US-Iran War News Live Updates: Israel Pounds Lebanon With Strikes; Iran Condemns US Strikes As Show Of 'Bad Faith'

The US military launched another strike on a vessel suspected of transporting drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing one man and leaving two survivors.

Video posted on social media by US Southern Command shows a boat speeding through water before exploding into flames. Southern Command said it "immediately notified the US Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system for the survivors".

The Trump administration's campaign of blowing up alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters, including the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean Sea, has gone on since early September and killed at least 194 people in total. The military has not provided evidence that any of the vessels were carrying drugs.

Iran denounced the most recent US strikes as a sign of "bad faith and unreliability". The US military characterised Monday's strikes in southern Iran as defensive, with targets that included missile launch sites and minelaying boats, and said the US acted with "restraint" in light of the weekslong ceasefire.

Iran's foreign ministry called the strikes a ceasefire violation and warned that Washington would bear responsibility for "all consequences", without elaborating.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran will leave no act of aggression unanswered," it added in a statement.

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Over 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced in the war, sparked when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Iran, two days after the Iran war began.

At least 3,213 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since the start of the war, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, with over 9,700 wounded.

According to Netanyahu's office, 23 Israeli soldiers and a defence contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon, and two civilians have been killed in northern Israel, the vast majority by drones.

(Source: AP)

Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it launched several rocket, artillery and exploding drone attacks on Israeli troops and vehicles mobilising along the river toward the Nabatiyeh villages of Yohmor al-Shaqif and Zawtar al-Sharqieh. Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said the militant group repelled attacks along the river banks.

In recent weeks, Hezbollah has boasted that it is using new fiber-optic drones that Israeli troops have struggled to intercept, hitting both Israeli forces and northern Israeli villages.
 

Israel says it will not withdraw until Hezbollah no longer poses a threat to residents of its northern towns. Hezbollah has vowed to fight until Israel stops its daily airstrikes and withdraws its troops from Lebanon.

The Lebanese government, which came to power on a platform of reform and disarming Hezbollah and other armed groups, hopes that the direct talks with Israel — which Hezbollah opposes — will lead to a permanent ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli troops.

Israel struck an area near the Qaraoun Dam, the country's largest along the Litani River. The Litani River Authority said there was no direct damage to the dam. 

Israel's military said it struck more than 100 Hezbollah sites across southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley area overnight, adding that it targeted storage facilities, command centres and observation points used to attack Israeli troops and residents in northern Israel.

One strike hit the eastern village of Mashghara, killing 12 people, including several members of a family, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said.

Israel in recent days has intensified strikes in the city and province of Nabatiyeh, just north of the river. On Tuesday it warned city residents to leave.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after meeting with his defense minister and senior military officials that Israel will expand its operations in Lebanon.

“The (Israeli Defence Forces) are operating with large forces on the ground and seizing strategic areas,” he said, adding that Israel is trying to fortify an area of southern Lebanon under its control, which it says is necessary to protect residents in its northern border towns from Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks.

Israel's military clashed with the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group along a strategic river in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops pushed farther north, days ahead of talks in Washington between Lebanese and Israeli delegations.

A US-brokered ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict appeared more nominal by the day, complicating efforts at a broader peace in the Iran war as Tehran wants an agreement to include an end to the fighting in Lebanon.

The Litani River has been a de facto boundary in Lebanon, with large areas to the south under Israeli military control despite the ceasefire that's been in place for over a month.