LIVE: Iranian warship sunk following submarine attack off Sri Lanka

More than 100 Iranian sailors are missing and 78 have been injured after a warship sunk off Sri Lanka following an apparent submarine attack.

A major search and rescue operation is under way in the Indian Ocean today after IRIS Dena was hit by an ‘explosion’ around 25 miles south of the the island.

Sri Lankan politicians have refused to confirm what caused the warship to sink but a military source told Reuters that the ship was attacked by a submarine.

The source did not say whose submarine was used in the attack.

Both Sri Lanka’s navy and air force said they would not release footage of the rescue because it involved the military of another state.

Police stepped up security outside the Galle hospital as the wounded Iranians were brought there by the local navy.

It comes days after The US military said it had struck Iran’s largest naval warship following the launch of Trump’s ‘Operation Epic Fury.’

by Olivia Allhusen

Iran has threatened to strike ‘all economic centres’ across the Middle East, raising fears that global financial hubs like Dubai could be dragged deeper into the escalating conflict.

An Islamic Revolutionary Guard commander warned Tehran would retaliate if US and Israeli strikes continue, declaring Iran would target the region’s key commercial and economic hubs.

‘We are saying to the enemy that if it decides to hit our main centres, we will hit all economic centres in the region,’ Ebrahim Jabbari said in remarks broadcast on Iranian state media.

The warning came after a drone strike hit the car park of the US consulate in Dubai overnight, sparking a fire that was quickly extinguished.

Iran has announced a state funeral for supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei scheduled to take place in Tehran today has been postponed.

Iranian state television said the decision was made ‘in anticipation of unprecedented turnout’.

‘The farewell ceremony for the martyred Imam has been postponed. The new date will be announced later,’ Iranian television reported.

It comes as Israel continues to pound Tehran with airstrikes, unleashing its latest offensive earlier today in what it described as its ’10th wave’ of attacks

The funeral and three days of mourning comes after Khamenei was killed in US-Israeli strikes over the weekend

The US-Israel war in Iran is in its fifth day with more chaos unleashed in the Middle East as the countries continue to trade attacks.

Here’s everything you need to know:

• An Iranian warship has sunk off Sri Lanka in an apparent submarine attack which has left more than 100 sailors missing and 78 injured
• Israel has vowed to assassinate the successor to Iran’s former supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei whose funeral will take place in Tehran later today
• The Ayatollah’s son Mojtaba is reportedly lined up to take over from his father though he is not a high-ranking cleric and does not have an official role in the regime
• Israel has launched new attacks on Tehran and Lebanon with the military urging people to evacuate along the southern border as it targets Hezbollah militants
• Last night Iranian drones struck the US consulate in Dubai, causing it to catch fire while a missile also hit a US air base in Qatar
• Saudi Arabia has said its Ras Tanura oil refinery was targeted in an attempted drone strike just two days after it had to suspend operations because of a fire
• Iran has claimed it has ‘complete control’ of Strait of Hormuz despite Donald Trump indicating the US Navy was ready to escort oil tankers through the passage
• Trump also mocked Sir Keir Starmer whom he called ‘no Winston Churchill’ in a major blow to the US-UK Special Relationship

The United Arab Emirates and Qatar separately said they had intercepted drone and missile barrages as Iran pressed its campaign targeting its neighbours into a fifth day.

The UAE’s ministry of defence said its air defences ‘successfully engaged today (March 4, 2025) with 3 ballistic missiles and detected 129 drones, of which 121 drones were intercepted while 8 fell on state territory’.

Qatar’s military said it was targeted ‘at dawn today, by 10 drones and 2 cruise missiles coming from the Islamic Republic of Iran,’ with all of the projectiles intercepted by its forces.

France’s president has joined Spain in condemning US and Israeli strikes on Iran, branding them illegal.

In a televised address on Tuesday evening, Emmanuel Macron declared the attacks were ‘outside the bounds of international law.’

He is the second Western leader to question the legality of the conflict after Spain’s Pedro Sanchez warned that strikes from the US and Israel risked bringing about a ‘more uncertain and hostile international order.’

The French leader also said he had ordered his country’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and fleet to the Mediterranean and a frigate to Cyprus to ramp up military support in the region.

