US President Donald Trump on Thursday insisted he have a say in picking Iran's next supreme leader, as the war escalated on Thursday, with US and Israeli jets hitting areas across the country and Gulf cities coming under renewed bombardment.

In an interview with Reuters, Trump said Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who ⁠has been considered a favourite to succeed his father, was an unlikely choice.

"We want to be involved in the process of choosing the person who is going to lead Iran into the future," he said by telephone. "We don't have to go back every five years and do this again and again ... Somebody that's going to be great for the people, great for the country."

Trump also encouraged Iranian Kurdish forces to go on the offensive. "I think it's wonderful that they want to do that, I'd be all for it," Trump said.

He would not say whether the United States would provide air cover for any Kurdish offensive.

Two drone attacks targeted an Iranian opposition camp in Iraqi Kurdistan on Thursday, as well as an oil field operated by an American firm, security sources said.

The comments came as the Israeli military warned residents to evacuate areas including eastern Tehran, while Iranian media reported blasts were heard in various parts of the capital. An air attack killed 17 people in a guest house on a road northwest of the capital, Iranian state television said.

On the sixth day of the escalating war, Iran launched a series of attacks on Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Fire crews in Bahrain extinguished a blaze at a refinery following a missile strike.

Azerbaijan became the latest country drawn in, as it accused Iran of firing drones ⁠at its territory and ordered its southern airspace closed for 12 hours. Iran denied it had targeted its neighbour but the episode underlined how rapidly the war has spread since the surprise US and Israeli airstrikes that killed Khamenei on Saturday.

Azerbaijan warned that the attack "will not go unanswered."

The war has been felt as far as the Sri Lankan coast, where a US submarine torpedoed an Iranian warship on Tuesday, killing 80 crew members.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Washington would "bitterly regret" the precedent it had set by sinking a ship in international waters without warning. A commander of the Revolutionary Guards, General Kioumars Heydari, ⁠told state TV: "We have decided to fight Americans wherever they are."

In Iran, at least 1,230 people have been killed, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, including 175 schoolgirls and staff killed at a primary school in Minab in the country's south on the first day of the war.

Another 77 have been killed in Lebanon, its Health Ministry says. Thousands fled southern Beirut on Thursday after Israel warned residents to leave.

Israel, meanwhile, said 60 percent of Iran's missile launchers and 80 percent of its air defence systems had been destroyed.

Announcing a "next phase" in the campaign, army chief Zamir said Israel had "additional surprises ahead."

Two sources familiar with Israel's battle plans said that Israel, having killed many Iranian leaders, was now planning to enter a second phase when it would target underground bunkers where Iran stores its missiles. (Agencies)



Edited by Cecil Wong