Iran live updates: War enters 10th day with no end in sight

The U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran continued for a 10th day Monday, as President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with a military operation that appears to have no end in sight.

The war has rattled global markets, disrupted air travel and left Iran’s leadership weakened by hundreds of Israeli and American airstrikes. Interruptions to the production and movement of oil and gas from the Persian Gulf sent oil prices soaring to over $100 Sunday for the first time in three and a half years. 

Fighting across the Middle East has intensified, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising "many surprises" in the next phase of the conflict. Meanwhile, Iran announced its new supreme leader: Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the country’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The war has killed 1,230 people in Iran, more than 300 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel since it began on Feb. 28.

Here’s the latest on Monday:

Seventh fallen US soldier identified as 26-year-old Sgt. Benjamin Pennington of Kentucky

10:44 a.m. ET: FOX News reported that a seventh U.S. soldier who died from injuries sustained while he was supporting Operation Epic Fury in Saudi Arabia last week has been identified, the Department of War announced.

Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Kentucky, died of his wounds on Sunday after he was injured during "an enemy attack" on March 1 at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, the department said.

He was assigned to 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade, Fort Carson, Colo.

The department said the incident is under investigation. Six other U.S. soldiers were killed in Kuwait during a drone attack on March 1.

A senior U.S. official said another eight "seriously" injured servicemembers are still fighting for their lives, Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin reports.

All the injuries occurred in the first weekend of Operation Epic Fury and the first wave of counterstrikes by the Iranians between Feb. 28 and March 1.

Marco Rubio says US ‘well on our way’ to destroying Iranian missile threat

9:55 a.m. ET: According to the Associated Press, Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the United States is "well on our way" to destroying Iran’s ability to threaten its neighbors and the world with missiles.

Speaking Monday at a State Department ceremony to honor Americans wrongfully detained abroad in countries, including in Iran, Rubio said the goal of the continuing U.S. air strikes is to eliminate Iran’s ballistic missile stockpile, its ability to produce them and its ability to launch them.

"We are well on our way to achieving that objective" he said, adding that it is being done "with overwhelming force, with overwhelming precision."

US pulls staff from consulate in southern Turkey

7:30 a.m. ET: According to the Associated Press, the U.S. State Department on Monday ordered non‑emergency staff and family members to leave the U.S. Consulate in Adana, in southern Turkey. It also advised American citizens to depart southeast Turkey.

The decision marks the 10th U.S. diplomatic mission placed on ordered departure since the start of the war with Iran, and the first such move involving a NATO ally.

US and Iran spar over status of Iranian warship sunk by submarine

5:20 a.m. ET: The Associated Press reported that the United States and Iran have offered different versions of the sinking of an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean.

According to the AP, Washington has rejected Tehran’s claim that the warship IRIS Dena was unarmed when it was sunk in a submarine attack near Sri Lankan waters on March 4.

In a statement Sunday on X, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command called Iran’s assertion that the vessel was unarmed "false."

Iranian officials say the vessel was operating in a noncombat role as it returned home after taking part in a naval exercise in India.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said last week the warship was "unarmed."

Deadly blast at an Iranian school likely US airstrike, evidence suggests

An explosion that killed scores of Iranian students at a school was likely caused by U.S. airstrikes that also hit an adjacent compound associated with the regime’s Revolutionary Guard, evidence suggests. According to The Associated Press, experts say their conclusion is based on satellite images, analysis, a U.S. official, and public information released by the U.S. and Israeli militaries.

More than 165 people were killed, most of them children, in the blast during school hours at Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School, according to Iranian state media.

Iran names new supreme leader

Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the country’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was named his successor Sunday, Iranian state TV said.

He had long been considered a contender, even before an Israeli strike killed his father at the start of the war, and despite never being elected or appointed to a government position.

Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard answers to the supreme leader, and now the younger Khamenei will have the central say in war strategy.

7th US service member dies

A seventh U.S. service member died from injuries sustained during Iran’s initial wave of attacks across the Middle East. 

Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Kentucky, died of his wounds on Sunday after he was injured during "an enemy attack" on March 1 at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, the Department of War announced.

The first six soldiers who died were Army reservists killed in a March 1 attack on a command center in a Kuwaiti port. They are:

• Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
• Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida.
• Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of Des Moines, Iowa.
• Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, 54, of Sacramento
• Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, 45, of Waukee, Iowa.
• Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska

All six were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command based in Des Moines, Iowa. President Trump attended the dignified transfer of their bodies at Dover Air Force Base Saturday morning. 

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