The military operation against Iran entered its sixth day on Thursday. Iran has warned of retribution against the United States for sinking one of its warships in international waters, and Tehran continues to hit out at the wider region, with Azerbaijan the latest country to suffer strikes.
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**Wednesday’s live updates below. All updates in Eastern time**
05:45 AM: Iran calls for Trump’s blood
Tehran is attempting to make a fulcrum out of the sinking by submarine-launched torpedo of their warship in international waters on Wednesday morning, by framing it as some sort of war crime. If you’ve been on social media at all in the past 24 hours, you’ve probably seen some of these arguments aired.
As reported by Simon Kent this morning, the message from Iran is clear, that President Trump will pay for this insult:
yatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli, in one of the few clerical statements so far from Iran, added the country was “on the verge of a great test” and called on state television for “the shedding of Zionist blood, the shedding of Trump’s blood.”
“Fight the oppressive America, his blood is on my shoulders,’” he said in a rare call for violence from an ayatollah, one of the highest ranks within the clergy of Shiite Islam.
05:15 AM: Iran strikes Azerbaijan
The Iranian strategy of attacking, essentially, absolutely everyone within range with no regard to whether they had any part in America & Israel’s decapitation strikes over the weekend continues unabated with a drone hit the passenger terminal of the airport in Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan exclave. Two people were reportedly injured.
According to a statement from the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a second drone landed “near a school building”. They demanded Iran apologise for the strike and said they “reserves the right to take appropriate response measures.”
The Azerbaijan Ministry of Defence was less coy, and threatened retaliation. They said in their statement that the military was “preparing the necessary response measures to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of our country, ensure the safety of civilians and civilian infrastructure, and these attacks will not go unanswered.”
05:00 AM: Israel shows off guncam footage
We reported yesterday that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) were celebrating their first ever manned air to air kill with their U.S.-made F-35 against a Yakolev-130, a jet trainer Iran had pressed into frontline service. Now Israel has published FLIR footage of the kill, showing the perspective from an aircraft with a clear height advantage looking down on the passing small jet before it explodes, soaring through the air with a streak of fire.
For earlier livewire updates from Wednesday please click here
