LIVE: Iran avenges Larijani’s death with ‘100 strikes’ on Tel Aviv, pounds Gulf too

Air India and Air India Express will operate 50 scheduled and non-scheduled flights to and from West Asia on Wednesday.

Of them, 26 will be scheduled and 24 will be non-scheduled services, Air India said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Air India and Air India Express will together operate a combined total of 50 scheduled and non-scheduled flights, to and from the West Asia region on 18 March 2026," it said.

US President Donald Trump is delaying a diplomatic trip to China that had been planned for months but began to unravel as he pressured Beijing and other world powers to use military might to protect the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump said Tuesday while meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in the Oval Office that he would be going to China in five or six weeks' time instead of at the end of the month. He said he would be “resetting” his visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, without elaborating.

Soon after pressing China and other nations to send warships to secure access to Middle Eastern oil over the weekend, Trump indicated his travel plans were up in the air, though he also indicated Tuesday that the US didn't need any help after being rebuffed by other allies.

“I think it's important that I be here,” Trump said. “And so it could be that we delay a little bit. Not much.”

Amid the escalating West Asia conflict, the government on Tuesday said around 2.44 lakh people have returned from the region to India since February 28.

At an inter-ministerial briefing here on the West Asia situation, Additional Secretary (Gulf), Aseem R Mahajan, also said that five Indian nationals have lost their lives so far amid this conflict.

One is missing in an earlier incident, while the mortal remains of two Indians who died in an incident in Oman's Sohar city recently were repatriated to India on Tuesday and have been received by their families in Jaipur.

The MEA said its Control Room remains fully functional, supporting the needs of the Indian nationals.

Two youths from Rajasthan were killed in drone attacks in Oman amid the ongoing conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran.

The deceased have been identified as Vikram Verma, a resident of Agloi village in Khandela tehsil of Sikar district, and Pappu Singh from Lalpura village in Raipur sub-division of Beawar district.

The police said the incident occurred on March 13 and the bodies of both victims reached their respective villages on Tuesday. The bodies were brought to Jaipur by air and later taken to their native places, where the last rites were performed.

According to the police, Vikram had travelled to Oman on February 23 and was working with a construction company on road projects.

Satellite images are beginning to be released giving a glimpse into the toll of the Iran war, with ships ablaze in an Iranian port and destroyed buildings at an American base.

Some of the most dramatic images from Planet Labs so far have been in Bandar Abbas, home to a major Iranian military port next to the crucial Strait of Hormuz connecting the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea.

Images taken on March 2 show ships ablaze at the port. The US military's Central Command has been targeting Iran's naval assets and says it has sunk or damaged more than 100 Iranian vessels so far in the war.

The island kingdom of Bahrain, home of the US Navy's 5th Fleet, has seen heavy Iranian fire targeting both military bases and oil installations.

A March 1 image shot by Planet Labs shows a major building at the base destroyed, as well as two radomes — geodesic domes covering radar antennas — likely by Iranian missile and drone fire.

During the 12-day war in June, Iran attacked and destroyed a similar radome at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar used for secure communications.

In Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, there's damage seen at France's Camp de la Paix naval base. Satellite images from March 3 show damage to two large hangar-like buildings at the facility. The base is near Zayed Port, in Abu Dhabi, and close to its Cultural District that includes the Louvre Abu Dhabi and other major museums both open and still under construction.

The US Geological Survey's Landsat satellites also have been key in spotting major fires. Imagery from Landsat taken on Monday showed a fire at Dubai International Airport after an Iranian drone strike set a fuel tanker ablaze at the world's busiest airport for international travel, causing a plume of noxious black smoke.

Another fire was also seen on Monday at Oman's southern port in Salalah, which came under attack from suspected Iranian drones on March 11, though Tehran has denied it launched them in its campaign targeting Gulf Arab states. The fire apparently has been burning since then.