Simon Browning
Transport correspondent

Image source, Reuters

The UK government announced previously that it had chartered a commercial flight to help British nationals leave the Middle East, it is scheduled to depart from Oman later on Wednesday at 23:00 local time, (19:00 GMT), with further expected in the coming days.

British Airways has told the BBC additional services from Oman to London scheduled for later this week have already sold out.

"Flights from Muscat on 5, 6 and 7 March are now fully booked," the airline says.

"We will continue to review the situation and if we are able to, we will add additional services."

Photos are coming in from airports across the world of families being reunited as flights across the Middle East continue to be disrupted by the conflict.

Thousands of flights have been cancelled across the region, according to flight tracking service Flightradar24, with hundreds of thousands of passengers affected.

Image source, PA Media

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has detected another launch of missiles from Iran towards Israel.

It urges those who receive a shelter notification to do so, and not to exit until they are told to do so.

A IDF statement adds that defence systems are working to intercept the missiles.

Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Hazmieh, Lebanon

The death toll from Israeli military action here in Lebanon has risen to 72, with 437 injured since Monday, according to the latest figures from the health ministry.

It comes as hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah continue to escalate.

Explosions of Israeli air strikes have rung out in the capital Beirut today, while the Israeli military has told people living in southern Lebanon to leave their homes immediately and move north.

The latest escalation comes after Hezbollah launched rockets and drones at Israel in response to the US and Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Israeli military has since launched air strikes and sent troops into the south of Lebanon, with tens of thousands of civilians forced to flee.

Hezbollah’s rocket fire in the early hours of Monday was the first such action from the group since a November 2024 ceasefire that formally ended 13 months of war. Israel had continued to carry out near-daily strikes on Lebanon, which it said were aimed at Hezbollah targets.

Lebanese Social Affairs minister Haneen Sayed says 20 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon today, according to reports from news agency Reuters and in local media.

Sayed is currently giving a news conference alongside Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

Imogen James
Live reporter

Israel expands military action:

• The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon has told the BBC that the Israeli military has entered several Lebanese villages near the Blue Line, the UN-demarcated boundary between Lebanon and Israel
• In a military update, Israel said it has dropped more than 5,000 munitions on Iran since the beginning of the conflict on Saturday - and its operations there have a particular emphasis on the Tehran area

United States sinks Iranian ship:

• US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the US has sunk an Iranian ship in the Indian Ocean, off Sri Lanka, using a torpedo
• Around 140 people were on board. Eighty bodies have been found, the BBC has been told. The Pentagon has released footage of the strike
• Hegseth said "more and larger waves are coming". It's a chest-thumping, openly belligerent statement, our US State Department correspondent writes

In Iran:

• Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian tells neighbouring Gulf countries that Iran had "no choice" but to respond to US and Israeli attacks
• It's difficult to reach Iranians due to internet blackouts, but one man told the BBC he fears a longtime war
• The Israel Defense Forces reported this afternoon that Iran had launched more missiles at the country

UK warship faces delayed arrival in Mediterranean:

• Royal Navy warship HMS Dragon, which is being sent to Cyprus to bolster security, isn't expected to arrive until next week. While two helicopters will arrive sooner
• The UK is expecting US bombers to use British bases at Diego Garcia and RAF Fairford in the coming days

In the lead up to the 28 February strikes on Iran, US President Donald Trump and his administration signalled that an attack was imminent.

Since then, the president and his top officials have offered varying explanations for its actions in the war with Iran.

The BBC's Analysis Editor Ros Atkins takes an in-depth look at how the Trump administration's narrative on the war with Iran has shifted, and the key questions that remain unanswered.

The US says it has "struck or sunk to the bottom of the ocean more than 20 ships" from Iran.

The update from the US Central Command, a subsection of the US Department of Defense, comes shortly after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said a US submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean with a torpedo.

Sri Lankan authorities say 32 people have been rescued, and an official has told the BBC that the bodies of 80 people have been found on board the Iris Dena.

Image source, Iran's Presidential website/WANA/Reuters

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian tells neighbouring Gulf countries that Iran had "no choice" but to respond to US and Israeli attacks.

After the US and Israel launched a campaign of strikes on Iran on 28 February, Iran has responded by firing hundreds of missiles and drones at its Arab neighbours.

This has included targeting US military bases and civilian and energy infrastructure in Gulf states - including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman.

In a post on X, Pezeshkian tells the neighbouring countries that Iran has strived "with your assistance" to avoid a war.

But, he adds, that the US-Israel attacks left Iran with "no choice but to defend ourselves".

The Iranian president says he respects the sovereignty of his neighbours and that he believes peace in the region "must be ensured by the countries of the region"

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 thatthe 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.

Image source, Reuters

Iran'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.

Samantha Granville
Reporting from Beirut

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), tells the BBC that the Israeli military has entered several Lebanese villages near the Blue Line, the UN-demarcated boundary between Lebanon and Israel.

The peacekeeping force did not immediately provide details on the scale or duration of the incursions.

The Blue Line is the unofficial border between Lebanon and Israel. It was drawn up by the United Nations in 2000 after Israel withdrew troops and ended a 22-year presence in southern Lebanon.

