The U.S.-Israeli attack that ended Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s iron-fisted rule of Iran also created a power vacuum in the Islamic Republic for the first time in decades, with a group of clerics convening to cast their votes on who would succeed him.

Four Democrats joined most Republicans in rejecting the measure.

The U.S. and Israel are striking a much wider array of targets in Iran than they did during 12 days of war last summer, when their focus was on the country’s nuclear enrichment sites.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a press briefing with Admiral Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command.

Top officials have been heavily targeted, but experts and officials say the ruling structure in Tehran has remained surprisingly resilient.

Commercial satellite imagery has shown extensive damage to key Iranian government and military sites after the United States and Israel launched their most ambitious campaign against Iran in decades. Imagery has also captured ​the first known strikes on an Iranian nuclear site since the start of the U.S.-Israeli air operation.

China is not feeling the shock of war in the Middle East - yet. But it is feeling the ripples.

Thousands of miles from Iran's capital, Tehran, the war in the Middle East reached Sri Lanka's southern coast Wednesday