Image source, US pool

We've just heard from the US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine.

Speaking from the Pentagon in Virginia, they gave an update on the US operation against Iran.

• Hegseth said the US military had sunk "an Iranian warship" in the Indian Ocean, with a torpedo. He didn't name the ship, but it follows earlier confirmation from the Sri Lankan navy that it rescued 32 people after a distress call from the Iranian IRIS Dena, with around 140 people on board currently missing
• The Iranian regime "are toast", declared Hegseth, who said that the US was "winning, decisively, devastatingly and without mercy"
• He suggested more military action was imminent, stating that "more and larger waves are coming" - this was echoed by Caine who announced that the military would "now begin to expand inland, striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory"
• Hegseth also says Iran tried "to kill" Donald Trump, telling reporters that the US "hunted down and killed" the "leader of the unit who attempted to assassinate" the president

• Asked about the bombing of a girls school in Minab in Iran, Hegseth said that the US was "investigating" and refused to be drawn on if there was intelligence about which country's munition had hit the school

Jonathan Beale
Defence correspondent

We can now bring you new lines on the UK response to the US-Israeli war with Iran, via western officials.

• HMS Dragon, a UK warship, is expected to sail from Portsmouth next week. It has just come out of maintenance and was earmarked to carry out a different mission before yesterday's decision to send her to the eastern Mediterranean
• Dragon is currently being loaded with ammunition in Portsmouth but is not expected to sail towards Cyprus this week
• Two Royal Navy Wildcat helicopters, armed with Martlet missiles capable of shooting down drones, are expected to arrive in Cyprus separately and sooner
• British military experts have been sent to the Middle East region to provide allies with advice on air defences. The experts have knowledge and experience gained from the war in Ukraine
• Officials would not say in which countries, but said multiple nations in the region had made requests for the assistance
• Western officials say the Shahed-type drone which landed in RAF Akrotiri earlier this week was not fired from Iran. Officials would not say where the missile originated from
• The US Air Force has not yet carried out any bombing missions from British bases, following the prime minister's decision to give purely defensive missions a green light
• A western official said, so far, US bombers have not used Diego Garcia or RAF Fairford - but said the UK was ready to accept them
• The official said he expected them to arrive within the next few days Western officials say they are starting see a decline in Iranian missiles fired
• One official assessed that Iran may have several more days of stocks - based on its current firing rates. But officials also said a recent drop in strike rates may signal that Iran is trying to preserve its stockpiles

Image source, Reuters

We're beginning to get more details of the Iranian navy ship that sank off the coast of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka's deputy foreign minister tells local TV that at least 80 people were killed after the strike in the Indian Ocean, Reuters news agency reports.

A spokesperson from Sri Lanka's navy earlier said, according to the documentation of the ship, 180 are believed to have been on board.

Earlier, Sri Lanka's navy confirmed that it rescued 32 people after it received a distress call from Iranian navy ship "Iris Dena".

If Sri Lanka's deputy foreign minister's and the navy spokesperson's figures are correct, that leaves around 68 people unaccounted for.

We're continuing to bring you lines from the US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who has just finished speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, alongside US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine.

"Iran tried to kill President Trump", Hegseth said, and "President Trump got the last laugh".

He said that on Tuesday, the US "hunted down and killed" the "leader of the unit who attempted to assassinate President Trump".

In 2024, the US government brought charges against an Afghan national in connection with an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Trump before he was elected that year.

The Department of Justice alleged that Farhad Shakeri, then 51, was tasked with "providing a plan" to kill Trump.

The US government said then that Shakeri was believed to be in Iran.

In a criminal complaint filed in Manhattan court, prosecutors alleged that an official in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard directed Shakeri in September to devise a plan to surveil and kill Trump.

Hegseth is asked by the BBC's State Department correspondent Tom Bateman if there is any more information he can give on the bombing of a girls school in Minab, which Iran says has killed at least 153 people including many children.

"All I can say is that we're investigating that," says Hegseth.

