Iran has postponed the funeral ceremony for late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as US and Israeli forces continue intense airstrikes across the country.
An official told state media there had been overwhelming public requests to attend the three-day event at a major Tehran prayer complex, originally scheduled to begin Wednesday night, and that more time was needed to prepare infrastructure.
A member of the Assembly of Experts said the clerical body was “close” to selecting Khamenei’s successor, killed in a strike at the start of the US-Israeli campaign on Saturday.
Iran has responded with missile and drone attacks on Israel and US-allied Gulf states.
Kuwait’s health ministry reported overnight that an 11-year-old girl was killed by shrapnel in a residential area during an Iranian strike.
US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said a US submarine sank an Iranian navy frigate in the Indian Ocean off Sri Lanka.
“[The warship] thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death,” Hegseth told reporters.
Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary reported 80 bodies recovered from the Iris Dena, with 32 rescued and dozens missing.
Hegseth claimed US and Israeli forces would achieve “complete control of Iranian skies” within days and warned the campaign was “just getting started.”
He said the US would deploy an “unlimited stockpile of precision gravity bombs” as operations expand.
General Dan Caine said US Central Command (CENTCOM) is shifting to “stand-in precision strikes overhead Iran” after initial long-range attacks.
CENTCOM is targeting ballistic missile infrastructure and naval assets to prevent threats to US troops and regional allies and block rapid reconstitution of combat power.
Hegseth accused Iran of negotiating in bad faith while preparing attacks.
Asked about a Saturday strike on an Iranian girls’ school that reportedly killed over 160 people, Hegseth said the US is “investigating.”
The escalating conflict shows no signs of abating, with US-Israeli strikes expanding and Iranian retaliation spreading across the region.
