Former American embassy in Tehran damaged in US-Israeli strikes

A tanker struck off Qatar was hit by two projectiles, one of which caused a fire that has since been extinguished, while the other remained unexploded in the vessel’s engine room, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said on Wednesday.

The vessel was hit about 17 nautical miles north of Qatar’s Ras Laffan industrial hub, sustaining damage above the waterline.

UKMTO said the crew was safe and no environmental impact had been reported.

The incident came amid growing threats to maritime traffic as the US-Israel conflict with Iran intensifies across the region. Kuwait said on Tuesday that one of its fully loaded oil tankers was targeted off Dubai, triggering a fire.

Messages sent to Iran International described explosions and fighter jet overflights across several Iranian cities early on Wednesday, including Amol, Shiraz, Aligoudarz, Ahvaz, Bushehr, Bandar Abbas, Chalus, Tehran and Kelardasht.

A message from Amol said repeated fighter jet overflights had been heard from Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning.

A resident in Chalus reported an explosion near Namak Abroud at around 5:30 a.m., while another in nearby Kelardasht said several fighter jets were heard flying over the city at about the same time.

In Shiraz, residents reported an attack on the Electronics Industries Complex and what they described as a heavy strike on industrial facilities at around 2:20 a.m. They said the explosions were followed by smoke and the smell of gunpowder across the city.

Several messages from Ahvaz said the Meraj IRGC base, Al-Hadid artillery site and the area around the airport had been targeted. Residents also reported a large explosion in the Sepidar area and several blasts near Chaharshir Square at around 4 a.m.

Residents in Bushehr, southern Iran, said the port authority had been targeted, while messages from Bandar Abbas said drones were heard flying near the city’s refinery.

A resident in Aligoudarz, in Lorestan province, said low-flying fighter jets roared over the city at 5:20 a.m., jolting people awake.

In Tehran, residents reported a possible missile strike in the Shian area, around eight explosions in the Pasdaran and Nobonyad districts, and three blasts in Narmak between 5:30 a.m. and 5:40 a.m. Heavy explosions were also reported in western parts of the capital, as well as in Malard and Mahdasht.

Reports from Tehran indicated particularly heavy strikes in the north and northeast of the city. Based on messages from residents, sites linked to the defense industry and the navy may have been hit in those areas.

The IRGC has blocked presidential appointments and decisions while erecting a security perimeter around the core of power, effectively sidelining the government from executive control.

Efforts by Masoud to appoint a new intelligence minister last Thursday collapsed under direct pressure from IRGC chief-commander Ahmad Vahidi, sources with knowledge of the situation told Iran International.

All proposed candidates, including Hossein Dehghan, were rejected. Vahidi is said to have insisted that, given wartime conditions, all critical and sensitive leadership positions must be selected and managed directly by the IRGC until further notice.

Under Iran’s political system, presidents have traditionally nominated intelligence ministers only after securing the approval of the Supreme Leader, who holds ultimate authority over key security portfolios.

However, with the condition and whereabouts of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei unclear in recent weeks, the IRGC is now effectively blocking the president from advancing its preferred candidate, further consolidating its grip over the state’s security apparatus.

Security cordon around Khamenei Jr.

Pezeshkian has repeatedly sought an urgent meeting with Mojtaba Khamenei in recent days, but all requests have gone unanswered, with no contact established.

Informed sources say a “military council” composed of senior IRGC officers now exercises full control over the core decision-making structure, enforcing a security cordon around Mojtaba Khamenei and preventing government reports on the country’s situation from reaching him.

Speculation has also emerged regarding whether Mojtaba Khamenei’s health condition may be contributing to the current power dynamics.

Efforts to remove Hejazi

At the same time, an unprecedented internal crisis is reportedly unfolding within Mojtaba Khamenei’s inner circle. Some close associates are said to be pushing to remove Ali Asghar Hejazi, a powerful security figure in the Supreme Leader’s office.

The tensions are rooted in Hejazi’s explicit opposition to Mojtaba Khamenei’s potential succession. He had previously warned members of the Assembly of Experts that Mojtaba lacks the necessary qualifications for leadership and argued that hereditary succession is incompatible with the principles outlined by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to informed sources.

Hejazi reportedly cautioned that elevating Mojtaba would effectively hand full control of the country to the IRGC and permanently sideline civilian institutions.

In the first week of the ongoing war, Israeli media reported that Hejazi had been targeted in an airstrike in Tehran. However, later reports indicated that he survived the attack.

Jafari, a fifth-grade student, was killed at a military checkpoint in Tehran during US and Israeli airstrikes targeting military sites, according to Hengaw, a Norway-based Kurdish human rights organization that monitors abuses in Iran.