"We of course never target civilian targets but we're taking a look and investigating that."

Pressed by Bateman on if there's any clarity on whose munition it was that struck the school, Hegseth replies that "we're investigating".

Image source, Pool

Hesgeth praises Israel and says their part in the war is being executed with "unmatched skill and iron determination".

He says fighting alongside such a capable ally is a "breath of fresh air".

Hegseth claims this is "bold action" from President Trump putting "America first".

"Four days in, we have just begun the fight," he says.

Tom Bateman
US State Department correspondent, reporting from the Pentagon

This is a chest-thumping, openly belligerent statement by Hegseth.

His intention is try to project the image of an overwhelming American military force - along with Israel - that is reducing the entire Iranian military to nothing.

We will "control Iran and will control it soon" says Hegseth of the US and Israeli combat force. He says they’ll have total aerial superiority within days.

Characteristically, he's going for the toughest rhetoric imaginable to try, it seems, to suggest the only option for Iran is surrender or for the emergence of leadership who will submit to Trump's will.

Hegseth says that in the Indian Ocean, the US sank "an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters".

"Instead it was sunk by a torpedo," he says.

Hegseth did not name the Iranian ship that was attacked.

But earlier the Sri Lankan navy reported the IRIS Dena went down in the Indian Ocean, with around 140 people on board missing.

This "was never meant to be a fair fight, and it's not a fair fight", says Hegseth, adding that the US is punching Iran "while they're down".

"More and larger waves are coming, we are just getting started," he says.

Hegseth says the results over the past four days have been "incredible, historic really".

"They are toast, and they know it," he says referring to the Iranian regime.

He adds that US forces have begun to "hunt, dismantle, demoralise, destroy and defeat" the regime's capabilities.

He says that Iranian leaders will be looking up and seeing only "US and Israeli air power" until US and Israel decide the war is over.

Image source, Pool

The Pentagon briefing has started.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says: "America is winning, decisively, devastatingly and without mercy."

"We are only four days in", he says, but "as Trump has said" the US "will take all the time we need" to make sure the operation is a success.

Tom Bateman
US State Department correspondent, reporting from the Pentagon

I’m in the Pentagon in the press briefing room where two podiums are set up for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Chair of the Joint Chiefs Gen Dan Caine.

This is the second time they’ve given a news briefing since the US and Israel launched their attack on Iran.

The room is full, although the front rows seem to have been largely reserved for the Pentagon’s new resident press corps.

Much of the traditional US media lost their continuing access to the Pentagon last year after refusing to sign up to new rules that threatened expulsion if journalists reported on any information that hadn’t been officially approved - though it looks like they’re being granted access for these one off press conferences.

We’re expecting Hegseth and Caine in the next few minutes.

We're expecting to hear from US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth very shortly, with an update on the war on Iran from the Pentagon.

We'll be bringing you coverage in the live stream at the top of this page.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) says it has received a report of a container ship being hit by an "unknown projectile" off Oman's north coast today in the Straits of Hormuz.

The ship reported that the strike had caused a fire in its engine room, but no environmental impact had been reported. Authorities are continuing to investigate.

Image source, UK Maritime Trade Operations

Let's go back now to the Iranian navy ship that sank off the coast of Sri Lanka. As a reminder, around 140 people are missing, but the cause of the sinking is not known.

The BBC's Sinhala team spoke to the Sri Lankan navy about the condition of the ship.

"When we received the distress signal and our navy vessels went to the scene of the incident, we only saw a few lifeboats," the spokesman says.

"There was no Iranian ship in sight. It had sunk."

Image source, Reuters

Verified image shows strike in eastern Tehranpublished at 12:24 GMT

12:24 GMT

By Yi Ma and Ghoncheh Habibiazad

A new image showing a large plume of black smoke rising in eastern Tehran after an apparent air strike has been verified.

BBC Verify was able to locate where the picture, which first appeared online earlier today, was taken by identifying the minarets in the foreground on street view and satellite imagery.

