Middle East on Edge as Escalating War Enters Day Six
A US strike on an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean and further Israeli incursions into southern Lebanon are spreading the scope of the war in the Middle East. And the failure of a war powers vote in the US Senate means there's still no end in sight as day six dawns.
Iran Conflict: Day Six
REPORTER:
A school workbook. A child’s backpack. These are among the objects on display at a memorial for the girls killed in a US-Israeli strike on a primary school in Iran on Saturday. The country says over 160 people died in the attack. Israel says it’s investigating. Here at Tehran University, people are gathering to mourn.
REPORTER:
Those who truly want to know what's happening in Iran can come and see where they have struck. See whether they hit residential areas, schools, or hospitals. Of course, they have hit military targets - that's the basis of the war they started - but they didn't only hit military targets.
REPORTER:
But the war in the Middle East, now in day six, isn’t just grinding on. It’s spreading.
REPORTER:
The Pentagon says this footage shows the moment a US submarine sank an Iranian warship off southern Sri Lanka.
REPORTER:
The recovered bodies of the Iranian sailors aboard are now here at a mortuary in Galle, Sri Lanka--more than 4,000km from Tehran. Sri Lanka says the ship was heading back to Iran from eastern India at the time of the US strike. It says at least 80 people died.
REPORTER:
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says this was the first enemy ship the US has sunk by torpedo since WWII.
Pete Hegseth (US DEFENSE SECRETARY):
They are toast, and they know it. Or at least, soon enough, they will know it.
REPORTER:
The war is also spilling further into Israel’s northern neighbor, Lebanon, home to Iranian proxy Hezbollah. Israeli strikes in places including here in the capital Beirut left widespread destruction Wednesday.
REPORTER:
Israel released this footage of what it says are its troops deployed in Lebanon’s south. Israel has occupied five locations here since 2024, but now more troops are coming in and taking towns. It’s warning civilians to evacuate around 8% of Lebanese territory.
REPORTER:
Even by Tuesday, the UN had estimated there were 30,000 displaced people in Lebanon. They’ve come to places like this school in Beirut—some after days looking for a safe place to stay.
RESIDENT OF SCHOOL SHELTER:
But of course, we say thank God (we’re) not on the street, even though we're still missing necessities and things like mattresses and stuff like that. Right now we don't sleep properly, we sit on chairs all night. Or, for example, our kids are on the floor. I brought a few blankets so they can sleep on the floor, and that's basically it.
REPORTER:
And in the US, involvement in this war has been politically fraught from the start. But on Wednesday, a Senate resolution to require Congressional approval for any more attacks on Iran failed to pass.
REPORTER:
The legislation will go to a vote in House of Representatives on Thursday. But House Speaker Mike Johnson says halting US military action would empower US enemies, and he says, this isn’t really a war.
Mike Johnson (HOUSE SPEAKER):
I don’t believe the semantics. We talked about the language this morning. We're not at war right now. We're four days into a very specific clear mission and operation, Operation Epic Fury.
REPORTER:
US President Donald Trump, though, doesn’t seem to agree.
Donald Trump (US PRESIDENT):
This is very important, and we're doing very well on the war front, to put it mildly, I would say. Somebody said, on a scale of 10, where would you rate it? I said about a 15.
REPORTER:
Whatever it’s called, this conflict may have been coming no matter what, with Israel’s defense minister now saying his country had been planning to strike Iran later in the year anyway.
REPORTER:
But now that it’s begun, there’s no end in sight—even amid reports Iranian ballistic missile launches have dropped sharply. Over 1,000 civilians are dead in Iran, around 50 in Lebanon, 10 in Israel and several more in countries around the region. And as this overnight blast in Beirut shows, the dawning of day six promises more destruction.