Jessica Parker
Reporting from Cyprus

As Jonathan Beale reported earlier, a British warship is expected to head to the eastern Mediterranean next week, after a British base in Cyprus came under attack.

Here on the island, people didn’t expect to find themselves in focus over a sudden, escalating war in the Middle East. But the drone strike on RAF Akrotiri has left people - Cypriot and British alike - feeling exposed.

We’ve met taxi drivers who refuse to go to the Akrotiri peninsula, while British families, who’ve had to leave RAF Akrotiri (or ‘Aki’ as it’s known) are waiting to hear if and when it will be safe to go back.

For now, they are living in temporary accommodation.

It’s also fair to say that not everyone in Cyprus is alarmed - daily life largely goes on. But this is an island on alert.

Image source, Reuters

Air dominance gives US freedom to deploy larger bomberspublished at 16:00 GMT

16:00 GMT

Chris Partridge
BBC News weapons analyst

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's claim that "more and larger waves are coming" tallies with an earlier assessment given by Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command which controls American operations in the Middle East.

"Our B-2 bombers and B-1 bombers have executed uncontested surgical strikes against multiple missile facilities deep inside Iran," he said.

"And then just last night a B-52 bomber force struck ballistic missile and command & control posts."

So with Iran’s air defences now seemingly completely down, and its air force redundant, the need for stealth aircraft reduces.

This means larger bombers - specifically the B-52 with its greater payload - can strike more targets deeper into Iranian territory with impunity.

Iran has responded with more than 500 ballistic missile attacks, Cooper said.

We don’t know the exact number Tehran has - but a senior US General in 2022 put it at more than 3,000 - and that excludes the country’s cruise missile capability.

New satellite imagery shows extensive damage in Tehranpublished at 15:49 GMT

15:49 GMT

By Paul Brown

BBC Verify has reviewed satellite imagery from Tehran showing extensive damage to key buildings across the Iranian capital.

The imagery, captured by intelligence firm Vantor, shows strikes have been carried out on government facilities such as the intelligence ministry and presidential complex, which has a large plume of smoke visible rising from it.

There are also signs of extensive damage to the Islamic Republic Revolutionary Guard's headquarters in the north of the city, where several buildings have been flattened or damaged.

As well as government and military sites, the imagery also shows damage in the vicinity of Gandhi hospital in northern Tehran, where a crater is visible and a large transmission tower appears to have collapsed.

On Monday we verified video showing the apparent evacuation of children from the hospital, with considerable damage evident to the building's main facade.

Orla Guerin
Senior international correspondent, northern Iraq

Image source, Matthew Goddard/BBC

Iran is stepping up its attacks on Kurdish Iranian opposition groups at their bases in northern Iraq - amid speculation that Donald Trump wants these groups to join the fight inside Iran.

We have been to the scene of attacks at bases belonging to two separate opposition groups.

One base was hit by an Iranian ballistic missile at around 11:00 local time, injuring four Kurdish Peshmerga fighters. One died later from his injuries.

At the scene the missile had gouged a hole in the ground. One building had been crushed, and we saw rubble and twisted metal strewn over a wide area.

At another base - of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) - we saw the charred aftermath of a double drone strike yesterday, which we were told injured one civilian.

A senior political leader of the KDPI told us he believed that the Kurds would be fighting in Iran soon, but did not give an exact timeline. He would not comment on reports that President Donald Trump has spoken to the KDPI leader in recent days.

A fighter called Hassan, 25, armed with an AK 47, said he was eager to go to Iran to fight for freedom and for his nation.

"We are closer than ever," he told us.

Image source, Matthew Goddard/BBC

James Waterhouse
Reporting from the Turkey-Iran border

Image source, Maarten Lernout/BBC

The Iranian flag at the Razi border crossing in Iran, into Turkey, has been replaced with a black one.

This is presumably to mark the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Image source, Maarten Lernout/BBC

Image source, Reuters

We're seeing photos of people near an Iranian missile, which has fallen in Qamishli, a city in north-eastern Syria, near Turkey, according to the Turkish defence ministry.

It's not known exactly when the missile came down. But earlier, Turkey said Nato air defences shot down an Iranian missile heading to their air space.

Image source, Reuters

Azadeh Moshiri
South Asia correspondent

It’s difficult to reach anyone in Iran right now amid internet blackouts, but one resident in his forties managed to send messages today.

Amir is not his real name - he has asked us to conceal his identity as he fears reprisals from the Islamic regime for speaking to media.

The moment he heard the bombing in Tehran, he fled the capital. He tells me he feels hopeful for the future, because until now he felt “locked under Khamenei’s rule”.

“But I fear a longtime war which destroys Iran’s infrastructure," he says.

Amir says younger Iranians he’s spoken to the last few days are worried about the Islamic regime surviving the war. “They fear the aftermath should they live again under the mullahs' rule. It feels unimaginable for them and I understand that feeling”.

He adds: “They want a revolution”.

His older friends have other concerns and hope the war ends soon. “They earn money, they’re responsible for their families. They hope for change, but they’re afraid of a long war.”

The Pentagon has released footage of the moment a US torpedo struck an Iranian naval ship in the Indian Ocean.

Earlier, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US sank "an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters".

It's thought around 180 people were on board the Iris Dena - 32 have been rescued, and Sri Lankan authorities tell the BBC 80 bodies have been found so far.