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• Follow the latest updates on the war with Iran here.
More headlines on the war
• Iran has a new demand to end the war – and it could bring in billions
• Iran’s efforts to mount attacks against US extend far beyond its military. Here’s what to know
What we know so far
• Houthis enter war: Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels waded into the expanding Middle East conflict, announcing that they fired two missiles at Israel. The movement previously disrupted shipping lanes in the region, attacking vessels in the Red Sea in retaliation for Israel’s war against Hamas.
• More troops arrive: The USS Tripoli, carrying 3,500 sailors and Marines, has arrived in the Middle East, said US Central Command, as the Pentagon weighs its next steps.
• Strait passage: Iran will allow 20 Pakistani ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said. Pakistan has been acting as the mediator for negotiations between Iran and the US.
• Campus threat: The IRGC threatened to hit US and Israeli university campuses in the region, in retaliation for strikes on Iranian education institutions.
Iranian state media reports attack on residential building in western Tehran
Video posted by Iranian state media claims to show the aftermath of an attack on a residential neighborhood in western Tehran on Saturday evening.
A reporter at the scene after dark says that no one was killed, but nine people were injured in a strike at around 10pm local time (2:30pm ET), which he adds damaged more than 20 apartment units.
The video, which was posted to the Telegram channels of both Fars News and Mehr News in the early hours of Sunday morning, shows the side of what appears to be a residential building blown apart, a kitchen and lounge covered in rubble, and cars coated in thick dust.
Bahrain's aluminum facility hit in Iran attack, state news agency says
Aluminium Bahrain, a major smelter in the country, was targeted Saturday in an Iranian attack that injured two employees, its state news agency reported.
The company, also known as Alba, is assessing the extent of damage, according to Bahrain News Agency on Sunday.
“The safety and security of Alba’s people remain its top priority and the company confirms that two of Alba’s employees sustained minor injuries,” the company said in a statement which the news agency cited.
Abu Dhabi-based Emirates Global Aluminium also said on Saturday its Al Taweelah site sustained “significant damage” from Iranian missile and drone attacks. Falling debris from an intercepted ballistic missile had caused three fires near Khalifa Economic Zones Abu Dhabi and injured six people, authorities previously said.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said without elaborating the two companies have ties to the US military and aeronautics firms, Reuters reported.
Alba has already shut down three smelting lines earlier this month, which accounts for 19% of its yearly production capacity, due to disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz, according to a previous company statement.
The Middle East aluminum sector accounts for around 9% of global supply, according to Reuters.
IRGC threatens to target US and Israeli universities in Middle East in retaliation for Iran campus attack
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it will target American and Israeli-affiliated universities in the region in retaliation for recent attacks on Iranian higher education centers.
In a statement on Sunday, the IRGC said the institutions are now considered “legitimate targets until two universities are struck.” It added that Iranian institutions including the Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran had been hit.
The group warned students, staff and nearby residents to stay at least one kilometer away from American university campuses in the region.
The IRGC also demanded that the US government condemn the reported strikes on Iranian universities via an official statement by March 30, threatening to expand the attacks to more than two institutions if conditions aren’t met.
“If it [the US] also wants to prevent further strikes on its universities in the region, it must restrain its allied forces from attacking universities and research centers,” the statement reads.
US universities that have campuses in the Gulf include Texas A&M and Northwestern universities in Qatar, and New York University in the United Arab Emirates.
Air raid sirens activated in Kuwait, Bahrain and Israel
Air raid sirens were activated in several Middle Eastern countries early Sunday.
Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior urged citizens to take shelter and “remain calm” as it sounded its alarm.
Kuwait News Agency reported that the Ministry of Defense was responding to what it described as “hostile missile and drone attacks.”
Israel’s defense forces said they were working to intercept missiles launched from Iran. Israel’s Home Front Command issued emergency alerts to mobile phones in affected areas, instructing people to move to protected spaces.
Shortly afterward, the military said residents were permitted to leave shelters.
Zelensky says Russia surveilled US military bases for Iran
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that he has received intelligence on Russia conducting surveillance of US bases in the Middle East and Gulf regions.
He claimed that seven areas had been surveilled or photographed this week — including a mix of US, Middle Eastern and British bases in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, and the US-British base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
CNN has reached out to the Russian Embassy in the US for comment.
US officials told CNN that last week Iran launched two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia, a joint US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean. While neither of the missiles struck the base, the attack revealed Iran’s long-range capabilities.
“It’s strange,” Zelensky said in a post on Telegram. “Sanctions are being lifted, and the aggressor is providing information to target objects, including those of the countries that are talking about lifting sanctions or are already lifting them.”
