Live updates: Iran names new supreme leader; US announces 7th service member death

Israel struck southern Lebanon, Beirut and oil storage facilities in Tehran on Sunday as fighting across the Middle East intensified, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising "many surprises" in the next phase of the conflict.

Iran, meanwhile, hit a desalination plant in Bahrain. Earlier Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a U.S. airstrike damaged a desalination facility on Qeshm Island, warning that "the U.S. set this precedent, not Iran." Such plants are vital sources of drinking water in the Gulf’s arid climate.

An Israeli strike on oil storage sites in Tehran sent towering flames into the night sky, according to Associated Press video, marking what appeared to be the first attack on a civilian industrial facility in the war.

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The conflict began Feb. 28 with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and has since killed at least 1,230 people there, more than 300 in Lebanon and about a dozen in Israel, according to officials.

Here is the latest:

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

11 p.m. ET: 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.

The Feb. 28 strike, which had the highest reported civilian death toll since the war began, has come under staunch criticism from the United Nations and human rights monitors. More than 165 people were killed, most of them of children, in the blast during school hours at Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School, according to Iranian state media.

Oil prices top $100 per barrel

8:02 p.m. ET: Oil prices have topped $100 per barrel for the first time in more than three and a half years. 

Brent crude, the international standard, was trading at $107.97 per barrel Sunday evening, up 16.5% from its closing price of $92.69 Friday.

West Texas Intermediate, the light, sweet crude oil produced in the United States, was selling for about $106.22 a barrel, up 16.9% from its Friday close of $90.90.

Oil prices have surged as the war interrupts countries and regions that are critical to the production and movement of oil and gas from the Persian Gulf.

According to AAA, the national average for a gallon of gas as of Sunday, March 8, was $3.45 for regular. 

Iran names new supreme leader

5:30 p.m. ET: Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the country’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been named his successor, Iranian state TV said Sunday. 

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.

The 88-seat Assembly of Experts, a group of clerics, selects Iran’s supreme leader.

US Service member dies after Iranian attack in Saudi Arabia

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said Sunday that a U.S. service member has died from injuries sustained during Iran’s initial wave of attacks across the Middle East, bringing the number of American troops killed in action during Operation Epic Fury to seven.

"Last night, a U.S. service member passed away from injuries received during the Iranian regime’s initial attacks across the Middle East," CENTCOM said in a statement posted on X. The service member had been seriously wounded during an attack on U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia on March 1.

CENTCOM said the identity of the fallen service member will be withheld until 24 hours after next of kin notification. Major combat operations tied to Operation Epic Fury are ongoing, the command added.

Saudi Arabia confirms first war fatalities

Saudi Arabia reported its first deaths, saying a military projectile fell onto a residential area and killed two people of Indian and Bangladeshi nationality. It said 12 other Bangladeshis were wounded. Foreign residents and workers have made up most of the war’s deaths in Gulf nations.

Lebanon: 83 children among nearly 400 killed

Lebanon’s health minister said 83 children are among 394 people killed over the past week. Israel renewed its offensive after Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard vows to escalate missile, drone attacks

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on Sunday pledged to intensify missile and drone strikes against Israel and U.S. assets in the Middle East, state media reported, citing what it called the "brutality" of U.S. and Israeli attacks.

Pope urges peace as Vatican rejects ‘preventive war’

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday called for an end to the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran and urged dialogue, warning the conflict is spreading fear and instability across the Middle East, including Lebanon.

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The Vatican, maintaining its diplomatic neutrality, rejected the idea of "preventive war," with Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin warning such a doctrine could "set the whole world ablaze" and calling for respect for international law and multilateral diplomacy.

Iran says 200 children, 200 women among war dead

Iran’s Health Ministry said U.S. and Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,200 people since Feb. 28, including 200 children and around 200 women. More than 1,000 others — about 400 of them women — have been injured, a spokesman said.

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