U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that the United States is winning its military operation against Iran "decisively, devastatingly and without mercy."

Speaking from the Pentagon's briefing room, Hegseth said more forces, including jet fighters and bombers, will soon arrive in the region. He said that the U.S. "will take all the time we need to make sure that we succeed."

Hegseth also said that a torpedo from a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship on Tuesday night, the first such attack on an enemy since World War II.

Earlier, explosions sounded in Tehran Wednesday as Iran's war with the U.S. and Israel entered a fifth day following earlier strikes on an Iranian nuclear site and retaliatory strikes by the Islamic Republic across the Gulf region.

The war has killed more than 1,000 people in Iran and dozens in Lebanon, while disrupting the supply of the world's oil and gas, snarling international shipping, and stranding hundreds of thousands of travelers in the Middle East.

Here is the latest:

U.S. military helping Americans flee Mideast

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the U.S. military is helping Americans to flee the Middle East after the U.S. State Department urged citizens to leave more than a dozen countries.

"We've also opened up space available, seats, as C-17s and other airplanes come in to try to help folks get out," the chairman said, referring to the large C-17 military transport planes.

Caine spoke at Wednesday's news briefing from the Pentagon. He declined to answer a reporter's question about the possibility of deploying ground troops in Iran.

"I'm not going to comment on U.S. boots on the ground," Caine said. "I think that's a question for policymakers. And I don't make policy, I execute policy."

American weapons stockpiles remain strong

Top U.S. military officials say U.S. forces have adequate munitions for ongoing operations against Iran.

Gen. Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was speaking to reporters.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the military used more advanced weapons at the start of the campaign, but was switching to gravity bombs now that the U.S. has control of Iranian skies, and stockpiles of the advanced weapons remain "extremely strong."

U.S. submarine sinks Iranian warship

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says a torpedo from a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship.

In a Pentagon briefing on Wednesday, Hegseth said that the Tuesday night strike on an Iranian warship was the first such attack on an enemy since World War II.

"An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters," Hegseth said. "Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo."

Planning for opening strike of war began 3 weeks ago, Israeli official says

An Israeli military official says top U.S. and Israeli commanders began planning the opening strike of the war against Iran three weeks ago.

The official says that once Israel's government decided on its intention to attack Iran, Israel's top military brass reached out to the Pentagon to coordinate the operation.

The militaries worked side by side during the opening strikes on Saturday, killing Iran's supreme leader and dozens of other top officials. As part of the operation, top Israeli commanders went home for the weekend on Friday to deceive Iran into thinking that an attack was not imminent.

NATO condemns Iran's targeting of Turkey

NATO spokesperson, Allison Hart, condemned "Iran's targeting of Turkey" but she did not confirm whether the military organization's air defenses were used to down the missile.

"NATO stands firmly with all allies, including Turkey, as Iran continues its indiscriminate attacks across the region," she said. "Our deterrence and defense posture remains strong across all domains, including when it comes to air and missile defense."

Asked whether NATO air defenses were used, Hart said she "can't get into operational details."

NATO has parts of a broader European ballistic missile defense system on Turkish soil, including an early warning radar at the Kurecik base which can detect missiles from Iran.

Turkey talks with Iran over intercepted missile

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has spoken by phone with his Iranian counterpart after an Iranian ballistic missile that was detected heading toward Turkish airspace Wednesday was intercepted.

During the call with Abbas Araghchi, Turkey stressed that "all steps that could escalate the conflict and contribute to its spread" must be avoided, a Turkish official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government protocol.

Container ship attacked off Oman

A container ship was attacked Wednesday afternoon off the coast of Oman, causing fire in its engine room, an agency of the U.K. military said.

The vessel was transiting eastbound through the Strait of Hormuz, 2 nautical miles north of Oman, when it was hit by an unknown projectile, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, UKMTO.

Oman, long an intermediary between the West and Iran, has repeatedly come under attack by Iran.

A top cleric says Iran is 'close' to choosing its next supreme leader

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami is a member of the Assembly of Experts, the body charged with picking a new leader. His comments were aired on state television.

"The options have become clear," Khatami said. Other top officials have indicated a decision may be close.

Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard issues most intense threat yet

The guard says it is prepared for the "complete destruction of the region's military and economic infrastructure." The statement came via Iranian state television.

"The continued mischief and deception by the United States in the region will come at the cost of the complete destruction of the region's military and economic infrastructure," it says.

It alleges, without offering evidence, that the U.S. military was using "civilian facilities ... as cover."