Zelensky was likely referring to the US temporarily lifting sanctions on Russian oil.
The US Department of Defense, when approached by CNN, said it does not comment on intelligence matters.
Multiple people familiar with US intelligence reporting on the issue have said that Russia is providing Iran with intelligence on the location and movement of US military assets. According to a Western intelligence official, Russia is also giving Iran tactical advice on targeting with its Shahed drones.
Home of Iraqi Kurdistan's president targeted in attack, Iraqi prime minister's office says
The residence of the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani, was targeted in an attack today, according to the media office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al-Sudani.
Al-Sudani “affirmed the government’s commitment to preventing any outlaw actors, whether regional or international, from dragging Iraq into the ongoing conflict in the region,” the office said.
“This is not about a house or a personal residence, every part of Kurdistan and every home in Kurdistan is of value to us,” Barzani’s uncle, Kurdish politician Masoud Barzani, said in a statement later Saturday.
The US State Department denounced the attack in a statement, calling it “despicable.”
In a statement released a short while ago, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) condemned the drone attack, calling it “an act of terrorism,” according to the semi-official Iranian news agency Mehr News.
Some context: Iraq’s government has repeatedly insisted that it does not want to be a part of the current conflict in the Middle East. This has not stopped nearly 100 people from being killed in the country as a result of it.
Many soldiers from the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a paramilitary umbrella group that includes several Iranian-backed factions, have been killed in attacks on the country.
US Central Command spokesperson Tim Hawkins told CNN last week that the US military was acting to defend itself “from attacks by Iran-backed Iraqi militia groups.”
Several pro-Iranian militia groups operating within Iraq have claimed responsibility for attacks on US targets in the country, including the US Embassy in Baghdad and the Iraqi Kurdish city of Erbil, where Kurdish forces and international coalition troops are hosted.
At least six Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were killed in an Iranian missile attack on a base north of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, local officials said Tuesday, in the first direct Iranian attack on Peshmerga forces in Iraq.
CNN’s Mohammed Tawfeeq and Christian Edwards contributed to this reporting.
Israeli anti-war protesters arrested in Tel Aviv
An Israeli anti-war protester told CNN that he was arrested at a demonstration in Tel Aviv with 12 others on Saturday night.
Itamar Greenberg, a law student who has organized protests against the US-Israeli war with Iran since late February, said after his release from custody that the demonstration in HaBima Square was the largest he’d seen yet, estimating it included around 1,200 people.
Greenberg said he has been present for every protest against the war since it began.
“The first time it was just 20 people,” he said, speaking over the phone while waiting for one of his fellow protesters to be released from police custody. “I got arrested the first time. After that, it became like 50 (protesters), then 200 and 400 and today, more than 12 (hundred).”
This time, Greenberg said police were “very violent” while arresting him. CNN has reached out to a spokesperson for the Israel Police for comment.
Greenberg called Saturday’s protest especially strange since there were liberal Zionists who joined in. Previous protests have been confined to Israel’s tiny anti-Zionist left, and the war remains broadly popular among the Israeli public.
“It was very strange,” Greenberg said. “It’s the first time that the Zionists have been out to protest the war.”
Mapping the expanding Middle East conflict
Yemen’s Houthi rebels waded into the Iran war on Saturday, launching ballistic missiles at Israel for the first time in the current conflict.
This map provides a glance at the scope of the evolving war:
Iranian state media reports explosions in civilian areas of Tehran
Iranian state-affiliated media is reporting heavy bombardment across Tehran, including in civilian areas, sharing that explosions are being seen in multiple parts of the city on Saturday evening. The northeastern, western, central and eastern parts of the city have reported attacks.
Videos circulating on social media have not been independently verified by CNN.
Iranian media said a civilian area in Tehran was hit in an airstrike, with emergency and aid teams responding at the scene.
The Parchin area — a site linked to military activity — was also reportedly targeted.
Eyewitnesses cited by Iran International reported a possible strike near Bushehr Airport. According to the Iranian media, one witness reported hearing multiple explosions near Mashhad Airport shortly after 7 pm, local time.
The cities of Mashhad, Kermanshah and Birjand are also reportedly under attack.
A few hours later, the Israeli military said in a statement that it had “completed a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting dozens of infrastructure belonging to the Iranian terror regime across Tehran.”
Iran to allow 20 Pakistani ships through Strait of Hormuz, official says
Iran has agreed to allow 20 ships under Pakistani flag to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said in a post on X. Under the agreement, two ships will cross the strait daily, he added.
