THE ongoing war between Iran, Israel and the United States entered its fifth day on Wednesday, March 3, with reported casualties mounting across the Middle East.
Fresh strikes are also widening the conflict beyond the original battle lines.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said that at least 787 people had been killed, including 165 schoolgirls and staff in a strike on a primary school in Minab, southern Iran, on the first day of the war.
It noted that it remained unclear whether the toll included members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
According to ambulance service Magen David Adom, ten civilians have been killed in Israel including nine in an Iranian missile strike on Beit Shemesh near Jerusalem on March 1. The Israel Defense Forces said it had reported no military casualties so far.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 50 people were killed in Israeli air strikes. An Israeli strike on Wednesday reportedly killed four people in a residential building.
The interior ministry of Bahrain said that one person was killed after a fire broke out in Salman Industrial City following a missile interception.
Kuwait Health and Foreign Ministries also said three people, including two soldiers, were killed in Iranian attacks.
In Oman, authorities said one person died after a projectile struck the Marshall Islands–flagged tanker MKD VYOM off the coast of Muscat, while the United Arab Emirates Defence Ministry said three people were killed.
Similarly, the United States Central Command confirmed that six US service members were killed in a strike on a facility in Kuwait.
According to Reuters, the conflict has increasingly spilled into strategic energy and shipping corridors.
Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s oil giant, confirmed that its Ras Tanura complex, home to its largest domestic refinery, was struck again by a drone on Wednesday. The facility was shut on Monday after a previous drone attack. Saudi authorities said an initial assessment found no damage from Wednesday’s strike.
US President Donald Trump said American ships could begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, raising the prospect of direct US naval involvement in protecting commercial shipping.
Meanwhile, Syria’s Land and Sea Ports Authority announced it was closing its border crossing with Lebanon after receiving warnings that Israel might target the crossing. Arrivals remain open to allow Syrians fleeing Lebanon to enter.
Air-raid sirens continued to sound across parts of Israel, warning of incoming Iranian missiles, as both sides exchanged further strikes.
Iran to soon name new supreme leader
Amid the escalating war, Iran is reportedly close to naming a successor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the body responsible for selecting the Supreme Leader, told state television that a decision was near.
“The Supreme Leader will be identified in the closest opportunity. We are close to a conclusion, however the situation in the country is a war situation,” he said.
Iranian sources said among the figures seen as a potential successor is Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, noting that the 55-year-old Mojtaba had survived the ongoing US-Israeli assault.
A mid-ranking cleric holding the rank of Hojjatoleslam Mojtaba has never held formal government office but is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures within Iran’s clerical establishment. According to analysts and diplomatic sources, over the past two decades, he has cultivated close ties with the Revolutionary Guards.
The US Treasury Department sanctioned Mojtaba in 2019, accusing him of representing his father in an official capacity and working closely with senior commanders of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force and the Basij militia.
Khamenei’s possible successor remains controversial in Iran, where critics reject any suggestion of dynastic rule in a republic born out of the 1979 revolution that overthrew a US-backed monarch. Mojtaba’s clerical rank is also seen by many as being low to earn him the position of Supreme Leader.
His prospects reportedly strengthened after former President Ebrahim Raisi, once seen as a leading contender for the role, died in a helicopter crash in 2024.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.