.
A household with two cars is spending an average of $20 to $40 a week more on gas than prior to the conflict, De Haan said.
CNN’s Tami Luhby contributed to this report.
Iranian missile slams into building in Dimona in southern Israel, authorities say
An Iranian ballistic missile slammed into a building in the city of Dimona in southern Israel on Saturday evening, according to the Fire and Rescue Services, injuring several people as firefighters battled a fire at one of several scenes after the strike. A spokesman for the Fire and Rescue Services said the missile destroyed a one-story building in Dimona.
Dramatic video from social media shared by the Fire and Rescue Services shows a missile streaking down from the sky toward the center of the city, followed by a loud explosion.
The Israeli military said it failed to intercept the missile before it struck the city. “The incident will be reviewed,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
The city of Dimona is home to Israel’s nuclear program. Several rounds of sirens warned of incoming missiles in Dimona on Saturday evening.
Iran’s national broadcaster IRIB TV claimed the attack on Dimona targeted nuclear facilities, and that it came in response to Israel’s earlier attack on Natanz, site of an Iranian nuclear facility.
United Hatzalah, one of Israel’s emergency response services, said they were treating “several casualties at multiple scenes” in the area, most in light condition. Magen David Adom (MDA), another emergency response service, said they were treating about 20 people, including a 10-year-old boy who suffered moderate injuries from shrapnel.
Israel says it struck over 200 targets in Iran and Lebanon so far this weekend
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has launched simultaneous “wide-scale” waves of strikes on Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon so far this weekend, hitting over 200 targets.
In Iran, the IDF said it struck dozens of Iranian compounds storing weapons and ballistic missiles, as it claimed to have continued to have degraded Tehran’s arsenal of weapons.
Regarding Lebanon, Israel’s military said it completed two waves of strikes in Beirut and additional areas in Lebanon, in which “key Hezbollah command centers” were struck.
“The IDF will continue to further degrade the Iranian regime and the Hezbollah terrorist organization, with the aim of reducing the scope of fire directed toward the the State of Israel,” a statement from the IDF said.
Over 1,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since fighting with Israel resumed on March 2. The Israeli military has killed at least 111 children since the war began, according to Lebanese health ministry figures.
More than one million people in Lebanon have been displaced due to the current conflict.
The most recent conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah was sparked after Hezbollah fired projectiles into Israel to avenge the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, triggering Israeli retaliation.
Inside a Hezbollah tomb in Beirut
This indoor shrine in Beirut holds the bodies of many deceased Hezbollah fighters, most of whom died in the last conflict with Israel in 2024. Many of the tombstones carry a picture of the late Iranian supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh visited the tomb and saw families gathering to pay respects:
This shrine in a Hezbollah stronghold of Beirut is filled with bodies of civilians and fighters, many of whom died in the previous conflict with Israel in late 2024. Some graves carry a picture of the late Iranian supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh saw families visiting to mourn their dead.
Iran arrests 25 for "spreading rumors," state news reports
Iran has arrested 25 people for “spreading rumors, filming damages, and sending them to anti-revolutionary networks,” the state-affiliated Tasnim news agency reported yesterday.
They were arrested in West Azerbaijan province, Tasnim said, citing a statement from the provincial police command that said authorities would “deal with the perpetrators decisively, as a lesson and deterrent.”
The arrests come days after Iran executed three men in connection with nationwide anti-regime protests that took place at the start of the year.
The news agency Mizan, which is affiliated with Iran’s judiciary, said that Mehdi Qasemi, Saleh Mohammadi and Saeed Davoudi were convicted for their role in the killing of two law enforcement officers at a police station.
Human rights groups have described their trials as a sham, with Amnesty International and others saying forced confessions were used in fast-tracked proceedings that “bore no resemblance to a meaningful trial.”
CNN’s Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this reporting.
Israel says strikes on Iran will increase this week. Get caught up on the latest
As the war in the Middle East continues to rage on, the death toll across countries continues to rise. And according to Israel, more strikes on Iran are imminent.
Get caught up on the latest:
- More strikes ahead: Israel’s defense minister said this morning that the US and Israeli strikes on Iran will “increase significantly” this week, despite President Donald Trump saying that he is considering “winding down” the military efforts.
- US progress: The US Central Command claimed in a new video Saturday morning there is a “steady decline” of the capabilities of Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) because of strikes by the US military. Trump said the US “totally obliterated” key Iranian nuclear sites — including the Natanz facility — last summer. But on Saturday, the site was struck again, Iranian state media reported.
- Iranian oil: The US decision to allow as much as 140 million barrels of Iranian oil at sea to be sold will be of little financial benefit to Iran, according to US officials.
- Fuel price’s affect on flights: United Airlines plans to cut less popular flights — including mid-week and overnights — until the fall, in response to surging fuel prices triggered by the war in Iran, CEO Scott Kirby said Friday in a company memo.
