DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Explosions sent up clouds of dark smoke in the Iranian capital city early Saturday, and Tehran retaliated by firing missiles at Israel as the United States warned of a forthcoming bombing campaign that officials said would be the most intense yet in the weeklong conflict.

There was no foreseeable end to the fighting. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration approved a new $151 million arms sale to Israel after Trump said he would not negotiate with Iran without its “unconditional surrender.” Iran’s U.N. ambassador said the country would “take all necessary measures” to defend itself.

Associated Press video showed explosions flashing and smoke rising over western Tehran as Israel said it had begun a broad wave of strikes. Also early Saturday, loud booms sounded in Jerusalem and incoming missiles from Iran had people heading to bomb shelters across Israel.

There were no immediate reports of casualties by Israel’s emergency services.

In a sign of the widening nature of the conflict, sirens sounded early Saturday in Bahrain as Iranian attacks targeted the island kingdom. And Saudi Arabia said it destroyed drones headed toward its vast Shaybah oil field and shot down a ballistic missile launched toward Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts U.S. forces.

The U.S. and Israel have battered Iran with strikes, targeting its military capabilities, leadership and nuclear program. The stated goals and timelines for the war have repeatedly shiftedas the U.S. has at times suggested it seeks to topple Iran’s government or elevate new leadership from within.

Meanwhile, Russia has provided Iran with information that could help Tehran strike the U.S. military, according to two officials familiar with U.S. intelligence on the matter. Russian President Vladimir Putin had a call Friday with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, expressing his condolences over the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneithe Kremlin said.

In other developments, evidence emerged suggesting that an explosion that killed scores of Iranian students at a school was likely caused by U.S. airstrikes that also hit an adjacent compound associated with the regime’s Revolutionary Guard.

Qatar’s energy minister, Saad al-Kaabi, warned in an interview with the Financial Times that the war could “bring down the economies of the world,” predicting a widespread shutdown of Gulf energy exports that could send oil to $150 a barrel.

The price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose above $90 on Friday for the first time in more than two years.

Russia is providing information to Iran, officials say

Russia has provided Iran with information that could help Tehran strike American warships, aircraft and other assets in the region, according to two officials familiar with U.S. intelligence on the matter.

The people, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, cautioned that the U.S. intelligence has not uncovered that Russia is directing Iran on what to do with the information.

Still, it’s the first indication that Moscow has sought to get involved in the war.

Trump says US will help rebuild Iran once it has ‘ACCEPTABLE’ leaders

In a social media post Friday, Trump said “There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” After a surrender, “and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s),” he wrote, the U.S. and its allies will help rebuild Iran, making it “economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.”

Those comments were likely to raise further questions about the endgame of the war. The fighting has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 200 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Six U.S. troops have been killed.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on social media that “some countries” had begun mediation efforts, without elaborating.

Trump has also told media outlets that he should be involved in choosing a replacement for Khameneiwho was killed in the opening strikes of the war. Trump spoke dismissively of Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei — a front-runner to replace his father — calling him “a lightweight.”

Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, condemned Trump’s statement and said Iran “does not accept and will never allow any foreign power to interfere in its internal affairs.”

Iranian state television reported Friday that a leadership council had started discussing how to convene the country’s Assembly of Experts, which will select the new supreme leader.

U.S. official warns that ‘biggest bombing’ is coming

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a television interview that the “biggest bombing campaign” of the war was still to come.

Israel has said that over the past week it has heavily bombed an extensive underground bunker that Iranian leaders had planned to use during the hostilities.

New information surfaced suggesting that a deadly Feb. 28 explosion at a school in the Iranian city of Minab, some 1,100 kilometers (680 miles) southeast of Tehran, was likely caused by U.S. airstrikes. The information included satellite images, expert analysis, a U.S. official and public information released by U.S. and Israeli military forces.

Iranian state media has said more than 165 people were killed in the blast, most of them of children.

Iran has blamed Israel and the U.S. for the explosion. Neither country has accepted responsibility, though Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the U.S. is investigating.

Fighting with Israeli troops reported in eastern Lebanon

The Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah said its fighters clashed with an Israeli force that landed late Friday in the mountains of eastern Lebanon. The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least three people were killed.

Israel did not acknowledge the fighting, and its military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Israel has carried out waves of airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah has a large presence but which is also home to hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least 217 people have been killed by Israeli strikes since Monday and 798 wounded.

Roads in the Lebanese capital were choked with evacuating traffic as smoke rose over the city’s southern districts. Two hospitals evacuated patients and staff.

