Mojtaba Khamenei chosen as Iran's next supreme leader, Iranian state media reports

He is the son of assassinated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israel strikes attack targeting military and government sites, officials said.

Iranian state television confirmed that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was among those killed by airstrikes in Tehran on the first day of strikes. His successor is yet to be named.

Iran is responding to the operation with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, regional U.S. bases and multiple Gulf nations. Israel is also intensifying its long-running strike campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

(Read previous Iran live updates here.)

Watch special coverage on Nightline, "War with Iran," each night on ABC and streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

Mar 04, 2026, 7:01 AM EST

Turkey says NATO intercepted missile fired from Iran

Turkey's Defense Ministry on Wednesday said in a statement posted to X that "a ballistic missile fired from Iran" was "engaged and neutralized by NATO air and missile defense elements deployed in the Eastern Mediterranean."

The missile overflew Iraq and Syria before being intercepted, the ministry said.

Mar 04, 2026, 7:01 AM EST

Israel bombards Beirut as IDF orders mass evacuation

Israeli strikes bombarded Lebanon's capital again on Wednesday morning, as the Israeli military issued a number of evacuation warnings for parts of Beirut and huge swathes of southern Lebanon.

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 4, 2026.
Ibrahim Amro/AFP via Getty Images

The strikes on Beirut were concentrated on the densely populated southern suburbs, including Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold.

In Hazmieh, another southern neighborhood of Beirut, the Comfort Hotel was struck without warning before dawn Wednesday, a local council member told ABC News, confirming what Lebanese state media had been reporting.

ABC News has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on the hotel strike.

The IDF on Wednesday also ordered all residents of southern Lebanon south of the Litani River -- which is around 18 miles north of the border with Israel -- to evacuate to the north.

The IDF said in a Wednesday post to X that it targeted "an underground Hezbollah weapon storage facility and additional command centers in Beirut."

-ABC News' Ghazi Balkiz, Morgan Winsor and Dorit Long

Mar 04, 2026, 6:48 AM EST

Khamenei mourning ceremony postponed, state media says

Iranian state television said that the mourning ceremony for Iran's slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei planned for Wednesday evening had been postponed and will be held later at a time yet to be announced.

A sign in tribute to Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is displayed on a street, after he was killed in Israeli and U.S. strikes on Saturday, in Tehran, Iran, March 4, 2026.
Majid Asgaripour/West Asia News Agency via Reuters

The announcement came after another wave of intense strikes targeting the capital Tehran.

-ABC News' Morgan Winsor

Mar 04, 2026, 6:05 AM EST

Hegseth, Caine to address reporters on Iran

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are scheduled to hold a press conference at 8 a.m. ET on Wednesday, the Department of Defense said in a statement.

U.S. Department of War logo is seen in this illustration taken March 1, 2026.
Dado Ruvic/Reuters

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