- US-UK base targeted: The United Kingdom denounced what it calls “Iran’s reckless attacks” after ballistic missiles were fired toward a joint US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean. Iran launched two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at the base on the island of Diego Garcia on Friday morning local time, a US official told CNN. Neither struck the base, the official said.
- Safeguarding Strait of Hormuz: The United Arab Emirates and Australia are the latest countries to express their willingness to contribute to efforts to ensure safe navigation of the Strait of Hormuz, joining a statement which now has 22 participating nations.
CNN’s Eugenia Yosef, Oren Liebermann, Tim Lister, Zachary Cohen, Isobel Yeung, Kara Fox, Auzinea Bacon, Dalia Abdelwahab, Catherine Nicholls and Sophie Tanno contributed reporting to this post.
A look at Diego Garcia, the US-UK military base that Iran has targeted
Yesterday morning, Iran launched two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at a joint US-UK military base on the island of Diego Garcia, a US official told CNN.
Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos Islands, an archipelago more than 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) northeast of Mauritius. The UK took over the islands along with Mauritius in 1814 after the defeat of Napoleon.
In 1965, the UK detached the Chagos Islands from Mauritius, which became independent three years later. In exchange for detaching the islands, Britain gave Mauritius £3 million and “committed to return the islands when they were no longer required for defense purposes,” according to a 2025 House of Lords briefing.
In 2019, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to condemn the UK’s occupation of the Chagos Islands. More than five years later, London said it would give up sovereignty of the archipelago.
Under the terms of a treaty, once it gives the islands up, the UK will pay Mauritius $136 million each year for a 99-year lease on the military base at Diego Garcia, meaning the UK and US can still use the facility.
US President Donald Trump has accused the United Kingdom of “great stupidity” over its plan to hand over ownership, and earlier this month berated London for denying the US permission to use British military bases in the islands for offensive strikes against Iran.
Diego Garcia has helped to launch two invasions of Iraq, served as a vital landing spot for bombers that fly missions across Asia, including over the South China Sea, and has been linked to US rendition efforts.
CNN’s Jenni Marsh, Christian Edwards, Zachary Cohen, Laura Sharman and Isaac Yee contributed to this reporting.
Iranian missile strike hits empty kindergarten in Israel, mayor says
Israeli municipality workers were at the scene of an Iranian missile strike on the city of Rishon Lezion on Saturday, as this video shows.
Rishon Lezion mayor Raz Kinstlich told the Reuters news agency a kindergarten had been left in “total ruins.” There were no children in the building at the time of the attack, he said.
UAE and Australia join statement on safeguarding Strait of Hormuz
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Australia are the latest countries to express their willingness to contribute to efforts to ensure safe navigation of the Strait of Hormuz, joining a statement which now has 22 participating nations.
On Thursday, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan released a joint statement condemning Iran’s attacks on commercial vessels, adding that they are ready to contribute to “appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait.”
It was not immediately clear what the efforts to secure the crucial waterway would look like.
Earlier Saturday, South Korea’s foreign ministry confirmed the country was also willing to participate. Bahrain became the first Gulf nation to join the statement on Friday.
Notably, neither the US nor China has backed the statement yet.
For context: US President Donald Trump had called on allies to send warships and minesweepers to help secure the Strait of Hormuz in an effort to calm global oil markets, but none have made firm commitments yet. He later lashed out at NATO allies for not helping the US and called them “cowards” for not helping secure the strait.
CNN’s Laura Sharman and Gawon Bae contributed reporting.
18 months since the last war in Lebanon, CNN reports from the ground
Just 18 months ago, Israeli bombs rained down across Lebanon for weeks. Intent on defanging the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah and uprooting it from its strongholds, the Israel Defense Forces invaded the country’s south.
Now, the country is wracked by the terror of a new, heavier bombardment, with more than 1,000 dead since March 2, when Hezbollah fired projectiles into Israel to avenge the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, sparking Israeli retaliation.
More than 100 children died in the 2024 conflict, according to UNICEF figures, a number that has already been topped during Israel’s ongoing strikes.
The Israeli military has killed at least 118 children since the war began, according to Lebanese health ministry figures — a death toll that has raised questions about the number of child or other civilian casualties that the IDF is willing to accept when prosecuting airstrikes.
In the southern village of Irkay, CNN attended the funeral of five children aged between six and 13, killed in a single strike on their grandparents’ house.
Both grandparents died in the blast – which flattened the house — as well as two uncles, one of whom was in a house across the street.
Read more from the ground in Lebanon in our full article here.
Reported deaths climb in Iran and Lebanon as Israel vows to escalate strikes
It has now been more than three weeks since the US and Israel first launched strikes on Iran, sparking a war that has spiraled across the region and killed thousands of people, according to a CNN tally of regional figures.
