March 6, 2026
Newsweek – U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told FOX Business on Friday that “As Secretary Hegseth, the General Caine, and the president have all said, tonight-tonight will be our biggest bombing campaign. And will do the most damage to the Iranian missile launchers, the factories that build the missiles, and we are substantially degrading them.”
Iran said on Friday that it has not closed the Strait of Hormuz, but a senior military spokesman told state television that vessels linked to the United States or Israel will be blocked from transiting the waterway, according to reporting by Reuters journalist Ahmed Rasheed.
Day Seven: What To Know
- Israel said it is bombarding regime targets in the Iranian capital of Tehran and the militia Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital of Beirut early Friday morning, on day seven of an intensifying U.S.-led war that is spreading across the Middle East.
- Influential Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Jawad Al‑Khalisi issued a fatwa calling for jihad—a religious decree urging an Islamic holy war—to be waged against the U.S. and Israel across the world, Iranian state media reported—a sign of how the conflict might blow back onto the streets of Western cities.
- IDF waging large-scale strikes against “terror infrastructure” in Tehran and Beirut on Friday.
- Fresh barrage of Iranian missiles and drones fired at Israel—but U.S. says Tehran’s missile supply running out.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says U.S. strikes against Iran “about to surge dramatically.”
- U.S-based Human Rights Activists News Agency puts civilian death toll at 1,168 so far.
- Deadly strike on Iranian girls’ school in early hours of war likely conducted by U.S. military—Reuters report.
- Gulf states continue fighting off waves of Iranian drones and missiles Tehran says targeted at U.S. assets inside.