Death toll in Iran rises

The death toll in Iran from the ongoing war with the United States and Israel has reached at least 1,045 people, an Iranian government agency said Wednesday.

The Iran's Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs offered the toll, saying it represented the number of bodies so far identified and prepared for burial.

Turkey says NATO defenses intercept ballistic missile launched from Iran

Turkey's Defense Ministry says NATO defenses have intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Iran before it entered Turkey's airspace. A ministry statement said the missile was detected after crossing Iraqi and Syrian airspace. NATO air and missile defense units stationed in the eastern Mediterranean intercepted it in time.

Canada's leader says the world order is rupturing

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney say he sees the war as an extreme example of a rupturing world order in which countries increasingly act without respect for international norms and laws.

"Geo-strategically, hegemons are increasingly acting without constraint or respect for international norms or laws while others bear the consequences. Now the extremes of this disruption are being played out in real time in the Middle East," Carney said at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based international policy think tank.

But whether the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran broke international law was "a judgment for others to make," he said.

Beirut wakes up to drones and another evacuation warning

Strikes hit Lebanon overnight, including in several towns and on a hotel in a suburb right next to the capital.

Beirut woke up to the sounds of drones whizzing overhead.

The Israeli military warned residents in a southern suburb to flee ahead of a morning airstrike, as more displaced people fleeing the conflict pour into the capital seeking shelter.

Israel strikes towns near Beirut, killing at least 6

Overnight Israeli strikes on towns near Beirut have killed at least six people, Lebanon's Health Ministry said early Wednesday.

Israel struck the towns of Aramoun and Saadiyat just south of Beirut's international airport, killing six and wounding eight others.

It also struck a hotel in the Beirut suburb of Hazmieh. No casualties were immediately reported there.

The strikes came without warning and the Israeli military did not immediately disclose the targets.

Israeli attacks target Iranian security forces in Tehran

The Israeli military said Wednesday it conducted a series of strikes across Iran's capital targeting its security forces.

It said it hit buildings associated with the Basij, the all-volunteer force of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard that conducted the bloody crackdown on protesters in January that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands detained in the country.

The Israeli military also said it hit buildings associated with Iran's internal security command, which also has suppressed demonstrations in the past.

Israel and the U.S. have said they want to see the Iranian public overthrow its theocracy.

Strikes against counterprotest forces likely are part of that effort.

Iraqi militant group says it fired drones toward Jordan

An Iranian-backed militant group in Iraq said it fired drones toward Jordan.

The group, Saraya Awliya al-Dam, said that drones were aimed at "a vital target" in the kingdom.

Earlier Wednesday, Jordan's state-run television reported that sirens sounded across the country.

Iraqi militants on Tuesday threatened to target Jordan over allegations that U.S. aircraft that bombed their facilities took off from a Jordanian air base.

Airstrike hits building linked to Iranian clerical panel in Qom

A building associated with the clerical panel that will pick Iran's next supreme leader came under attack in an airstrike in the holy seminary city of Qom, semiofficial media reported.

The attack Tuesday hit the building in the Resalat neighborhood of Qom.

The semiofficial Fars and Tasnim news agencies, both believed to be close to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, linked the building to Iran's Assembly of Experts and said there was no meeting ongoing there at the time of the attack.

Fars further went on to say the assembly is meeting remotely, without elaborating.

It added that meetings over naming a new leader are ongoing - suggesting there could be an announcement by Iran in the coming days over who will replace the 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli strike at the start of the war Saturday.

There was no report on if anyone was hurt in the strike.

Israel's public broadcaster KAN said Israel carried out the attack, though there's been no confirmation from its military.

The Assembly of Experts is an 88-member panel which "must, as soon as possible" pick a new supreme leader under Iranian law.

The panel consists entirely of Shiite clerics who are popularly elected every eight years and whose candidacies are approved by the Guardian Council, Iran's constitutional watchdog.

Death toll rises to 5 after strike in Lebanon's Baalbeck

The death toll from the strike on a residential complex in Baalbeck, Lebanon, rises to five, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Fifteen others were wounded and three are missing, it said.

Sirens go off in Jordan

Sirens have sounded Wednesday morning across Jordan, the kingdom's state television reported.

Israeli airstrike hits hotel outside of Beirut

An Israeli airstrike hit a hotel outside of Beirut, Lebanon's state-run news agency reported Wednesday.

The strike came in Hazmieh, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) southeast of downtown Beirut.

The report from Lebanon's National News Agency said ambulances had been dispatched to the scene.

It did not elaborate in its short report.