“What can we do? We prayed here under the tree. During the night, we slept in the car because there is no place to stay,” Jihan Shehadeh, one of the tens of thousands of displaced, said.

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Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank, Rising from Bangkok and Abou AlJoud from Beirut. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — President Donald Trump’s plans to nominate Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma to take over as Homeland Security secretary follow a notable political rise for the plumbing company owner who was first elected to Congress in 2012.

Mullin, 48, has become one of Trump’s fiercest defenders in the U.S. Senate and is now positioned to join his administration after the president on Thursday fired embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noemwho had come under mounting criticism over her leadership of the department.

A former mixed-martial arts fighter and collegiate wrestler, Mullin has earned a reputation as a fighter in the Senate and has grown friendlier with Trump since they attended an NCAA wrestling event together in Tulsa in 2023.

“Markwayne will make a spectacular Secretary of Homeland Security,” Trump posted on his Truth Social account.

Mullin told reporters at the Capitol Thursday that he would get DHS “focused on protecting the homeland.”

“No matter if you support me, you don’t support me, I’m going to be laser-focused on getting that done,” he added.

Mullin’s rise to U.S. senator

A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Mullin emerged from a crowded GOP field in 2022 to win Oklahoma’s vacant U.S. Senate seat. He was running a successful plumbing company in Oklahoma — known for its red vans with “The Red Rooter” logo on the side — when he first ran for the U.S. House and painted himself as a political outsider fed up with government regulations strangling businesses like his.

He ultimately won the seat representing Oklahoma’s sprawling 2nd District, a rural seat that was once a Democratic stronghold but has become increasingly conservative over the last decade.

A reputation as a fighter in Congress

His fiery exchanges in the Senate included a 2023 hearing with the head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, when Mullin told the union leader to “stand your butt up,” before standing from his seat and appearing to take his ring off.

“If you want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults,” Mullin told Sean O’Brien, the union’s president, with whom Mullin had previously engaged in a back-and-forth on social media. “We can finish it here.”

Months after his confrontation with O’Brien, the two reconciled. Mullin called the union leader a “new friend.”

The interaction underscored how Mullin is one of Trump’s most aggressive defenders in Congress and often spars with people on social media, but also often is an affable presence in the Capitol. He’s known to walk the halls in a cowboy hat and boots, sometimes bouncing a rubber ball as he chats with reporters.

He’s also a conduit between the White House and Senate Republican leadership and maintains relationships from his days in the House. He still leads workout sessions sometimes in the House gym.

At the State of the Union last month, Mullin took a swipe at a sign held by Rep. Al Green that said “Black people aren’t apes”, a reference to a racist video the president posted that depicted former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as primates in a jungle.

During the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Mullin made headlines when he attempted to enter the country from multiple locations and was denied. Mullin said he was trying to help an American family flee Afghanistan.

Mullin has faced some criticisms

Mullin initially vowed to only serve three terms in Congress, a promise he later broke when he announced plans to run again, saying then that he “didn’t understand politics” when he originally made the initial pledge.

Mullin also has faced criticism for receiving at least $1.8 million from a federal rescue program designed to keep small businesses afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.

Data from the U.S. Treasury Department showed four separate businesses owned by Mullin received a total of between $800,000 and $1.9 million from the Paycheck Protection Program. A Mullin spokeswoman said at the time the congressman was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the companies and referred questions to the companies’ chief financial officer.

Cherokee Nation leader praises Mullin

Mullin has supported legislation important to tribal citizens and advocated for tribal sovereignty, and he stumped for Trump in 2024describing the president as strong on issues affecting Native communities.

“It is deeply encouraging to have someone with a keen understanding of federal Indian policy, law and justice elevated to such a critical leadership role within a powerful federal agency,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said Thursday.

As a tribal citizen, Mullin could address recent allegations that members of federally-recognized tribes have been targeted by ICE officers, including some documented cases of their detainments and arrests.

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Associated Press reporter Graham Brewer in Norman, Okla., contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House narrowly rejected a resolution Thursday to curb President Donald Trump’s powers in the Iran war, an early sign of unease in Congress over the rapidly widening conflict that is reordering U.S. priorities at home and abroad.

It’s the second vote in as many days, after the Senate defeated a similar measure. Lawmakers are confronting the sudden reality of representing wary Americans in wartime and all that entails — with lives lostdollars spent and alliances tested by a president’s unilateral decision to go to war with Iran.

