The US has sunk an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka, and NATO air defences have shot down a missile fired towards Türkiye, as more countries are dragged into the international crisis fuelled by a widening war.
UN investigators joined criticism of the US-Israeli strikes on Iran and said they were "deeply shocked" by reports that schools had been hit, killing scores of children.
But the White House says its operation has exceeded expectations. US President Donald Trump said he would rate its success to date a "15" out of 10.
"We are just getting started," US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. Iran's remaining leaders "are toast and they know it," he said.
Mr Hegseth said the US and Israel were on the cusp of taking "uncontested and complete control of Iran's skies", and he confirmed an American submarine had sunk an Iranian warship "that thought it was safe in international waters".
Sri Lanka said its rescuers recovered 87 bodies and saved 32 people after the IRIS Dena was torpedoed near its southern coast. About 60 Iranian sailors were unaccounted for.
[map]The Israeli military said its aircraft had struck a compound in eastern Tehran housing all Iran's security bodies, including the Revolutionary Guard, intelligence, cyber warfare and internal police in charge of cracking down on protests.
Israel also told residents to leave a swathe of southern Lebanon as it pressed its assault on the Iran-backed group Hezbollah.
NATO destroys missile bound for Türkiye
Türkiye said NATO air defences shot down an Iranian ballistic missile that was heading into Turkish airspace early on Wednesday, local time.
It marked the first time a NATO member had been drawn into the war and raised the possibility of a major expansion involving its bloc allies.
But Mr Hegseth later said there was "no sense that it would trigger anything like Article Five", the NATO defence clause that commits member countries to defending other members from attack.
It was unclear where the missile was headed, but the US has air forces stationed at the Inirlik base in Türkiye's south. NATO condemned Iran's targeting of Türkiye.
Dan Caine, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iran's missile and drone attacks on Gulf states were slowing down.
He said there had been an 86 per cent decline in ballistic missile shots from Iran since the first day of the war. Iranian drone attacks were down 73 per cent, he said.
Trump has 'unified Iranians', Tehran professor says
After initially calling for Iranians to rise up and topple Iran's leadership, the Trump administration put forward four objectives, which do not include regime change.
Asked about America's role in Iran after the war on Wednesday, local time, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said: "It's something the president is actively considering and discussing with his advisers and his national security team."
"Do we want to see Iran being led by a rogue terrorist regime? No, of course not," she said.
But Foad Izadi, an associate professor in the Faculty of World Studies at the University of Tehran, said American and Israeli hopes of regime change were "pipe dreams".
Professor Izadi, a supporter of the ruling regime, said Mr Trump had "unified Iranians more than any Iranian politician could ever do".
"Even people who did not like government policies, they don't want their children to be bombed when they're at school," he said. "They don't want their hospitals to be bombed."
He predicted Mr Trump would soon realise the Iranian government had been "strengthened" by the strikes. "Once he realises that, then he's going to declare victory and go and do other mischiefs to some other place in the world," he said.
"Anywhere in Tehran, if you open your window you will hear at 7, 8, 9 o'clock at night, people chanting death to Trump and death to Netanyahu. They were chanting against these illegal acts."
The continuous pounding of parts of Tehran prompted Iran to postpone a funeral ceremony for Khamenei, Iranian state media reported.
There are reports from inside Iran that his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, is firming up as the favourite to succeed his father.
But Professor Izadi told the ABC he was sceptical.
"That is one of [exiled crown prince Reza] Pahlavi's outlets that is promoting that," he said.
"The news that we have is that they haven't voted yet. So I think we shouldn't take that very seriously."
Iran said the Assembly of Experts, which selects the new leader, would announce its decision soon.
US 'investigating' school bombing
The Trump administration said it was still investigating what happened at a girls' school in Iran, which Iranian state media said was bombed in the first wave of strikes.
"All I know, all I can say, is that we're investigating that," Mr Hegseth said. "We, of course, never target civilian targets."
At the White House later, Ms Leavitt was asked if the US struck the school and said: "Not that we know of."
"I would caution you from pointing the finger at the United States of America when it comes to targeting civilians," she said.
NPR reported that a review of satellite imagery showed the bombing included more targets than just the school.
The images suggest that the school was hit as part of a precision air strike on a neighbouring Iranian military complex, NPR reported.
CNN earlier reported the school was located about 60 metres from an Iranian Revolutionary Guard base.
The UN's Independent fact-finding mission on Iran said it was "deeply shocked by reports that US and Israeli airstrikes have hit schools" in a statement that also condemned the broader strikes on Iran, and Iran's retaliatory attacks.
"The Iranian population is now caught between a large-scale military campaign that may go on for weeks or months, and a government with a long record of gross human rights violations," the mission said.
Democrats in the US Senate again tried to pass a resolution to force Mr Trump to consult Congress on future action in Iran.
The resolution was voted down 53-47. Rand Paul was the only Republican to back the resolution. Democrat John Fetterman sided with Republicans to oppose it.
The outcome shows there is more support in the Senate for the Iran strikes than the US operation in Venezuela. A similar bill regarding Venezuela passed the Senate last month, when five Republicans broke ranks to back it, though it was largely symbolic.
ABC/wires
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