The Turkish Ministry of National Defense announced that NATO air and missile defenses had shot down an Iranian ballistic missile heading toward Turkish airspace, Reuters reported on March 4. The ballistic missile attack came just hours after a U.S. submarine torpedoed an Iranian warship and sank it in international waters near Sri Lanka.

In addition, Qatar said it had arrested two cells of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps inside its territory. The Iranian death toll has increased to nearly 1,000 as Israeli strikes have continued, including attacks targeting Iran's missile launchers and weapons factories. Israel has also threatened to kill deceased Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's successor. Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iran have coordinated attacks on Israel in an effort to overwhelm the country's air defense systems.