Explainer
Iran war
briefing: US reportedly ready to provide support to Kurdish fighters if they
enter conflict
Experts
say US backing armed groups could ‘open up a hornet’s nest’; son of Ayatollah
Khamenei tipped to succeed his father as leader. What we know on day six
Guardian
staff
Thu 5 Mar
2026 03.37 GMT
The
US-Israel war on Iran has entered a sixth day, with US forces reportedly ready
to provide air support to Kurdish fighters if they enter the conflict. Kurdish
officials told the Associated Press that Kurdish Iranian dissident groups based
in northern Iraq were preparing for a potential cross-border military operation
in Iran, and the US has asked Iraqi Kurds to support them. Intense waves of
airstrikes have hit dozens of military positions, frontier posts and police
stations along northern parts of Iran’s border with Iraq in what appears to be
preparation by US and Israel for a new front in their war.
Experts
predicted that backing armed groups from Iran’s ethnic communities would “open
up a hornet’s nest”, aggravating divisions within the diverse country and
increasing the risk of a chaotic civil war if the current regime collapses.
Mojtaba
Khamenei, the second son of the assassinated Ali Khamenei, is being heavily
tipped to succeed his father as supreme leader of Iran, which would pitch a
hardliner into the task of steering the Islamic republic through the most
turbulent period in its 48-year history and offer a powerful signal that, for
now, it has no intention of changing course.
A torpedo
fired by a US submarine sank an Iranian warship off the south coast of Sri
Lanka. At least 87 Iranian sailors were killed in the attack on the Iris Dena
on Wednesday. The frigate was sailing in international waters as it returned
from a naval exercise organised by India in the Bay of Bengal. The torpedo
strike prompted questions from former US officials about whether Washington’s
aim of eliminating all of Iran’s military breached international law.
Iran
launched missiles at Israel early Thursday. Air sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem shortly after the Israeli military said it had begun new strikes in
Lebanon targeting the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Beirut’s
southern suburbs.
Air
traffic appeared to be picking up slightly, even as travel across the region
remained heavily disrupted by the widening Iran war. Governments around the
world are rushing to organise the return of their citizens from the Middle
East. Officials have chartered jets or deployed military aircraft, routing
stranded travellers through Oman, Egypt and Saudi Arabia – key exit points
where planes could land and take off.
Top US
military officials told lawmakers in a closed door briefing on Tuesday that
they may not be able to shoot down every Iranian drone being launched against
military installations and assets, according to two people familiar with the
matter. The officials, led by the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Dan
Caine, said Iran has been deploying thousands of one-way attack drones and that
they have capacity to take down the vast majority but not all of the barrage.
Senate
Republicans voted down a war powers resolution that would have forced Donald
Trump to receive Congress’s permission before continuing the war with Iran.
Republicans batted aside concerns from Democrats that the campaign is illegal
and risks plunging the United States into a prolonged conflict. The measure
would have forced an end to the US air and naval campaign against Iran and
require the president to go to Congress before re-entering the war.
The White
House pushed back against questions on US involvement in the bombing of an
Iranian girls’ school which killed 175 people. The press secretary, Karoline
Leavitt, did not accept US responsibility for the attack, and noted that the
Pentagon is investigating the strike. Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said the
US was investigating it.
Hegseth
also signaled a possible longer time frame for the conflict than has previously
been floated by the administration, saying it could last eight weeks but that
the US has the munitions and the equipment to beat Iran in a war of attrition.
He declined to set a specific time range, saying the specific duration of the
war would depend on how it unfolds. More forces are arriving in the region,
including jet fighters and bombers, Hegseth said, and the US “will take all the
time we need to make sure that we succeed.”
The
impact of the Iran conflict on energy markets will be temporary and a “small
price” to pay for US military goals, US energy secretary, Chris Wright, told
Fox News. US and Israeli strikes on Iran and the subsequent response by Tehran
have widened regional tensions and paralysed shipping through the strait of
Hormuz, disrupting vital Middle East oil and gas flows and sending energy
prices higher. Donald Trump has pledged to provide insurance and naval escorts
for ships exporting energy from the region to contain soaring costs.
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