Updated on: Mar 18, 2026 8:10:10 AM IST
US Iran war: The killing of Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani prompted Tehran to launch a barrage of missiles at Israel.
US Iran war LIVE updates: Iran on Wednesday launched missiles carrying cluster warheads at Israel in retaliation for the killing of its security chief, Ali Larijani, who Tehran’s state media said was “martyred in the ongoing American-Israeli aggression” against the Islamic Republic. Along with Larijani, his son, Mortaza Larijani, and Alireza Bayat, the deputy for national security, were also killed in the strikes.
Before Iran’s confirmation of Larijani’s killing, Israeli defence minister Israel Katz had announced that the Iranian security chief had been “eliminated” in an overnight raid that also killed General Gholam Reza Soleimani, the commander of the country’s paramilitary Basij unit.
On the Iranian officials’ deaths, Trump said, “Their leaders are gone. It’s an evil group.”
Meanwhile, the United States said late Tuesday that it hit Iranian missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz with “multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator munitions”. The US Central Command said that the Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles in these sites “posed a risk to international shipping in the strait”.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran informed the global nuclear watchdog that a projectile hit the premises of its Bushehr nuclear power plant on Tuesday evening.
India-flagged oil tanker reaches India
A second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached India early on Tuesday after sailing safely from the Strait of Hormuz warzone. The tanker reached Gujarat’s Kandla port at around 2:30am on Tuesday morning, the government confirmed.
The first ship, Shivalik, had reached Gujarat’s Mundra port on Monday.
The two ships were reportedly carrying about 97, 712 tonnes of LPG – equivalent to a day’s requirement of cooking gas in India.
The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways also said that efforts were underway to ensure the safe passage of the remaining 22 Indian-flagged vessels, carrying 611 seafarers, which are still stranded in the Strait of Hormuz. The ministry said the Directorate General of Shipping (DG Shipping) is closely monitoring operations in coordination with shipowners, agencies and Indian embassies.
Global crisis and oil prices
Oil prices surged as Iran confirmed the death of its security chief, Ali Larijani, as the US-Israel-Iran war further intensified and escalated the tensions across the Middle East region.
The US benchmark West Texas Intermediate traded near $96 per barrel, after surging almost 3 per cent on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Brent settled above $103, Bloomberg reported.
Trump’s National Counterterrorism chief resigns
US President Donald Trump is facing an internal crisis, with backlash from within his country over the strikes and war against Iran. Latest in the series is the resignation of Joe Kent, the head of the US National Counterterrorism Centre, who advised Trump on “terror” threats. Kent said Iran “posed no imminent threat” to the US, asserting that Washington “started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby”.
Trump reacted to Kent’s resignation and called it a “good thing that he’s out because he said that Iran was not a threat”. He called Kent a “nice guy”, who he said was “very weak on security”.
Israel strikes Lebanon
Israeli strikes reportedly hit central Beirut and the city’s southern suburbs early on Wednesday, with the Lebanese media reporting that the raids came without warning.
One strike hit an apartment in the central Zuqaq al-Blat neighbourhood, where the Israeli forces hit a Beirut branch of the Hezbollah-linked financial firm Al-Qard Al-Hassan last week.
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Before Iran’s confirmation of Larijani’s killing, Israeli defence minister Israel Katz had announced that the Iranian security chief had been “eliminated” in an overnight raid that also killed General Gholam Reza Soleimani, the commander of the country’s paramilitary Basij unit.
On the Iranian officials’ deaths, Trump said, “Their leaders are gone. It’s an evil group.”
Meanwhile, the United States said late Tuesday that it hit Iranian missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz with “multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator munitions”. The US Central Command said that the Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles in these sites “posed a risk to international shipping in the strait”.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran informed the global nuclear watchdog that a projectile hit the premises of its Bushehr nuclear power plant on Tuesday evening.
India-flagged oil tanker reaches India
A second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached India early on Tuesday after sailing safely from the Strait of Hormuz warzone. The tanker reached Gujarat’s Kandla port at around 2:30am on Tuesday morning, the government confirmed.
The first ship, Shivalik, had reached Gujarat’s Mundra port on Monday.
The two ships were reportedly carrying about 97, 712 tonnes of LPG – equivalent to a day’s requirement of cooking gas in India.
The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways also said that efforts were underway to ensure the safe passage of the remaining 22 Indian-flagged vessels, carrying 611 seafarers, which are still stranded in the Strait of Hormuz. The ministry said the Directorate General of Shipping (DG Shipping) is closely monitoring operations in coordination with shipowners, agencies and Indian embassies.
Global crisis and oil prices
Oil prices surged as Iran confirmed the death of its security chief, Ali Larijani, as the US-Israel-Iran war further intensified and escalated the tensions across the Middle East region.
The US benchmark West Texas Intermediate traded near $96 per barrel, after surging almost 3 per cent on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Brent settled above $103, Bloomberg reported.
Trump’s National Counterterrorism chief resigns
US President Donald Trump is facing an internal crisis, with backlash from within his country over the strikes and war against Iran. Latest in the series is the resignation of Joe Kent, the head of the US National Counterterrorism Centre, who advised Trump on “terror” threats. Kent said Iran “posed no imminent threat” to the US, asserting that Washington “started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby”.
Trump reacted to Kent’s resignation and called it a “good thing that he’s out because he said that Iran was not a threat”. He called Kent a “nice guy”, who he said was “very weak on security”.
