State Department tells Americans worldwide to 'exercise increased caution'

The war entered its fourth week on Saturday.

ByKevin Shalvey, Jon Haworth, Nadine El-Bawab, and Meredith Deliso
Last Updated: March 22, 2026, 8:29 PM EDT

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.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was among those killed in Tehran on the first day of strikes and his son Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen to succeed him. Iran is responding with missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, regional U.S. bases and multiple Gulf nations. Iran is also attempting to block some shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

Israel is also intensifying its long-running strike campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

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

Key Headlines

Here's how the news is developing.
Mar 16, 2026, 9:30 AM EDT

Displaced Lebanese can't return until northern Israel residents are safe, Israel says

After the Israel Defense Forces on Monday announced a "limited and targeted" ground operation in southern Lebanon, Israel's Ministry of Defense said that "hundreds of thousands of Shiite residents of South Lebanon who have been evacuated” cannot “return to their homes south of the Litani region until the safety of the residents of the north is guaranteed."

An Israeli self-propelled howitzer artillery gun fires rounds towards southern Lebanon from a position in the upper Galilee in northern Israel near the border, March 15, 2026.
Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images

Over 831,000 Lebanese people have registered themselves as internally displaced, with 130,715 of them in shelters, according to the country's Disaster Management Unit.

Since the war began, 850 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 105 children and 66 women, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Mar 16, 2026, 5:01 AM EDT

Fire burns after drone attack in Fujairah, UAE, officials said

A large fire caused by a drone strike was burning the area near the Fujairah Petroleum Industries in the United Arab Emirates, according to a statement by Fujairah media office on Monday.

Satellite image shows smoke rising from UAE's Fujairah port, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, March 15, 2026.
NASA Worldview via Reuters

No casualties were reported, authorities said. Civil Defense teams in the emirate were responding to the incident, the statement added.

-ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian and Lama Hasan

Mar 16, 2026, 4:54 AM EDT

Iran's internet blackout enters 17th day, tracker says

The near-total internet blackout in Iran entered its 17th day on Monday as it passed 384 hours, according to NetBlocks, a web monitoring organization.

"Over the last day a decline has been tracked in reserved telecoms network infrastructure, further reducing VPN availability and sending some whitelisted users and NIN services offline," NetBlocks said in an update.

Mar 16, 2026, 4:49 AM EDT

Israel destroys former ayatollah’s plane, IDF says

Israel on Monday said its military had destroyed a plane formerly used by Ali Khamenei, the late supreme leader, and other senior Iranian officials.

"The destruction of this plane damages the Iranian terrorist regime's leadership coordination capabilities with the Axis countries, the process of strengthening military capabilities, and the regime's ability to rebuild," the IDF said on social media.

The plane had been at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport, the IDF said.

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