“This is a welcome and constructive gesture by Iran and deserves appreciation,” Dar wrote. “It is a harbinger of peace and will help usher stability in the region.”
Pakistan has been acting as the mediator of negotiations between the US and Iran as confirmed by special envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday.
WHO says nine paramedics killed in attacks on healthcare facilities in southern Lebanon
The World Health Organization said nine paramedics were killed and seven wounded in five separate attacks in southern Lebanon on Saturday, marking one of the deadliest days for medical workers this month.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the strikes hit emergency teams in multiple villages while they were on duty. The latest incidents bring the number of health workers killed in March to at least 51, with more than 120 reported wounded since the escalation intensified earlier this month, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.
The WHO says the attacks are severely disrupting access to care across southern Lebanon. Four hospitals and more than 50 primary healthcare centers have been forced to close, and several others are operating at reduced capacity after sustaining damage.
Lebanese Health Minister Dr. Rakan Nasser Al-Din, speaking to reporters, said the government has recorded at least 75 attacks on the health sector to date.
Displaying images of damaged medical facilities, he rejected claims they were being used for military purposes, saying they were “primary healthcare centers” and rescue vehicles.
Son of Iran's last shah gets huge applause at US conservative conference
Reza Pahlavi, the eldest son of Iran’s last shah, garnered widespread applause Saturday at one of the highest-profile conservative political conferences in the US as he attempts to position himself as the future leader of Iran.
“Can you imagine Iran going from ‘Death to America’ to ‘God bless America’?” Pahlavi said to cheers at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Grapevine, Texas.
Although Pahlavi had been attempting to position himself as a viable candidate for US-backed and pro-Western leadership in Iran even before the war, President Donald Trump has downplayed that option.
Pahlavi once again threw his name into consideration to serve as the country’s transitional leader, insisting he had support from millions of Iranians around the world. He also cautioned against the US finding an ally within the current regime, warning it would not bring about the change the US has sought.
His remarks were met with raucous applause from a CPAC crowd that included hundreds of Iranian monarchists living in the US. The Iranian diaspora has made its presence felt throughout the three-day gathering, chanting in the convention center halls, sometimes arm-in-arm with the overwhelmingly pro-Trump crowd, and cheering on speakers who support toppling the regime.
When Pahlavi left the stage to a standing ovation, half the room cleared out. “That was a tough act to follow,” National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, who was the next speaker, remarked.
A month since the start of the war with Iran, thousands of people have been reported killed
It has now been exactly a month since the US and Israel launched the war with Iran, sparking a conflict that has engulfed the Middle East. It has killed thousands, according to a CNN tally of death tolls released by regional authorities.
Here’s what those authorities have said about the number of people reportedly killed in the Middle East since the war began on February 28. CNN is not able to independently verify these numbers.
- Iran: At least 1,900 people have been killed in attacks on Iran since February 28, the Iranian Red Crescent reported yesterday. On March 16, Iran’s foreign minister said “hundreds of Iranian civilians,” including more than 200 children, had been killed since the conflict began.
- Lebanon: At least 1,189 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in the country since March 2, Lebanon’s health ministry said in an update today. At least 124 children are among those killed, it said.
- Iraq: At least 99 people have been killed across Iraq since the war began, authorities have said. In the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region, at least 13 people have been killed, according to the regional government.
- Israel: Some 19 civilians have been killed inside Israel since the conflict began, not including those who died indirectly because of strikes. Four Israeli soldiers have also been killed in South Lebanon, according to the Israeli military.
- USA: Thirteen US service members have been killed since the US war with Iran began a month ago, according to the US Central Command.
Dozens of people have also been killed in other countries in the region since the conflict began. Deaths because of the conflict have been reported in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, the occupied West Bank, Oman, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia since February 28, according to local authorities.
CNN’s Issy Ronald, Charbel Mallo, Aqeel Najim, Nechirvan Mando, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Dana Karni, Eugenia Yosef, Oren Liebermann, Tal Shalev, Tamar Michaelis, and Zachary Cohen contributed to this reporting.
This post has been updated with additional information.
More US troops arrive in the Mideast. Here's the latest
Thousands of US sailors and Marines arrived in the Middle East today, US Central Command announced in a post on X, as the Pentagon weighs its next steps in the war a month after it started.
It is unclear where exactly the troops are going, but speculation is mounting they may be assigned to take Iran’s Kharg Island.
If you’re just tuning in, here are some of today’s other headlines:
- Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched a second missile toward Israel, hours after a first attack that marked the group’s entry into the Iran war, an Israeli security source told CNN.
