US submarine sinks Iranian warship with torpedo, as Pentagon says it will strike ‘deeper into Iran’
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US submarine sinks Iranian warship with torpedo, as Pentagon says it will strike ‘deeper into Iran’
BBC-March 4th2026
Edited by Alex Smith and Nathan Williams, with Wyre Davies and Alice Cuddy in Beirut and Tom Bateman at the Pentagon
Summary
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US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says a US submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean with a torpedo – the Pentagon has released footage of the strike
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It’s thought around 180 people were on board the Iris Dena – 32 were rescued, and Sri Lankan authorities tell the BBC 80 bodies have been found so far
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At the same news conference, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Dan Caine, says the US will strike “progressively deeper into Iranian territory”
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The UK is sending a warship to the eastern Mediterranean after attacks on a British base in Cyprus – but it is not expected to set off this week
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Meanwhile, Israel says it hit “security headquarters” across Tehran, as US-Israeli airstrikes continue in Iran
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“It’s getting worse and worse every day,” one man in Tehran tells the BBC. A three-day funeral ceremony for ex-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, due to start this evening, has been postponed
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Israel is also hitting Lebanon – we speak to the owner of a Lebanese hotel that was hit
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New attacks, apparently from Iran, have been reported in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, while Turkey says “Nato defences” shot down an Iranian missile
US-Israel attack on Iran was initiated due to two primary concerns – IDFpublished at 08:32
Lucy Williamson
Middle East correspondent, reporting from Tel Aviv
An Israeli military official says they understood from the political level three weeks before the war that they were heading into another confrontation with Iran.
He says the attack was initiated due to two primary concerns: Iran’s nuclear program being moved too deep underground to be reached by conventional means and a rapid increase in Iranian ballistic missile production.
Speaking to journalists, the military official, who asked not to be named, says the level of integration with the US military in this campaign was so high that up to 70% of the daily activities of the J5 (Planning & Cooperation) directorate are conducted in English to coordinate with their American counterparts.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff and US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are talking at least once every day, he says. Air-refueling was a key area of US assistance, he adds.
During the initial strike, the US and Israeli war rooms were synchronised in real-time to allow for immediate adjustments based on Iranian reactions, he says.
The official added that the IDF and the US deliberately projected an image that the Israeli military was standing down for the weekend, to catch Iran off guard.
“We released photos and information suggesting that IDF staff and senior command were ‘going home for Shabbat dinner’,” he says.
Iranian security chief asks Trump: ‘Does America still come first – or Israel?’published at 08:28
Image source,ReutersIran’s security chief Ali Larijani has warned US President Donald Trump the death of Ayatollah Khamenei “will exact a heavy price from you”, after the Iranian leader was killed in the US-Israel strikes on Iran.
In a post on X, Larijani says Trump “has dragged the American people into an unjust war with Iran”, after being “swayed” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “clowinsh antics”.
“Does America still come first – or Israel?” he asks.
As a reminder, the US and Israel launched widespread strikes on Iran on 28 February, and have since continued to target sites across the country.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the US knew there was going to be Israeli action, which meant the US had to act “pre-emptively” in the face of expected Iranian attacks on American forces.
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