The Pentagon on Wednesday said a US submarine had sunk an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, killing 87 sailors, while several other sailors were unaccounted for off the coast of Sri Lanka.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the strike. "An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo," Hegseth told reporters, touting the strike as evidence of America's global reach in its war on Iran.

Sri Lankan authorities said 32 crew members from the frigate IRIS Dena had been rescued. Hospital authorities in the Sri Lankan port city of Galle said 87 bodies were brought in by military rescuers who responded to an early morning distress call. About 60 people were likely unaccounted for from an estimated 180 people on board.

Hegseth described the attack as a "quiet death" and said it marked the first time since World War II that the United States had sunk an enemy ship using a torpedo. "Like in that war," he said, "we are fighting to win."

The Pentagon said one of the primary objectives of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran, launched on Saturday, is to neutralise Iran's naval capabilities.

The frigate issued a distress call at dawn on Wednesday, and within less than an hour, a rescue vessel reached the area about 40 kilometres south of the southern port of Galle, the minister said. It had completely sunk and only an oil patch remained when the navy rescue boats approached.

This sinking comes as war has broken out in West Asia, after Israel and the United States launched strikes against Iran.

The escalating conflict has left hundreds dead across multiple countries, with Iran reporting the highest toll at 787 fatalities. Civilian and military casualties have also been confirmed in Israel, Lebanon and several Gulf nations, including the deaths of six US service members in Kuwait.

NATO shoots down Iran missile
Turkey said that NATO air defences destroyed an Iranian ballistic missile headed into Turkish airspace on Wednesday, marking the first time the alliance member has been drawn into the Middle East conflict and raising the possibility of a major expansion involving its bloc allies.

Turkey- Iran's neighbour that had sought to mediate US-Iran talks before the air war that began at the weekend- warned "all parties to refrain from actions that would lead to further escalation," suggesting it was not poised to call upon the trans-Atlantic defence bloc for support.

But Ankara could potentially invoke NATO's Article 4 after the airspace breach if it deemed the threat serious enough, a step that could lead to the alliance's Article 5, which would oblige members to come to its defence.

It was unclear where the missile was headed. NATO condemned Iran's targeting of Turkey, which has the bloc's second-largest military, and said it stood firmly with all allies.

Meanwhile, two drones were shot down on Wednesday evening near Baghdad's international airport, hours after a similar attack on the facility. The airport includes a military base that hosts a US diplomatic facility and previously housed US-led coalition troops.

Iraq's electricity ministry said that the entire country had been affected by a total power outage, without identifying the cause. "The power grid has completely shut down across all Iraqi provinces," the ministry said, according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA). It added that it was looking to determine the cause of the blackout and had begun restoring power stations and transmission lines. Parts of the country have come under repeated attack since the war between Israel, the US and Iran broke out.

The US, meanwhile, has urged its citizens in Iraq to evacuate immediately.

US strikes nearly 2000 targets
The United States military has struck nearly 2,000 targets inside Iran in what officials described as the region’s largest firepower buildup in a generation, a top American commander said Tuesday. Admiral Brad Cooper of US Central Command said in a video message that US forces had used more than 2,000 munitions, severely degrading Iran’s air defences and destroying hundreds of ballistic missiles, launchers and drones. He added that the first 24 hours of the operation were nearly double the scale of the opening day of the 2003 Iraq war and that round-the-clock strikes were continuing.

Hezbollah targets Haifa naval base
Lebanon-based Hezbollah said it fired a barrage of “high-quality missiles” at Israel’s Haifa naval base at 8.00 pm local time Tuesday, describing the attack as retaliation for Israeli strikes on its strongholds. The Israeli military said it detected several incoming projectiles and intercepted most of them.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for 13 attacks on Israel during the day, including strikes on at least five Israeli tanks using guided missiles. The group also reported launching attack drones and rocket salvos toward bases in northern Israel and the Golan Heights and said it downed an Israeli drone over the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh. It described the operations as a response to what it called Israeli aggression against dozens of Lebanese towns and cities.