In an interview with the state-affiliated Hamshahri newspaper, the boy’s mother said that because of a “shortage of personnel,” his father had taken him to the checkpoint. He was later killed in a drone strike while stationed there.

The Basij Organization confirmed that the 11-year-old died “while on duty” at a checkpoint on Artesh Highway as a result of the strike.

Why he was sent remains difficult to verify. In Iran’s tightly controlled information environment, families often speak under pressure, with state scrutiny and the threat of reprisals limiting candor.

The case comes as officials with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have openly acknowledged lowering the minimum age for war-related support roles to 12.

Rahim Nadali, a cultural official with the Guards in Tehran, said in remarks aired on state media that an initiative called For Iran was recruiting participants for patrols, checkpoints and logistics.

“Given that the age of those coming forward has dropped and they are asking to take part, we lowered the minimum age to 12,” he said, adding that 12- and 13-year-olds could now take part if they wished.

The state-backed recruitment drive makes Jafari’s death more than an isolated case. Together with precedent from the Iran-Iraq war, it suggests children even younger than the officially stated minimum may also be drawn into the war effort.

For rights advocates, the case reveals both a propaganda strategy and a manpower crisis inside a weakened state.

“They want to recruit these young people, use them as a kind of human shield. Because if they attack these kids, they start saying, ‘Oh look, they attack kids,’ and that’s what they’re doing,” said Shiva Mahbobi, a former political prisoner and London-based human rights advocate.

The child was placed at a military checkpoint even as the regime knew such sites were active targets of Israeli strikes, underscoring the degree to which minors were knowingly exposed to lethal risk.

Analysts say the reliance on minors also points to deeper strain within the regime’s security structure. After months of domestic unrest, wartime losses and reported cracks within some IRGC ranks, including defections, the state appears increasingly short on trusted personnel for checkpoint and support roles.

“They have actually called upon younger people to come and tried to recruit them. It shows they are preparing for a battle where they know they will need many more forces,” Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam of the Norway-based Iran Human Rights organization told Iran International.

“It also shows they are not in a good condition. They are struggling for their survival.”

“They have only one principle, which is holy to them, and that’s to preserve the establishment," he added.

Through his human rights organization, Amiry-Moghaddam has documented cases from the January crackdown in which the regime placed weapons in the hands of minors and sent them to fire on protesters, exploiting the hesitation many civilians feel when confronted by a child.

A holy pledge: preserve the regime

The use of children in conflict, rights groups say, is not new. It reflects a longer doctrine in which vulnerable lives are used to offset military weakness and preserve the state.

“The Islamic Republic used a large number of child soldiers during the war with Iraq. They also sent Afghan children to fight in Syria,” said Shahin Milani, executive director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center.

“Given the pressure they are under, it is not surprising that they have resorted to using minors to man checkpoints. Perhaps they want to keep their trained fighters for more critical roles. Since it came to power in 1979, the Islamic Republic has relied on sacrificing its soldiers to compensate for technological inferiority.”

That logic, rights defenders argue, crosses from military expediency into deliberate political calculation.

“Hiding behind children is not new. The Islamic Republic used children in the war with Iraq as well, brainwashing them with propaganda and giving them keys to heaven," said Roya Boroumand, co-founder and executive director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center.

The move comes despite Iran’s obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits the use of children in military activities. Iran signed the treaty on September 5, 1991 and ratified it on July 13, 1994.

For Boroumand, the use of minors reflects a governing doctrine in which human life is subordinated to state survival.

“They are disposable and instruments for a higher purpose. In this case, the loss of children’s lives increases the political cost of war for their enemies. So rather than protecting and evacuating them to safe shelters, they deliberately expose them to danger,” she said.

So far, UNICEF has not publicly condemned the Islamic Republic’s stated policy of recruiting children into war-related support roles. Iran International has reached out to UNICEF’s communications team for comment.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday Washington’s attack on Iran was aimed at preventing Tehran from developing nuclear weapons and dismantling what he described as a growing missile and drone “shield.”

In a video published by the White House on X, Rubio said there was “zero doubt” Iran ultimately seeks nuclear weapons, rejecting Tehran’s claims that its program is solely for civilian energy.

"They could have nuclear energy like all the other countries in the world have it. And that is, you import the fuel and you build reactors above ground. That's not what Iran has done," he said. "They build their reactors and their facilities deep in mountains away from the public glare, and they want to enrich that material, the same equipment that they could use to enrich material for energy they could use to quickly enrich it to weapons grade."

“We were on the verge of an Iran that had so many missiles and so many drones that no one could do anything about their nuclear weapons program,” Rubio said, calling it an “intolerable risk.”

He said the operation aims to destroy Iran’s missile and drone capabilities so it “can’t hide behind it” and must engage with the international community over its nuclear ambitions.