We can confirm the explosion took place several streets away from the Hassani Mosque.

It is not clear what was hit or if there were any casualties.

Image source, Telegram

Freya Scott-Turner
Live reporter

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Missiles continue to fly across the Middle East, as the war spills into its fifth day.

Latest across the region:

• Around 140 people are thought to be missing as Sri Lanka's navy has confirmed that it’s rescued 32 people after it received a distress call from Iranian navy ship ‘IRIS Dena’ early this morning. The cause is currently unknown
• Israel launched a fresh wave of strikes across the region, with several people reportedly killed in attacks on Lebanon that the IDF says were targeting Hezbollah operatives and facilities. The army is now ordering civilians in southern Lebanon to leave "immediately" ahead of military action
• In Tehran, many buildings have been reduced to rubble - while "security headquarters" there were also struck in overnight attacks, according to the Israeli military
• New footage shows the US consulate in Dubai on fire after an apparent Iranian drone strike on Tuesday, while a US air base in Qatar was struck by an Iranian missile

On the ground in Iran:

• A three-day funeral for late Ayatollah Khamenei - killed in an Israeli attack on Saturday - that was due to start today has been "postponed", Iranian state media reports
• Speculation is mounting over who will replace the supreme leader, as two Iranian sources tell Reuters that his son Mojtaba Khamenei has survived attacks
• "It's getting worse every day", an Iranian man tells the BBC, as a US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency says that at least 1,097 civilians have been killed there since the US-Israel attacks began on Saturday

Evacuation efforts continue:

• With significant flight disruption, countries are working to evacuate citizens who want to leave out of the Middle East. The first flight specifically arranged by the UK government is scheduled to leave Muscat International Airport at 23:00 local time (19:00 GMT) today

Nato air defences have destroyed an Iranian missile heading towards Turkish airspace, according to Turkey's defence ministry.

In a statement, originally in Turkish, the defence ministry says there are no casualties or injuries.

It says the missile was "detected passing through Iraqi and Syrian airspace and heading towards Turkish airspace".

"We warn all parties to refrain from taking any steps that could cause the conflict to spread further in the region," the statement from Turkey, a member of Nato, says.

Yogita Limaye
South Asia correspondent, reporting from Mumbai

Sri Lanka’s navy has confirmed that it’s rescued 32 people after it received a distress call from Iranian navy ship ‘IRIS Dena’ early this morning.

Budhika Sampath, the spokesman of Sri Lanka’s navy says: “Though it was beyond our waters, it was within our search and rescue region. So we were obliged to respond as per international obligations.”

He adds: “We found people floating on the water, rescued them, and later when we inquired we found that those people are from an Iranian ship.”

He also says that according to the documentation of the ship 180 people are believed to have been on board, although the exact number of missing is unknown.

The spokesman says at the time of launching the rescue operations they did not see the vessel but saw oil patches on the water and floating life rafts.

He also tells the BBC that he rejects the reports of a submarine attack causing the sinking, and that the cause is unknown.

Earlier the secretary of the country’s defence ministry Air Vice Marshal Sampath Thuiyakontha told BBC Sinhala that around 140 people are thought to be missing.

So far, Sri Lanka’s military has not been able to confirm what might have caused the ship to sink.

Image source, Reuters

Nick Johnson
Reporting from Gosport

Image source, PA Media

I’m aboard Gosport Boat Yard’s African Grey - getting a closer look at preparations for HMS Dragon’s voyage to the Mediterranean.

The destroyer is docked by a pontoon, after being moved from a permanent mooring last night.

It’s here to take on ammunition before beginning a journey to the eastern Mediterranean.

HMS Dragon is being sent there for defensive purposes, but she is also having a significant amount of her own firepower loaded aboard. That includes missile batteries - one fires around eight missiles in 10 seconds.

There's a crew of more than 200, and I can see some of those personnel walking from the ship to the pontoon.

When she does eventually set sail, it could take up to a week until she reaches Cyprus.