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
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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, 3:50 PM GMT

Iran's national security council chief warns US, Israel over Khamenei's killing

Iran's top national security official on Wednesday warned the U.S. and Israel that the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei "will exact a heavy price from you."

Workers install a billboard on an overpass containing a portrait of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 2, 2026.
Workers install a billboard on an overpass containing a portrait of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 2, 2026.

"Mr. Trump, with Netanyahu's clownish antics, dragged the American people into an unfair war with Iran," Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, wrote in a post on X. "Now let him do the math: with over 500 American troops killed (in these past few days), is it still 'America First,' or 'Israel First'? The saga continues."

"The martyrdom of Imam Khamenei will exact a heavy price from you. God willing," he added.

CENTCOM has confirmed that six Americans have been killed in the attacks.

-ABC News' Somayeh Malekian

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Mar 04, 2026, 3:23 PM GMT

Iran 'had no intention' of negotiating nuclear deal

"The evidence in front of us since the 12-day war was that Iran had no intention of actually negotiating a nuclear deal that truly meant they did not have a pathway to the nuclear bomb," Defense Secretary Hegseth said at the Pentagon briefing.

Hegseth said that negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff "poured into that negotiation, giving them every single possible opportunity to release that that ambition, and they didn't. And the intelligence that we saw (showed) they didn't intend to do it in good faith - that they had the intentions eventually to get to a place where they could have that a conventional shield to block their nuclear capabilities."

-ABC News Steve Beynon

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Mar 04, 2026, 4:14 PM GMT

'No to war,' says Spanish PM after Trump criticism

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez addressed the nation on Wednesday following President Donald Trump's threat of a full trade embargo after Spain denied the U.S. use of its bases in the war against Iran.

Spain's position, Sanchez said, could be summarized as, "No to war."

The Spanish leader condemned the "indiscriminate" bombing by Iran of other nations in the region. He said that the objectives of the U.S. and Israel were not clear and warned about the "serious consequences" of a potentially long war for the global economy and the cost of living for people in Spain and beyond.

Referring to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent regional instability, Sanchez said his government's position was based on "not committing the errors of the past."

"No-one" supports the theocratic regime in Tehran, Sanchez said, calling for an end to hostilities and a diplomatic solution "before it's too late."

-ABC News' Tom Soufi Burridge

Mar 04, 2026, 1:45 PM GMT

US submarine uses torpedo to sink Iranian ship

At a briefing at the Pentagon on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that a U.S. submarine used a torpedo to sink an Iranian warship named after Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a 2020 drone strike ordered by President Trump.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine said this was the first time since 1945 that a U.S. Navy submarine "sunk an enemy combatant ship using a single Mark 48 torpedo to achieve immediate effect, sending the warship to the bottom of the sea."

Caine acknowledged that there are a lot of questions about the U.S. missile stockpile, but he expressed confidence that the U.S. has enough munitions to continue military operations against Iran. However, he cautioned that he cannot provide details due to operational security reasons.

-ABC News' Luis Martinez