Smoke and fire rise from the site of air strikes at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran, Iran, March 7, 2026. /VCG
Iran's navy said Friday that it fired a coast-to-sea missile at the US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf region, according to a statement posted on the Iranian military's website.
The announcement follows a claim by Iran on Thursday that drones had struck the carrier, an assertion quickly rejected by US officials, who said there was no evidence the vessel was hit.
The Israel Defense Forces said Friday it struck more than 400 targets across western Iran over the course of the day, including ballistic missile launchers and drone storage facilities.
In a statement, the military said the Israeli Air Force has dropped more than 6,500 bombs in Iran since the war began, carrying out about 2,500 sorties in 150 waves of strikes.
The military added that it is expanding attacks on targets in Tehran as well as weapons production facilities across the country, including plants used to manufacture missiles and launchers, as operations enter what it described as a new phase of the war.
Iran's UN ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said Friday that at least 1,332 Iranian civilians, including women and children, have been killed in US-Israeli air strikes and thousands more injured.
Over 180 children across the country have been killed and more than 20 schools have been damaged, Iravani told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York, quoting the Iranian Red Crescent Society.
The United States and Israel have deliberately targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure across Iran, demonstrating that they recognize "no red line in committing their crimes," he said.
Iravani said that Iranian cities are being attacked indiscriminately, and densely populated residential areas and critical civilian infrastructure are deliberately targeted.
"These acts constitute clear war crimes and crimes against humanity," he said.
To date, 13 healthcare facilities in the country have been attacked, and several civilian sports and recreational facilities in Tehran and other cities were deliberately targeted on Thursday, with more than 18 female athletes killed and around 100 others injured, he said.
'Unconditional surrender'
US President Donald Trump said on Friday the United States will accept no agreement with Iran short of "unconditional surrender," one day after Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said Iran is not requesting a ceasefire and does not see any reason to negotiate with Washington.
"There will be no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender," Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
Trump said that after such a surrender and the selection of a "great and acceptable leader," the United States and its allies would help rebuild Iran's economy.
On Thursday, Araghchi told NBC News, "We are not asking for a ceasefire, and we don't see any reason why we should negotiate with the United States when we negotiated with them twice, and every time, they attacked us in the middle of the negotiations."
Trump said the White House is seeking a new Iranian leader who can "treat the United States and Israel well" and he is not concerned whether the Middle Eastern country becomes a democracy.
Asked in a phone call with CNN whether Iran needs to be a democracy, Trump said: "No, I'm saying there has to be a leader that's going to be fair and just." Trump also said he is open to having a religious leader in Iran.
The US-Israeli massive attacks on Iran entered the seventh day and are escalating. US-Israeli strikes on Tehran and several other Iranian cities started Saturday morning, leading to the death of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, some of his family members, top military commanders and civilians.
Iran responded with several waves of missile and drone attacks targeting Israeli and US assets across the region.
An Iranian woman stands in her home damaged in an attack in Tehran, Iran, March 6, 2026. /VCG
Rising regional tensions
Iraqi security forces on Friday evening seized a vehicle carrying a rocket launcher in western Baghdad after several rockets were fired near Baghdad International Airport, authorities said.
A statement from the Iraqi Joint Operations Command's Security Media Cell said the rockets landed in unpopulated areas, causing no casualties or significant damage. Technical teams dealt with additional rockets found inside the vehicle, and an "immediate and urgent investigation" has been launched.
Separately, an armed group calling itself "Guardians of Blood," affiliated with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella body for pro-Iranian militias, claimed responsibility for an attack targeting the "US Victoria Base" at the airport.
On Friday, the US Embassy in Baghdad issued a security alert warning that Iran-aligned militia groups "may seek to target hotels frequented by foreigners in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region." It also urged the US citizens to leave Iraq.
French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, deployed to protect its citizens and allies from Iranian attacks, arrived in the Mediterranean on Friday, RTL radio reported.
According to RTL, the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle crossed the Strait of Gibraltar in the early afternoon on Friday to enter the Mediterranean, but has not yet reached its final destination.
French President Emmanuel Macron said earlier that Paris is "not waging war" in the region and will not join the US-Israeli offensive against Iran.
According to Lebanese officials and state media, at least 17 people were killed and dozens more wounded Friday in Israeli airstrikes across southern and eastern Lebanon.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that Israeli warplanes struck a house in the town of Majdal Selm in the Marjayoun district, killing nine members of a family, most of them women and children, and wounding several others.
Israeli warplanes also struck the city of Bint Jbeil on Friday afternoon, the agency said, as artillery shelling hit nearby villages including Hanine, Aita al-Shaab and Ramyeh. Less than an hour later, an Israeli drone struck a motorcycle in Bint Jbeil, wounding one person.
Lebanon's Public Health Emergency Operations Center said the toll from Israeli attacks since Monday has risen to 217 people killed and 798 wounded across Lebanon.
A fireball ascends from the site of an Israeli air strike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs, March 6, 2026. /VCG
Calls for ceasefire
In a phone conversation with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged an immediate end to hostilities in the Middle East.
Putin reaffirmed Russia's principled position that hostilities should cease immediately and that the use of force to resolve issues on Iran and across the Middle East must be abandoned, calling for a swift return to political and diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Friday that the situation in the Middle East "could spiral beyond anyone's control."
"It is time to stop the fighting and get to serious diplomatic negotiations," the UN chief said in a statement on the Middle East.
All the unlawful attacks in the Middle East and beyond are causing tremendous suffering and harm to civilians throughout the region – and pose a grave risk to the global economy, particularly to the most vulnerable people, Guterres said.
Spanish Prime Minster Pedro Sanchez said on Friday that the US-Israeli military action against Iran is an "extraordinary mistake" and rejected criticism from Trump for Spain's refusal to allow the US to use its bases in the country in the ongoing aerial assault.
"This war is an extraordinary mistake that we will pay for," said Sanchez said during his meeting with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, adding that the conflict was already causing price rises.
He repeated his belief that the war is being carried out outside international law, and insisted that "among allied countries, it is good to help when one is right and to point out when a mistake is being made."
Sanchez also announced that he will speak in the Spanish Congress to explain his government's position and the decision to send the frigate Cristobal Colon to help protect Cyprus from possible Iranian attack.
(With input from agencies)
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