US-Iran War Day 4 LIVE Updates: Iranian Drones Strike Australian Military Facility In UAE

India is weighing higher Russian crude purchases as part of an emergency energy plan after Hormuz Strait disruptions rattled global oil flows, with officials reviewing export curbs and alternative shipping routes, NDTV Profit learnt from sources. Read full report

The Strait of Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb, the Suez Canal, and the Strait of Gibraltar are the choke points that link Asia, Europe, Africa and the Atlantic. Each is narrow, heavily trafficked and strategically exposed, but the Strait of Hormuz is the most critical.

Here's a look at how these chokepoints will impact the Israel-Iran conflict

Iran's state-run news agencies on Tuesday reported that the country has launched a "massive attack" on the US military based in Bahrain.

IndiGo on Tuesday said it has cancelled 43 flights to and from the Middle East, that were scheduled to depart today. The decision comes amid the airspace closures in various parts of the Gulf, due to the escalating war between Iran and the US-Israel combine.

Iranian drones struck Australian military facilities in the United Arab Emirates, ABC News reported Richard Marles, the country's defence minister as saying. There were no casualties, he added.

At least 96 persons, including 85 civilians, were killed in the US-Israeli strikes in Iran on Monday, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

Saudi Arabia's Defense Ministry, in a statement, said it shot down eight Iranian drones on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.

"Clearly the United States would not deliberately target a school. Our objectives are missiles, both the ability to manufacture them and the ability to launch them, and the one-way attractor. That would be our focus... We would have no interest in targeting civilian infrastructure. The Iranians are, on the other hand, targeting civilian infrastructure... They are deliberately targeting civilians because they are a terroristic regime. They sponsor terrorism, and they participate in terrorism," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

"Our mission and our focus is the destruction of their ballistic missile capabilities and their ability to manufacture them, as well as the threat posed by their Navy to global shipping... We hope that the Iranian people can overthrow this government and establish a new future for that country... But the objective of this mission is the destruction of their ballistic missile capabilities and of their naval capabilities... We would love to see this regime be replaced... The objective of this mission is to make sure they don't have these weapons that can threaten us and our allies in the region," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

The US asked Americans currently in 14 Middle East countries to "depart" at the earliest, indicating that the tensions with Iran is likely to result into a regional war.