Middle East on fire
Iran expanded retaliatory missile and drone attacks across the Middle East, targeting additional US facilities. Iranian strikes hit near the US consulate in Dubai, sparking a fire without causing casualties, and targeted the Al-Udeid air base in Qatar.

The attacks followed earlier strikes on US diplomatic and military sites in Riyadh, Kuwait City and Bahrain, prompting Washington to order evacuations of diplomatic personnel. Islamic Revolutionary Guard General Ebrahim Jabbari warned that Iran would strike economic centres across the region if its own key sites were attacked.

Across the region, the conflict disrupted civilian life and air travel. Qatar said it intercepted missiles targeting Hamad International Airport in Doha, while Oman reported drone attacks on the port of Duqm. In the United Arab Emirates, debris from an intercepted drone caused a fire at an oil storage and trading zone, authorities said.

With global energy prices rising, US President Donald Trump said the US Navy was prepared to escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic Gulf chokepoint that Iran has threatened to block.

Israel expands strikes in Lebanon and Iran
Israel intensified its campaign, announcing it had begun “simultaneous strikes in Tehran and Beirut” and had hit about 60 targets linked to Hezbollah and Hamas. Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had authorised the Israel Defense Forces to take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon to prevent attacks on Israeli border communities.

The military also confirmed deploying troops to parts of southern Lebanon in what it called a forward defence move. Israeli air raids continued to pound Beirut’s southern suburbs for a second consecutive day after evacuation warnings were issued, with large plumes of smoke seen rising over the capital.

Hezbollah said Israel targeted the Beirut headquarters of its Al-Manar television channel overnight and later struck the offices of Al-Nour radio. The group condemned the attacks as attempts to silence what it called civilian media outlets.

Elsewhere in Lebanon, the southern city of Sidon was hit twice, including a strike on a headquarters belonging to Jamaa Islamiya, an Islamist group allied with Hamas and Hezbollah. Areas around Tyre were also bombed following evacuation warnings.

Lebanese authorities reported that more than 58,000 people had been displaced from affected areas, while the United Nations put the displacement figure above 30,000 with dozens reported dead.

Too late for talks: Trump
Trump said Iran had sought to resume nuclear talks but insisted it was “too late”, claiming that US and Israeli strikes had knocked out most of Iran’s military capabilities and killed potential successor leaders.

Iranian media reported that strikes hit a building in the holy city of Qom linked to the committee responsible for selecting a new supreme leader, a day after attacks on its main headquarters in Tehran. Explosions continued to rock Tehran, where images showed damage at Mehrabad airport and Israeli forces reported striking an underground facility allegedly linked to nuclear weapons development.

Iran’s foreign ministry said the UN Security Council had a duty to intervene to halt the conflict, even as Tehran vowed to impose economic costs on its adversaries.

Casualties

• Iran: 787 people killed, including 165 schoolgirls and staff killed in a missile strike on a primary school in Minab in the country’s south on the war’s first day, according to the non-profit humanitarian group Iranian Red Crescent Society. It was unclear if the death toll included Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military casualties.
• Israel: 10 civilians killed, including nine people in an Iranian missile strike on Beit Shemesh near Jerusalem on March 1, according to Israel’s ambulance service Magen David Adom. The Israel Defense Forces has reported no military casualties.
• Lebanon: 50 people killed in Israeli strikes, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
• Bahrain: One person killed after a fire broke out in Bahrain’s Salman Industrial City following a missile interception, according to the interior ministry.
• Kuwait: Three people, including two Kuwaiti soldiers, killed in Iranian attacks on the country, according to Kuwait’s health and foreign ministries.
• Oman: One person killed after a projectile hit the Marshall Islands–flagged product tanker MKD VYOM off the coast of Muscat.
• United Arab Emirates: Three people killed, according to the UAE’s defence ministry.
• US military: Six US service members were killed in a strike on a facility in Kuwait, according to US Central Command.

(With Reuters and AFP inputs)