Hundreds of children are among the dead in countries including Iran and Lebanon, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) and Lebanon’s health ministry.
CNN is not able to independently verify these numbers.
Here’s what we know about the number of people reportedly killed in the Middle East since the war began on February 28:
- Iran: Iranian authorities have not released information about the overall number of people killed in the country in some time. On Monday, Iran’s foreign minister said that “hundreds of Iranian civilians,” including more than 200 children, have been killed since the conflict began. The US-based rights group HRANA said yesterday that at least 1,398 civilians, including 210 children, and 1,165 military personnel have been killed in the same time frame. Another 657 people have been killed, HRANA said, but it has not yet been determined if they were civilian or military.
- Lebanon: At least 1,021 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon since March 2, its health ministry said yesterday. 118 children are among those killed, it said.
- Iraq: At least 61 members of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) have been killed since the conflict began, the paramilitary umbrella group said in a statement. An additional five people from Iranian Kurdish groups, an Iraqi Kurdish security member, and a French soldier have been killed in Iraqi Kurdistan, the groups and the Kurdistan Regional Government told CNN earlier this week.
- Israel: At least 15 people have been killed by strikes inside Israel in the past three weeks, including nine who were killed in a direct missile hit on a residential building the first weekend of the war. Two Israeli soldiers were killed in Lebanon on March 8, according to the Israeli military.
- US: Thirteen US service members have been killed since the start of the conflict, including six who died when their refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq on March 12. Another six US service members were killed in an Iranian strike on a makeshift operations center in Kuwait on March 1, while a different US soldier died nearly a week after sustaining injuries during an attack on Saudi Arabia the same day, according to CENTCOM.
- UAE: In a statement today, the United Arab Emirates said that two members of its armed forces have been killed because of “attacks” since the conflict began, as well as six other people of Pakistani, Nepali, Bangladeshi and Palestinian nationalities.
- Kuwait: At least six people have been killed in attacks on Kuwait in the last three weeks, including an 11-year-old girl who died from injuries sustained when shrapnel fell on a residential area on March 4, according to state-run Kuwait News Agency.
- West Bank: Four Palestinian women, including a 32-year-old who was six months pregnant, were killed after rocket fragments struck a hair salon in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, Palestinian authorities said. The Israeli military said an Iranian ballistic missile packed with cluster munitions was to blame.
- Oman: At least three foreign nationals have been killed in or off the coast of Oman since the conflict started. Two foreign nationals were killed in a drone “crash” in the country’s Sohar district, its defense ministry said on March 13.
- Bahrain: At least two people have been killed in Bahrain since the conflict began, including a 29-year-old Bahraini woman who died after an Iranian strike on the capital Manama, according to Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior.
- Saudi Arabia: Two people, an Indian and a Bangladeshi national, were killed after a military projectile struck a residential building in the city of Al-Kharj on March 8, Saudi Civil Defense said.
CNN’s Charbel Mallo, Aqeel Najim, Nechirvan Mando, Dana Karni, Tal Shalev, Oren Liebermann, Tamar Michaelis, Ibrahim Dahman, Haley Britzky, Brad Lendon, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Isabelle D’Antonio, Jessie Yeung, Abeer Salman, Hira Humayun, Jeremy Diamond, Laura Sharman, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Rhea Mogul contributed to this reporting.
Iranian regime's grip on Strait of Hormuz "degraded," US military says
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) claimed in a newly-released video Saturday morning a “steady decline” of the capabilities of Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) because of strikes by the US military.
CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper pointed to the IRGC’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, the key Middle East oil shipping route.
He said that recent US targeting of an underground facility along the coastline “destroyed intelligent support sites and missile radar relays that were used to monitor ship movements.”
“Iran’s ability to threaten freedom of navigation in and around the Strait of Hormuz is degraded as a result,” Cooper added in the nearly four-minute-long video.
For context: US President Donald Trump has called on allies to send warships and minesweepers to help secure the Strait of Hormuz in an effort to calm global oil markets, but none have made firm commitments yet. He later lashed out at NATO allies for not helping the US and called them “cowards” for not helping secure the strait.
The tiny Iranian islands that may be in Trump's crosshairs
Some tiny islands in the Persian Gulf may gain sudden significance if the United States decides to ratchet up the pressure on the Iranian regime by inserting ground forces into the equation.
Three contingents of US Marines have been dispatched towards the region, but US President Donald Trump has given no indication that he is considering seizing any Iranian territory. Trump told reporters Thursday that he was “not putting troops anywhere,” but added: “If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you.”
Several of the islands are specks on the map – a few square kilometers of hot, flat rock. But they hold a commanding position close to sea lanes, and one in particular – Kharg Island – is of critical economic importance. The US military has already carried out intense strikes on military positions on Kharg, through which more than 90% per cent of Iran’s oil exports flow.
