Last UpdateMarch 21, 2026, 3:00 PM EDT

Iran fired two intermediate-range ballistic missiles toward Diego Garcia, a key U.S.-U.K. military base in the Indian Ocean, reports said. Neither missile struck the base, which is used as a critical launch point for U.S. bombers, nuclear submarines and other strategic assets.

Covered by: Greg Norman-Diamond, Jasmine Baehr, Elizabeth Elkind and Efrat Lachter

WHAT TO KNOW

• Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Saturday vowed intensified strikes with the U.S. military against the Iranian terror regime and infrastructure, saying the joint offensive “will increase significantly” this week. Israel’s Operation Roaring Lion against Iran, and the United States’ Operation Epic Fury, were launched on Feb. 28. Both campaigns, as of Saturday, are on day 22.
• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday the U.S. will temporarily allow the sale of Iranian oil already stranded at sea in an effort to stabilize global energy markets amid the war. Oil prices have remained escalated as Iran is threatening the Strait of Hormuz, a key maritime passage connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, that is vital for the global energy supply.
• The Department of War said Friday that U.S. forces are “dominating the air and sea” during Operation Epic Fury against the Iranian regime, as strikes continue across the region. More than 50,000 U.S. service members are already in the Middle East supporting Operation Epic Fury, and a U.S. official told Fox News on Friday that the U.S. military is sending thousands more Marines and sailors with the USS Boxer amphibious ready group and 11th Marine expeditionary unit to the Middle East.

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6 hours ago

PINNED

22 countries voice ‘readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts’ to open Strait of Hormuz

Cargo ships sail in the Arabian Gulf towards the Strait of Hormuz in the United Arab Emirates, on Thursday, March 19, 2026. (AP)

Twenty-two countries have now signed onto a joint statement signaling their “readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage” through the Strait of Hormuz.

The growing list, which includes NATO members, comes after President Donald Trump ripped NATO for acting like “cowards” Friday. The president said “they complain about the high oil prices they are forced to pay, but don’t want to help open the Strait of Hormuz.”

The joint statement said, “We express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait,” and, “We welcome the commitment of nations who are engaging in preparatory planning.”

The statement is attributed to the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Denmark, Latvia, Slovenia, Estonia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Czechia, Romania, Bahrain, Lithuania, Australia and the United Arab Emirates.

“We condemn in the strongest terms recent attacks by Iran on unarmed commercial vessels in the Gulf, attacks on civilian infrastructure including oil and gas installations, and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces,” the statement also said.

“We express our deep concern about the escalating conflict. We call on Iran to cease immediately its threats, laying of mines, drone and missile attacks and other attempts to block the Strait to commercial shipping, and to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 2817,” the statement continued, referencing a resolution passed last week that spoke out against Iran’s recent actions.

Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond

3 hours ago

Iran ‘lied’ about missile range, Israeli envoy says

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations accused Iran of misleading the world about the true range of its missile program, warning the threat now extends far beyond what Tehran previously claimed.

“For years they claimed their missiles were ‘for defensive purposes’ only,” Danny Danon wrote on X. “They promised the range was limited to 2,000 km [1,240 miles].”

“Today the truth is clear: everything they said about the nuclear program and missile production was a lie,” he added, warning Iran’s missiles are now capable of threatening large parts of Europe.

The remarks come as new reporting suggests Iran’s missile reach may extend thousands of miles, after The Wall Street Journal reported Tehran fired ballistic missiles toward the joint U.S.-U.K. base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

Posted by Jasmine Baehr

3 hours ago

IDF strikes Tehran site tied to Iran nuclear program: ‘The evil regime is weaker’

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck a strategic research and development site in Tehran used by the Iranian regime to develop components for nuclear weapons production.

The target, identified as the Malek Ashtar University site, is affiliated with Iran’s Ministry of Defense and has long been under international sanctions for its role in advancing Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The IDF said the strike was carried out with precise intelligence guidance as part of ongoing operations targeting Iran’s military infrastructure.

Israeli officials described the strike as part of a broader effort to degrade the regime’s ability to develop nuclear weapons.

Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir also released a statement on X saying the damage was “extensive.” 

“The extensive damage we have inflicted on the Iranian regime over the past three weeks is beginning to accumulate into an operational-strategic, military, economic, and governmental achievement,” Zamir wrote. “The evil regime is weaker, Iran is more exposed and without significant defensive capability.”

The operation comes amid continued strikes under Operation Roaring Lion, as Israel and the United States ramp up pressure on Iran.

Posted by Jasmine Baehr

4 hours ago

Iranian man, Romanian woman charged with allegedly trying to infiltrate UK nuclear missile base

His Majesty’s Naval Base (HMNB) Clyde, also known as Faslane, hosts the U.K.’s nuclear submarines, which are armed with Trident missiles and serve as the U.K.’s nuclear deterrent. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

An Iranian man and a Romanian woman have now been charged after unsuccessfully attempting to enter a nuclear missile base in Scotland this week, Police Scotland announced Saturday. 