Israel strikes Lebanon
Israeli strikes reportedly hit central Beirut and the city’s southern suburbs early on Wednesday, with the Lebanese media reporting that the raids came without warning.
One strike hit an apartment in the central Zuqaq al-Blat neighbourhood, where the Israeli forces hit a Beirut branch of the Hezbollah-linked financial firm Al-Qard Al-Hassan last week.
Follow all the updates here:
Mar 18, 2026 8:10:10 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: Strait of Hormuz situation won’t return to ‘pre-war status’, says Tehran
US Iran war LIVE updates: Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf warned that the situation in the Strait of Hormuz will not return to its “pre-war state”.
“The Strait of Hormuz situation won’t return to its pre-war status,” his X post read.
His remarks come against the backdrop of the ongoing US-Iran war, which has majorly impacted the global oil flow.
Mar 18, 2026 8:06:33 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: Israel warns of strike on central Beirut area; urges residents to evacuate
US Iran war LIVE updates: The Israeli military warned of an imminent attack on central Beirut early on Wednesday and urged the residents to evacuate the neighbourhood.
In a statement on social media, the Israel Defense Force’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee issued “an urgent warning to residents of…Bashoura neighbourhood”, saying Israeli forces would operate against a Hezbollah facility there.
Mar 18, 2026 8:03:24 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: ‘War proceeding very well,’ says Trump
US Iran war LIVE updates: US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the ongoing US-Israeli military operation against Iran is going “very well”.
“The war is proceeding very well… We can’t let them have a nuclear weapon… They would have used it very gladly… We did a good job… Every time you see somebody with no legs, no arms, a face that’s been really so badly damaged, lives destroyed, 95% chance it came right out of Iran,” Trump said.
The US President said that it would take ten years for Iran to rebuild the damage it incurred.
Mar 18, 2026 8:01:15 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: Iranian projectile hits Australian airbase in UAE, says PM Albanese
US Iran war LIVE updates: Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said on Wednesday that an Iranian projectile struck near an Australian airbase in the United Arab Emirates, informing that no personnel were injured.
“There was minor damage to an accommodation block and a medical facility due to a small fire that was created as a result of that projectile hitting on a road leading up to that base,” Albanese told reporters in Tasmania.
Mar 18, 2026 7:57:43 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: Drone attack hits US embassy in Iraq
US Iran war LIVE updates: An explosion was reportedly heard in Baghdad early on Wednesday, with Iraqi officials reporting a drone and rocket attack targeting the US embassy.
The latest blast comes just hours after multiple blasts were heard across the Iraqi capital, where a witness told news agency AFP he saw detonations likely caused by air defences intercepting projectiles over the embassy.
Another witness reportedly saw a fire on the edge of the embassy grounds from her balcony, and a security official said the blaze was caused by a drone.
Mar 18, 2026 7:43:38 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: US plans to mass produce one-way LUCAS attack drones used in Iran war
US Iran war LIVE updates: The Trump administration is reportedly planning to mass-produce one-way LUCAS attack drones, which the US forces deployed in the ongoing war with Iran in the Middle East.
The LUCAS drone — or Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System — is a US version of Iran’s kamikaze drone, and is manufactured by the US company SpektreWorks, Bloomberg reported.
Mar 18, 2026 7:27:03 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: Iran rejects de-escalation proposal as Israeli strikes kill Larijani
US Iran war LIVE updates: As Israeli airstrikes killed Iranian security chief Ali Larijani, Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, rejected de-escalation offers conveyed to the foreign ministry for “reducing tensions or ceasefire with the US”.
Mojtaba said it was not “the right time for peace until the United States and Israel are brought to their knees, accept defeat, and pay compensation”.
Mar 18, 2026 7:16:37 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: Israel strikes central Beirut as Middle East conflict widens
US Iran war LIVE updates: Israeli strikes reportedly hit central Beirut and the city’s southern suburbs early on Wednesday, with Lebanese media reporting that the raids came without warning.
Mar 18, 2026 7:12:26 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: IAEA says Iran informed about strike in Bushehr nuclear plant’s premises
US Iran war LIVE updates: Global nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said it was informed by Iran that a projectile hit the premises of the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Tuesday evening.
Mar 18, 2026 7:10:26 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: US hits Iranian missile sites near Strait of Hormuz
The US military on Tuesday said it hit Iranian missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz with some of its most powerful bombs.
The US Central Command took to X and said, “US forces successfully employed multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator munitions on hardened Iranian missile sites along Iran’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz.”
“The Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles in these sites posed a risk to international shipping in the strait,” it added.
Mar 18, 2026 7:08:33 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: Tehran vows to avenge security chief Ali Larijani’s killing
US Iran war LIVE updates: Iranian army chief Amir Hatami on Wednesday vowed to avenge the killing of security chief Ali Larijani in an Israeli airstrike and threatened to launch a “decisive and regrettable retaliation”.
“Iran’s response to the assassination of the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council will be decisive and regrettable,” Hatami said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that it had launched missiles at central Israel “in revenge for the blood of martyr Dr Ali Larijani and his companions”.
Mar 18, 2026 7:03:07 AM IST
US Iran war LIVE updates: Tehran hits Israel with cluster warhead missiles
US Iran war LIVE updates: Iran on Wednesday hit Israel with missiles carrying cluster warheads in retaliation for the killing of its security chief Ali Larijani.
The missiles targeted Tel Aviv, with medics saying that two people were killed in the attack.