While the tally in the House, 212-219, was expected to be tight, the outcome provided a clarifying snapshot of political support for, and opposition to, the U.S.-Israel military operation and Trump’s rationale for bypassing Congress, which alone has the power to declare war. At the Capitol, the conflict has quickly carried echoes of the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and many Sept. 11-era veterans now serve in Congress.

“Donald Trump is not a king, and if he believes the war with Iran is in our national interest, then he must come to Congress and make the case,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

House Speaker Mike Johnson warned that it would be “dangerous” to limit the president’s authority while the U.S. military is already in conflict.

“We are not at war,” said Johnson, R-La., a close ally of Trump, contradicting others. He said the operation is limited in scope and duration, and the “mission is nearly accomplished.”

Republicans largely back Trump, and most Democrats oppose the war

Trump’s Republican Party, which narrowly controls the House and Senate, largely sees the conflict with Iran not as the start of a new war, but the end of a government that has long menaced the West. The operation has killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneiwhich some view as an opportunity for regime change, though others warn of a chaotic power vacuum.

Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, publicly thanked Trump for taking action against Iran, saying the president is using his own constitutional authority to defend the U.S. against the “imminent threat” the country posed.

Mast, an Army veteran who worked as a bomb disposal expert in Afghanistan, said the war powers resolution was effectively asking “that the president do nothing.”

For Democrats, Trump’s attack on Iran, influenced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuis a war of choice that is testing the balance of powers in the Constitution.

“The framers weren’t fooling around,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., arguing that the Constitution is clear that only Congress can decide matters of war. “It’s up to us.”

Crossover coalitions emerged among those in Congress. Two Republicans joined most Democrats in voting for the war powers resolution, while four Democrats joined Republicans to reject it.

The war powers resolution, if signed into law, would have immediately halted Trump’s ability to conduct the war unless Congress approved the military action. The president would likely veto it.

Trump officials provide shifting rationale for war

Trump has scrambled to win support for the nearly week-old conflict as Americans of all political persuasions take stock. Administration officials spent hours behind closed doors on Capitol Hill this week trying to reassure lawmakers that they have the situation under control.

Six U.S. military members were killed over the weekend in a drone strike in Kuwait, and Trump has said more Americans could die. Thousands of Americans abroad have scrambled for flightsmany lighting up phone lines at congressional offices as they sought help trying to flee the Middle East.

Trump said Thursday he must be involved in choosing Iran’s new leader. Yet JohnsonR-La., said this week that America has enough problems at home and is not about to be in the “nation-building business.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the war could extend eight weeks, twice as long as the president first estimated. Trump has left open the possibility of sending U.S. troops into what has largely been a bombing campaign. More than 1,230 people in Iran have died.

The administration said the goal is to destroy Iran’s ballistic missiles that it believes are shielding its nuclear program. It has also said Israel was ready to act, and American bases would face retaliation if the U.S. did not strike Iran first. The U.S. said Wednesday it torpedoed an Iranian warship near Sri Lanka.

“This administration can’t even give us a straight answer of as to why we launched this preemptive war,” said Rep. Thomas Massie, the Republican from Kentucky, an outlier in his party.

Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who had teamed up to force the release the Jeffrey Epstein files, also pushed the war powers resolution to the floor, past objections from Johnson’s GOP leadership. Republican Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio, a former Army Ranger, also voted for it. Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Greg Landsman of Ohio and Juan Vargas of California voted against.

“Congress must stand with the president to finally close, once and for all, this dark chapter of history,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas.

Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., said that as the daughter of Iranian immigrants who fled their homeland, she opposes the regime but is concerned that a democratic transition for the people of Iran never seems to a priority for Trump or the officials who briefed Congress.

“War carries profound and deadly consequences for our troops, for the American people and for the entire world,” she said. “It’s the most serious decision that a nation can make.”

Other Democrats have proposed an alternative resolution that would allow the president to continue the war for 30 days before he must seek congressional approval. The House also approved a separate measure affirming that Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism.

Senators sit in their desks for solemn vote

In the Senate, Republican leaders have successfully, though narrowly, defeated a series of war powers resolutions pertaining to several other conflicts during Trump’s second term. This one, however, was different.

Underscoring the gravity Wednesday, Democratic senators sat at their desks as the voting got underway.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said that every senator will pick a side. “Do you stand with the American people who are exhausted with forever wars in the Middle East?” he asked. Or with Trump and Hegseth “as they bumble us headfirst into another war?”

Sen. John Barrasso, second in Senate Republican leadership, said, “Democrats would rather obstruct Donald Trump than obliterate Iran’s national nuclear program.”

The legislation failed on a 47-53 tally mostly along party lines, with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., in favor and Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., against.