03/09/2026
The war in Iran has intensified. Here are some updates:
- Fighting remains concentrated in Iran, Israel, Lebanon, and around key Gulf infrastructure, with persistent air and missile exchanges. Israel has launched repeated waves of strikes on Iranian military and government targets, including missile launch sites and aerospace facilities, while also hitting Hezbollah positions in Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon.
- The IRGC has continued missile and drone launches toward Israel and Gulf states, with debris and intercepts causing damage to facilities in the UAE and civilian areas in Bahrain. Regional air defenses, including NATO‑linked systems in Turkey and Gulf-based US assets, remain engaged in intercepting Iranian projectiles.
- Iran’s leadership has undergone a major shock: Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Ayatollah, has been selected as the new supreme leader by Iran’s ruling clerics. This choice defies explicit warnings from President Trump, who had publicly labeled Mojtaba “unacceptable,” and it appears to have unified Iran’s security establishment behind a more hard-line war posture.
- US tallies acknowledge at least seven US service members killed since the start of the war, with additional wounded. Iranian casualties continue to mount from air and missile strikes, including a reported attack on an Iranian warship near Sri Lanka’s coast last week that killed more than 100 personnel.
- Civilian harm is also rising across the region: reports describe deaths and injuries from strikes and debris in Iran, Israel, Lebanon, the UAE, and Bahrain. Iran has not updated its death toll over the weekend from the 1,200+ civilian deaths previously reported.
- The geographic spread of the war has deepened: attacks, intercepts, or military alerts now span Iran, Israel, Lebanon, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, and adjacent maritime zones. Iran continues to frame any European or NATO air‑defense role–such as Turkish-based intercepts–as potential grounds to widen the war, reiterating that defensive involvement would be treated as an act of war.
- The Strait of Hormuz is in a de facto crisis state: while not physically closed to all traffic, insurance withdrawals and security threats have sharply curtailed commercial tanker movements. Analysts estimate that roughly one‑fifth of global oil exports routed through the strait are at risk, along with critical volumes of LNG, LPG, and jet fuel to Asia and Europe.
- Oil markets have reacted sharply: some reports of intraday crude prices approach or exceed 120 dollars per barrel, and gas prices in the US and other major consuming states have recorded some of the steepest short‑term increases since the mid‑2000s.
At Rise to Peace, we are tracking the legal and governance dimensions of this conflict alongside its military and humanitarian trajectory. Follow our page for updates as the situation develops.
