LIVE: Iran warns of strikes on Gulf oil facilities soon

In a first, the IUML is fielding two women candidates simultaneously in the Kerala Assembly elections to be held on April 9.

According to party leadership, Fathima Thahiliya, a Youth League leader, has been fielded in Perambra in the Kozhikode district, while Jayanthi Rajan, a non-Muslim woman, will contest from Koothuparamba in the Kannur district.

UDF, key constituent IUML, on Tuesday (March 17) announced its list of 25 candidates, including several sitting MLAs and also some new names for the Assembly elections.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has claimed responsibility for striking over 100 targets in Tel Aviv in response to the killing of its senior security official, Ali Larijani.

In a statement, the IRGC said the strikes were carried out as part of the 61st wave of its ongoing campaign, Operation True Promise 4, aimed at countering what it described as “American-Israeli aggression.”

“The hostile sites were hit using multi‑warhead Khorramshahr‑4 and Qadr missiles, along with Emad and Kheibar Shekan projectiles, in retaliation for the martyrdom of Dr. Larijani, the former secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC),” the statement declared.

Top Trump administration national security officials facing back-to-back congressional hearings starting Wednesday are expected to be pressed on the war in Iran, including a deadly strike on a school, as well as the FBI's capacity to prevent terror attacks inside the United States.

The annual worldwide threats hearings involving the government's senior-most intelligence officials are taking place at a time of scrutiny over the US military campaign in the Middle East and heightened concerns about terrorism in the homeland following recent attacks at a Michigan synagogue and Virginia university.

The testimony before the House and Senate intelligence committees is expected to centre on the war and in particular the revelation that outdated intelligence likely led to the US firing a missile that hit an elementary school in Iran and killed over 165 people.

The outdated targeting data was reported to have come from the Defence Intelligence Agency, whose director, Lt. Gen. James H. Adams, is among those set to testify. The White House says the strike is still under investigation.

The hearings, which begin Wednesday in the Senate and continue Thursday in the House, are also likely to delve into internal administration debate over the war given the resignation this week of Joe Kent as director of the National Counterterrorism Centre.

Kent said Tuesday that he could not “in good conscience” back the Trump administration's war and that he did not agree that Iran posed an imminent threat to the US.

Hours later, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, whose office oversaw Kent's work and who is expected at the hearings this week, wrote in a carefully worded social media post that it was up to Trump to decide whether Iran posed a threat. She did not mention her own views of the strikes.

Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe may also be questioned over recent intelligence assessments about Iran, including one that showed US strikes are unlikely to result in a regime change in Tehran, and another that cast doubt on claims Iran was preparing to strike first.

The hearings are also likely to focus on Kash Patel's leadership of the FBI. It will be his first public appearance on Capitol Hill since video surfaced last month showing him partying with members of the US men's hockey team following their gold medal win at the Winter Olympics.

He has fired dozens of agents in his first year on the job, raising concerns about an exodus of national security experience at a time when the US is confronting an elevated terrorism threat.

After being snubbed by its NATO allies and China, the US has made its first major move to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The US military has announced that it had struck Iranian missile installations near the vital waterway using “multiple 5,000‑pound deep‑penetrator” bombs. “US forces successfully employed multiple 5,000‑pound deep‑penetrator munitions on hardened Iranian missile sites along Iran’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz,” Central Command stated on X. “The Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles in these sites posed a risk to international shipping in the strait.”