The agency said around 5 p.m. on Thursday, “we were made aware of two people attempting to enter HM Naval Base Clyde.” 

“A 34-year-old Iranian man and a 31-year-old Romanian woman have been arrested and charged in connection with the incident. They are due to appear at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on Monday, March 23,” Police Scotland said. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to Police Scotland for further comment.  

Citing the Times, the Telegraph newspaper reported that the suspects were turned away from the base because they lacked the correct passes and were later arrested nearby for allegedly “acting suspiciously in the vicinity.” 

HM Naval Base Clyde — commonly known as Faslane — is considered the primary base for the United Kingdom’s missile fleet. 

The Royal Navy says the base is home “to the core of the Submarine Service, including the nation’s nuclear deterrent, and the new generation of hunter-killer submarines.” 

The U.K. Parliament says the Royal Navy currently operates a fleet of nine submarines, with the entire fleet based at HM Naval Base Clyde.

This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman-Diamond.

Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond

5 hours ago

CENTCOM touts skills of US pilots during war with Iran: ‘Like landing on a moving postage stamp’

U.S. Central Command released a new video Saturday highlighting the skills of American fighter jet pilots during Operation Epic Fury.

“An aircraft carrier flight deck covers approximately 4.5 acres. For pilots, it’s like landing on a moving postage stamp,” CENTCOM said. “The crew on USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) makes launching and recovering jets look routine — both day and night.”

The USS Abraham Lincoln is one of many American military assets in the Middle East operating in support of Operation Epic Fury.

“U.S. Forces maintain air superiority over Iran’s skies having now flown over 8,000 combat flights,” U.S. Central Command Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said Saturday. “Our air crews are performing exceptionally across the fight, from tankers to fighters and bombers to land-based and carrier-based aviation doing a superb job.”

Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond

5 hours ago

Explosions seen in western Iran as IDF targets ballistic missiles array site

The Israel Defense Forces released a video Saturday showing multiple explosions in western Iran as it struck a site linked to ballistic missiles activity. 

“Throughout Operation Roaring Lion, the Israeli Air Force had continuously targeted the firepowerarrays of the Iranian terror regime, and particularly the ballistic missile array across Iran,” the IDF said. 

“The Israeli Air Force, acting on IDF intelligence, conducted five strikes within seconds on several infrastructure sites located within a large-scale ballistic missiles array site in western Iran,” it added. 

“The IDF will continue to deepen the degradation of the Iranian regime’s fire arrays all across Iran, with the aim of reducing as much as possible the scope of fire directed toward the territory of the State of Israel,” the IDF also said. 

Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond

7 hours ago

Families of Iran’s elite live lavishly abroad while ordinary citizens suffer at home

For decades, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and ruling clerical elite have relied on a system critics say is as strategic as it is cynical: denounce the West in public, while quietly securing a future there for their own families.

“The Islamic regime in Iran is corrupt to its core,” Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC research at United Against Nuclear Iran, told Fox News Digital. “While regime clerics and IRGC commanders violently Islamize Iranian society and export anti-Americanism globally, their sons and daughters live lavish lifestyles on blood money in Western capitals.”

Iranian journalist Banafsheh Zand still remembers the girl from her school, the kind of memory that only becomes meaningful years later, when a familiar face reappears in a completely different context.

They sat together in classrooms at Tehran’s elite Iranzamin School, an institution designed for the children of diplomats and Iran’s upper class, where students spoke multiple languages and moved easily between cultures. The girl was quiet and studious, already shaped in part by years spent in the United States, where she had lived as a child and picked up fluent English that would later define her public role.

Years later, Zand would see her again, not across a desk or in a school hallway, but on television screens around the world. Her former classmate had become the voice of the 1979 U.S. embassy hostage crisis.

The girl was Masoumeh Ebtekar, the English-speaking spokesperson for the extremists who held 52 Americans hostages for 444 days, and who would go on to defend the takeover of the U.S. embassy and later describe it as “the best move” for the revolution.

And yet, decades later, the story did not end in Tehran. It continued, quietly and almost predictably, in California.

Ebtekar’s son, Eissa Hashemi, was living in the United States, pursuing graduate studies and eventually building a career in academia in Los Angeles, Zand exposed on her substack “Iran So Far Away” — a trajectory that stands in stark contrast to the ideology his mother helped articulate to the world. 

Posted by Efrat Lachter

7 hours ago

Iran funding emerges as key test for Johnson’s razor-thin House majority

The Trump administration’s anticipated multibillion-dollar funding request to bolster its Iran campaign could face resistance from GOP fiscal hawks.

Though congressional Republicans have been broadly supportive of the Trump administration’s conflict in Iran, some conservatives are drawing a red line that an emergency cash infusion, known as a supplemental, cannot increase budget deficits. Multiple House Freedom Caucus members, for example, told Fox News Digital that such a funding bill would have to be made up for by cutting spending elsewhere.

“I think the big thing there is going to be making sure that there’s a pay-for,” Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., told Fox News Digital. 