He added that Rafale fighter jets, air defence systems and airborne radar systems have been deployed over the Middle East.

Cruise line passengers who are trapped in ports in the Gulf ‘danced around the pool’ while suicide drone bombardment took place overhead, the Daily Mail reveals today.

Passengers and crews have been confined to their ships after escalating hostilities raised fears over safety in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most vital shipping lanes.

Darren Lee, from Manchester, is currently stuck with his family, including a 12-year-old son, on MSC Euribia in Dubai and is among thousands of cruise passengers scattered across at least six docked ships as they await news.

The father-of-two explained that despite the ship being surrounded by ‘booms’ as Iranian drones were intercepted, some people ‘carried on with their life as if nothing was happening’ and ‘danced outside around the pool’.

Israel has declared it shot down an Iranian fighter jet in the world’s first downing of its kind.

The IDF announced one of its F-35 warplanes brought down an Iranian Air Force YAK-130 plane over Tehran earlier today.

According to the military, it marked the first time a manned fighter jet had been shot down by an F-35.

The IDF said on X: ‘An Israeli Air Force F-35I recently shot down an Iranian fighter jet (YAK-130) over Tehran. This is the world’s first downing of a manned fighter jet by an F-35.’

It comes as Israel launches its 10th wave of airstrikes on Tehran today while the Israeli government has vowed to assassinate Iran’s new supreme leader as clerics decide who will succeed Ayatollah Khamenei.

An ambulance enters Sri Lanka’s naval HQ in Galle

by Sabrina Prenty

At least 101 people are missing, and 78 more are wounded after a submarine attack on an Iranian ship off Sri Lanka’s coast.

Sri Lanka’s defence ministry said that it was searching for the other crew of the IRIS Dena, which went down about 25 miles south of the island.

No information was immediately available on the cause of the explosion that sank the vessel, but Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Vajitha Herath told parliament that the injured sailors were taken to a hospital in the island’s south.

The 180-crew frigate had issued a distress call at dawn.

‘We are keeping up a search, but we don’t know yet what happened to the rest of the crew,’ an official told AFP, dimming prospects for finding any more survivors.

Herath said two Sri Lankan navy vessels and an aircraft were deployed for the rescue operation, but did not say what caused the Iranian warship to sink.

Crude oil storage tanks at the Ras Tanura oil refinery

Saudi Arabia has today intercepted a drone targeting its massive Ras Tanura refinery in an attempted attack.

The incident comes following an earlier hit on the major oil complex along its Gulf coast which has the capacity to produce up to 550,000 barrels per day.

‘Initial estimates indicate that the attack was carried out by a drone and did not result in any damage,’ the ministry said in a statement posted on X.

On Monday, some operations at the Ras Tanura refinery were halted following an attack that caused a fire at the complex.

The Ras Tanura facility along the kingdom’s eastern Gulf coast is home to one of the largest refineries in the entire Middle East and a cornerstone of the kingdom’s energy sector.

by Perkin Amalaraj

Iran has showed off a sprawling underground network of tunnels filled with row after row of drones and rockets, amid fears the US and its allies are burning through expensive weaponry in their war against the regime.

Footage released by the Fars News Agency, which is closely linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, shows long lines of missiles and Shahed drones.

With a ticking clock playing in the background, the propagandistic video used dramatic drone footage to show off the extent of their cheap arsenal.

One shot appeared to show a wall-to-wall hanging depicting the now-dead Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei looking out over the massive arsenal of drones.

A series of Iranian flags were seen hanging down from the roof of the tunnels, which appear to have been hewn from rock deep beneath the earth.

Another showed a pair of lorries carrying Shahed drone launchers, each one holding four of the cheap drones.

by Mark Nicol

Gulf states facing an Iranian drone blitz may only have enough anti-drone defence missiles to last four days.

In a tactic that has surprised the US and its allies, Iran has responded to attempts to force regime change by raining down missiles and drones on its neighbours.

By spreading strikes across more than five countries at once and sustaining over 2,500 drones per day, Tehran is forcing its adversaries to divide their defences.

A source told the Daily Mail: ‘At the current rates the supplies could run out within four days. The interceptors are being used at an unprecedented speed.’

The vast majority of Iranian projectiles have been blocked, but only a few need to breach the defences of Gulf nations to change the perception of the conflict.