By Parisa Hafezi, Steve Holland and Maya Gebeily
DUBAI/WASHINGTON/BEIRUT, March 6 (Reuters) – Israel pounded Beirut on Friday after ordering an unprecedented evacuation of the entire southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, a major expansion of the war against Iran it began a week ago alongside the United States.
In an apparent escalation of his own war aims, U.S. President Donald Trump demanded the right to help choose Iran’s next supreme leader, successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed by Israeli bombs on the war’s first day.
Israel has extended its bombing to Lebanon to root out Hezbollah, the Shi’ite militia allied to Iran that has been a dominant faction in Lebanese politics since the 1980s. Hezbollah fired on Israel this week to avenge the death of Khamenei.
IRAN TARGETS HEART OF TEL AVIV
Explosions and flashes lit up the night sky over Beirut’s southern suburbs. The Israeli military said it had carried out 26 waves of strikes overnight, with targets including Iran-backed Hezbollah militia command centres and weapons storage facilities.
“We’re sleeping here in the streets – some in cars, some on the street, some on the beach,” said Jamal Seifeddin, 43, who fled Beirut’s southern suburbs and spent the night on the streets in the capital’s downtown district. “I’ve never slept on the ground like this. I’ve been forced to. No one even brought a blanket.”
Israel has intervened in Lebanon repeatedly over decades, most recently in a bombing campaign that seriously weakened Hezbollah in 2024. But the ferocity of Friday’s strikes appeared to have little precedent even in the long history of warfare in the Lebanese capital.
Israel ordered residents to evacuate the entire southern section of Beirut, home to hundreds of thousands of people. During previous campaigns it had ordered only smaller evacuations of specific areas.
Alongside the bombing of Beirut, Israel launched a new wave of attacks on Iran, saying it was targeting infrastructure in the capital Tehran.
Inside Israel, explosions could be heard as Israeli defences activated to shoot down incoming Iranian fire. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had launched a combined missile and drone operation targeting sites in the heart of Tel Aviv.
Overnight, Iranian drones also attacked the U.S. Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, the biggest U.S. base in the Middle East, Qatari officials said. There were no reported casualties.
‘WE’RE GOING TO HAVE TO CHOOSE THAT PERSON’, TRUMP SAYS
In insisting on the right to help choose Iran’s next leader – meant to be a senior Shi’ite Muslim cleric selected by a panel of religious experts – Trump made his most explicit demand for control over a country of more than 90 million people.
The remarks could make it more difficult to end the war quickly in a deal that would leave Iran’s system of clerical rule in place.
“We’re going to have to choose that person along with Iran. We’re going to have to choose that person,” Trump said on Thursday in a telephone interview with Reuters.
Israel has said openly that it wants to overthrow Iran’s ruling system. Washington has been more circumspect, saying its aim is to eliminate Iran’s ability to project force beyond its borders, while also inviting Iranians to rise up and topple their government.
There was no immediate Iranian response to Trump’s remarks. Iran has cast the war as an unprovoked attack and describes the killing of its leader, Khamenei, as an assassination.
It says the panel that will choose the new leader is conducting its work.
Iranian officials initially said the new leader could be chosen soon and the leading candidate was Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, a powerful hardliner. But plans for a quick dynastic succession may have been stalled since a three-day period of mourning for Khamenei was postponed indefinitely on Wednesday.
Some Iranians openly celebrated the death of Khamenei, just weeks after security forces under his control killed thousands of protesters in the worst domestic unrest since the revolutionary era. But there has been little sign of opposition to the authorities during the airstrikes, with activists saying it is not safe to return to the streets.
‘EXISTENTIAL WAR’ FOR IRAN
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Washington’s aim remained to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities and prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons.
“There’s no expansion in our objectives. We know exactly what we’re trying to achieve,” he said.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said Iran was not intentionally targeting its Arab neighbours, only the U.S. bases on their soil.
“This was an ‘existential war’ for Iran, leaving us with no choice but to respond wherever American attacks originate from,” he said at the Raisina Dialogues conference in New Delhi on Friday.
Hezbollah, in a message published in Hebrew on its Telegram channel early on Friday, warned Israelis to leave towns within 5 km (3 miles) of the border.
“Your military’s aggression against Lebanese sovereignty and safe citizens, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and the expulsion campaign it is carrying out will not go unchallenged,” Hezbollah said.
At least 1,230 people have been killed in Iran since the fighting began a week ago, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society. The Lebanese health ministry has reported 123 people killed and 683 wounded as a result of Israeli attacks. At least 10 Israelis have been killed by Iranian attacks.
TRUMP URGES IRANIAN KURDS TO ATTACK IRAN
In his remarks to Reuters, Trump also encouraged Iranian Kurdish forces based across the border in Iraq to launch attacks against Iran, a move that would open a ground front in the war.
“I think it’s wonderful that they want to do that, I’d be all for it,” Trump said.
Two Iranian drone attacks targeted an Iranian opposition camp in Iraqi Kurdistan on Thursday, security sources said.
Three sources with knowledge of the matter said Iranian Kurdish militias have consulted with the United States about whether and how to attack Iran’s security forces.
(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Dubai, Steve Holland in Washington and Reuters bureaus; Writing by Michael Perry and Peter Graff; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Alex Richardson)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.