“I’d like to see how this is paid for,” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., said, adding that he’d like to see Iran ultimately cover the costs. 

Neither the president nor Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth has attempted to dispute reports Thursday that the administration is considering an infusion of roughly $200 billion to help finance the Iran campaign and restore depleted munitions. However, no formal request has been sent to congressional leaders yet.

“Our national debt just surpassed $39 trillion. A potential supplemental for Operation Epic Fury — or any supplemental funding for that matter — must be offset,” Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., told Fox News Digital when asked about the prospective $200 billion request. 

Clyde said he supported the mission but that any resources Congress signs off on must be done “in a fiscally responsible manner.”

Fox News Digital’s Adam Pack contributed to this report.

Posted by Elizabeth Elkind

8 hours ago

Israel’s military pummels Iranian ballistic missile production facilities in Tehran

The Israel Defense Forces announced Saturday that it struck Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) facilities that are “utilized for the production of critical components for the development of ballistic missiles” in Iran. 

“Overnight, the Israeli Air Force, acting on precise IDF intelligence, completed a wide-scale strike sortie in Tehran, during which dozens of Iranian terror regime targets belonging to the Iranian regime were struck,” the IDF said. 

Among the sites hit were a “central IRGC compound utilized for the production and development of ballistic missile components,” a “missile production components storage facility,” and a “compound belonging to the Ministry of Defense responsible for producing missile fuel,” according to the IDF. 

“The IDF will continue to expand its strikes against the regime’s weapons production facilities in order to degrade its capabilities to advance its ballistic missile program, which poses a direct threat to the State of Israel,” it also said. 

Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond

8 hours ago

UK condemns ‘Iran’s reckless attacks’ following attempted Diego Garcia strike

The United Kingdom ripped “Iran’s reckless attacks” Saturday after the regime in Tehran reportedly fired two intermediate-range ballistic missiles toward Diego Garcia, a key U.S.-U.K. military base in the Indian Ocean.

“Iran’s reckless attacks, lashing out across the region and holding hostage the Strait of Hormuz, are a threat to British interests and British allies,” the U.K. Ministry of Defence said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “RAF jets and other UK military assets are continuing to defend our people and personnel in the region.”

“This government has given permission to the U.S. to use British bases for specific and limited defensive operations,” it added.

Neither missile in the attempted attack on Diego Garcia struck the base. One missile failed in flight, while a U.S. warship launched an SM-3 interceptor at the other, officials told The Wall Street Journal.

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.

Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond

9 hours ago

US launches ‘longest field artillery strike in Army combat history’ against Iran

U.S. Central Command Commander Adm. Brad Cooper revealed Saturday that American forces “launched the longest field artillery strike in Army combat history using precision strike missiles” against Iran.

The military effort, which happened two days ago, “took out Iranian military infrastructure, demonstrating the U.S. Military’s unmatched reach and lethality,” Cooper said.

Cooper added that on day 22 of Operation Epic Fury, “U.S. forces continue to take bold action and remain on plan to eliminate Iran’s ability to project meaningful power outside its borders.”

“So far, we’ve struck over 8,000 military targets, including 130 Iranian vessels, constituting the largest elimination of a Navy over a three-week period since World War II,” Cooper said.

Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond

9 hours ago

US drops 5,000-pound bombs on Iranian missile sites threatening Strait of Hormuz

Recent U.S. and Israeli strikes in Iran. (Fox News)

American forces remain “zeroed in on dismantling Iran’s decades-old threat to the free flow of commerce throughout the Strait of Hormuz,” U.S. Central Command Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said Saturday.

“For example, earlier this week we dropped multiple 5,000-pound bombs on an underground facility located along Iran’s coastline. The Iranian regime used the hardened underground facility to discreetly store anti-ship cruise missiles, mobile missile launchers, and other equipment that presented a dangerous risk to international shipping,” Cooper said.

“We not only took out the facility, but also destroyed intelligence support sites and missile radar relays that were used to monitor ship movements. Iran’s ability to threaten freedom of navigation in and around the Strait of Hormuz is degraded as a result, and we will not stop pursuing these targets,” he continued.

Cooper also said “Iran has lost significant combat capability over the last three weeks,” and, “We are taking out thousands of Iranian missiles, advanced attack drones, and all of Iran’s Navy, which they use to harass international shipping.”

Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond

9 hours ago

Israel kills 4 Hezbollah terrorists in ‘targeted ground operation’ in southern Lebanon

Recent Hezbollah attacks in Lebanon and Israel. (Fox News)

The Israel Defense Forces said Saturday that multiple Hezbollah terrorists were killed during a “targeted ground operation” in southern Lebanon.

The Hezbollah fighters “targeted an Israeli Air Force aircraft that attacked several other terrorists who were firing at the forces,” according to the IDF. 

One terrorist was killed by Israeli troops in a “ground engagement,” it said, while three others were eliminated by tank fire.

The IDF said it suffered no casualties during the firefight.

Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon has launched attacks on Israel since the start of Operation Roaring Lion.

Posted by Greg Norman-Diamond