Iran live updates: 7th killed service member is identified

Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, was killed in Saudi Arabia.

ByDavid Brennan, Jon Haworth, Kevin Shalvey, Leah Sarnoff, Meredith Deliso, Nadine El-Bawab, and Bill Hutchinson ABCNews logo
Last updated: Monday, March 9, 2026 3:00PM GMT
ABC News Live

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 in Tehran on the first day of strikes. His son Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen on Sunday to succeed him.

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.

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Mar 04, 2026, 1:47 PM GMT

Hegseth: 'Terms of this war will be set by us'

At a briefing at the Pentagon on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said "this is not a 'mission accomplished' situation," instead calling it "a reality check."

Hegseth said that now that both Israel and the U.S. have achieved dominance over the skies of Iran, those operations will be ramped up, shifting from mainly missile strikes in the first days to bomb drops.

"Flying over Tehran, flying over Iran, flying over their capital, flying over the IRGC, Iranian leaders looking up and seeing only us and Israeli air power every minute of every day, until we decide it's over and Iran will be able to do nothing about it," he said.

"More bombers and more fighters are arriving just today, and now with complete control of the skies, we will be using 500-pound, 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound GPS and laser-guided precision gravity bombs, of which we have a nearly unlimited stockpile," Hegseth said.

"The terms of this war will be set by us at every step," he said.

Hegseth said additional forces are arriving in the Middle East on Wednesday. CENTCOM on Tuesday night announced 50,000 troops are in the region.

"More and larger waves are coming, we are just getting started," he said.

-ABC News' Luis Martinez

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Mar 04, 2026, 1:29 PM GMT

Hegseth: 'We will take all the time we need'

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a briefing at the Pentagon on Wednesday, "We have only just begun."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Washington.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon, Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Washington.

"It's very early and has President Trump has said we will take all the time we need to make sure that we succeed," he said. "We are only four days into this and the results have been incredible."

"We are accelerating, not decelerating," he said.

In a few days, Hegseth said, there will be complete control of Iranian airspace.

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Mar 04, 2026, 1:17 PM GMT

186 students and teachers killed in Iran, education ministry says

A total of 186 students and teachers have been killed and 114 others are injured from the U.S-Israeli attacks on different locations across Iran, according to the Iranian education ministry.

About 20 education centers have been either damaged or fully destroyed, the statement added.

-ABC News' Somayeh Malekian

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Mar 04, 2026, 12:40 PM GMT

Israel kills Iranian alleged to be behind Trump assassination attempt: Sources

Two Israeli sources briefed on the matter told ABC News on Wednesday that Israel had killed Rahman Makdem, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' special operations division who was alleged to have been behind the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump in 2024.

The location of the killing was not immediately clear. Trump was informed of the operation by the Israelis, the sources said.

-ABC News' Jordana Miller and Joe Simonetti