The Iranian military is already warning against attacks on its islands. On Friday, military headquarters in Tehran threatened retaliation against the United Arab Emirates should there be any attacks on the islands of Abu Musa and Greater Tunb. These two islands, along with Lesser Tunb, sit to the west of the Strait of Hormuz, between the coastlines of Iran and the UAE.
The Shah of Iran seized the Tunbs in 1971 just before the UAE came into existence, and the Emirates have been demanding their return ever since.
Iran’s islands across the Persian Gulf are “fortified strongholds” according to the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, Alireza Tangsiri, last November. “If an enemy makes a mistake, it will receive a decisive response there,” Tangsiri claimed.
United Airlines to scale back flights due to surging jet fuel costs
United Airlines plans to cut less popular flights — including mid-week and overnights — until the fall, in response to surging fuel prices triggered by the war in Iran, CEO Scott Kirby said Friday in a company memo.
Jet fuel prices have “more than doubled in the last three weeks,” Kirby said. US jet fuel prices rose to $4.56 per gallon on Friday, up from $2.50 on February 27, before the war started, according to data from Argus Media. That could cost United an extra $11 billion this year alone — more than double what the company has earned during its best year, Kirby noted.
Experts warn that companies will pass the additional jet fuel costs onto customers in the coming weeks and months.
Earlier this week, the three major US carriers — United, Delta and American — cited strong demand for airline bookings.
“The 10 biggest booked revenue weeks in our history have been the last 10 weeks. But it may be a challenge to continue passing through much of the increased fuel price if oil stays higher for longer,” Kirby said.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian said this week that five of its top 10 days for ticket sales have happened since the start of the war, while noting the company has taken a roughly $400 million hit due to fuel costs.
Meanwhile, Qatar Airways relocated more than a dozen of its largest aircraft to a long-term storage facility in Spain, according to a Financial Times report, signaling it is preparing to cut back on flights.
Iranian nuclear site targeted —after Trump's claim Tehran's facilities were "obliterated"
President Donald Trump said the US “totally obliterated” key Iranian nuclear sites – including the Natanz facility – last summer. But on Saturday, the site was struck again, Iranian state media reported.
If it was that badly hit last year, why is it still a target?
Despite suffering heavy losses in the June 2025, 12-day war, satellite imagery analysis shows that Iran has rebuilt damaged missile facilities since then.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has indicated that enriched uranium may still remain at or near the site after Israel launched a surprise attack, along with the US, that destroyed parts of Tehran’s nuclear program. There is evidence that some infrastructure near Natanz remained unscathed.
According to a November assessment from the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), construction at a mountainous area just south of the Natanz enrichment side – a site known as Pickaxe Mountain – also persisted.
Pickaxe Mountain includes underground tunnel complexes, with one intended for advanced centrifuge production, and was not visibly struck in June, according to ISIS.
The Israeli military said Saturday it was “not familiar” with any Israeli attack on the Natanz facility. CNN has reached out to CENTCOM on the matter.
More than 110 children reported killed in Lebanon since Israel renewed bombing campaign
As Israel continues its assault across Lebanon, in military operations it says is targeting the militant group Hezbollah, civilians and civilian infrastructure have continued to come under fire, pushing the death toll past 1,000 people according to the country’s health ministry.
CNN’s Isobel Yeung reports from south Lebanon and meets the father of one family which had five children killed in recent strikes.
More than 110 children have been killed in Lebanon since Israel's bombing campaign started anew earlier this month. CNN's international correspondent Isobel Yeung reports from south Lebanon and meets the father of one family that had five children killed in recent strikes.
UK condemns Iranian attempt to hit Indian Ocean military base
The United Kingdom has denounced what it calls “Iran’s reckless attacks” after ballistic missiles were fired towards a joint US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean.
Iran launched two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at the base on the island of Diego Garcia on Friday morning local time, a US official told CNN. Neither of them struck the base, the official said.
The semi-official Mehr news agency in Iran confirmed the missiles targeted “the military base of the oppressors in Diego Garcia,” the semi-official Iranian news agency Mehr reported Saturday.
Diego Garcia is around 3,800km (2,360 miles) from Iran and has an air base that can accommodate long-range US bombers.
The targeting of the base “is a significant step by the Islamic Republic of Iran in threatening the interests of the United States and its allies beyond the borders of West Asia,” Mehr claimed.
The UK Defense Ministry said Saturday that “Iran’s reckless attacks, lashing out across the region and holding hostage the Strait of Hormuz, are a threat to British interests and British allies.”
On Friday, the UK government announced that it had given the US permission to use British bases for specific defensive operations “to degrade the missile sites and capabilities being used to attack ships.”
