U.S. spending $1 billion daily; Kurdish military offensive contested; Canada discusses military involvement

Plus, U.S. voters disapprove of war, and Iran has denied firing a missile toward Turkey.

Mar 05, 2026

Editor’s note:

Our news roundups are built for a war with a bottomless news cycle. We’re tracking developments around the clock so you don’t have to.

To keep receiving the latest, subscribe below!

The latest news at this hour:

CONFLICT WIDENS WITH AZERBAIJAN STRIKE: Two Iranian drones flew into Azerbaijan today, injuring two. One fell at an airport just 6 miles from the border with Iran, and the other fell near a school building in a nearby village. A statement from the foreign ministry said the attack “contradicts the norms and principles of international law.”

IRAN DEATH TOLL OVER 1K: As of March 3, the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) has recorded at least 104 attacks across 19 provinces in Iran. The total number of reported deaths since the outbreak of the conflict has reached 1,097, they report. Iran War Dispatches cannot independently verify these figures.

IRAN WAR COST – BILLIONS PER DAY: Per The Atlantic’s Nancy Youssef:

KURDISH OFFENSIVE RUMORED: Kurdish armed groups are rumored to have begun a military offensive against Iranian regime forces, some outlets are reporting, citing Khalil Nadiri, an official from the Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan (CPFIK) and a high-ranking member of the Free Kurdistan Party.

There has been confusion about which groups may be involved. In Iraq, the Kurdish opposition group Komala rejected reports that the group had crossed into Iran. The Kurdish government in Iraq also denied reports of border crossings, calling them “patently false.”

MAJORITY OF U.S. DISAPPROVE OF WAR: A new NBC poll showed that 54 percent of voters disapprove of the way Trump is handling Iran, a “lower level of support” than usual, said Bill McIntruff, a Republican pollster. While the discontent comes mostly from Democrats, 15% of Republican voters polled disagree with Trump’s strikes, as do 58% of Independents.

… AS SENATE KILLS MOVE TO REEL IN TRUMP: On Wednesday, Republicans and one Democrat voted down a measure that would have restricted Trump’s capabilities to wage war on Iran without congressional approval. The vote was 53-47 and reflected a deep party split with regards to Trump’s war in Iran.

…AND PENTAGON IDENTIFIES U.S. TROOPS KILLED IN KUWAIT: Maj. Jefferey R. O’Brien and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert M. Marzan were both identified as casualties in the Iranian drone attack on the U.S. military base in Kuwait. The Kuwait attack took the lives of 6 U.S. troops who were the first Americans to be killed in the U.S.-Iran war.

IRAN DENIES FIRING MISSILE AT TURKEY: Yesterday, NATO defenses downed a ballistic missile in Turkish airspace over the Mediterranean Sea that was believed to be from Iran. However, Iran’s armed forces have told state media that they did not fire a missile at Turkey and they respect Turkey’s sovereignty.

…BUT ATTACKING DATA CENTERS: Iran has attacked a data center facility in Bahrain and two centers in the UAE. The U.S. and Israel have also targeted data centers in Tehran, striking at least two of them, one of which was being used by the IRGC.

CANADA WON’T RULE OUT MILITARY ROLE: PM Mark Carney has previously said that strikes on Iran were a “failure of the international order” but now is saying that he won’t rule out playing a military role.

Earlier Carney had said that he supported the strikes on Iran but “with some regret” as they represented the collapse of international norms. He also added that Canada was not informed in advance.

*Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney in Canberra, March 5 (Photo by Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images)*

DEATH TOLL RISES FROM IRANIAN WARSHIP TORPEDOED IN THE INDIAN OCEAN: Since a torpedo fired by a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka on March 4, 87 bodies have been recovered by the Sri Lankan Navy as well as 32 rescued.

The IRIS Dena was one of Iran’s newest warships and was heavily armed with air defense and anti-ship missiles and torpedoes—it even carried a helicopter.