Iran War, Day 6

As the U.S.-Israel war on Iran entered a sixth day, the widening conflict held some firsts.

American forces destroyed the Iranian guided-missile frigate IRIS Dena in international waters off the coast of Sri Lanka, the first torpedo sinking by a U.S. submarine since World War II, according to Pentagon officials. Sri Lankan authorities carried out search and rescue, recovering 84 bodies from the sinking and posting guards at a hospital where 32 rescued sailors are recovering.

Defense Department clip of IRIS Dena sinking off Sri Lanka’s coast (courtesy Military Times)

The Indian Ocean explosion in South Asia, about a thousand miles from Tehran, underscores the war’s dramatic expansion in just days’ time. It pushes the boundaries of the conflict, stretching from the edges of Europe to the tip of the Indian subcontinent.

U.S. Central Command says it has struck 2,000 sites in Iran since Saturday, and the Islamic republic responded with strategic strikes on U.S. and Israeli installations across the region. At the same time Israel launched a renewed offensive into Lebanon, hitting targets in Beirut tied to Iran ally Hezbollah that include densely populated neighborhoods. Israel on Wednesday told people living south of the Litani River, a region spanning hundreds of square miles in Lebanon, to move north ahead of an expansion of strikes and the entry of ground forces.

Israeli airstrikes in southern Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday, March 5

Widening war is forcing European countries into the fray that once hoped to stay on the sidelines of this conflict. The UK ordered RAF fighter jets to Cyprus after its base came under attack and an Iranian general threatened “intense” strikes on the divided island nation. NATO also activated its missile defense system when Iran fired a ballistic missile on Turkey, a member state that shares a 300-mile border with Iran. In the Caucasus, Azerbaijan came under Iranian drone attacks too.