- Authorities battled a massive blaze at Kuwait International Airport after a drone attack hit fuel tanks there, the Kuwaiti army said.
- CNN geolocated several videos which show damaged buildings at an engineering university in Tehran after it was struck overnight.
- Falling debris from a missile interception injured 11 people and damaged several buildings in Eshtaol, central Israel, according to the country’s national emergency service.
- The residence of the president of Iraqi Kurdistan was targeted in an attack, according to the prime minister’s media office.
- A major global aluminum company reported its smelter site suffered “significant damage” from Iranian missile and drone attacks on Abu Dhabi.
CNN’s Kaanita Iyer, Dana Karni, Farida Elsebai, Issy Ronald, Catherine Nicholls, Nechirvan Mando, Mostafa Salem, Brad Lendon and Eyad Kourdi contributed to this report.
Drone strike hits Kuwait airport fuel tanks, sparking major fire
Authorities were battling a massive blaze at Kuwait International Airport today after a drone attack hit fuel tanks there, the Kuwaiti army said.
Dramatic footage shows flames and thick black smoke billowing from the area around the airport, while firefighters worked to contain the blaze. Their efforts appeared to last for hours, as some of the footage was filmed in daylight and some last night.
The strike caused significant damage to the airport’s radar system, Kuwait’s army added, though no casualties were reported.
The country’s air defenses detected 15 drones over the past 24 hours, some of which targeted the airport.
Iranian-linked drones have repeatedly attacked the country’s main international airport during the US-Israel war with Iran, leaving several people injured and causing damage to the passenger terminal, according to Kuwaiti authorities.
Houthi rebels fire second missile at Israel
Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched a second missile toward Israel, hours after the first which saw them enter the Iran war, an Israeli security source told CNN Saturday.
The Iran-backed rebel movement fired a cruise missile at Israel, according to the source.
Both missiles were intercepted and no injuries or damage was caused, according to the security official.
Announcing the initial attack, the Houthis said they had lauched a “barrage of ballistic missiles targeting sensitive Israeli military sites” in what could prove a fresh headache for energy markets.
During a televised speech later, Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree claimed responsibility for the second attack and vowed the group would continue military operations in the coming days.
The rebel movement previously disrupted shipping lanes around the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea in support of Hamas following the attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023.
What Houthi involvement in the war could mean for global shipping
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels announced their entry into the Iran war after launching ballistic missiles toward Israel Saturday.
CNN’s Jim Sciutto explains what this could mean for key shipping routes in the region:
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels announced their entry into the Iran war and said they launched ballistic missiles against Israel on Saturday. CNN's Jim Sciutto explains what this could mean for key shipping routes in the region.
Remember: In late 2023, Iran-backed Houthi militants began attacking vessels in the Red Sea in retaliation for Israel’s war against Hamas. The security situation forced shipping companies to redirect their vessels around the southern tip of Africa, adding weeks onto journeys and forcing them to spend more on fuel, insurance and seafarers’ wages.
CNN’s Anna Cooban contributed to this report.
Major aluminum producer hit by Iranian strikes on Abu Dhabi
A major global aluminum company has reported that its smelter site suffered “significant damage” from Iranian missile and drone attacks on Abu Dhabi.
Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), the Middle East’s largest aluminum producer and the second-largest supplier to global markets, said a number of its employees were injured after the attack on the company’s Al Taweelah site.
“The safety and security of our people is our top priority at EGA at all times,” said Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, CEO of the company. “We are deeply saddened and are assessing the damage to our facilities.”
EGA is responsible for about 4% of the world’s total aluminum production and nearly half of the aluminum produced in the Gulf region.
Tehran university campus hit overnight, geolocated videos show
CNN has geolocated several videos which show damaged buildings at an engineering university in Tehran after it was struck overnight.
One video filmed before sunrise on Saturday shows a research center at the Iran University of Science and Technology in ruins. The building appears to have been demolished with twisted metal, bricks and other debris littering the site. Nearby, another building is on fire.
Another verified video posted to social media later shows plumes of smoke rising from the rubble. The windows of an adjacent building also appear to have been damaged in the attack.
The university said US-Israeli strikes had damaged the building but there were no casualties. It condemned the attack, saying strikes on academic institutions were a violation of international law.
The university, located east of Tehran, was founded in 1929 as Iran’s first institution dedicated to training engineers.
CNN has reached out to the US and Israel for comment.
Separately in Israel on Thursday, the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology’s campus in Haifa was hit by falling shrapnel from an Iranian missile, it said. In a letter sent to students, the academic institution said there had been some minor damage to buildings but no injuries.
CNN’s Dana Karni contributed to this post.
