The U.S.-Iran war widened sharply on Wednesday after a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka, killing at least 80 people, and NATO air defenses destroyed an Iranian ballistic missile fired towards Turkey.

The escalation came as the powerful son of Iran's slain supreme leader emerged as a frontrunner to succeed him, suggesting Tehran was not about to buckle to pressure, five days after the United States and Israel launched a military campaign that has killed hundreds and convulsed global markets.

The missile incident is the first time that Turkey — which borders Iran and has NATO's second-largest military — has been drawn into the conflict, but U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said there was no sense that it would trigger the Atlantic alliance's collective-defense clause.

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