AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

We have two major stories tonight.

The president today fired Kristi Noem as the secretary of homeland security, the first member of his Cabinet to be ousted in his second term, but first to the war.

GEOFF BENNETT: Just days after the U.S.

and Israel launched the war with Iran by targeting and killing its supreme leader, President Trump today said he should be involved in selecting the country's next leader.

As the war spreads across the region, the U.S.

State Department says the U.S.

embassy in Kuwait will be closed until further notice.

And there's little sign of a letup, as the U.S.

and Israel pressed the attack inside Iran, where more than 1,200 people have been killed.

In Tehran today, residents watched in shock as dark plumes of smoke engulfed a beloved landmark, the Azadi, or Freedom Stadium, destroyed, once a sprawling sports complex that seated 12,000 people today reduced to a charred shell.

Not much remains but smoking ruins of the building that once hosted international games to packed crowds.

The U.S.

says it is targeting Iran's ballistic missile infrastructure, military equipment and drones.

And Israel today said it shot down an Iranian fighter jet.

But across Iran today, multiple cities were rocked by explosions.

In Iran's northwestern city of Urmia, the Iranian Red Crescent posted this video of what it says is widespread damage to residential areas.

The Iranian Health Ministry said more than a dozen hospitals and other key parts of Iran's health infrastructure have been damaged so far and four health workers were killed.

The World Health Organization said it has verified 13 of those attacks.

Today Iran's foreign minister denounced the U.S.

for sinking an Iranian warship, calling it an atrocity at sea.

He said Iran is no longer looking to negotiate.

ABBAS ARAGHCHI, Iranian Foreign Minister: Well, I think, now, six days after the war, it is clear that the U.S.

has failed to achieve its main goal, which was a clean, rapid victory.

We are not asking for a cease-fire.

And we don't see any reason why we should negotiate with the U.S., when we negotiated with them twice, and every time they attacked us, the middle of negotiations.

GEOFF BENNETT: And as Iranian media showed videos of crowds gathered in support of the regime for a fifth consecutive night, the conflict keeps growing wider.

Even Azerbaijan, to Iran's north, has now been drawn into the fight.

Officials there say several Iranian drones hit an airport and a school, which Tehran has denied.

Several were injured.

The country's president vowed to respond.

ILHAM ALIYEV, President of Azerbaijan (through translator): Those dishonorable perpetrators who committed this terrorist act against us will regret it.

They should not test our strength.

All necessary instructions have been issued and additional diplomatic measures will follow.

GEOFF BENNETT: Tehran's onslaught also continues on Gulf state energy.

Bahrain said an Iranian missile slipped through its air defenses and set a state-run oil refinery ablaze.

And as the critical Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed to tanker traffic, energy concerns have rippled all the way to China, the world's largest importer of oil and natural gas and the biggest buyer of Iranian oil.

Beijing said today its government dispatched a Middle East envoy with the hope of starting talks.

MAO NING, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman (through translator): China believes that war and force cannot fundamentally solve problems.

Dialogue and negotiation are the right path.

GEOFF BENNETT: But dialogue remains elusive.

On the streets of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, more buildings toppled from Israeli airstrikes.

At least 100 people have been killed.

Israel says it's targeting Hezbollah command centers.

Traffic snarled today as residents rushed to flee after Israel told people to evacuate the city's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Israeli officials say it's too soon for diplomacy, among them, the country's far right finance minister, who said Beirut would soon look like a war-ravaged Gaza.

BEZALEL SMOTRICH, Israeli Finance Minister (through translator): You wanted to bring hell on us.

You brought hell on yourselves.

Dahiyeh will look like Khan Yunis.

GEOFF BENNETT: For his part, President Donald Trump today looked beyond the war, telling Axios that he needs to be personally involved in the selection of Iran's next leader.

He said the current likely successor, the late supreme leader's son Mojtaba Khamenei, would be unacceptable.

In a separate interview with Reuters, Mr.

Trump encouraged the Iranian Kurds, trained by the CIA, to fill the vacuum.

"I'd be all for it.

If they're going to do that, that's good."

That's as the Pentagon also released the names of the two remaining U.S.

soldiers killed this past weekend when Iran struck a tactical operation center in Kuwait, 45-year-old Major Jeffrey O'Brien of Iowa and 54-year-old Chief Warrant Officer Robert Marzan of California.

Their remains and the remains of four other American service members killed in action will soon be returned to U.S.

soil.